OtterZero

Catching up...

Mon, 22 Aug 2005 02:50:23 GMT

I didn't realize that it had been months since I last posted. Sheesh, my last post was from right before the conference? Fortunately, that presentation went fine -- the discussion on "The Librarian's Role in Fighting Plagiarism" was pretty lively. It was great to hear a variety of opinions and experiences, especially with regards to anti-plagiarism services like TurnItIn.

Since then, things have been a bit hectic. One of the librarians at my workplace left, and they eliminated the position after he left. Unfortunately, he covered all of the Saturday shifts; after he left, I and the other remaining librarian had to start splitting up the weekend hours. Ugh. So far the division has been fair and equitable, but that still means I'm working every other Saturday, more or less.

Otherwise work has been okay... I'm still teaching some classes on the side, which uses up more time, but trades it for money and experience. Fortunately I've been keeping up with the Pride Center game nights and the Saturday game days, so we've been able to use our free time pretty effectively.

I should run for now... time to catch up on some grading and some Family Guy....

Workshop jitters

Thu, 06 Jan 2005 04:54:06 GMT

Sheesh... I'm kinda nervous tonight, because I'm giving a presentation at a conference tomorrow. I've done this sort of thing before, but this time I'm doing one in front of other actual librarians, so I'm more nervous about it than usual. Which is strange, because I'm not particularly scared of other librarians.

Tomorrow or Friday I'll report back on how it went. Til then....

Back to my web journal...

Mon, 03 Jan 2005 03:17:12 GMT

Since it's a new year, and I've been telling myself that I should be getting back into keeping my journal (and I'm putting off a few hours worth of grading), I thought I'd do a quick post. Quite a bit to catch up on since last time... whenever that was.

2004 was a good year overall, but it certainly had its ups and downs. The good stuff included buying a house with my partner, getting a dog, and generally settling down a bit. I'll talk about that stuff in a later post. Til then, it's back to grading...

Catching up online...

Mon, 04 Oct 2004 02:16:32 GMT

Okay, so I haven't used my journal in a while. Last time I posted, my partner and I were in the process of buying a house, and it was... complicated, to say the least. We eventually got everything sorted out, and moved to our new place in August.

Since then, things have been pretty good. The house is a lot more work than the apartments I've had in the past, but it feels good to know that I won't have to figure out where to live when my lease runs out (as I experienced many times, moving from apartment to apartment in New Brunswick.) The commute is a bit longer... and a reminder that I really need to get a car.

I didn't do much else this summer, and didn't even take a proper vacation... but we had regular game days, and a few folks over at the house over Labor Day. One downer was that my PC broke during the move, but I ordered a new one, and had some friends set me up and get the old hard drive installed, so I didn't lose any files. Woo hoo!

Hopefully I'll get back into regular LJ posting again. Til next time...

Off to a game con...

Fri, 30 Apr 2004 21:57:12 GMT

Well, vilhelm and I are off to a gaming Con shortly -- the Gazebo of Games. (More info available at http://www.wildgazebo.com/) We're actually going to be volunteering there as well -- a few hours tonight, a few hours here and there tomorrow. This will allow us to get comped for the registration fee, and I always like volunteering anyway, so it should be fun.

Lots of miscellaneous news, some rather significant, some rather good. Ironically, it seems like the busier and more eventful my life, the less I post. I'll try to catch up on that later... or, at the very least, I'll try to post more details about gaming events we'll be attending/hosting.

I'll catch up later... til then....

Summing up since the last entry

Tue, 02 Mar 2004 04:13:27 GMT

The last few months have been hectic, but generally good. I finished up my first teaching experience -- adjuncting-teaching a four month, college-level class at my workplace -- and handed in my grades this past Friday. Overall, that was a good experience; when I'm a bit more inclined, I should write an entry about my first-time teaching observations and all that.

My partner and I have been continuing to hold game days, which has been fun... but slightly stressful. Our main concern is that we could really use a better venue; sometimes our regular spot, the Panera's Bakery, is packed to the gills, even at 2pm. I'm happy that our game days have been sort of taking on a life of their own... that is, some of the folks that regularly come to the events have expressed a willingness to keep them running in our absence. I feel better knowing that these events don't depend on me as the sole motivating force.

So why haven't I been posting? Mainly it's because there's been a lot of cracking down on web usage at my workplace. A lot of sites (mostly video game and streaming media sites) are now blocked, and it's possible for the IT department to check up on our surfing. While I'm not particularly explicit in this journal, there's still enough personal stuff here than I'm not keen about anyone in my professional life reading it.

For years, work has been where I always do my journal entries... I find that I probably do more reflection there, even when it's busy, than I do at home. Kind of a strange observation, but there may be some truth to it...

Well, I'm off to bed for now. Since we're in the midst of our trimester break, I have to work 8:30am to 5:00pm each day, rather than my all-over-the-place schedule, the one I'm used to. I just have to make sure I don't get too used to this. Until next time....

Game Day update and February plans

Fri, 06 Feb 2004 14:37:18 GMT

Hey all,

Wow... our Panera's game days are getting pretty popular! Our last two turnouts were 15 and 12 people, I believe, with three concurrent games both days. Recently we've played Settlers of Catan, Puerto Rico, Modern Art, Ra, Traders of Genoa, Mare Nostrum, Kahuna, Button Men, and at least three or four other games I can't remember at the moment. We may need to find a bigger space soon!

For the month of February, I know we had trouble finding a day that everyone was free, so we thought about "splitting" the event into two days. That way, someone who's not free on one day can make the other... or, if someone is free both days, they can hit both (but shouldn't feel obligated to -- we're gonna be at Panera's anyway.)

So... how about Feb 14th and Feb 28th, at the Panera's on Rt. 1, starting at 2pm?

If anyone would like more info or to make suggestions for future game days, please drop me a reply. Thanks!

Til next time...

Game Day this Saturday!

Wed, 28 Jan 2004 19:07:47 GMT

Since I haven't figured out a really good Game Day date for February, and the weather this week is so crappy, vilhelm and I and a few others thought, why not have another January game day? :)

We'll be hosting another Game Day at the Panera's on Rt. 1 in North Brunswick this Saturday, January 31st, 2004, starting around 2pm and running until sometime around 6pm to 8pm. It's a fairly informal event (just us at the back of Panera's again) so feel free to stop by -- just look for the gamers in the back.

As usual, we'll bring lots of games, but please bring anything you'd like to play. Hope to see you there!

Upcoming Game Day

Sat, 10 Jan 2004 15:40:41 GMT

Hey all,

We're holding another Board/Strategy Game Day next weekend! Here are the details:

Date: Saturday, January 17th
Location: The Panera's on Rt. 1 South in North Brunswick
(Same complex as the Bed Bath and Beyond and Barnes and Noble)
Time: 2:00pm-on (usually until somewhere between 6:00pm and 8:00pm)

We're probably going to be playing at least a few games, including Mare Nostrum and, probably, Puerto Rico. Feel free to bring any games you might want us to play. No charge or anything, but the Panera's people seem to like it when we buy stuff there :)

Feel free to drop me a reply if you would like more info.

Mon, 29 Dec 2003 06:35:21 GMT

Whew... back from making the rounds of visiting the relatives for the holidays. I've been away from my apartment since X-mas eve, which was... okay, only a few days ago, but I still missed my place and my stuff and myself. I never feel like myself around my family. Overall it was a good holiday, though. No drama, I didn't get sick, etc.

I should really get to bed, but I'm wired now that I have proper Internet access again. I have to work tomorrow... I should go to bed... or at least do something useful online (rather than looking for random cartoon opening themes in alltheweb.com's audio search...) So much email to catch up on...

Gotta go for now. Til next time...

Miscellaneous update, and an interesting essay about geekfolk

Thu, 18 Dec 2003 04:24:34 GMT

Not too much to report in recent days. There were a few really snowy days, which were kind of annoying, since a lot of plans got cancelled, and I missed a completely-free weekend of hanging out with vilhelm. Instead we just hung around our respective abodes and chatted periodically throughout the day. Not quite the same thing :/

Work has been okay. An event that I was helping to plan fell through and had to be postpone, but it wasn't for lack of planning on my part. I left a chunk of the responsibility in someone else's hands, and they dropped the ball. Not much I can do about it; it's disappointing, but I don't think anyone is placing the blame on me. And it's a pretty minor deal in the grand scheme of things.

Via the journal of astrophysicat, I was introduced to an online essay titled, "The Five Geek Social Fallacies." It's online at:

http://www.plausiblydeniable.com/opinion/gsf.html

It expains so much... of the drama in my life... since 1991 or so :) And I'm not blameless of any of these faults myself.

Freaking out over Hamlet? Weird.

Thu, 04 Dec 2003 19:08:58 GMT

Last night I had trouble sleeping because of a recurring nightmare. In it, I was helping prepare for a presentation of the play Hamlet. A few hours before the first show, someone asked me if I was ready to deliver my lines. I was suddenly reminded that, not only was I helping to set up for the show, but I'd agreed to play the lead role. I panicked, realizing I only had a matter of hours to memorize my lines.

I think this dream was a reflection of how I get worried sometimes that I'll freeze when I'm in front of my class -- that I won't know what to say next. It's kind of ironic that I'd have that dream this week, though, since I'm bringing my class to the library tonight for a presentation I've delivered dozens of times. Ah, well, I never said my brain did logical things.

For some reason, the nightmare has stuck with me, however. I think it re-occured last night, but just didn't wake me up. Today I was thinking about it in more detail, about what it would be like to be up on stage, with no idea whatsoever what to say.

I was trying to think of a way to get my brain to stop obsessing over this (although it'll probably go away naturally in a day or two)... and actually thought to myself this morning, "well, I could always just memorize the lines ahead of time in the real world." Knowing the lines would indeed dispel the nightmare, I suppose, but it's kind of a strange way to deal with a problem that doesn't actually exist.

Sometimes I wish I had a much stronger barrier between waking life and dream life. Ah well, til next time....

On holidays and spending

Tue, 02 Dec 2003 02:32:31 GMT

While my librarian job certainly has its frustrating moments, it has its high points as well. While I have to work two nights a week, I usually spend the last hour of those nights searching for books to add to the collection. And it's not even technically slacking! Woo hoo! It almost makes those college and grad school education debts seem worthwhile.

An even better feeling is when I find a book that I want to add to the collection, so I can read it... and it's already there! Case in point: The Overspent American: Upscaling, Downshifting, and the New Consumer by Juliet B. Schor. Admittedly, I just got it off the shelf now, so I will withhold any sort of editorial review. However, I'm happy to have found it, since consumerism is the main topic crowding my mind right now.

Why? Probably because I spent Black Friday (the shopping day immediately after Thanksgiving here in the US) with relatives, watching the news most of the day. And what was the big news? People were shopping! Woo hoo! In droves! And the sales were great!

And I had to ask myself... why is this news? Why is the media covering this? Why are viewers lapping it up? Fine, let them discuss how this day is an economic indicator, but do otherwise sane journalists really have to broadcast from WalMart to talk about the great deals?

The other reason this is on my mind is that, for the first time in my life, I really want to get away from the whole consumer aspect of the season. Not only do I not want anything, but I'd sort of rather not buy anything for anyone else, either. Not out of miserly selfishness, but because I really don't want to keep this cycle of buying and spending going. I don't want to be a participant, and I don't want to drag others into it along with me.

Fortunately I have a partner who feels the same way... or, more correctly, has probably felt this way for some time. For the holiday, we're getting each other clothes and maybe some other necessities, but otherwise tucking money away towards the possibility of getting a house next year. Even better, my family is not even doing a Secret Santa thing -- we're just buying for the kids, and that's it. (So I get to buy my nephews and nieces the cool boardgames that they don't sell in the toy stores. That sort of shopping I enjoy -- getting them creative games they wouldn't otherwise be exposed to.)

So why am I rambling about this? Why is this on my mind? It's just that, despite the similar feelings of my partner and family, I'm finding it hard to escape the feelings of the rest of society. I've had problems with spending too much in the past, especially in college and graduate school. It's tempting for me, when faced with a rough day, to want to pop on an online bookstore or games store and think about buying something. Looking at things like the Tech-bargains sites cheer me up once in a while.

Perhaps it's a childish notion, but I'd like to have a model of non-consumerism to support my own escape from this cycle. Religious figures quickly jump to mind, but there's too many things about those that conflict with my own notions. I just wish... I don't know, that there was a holiday special about people saying, screw this, why are we letting material things make us happy? Technically there are a few holiday specials like that, but don't they all just get all the loot at the end anyway? Or maybe give all the loot to the needy. Consumer goods as a gift to the poor. I've always found that odd. "You're poor, so here are toys for your children." I support the spirit of the thing, but toys don't change economic status.

Maybe I should look into Kwanzaa... yeah, not exactly a tradition for an Irishman, but I like the idea of a holiday with ceremonies marking things like Self-Determination, Collective Work, and Cooperative Economics. Maybe I'll just tuck those ideas away with the bits and pieces I've salvaged from other religious traditions or holidays.

I am so rambling right now. Anyway, time for me to wrap this rant up.

Rant over *grin*. I'm going to start reading the book tonight, so maybe I'll be reflecting on these sorts of issues later. Til next time....

On unfriending

Sun, 30 Nov 2003 15:01:57 GMT

It had to happen sometime, right? I mean, this is LiveJournal. Someone finally posted the big, "I have too many friends, I have to thin out my friends list" post, I checked and... I'm gone! Poof!

It's kind of a weird situation. I feel as though this person holds me responsible for us drifting away. But this is the same person who left the mailing list I was using to announce stuff we're doing, and who pretty much ignores my replies in their journal...

So it's just weird. This should probably be a private post, but I don't feel like making it one. This kind of makes me think of, of all things, Star Trek: Deep Space Nine. There was an episode where two characters decide to have this Bajoran ritual where, basically, two people decide to stop being friends and become strangers again. Sometimes I wonder if something like that wouldn't actually be a pretty valuable thing... to at least give some closure to things. At least that had a sense of mutual agreement, though. LJ unfriending feels like someone saying, I no longer have any interest in what's going on in your life.

I'm not taking the other person off my list, yet. I actually care about what's going on in that person's life. They'll just be spared my tales of game days and adjunct teaching. Um... yeah, so they're not missing too much :)

So, life goes on. This is obviously on my mind or I wouldn't post about it, but I'll deal.

Oh, wait! I should go see if... gasp!... I'm also off this person's Friendster list! *grin* So, til next time....

Brainstorming thanks, and game group observations

Thu, 20 Nov 2003 13:12:41 GMT

First, a thank you to all the folks that sent me brainstorming-activity suggestions. I still haven't picked one, but now I have a lot more options to choose from. The exercises in the class textbook are laaaaaaame by comparison.

Second, I've been thinking a bit recently about responsibility -- not at work, where I think I have that worked out, but rather at the game events that I started last year, along with my partner vilhelm. We started a third-Tuesday-of-the-month game night at the local Pride Center, because we wanted that sort of group to exist, and no one else was running it. More recently we expanded to a second day per month, a Saturday strategy games day. While that originally started as an offshoot of the Pride Center, we moved it to a local coffeeshop/bakery and it gradually became an event without any specific orientation, so to speak. (Not that I haven't had straight friends go the games days at the Pride Center, but I understand that other straight folks might feel weird going there, not out of homophobia but perhaps for fear of intruding.)

Things have been going pretty smoothly, but recently a few people pointed out that I haven't been too good about planning days far enough in advance, nor keeping people informed about the events. I've also realized that I probably should have been inviting more people to the game days and nights. It's kind of just sinking in that I'm really the key person for these things, and I have to take it a bit more seriously.

This is kind of a change for me -- I'm used to gaming being a much more freeform thing, as ariadnesthread can attest to from our college days :) Now that I'm outside that whole system of colleges and dorms and constant access to gamers, there's more to plan and set up. Who knew that setting up a day of fun could be so much work? Okay, well, not *that* much work. Just something that's been on my mind this week, mainly because our game night at the Pride Center went pretty well... and some of the attendees were clamoring for more days per month. Sheesh.

Anyway, I'm rambling, and need to get back to work. Til next time,

-- Bill

Yet another post! Regarding my Yahoo Group.

Tue, 18 Nov 2003 20:03:03 GMT

Hey all,

Sheesh, I don't think I've ever posted this much to the group in one day. Kind of a quiet day at work, I guess.

Just wanted to get word out (although I think quite a few folks already know) about a Yahoo group that my and my partner vilhelm started a while back to keep people informed about events that we'll be running and/or attending. The URL for the group is:

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/TheBills/

One bit of advice: there tends to be a good bit of back-and-forth regarding the scheduling of game days, so you may want to set it to "digest" email notification, or no-emails (and then just check the group periodically for updates.)

If interested, check it out and request an invite. And don't be afraid to post things along the lines of, "hey! when's the next event?" if I get a bit lazy about posting....

Request for "Brainstorming Exercise" ideas

Tue, 18 Nov 2003 19:27:27 GMT

Hey all,

My posts usually aren't of the "help!" variety, but I could use some input...

For my class this Thursday, I want to do some sort of group exercise to demonstrate the value of brainstorming. I have about 20 students and 45 minutes to an hour for this particular activity.

Any advice? Suggestions? A lot of the stuff I've found so far is just of the "find fifty other uses for a teabag!" variety.

Thanks ;)

Miscellaneous update

Tue, 18 Nov 2003 01:25:31 GMT

Grumble... achy... at work. I helped my friend Ray move into his new place this weekend (along with six or so other friends) and am just now feeling the aches and pains. Yesterday I got to veg out in front of the TV (Specifically, the PS2 and "Monster Rancher 4") but today I actually had to get up and commute and all that. If nothing else, this'll spur me to get a bit more serious about working out. (So that, um, the next time I help friends move, I won't be as sore afterwards?...)

Not much else new at the moment. Work is okay, although I still need to come up with a non-cheesy brainstorming exercise for my class this Thursday.

More game days coming up... Pride Center Game Night on Tuesday, generic Strategy Game stuff on Saturday. I got a few angry emails from people asking me why I never advertise... darnit, why do I have to be the one to organize these things, when I'm so bad at keeping in touch with people? Sheesh. But, if I didn't try to get people together for game stuff, well, these things wouldn't happen on their own.

Other miscellaneous holiday and family events on the near horizon, but nothing worth getting too much into. I'm just looking forward to the holidays being over and Spring and Summer arriving not too long thereafter, I think. Ah, well... til next time...

Off to teach again, week 2

Thu, 13 Nov 2003 23:05:43 GMT

Again, off to teach in a few minutes. Week two... week one went well, but now I have to do more teacherly things. I'm also being sort of mean and starting off with a "pop quiz" of essentially unanswerable stumpers... which, weirdly enough, ties in directly with my lesson plan for the day, which is to talk about how you need to analyze a question/problem before you begin solving it. After testing the quiz on my co-workers, though, I realize that I'm going to have to stress, at the beginning, that I'm not grading it... or else some of the students might freak out. Sheesh.

So, here I go. Til next time...

Update on my class; brief Lollagazebo report

Tue, 11 Nov 2003 20:47:47 GMT

My class last Thursday night went quite well, actually. Some boring administrative stuff, followed by an icebreaker that went unusually well, then some brain-teaser type stuff related to the problem-solving chapters in the textbook.

This week is when things get a bit more complicated. Last week was almost fun, but now I have to start introducing gradable assignments and activities in the class. I have to provide opportunities for the students to fail and/or excel. This is when things start to get, well, less fun. Or perhaps, more... mwah ha ha!

Didn't have a chance to post over the weekend due to the fact that I was at Lollagazebo almost the entire time. It was fun, although some of the games I would like to play weren't there, or didn't take place. I may do an LJ-cut Con report later, but I'm not giving my word on that, since I've been unreliable about these sorts of things in the past.

Other than the class and the Con, nothing else significant to report. So, til next time....

T-minus 20 minutes...

Thu, 06 Nov 2003 23:10:43 GMT

In 20 minutes, I begin teaching my first college class. I am very well prepared for it, know all the procedures, have backup plans in case things don't go well, extra work in case they go too well...

I'm darn nervous. From my experience teaching bibliographic instruction classes in the library, I'm fairly certain that this nervousness will fade the moment I enter the classroom. Once I do that, I'll feel... well, like a professor.

But for now, the suspense is killing me!

I think I may go up to my class a little early, just to see if there are any students there early (the class starts at 6:30pm.)

I'll post an account of the class later. Maybe I'll catch up on other recent events as well, including UberCon and some other gaming stuff.

Til then... here goes!...

Miscellaneous update

Thu, 16 Oct 2003 19:47:04 GMT

I haven't posted in a while... but then, not too much has been happening. Work has been pretty hectic, since it's the end of the trimester; we're currently in week 14 of 15. I like this time of year because there's so much to do, and the days go quickly. I'm not too fond of the break week between trimesters, so I'm taking a few days off during the lull.

I need that break, because I need to chill out and prepare for the Critical Thinking class that I'll be teaching on Thursday nights, starting on November 6th. It's essentially an intro class for new students, to teach them about working in teams, using the library, being critical about sources, etc. It's sort of a vague course, but if I get even a few students to be more savvy about where they find their information, I'll consider it to be worth it.

Besides, I get to make the students do puzzles. And team role-playing (a la, "you're stuck in a collapsed building, what do you do?") It's kind of like forcing other people to have my hobbies! Mwah ha ha! How cool is that?

In addition to the class, I've got two New Jersey gaming cons coming up: UberCon this weekend, and Lollgazebo in November. I'm looking forward to both; I like Cons that are local enough that I can head back to my own place at the end of the night, you know? GenCon this summer was nice, but sort of exhausting.

Not too much else going on at the moment. I'll probably update after this weekend with an UberCon report, but no promises... I never did finish a proper report on GenCon....

Engrish + LOTR = Me rolling on floor...

Tue, 14 Oct 2003 03:05:05 GMT

Not sure if this is making the rounds online, just found it...

http://public.planetmirror.com/pub/engrish/ttt_captions/index.htm

Apparently it's screencaps of the "English" subtitles of a bootleg copy of Two Towers. Some good stuff in there :)

Updates on gaming, work, and such

Thu, 09 Oct 2003 00:30:02 GMT

I'm listing my mood as "cranky" mainly because I'm still at work, when I'd much rather be home. I'm working til 10pm, then opening tomorrow morning at 7:30am. I am starting to get a wee bit concerned with just how "flexible" my schedule is these days, particularly in light of how my schedule at my previous employer kept getting worse and worse...

Other than my work schedule being randomly generated on the fly (well, by week, at least), things are going pretty well. We've got a few game days and gaming Cons slated for the next few months, and pretty soon I'll be spending some extra money earned from subbing for classes on some new additions to the game collection, woot! I just wish that some of these really cool, new, interesting boardgames that are coming out weren't 40 bucks and upwards. I'd sort of like to get the new version of the board game Talisman, but it's 75 bucks! Sheesh.

I have to admit that recently I've been spending too much time playing video games. With games like Soul Calibur 2, Final Fantasy Tactics Advance, and Disgaea: Hour of Darkness beckoning from my collection, it's hard to stay focused on much else. I'm ascribing this level of game addiction to the fact that I'll start teaching a Thursday night class, starting in a few weeks. In other words, this is sort of like my summer vacation -- time to squeeze in a high level of escapism before other responsibilities appear.

I'm hoping to do a few random reviews soon. I'm almost halfway through watching the anime series .hack//SIGN and reading the GameEarth series of fantasy novels by Kevin J. Anderson. One is about people who find vicarious love, responsibility, surrogate families, intrigue, and reward in playing a multiplayer online RPG; the other is about a group of pen-and-paper RPGers, one of whom struggles to end their mythos while the other fight to keep it going. In both cases, the plots are complicated by the fact that the games seem to be developing their own identities, wills to survive, and goals. I'm curious to see how each turn out. Expect an LJ-cut dual-review at some point, as I've done in the past. If there's one thing I love rambling about, it's the nature of games...

Until next time...

Back to LiveJournal...

Tue, 30 Sep 2003 01:20:34 GMT

I haven't been posting for a while, possibly because I don't like the new layout of the main page, or possibly because my life hasn't been terribly exciting recently. Not that it's usually a whirlwind of activity, but still...

Things have been good the last few weeks. I spent a few weekends helping various family members with moving and cleaning, and then spent the last few weekends doing stuff for myself. This past weekend, vilhelm and myself had another game day thing at the local Panera's. I was worried that the manager would be upset with us, but we asked, and he was okay with us taking up a few tables for Settlers of Catan and Puerto Rico and Modern Art and other games... probably since we kept buying stuff. It was a mutually beneficial relationship, I suppose.

Nothing else too exciting. A few weeks ago, when just vilhelm and myself were at Panera's, an older guy sat next to us and started drawing a picture of me. I was so weirded out that I sent the hint that I wanted to get out of there, quick. Then later I sort of regretted it, because now I'll never know what the motive for my portrait was... was it harmless? cruisy? threatening? Am I inspirational? I had someone else draw a picture of me at Starbucks years ago, but that time it was just a bored art student. Ah, well.

Til next time...