Stir-fried Random

[thorfinn]

To nick the way rickybuchanan frequently uses the phrase "Stir-fried Random", this is a post consisting of all sorts of bits and bobs.

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All Moved

Well, as of this Monday (8th July 2003) I am now a person of two fixed abodes. For about 3 weeks I was a person of three fixed abodes, but I'm much better now.

Thanks are due, vastly and variously, to seedy_girl, faemortel, miriam_e, horngirl and longi for helping lirion and myself pack up the vast mounds of stuff that we had at Queens Road. About a dozen boxes of books and clothing and some shelving have now been dropped off at Peel Street, and the rest is filling up the living space at Alma Road. I've started to unpack bits, and have re-arranged some boxes for easy unpacking, and will probably be spending tonight playing Pengo (although hopefully with less monsters) with boxes in order to get furniture into the right places.

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LJ Toys

Kelvin and Joule, by marnanel are both neato keen tools for scoping out your Acquaintances list.

A pizza for thorfinn: Tomato Sauce, Bell Peppers, Roasted Red Peppers, Green Chilis, Jalapenos, Habaneros, Onions, Mushrooms, Kalamata Olives, Fresh Tomatoes, Sundried tomatoes, Spinach, Fresh Basil, Garlic Cloves, Garlic Chives, Eggplant, Zucchini, Basil Pesto, Pepperoni, Ham, Bacon, Canadian Bacon, Sausage, Salami, Pastrami, Ground Beef, Chicken, Shrimp, Anchovies, Hot Sauce, Basil, Oregano, Parsley, and a perfectly-baked crust.

Fun with pizza toppings at The Pizza Arbiter

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Art In Being

frou_frou, I haven't forgotten... Couldn't make last fortnight's Art Day, but I should be available for Sunday 20th July 2003, and I should even have been able to dig out some pretty clothes and corsetry by then. Let me know venue details via email. :-)

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Interview Meme

As I mentioned in my previous interview answers, I'm quite happy to be interviewed by anyone or to be asked to interview anyone.

I'm still waiting on answers from anthologie, and I've just posed some questions for qamar...

I've just got some questions from kowari (whom I've already interviewed). So:

An Interview of Thorfinn by Kowari

1. Are you doing what you want to be doing right now?
2. What did you learn whilst working at Netizen?
3. What is that you have done in your life that you are most proud of and why?
4. List your top 5 Movies and why you place them in that position.
5. We have gone from punch cards to magnetic media (Tape, and HDDTech) to optical media (CD to DVD) and Solid state Media, where do you see the next step of data storage being?

Interview Answers

1. Are you doing what you want to be doing right now?
   
   Hrm. I think the answer to that on all fronts (work, home, socially) is a definite maybe. :-) Primarily, in all spaces right now, nothing is perfect, but it's reasonably clear that things are on track to being better than they are today.
2. What did you learn whilst working at Netizen?
   
   For the audience, Netizen is the dot-bomb that q_skud_, entrippy, rickybuchanan and myself started, which at it's peak had about 15 employees, before running out of cashflow.
   
   As far as what I learned? A fair bit about Australian Corporations Law, especially regarding the responsibilities of Directors; A lot about the needs of proper software engineering process; The importance of good hiring process; The importance of good management/business practice; That I prefer low severity high probability risk to high severity low probability risk; erm... and probably a fair bit more about myself to boot.
3. What is that you have done in your life that you are most proud of and why?
   
   Hrm. Actually, I think so far, I would have to say being a part of Netizen. Despite the fact that it dot-bombed in the end, nobody (except VALinux) lost any money, and I feel that whilst we were there and going, I learned a lot of stuff, and taught a bunch of people a lot.
4. List your top 5 Movies and why you place them in that position.
   
   Whoa. I'm not sure I have an answer to that... at least, not one that would stay consistent if I was asked again in a short time. So, my answer de jour is:
   
   • Conan The Barbarian: because it's cheesy, but fun, and I like the sound of lamenting women.
   • Star Wars: Return of the Jedi: because Leia in slave girl outfit is cute, and it's fun to think of what Jabba might've had, err, had done to her whilst she was all caged up.
   • LoTR:FoTR: because Peter Jackson did such good job of keeping the feel.
   • Secretary: because it's a movie which has interesting characters exploring the fringes of BDSM, and which manages to avoid being overtly tawdry, whilst still maintaining a sexy kinky fun feel. And because Maggie Gyllenhaal is amazing, although I think she could do with a little more weight.
   • The Cat's Meow: because I do so like Murder Mysteries, and I especially like them when they run like well written freeform roleplaying convention games. Besides, it's quite nice to see Eddie Izzard doing something other than comedy.
5. We have gone from punch cards to magnetic media (Tape, and HDDTech) to optical media (CD to DVD) and Solid state Media, where do you see the next step of data storage being?
   
   Err... Dunno. I believe that they're currently playing with direct single atom manipulations, but at the moment, that requires crazy amounts of equipment. The only other weird data storage proposal is to tie into biological systems, which crosses over, really, into the space of nano-machinery/nano-computing, which is the space that single-atom manipulations is in anyway.
   
   I'm also not at all sure that current computing paradigms will survive in a nano-scale space, particularly when you combine nano-scale systems with quantum computation... I think it's clear that there will be a technology jump (in the linked technologies of "computation", "software" and "hardware"), and that it will happen within a couple of decades, but what the stable end result will be, I don't know.

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Web Toys

Orisinal - chock full of cute flash games.

Defend Your Castle. Flash Stick Figure Death ahoy... "Not since the discovery of porn has my wrist hurt this much. Clear your schedule!" -- NewGrounds.com Front Page Review

I want a Danger Sensitive Cricket Bat. Please?

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NeverWinter Nights: Shadows of Undrentide

Well, I've bought the NWN Expansion Pack One - Shadows of Undrentide, and it's good so far. More spells, more feats, more skills, some neat prestige classes, etc. I like it, being the old minmaxer that I am, there are more fun possibilities. Oh, and if anyone wants to put me in their NWN Bioware Buddy List, then they'll want to know that my account name on there is "thorfy".

I've played a bit of XP1-Chapter1, and so far, it's quite okay. Run here, do this, do that, fight a bit, talk a bit... Henchman management is muchly improved, which is good. Look forward to seeing what various non Bioware module authors come up with.

Comments

[rosefox]

I did fourteen rounds of Defend Your Castle before the big stick guy killed me (the fucker). Not quite addictive enough for me to try again, though.

[apocraphilia.livejournal.com]

Secretary probably wouldn't make my top five, but mordwen and I did greatly enjoy it. Quite inspiring... :)

Still find it weird that my boss dragged me to the going-away party of the dot-bomb next door (to scalp talent) only to find a bunch of roleplayer geeks that I already knew. Still got my inflatable green chair that I bought that day. Wish I had've know Netizen better.

[anthologie.livejournal.com]

I answered your interview questions a couple of weeks ago. (I suspect you were still in the midst of Moving Hell - but hey, so was I. :) ) They are here:

http://www.livejournal.com/users/anthologie/347962.html

Also...



Mmmm, pizza. :)

[qamar.livejournal.com]

It's so interesting reading other peoples' perspectives on 'stuff'. The Netizen thing always seemed like such an amazing experience, tough, exciting, exasperating, enlightening experience. I'm glad you came out of it thinking something positive. Of course I'm biased, being with Morgan. But, I really felt as though you guys had come out of it wiser, more experienced, cleverer and more professional. War stories are always good for business and you managed to keep out of jail. :)

[thorfinn]

kowari asked what I'd learned... There were definitely a lot of things I learned, and learning them has definitely been valuable and good. Don't mean there wasn't a lot of pain along the way, and some of those things, I wish I didn't have to learn the way I did. Oh, and actually, I must correct myself. We did have some investors that lost some money, and I am sad that they did. That's probably about the only thing I'd go back and try and fix about the whole sherbang.