I will not be pushed, filed, stamped, indexed, briefed, debriefed, or numbered

This past week I was down in Foster City, one of San Fransisco's suburbs, for some training. My flight back ended up being on Saturday, so I did a quick search on the net to see if there was anything going on that weekend in the SF area. What I came across was the Maker Faire, that happened to be taking place about an hour or so walk from my hotel.

I wasn't entirely sure about going to this thing at first. The website wasn't that descriptive and I couldn't tell if it was craft fair, a cotton-candy and games thing or what. Also price was a little below standard con pricing but still up there, and I'd only have a few hours before I'd have to take of to catch my flight. Never-the-less, I checked out of my hotel first thing in the morning and wandered faire-wards.

As I neared the faire I kept an eye on the people wandering in the same direction, and was encouraged to notice that while there were a good collection of parents and kids, there was an equal number of people in various states of geek, anime, and Steampunk garb. At the entryway I skipped the "Pre-Purchased Ticket" line and went into the "Purchase Ticket" that, in fine convention fashion, was about 1/20th the length. As we waited for the gates to open, I could see a bunch of people warming up their home-made vehicles just inside. Amongst them were a couple of large pedal-powered metal monstrosities, a garishly coloured caterpillar car, and a giant mechanical snail that spat fire. This was probably going to be worth my $25.

After a couple of minutes the gates opened and people started shuffling in. Just inside the gate were a collection of local Taiko drummers who had a selection of their own drums, crafted from all sorts of barrels, oil drums and other containers for people to try out. Past them I saw a collection of old Model 1 Ford cars belonging to the "Bay Area Horseless Carriage Club" with their owners in full time-appropriate garb. Across from them was a 3-story tall 1950's sci-fi rocket that people could go in explore. Beyond that people were setting up a collection of olde-timey games of chance, a saloon bar, and the mechanical snail. The owner of the snail had a number of other mechanical creations on display including a waist high brass mechanical trilobite that he took kids for rides on.

South of that section was an area where the local machinist groups were giving demonstrations of their fabrication equipment and signing people for lessons. Also there was the Bazaare Bizarre where various crafters hawked their wares. North of there was there was a section full of DIY books and kits for sale, ranging on everything from knitting, to metal crafts, to electronics, to instrument making and more. Outside of that building were a collection of life sized posable puppets and group of blacksmiths who were encouraging people to come out and take lessons. To catch people's attention they had brought their 1960's fire truck... that shot real fire. The first time they fired it off, the explosion was so loud it caused most of the car alarms in the adjacent parking lot to to off.

North of that were a few more vendors focusing more on knitting and gardening crafts. Surrounding them were a bunch of people showing their welded sculptures, mechanical creations and cars covered in all sorts of art. A little west of there was yet another Steampunk society, showing off their clothing, brass fire arms, rocket packs and whatever else they had created. In the middle of the group one gentleman was showing off is "Clockwork" girl who, when a punch card was inserted in the slot in back, would sing, dance, or crush all in her path.

In the middle of the faire was a darkened room full of lighted and neon creations. There was a giant brass beetle with "Rejected" playing in it's head, multiple R2-D2s, a talking robotic giraffe, and giant motorized mechanical spider. In the center of the room I got to watch a knight (guy in a heavily insulated suit) box lighting bolts a powerful Tesla coil spat lighting bolts at him. There was also a room dedicated to 3D, a guy showing off his zombie equipment, and a group that made some really impressive puppets.

West of that was another building packed to the brim with stalls hawking made stuff, crafting supplies, or just showing off their own creations. There was a robotics club showing off there programmable robots. One guy was showing off his various mechanical sculptures that sculptures that ranged from a woman made out of old type-writer parts to a machine that licked lolly-pops for you. There was an area where people could craft their own rockets, places for building a soldering electronics, groups of Lego builders, car mechanics and more. Further west of that was an open area where kids could ride this oddly-shaped bicycles, ride weird mechanical rides, or watching the life-sized mousetrap run through it's Rube Goldberg inspired glory.

Yet still there were people walking/driving their creations around the park. There was a guy with a remote-controlled train-robot that was interacting with the kids. A group of people in motorized muffin cars that they let other people ride. And a group of what looked like inner-city kids riding double-high bikes that were essentially one frame soldered on-top of another,

There was also a building specifically for kids to do crafts, and one for speakers to give talk on various scientific talks that I never made it into. I ended the morning in the northern section watching the Coke and Mentos guys do their full routine in all of it's explosive sticky glory, before running like mad to catch my plane back home.

The Maker Faire was simply amazing. Far exceeded any sort of expectations I had. I really wish I could have spent more time there and brought a plethora of people who I know would love it. I'll have to head back to it some time in the future.

Hawkeye is arguing with the rest of the Avengers about killing Norman Osborn, the Green Goblin and current leader of the American secret service

Hawkeye: ...It's the simplest question and it's right here in front of us... if you could go back in time and kill Hitler would you?

Captain America: I did.

Ms. Marvel: You did what?

Captain America: I, uh, killed Hitler.

Everyone: ....

Captain America: Um, what were you saying?

So, I've got a bit of a headache and am feeling wiped, probably due to the excessive quantity of biking I've been forcing my body to do. I collapse on my bed next to Linds and, as usual, Tab see's an open back as an invitation to hop on board and start kneading and drooling.

I'm drifting off to sleep, when next thing I know Tab is tearing off my back (taking some skin with him), runs up the shelves on one side of the room, runs up the mattress on the leaning against the opposite wall, and then bolts from the room completely freaked. It was like he heard a crash of thunder but there wasn't anything.

My little boy is special....

So I'm adventuring through the blighted wilderness when I stumble upon a band of knights who are studying the undead scourge in the area. Their leader looks me up and down and tells me he needs me to do something for him.

He wants to study the effect that the undead plague has had on the local trolls in the area. He thinks that getting a few hair samples from them should prove enlightening. The only problem is the hair samples are highly contagious.

To that end he gives me the services of his trusty patsy Nass, who, having already contracted the plague some time back, has been rendered deaf, blind, and mostly numb, but largely immune to further effects of the blight.

He also gives me one of his sturdy steel toed boots. After besting a troll, I am to put it on and strike Nass a sound blow with it. His servant has been trained, so he tells me, to respond by shearing the troll's now comatose form.

And the name of this quest he has given me:

....

Kickin' Nass and Takin' Manes

I haven't used it since I moved into my current abode a couple of years ago:

Yarrr! I be movin' all me worldly goods from point 'A' ta point 'B' during the week o' October 30th ta November 3rd. You'll be wantin' ta contact the rest o' the Software crew if ya have anythin' that needs dealin' with.

Ifn ye be needin' ta get ahold o' me, I will still be available by the cellular telephone, or text message. I do not be sure when the swabs at Shaw Cable will be hookin' up me ta the interweb.

Fall's been fun. Really busy, but fun. What did I talk about last? *Looks back* Crap, I haven't even talked about PAX. Well, lets start there.

It was a little last minute, but a swath of us headed down to Seattle for the most recent Penny-Arcade expo. There were games a plenty, a really good dealer room, loads of panels (most of which were too full to get into), concerts, and a quest. It was a really well done thing where you had to perform a number of elemental themed puzzles and challenges. Throwing fireballs (warmed bean-bags) through the sun god's mouth. Work out what word is hidden on the clouds (floating balloons). That sort of thing. Very well done PR. Pity the game itself didn't look that good.

Got to see Colin and Sarah promoting the Fantastic Contraption. They were really great in arranging for rooms for those of us who had left it too late. And it was so cool to see the game doing so well. Colin was stopped by game developers and con-goers a plenty that played it. He is really on to something here.

What else did I do this fall? Well, I got to see Weird Al (good gods, that man has energy), Delerium (loud good music), went to this year's pirate party (as some gothy pirate, yeah I know...), went to Dannah's annual Halloween do (as a Guitar Hero, who, due to being completely out of practice, got his ass handed to him at his own game), the local Video Games live concert (I got to hear One-Winged Angel live, with a full orchestra and choir), Tom's birthday do, Dav's birthday do, cousin's visiting, lots of stuff.

In amongst this work kind of jumped me. At one point this year we had about 7 people in our group. Around the start of October that number dropped down to 2-3 depending on who was out. It is really hard to cover that much work and do interviews for replacements (testers mostly.) Usually work stuff doesn't bother me too much, but I was having some mild panic attacks with this one. Nothing major, just the "I can't stop worrying about this. I know it's nothing major, but I just can't stop." More irritating than anything else. But things are pretty much back to normal now.

For Halloween weekend itself I went to Pirates and Fairies. It's this weekend put on by a group of people who get together, dress up in the aforementioned costumes, play some games, drink, dance, chat and have fun. It was really good, though Linds and I were forced to abandon our cabin for the second night. Our captain could take the roof off with his snoring. But the outer storage area was cool and quiet, so it all worked out.

November was really busy. While I was running around trying to keep up with stuff, elections happened here and across the boarder. Liked the presidential choice, not as big on the vote that went through in California. Pro our city election, not so much the federal. Sounds like things are heating up on that front. We'll see how these things turn out.

And I guess my big news is a couple of weeks back I picked up a couple of cats from the local SPCA. Mouse, a huge fluffy patchwork cat, and Tab, a young sleek black cat. Hopefully I haven't bitten off more than I can chew. =)

Tab still has a lot of kitten in him, and sprints about the apartment with loads of energy. He always has to be where you are. He's very vocal and loves any sort of attention. When they first arrived, tab would growl whenever Mouse came near, but now all he wants to do is play with her. Unfortunately, she's having none of it.

Mouse is a little older big beautiful girl. She's also going to cause me more headaches than the over-energetic kitten. She's devastatingly intelligent and very picky about being touched. She likes getting stroked, but hates getting combed, which is a pity because the gal really needs it from time to time. We're going to have to work on that. And she has some the sharpest claws of any cat I've ever met. She doesn't use them (intentionally) but I don't know how she keeps them so deadly. She's also not that active and needs to loose a bit of weight. I've started regulating their food, but we'll see how that works.

Other than that, the video game front has been really interesting recently. Fallout 3 is huge and wonderful. And I really want to try Left 4 Dead, but I keep getting distracted.

Anyway, that's about it. Not too much else in the immediate future, but I do need to start thinking about Christmas....

Actual update later, but for now:

So, Vancouver is a really small place.  Really small.  As Linds says, six degrees of separation is two too many.  That was once again driven home to me last night.

The two of us headed over to the home of one of her friends for an apple-pie party (as good a reason as any to have a party).  We got there a little late, and other than the host (who I'd been introduced to a couple of times before) there were only two people there.

One was a woman who used to work in a neighbouring department, and was part of the group of us that would watch Invader Zim from time to time.

The other, it quickly became established, lives in my building.  Diagonally up from me.  Our apartments touch corners.

....

Seriously, for a city of 2 million people, this place is ridiculously small.

As I walked home tonight I heard loud music coming up the street behind me. I turned and saw a young man in a hoodie driving a bicycle rickshaw. The rickshaw basket was empty, save for a large 80's style boom box. The boom box was blaring "Lowrider" at top volume.

....

I'm really hoping the irony was intentional.

So, yes, I haven't made a post in ages.  I promise I'll do a status update soon, but in the interim....

I just had an odd experience.  A co-worker who was is in the middle of his vacation came into work, lay down in the middle of the floor, and mocked those of us who were working (albeit very lightly).

....

That took some gumption, and if we didn't like him so much he probably wouldn't have left here alive.