Author: steppek

I realize I don’t read nearly enough. By nearly enough, I mean, almost zero. I read mind you…in the sense I read code and things on the internet. That said, I am wanting to expand.

I have read the Lord of the Rings. Hitchhikers Guide, some Star Wars books, and 7th Son (shout out to +J.C. Hutchins ), and Infected (shout out to +Scott Sigler ) however I am looking for more.

I asked my G+ followers for a list of reading recommendations for myself based on some of the things I read before (listed above). I will be reading these during 2011 and posting my thoughts here on my blog and on G+. Perhaps a virtual book club is in order with Google Hangouts.

Here is the list of what I got.

• The Stand: Stephen King
• The Shining: Stephen King
• Salom’s Lot: Stephen King
• Pilgrim at Tinker’s Creek: Annie Dillard
• Double Dead : +Chuck Wendig
• Down and Out in the Magic Kingdom: Cory Doctorow
• Going Solo: Roald Dahl
• Inheritance Cycle: Christopher Paolini
• Wheel of Time: Robert Jordan
• Vorkosigan Saga: Lois McMaster Bujold
• Snow Crash: Neal Stephenson’s
• Good Omens: Terry Pratchett and Neil Gaimen
• Ender’s Game: Orson Scott Card
• Jennifer Government: Max Barry
• Last Chance To See: Douglas Adams
• Dirk Gently, Holistic Detective Agency: Douglas Adams
• Good plan: +Nikolai Tkachenko
• Foundation Series: Issac Asimov
• Dune: Frank Herbert
• The Past Through Tomorrow: Robert A. Heinlein
• A Canticle for Leibowitz: Walkter Miller (Avoid Sequel)

Also Recommendations for any works from the following:

• Terry Goodkind’s works
• Cory Doctorow’s works
• +Paul Cooley’s works
• Max Barry’s works
• Neal Stephenson’s works
• Philip K. Dick’s works

Want to follow along? Watch my blog and other places for posts. Got something to add to the list? leave a comment.

My mother will gift my son and other kids in the family with books when it comes to birthdays or Christmas, which is fine by my wife and I. My son reads a good bit already, so books are welcome. However, it is pretty evident that not everyone does read or appreciate books as much as they should.

Recently, my son had a friend over to had out one afternoon and my wife had told them that they couldn’t play on electronics the whole time, but had to do something else. A little while later my wife checked in on them and they had several books open and sprawled out on the floor, with notebooks and drawings, as they were planning on how to Survive a Zombie Attack!

My wife emailed my mother to tell her how much her books are appreciated here and how they were used that one particular day, and this is the reply my mother gave.

I can’t thank you enough for sharing this story.  The reason I like to give the boys books is that they meant so much to me as a child.  We didn’t have money to buy books but I used the school and later the children’s libraries as my sources.  I can’t recall my parents ever taking me to a library or a book store but I had wonderful teachers who inspired me.  I think I would be a very different person if I hadn’t had books back then.  I became extremely curious and envious of the world outside my experience.  I found beauty when there was precious little in the mill village where we lived and I was able to participate in someone else’s imagination, which still is an insatiable hunger in me.  So, to make a long story short, I would have loved owning books when I was a child and I think every child should own them whether they choose to read them or not.  (Books are not just objects but ideas!!)

By the way, the friend that was over admittedly doesn’t read much, however his mother called the next day to get the titles of the books they were using because he wanted to go to the store and get them too.

Today I logged into my Facebook account and I see that when I went to the messages area I was  greeted with a pop-up that said that Facebook now offers email addresses. It prompted me to set up my email address and they took a guess that I wanted my email at Facebook to match my username.

I tested it out and it worked well, and was fast. I see options for reporting something as Spam, Deleting, etc…just as you would come to expect for an email account. Facebook also pointed out that under Messages there is an ‘other’ folder. This seems to be a container for other messages like notifications from Groups and announcements.

I’m not so sure I need another email address.I am pretty sold on my Gmail account and have had it for years now…but I guess it could come in handy at some point. Anyone else see this?

Update: Apparently this isn’t new. I just don’t check my Facebook Messages page often enough to know that this was new to me. 🙂 That is what I get for using my Phone more than the website.

These are my talks that I did at Create South 2011. I know I told everyone that I would have these posted by the end of the day on Saturday when Create South was over, however with the storm that blew through Myrtle Beach  that night it made the hotel Internet act up so I am posting these today.

Photography Hacks [link]
Additional links for this talk

• String Tripod
• DIY – Create Your Own Bokeh
• Studio Lighting – DIY Cheap Soft Light Panel Frame Designed for Flash (or hotlight)
• Bokeh Video “From on High” mentioned during Talk
• A DIY Black Rapid R-Strap or Black Rapid Website
  

WordPress: Security and Backup [link]
Links from this Talk

• WordPress Database Backup – Austin Matzko’s Blog
• WordPress Backup
• WordPress API Salt for your wp-config.php file
• Block Bad Queries (BBQ) Plugins
• Ultimate Security Checker WordPress Plugin

Today I turn 42. Not really a big deal in the grand scheme of things. Just a year older than last year. I still feel the same as when I did when I was 40, 30, even 20 something still to a degree. I don’t think I have changed a whole lot, I still get excited that I can buy a six pack of beer.

Age hasn’t really bothered me before…actually that isn’t *entirely* true. When I turned 30 I thought things had peaked, but in reality it was just the page turning and another chapter of “The Big Adventure”. I bought my first house and got married at 32, had a son at 33, bought my first real new car (I never shied away from used.), helped run my first new business, and eventually got a new full time job. It seems that every year has had its challenges.

I didn’t think much of 40 but now as 42 is here I can’t help but focus on the number and I know why. It’s because of the Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy. It is one of my favorite series of books and in the story the number 42 has a significant part, and now that I am turning 42 that number is sticking in my head. That said, as I am trying not to think of my age, people also like to point it out. I guess its an attempt to feel better about their own chronological disorder, and say “it’s not how old you are, it’s how young you feel.” Well, I still feel young and stupid, so let’s see how far that gets me.

Time marches on, and me along with it and that is okay. I wouldn’t say I was worried, or scared about the future or even death…more like weighted concerned. There is still a lot to be discovered, and a lot to still get excited about.

Today we had the Pinewood Derby Races for Pack 205 and it was a huge success. Someone likened it to Christmas. There is a huge buildup to the big event and after it is over there is a void, and you are exhausted. It didn’t go off without it’s glitches though.

On the Friday night before racing everyone is told to bring in their cars. They are weighed and impounded for night. Afterwards, all the names of racers are put into the software that runs the track so on Saturday morning at 9am the track is ready to run. Well….after check-in about 9pm Friday it was discovered that the track software wasn’t installed on any machine and even less, not tested. Of course any IT pro will know that this is a perfect storm for everything *not* to work.

Turns out things didn’t. I don’t know if the software didn’t work because of hotfixes or patches to Windows over the year, but after a few hours and a search for a new track management package things were working once again. It had a couple of glitches, but overall it worked well. I have to give Jason Jones and Jim Smith credit, since I really had nothing to do with all that.

Aside from the software issues I think that all the kids had a good time. Everyone was in good spirits and good winners and losers. Even our Pack Master told me that for once he didn’t feel stressed and was able to enjoy himself, and why not.

My son did pretty well also, during Friday nights check-in some kids gave him complements on his car and a couple even dug the “Mario” characters he drew freehand on the side of it. Somehow I even managed to make the car perform a little. He got a close third (close to second) in his heat, and of course got a 3rd place ribbon. He was happy, and that is all that matters.

Well almost all. 🙂 I got 1st place in every run of my heats against the other parents. Now I didn’t really build my car to beat anyone, I just enjoying making them. It is kinda sweet for me because when I was in scouts, I got 3rd place. Still have the ribbon to prove it. My Dad still tells me to this day that I *should* have had 1st. We re-ran the race and it was close, but of course the judge’s kid and a friend of theirs got 1st and 2nd. Dad didn’t argue it figuring it wouldn’t really do any good if that is the way they want to run things. Besides, I barely remember the race, but I do remember building the car with my Dad and that is all that mattered.