Why am I excited for gDrive?

The past few days have once again been filled with rumors (here and here for example) and rumblings about the possible release of the long anticipated gDrive.  Google has been rumored to be working on a cloud storage imitative for quite a while, and every so often it becomes the big buzz.

I am hopeful that we are indeed pushing closer to a storage offering from Google.  There are a few things that I would really like to see in an offering from Google.

• I am currently using S3 via Jungle Disk to provide an cheap online backup of most of my most important files.  Primarily I am backing up my pictures and videos that I cannot replace.  I do also create backups of various household documents.  I am hopeful that Google will allow me to save all of these types of files.  I would really like to see Google allow me to encrypt the data in some areas of my gDrive like I can on S3.  I encrypt the sensitive files in my account, but less sensitive files like pictures are not.
• I would like to see a better pricing structure than Google currently offers.  I would really love to see an Amazon like pay for what you use structure.
• I have a lot of faith in the system that Amazon has created, I am hopeful to see a nicely redundant storage mechanism from Google.  I really want to feel just as confident in the Google system as I do in the S3 system.
• One thing that SkyDrive has going for it today is that it has a nice set of sharing tools.  Dropbox also has some nice sharing tools.  I am very hopeful that Google will do the same thing. 
• I want to be able to easily host files for my blog, currently with Blogger, on my GDrive.  It would be cool if the browse button in Blogger went directly to my gDrive.
• One requirement I have for this service is that I want to pay for it.  If they want to offer a limited set of functionality and space to people for free that is great, but if they want to create a system that will really work, that will really make people think of cloud storage and cloud computing in a new way then they need to charge for the service.  I would need about 120 gb of space if I was to transfer my backup and some main storage to Google today.  That would cost me about $200 a year from Google today.  That is a little higher than the storage on Amazon.  I would love to see Google come down on the price some more, and offer the flexible space as I mentioned above.
• I really like the idea of the music player that Sugar Sync has.  Google should include lots of web based media viewing/playing options.
• Lastly, I want to map my gDrive to a letter in Windows.  I want this to be an option available from Google, not a third party.

Looking at the list above it kinda seems like I should stick with S3, but let me lay out why I am so excited for it to be a gDrive that I use.

1. Integration.  This is the key.  I am already heavily invested in Gmail, Google Reader, Blogger, Google Docs, Google Talk, even Google Bookmarks.  GDrive can and should enhance each of those existing tools.   If gDrive rolls out without the integration it needs with the other Google services it will be a shame.  They should keep it behind closed doors until at least Gmai, Docs, and Blogger have integration.
2. Contact Access.  On the sharing point above, I have my primary contacts in Gmail.  Sharing becomes a lot easier when I can use my existing contact list to share.  This is a big stumbling block for me today with other services.
3. Picture Access.  This one is a tough one for me.  I am currently a huge fan of Flickr.  However, if gDrive would allow me to share any picture I had backed up to the servers via Picasa that might be a good reason to change.  One of the features i like about the Light Room software I just bought is the ability to auto backup files at the same time they are removed from my memory card.  This could equate to access shortly thereafter on gDrive and via Picasa.  That could be very useful for me in terms of sharing pictures with family and friends who don’t care to wait for the cleaned up pictures that make it to Flickr.  It would also allow me to focus my Flickr uploads more on the photographs I really like.
4. Mobile Access.  I have no illusions that Android and iPhone devices will be treated to a custom app sooner than my poor little Blackberry Storm, but even without the custom applications the Google tools work quite well on my Storm.  However, the ability to send a Gmail message from my Storm with an attachment from gDrive would be all kinds of awesome.

I am hopeful that we will see an announcement soon from Google on this.  I am hopeful that they have already done everything above just the way I would want it.  Are you excited about the prospect of a Google storage drive?  What are your thoughts on cloud storage and cloud computing in general.

4e Character Builder & Windows 7

One of the new features on Windows 7 is the way the start menu works.  Some applications have an arrow next to them in the start menu, and when you hover on them they start menu changes to show you things like recently opened files.  I was surprised to notice today that the beta of the Dungeons & Dragons character builder works with this new feature.  Makes for a very fast access to your most recently used characters.

A day at PhotoCampHouston

Yesterday was the first Houston PhotoCamp, an unconference dedicated to photographers of all types.  My primary goals in attending were to learn a bit more about the basics of photography, learn how people were organizing their pictures on their PC’s, get a some tips and tricks on Macro photography, and to learn a bit more about my flash.

I had mixed results in my goals, but I had a great time and learned a great deal.  I wanted to mention a couple of sessions/things in particular that stand out from the day.  Before I get into that discussion though, I wanted to give a shout out to Ben Bailey and say thanks for saying hi yesterday.  Ben introduced himself as a  reader of my blog, and I thought that was totally awesome that someone “knew” me from the blog.

Photocamp started for me, like many people with Elaine Meskers' discussion of TtV or Through the Viewfinder photography.  I was blown away by how cool this was, and more importantly how awesome the photographs turn out.  What is TtV photography?  The idea is that you take an old camera, typically a camera designed for waist from the 1950’s, and you shoot through the viewfinder of the old camera with your SLR.  You need to create a tube to get a dark area between your lens and the old viewfinder.  You can use a box or tube of pretty much any type, and can find templates for creating a cardboard box online.  Taking pictures in this way works best with a macro lens.  The old cameras, preferably a bit on the grimy side, can be purchased on Ebay or from thrift stores.

It was a really great presentation, filled with all the info you need.  A copy is available on Slideshare, and embedded below.  The image above is my first try at TtV photography.  I recommend looking at the presentation for a collection of great links on the subject.

I attended three sessions throughout the day dealing with software for managing photographs on a PC.  It was pretty obvious that if you were a Windows user you had one choice for the software you should be using and that was Adobe LightRoom.  I think that Jeremey Barrett’s presentation on RAW photography and the associated workflow opened my eyes to actually having a workflow.  I currently suffer from lack of a workflow, and end up with a bunch of photographs just sitting in a pile.  The most important thing I learned in the sessions on Lightroom and photo processing workflow was that LightRoom is non-destructive to your pictures.  I have destroyed pictures in the past be accidently cropping or modifying the primary copy of a photo, and then saving before I realized that I had not made a copy.  Lightroom is expensive at $300 and does have a pretty big learning curve for me, but it does handle the photo process from import to export, from metadata to print.  You can find a copy of Jeremey’s presentation on Slideshare as well.

I enjoyed all of the presentations I attended, and thank each of the presenters.  I also attended Stephen Alexander’s presentation on obtaining the correct exposure  and Mark Austin’s humorous discussion on concert photography.

A big thank you to Chris Denbow, Tracy Manford, Christine Tremoulet, Imelda Bettinger, Jessica Grieves, Katie Sunstrom, Tracy Tesmer for putting this event together.  It ran smooth as silk from my perspective, and was well attended.  You can’t ask for much more in your inaugural event.  I look forward to PhotoCamp 2.

Ttv 101

View more presentations or upload your own. (tags: ttv photocamphouston)

genreDiversion 3 is available

Precis Intermedia has made the genreDiversion 3 rules available for download (PDF) or print.  I purchased a copy today, and just finished printing it out.  I will try and get it read before Sunday and will write up my thoughts on it then.

In the mean time, check out the product page and the forums for more info about the game.  I really liked the genreDiversion i rules that were previously released and this version promises to really take the game to the next level.  I am excited.

Awesome DC Photo from Yesterday

Came across this article/picture in my feeds this morning. Navigate to the site, and click on the picture to get a good look. The author of the article was correct, it does look like piles of ants. Makes my wonder if there is a computer program that could take this type of high resolution image and count the number of people who were in attendance.

Universe Today Article

A Whole New Saturday

Today is the start of a Saturday tradition that I am sure will last
for many, many years. Today is the start of Saturday morning swim
lessons. We will surely advance to tball, soccer and baseball
practice. Saturdays will never be the same.

I will need to focus on getting up earlier on Saturdays so that I have
a little more time before I need to get going. I have not even had my
coffee yet.

Thinking about Pogoplug

OK, somehow I managed to ignore the information about Pogoplug coming out of CES.  I saw people mention it, but I thought it was something different.  On closer inspection though, I think I will be ordering one.

What is Pogoplug?  It is a very simple device for connecting a USB hard drive to your network and to the Internet without having to know anything about networking.  Basically, you plug the device into the wall, plug in a ethernet cable and a USB drive and you are set.  You go to the Pogoplug website and link your device to an account.  After that the drive is accessible anywhere you can get to the web page.  They also have a small application you can run that will integrate the drive with Windows Explorer.

There is an API  for Pogoplug, and I am hopeful that it might be used to allow the Pogoplug to connect to web services like SkyDrive and Google Docs .  I am not sure if that is the intention, but it would be a unique offering.  I have been playing with Gladinet  for that sort of web services integration, but it is not very polished.  The few videos I have seen of the Pogoplug web interface are a lot nicer.

I sent the company, Cloud Engines, that makes the device an e-mail with a few questions.  Depending on the results of that call I will decide whether or not to place an order.  The device is currently on a pre-order special of 79.00, but will be 99.00 after the release.  Pre-orders are expected to ship in March.  I will post the questions and answers here when I hear back.

Lot's of good reading about this device if you are interested in knowing more.

UPDATE

I received a response from Jed at Cloud Engines a little while ago, and said I would share my questions and his answers.

Q: If I want to access the PogoPlug drive from a computer in the same house as the drive itself does the traffic route directly across my LAN or does it need to go out to the Pogoplug site?  Can I access that drive when my Internet is down?

A: Computers on the same LAN speak directly to the Pogoplug, however there is an initial call to the Pogoplug service to find the location of the Pogoplug.  If the internet was down, you would have to pull the drive out of the Pogoplug and attach it directly to your computer.

Q: Does the format of the drive matter?  Can I format it as NTFS?

A: Yes, all FAT, HFS+, and NTFS partitions will show up separately for access.

Q: Can I have more than one partition on the drive?

A: Albums can contain contents that spans partitions and drives.

Q: Can the drive (or part of the drive relating to question 3) be encrypted with something like truecrypt and still be accessible?

A: Currently only block devices that are probed as being one of the above file systems are supported.  Software encrypted block devices are not supported in this version.

Q: This final question does not really relate to my purchase, more my curiosity.  I see that you have an API.  Is the intention of the API to allow web services to link into the Pogoplug device?  For example, could a developer use the API to link Pogoplug to the Google Docs document store or maybe something like Sky Drive or Microsoft Mesh?

A: The API makes the Pogoplug look like any other cloud storage service.  We are expecting web developers to come up with really cool apps, using drives attached to the Pogoplug as the back-end storage - i.e. photo printing, sync, backup, ....

A big thanks to Jed for getting back to me so quickly. I am sure they are busy answering plenty of requests and e-mail after CES.  I plan to order a Pogoplug.  Stop back in March for my hands on review.

Publishing to Live Spaces

I have decided to also replicate the content of this blog over to my Microsoft Live Space.  I am doing this mainly because both Blogger and Live Spaces allow publishing via e-mail.

I will add that I am really quite impressed with many of the new set of tools from Microsoft.  I am writing this in Windows Live Writer (the best blog editing tool for Windows in my opinion), and I think that the Live Photo Gallery application is very nice.  The changes to Live Sync, Mesh and Folder Share are nice.

I might need to spend a bit of time investigating the whole suite of Microsoft services, although I doubt I will leave Google.

A week of awesome tech stuff

This week was CES.  For those that do not know, CES is a yearly technology trade show in Las Vegas.  It has become one of the major shows during the year where manufacturers roll out new products and ideas.  It is a show I have wanted to go to for a while, but I have never actually gone.  This year might have been a good one to have attended as it appears that attendance was a bit lower this year than in some years past.

This post is really just a chance for me to highlight some of the tech announcements to come out of CES this week that I have found most interesting.

EEE Keyboard

The EEE Keyboard is basically a computer inside of a full sized keyboard.  The keyboard also has a small 5” touchscreen that allows you to work with the basic functions of the computer.  The guts of the thing are pretty impressive.  According to the Boy Genius Report the specs are:

• Self-contained PC / keyboard combo with integrated 5-inch touchscreen display
• OS: Windows XP Home Edition
• 1.6GHz Intel Atom microprocessor
• 1GB of DDR2 DRAM
• 16GB or 32GB SSD
• Wi-Fi 802.11b/g/n
• Bluetooth 2.0
• Ultra Wideband HDMI
• USB 2.0 x2, VGA, HDMI, headphone and mic ports
• Weight: 2 lbs

Perhaps most interesting is that the keyboard will use wireless HDMI to connect directly to a TV.  As I understand it, you can get a connector to connect to your TV that will allow the keyboard to work over the wireless HDMI.  I have moved the majority of my files to the cloud or to large external disks so that they can be easily accessed from multiple computers.  This type of keyboard computer would be very cool as a way to access all of that stuff.  I am very, very anxious to see the pricing on this.  I think I will be getting one of these regardless.

Update:  OS News is reporting that the keyboard is expected to ship in the September time frame.

EEE Keyboard News  |  EEE Blog Updates

Touch Screen EEE PC’s

Going into CES week I would have said that the Tablet PC form factor was nearing death, and that the UMPC, Netbooks and MID format had won.  However, ASUS announced not one, but two convertible tablet style EEE PC’s.  Prior to purchasing my EEE 901 I was looking to see if a touch screen convertible would be released.  When the release didn’t look likely I went with the 901.  Needless, to say I was very excited to see these two notebooks pop up at the ASUS press event. 

ASUS has announced the t91 and the t101.  It looks like the main difference between the two is the display size and the keyboard.  The t91 has an 8.9 inch screen and a keyboard that is basically the same as the 901.  The t101 has a 10.1 inch screen and a new larger keyboard.  Both devices will have an ASUS created touch interface which looks pretty slick, and I believe they both run with hard drives as opposed to SSD’s.  I would much prefer an SSD though, so I will have to wait and see what the options are.  They both run Windows XP home.  The best thing about them is that I have heard the price on the t91 may start at $500.  That is certainly a better price than I had expected.  I should also mention that GPS and a TV tuner will be an option on these devices.  I use a Bluetooth GPS with my 901 now, but having these built in would be cool.

I am anxiously awaiting the release and some hands on reviews.  Sounds like I need to wait till March.  I think it is likely I will replace my 901 with one of these.

EEE PC News  |  EEE PC Blog Updates

Windows 7

The beta release of Microsoft’s new Operating System was made available this week.  We were able to get a copy via MSDN at work, which allowed me to avoid the chaos that ensued on Friday morning during the general release.

I installed Windows 7 on one of my main work computers and my initial impression is positive.  It should be known that I am a pretty big fan of Vista, and I try to run it on all of my computers (except my EEE 901).  There are a few UI changes that take some getting used to, but I can report that the OS does seem faster than Vista.

The UI changes are not major, but some of the minor changes will still take a while for people to get used to.  The new taskbar is quite nice, but the inability to just click once on an icon that has multiple windows open is a bit of a drag.  If I have 5 Outlook windows open for example I need to hover on the Outlook icon, and then select the open window I want with another click.  It works fine, but takes some getting used to.  I only played with it for about 1/2 a day, so I will need to write more later.  I am certainly excited to get past some of the Vista quirks and move on to the next thing.

Other Stuff

Some of the other big news at the show was the Palm Pre and the Sony P.  Both do look pretty cool, but I am not as interested in either of those gadgets.  I think the new Microsoft Sync stuff in Ford’s looks pretty neat.  I am considering a Ford for a new car, perhaps this will be a differentiator.  The new Dell Mini notebook was announced with a 10 inch screen, larger SSD’s and an application store.  Very interesting development considering…

I had hoped to hear RIM announce a full featured application store for the Blackberry Storm this week.  The Storm desperately needs a central place for developers to work and share their programs.  Hopefully this will be available soon.

A huge shout out to everyone who took the time to live blog, share video, and in general cover the CES event this year.  I am especially grateful to Chippy and JKK from the UMPC Portal podcast for spending so much time online with live video covering all of the news.  Their huge list of contacts that were able to call in live from the show was great.  I would have loved to have spent the entire week skipping work and just participating in the chat and link sharing going on there.  Also a thanks to Kevin Tofel and James Kendrick  from JKontheRun for there coverage of all of CES, especially mobile technology.  Finally, Engadget did an awesome job of live blogging many of the big press events (even the disappointing Dell Adam”no” press event).

If I was at CES…

If you were bored, and decided to spend a day recently cyber stalking me (did you?) you would have seen me looking around at CES gear reports.   I love reading about what mobile (and not so mobile) gear people take with them to conferences.  I also love reading the after conference reports where people say how well the gear worked, and generally recap the event.  I am also usually interested in what bag people are using to haul things around in.  Have not seen to many bag reports this year though.

I decided that I would throw my gear bag out on a table as well, and snap a new gear picture.  It has been a while since I have done a “what’s in my bag” post anyway.

Things have changed a little bit from last January when I took this picture.

I do still have some of the things in the first picture, like the Dell, but with the 901 it rarely ever leaves home.  The web cam in the earlier picture as well as the bluetooth chip have been retired since they are both built into the 901.  Both pictures have notes on Flickr to say what everything is.

The bag on the left is my old Timbuk2 Metro Messenger, and I use that bag for weekend use around town.  It is easier to hit the store/mall/park with this bag than the backpack.  The pack on the right is my fairly new Tom Bihn Ruck’s Sac.  The pack is designed to be small, light and carried by someone with a small frame.  I think it works great.  Not a lot of pockets, but with the interior rings for the pouches work great.

Teaching Games – Can you help me?

I was really intrigued by a BGG thread I read yesterday on teaching games.  Certainly not the first thread on the subject, and I know it is something that comes up as an issue quite a lot.  I am generally the game guru in the circles where I most often game.  I certainly am the one with the largest game collection.  It often falls to me to teach new games.  I am OK at it, but it seems I am forever forgetting some of the rules, or worse I get them just plain wrong.

I thought I would try and better organize some notes on games, and keep them handy for the times when I do need to teach some games.  Here is where I need your help.  Below is a general outline of what I want to write down for each game.  Leave me a comment if you think I have the right mix of items.  Anything on there not needed?  Anything I have left off?

My hope is that I could hand one of these sheets around to each player before the game, and walk through it with them.  I will put this online so that I can send it to people for review before a planned session as well.

30 Second Overview

This would be just a simple overview of the game to setup both the genre and theme as well as the general type of game.

Goal of the Game

This is the victory conditions, and a reinforcement of the type of game.  In Carcassonne I might say that  your goal is to place tiles and your meeples in the best way to score points from the roads, cities, monasteries and fields.  It is important here to also set out what triggers the games end.

Core Mechanic

Describe the type of things players will do on a turn.  Placing tiles, placing meeples, rolling dice.  Describing how tiles can be placed in Carcassonne would not go here.

Turn Order

This takes the core mechanic and describes what each player will do on a turn.  I would imagine that for most games I would copy and paste this from the rules.

Components Demonstration

Here is where I would show each of the components and how they can and should be used in the game.  In Race for the Galaxy, I would grab out one of each card type, show it to everyone and explain what it means.

Special Rules & Situations

This is where the confusing game bits go.  These are the rules I often forget, or that require extra explanation.  Each item will include the page number in the rulebook as well as any notes I want to make.

Basic Strategy

Some rules list it, others I can get from BGG.  I will include links where I can for those reading online.

Learn from Experience

This is just a place for me to write down what I have learned about the game as I have played it.  If we did something wrong, I will write it here so I don’t do it wrong again.

What do you think?  Sound good?  Sound complete?  What is missing?  I know that things like this do already exist, but I think that it will help me a lot to actually write these.

This looks cool, let me Google it.

I recently became interested in, and have purchased the roleplaying game Savage Worlds.  I have to say I am very impressed.  I will try and write more about that later.  What I thought I would write about this morning though was what I did after I got the rulebook and seriously started looking for game resources.

Typically, when I buy a new game I will Google the games name to see what resources exist other than the product home page and forum.  This works pretty well.  I find related blog articles pretty easily, and finding fan sites is not too difficult.  The Internet is a big place though, where else can and should gamers be looking for information when starting up with a new game (or anything new for that matter)?   I will use searches for Savage Worlds as an example throughout this article.

• Facebook – It seems that there is a page or group on Facebook for everything.  The Facebook community is growing by leaps and bounds, and doing a search for your new game there should be stop number 1.  In Facebook, click in the search box in the upper right hand side of the window and type your query.  You will see all the different items that match your query.  If you want, click on the Groups or Pages heading to narrow the results.  You can either join the group or become a fan from their.  Once you have found the resources be sure to participate.  Lots of groups form, but do not have much activity.  This is a great way boost that friend count on Facebook with some new friends, and it is a great way to find new players in your area.
  
• Twitter – Searching on Twitter has come a long way.  It is super fast now to find all of the conversations about a particular topic.  Searching on Twitter is a fast way to find a) links relevant to your query and b) other people that share your interest in the new game.  Occasionally, you will find people discussing actual play experiences which is even more helpful.  Subscribe to the people you find talking about the new game, and then strike up a new conversation with them.
  
• FriendFeed – Another place to search is FriendFeed, and perhaps it may be best to just start here.  FriendFeed aggregates posts from lots of other places.  So when you search here you are going to find things from Twitter, and Facebook, and Delicious, and all over the web.  It works well though for that very reason, it shows what members are doing across all of their web activities.  Make sure you click the Everyone link in the right navigation bar in FriendFeed before you search so that you don’t just search the friends you already have.  Subscribe to anyone who looks interesting, and follow the links that seem to have good info.  The nice thing about the links here is that typically they are posted because they are good (same on Twitter).  FriendFeed can be a little noisy, but if you learn how to use it, filtering the noise does work.
  
• Wikipedia – I mention this one, even though it shows up near the top of the Google search results, because it can be such a good resource.  I don’t always find the game I am looking for here, but when I do I jump to the bottom of the article and look for the complied external links.  This is often a treasure trove of related fansites, often old ones, but still with good information to be had.  The article itself can be a good resource for how to play the game.
  

So there was a quick look at four different places, besides Google, you can go to find information, and fellow enthusiasts, for new to you games.  I didn’t include links to places like Board Game Geek or RPG.net here because those sites almost always show up in a related Google search.  I hope that this helps people who are trying to find good information about a new game, and if you are interested in discussing Savage Worlds or other games with me you can find me on Twitter, FriendFeed and Facebook.

Welcome to 2009

AH!  I woke up this morning, 3 hours late, and find that 2009 looks much like 2008.  :)  Every January 1st should have blue skies and be a perfect day.  Unfortunately, it is cloudy here and does not look like the sun will peek through anytime soon.

I want 2009 to be a year of changes.  Change is good, and I want to lead the charge.  We will have a new baby in April, I will turn 38 in June and I have my 20th high school reunion in August.  I want to be ready for these big events with some real changes throughout the year.

Change #1:  Take better care of myself.  I am terrible about going to the doctor when I am sick, much less when I am healthy.  I actually don’t even have a doctor I would call my primary care physician.  I don’t get enough exercise, and I tend to not keep very healthy sleeping habits.  I will find a doctor and schedule regular visits as recommended, exercise daily (we have a Wii Fit and and exercise bike as well has real bikes and our legs), track my health, and make regularly scheduled dentist appointments.  I will wake at 5:00 am every day and go to bed each night when I am tired.

Change #2:  Lists, Lists, Lists.  I have lots of things I can and should be doing.  I own a lot of things, and we often get new things.  We have a yard full of plants.  All these things can and should be written down on lists.  I get frustrated with myself when I need to do something and I don’t have the details I need.  This year I will create maintenance lists for the house and cars, lists for my health, home inventory lists, a complete list of my games, music, books and dvd’s.  I will keep lists of important numbers handy, and make a list of the correct size and other requirements for any consumables we have (air filters, light bulbs, batteries etc).

Change #3: Board Gamers Delight.  Every year I say I am going to play more games.  I plan to this year.  I am going to play the games I want, and do so on a regular basis.  There is no excuse for someone with as many games as I have to not have regularly scheduled game nights.  I want to put together a weekly game night, each week.  I think maybe Tuesday nights will work best.   I will game from 6:30 – 10:00,  basically enough time for one good game or a couple of quicker ones.  I would really like to find a place in Pearland that would let us come in and game each week similar to how the Dallas Board Game group works at Borders.  I have made the decision to no longer chair the Shadow Creek Ranch sponsored SCR Gamers group, and will instead work to create a Pearland/South Houston wide gaming group.

Change #4:  Time for RPG’s.  I purchased 50 or more RPG products in 2008 and I played 1 RPG.  Hmmm.  Something is wrong there.   I want to get some regular roleplaying started.  I am honestly not a huge fan of campaign play, perhaps I have just not played a good one.  Regardless, I want to play a variety of games.  I just got Savage Worlds the other day and I am very anxious to read and play it.  I will work this in each week.

Change #5:  Online Life.  I don’t want online time to control what I do, but I would like to increase my online presence in positive ways.  I will continue to improve my contacts with people online who share my interests.  I want to radically increase the time I spend corresponding with old and new friends, and less time buried in the noise of Google Reader.  I have a new deck of Akoha cards, and I plan to use them all this year.  I want to create meaningful connections in Twitter and Facebook, and grow them each day.  I will attend more local functions around my favorite things (game conventions, technology/geek meetups).   I will continue to write for this blog.  I am going to write whatever I want as I think of it.  I won’t be hesitant to post things based on what I perceive others will think of it.  I will integrate video and audio information into this blog in 2009.

Change #6:  Plan for everything.  I have a bad habit of sitting in front of the computer all day doing nothing of importance if I don’t plan.  I will set aside time this year to do the things I need and want to do.  Importantly, I want Melissa to help me develop these plans so that she can react accordingly, and be a part of the plans.  I want to set aside time to:

1. Take care of the house.
2. Do a new fun thing with Iain ( and new baby).
3. Plan my RPG sessions.
4. Learn new games.
5. Write for this blog.
6. Maintain my online me.
7. Review my upcoming calendar and tasks.
8. Play the video games I already own.
9. Exercise.
10. Plan our DVC vacations, something new every year.
11. Everything else.

This is all a pretty tall order, and I am sure there will be other changes as well.  I am excited for 2009, and I am ready to make this an amazing year for Melissa, Iain, URL (new babies in utero name) and Myself.

Happy New Year!