Monthly Archives: May 2010

Terry Pratchett via last.fm

Today is a big day for geeks. First of all, and most broadly, it’s Geek Pride Day. Secondly, it’s the annual celebration of the works of Douglas Adams with Towel Day, with geeks the world over exhibiting their love of the Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy.

But all of that is just celebration and mass exhibiting of our inner geekiness. There is something geek related that is even more important today.  Today is the Glorious 25th of May, wherein fans of Terry Pratchett wear lilac on their breast to show their support of him in his struggle with Alzheimer’s, as well as to support Alzheimer’s research.

Just wearing flowers (or purple shirts, or purple towels, to combine the two events) might show a spirit of support, but it doesn’t really do anything to help people suffering from Alzheimer’s or their caregivers.

This is a cause that is close to my heart, to the point that it is difficult for me to write about without getting emotional. Alzheimer’s Disease runs in my family. All of my maternal grandmother’s sisters died suffering from some form of the disease, and she is currently in a nursing home, in the secured Alzheimer’s ward.

This is the woman who taught me how to write, and now she can barely speak a sentence. About the only understandable words she can manage now are “Yes” and “No.” But she laughs, oh how she laughs, now that she is beyond the point where she can realize what is going on in the world around her, what has happened to her.

In some ways, Alzheimer’s Disease is a disease which brings more pain to the caregivers and family than to the diseased, at least once that point is reached, where the dementia is so far progressed that the patient cannot realize their own state. My grandfather was her primary caregiver, before she went into the nursing home.  He has been fighting depression as a result of watching her in her steady decline and from the loneliness of having the woman he loves move so far away from him, and not just in a physical sense.

But she still knows him. When she doesn’t recognize anyone else, when she doesn’t know her daughters or grandchildren, she knows who he is, and he can still wring from her the biggest smiles.

The Wearing of the Lilac - for Memory

So while you’re celebrating your big geek holidays, I ask you to also put your money where your mouth is and do something that’s not just for show, that’s not just a towel over your shoulder or a flower on your lapel.  Do something that makes a real difference, no matter how small.

If you can spare a few dollars, head over to one of the Alzheimer’s research charities of your choice and give a donation today, in support of Mr. Pratchett and the many other people out there who suffer from Alzheimer’s, and the families that care for them. Do something important to celebrate your geekiness today.

UK Alzheimer’s Charities supported by Terry Pratchett:

• The RICE Centre: Terry Pratchett’s Alzheimer’s specialist, Professor Roy Jones, is the Director of this Research Institute
  http://www.rice.org.uk/
• The Alzheimer’s Research Trust: Terry Pratchett is a Patron of this leading Alzheimer’s research organization
  http://www.alzheimers-research.org.uk/
• The Alzheimer’s Society
  http://alzheimers.org.uk/site/index.php

USA Non-Profit Alzheimer’s Charities and Organizations:

• Alzheimer’s Foundation of America
• The Alzheimer’s Association
• The Fisher Center for Alzheimer’s Research

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I suppose I shouldn’t be surprised that Pac-Man came out the same month I was born. Pac-Man (and Ms. Pac-Man) were the first games that my chubby little toddler hands ever spent a significant amount of time playing, and I continued to play the different versions of the game over the years as I grew up. There weren’t many arcades in my area, but there was a Pac-Man table at one of the restaurants my family frequented, and I remember sitting there asking for one more quarter…just one more of whatever adult I was with. I had Pac-Man on my Commodore 64, I had it on the Atari that I inherited from my uncle.

Pac-Man was my gateway, the first game that led to a lifetime obsession with video games.

And, just as I did a few weeks ago, Pac-Man is celebrating its 30th Anniversary today. You can go over to Google‘s main page for a google logo-ized playable version of the game, but there are plenty of other versions out there too.

In fact, if there’s an 80′s game you’re feeling nostalgic for, you can probably find either a flash or java version of it out there.  There are emulators too, of course, but they can be problematic, and why bother with a download when you can play them online?

I found this treasure trove of flash and java versions of old games the other day over on a website called, appropriate enough, “Classic Online Games“. They have sections for old Commodore 64, Nintendo, Sega, and Arcade games, and all sections are full of games any 80′s kid will recognize, plus some you might not.

All of the games on the site are free to play.   Some have been updated to a point-and-click interface, and all can be played with a keyboard and mouse, though, you’ll find that using a keyboard for most of them can be problematic. You may need a USB joystick or controller to properly play some of them.  I don’t usually plug merchants on this blog, but you can get both over ThinkGeek (and no, I am not paid to say so).

As for me, maybe I’ll spend some time trying to see if I can even get close to my old high scores on some of these games.

Oh, and Happy Birthday Pac-Man, may you munch ghosts happily all day long.

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Every now and then I get into one of these moods where I tell myself I’m going to get my life organized and disciplined. I read blogs on productivity, I study everything there is to find on the so-called “proven methods of productivity.”

I am notoriously scatterbrained. I completely fail to commit things to memory, and therefore completely forget them in short order. All these things like to do lists, desktop stickies, Getting-Things-Done tools, etc. all seem like they would be absolute lifesavers for someone like me. Something to help me remember things, hell yeah!

Until I realize that I’ve been sitting at the computer playing with so-called productivity software for hours. What haven’t I been doing during that time? Writing.

I also seem to want to try out any and every sort of novel-writing software that comes out, and fiddle around with all of the tools, calling myself “working” when I’ve not put a single word to the page.

As much as a help these things might be for other people, they actually seem to work to my detriment. Mary Jaksch over at Write To Done refers to it as “Digital Fiddling.” This includes, of course, not just fiddling around with “productivity software”, but twitter, facebook, fiddling with blog themes, etc. – all those things that we do to avoid staring at that blank page.

In the end, the simplest things seem to be the ones that work best for me. Instead of a feature-rich outlining and storyboarding program like Liquid Story Binder, I work better in something that completely lacks features. Full screen text editors (of which there are many options) are my best friends.  The less there is for me to fiddle with, feature wise, the more actual work I get done.

I also require a way to completely block my access to certain time wasting sites, particularly Twitter and instant messaging.  I am not big on the willpower, so I have to have something I can’t cheat.  Unfortunately, I also do a lot of writing “in the cloud” – using GoogleDocs (in full-screen mode) to write on multiple computers without having to worry about syncing or keeping up with easily lost thumb drives.  Disconnecting from the internet entirely is not an option.

To this end, I’ve switched to Chrome for my default browser, with the StayFocused extension. This extension works similarly to a lot of Firefox extensions in that you can use it to limit your access to certain “disallowed” websites during certain hours of the day. However, it has a feature that I’ve not found on any mod otherwise and which has proven to be wonderful for me.

It’s called Nuclear Mode. It is an option that, once set, blocks either all access to the internet entirely or all excess except to those sites in an “allowed” list for a period of time.  Once engaged, it cannot be disengaged for the time period that has been set.

Usually I engage the “Nuclear Mode” option for an hour at a time, allowing myself a short break for browsing between the hour blocks. My only allowed sites are GoogleDocs and my blog. By cutting out everything else and staying simple, I actually manage to get some writing done.

Sometimes the best way to be productive is to disregard “productivity techniques” and just do.

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Warning: The following post contains some adult language.

I’ve been in a bit of an ill-tempered mood this week, so I decided to put this post on the back burner overnight and come back to it to make sure it wasn’t too ranty. But no, after reading it this morning, I think it entails the proper amount of rant for the situation. I’m pissed off. Thoroughly, and with full justification.

Here’s the situation. I have health insurance. I only went without for a couple of years while I was unemployed.  I started out with really good health insurance, actually, but the company (Blue Cross Blue Shield of Georgia) raised my monthly premiums by an average of $50 on an annual basis. I tolerated it for the first few years, but over the last few the increases have been beyond what my budget can handle, and I’ve had to downgrade to a higher deductible, lower benefit plan. Even so, I stayed under the same carrier and even the same member group.

This year they increased my premiums by $60 in March. Today I got a notice that they will be increasing my monthly premium again by $60 in July.

That’s a healthcare premium increase of $120.00/month over the course of less than six months, bringing my premium up to what amounts to a week and a half’s pay.

Now . . . keep in mind that I am in what is probably the best health of my life, where I am neither starving myself as I did in high school or eating mounds and mounds of junk food as I did in college.  I eat healthy. I do an hour of high intensity exercise every day.  I haven’t been to the doctor in years except for my annual physical, which I get at a sliding fee clinic and pay for out of pocket, because over the last couple of years I’ve been forced to raise my deductible to the point where that is the only way I can afford to go.

The only thing that I have ever used my health insurance to pay for since I have had it was an eye exam and a pair of glasses.

I just did the calculations , and this means that I have paid approximately (and this is on the low end) $12,000.00 in premiums for . . . a pair of glasses.

But BCBS feels justified in raising my premium by almost $120/month over the course of less than six months.

Yeeeeah. I’m tempted to drop my insurance entirely and wait out the five years until the new healthcare regulations go into effect, but at the same time I’m terrified that in the backlash will result in a Republican Congress that will repeal and destroy the one hope I’ve had in years for decent healthcare. The free market system for healthcare doesn’t work.  I have health insurance, yes . . . but I still can’t afford to go to the doctor. True, I need it little now, but if I did need it, or goddess forbid, I had an accident of some sort and had to go to the hospital, I would be bankrupt.

Right now I’m looking into the healthcare savings plans offered through my bank, as that may be the best option for me right now.  I’ve tried free market health insurance, and all it ever did was screw me up the ass.  It’s little more than protection money.  I pay through the nose for no benefit whatsoever. It’s time to look into other options.  And I think I’ll be writing to the state insurance commissioner. A $120 increase in monthly premiums in such a short time has to raise some red flags somewhere.

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I tend to be obsessed with resources that can teach me something, no matter how esoteric those lessons might be. (I’ve spent more than a few hours researching Victorian London, for instance…) I’m a bit obsessed with gathering knowledge, not through any real desire to better my brain or anything, but just because it’s fun. So, the title of this blog post is perhaps the closest thing to a motto that I’ll ever have.

One of my talents has always been picking up languages fairly easily, particularly in the written form. (As someone who speaks only rarely, I have a discomfort with even my native language used in conversation.) Part of this is a sheer fascination with language.  Some words make me smile, irrespective of their meaning – like my fascination with the word “chartreuse”. At least I know I’m not the only person with this odd obsession with language.

I’ve tried a number of methods of learning new languages and retaining those I already know. I regularly read the news in German and French, for instance. Outside of paying for classes, there are apparently quite a few resources for learning new languages entirely for free.  My favorite, of the ones I’ve tried, has been LiveMocha.

LiveMocha uses a method for teaching vocabulary similar to that seen in the RosettaStone programs, associating words directly with images rather than the translations of those words.  It also uses a broad community to hook up language learners with their counterparts, so that those learning a language can be tutored and assisted by native speakers of that language who may, in turn, be trying to learn their own.

There is a premium version, but the free version is as fully functional as most language learners could want, and extremely easy to use.  I’ve brushed up on my German and French and begun programs to learn Gaelic (of which I know a bit) and Mandarin (of which I know almost nothing other than a few curse words and endearments taught me by Firefly).

Never Stop Learning, and always look for the new challenge. For me, it usually tends to be art or language related.  What’s your brain-crunching challenge?

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