The holiday season

Some people might find me a bit odd. Some people might find me a bit "un-holiday." I find myself just someone who wants to celebrate the holiday with little fanfare.

Why is another questions........
1. The commercialization of Christmas. When did it become vogue for people to write articles on how bad the holiday "Christmas" was and then give the reasons why? Christmas, as I was taught, was a holiday to celebrate the birth of Christ. This year, I saw a lot of people rushing around central Texas buying a lot of presents. Many people probably went into deep debt to purchase the new video game system or a large flat-panel TV.
2. Spend time with those who you love. Well, I unfortunately my fiance is in Russia.

There are a few more reasons, but I won't go into them.

- Merry Christmas to all. (Yes, it's a bit late.)
- Happy Holidays to everyone (This is for those who don't celebrate Christmas.)
- May the New Years bring everyone luck and good cheer (If you don't like this one, that's too bad.)

The Grind

A lot has happened to me over the past few weeks:

- We finished data collection for the study I've been helping with. Now we go into data review and interpretation. I'll be crafting the methods write-up.
- I'm in the final stages of grad school applications. This year seems easier than the last. That could be due to starting earlier in the year.
- I'll be traveling home for Thanksgiving. Mmmmmmmm, turkey and birthday!
- I'm looking forward to the Christmas holiday break. Unfortunately due to my classes' finals schedule, I will be unable to travel too far from Texas.

All in all, life is going great!

Almost done....... (with collecting data)

After the lead on the video game study took a look at the research, he believes that we will be done collecting data this Friday. I wish I could say more about the study, but can't due to it not being done.

He asked me to write the "methods" section which basically explains how we did the study. A fairly simple task, I think.

With the semester half over, I'm getting really excited.

1) I'm in the application process for a doctorate.
2) There are varying things I'm currently researching.
3) I'm currently assisting with a video game research trial.
4) Life couldn't get any better.

As things begin to solidify more, I'll make sure to post.

Back to school!

Summer is over! And, the university has started it's Fall session. I'm back to teaching and what a blast.

This semester should be filled with a lot of unique opportunities:
- Working on my doctorate applications
- Potentially helping another professor on some projects that will be published
- New Audio Production and Game Level Design courses
- Working on my own game for classroom use

It's amazing how quickly the Summer went. Teaching Summer school and having an international guest was a ton of fun.

Viva 2009-2010 school year!

YIKES!

Time is what we want most, but... what we use worst. ~Willaim Penn

All I can say how true. I thought my guest was coming in on July 21st. I checked the plane tickets yesterday evening and realized the date was really July 20th. I couldn't believe it. I now have 1 day less to get everything ready.

Cleaning the house

I have a friend coming over to my place on the 21st of July. And, my house is a mess. I'm now in the process of cleaning it. (I've avoided this task for 11 months.)

It's going slow, but it is getting done.

The Dick Cavett Show?!?

I woke up incredibly early today and was flipping through the channels on my 13" television. In that journey, I saw an old talk-show. The guest being interviewed was non other than Alfred Hitchcock. The interviewer, Dick Cavett, was a witty questioner.

I've heard of the Dick Cavett Show, but never seen it. The program, for which part I saw, was thoroughly enjoyable.

All I can say is Boooooo :(

I've been working on Apple's Pro Application certification. It's something that I think could help the University and me further my career plans.

On Friday night, I finished the first book and started to look at what it would take to get certified. All I need to find is a Prometrics testing center or an official AATC (Authorized Apple Training Center). For central Texas, the closest AATC is in North Dallas. (About 2 hours away.) For a Prometrics testing center, I need to go to Dallas or Austin. The test must be part testing and the other section looks like it will test out the app.

It'll be a day trip to take the test for the first level. I was hoping that I could quickly go down to the street and test out on the app. Oh well.

I have a scarf :D

When you peruse my site, you will notice a link to my Doctor Who collection. For those who don't know what Doctor Who is, here is a short explanation.....

Doctor Who is a British science fiction television programme produced by the BBC. The program depicts the adventures of a mysterious alien time-traveller known as "the Doctor" who travels in his space and time-ship, the TARDIS, which normally appears from the exterior to be a blue 1950s police box. With his companions, he explores time and space, solving problems, facing monsters and righting wrongs.

It also happens to be the longest running science fiction television in production. It ran from 1963 - 1989, then was picked back up in 2005 and is still produced today.

One doctor in particular used to wear these really long scarves and one my friend offered to knit me one. I jumped at the opportunity and know am a really proud owner of a Doctor Who scarf. A great thanks to the friend. The scarf ROCKS!

I am in technology nirvana

I received an Xbox360 from work and thought, "Sweet! I now have an approved Netflix device." If you don't know, you can connect your Netflix account to a few approved devices: an Xbox360, a Raku video player, an HD Tivo, or any other Series 3 Tivo.

To make a long story short, within 5 minutes, I had my Xbox Live account and a Netflix account and connected them. Now the test was to see how nice the picture looks and how quickly it was to play. For those who don't know, I made a living creating streaming media networks and the media that played on the infrastructure. So, I know about pushing video around the Internet.

"Wow" is all I can say. Netflix, your streaming media is absolutely gorgeous. Now, I can watch a part of the Netflix library on my Xbox360. It is incredible. (Oh yea, and the picture is great, too!)

Today, I slipped in the game Bioshock and was utterly amazed at how nice the picture looks. I've played the every gaming system from the Odyssey to the Wii. When I watched the opening portion and then started to play the game, my mouth dropped open. This system is going to be nice to see how it develops. And, the next gaming platforms from the big gaming companies should be mind blowing.

I love Internet connected devices

I purchased a Nabaztag 2+ years ago. For those who don't know, it is an Internet connected device that is a stylized little rabbit. The current bunny is named, "BunnyPrime."

Since I purchased him, it has been getting the weather for me in the morning, retrieving some basic RSS feeds and stuff like that. Some would consider this boring content. But, it was a great conversation piece and it was worth the $100 I invested into it.

Fast forward to a few days ago... I received a letter from Violet, the French company that makes these bunnies asking me why my other bunny, a replacement rabbit, is not connected. It then went and announced a new website and a few other things. I decided to go to the website and see what else the bunny can do.

While not new, I decided to hook up the Gmail interface. This widget allows the rabbit to read me the subjects of all my new mail. Today, it paid off.

I was sitting in my livingroom playing Oregon Trails. Yes, the old game that I played in elementary school on the venerable Apple II. It was awesome! All of the suddent, my Nabaztag called out that a new message arrived and gave me the subject of the message. Because I was on my PC laptop at the time, I opened a new Firefox window and went to Gmail.

Brilliant. 2+ years and Internet connected devices did something that I found utterly cool and helpful. Congrats Violet! I will now be purchasing more bunnies from you.

That's really neat......

I decided to do nearly nothing over the Easter holiday. For those that know that school I'm teaching at, it means 4 days off. (Yep, an extended holiday set for travel.) Traveling did not really factor into my schedule this weekend. What did happen is I received a cracked Xbox and started to play games. Fable...... done. Half-life 2...... nearly done. A lot of time was spent playing the little black box. On top of everything else, it has a ton of emulators and various early games put on it. It was an early Christmas present.

This also made me want to get a Wii. This is a decision that wasn't made lightly. I've been mulling it around for about 9 months. (Since I left California.) Now, trying to be an educated purchaser sent me to Internet. I searched basic terms like "Wii" and other similar terms and all of the sudden, I found a YouTube video of a guy talking about head tracking using the Wiimote. I just had to watch. If you're interested, the guys name is Johnny Lee and his website is http://www.johnnylee.net.

After a bit of other research, I found some very cool projects that a lot of people are working on. "WoW!" is all I can say. It's amazing what these people are doing.

I'm finally unpacking

I bought this house back in August 2008. I finally began to unpack the other stuff this past week. You know that kind of stuff like video game systems, DVDs and nick-nacks that just get displayed.

The guest room is also in the process of being completed. I brought my grandfather's roll-top desk from Kansas City. It looks great in the space I envisioned for it.

The other thing is I absolutely love the Intermetro shelving units. Who would have known that the shelves I bought 10 years ago would still be used today? All I needed to buy was some shorter legs and now I have the perfect shelves for the living room.

The first part of the year

It has been an interested first few months of 2009.

- Teaching is great.
- I'm finding time to do other projects.
- I'm looking to expand the doctorate programs I'm applying to for the next year.

While it has been difficult at times to move from the San Francisco Bay Area to Waco, TX, it has also been extremely reviving and at times exhilarating.

More on some of these items in a bit.

The holidays are over - Welcome to 2009

Now that I'm back from my holiday travels, I can focus on 2009.

First off, a farewell to the past: Buh-bye. It was fun and I will remember it all.

Now, to the future: Welcome 2009. It will be a fun time to explore all that you are going to bring me.