ALERT

On September 12, 2014 By Luther M. SilerIn GeekLeave a comment

Mischief managed.

Wanna hear a funny story?

On September 11, 2014 By Luther M. SilerIn idiocy3 Comments

Apple’s located in California.

12:01 AM *Pacific* time. Not Eastern.

Fuuuuuuuck that.

Old defeats nerdery! Flawless victory! Fatality!

Oh that’s JUST GREAT

On September 11, 2014 By Luther M. SilerIn Geek, idiocy6 Comments

I will never stop being entertained and/or completely creeped out by the search queries that lead to my blog:

I want so badly to know what the unknown search terms are each day, guys. So badly.

Tonight will be an interesting test; my nerdery will be put head-to-head against my advancing age and inertia. I want to stay up to preorder an iPhone 6 (12:01 AM provided no technical issues, and we allll know there are gonna be technical issues) but I am old and I like sleep and I have to work tomorrow. Will I make it? Or will I go “fuck it,” and get up a little early tomorrow, and maybe omg end of world have to wait an extra week for my new shiny to arrive?

Keep in mind that I waited in line for three days for tickets for Episode One, and do not regret it. I am an old hand at this shit. The problem is the “old” bit is literal.

We’ll see what happens.

Question for those nerdier than myself

On September 11, 2014September 10, 2014 By Luther M. SilerIn Geek, Writing7 Comments

How complicated would it be to host my books myself and sell them through the site? I’m competent enough to know that I’d need server space and some sort of software package to handle the sales, but not competent enough to know how simple/expensive it is to acquire and set that up.

(By “myself,” I don’t mean “physically host a server in my house,” unless physically hosting a server in my house is easier than I think it is. I’m just wondering about ways to sell my books that put 100% of the sale into my pocket rather than the cut Amazon might give me.)

In which gimme gimme gimme

On September 9, 2014 By Luther M. SilerIn Geek11 Comments

No one is more surprised than me– mostly because no one but me cares– to discover that Apple’s big nerd prom today has probably sold me a Pebble Steel. I love my Pebble– it is, hands down, my favorite piece of technology since my first cell phone– but I was fully expecting to trade it in for Apple’s smart watch when they finally got around to introducing one, mostly on account of I’m wearing what looks like a piece of cheap plastic on my wrist. I didn’t want an iWatch because of the functionality; I wanted one because it would look more like a watch a grown-up should be wearing.

Reactions are unsurprisingly mixed, but I love the look of the thing, and I love the word “fluoroelastomer,” but I don’t love the fact that they didn’t mention battery life other than, apparently, claiming that you’d charge it “every night.” I have gotten used to wearing a watch to bed because my watch is also my alarm clock. I don’t ever want to be awakened by a sound again, folks; that’s how much better a wrist vibration is as an alarm clock. It’s wonderful. And if the Apple Watch doesn’t have at a minimum four or five days in between charges (which is about what I get with the Pebble) I don’t want it. I won’t spend $350 (minimum!) on a watch that I can’t use as an alarm clock. That’s half the reason I have a smart watch.

Now, the iPhone 6, on the other hand, is an auto-buy. My phone is reaching the end of its useful life (I’m having to have to have a charging cord with me at all times) and plus I’ve long since accepted the fact that I’m the guy who gets a new phone almost every year anyway. So there is no if dimension to the upgrade, only when. And I could go into the details of the when except I’m pretty sure this post is already nerdy enough. Needless to say it involves deciding whether I’m less pissed at Sprint for having shitty service or Verizon for generically being assholes. I’m tilting toward going back to Verizon except that involves porting my number over in time to still preorder the phone, which is, uh, kinda complicated, blah blah blah nerdwank nerdwank.

What did normal people think about today?

This is part of what I’m doing today

On August 6, 2014August 5, 2014 By Luther M. SilerIn Geek1 Comment

wait what are you serious

On August 5, 2014 By Luther M. SilerIn Geek, Teaching12 Comments

I still can’t really talk about the new job (that restriction should be gone to some extent by the end of the week) but I’m pretty sure I can talk about this.

There’s a new kid coming into the building next year. This is obviously not a new thing.

He has a criminal record. This is also obviously not a new thing, although I’d prefer it happen less often.

The criminal record involves felonies. This is, uh, worse.

Felonies involving state police. Even rarer.

I am likely getting some of the details wrong and am probably lying about some of them, but apparently this kid has managed, in two separate incidents, to shut down the email system of an entire school corporation and once managed to coax state government officials into giving him important email passwords over the phone, which he used to impersonate a government official in mass emails to members of a school community.

In…

wait for it.

Wait for it.

waaaaaaiiiiiiittttt for it.

Fourth grade.

He did this in fourth grade. He was arrested from his dinner table and charged with multiple felonies in the fourth grade.

And he’s ours next year.

Fun!

In case you ever thought I was smart

On July 16, 2014July 16, 2014 By Luther M. SilerIn idiocy3 Comments

I’d like to point out that Chuck Wendig is a Real Author and this is therefore somewhat more humiliating than it ought to be. I have literally been complaining about “ducking” since I got an iPhone and this is the first time it’s been pointed out to me that ducking actually is a goddamn verb.

I is a writar!