If you have to travel ...
? you may as well travel like this.

I travel for work, on occasion. I expect it averages out to about three times a year. Unfortunately, for this year, two of the times are separated by only one week between.

I am on the first of the trips now. Leah?s State basketball tournament wrapped up this afternoon (Sunday) and after getting a quick sub for lunch, Sherry and Leah dropped me off at the MSP airport. I spent the next few hours near my gate, and while I did finish the scenario of HoMM III I was playing, I could not find an outlet in which to plug my power cord, so I had to move on to non-computerized distractions.

Fortunately I had thought ahead and brought along ?The World?s Largest Dungeon? (TWLD). Sure, it?s heavy, but it?s fun to read. I am trying to decide whether to break into it in the ?middle? and run my current adventuring party through it, or rather to ask the D&D guys to make new characters specifically for the dungeon.

Anyway, TWLD is a nice distraction.

Then, in the gate area I ran into someone I know from work who will be attending the same conference I am. So, I will have someone to share a taxi with on the way to the hotel. Jim (the ?someone?) is very intelligent and, while pleasant, enjoys his solitude perhaps even more than I do. I suspect we will see each other some, but not too much, on this trip. I can think of many, many other co-workers who would have assumed I wanted constant companionship. Jim will not. This is good.

To make the trip even better, I discovered I have a First Class seat assignment on this leg of the journey. I?m pretty sure it was an automatic upgrade ? I don?t recall selecting this seat when I made my reservations. In any case, the added leg and arm room, together with the extra special attention from the flight crew, make this part of the trip pretty enjoyable.

This trip, by the way, is the closest thing to a ?boondoggle? I?ve ever had as an IBMer. I am going to a conference in Orlando, FL. But, while there I am not expected to present any papers ? I get to just sit, learn, and meet people in the Software side of development. Furthermore, the conference organizers have arranged for buses to take us to Epcot on Tuesday night, and have given us each a $25 certificate to be used at the food vendors there. Apparently the evening culminates with dessert and drinks at some IBM-sponsored area in the Technology section. So, while I will definitely be doing work while I?m there, this is not a ?heavy lifting? conference, and it even has some fun built right into it.

In contrast, the trip I take in a couple weeks will be less enjoyable. I will be driving to Chicago (yuck) for two full days of a week-long conference. Now, again, I am not expected to present anything ? just network (meet people and hobnob) and attend presentations. But I have to drive there! And back! It will take most of a day each way (well, most of a ?work-day?) ? and we?re talking Chicago! Heavy traffic and road construction year-round, in my experience.

Still, the week between contains Leah?s 14th birthday. That will be great. And I am not missing any weekends, nor any important events in the kids? lives, so all-in-all, this is not bad.

But I do expect to enjoy Orlando in March more than I will enjoy Chicago in March!

Not what I was going to talk about
I tried to do the normal thing -- come to this website to add a blog entry.

But, strangely, the site presented me with a different user/password challenge than normal. And then it took me to the normal signon page.

Being familiar with the potential behavior of spyware, I immediately decided to change my password. But the site wouldn't let me in.

This looked bad! So I followed instructions to have the site send me my password. Strangely, when the e-mail arrived, the password was as I expected.

Yet, when I used the password to log in normally, it still did not work.

But for some strange reason, it worked enough to let me change my password.

One of the problems with Spyware is that its mere existence creates FUD.

So I wasted 25 minutes of my life, when it was probably just a server glitch at Lycos.

But I'm running Spyware Doctor just to be safe.

Mild-Mannered --- except
Anyone who knows me knows I'm a calm person.

Anyone who has sat by me at an RCLS basketball game knows there is an exception to my normal calm nature.

We just finished a weeked of basketball at RCLS. So, naturally, I was not as calm as I would have liked.

But, you see -- there was this jerk of a coach on the other team!

But that's just justification -- it doesn't excuse my negative comments.

It's weird. I can control myself, and be diplomatic, darn near everywhere else. Why not in a crowd at a basketball game?

Yes, I cheer positively, too. A lot. Very noisy, I am.

Killed a Dragon
No really, I did.

Well, we did.

For several years I've been playing D&D with some buddies. We play once a month, taking some months off because life gets in the way. Anyway, we are now 9th level and last night, for the first time, we took on a dragon. It's something you strive for, as a hero in the D&D world. It was a Green Dragon, and quite big, and very tricky, but we were prepared and we beat it!

So, HUZZAH!



The fact is that all my character ever contributed was to summon a celestial pegasus, which our paladin then rode into battle. So, I helped make the battle more visually stunning, but I wasn't particularly effective.

Then again, my character is Lyric, the Sprite. He's 16 inches tall, dresses in grass-green and marigold-yellow, is an expert chef, and flits about on gossamer wings. So really, would you expect him to be in the thick of a battle? Not really.

Pixelated
Mood:  silly
It's a funny word, don't you think?

"Pixelated"

Say it a few times.

Rolls off the tounge like a novice acrobat getting caught up in his own feet before doing a tumble.

Dictionary.com has this word, but not the natural verb from which it seems derived - "pixelate."

Donald Duck would sound very funny saying it.





(How is that for my first blog entry in, well, a long time?)

A perfect gift for me

Christmas was just a couple weeks ago, and I got lots of great gifts.

One highlight was "The World's Largest Dungeon" -- and I received it, of course, from my fantastic wife, Sherry.

This product, by Alderac Entertainment Group (aka AEG) is "Over 900,000 words and 16 full-color 22x17 poster maps of adventure in the largest dungeon gaming has ever known!"

It is a perfect gift for me because

1. I've been pining for it since I first saw it months ago.
2. It's too expensive for anyone to really buy for themselves but
3. It's way too expensive for someone to buy someone else
4. So I would never expect to get it

So, of course, Sherry got it for me! What a sweetie!

And, being Sherry, she didn't just get it for me. She also found this really cool leather case -- it looks like an medieval strongbox with a handle attached. She made a felt bag, large enough to hold the "Dungeon" and placed it in the case. She wrapped six DVDs in wrapping paper and placed them inside the case, as well.

Opening that on Christmas Eve truly was like opening a treasure chest!

I will get years of enjoyment from this.

A perfect gift! Yet one more example of why I married the perfect woman for me!

Thanks, Sherry!

Six Degrees - the Internet Corollary
If you don't know what I mean by "Six Degrees of Separation" then go Google a bit. I'm not going to explain it.

I had a frustrating reminder that, with the modern Internet, you are never more than six degrees (in this context, that means "clicks of a link on a web page") from shocking images. (OK, I'll say it outright -- "porn.")

Late at night, finishing my online gaming, too pumped up my the last game, I decided to follow some links from my very own blog site. Admittedly, I was trying to take an unpredictable route. I wanted to see something -- oh, "interesting" shall we say -- and it didn't take long to reach a blogger's site talking about the fun she and a friend had had. Click the link. Pictures pop up. Bam! More than I was expecting!

Someone, somewhere, will do, or has already done, a study on this very topic. But we all know it's true. I'll bet you could start at the homepage of "The 700 Club" and, picking the right set of 6 links, end up at the entrance to all sorts of things Pat Robertson would never admit to dreaming about.

What a tangled Web we've woven.

Back to it
Gentle readers,

I see that my last entry was three weeks ago. That time period was a week of enjoyable relaxation sandwiched between two slices of hectic corporate wrangling. Thus, during the weeks of wrangling, there was no time to blog -- and I couldn't write about my doings anyway. And during the week of enjoyable relaxation -- well, who wants to write a blog when you can be playing Settlers of Cataan with your boys or watching DVDs with your girls, all while amazing yourself with how excellent you feel when you are functioning on a full night's sleep for once?

So, now I am back. The new diet was going well until yesterday, the new exercise plan has not started, and I have no idea how I'm going to be in shape to climb Halfdome by mid-June, but I'd better get that planned.

Happy 2005.

Pre-vacation items
Vacation is fast approaching. I welcome it like a long-lost friend. Or a hiding place. Or a warm hug. Or something.

Christmas is my favorite time of the year. For me, "Christmas" usually starts shortly after Thanksgiving. It's the time of year when all the Christmas events start occuring. Our pastor, always a stickler for details and, truth-be-told, a spoil-the-fun kind of guy at this time of year, calls this "Advent" -- and while the pedant in me acknowledges it, the real me says "fiddlesticks and away with your 'waiting for the Master's return' doomsday attitude -- give me Carols and Treats and Gifts and Trees and Lights and Family and Friends and Concerts!"

And then, by the 21st, I'm ready to head into the quiet part of Christmas. My family, a few close friends. Concerts complete. Anticipation of the joy of giving, and receiving.

We're almost there.

Oh, Angelfire has given us a cute new tool - an easy-to-use photo album builder. I've tried one simple album so far.
The link is https://www.angelfire.com/mn/stevewill/album1/ and I plan to put more together soon. I've even removed the Norway trip (of 1997) to make room. That's how serious I am!

Time! I want more of it! Why do I need sleep?

When Excellence is Too Good for Your Own Good

OK, that title suggests I'm going to get very serious. That's a little misleading. A little.

I am, once again, addicted to "Heroes of Might and Magic III" (hereafter referred to as HoMM3). For anyone who doesn't know, it's a computer game. In particular, it is a turn-based strategy game within a fantasy milieu.

Now, for me, HoMM3 is pretty much the ultimate computer game. I have many other computer games, and of those, I have enjoyed most of them. I can go back to "Diablo II" and play for quite a while, enjoying myself immensely. Same thing for the versions of "Magic: the Gathering" I've played, and several others.

But HoMM3 is special. When I start playing that again, I am as hooked on the game as when I first played it. It becomes pretty much the only game I want to play. It is so excellent, that it makes any other computer game simply a diversion.

And this is where the title of today's blog entry comes in.

I have had very little temptation to buy a new computer game in several years. When, the HoMM3 follow on - "Heroes of Might and Magic IV" - became available, I bought it right away. It was OK, but it did not live up to HoMM3. I doubt I will ever play it again.

Similarly, I have very little motivation to plunk $50 down to try any other computer game, especially a turn-based strategy game. Oh, I'm pretty sure that "Civilization 3" would be about as good. And I may try it. But the point is this: when HoMM3 (with its very important "Armageddon's Blade" expansion) came into my life, the amount of money I would subsequently spend on computer games dropped significantly. The authors of HoMM3 essentially made something which is so good (to me) that the rest of the industry was harmed by its existence.

I suspect that one of the causes of the decline in the computer game market was exactly this: there are so many truly excellent games, and they continue to enthrall us, that it's tough to compete with the existing products. I'm sure "they" will keep trying to make something better. And I do hope they succeed.

But hey, what do I care? I have my HoMM3. And, if I ever want to get hooked on something else, I'm told "Civ3" and a few other games will keep me happy forever.

It's a great problem to have.