So.  The bag has been tipped over and the cat is loose.  John Anealio and I have been tapped to do a new podcast for sfsignal.com.  On top of that, I’ll be writing for sfsignal.com a couple times a month.

I think it’s going to be a lot of fun and a really good [...]]]> /begin random thoughts

So.  The bag has been tipped over and the cat is loose.  John Anealio and I have been tapped to do a new podcast for sfsignal.com.  On top of that, I’ll be writing for sfsignal.com a couple times a month.

I think it’s going to be a lot of fun and a really good fit for all of us.

There’s still one more secret project out there.  It’ll for sure be live august 5th, but there should be something announced on twitter before then.

Cryptic much?

* * *

I forgot how gross Subway sandwiches has become.  Eating there today and I am not impressed any more.  They used to be my favorite, now they are easily my least favorite, but Tokyo Joe’s was packed floor to ceiling so…

* * *

The short story is coming along nicely, if I do say so myself.  Been a while since I tried to write one.  Usually, I have so much to say, so much story to tell, that I end up going full blown novel, but this one is very definitely a short story.  It felt that way from the moment it popped into my brain.

It’s a space western.  Cowboys in the stars.  What more could you want from a story?!

* * *

It may be that I need a new mattress.  I am just not sleeping well anymore.  Granted, I’ve had that mattress nearly 10 years now, but it was a higher end mattress at the time, cost me a bit more, so I expected it to last a long time.  Maybe 10 years in the life of a mattress is considered a long time.  I don’t know.

Buying tires for mom’s car today to the tune of about $500 – $600 with labor and balancing and rotating and all sort of other things, I’m sure.  I just hope that whoever is doing the work was at mechanics school for lug nut day.

(That’s funnier than it sounds.  Google ‘lug nut day’ sometime and see what comes up…)

So if I do need a new mattress, it’ll have to wait a bit.

* * *

I have not had tons of guests to my new house.  This is because me being me, I keep trying to get everything ‘perfect’.  I know in my head that it’ll never BE perfect, but still I try.

Anyway, all of that goes out the window Friday when I’ll have most of my local family and some friends over for a BBQ.  My older brother is coming into town Thursday, so the BBQ is in honor of that and a chance for everyone to see or meet him, have a burger and see the house..

Should be fun.

* * *

I think it’s the bread and the cheese.  Subway’s bread is terrible now.  I don’t know if they’ve changed the recipe or what.  And the cheese is gritty – no, chalky – yeah, it’s chalky in your mouth.  Bleh.  No wonder Jared lost weight eating this crap – it’s terrible!

* * *

While the short story gets all the love, the novel languishes where I left it.

I need more time in a day.

/end random thoughts

~P

Make me famous:

I pitched an idea to someone and they liked it so I’ll probably start something new here shortly.

More on that later…

* * *

Networking is important no matter what you do for a living.  Meeting new people, making connections – it can be the difference between something happening or not.

You are more likely to [...]]]> /begin random thoughts

I pitched an idea to someone and they liked it so I’ll probably start something new here shortly.

More on that later…

* * *

Networking is important no matter what you do for a living.  Meeting new people, making connections – it can be the difference between something happening or not.

You are more likely to say yes to someone you’ve met face to face versus someone you’ve never even heard of before.

I was once offered a job simply beause I knew someone working for the company who said to The Boss, “Hey – you know who we need here?  Patrick.  He’d be a great fit.”

* * *

Skype really doesn’t like wireless connections.  Learned that last night.  We had Mike Resnick scheduled to be on the Functional Nerds podcast and I really didn’t want another evening full of Skype dropping calls – seriously, you one of the folks who complain about AT&T?  Skype on wifi is 100 times worse.

I sent them an email a while ago about the issues I was having.  Let me dig that out for you…

Ok – here’s what I sent to Skype Customer Support:

“Well, I went through your troubleshooting scenarios and it lead me here, where none of the choices for Topic or problem have anything to do with my problem, which is frustrating.

Once a week, I make a skype to skype  call. Sometimes I have 3 people on and we do a conference call. The call lasts between one hour and an hour and a half max.

I either have: silence from call participants every five minutes for about 30 seconds – like clockwork-

or

At exactly 55 minutes into the call, whoever initiated the call has their sound distorted and cannot be understood – we call this ‘cyloning’ because the person starts to sound like an old Cylon from BSG. Sometimes, this causes the call to drop completely and the person initiating the call has to close Skype completely and restart it before they can be part of the call again.

I’ve started the calls and had this happen to me – I’m running a dual core iMac with Leopard. I’ve also had someone running Windows Vista initiate the call and have the exact same thing happen to her, so it doesn’t seem to be platform specific.

It’s very frustrating. I’ve been considering purchasing an online number and going on a month to month plan, but as near as I can tell – these issues we’re having are related to your service and not to our hardware or connections – not if we can predict it down to the second when the problems are going to occur.

Do you have any solutions for this?”

Here is the response I got back from Skype:

“We are sorry to hear that you are experiencing difficulties with Skype.

The primary reason for robotic sound, dropouts in sentences and sound delay is poor network performance. In the context of Skype this means networks that have a high rate of packet-loss and long packet round-trip-delay.

Below is a list of suggestions which should address the problem that you are experiencing.

These steps can be carried out separately and in any order, so if you are unable to complete any one of them, just move on to the next one.

1.First, please make sure that you are running the latest version of Skype. The latest version of Skype can be found here: http://www.skype.com/download/”

(Note: I am running the latest version for Mac.)

“2. Next, ensure that the following are up-to-date:
- Windows with the latest Service Packs and updates, available from http://windowsupdate.microsoft.com/
- DirectX – the main multimedia part of Windows. The newest version can be found at: http://www.microsoft.com/windows/directx/default.aspx”

(Note: I am running a MAC, not Windows.)

“3. Please follow the simple suggestions here that resolve many call quality issues: http://www.skype.com/help/guides/callquality/”

(Note: I ALREADY DID THAT – IT’S WHY I FREAKING SENT YOU AN EMAIL!)

“4. Please follow our visual sound setup guide to make sure your audio settings are correct: http://www.skype.com/help/guides/soundsetup.html”

(Note: What part of I’VE BEEN THROUGH YOUR TROUBLESHOOTING STEPS AND THEY LEAD ME TO EMAIL YOU do you have trouble understanding?)

“5. Now, check that your firewall is not interfering with Skype. You can find our firewall guides at http://www.skype.com/help/guides/firewalls/ Even if it can connect and you are able to use chat it is possible that your firewall is still blocking some connections that Skype needs for a reliable voice or video call. Please refer to your firewall manual if you are not able to find the required information on our website.”

(Note: Already done did it.)

“6. In the Skype top menu go to Tools > Options > Advanced > Connection please tick the option to ‘Use port 80 and 443 as alternatives for incoming connections’. In the ‘Incoming Connections’ box you can chose any port between 1024 and 65535. It is not necessary to change the port number though.”

(Note: That’s how you get there from Windows. I’m on a Mac, remember? Did you even read my email?)

“7. The problem that you are experiencing might also be related to the connection type that you are using or the connection speed availability. Please ensure that when making a call there are no additional programs running that can be taking a lot of bandwidth and also that the internet connection speed is fast enough to support a call. We cannot guarantee that Skype will be working at 100% when there are other programs running which might be interfering with Skype. Sometimes you might also experience this type of problem during a Skype2Skype call when calling a destination where there are known network problems or the connection speed on the other end is insufficient.”

(Note: Tried that. Closed every other internet accessing program on the machine – no difference.)

“8. If the above does not help, please try a clean installation of Skype. Please completely remove Skype via Add/Remove programs and then install again.”

(Note: That’s Friggin WINDOWS! Sigh. You are stupid, aren’t you? please don’t breed…)

“9. For this step showing hidden folders and files has to be turned on. Please navigate to My Computer > Tools > Folder Options > View. Once there, please make sure that the option ‘Show Hidden Files and Folders ‘ is enabled.”

(Note: See the note under #6 – same applies here and I’m tired of retyping it over and over…)

“* Close Skype with a right click on the systray icon (next to the Windows clock) and selecting ‘Quit’
* Locate the shared.xml file found in C:\Documents and Settings\your_windows_username\ApplicationData\Skype\
* Delete shared.xml
* Start Skype (shared.xml will be recreated)”

(Note: Mac! I’m on a Mac! I told you – hey, I’m on a Mac - and you didn’t friggin listen, did you?!  No!  because you’re stupid and you don’t have any trouble shooting guides for Mac, do you?  Please, for the love of God and the good of the gene pool, tell me that you have been fixed!  That you can never spread your seed on an unsuspecting world!!!)

“Last, if you are using a wireless connection, please try connecting your computer to your modem or router using a standard cable.”

(Note: Huh.  Okay, might as well give that a shot.)

Which I did.  I ran a 50ft cat 5 cable from the corner of my living room where Comcast installed the freaking thing, along the wall, passed the front door, up the stairs, around the corner and into my bedroom where my computer and desk are currently setup.  I taped the wire down along the way so it wasn’t a trip hazard.

And we had the best Skype call in the history of the Functional Nerds podcast.

Sigh.

Guess I’m gonna have to make that a permanent thing.

/end random thoughts

~P

Make me famous:

His covers grace books from many different publishers, have won [...]]]> Once again, my friend John Anealio and I had the privilege of hosting a fantastic guest over on the Functional Nerds podcast. John Picacio is an award winning artist who has put together some of the most memorable cover art I’ve seen in a long time.

His covers grace books from many different publishers, have won or been nominated for some of the industries most prestigious awards and he is in very high demand to produce more – but you know what else?  He is a really nice guy and a great person to chat with.

Before the show even started, we were chatting about the (possible) origins of his surname, Bob Ross on PBS and a slew of other things that prompted John Anealio to comment, “Maybe we should save some of this for the podcast, guys!”

(I’ll clue you in to a secret – John has to say that a lot. I have the gift of gab, people.)

The ‘official’ portion of the conversation included a bit about how he got started creating book covers, his time as an architect, the future of genre covers in general and how he approaches each commission.

What I took away from the whole thing was a very grounded guy, very personable, knows what he’s doing and does it well and is forward thinking enough to be thinking about what comes next.

Overall, an excellent conversation.  Check it out over at the Functional Nerds, episode 15.

~P

Make me famous:

Despite Skype continually failing us (30 second random silences, disconnects, more 30 second random silences, more disconnects), we had a really good conversation.

Mur began podcasting in 04 so she is more than a little acquainted with the whole thing and [...]]]> Last week, John Anealio and I hosted the great Mur Lafferty for the Functional Nerds podcast.

Despite Skype continually failing us (30 second random silences, disconnects, more 30 second random silences, more disconnects), we had a really good conversation.

Mur began podcasting in 04 so she is more than a little acquainted with the whole thing and had some good insights.  She also knows a thing or two about publishing and alternative publishing, so it was a really informative discussion.  I wish that Skype had cooperated and it could’ve been a more cohesive conversation.  I did the best I could with the editing.  Mur was a trooper about the whole thing.

John and I will have her on again.

The podcast itself is doing well.  When John and I first discussed teaming up, I had no idea how well received the whole thing would be.  Thanks for that!

Episode 13 of the Functional Nerds featuring Mur Lafferty is live over on the Functional Nerds website.  Check it out.

~P

Make me famous:

What a fantastic little show that was.

I never know what is going to happen when I hit that record button; I’m sure it’s going to be good, I just never know [...]]]> Over on the Functional Nerds site, John Anealio and I had the opportunity to chat with Z (Hipster, Please) from the Wired GeekDad Hiptrax podcast.

What a fantastic little show that was.

I never know what is going to happen when I hit that record button; I’m sure it’s going to be good, I just never know exactly how good.  This was really, really good.  I think I had more fun editing that show than any other we’ve done so far.  But I’m getting ahead of myself.

Z knows a lot about music, about Nerdcore, about all the little genre’s and subgenre’s – it made for a very engaging conversation.

I didn’t know much about Nerdcore til Anealio tipped me to it. Now I know even more and I am amazed by all these talented people out there making music and releasing it all on their own.  Z pointed out that it’s not really a new thing, that Dr Demento has been out there and pushing this special brand of indy music for a very long time.  This caused a light to go off in my head.  He’s right, this music has been around for a while, it’s just that technology has caught up with us and it’s easier than ever for someone with talent and passion to create their music and then distribute it to the masses.

Kinda like the way authors are now able to reach out and get their words into the hands of fans and potential fans.

Which brought up something that Anealio mentioned re: Balticon.  Something about how older authors tend to go for the ‘Gandalf look’; long beard, hat, bushy eyebrows.  I don’t know about that.  Some of the young ones do it too…

Check out Episode 12 of The Functional Nerds.

~P

Make me famous:

His take on what is and what isn’t military scifi is an interesting one.  For example, he considers the original Dune to be a [...]]]> Last week over on the Functional Nerds podcast, John Anealio and I had a chance to shoot the shit with Andrew Liptak (twitter.com/AndrewLiptak); blogger and military historian – among many other things.

His take on what is and what isn’t military scifi is an interesting one.  For example, he considers the original Dune to be a piece of military scifi whereas I would consider it to fall within the scifi-opera category given it’s massive amount of world building, political intrigue and religious undertones.

Unfortunately, maybe two thirds of the way into our discussion, we lost Andrew.  Skype still showed him online for a bit but we couldn’t connect and then he just vanished.  He sent me a message via twitter that his network had gone down, so I guess it really isn’t Skype’s fault.  Believe me though, Skype, even if it is a really powerful and convenient little tool, has it’s rough spots.

One of the things John and I have noticed, which you never hear on the podcast of course, is that around 55 minutes into a conversation, one of us will go Cylon; it really does sound like you are a Cylon – the old, toaster models, not the new, sleek, hot ones.  Disconnecting doesn’t do a thing.  You can hang up your call, call the person back and the Cyloning, as we’ve come to call it, will continue.  The only thing you can do is stay quiet for about a minute or two and then it will go away all on it’s own.

Really strange.

Anyway, what time we did have with Andrew was fascinating stuff.  Not just military scifi, we also touched on the future of NASA.  After we lost Andrew, John and I continued to chat about other things as always happens when you get us chatting.

Episode 11 of the Functional Nerds – you should check it out.

~P

Make me famous:

The first famous writer I had a chance to confab with, L.E. Modesitt Jr., couldn’t have been a warmer, more personable guy.  I really [...]]]> You know, since I started this whole blogger/podcaster/twitter/online life sort of thing, I have to say that I have been incredibly lucky in that the people I have met have been fantastic.

The first famous writer I had a chance to confab with, L.E. Modesitt Jr., couldn’t have been a warmer, more personable guy.  I really enjoyed our chat, however brief, at a local B&N.  I don’t know what I expected to find the more I dipped my toes in, but the people have been so kind, so generous in their time that I have simply been blown away.

A couple of great examples of this have been Diane Duane and J.V. Jones, both well established authors with phenomenal writing credits to their name, and both have been very chatty with me on Twitter, which I appreciate.

Recently, John Anealio and I had the opportunity to sit down with Lou Anders, editorial director for Pyr books.  Lou was fantastic to talk to; very warm, funny – down to earth.  Though the show was edited down to an hour, we actually chatted for 20 minutes before and another 10 – 15 after.  It was very much like three guys getting together for beer and hotwings and shooting the shit (though I don’t drink, of course).

You can listen to the episode over on the Functional Nerds website.  I suggest that you do because it was a lot of fun and that always comes through – you can’t fake it.

~P

Make me famous:

Since Blake is both an author and a medical student, it gave us the opportunity to branch out a little bit and talk about more serious stuff – like the human brain.

Blake was able to bring a unique [...]]]> Had a great time with Blake Charlton and John Anealio last week over on the Functional Nerds podcast.

Since Blake is both an author and a medical student, it gave us the opportunity to branch out a little bit and talk about more serious stuff – like the human brain.

Blake was able to bring a unique perspective to the podcast and the show is definitely my favorite so far.  We were very lucky to have him as one of our 3rd Nerds.

If you haven’t already, check out the podcast – episode 8, over on the Functional Nerds website.

Also check out the contest – we’re going to give away a signed copy of Blake’s debut novel, Spellwright!

~P

Make me famous:

Thanks to Twitter, I met this guy named John Anealio.  He writes songs based on scifi and fantasy books he reads and likes.  He even has a podcast all about it.  Anyway,  he started listening to my podcast and thought to himself, “Self? It would be fun to do a podcast with that ATFMB guy.”

MONTHS [...]]]> So.

Thanks to Twitter, I met this guy named John Anealio.  He writes songs based on scifi and fantasy books he reads and likes.  He even has a podcast all about it.  Anyway,  he started listening to my podcast and thought to himself, “Self? It would be fun to do a podcast with that ATFMB guy.”

MONTHS LATER, he actually mentioned it to me and we started chatting.

What came of that shall forever more be called: The Functional Nerds.

Now, I’m not sure what’s going to happen to the ol’ atfmb podcast.  More than likely, I will keep it up, possibly more infrequently than every week – nothing’s been decided yet.  I’ll let you know when it is.  What I do know for sure is, every week, you’re going to be able to visit The Functional Nerds and get a great new podcast from John and I.

Check out the very first episode right now.

~P

Make me famous:

In this weeks ATFMB podcast, I talk about scifi television, including the renewal of Fox hit Fringe for a 3rd season, Chuck’s ratings win that might mean a 4th season and how i09 has a list of 25 books Hollywood should be making movies out of, how HBO has greenlit a new series based on [...]]]> #11

In this weeks ATFMB podcast, I talk about scifi television, including the renewal of Fox hit Fringe for a 3rd season, Chuck’s ratings win that might mean a 4th season and how i09 has a list of 25 books Hollywood should be making movies out of, how HBO has greenlit a new series based on the Song of Fire and Ice fantasy novels by George R. R. Martin, how Bruce Wayne, like every other comic book character who has ever died before him, is ‘coming back’ to the DC Universe and how Comics Should Be Good – which is the title of a new blog that I absolutely love.  In music, I share with you my thoughts on Susan Tedeschi, blues goddess and not so secret crush.

~P

Susan Tedeschi on iTunes

Comics Should be Good

DCU Bruce Wayne Returns

Susan Tedeschi

Make me famous: