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Looking For Quacks In The Pavement

  • A Question About The (Hypothetical) Next Project

    Between the “radio play project” and the “serialized story posted online project” I’m leaning toward the latter for now, with the former project as something I’ll tackle once I feel certain I can tell a proper story during a set amount of installments. Or, put another way, I’m making sure I can walk before I attempt to run.

    With that stated for the record now, I am curious enough to ask: Would twenty-six weekly installments make for a satisfying story experience, or should I try for something shorter (thirteen installments), or would the same number of installments in a shorter time period be better (twice a week for thirteen weeks, for instance)? And, yes, I’m basing these numbers on the length of typical anime series runs. The other model I could’ve based this on is the BBC’s propensity for six-episode series runs which seems a bit tight for a writing project. (It’s just about perfect for a radio play project, though, AHEM.)

    What do you think, ladies and gentlemen?

  • Iron Man 3

    The lovely Kylanath and I went to see “Iron Man 3” yesterday afternoon. While I generally liked the overall effect of the movie and many bits thereof, I find myself with some serious thoughts that bear jotting down. The short version is: If you haven’t seen it, and you liked the first movie and/or the Avengers movie and/or the second movie (I rate them in about that order, yes) then it’s absolutely worth your time to see this third Iron Man installment. If you liked the first movie and thought the second was a huge let-down, then… you should probably still see this movie, as it is generally better than the previous. It’s funny, it’s explode-y, there’s great banter, and the good guys triumph over the bad guys. What more do you want?

    Well, I wanted a few things to be somewhat better, and that’s why I have thoughts and that’s why there’s a journal entry about it. So. That’s the teal dear summation. Henceforth, therefore, I shall dive into big spoiler-y spoilers. I’m not going to break this into two pieces like I did for “Skyfall.” Sorry.

    (more…)

  • Less Than A Dozen To Go

    There are either ten or eleven more Quacked Panes comics left before the end.

    That’s… quite a weird realization. I mean, I’ve known since last year that Year Four would be “it.” I’m not having second thoughts. Four years, though, that’s a long time to have done something week in and week out, reliably, on time. It’s probably the most reliable I’ve been about anything, ever.

    Hmm. The less I think about that, the better.

    I don’t know what’s coming next, and I don’t know what the next ten-or-so comics will look like… except for the very last one. I’ve known all year what that’ll be.

    You’ll have to wait, just like everybody else. (And by “everybody else” I mean “all three or four people who have faithfully followed the comic all this time.” Ah well.)

  • Let sleeping ducks something-or-other.

    We went to the Hillsboro public library for an all-staff photo shoot. I took a picture, too:

    image

    These ducks were still asleep, though. I was so jealous…

  • Technical Versus Management Problems

    While searching for a way to make MediaMonkey write “now playing” data into Lync 2010’s “What’s happening today” note field (clearly, this is critical work-related tinkering) I ran across a link to an argument with someone trying to solve a problem the wrong way. To illustrate, I’d like to tell a short story about one of my proudest moments in my previous job. It wasn’t a particularly cunning software or hardware implementation, but rather it was finding common ground with management regarding a problem user.

    One of the sales managers at Entercom came to me one day and asked me to find a solution to the problem of a new account rep hire who spent all day on ESPN’s website, among others, checking box scores when he should’ve been writing proposals and making calls. We discussed firewall settings, the pros and cons of various “nanny” software packages, and at the end I politely pointed out that what we were trying to do was to use technology to solve a management problem. The loose nut behind the keyboard was the actual problem, and all I’d be doing is giving him hurdles to jump over on his way toward continuing to goof off.

    The manager thought about that for a minute, then agreed that he’d first try direct conversation with the hire, followed by disciplinary action if needed, then come to me for the “firewall fix” only if the other steps failed.

    Within a few weeks the new hire was a new fire.

    I feel good about this story, not because I avoided any technical heavy lifting but because I was able to communicate effectively with someone from a whole other world (sales) about the limitations and relevance of technology as applied to personnel issues. As a side-benefit, my working relationship with that particular sales manager improved considerably because I was able to give him the tools to solve a problem even though I didn’t actually deploy any software or hardware. We were on the same page, and that’s what mattered.

  • This is what happens when I have this kind of toy.

    See, the moment I realized that I have two devices with front-facing cameras you just know what came next…

    image

    This is the sort of thing which guarantees that I will never be one of the cool kids. Oh well.

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