Sloe Times

Hello, and welcome to my final Blogger post. I've added a redirect tag that will automatically move you to my new blog location in about 30 seconds. If you are viewing this via Bloglines, you may want to update your subscription information for my blog. It is atom and rss2 capable and can be found at http://www.sloetimes.com/

Blogger was good to me but I've come to the conclusion that I want more of central home rather than a number of seperate outposts on the net. As such, this will be my final post on blogger, thanks for stopping by and for what its worth the archive will remain here for those folks who stumble onto the site. Thanks to a nifty little wordpress tool I was able to move all of my posts and comments from here onto my new blog so nothing significant was lost.

Way back in the good old days.... how is it that 300 baud was better than 3MB/s? Anyway, back when the closest thing to massive interconnected systems was BBS's with a FidoNET feed ASCII art was all the rage. To some extent it is still very cool what some people can do with some control characters and plain text today. While browsing around the net for something completely unrelated, I found this Text Image site that is just too cool for words.

posted by Andres Silva  # 8/23/2005 10:51:00 PM

And honestly, it's going to be a little while longer. I've finally come to grips that I've outgrown Blogger and am in the process of acquiring a hosting service and my own domain. Once I get settled I'll figure out how to move stuff over if I can, and put up the appropriate redirect links here.

posted by Andres Silva  # 8/23/2005 10:22:00 PM

Well, since Ty tagged me for the turn on and turn offs meme I guess I'll have to respond. Of course you realize that I've been married for the near side of a bazillion years and don't really think about these things any more right? Well, before I get on with this, I'll tag Al and BG since they're likely to actually respond with some interesting perspective.

As I sit here fantasizing thinking about what turns me on or off to someone of the opposite sex I figured it was worth breaking down into the Physical, Mental, and Total package categories.
Turn Offs

Physical

• Shaved heads - shave everything else but bald heads don't even work for most men
  
• Too much body art - visible piercings should be limited to 4 or 5 tops, total body should be less than 10. Any more than that and it's just too much. Tattoos should be limited to one or two tasteful bits. With so many other ways to express individuality, why cover up large portions of your skin with permanent art that is subjectively good or bad?
  
• Bigger in the middle than the top or bottom - If you're not pregnant, it's not attractive.
  
• Smoking - It smells bad, makes you smell bad, and ultimately makes you taste bad. Just don't do it, there are better ways to manage stress.
  Mental
  
• Lights are on but no ones home - You can be physically perfect, but if there's nothing going on behind the eyes you're only good for the night... maybe two and a recurring role when things get slow.
  
• No opinion - I'm not looking for a sycophant, I don't need someone who's going to agree with everything I say, it gets boring and I’m not right nearly as often as I think I am.
  
• Keep it Sane - If you can't express yourself in a reasonable way, we're going to have a problem. Drama queens piss me off and manic-depressives are just too much work.
  Total Package
  
• Dependant girls need not apply - any relationship based on the dependency of one or more of the people involved is doomed to some hard times. Probably my number one beef is women who get into a relationship and then want the man to make all the decisions about where to go, what to do, when to do it, etc. Relationships are work, but share the load.
  

Turn Ons

Physical

• Long hair - Fun to comb, play with, tug on, etc... even better when it's a nice red with blonde highlights in color.
  
• Hips - I can't exactly explain it but women with hips turn me on. If there's no curve, it just seems wrong.
  
• Well balanced - an hour glass figure doesn't hurt but what I mean here that there should be some muscle tone and in a normal relaxed state I shouldn't wonder if you could use a burger or 3 to hide the bones protruding from your body.
  Mental
  
• Must play games - card games, board games, computer games, outdoor games (tennis, golf, soccer, etc). Being able to do stuff cooperatively or competitively is awesome.
  
• Must have a sense of humor - must be able to dish it out and take it
  
• Stand up for yourself - In my experience if you're not a pushover then you've got some spirit or fire in you which is fun and healthy :)
  Total Package
  
• Complete me - In any relationship I'm looking for someone who not only shares my interests and life, but also someone that makes me feel like a better person because I'm with them and in turn that feels they are a better person because they are with me. If there's no reward in being together, the attraction will fade because there's no recognition that you're involvement is important to the relationship.
  

posted by Andres Silva  # 8/01/2005 02:42:00 PM

Welcome to the maelstrom that kicks off August. It's a little annoying that the summer is winding down already and I haven't been able to get out for even nine holes of golf. I did get out to the driving range the other day and have come to the conclusion that a year without golf has seen me in some of the worst shape yet. My swing (for whatever it was before) is still there but I got tired just swinging clubs for 90 minutes. Imagine trying to walk and carry my clubs, I don't think I'd make it past the 3rd hole on my favorite course. Anyway, enough about my out of shape ass.

Continuing my education on real estate investing I'm following up on the suggestion of an earlier commenter and trying to understand the options available with REITs. I found this REIT Portal that seems pretty good. A couple of things that stand out in it for me is not only the information about the topic but also a search option to actually find REITs. Looks like I'll have to open up a brokerage account someplace to be able to invest in any of the publicly traded options but I'm not quite that far along yet. It's been a few months since the last budget exercise, it's about time to go through one again and fix some of the cracks that have surfaced. An important output from this will be to actually start building up the investing nest egg. For the short term I'll just throw it in a savings account while I try and figure out what kind of bankroll is required to actually start.

Speaking of bankrolls, I was able to parlay my $40 that was left over in my Party account into $100 relatively quickly playing $.50/$1. Made a stab at $1/$2 and after taking a beating and only being able to drag myself back up to a -$25 loss I went back to the $.50/$1 tables until I could run it up to $100 again which I was able to do last night. Back to $1/$2 today and walked away positive, though only slightly. Maybe it's just perception but I would swear that the $1/$2 players are worse than the $.50/$1 players. Or maybe the real issue is that I have an unrealistic expectation that players at the $1/$2 level would actually be better and so their bad plays are surprising me when they shouldn't. Regardless, the lesson here is to beware tangling with maniacs while working a short bankroll.

I had my interviews last week for a different position at work. On the upside I had worked with most of the interviewers in the past and had plenty of good experiences with them so was a 'known quantity' and the interviews were relatively straightforward events. The downside is that after getting glowing feedback from everyone and a verbal offer to join the team it turns out that their paperwork is lagging behind and they can't actually write me a formal offer yet. I'm confident that it will sort itself out, it's just a little annoying for the build up to occur only to trip over a speed bump just before the finish.

I'm getting more and more serious about wanting to move forward with my idea for an MMOG but I've run into a minor obstacle. The IP for the setting and theme I want to use is licensed to someone else. This other group already has at least two products in the MMOG space and is not planning to produce another one using the theme and setting that I want. I guess the trick now is either to find another way to move forward without the license (going a similar but different route) or trying to figure out a compelling proposal for a partnership with the company who currently owns the license. The tough part at this point is assembling the data needed for a VC treatment and presentation. I'm thinking that if I can put a proposal together that would get others as enthusiastic about the idea as me it would be a look getting the money to move forward with development. Which leads me to another area of study, what goes into a winning VC proposal?

posted by Andres Silva  # 8/01/2005 01:39:00 PM