Leslie Michael Orchard

deus_x @ 2007-03-08T16:32:00

2007-03-09T00:33:18Z

*thump* *thump* *WHIIIINE* Ah, ahem. *cough* Yes. Is this thing on?

Posting from Jabber is a success!

2006-07-10T21:03:21Z

Holy cannole - this posting via Jabber instant message to LJ through Frank is pretty damn nifty. And it actually works.

Posting to LJ via Jabber

2006-07-10T21:00:54Z

Testing, testing, 1.. 2.. 3.. Is this thing on? Sibilants. Sibilants. If you are reading this post, know that it came via an instant message I sent to some strange goatbot named Frank.

LiveJournal and Jabber, sittin' in a tree

2006-07-07T20:26:06Z

Yeah, yeah, I need to post here more. Maybe I will pick up the habit again soon. One thing that just got me excited about this place though, besides the prospects of potentially finding people in our new neighborhood after the move, is this:

LiveJournal-integrated Jabber

And just what, you ask, is a Jabber? And why might you care?

You know how America OnLine runs AIM? Imagine if LiveJournal ran their own alternative to AIM, and everyone's Friends list was also their Buddy List. Next, imagine that everyone on "LJIM" could talk to everyone on Google Talk. Then, imagine that anyone with a decent server on the net could run their own Jabber server and talk to everyone else. (eg. deusx@decafbad.com is my Jabber screen name on my server)

Well, no need to imagine, because that's what they just announced here at LJ. It's AIM without the AOL.

Now, it'd be just plain scary if MySpace happened to join this party. Actually, forget I said that. You stay out of this, you damn dirty apes.

Plotting a going-away party for Saturday, July 8th.

2006-06-29T16:08:27Z

So, in case anyone's not yet heard: We're moving to California. In fact, we'll probably be on a plane sometime around July 15th, give or take a day. But, before that happens, we'd like to have a little going away party somewhere, in order to get one last visit in with keen people in this neck of the woods. We'd especially like this because the Wedding was just one big blur, and we barely remember talking to anyone who was there.

Big update: Well, after all my pondering places, I think what we'll do is just have it in our place. The one imposition we'll throw out there is this: Feed us and bring booze. Lots of both. Also, seating will be the floor and whatever hasn't been carted off.

Mostly, we just want to see people before we make our escape.

Also: We're having a moving sale this Saturday, July 1st - which hopefully should help empty the place out. If you've ever coveted anything in our apartment, now's the time to come see if you can swipe it. Also, we'll be staying put in our back patio / yard, so if you feel like a visit before the party, c'mon over. Just make sure to buy something, or look like you're shopping so as to make other people think they're going to miss out on the deals! :)

The first questions, then, are when? and where?

Update: Oh yeah, and another obvious question: How many people? Honestly, I'm not sure. Let's say 10-20. I'd love to see hundreds of people show up, but I can't imagine we'd be a draw for that many. :)

When is most likely to be next Saturday, July 8th. This Saturday is too soon, and the one after is too "up in the air".

As for where... well, that's where we need some help. Our townhouse will be off-limits due to moving and such. So, it'll need to be a public venue unless someone ~~magically~~ volunteers to throw it. (Update: "magical" snark unintended - especially since a few people have graciously mentioned possibilities of helping / throwing the party! We've got good friends.)

At present, I've got three ideas. You guys get to vote on them:

View Poll: Going-away party poll!

Go West, Young Man!

2006-06-26T14:23:25Z

Hello, LiveJournal friends. Yes, this space is very much neglected by yours truly, but I wonder if I might not start using it again soon. For now, though, I bring you a cut-and-paste repost from my other blog, decafbad.com:

In the first half of this year, I’ve been really busy. My fits of posts and stretches of silence around here can attest to that. In fact, I’ve been so busy that I managed to finish a book, get married, and go on a honeymoon - all whilst being fully engaged in a dayjob.

missadroit had it easy this year - instead of her usual full load of university classes and all the jobs she does for both of us, all she had to do was plan a wedding and arrange a honeymoon! (And in case you’ve never planned a wedding, you should know that I’m being sarcastic here. My lovely bride has been busier than you could imagine. I helped, but not nearly enough.)

The one thing that we haven’t done this year - which I’ve somehow managed to do almost every year for the past decade - is packup and move. We even moved last year while I was in the middle of writing my first book, albeit only about a quarter-mile down the road.

The obvious conclusion, then, is that neither my wife nor I have been busy enough this year. It’s time to move again.

But, there’ll be no cakewalk quarter-mile jaunts for us this time. No, this year - in fact, in the next month - we’ll somehow be moving almost 2500 miles away. Yes, that’s right: We’re moving from the Detroit, MI area to the Bay Area in California, and I’m not quite sure how it’s all going to work out. But, I do know that we need to be there before July 17th.

And, why is the 17th of July a significant date, you ask? Well, that’s when I start work at Yahoo! in Santa Clara, of course.

I’ve tried to be a bit cagey about my job and employers over the past few years, just to avoid difficulties and unnecessary disclosures - but this change in career is a big one that I just can’t keep under wraps. Of course, I’m not planning to blog every little detail and become another “fired for blogging” statistic on the superhighway, but I’m admitting this much. And, damn, am I excited.

Current thoughts...

2006-06-07T21:20:33Z

Here are some current thoughts in need of release, with this much neglected LJ as the chosen steam valve:

The President most certainly speaks not for me. As a soon-to-be-married heterosexual man, I have to say that I feel absolutely zero need for either the sanctity or semantics of our impending union to to be protected from "a couple of middle-aged guys who want to tie the knot in Provincetown". In fact, I feel our marriage would obtain more meaning as an ideal through broader inclusiveness and freedom from meddlesome moralists.
Yay effing hooray, I see sunshine. And a cardinal. Weather, you are hereby ordered to remain sunny until at least Sunday.
The conflicting expectations and inevitably irreconcilable disappointments orbiting my brain, from wedding guests both real and imagined, have become my Kobyashi Maru.
There is no simulator to hack, ala James T. Kirk, so my stomach and nerves are hacking themselves. I can only guess how missadroit is coping without violence toward self or others.
The funny part about this is that I feel absolutely no hint of "cold feet." On the contrary, these feet might ignite a sun, if so employed.
Beer.

You stormed off to scar the armada

2006-03-22T16:19:42Z

Man, I'm a sucker for prog rock and concept albums.

I'd never heard of Coheed and Cambria, except as an occasional song that came up on radioioRock as we had it on in the background on the XBMC. But that one song kept sounding a bit epic and pretentious, and that name seemed a bit odd - which, all in all, tripped my prog rock alert.

So, I checked out the rest of the album. Crap. It's a scifi concept album, one part of five. So now I've been listening to it over and over, trying to decipher things and catch up on the story. And now I just have to get all the rest of their albums. It's a familiar pattern I've played out before with bands like Rush, Yes, and Dream Theater. Hell, this tendency even sucked me into 30 Seconds to Mars. Give me 20-30 minute long epics with track titles annotated by roman numerals. I'll even bite when offered self-parodying album titles like, "Good Apollo, I'm Burning Star IV, Volume One: From Fear Through The Eyes of Madness"

I mean, how can I resist when the lead singer is described as "a man with a voice that makes Robert Plant and Geddy Lee mad for ever trying."

Such a sucker I am.

No dreams of Shepard + McKay in my head

2006-03-21T12:37:47Z

Okay, breaking radio silence again to pose a question to my LJ friends: What the hell is with all this Stargate Atlantis slash fic? I suspect some of you know what I'm talking about.

Slash fic just squicks me out on general principle. Of course, I thoroughly support your right to enjoy it - but why oh why has it poked its head into this particular memespace so emphatically? Can't you guys go back to Harry Potter or the Buffyverse or something? Maybe there's some unexplored ground over in the SeaQuest DSV continuity, or in The Collector from Canada? I'd actually appreciate it if you all stayed clear of the Firefly 'verse, though, but I know that the mere suggestion has probably inspired some Book/Wash and Mal/Jayne pairings somewhere...

*squick*

BSG grumble

2006-03-11T04:38:41Z

I break LJ radio silence to say this:

YES, OCTOBER.

Fracking bastards.

Accelerando Cats

2005-06-18T00:53:13Z

The girls (both human and feline) are asleep on my lap, and I’m reading Charles Stross’ new book Accellerando, recently made available for download.

My favorite quote so far? It’s this:

“That’s not very nice. Uploaded cats are a bad idea.”

Also, Aineko? Great name for an artificial cat. AI, Neko. Get it?

We're engaged!

2005-06-17T15:53:08Z

If you were with me here back when I wrote this entry on LiveJournal about who would eventually appear here as missadroit, then this should probably come as no surprise...

The following is the text of an overlay box I’ve stuck on my site today, which should only appear for you once and only within the next day or two:

Please excuse this interruption in your regularly scheduled surfing.

Last night, in front of the Max & Erma's restaurant where we had our first date, I dropped to one knee, presented Miss Alexandra Asher Arnold with a ring, and asked her to marry me.

And, you know what…?

SHE SAID YES!

I am now the luckiest nerd in the universe.

I love you, Alexandra!

Account hacked?

2005-06-09T20:40:36Z

So... apparently, it appears my Livejournal account here was hacked. When? How? Why? I dunno. Just stumbled upon it 5 minutes ago when I tried logging in to post a comment and found that my password-- the same password I've had for 5 years (*doh*)-- was invalid. Dig deeper, and I find that my LJ email address was changed to LotsOSpam@gmail.com (whoever that is) and the password was "changepassword"

Well, not that I've been exactly a prolific poster around here for a long time, but that might've been a troubling thing.

Has anyone else seen this? Or, would LotsOSpam@gmail.com care to tell me what happened?

What you say about his company is what you say about society

2005-04-29T02:44:46Z

Oh yeah, and I just can't stress this enough: I can't stop bouncing to Mindless Self Indulgence's deconstruction of Rush's Tom Sawyer.

THE TOM AND THE SAWYER AND THE I AND THE YOU AND THE SPACE HE INVADES AND THE BY BY BY BY BY BY BY BY BY BY....

Another chapter bites the dust

2005-04-29T02:41:50Z

Hot damn—one chapter down, one left to go. Watch me ramble semi-coherently on my geek blog, over here: 0xDECAFBAD: Beer, passing time, one more chapter down

A highlight from said geek blog:

Now I alternate between worries that I’ve made things too complex, or that I’ve not done enough. I’m really hoping I’ve overcome my Beginner’s Mind worries in this book by the end, and have produced something worthwhile. It’s occurred to me, finally, that what I want this thing to be is a baseline starting point for anyone wanting to hack feeds.

Blogging while partially inebriated really loosens the verbal area of my branes. I'm not sure if that's good or bad, but there you have it.

Lookee, I'm writing a book, and I can't stop my brain

2005-04-22T20:12:25Z

So, yeah, I've been missing from these parts for awhile. It seems to be my usual modus operandi around here, these past years. Every now and again I come back, when I have an overflow of whatever is sloshing around up in the old grey matter.

Today, I am all atwitter because I'm 2 chapters and around 50 pages away from finishing the first draft of my first technical book, which is due on May 2nd. I just turned in my 15th chapter, feel like taking a pause before diving into the next, but I just can't seem to stop spewing out words at the moment... so here I am.

And most jitter-worthy today, my Developmental Editor—from whom I haven't heard much, throughout the last few months—wrote that he was "...extremely delighted at how clean this manuscript really is." He added, "What a joy to work with an author as diligent and meticulous as you are!" So, while I was worrying that I was delivering a steaming pile, it appears that no news has been good news, in fact.

Working backward a bit here, since many of you—on whose friends list I still inexplicably remain—likely have no clue what I'm talking about... Book? Book? What is this... book... of which you speak?

Well, here's what the cover looks like on Amazon right now:

Hacking RSS and Atom
by Leslie M. Orchard

It's just dazzling to me to see my name on something for sale on Amazon—especially since I've yet to finish it! Like I'm a really real author; you can look me up by name. This is where my life has gone since shortly after Christmas, so I'm hoping it'll be good when all's said and done.

And then, once it's been taken out of my hands, to be placed at the mercy of the production crew... I want my life back.

Feline Defenestration

2005-03-02T13:37:25Z

I’m almost proud, yet considering defenestration:

Our “plus-size” female cat has learned that I tend to get up around 6AM now, and shortly after I get up, I feed her and her brother. She’s also learned that jumping onto The Girl’s dresser, covered in clinky bottles and delicate things, tends to make me wake instantly and lunge out of bed—sometimes pulling my CPAP mask out of its hose—to retrieve her before she starts knocking things over for the pretty sounds they make.

Now, both our cats tend to start doing restless foraging things when they’re hungry. Cabinets open and close, forbidden shelves get jumped upon, running around happens. And, that’s why the dresser-jumping started, I think. Unfortunately, this past weekend, I made the mistake of storming down the stairs once and feeding the cats, after having been woken up two hours early by tinkling nail-polish bottles.

Oh ho! She’s a fast one, she is. It didn’t take her long to make a connection: This morning, she was like a snooze alarm 1/2 hour early. Our bed is positioned such that there’s about a 3-foot leap from its end, to the dresser of delicates. She made sure to leap from atop one of my ankles at the foot of the bed and onto the dresser; when I lunged out of bed, she hopped down immediately and ran out of the room. I went back to bed.

Just as I started falling back asleep, she was back, and this time launched onto the dresser using my toes as a platform. Another lunge, another run out of the room. This happened once more before the alarm finally went off, which was good because the sleepy girl lying next to me was probably about ready to defenestrate cat and boyfriend both. When I finally got up, she led me to the food, chirping and mewing smugly the whole way.

Tonight, I sleep with a squirt gun under my pillow.

Morning thoughts

2005-02-22T14:16:40Z

Morning is not my friend—and I have struggled with this for so long that I have become all but convinced that I’m part of an evolutionary branch of humanity who stayed up late and kept the fire going while the day shift slept. Sometimes I think I should try making a career out of doing long-distance freelance work for another time zone whose morning starts several hours later than my own.

Micro-quickies

2005-02-22T14:09:22Z

I have decided that all weekends need to consist of 3 days. That, or I need a vacation.
“Drive That Fast” by Kitchens of Distinction is my song tonight.

RIP HST

2005-02-21T16:15:51Z

Oh, and R.I.P. Hunter S. Thompson.

We'll miss you, you mad bastard.

Quickie Flood

2005-02-21T16:09:41Z

Hmm, so it's been quite awhile since I was last active around here. I've been only slightly more active over on 0xDECAFBAD, but for the most part lately I've been entirely consumed by book, day job, and side job. Well, I've started trying to gather little quick things to post. Here's a dump from the weekend:

Pyjamarama is my song of the evening.
I've gotten hooked on Vim, having defected from xemacs, because I like keeping more of my user interface in my headspace and adopting modes as fighting stances.
I haven't been paying attention to my web stats. Does anyone out there actually read and enjoy my links, since I split them out of the main blog? (Just curious.)
I've been thinking lately that my innate fashion instincts come from the Tom Baker era of Doctor Who. Thankfully, I have a girlfriend who helps dress me. The hair's still getting pretty unruly, though.
Quick News is the NetNewsWire of the Palm OS world. It can even download podcasts! And it's only $15 bucks!
Primus says:
Funny thing about weekends when you’re unemployed.
They don’t quite mean so much,
Except you get to hang out with all your working friends.
Wow. This a capella cover of TMBG’s “Particle Man” I just heard on Coverville by The Bobs absolutely rocks.
And then, I realize that I’ve heard The Bobs before. In particular, it was from when I used to listen to the Dr. Demento Show and heard their song “My, I’m Large”. Now, that takes me back.
Got a comment from Mark Eichin that reminded me I forgot to link to something I posted a few years ago: Perceptible interface + laziness threshold = weblog silence
I just helped my friend Erik (aka We3bus) get The Biofeedback Blog up and running for his company with WordPress 1.5—I’m looking forward to seeing what they do with it. It was a gigantic pain in the ass, since we ran into problems with damn near every component of the setup, from MySQL to IIS to WordPress itself. Granted, this is a bit of a non-typical install, but damn… Anyway, check them out.
A comment from Jason Clark makes me think a little more about ideas I’ve had about customized feeds to offer here for the next refresh. I’ve gotten on a run posting political links because, well, I’ve got some very definite opinions about our current situation—but you might not care about that. Was thinking that I might offer a mix-your-own-feed form where you can pick and choose from kinds of posts and tags I’ll be using. The proper place for this is in the aggregator, but it could be a fun project for the book.

Nerd Quiz

2005-01-19T18:17:22Z

I break my LJ fast to bring you this:

book quote meme

2004-12-16T12:46:23Z

A quote from a book I'm reading:

Physical objects have affordances, a powerful, but little understood part of infrastructure.

Quick meme thing snatched from the jaws of pfrank:
1. Grab the nearest book. Don't search around and look for the "coolest" book you can find. Do what's actually next to you.
2. Open the book to page 123.
3. Find the fifth sentence.
4. Post the text of the sentence in your journal along with these instructions.

"Earthsea"

2004-12-09T20:05:09Z

From Ursula K. Le Guin, concerning the upcoming SciFi Channel movie:

I wonder if the people who made the film of The Lord of the Rings had ended it with Frodo putting on the Ring and ruling happily ever after, and then claimed that that was what Tolkien "intended..." would people think they'd been "very, very honest to the books"?

Mr. Gruff

2004-12-08T03:03:18Z