Farewell 20th Century

Well I must say the last 100 years has been a heck of a ride. We've come a long way and we still have alot of road ahead of us. We've got more interesting gadgets than ever and I hope we start concentrating more time on where to put all!

I've done a considerable amount of waking up in the last few decades and I hope I have the chance to awake many others in the new century.

To everyone, here's to the dream and to making it happen. Cheers! --Jeff
posted by Jeff Gatlin at 12/31/2000 02:32:00 PM

I Live... Again

Well, still anyway, after a more than a day of bed rest and weekend tc watchin, I seem to have recovered my strength again. Of course, I am sore as all get out, dining on a diet of saltine crackers (oh how I love them!) & cream of wheat and finally avoiding comedies as best I can. I just can't handle too much laughin right now as it hurts o plenty. I'm still not sure what hit me, I never got a cold, never had a pounding headache. Just the evacuation alert alarm from the body and the weakness and dehydration that follows. So, ouch.

It's Monday, Christmas to be exact, but Monday. What happened to Sunday? We still have those don't we?

Merry Christmas all. -- Jeff
posted by Jeff Gatlin at 12/25/2000 10:30:00 AM

Xmas Travelling and the Bug

Made it to Texas ok, though I was stuck in Tulsa an extra hour and a half as the flight kept getting delayed later and later... I was worried I'd be stuck there for the night but it finally showed up. Met with my Dad and we immediately went shopping. Lots of walking and came up dry.

Met up with the rest of the family, Jackie and Robert, at Dad's place where I promptly crashed in my Dad's chair. Travelling seemed to have worn me out. I did get to see and episode of Iron Chef before snoozing! See my best friend Steph's accounting of it.

Next day was some boat and bed hauling, then off to more shopping. I was already tired and got more tired. Met up with my bud Fred for a quick hello, where he gave me an awesome gift. Totally awesome! I'll tell you what it is when I return home cause I wanna see Bruce's face when my precious is revealed.

All gifts bought, we headed home (an hour drive) and I fell asleep on the way. We hit home, wrapped gifts and wrapped gifts (repeat here). But there were still things to do and it was super late (midnight) so I went with Dad and Jackie to the Walmart. Bought my final gift. Was walking around looking for the parents when I noticed I was feeling to well. Probably too damn tired to be up this late. Got keys and went out to car to wait and wait and wait. (Lots of people at Xmas at 24 hour joints plus the checkers were slow).

Within about a half hour, I knew I was sick. An unfriendly pain in my gut and I didn't seem to like moving around. I layed down to snooze, knowing that getting up would probably trigger things. Parents came back, I got up, TRIGGER.

You know what's coming, if ya don't wanna read it, skip the next paragraph.

Parents hopped into car and I hopped out, managing to get off an 'excuse me' then I become a human volcano aiming at the parking lot instead of the sky. I may never eat spaghetti again. 5 or 10 minutes later, because I can't just do anything just a little bit, I recover with help of Dad and paper towels. Back into car and the ride home. Yup, once out of the truck at home part 2 begins. It hurts mentally and physically. There's just nothing worse than hearing your voice make those sounds. Hell I've gotten sick just listening to it happen to others. Inside, to bed where I spend a mostly sleepless night and 3 or 4 more parts to the play. At least in these last scenes, the porcelaine god was accept my offerings o plenty.

You may return to your casual reading experience here.

It's afternoon the next day, I'm still weak, sore and none to happy. But I am breathing, I've got 7up, gatoraid and plenty of natural water from the home state to absorb. Resting safely at home while the parents visit more relatives (which of course, I will not be attending due to current illness, sorry gang), I am finally awake enough to leave the bed and creep around slowly. Thus this post.

P.S. And I still haven't caught that cold everyone wanted me to catch, nyah nyah!

Good health to everyone. --Jeff
posted by Jeff Gatlin at 12/24/2000 02:38:00 PM

Merry Chistmas to All!

I'll be off to Texas for awhile as I visit the family back home. For those that can, be certain to check out Blizzard's Christmas Gift! The pictures are nice but the real gem here is the MP3. This is a must for any Starcraft Fan!

Till the next... --Jeff
posted by Jeff Gatlin at 12/21/2000 02:58:00 PM

Season of the Gift

Thank you all. When I try to go beyond into the world of personal thank you's, I go all muddy and can't make the right words. You all are much more than you realize. Please take some time soon to give yourselves a boon for you all deserve it.

I consider myself a fair to rotten gift giver. I can on occasion come up with a 'good' selection or the 'perfect' gift but more often than not I am lost in the befuddlement of what to give. This is why I often prefer to make gifts of my own in the form of cooking. Yet this year, I let the time catch up with me and at 3am Sunday night as I went to bed, I started realizing that I hadn't done as I had planned. So, I had to opt for the best cookie in the lands, thank you Mr. Amos. (For those that thought I actually made them, well sorry but I do not deserve the credit) Still I feel this practice a bit lacking so I hope I can make up for it in the battle.

-------------------------------------
What honor lies in the fighter
Who refuses to leave the battlefield
When the future looks grim.

How can the fighter continue
When his enemy is so strong
When other fighters retreat
And when his comrades fall

Ask the fighter and he may say
What cause becomes less worthy
What dream would I abandon
What field cannot be sewn

I fight for all that cannot
I fight for those that will not
I fight for they who do not percieve the battle
I fight for the field, the cause, the dream.

I am a fighter
What honor lies in else?

posted by Jeff Gatlin at 12/19/2000 10:46:00 AM

It's My Birthday and I'll Cry If I Want To

38 is the number in question just to get that out of the way. When I think about my age I am still pretty shocked. I pretty much feel like I'm a kid just out of school. This is probably due to my constantly changing interests. I started out as a kid in elementary school, wanting to be a fireman or a cop like my dad. Had my brush with acting when I played an alligator and an eagle in class play. Joined the band as a trumpet player in Junior High and took that music path into college, with interests in composing. Awakened in high school to the social scene. Awakened again in college to the political nature of the world as well as the benefits and responsibilities of freedom (Pretty much thru grades 1 thru 12 you are walking the path the country requires. After high school, your path becomes your choice whether you realize it or not).

Was on the road to being a band director in college, but along the way discovered that I enjoyed being a member of the band much more than leading the band. I also had 'issues' with the education department. Mostly, I just didn't have the passion, that stuff that makes you desire to do something. I graduated college with a degree in music, under jazz studies, and still didn't really know where I wanted to go.

Spent a horrible 6 months without a job (if you live with your parents, don't graduate college without one, trust me), then a ridiculous 9 months as a security guard, armed no less! Then finally I managed to sneak into the computer world by way of a warehouse job. During breaks I would make little cursor cartoons on the data entry terminal by using its macro recording feature. This was enough to impress the right people and was soon a computer op. This job brought a solid income, and a ton of reading time. I read more at that job that anywhere else I think.

With my usual chaos style, I took a few classes in programming and creative writing with hopes of becoming a programmer for the business scene (thank god that didn't happen). After shuffling thru a few other computer op jobs (after the first got shut down) I got the chance to work for Microsoft. This was good and bad. Good because I got cool training, great work environment and free sodas. Bad because I had to talk to people on the phone that didn't know what they were doing and didn't mind getting upset with you as if it were your fault. If your an employer of phone support people, go give them a raise right now cause they deserve it.

So I survived 6 months as an Excel support tech, survive is key cause I didn't know a thing about Excel when I started, and at 30 calls a day I didn't want to know. I hated having to do it! This job was the opposite of my personality, which I consider to be a quiet analyzer. I make my moves when I KNOW what the move should be (except in chess, I still have a big blind eye in my chess analysis). Don't get me wrong, I was good at what I did, helped a lot of people, but it wasn't it. I had no passion for the work. So when I was finally laid off because I had been to the end of my contract (long story, for more peruse this place where it appears I am a class member. They settled for 97 million, too bad I'm not 1 out of 97). So I was pretty much happy when I found out, because I didn't have to do the job anymore.

Somewhere in the timeline, I discovered personal computers, online BBS's, GEnie, a game called GemStone III, a cadre of wonderful friends, and a career in the gaming industry. But we'll save that story for another day. So, I'm 38. Big whoop! Now I am off to find some examples of 3d sprite classes in java using Wild Tangent. Laters.


posted by Jeff Gatlin at 12/17/2000 12:48:00 PM

It's Two... Two... Two Blogs In One!

Well I don't know what happened but last nights post went up twice, so you get this happy correction post instead.

Today Dave and I installed a cool motion sensor light on the front porch. No more dark walks up to the door. Of course, i had to remove the spike off the top of the lamp to make it fit, and the bracket that holds it on doesn't screw down tight enough so I'll have to pop a couple of nails on the side to keep it from swivelling if I can ever find our hammer. The perils of home improvement!

We got hit by a blizzard of cold yesterday. I hate having to deal with frozen ground when im in my sneakers. They just weren't built for keeping a person upright in that weather. Fortunately, I survived.

My Rams got pummeled by the Broncos 24 7 in game 2 last night. Feeling down, I linked up for game 3 and managed an overtime victory against the Vikings, making a sweet touchdown a time was running out, final score Rams 13 Vikings 7. More NFL2k1 league goodness can be found at Allgames.com


posted by Jeff Gatlin at 12/11/2000 08:51:00 PM

It's All That

Nothing quite compares to the opportunity to meet with friends that have been carried afar by the currents of life. I swear I will figure out how to invent a dimensional door so that I can make gathering of distant friends easier to accomplish.

I figure I can do this, because it's got to be easier than dealing with ridiculous stilted conversations and uncomfortable silences caused by business rivalries and the dreaded NDA monkey climbing on your back. I generally like to talk about the things foremost in my mind. If something is bothering me, I prefer to just spit it out, see what happens and get it over with. (This does not apply in matters of romance. I am a guy, and 9 times out of 10, the foremost thought is not going to be the sparkling champagne eloquence that I want it to be)

I do take solace in the fact I did hear the phrase "I can't really talk about that" from someone else not in my stomping grounds so I was not the only one burdened by the chains of business. Perhaps one day when we are all bought out by Microsoft, we can feel a bit freer to express our thoughts under the protective umbrella of corporate dominion.

Dreams are the stuff that life is made of. Think about that when you wake up tomorrow. --Jeff

posted by Jeff Gatlin at 12/11/2000 08:50:00 PM

Ratcliff Party Madness

Due to popular demand, I have decided to post a review of The Ratcliff Christmas Party. Of course, the party has not actually happened yet, it's still 18 hours into the future. But that doesn't stop most internet journalists so why should it stop me!

Let's go...

7:00pm

We arrive at the Ratcliff's. The sudden snowstorm made the trip difficult but with several layers of clothing and a pointed stick, we were able to brave the weather. JohnR was on top of things, he had his sidewalk shoveled clean. Unfortunately, all the snow was piled along the street so we still had to climb a mountain of frozen water particles to get in. I'm a little bit irked cause my jeans are covered in soon to be wetness, but I don't say anything cause ya just don't start a party with complaints.

7:05pm

We are welcomed and the party is already underway. They are just passing out the gift numbers. Several people are in line... some of them have hockey sticks. This could get ugly.

7:10pm

We have our gift numbers and just barely escaped a near knockout hockey stick to the head! I knew BenH was a tough competitor but I always figured him for jab to the gut kinda guy. Who knew!

7:15pm

We peruse the munchables. This year we get fabulous selection of nuts. I know what your thinkin, but let me tell you this... this is one high class spread. There must every kind of nut in the world at this party, and I'm not talkin about the game developers! They even have the little sign from Dairy Queen in the corner that says, "Warning. Your food may come into contact with peanuts." That my friends is a great example of how the Ratcliff's take care of their friends. I love those guys.

7:30pm

I walk into a conversation JohnR is having with JeffD. John is rattling off about his portal space shifting technology and how clever it is that the client tells the server about the linear falloff of the texture opacity matrix while simultaneously grouping the multi camera positions into a common FOV degree angle and by the way how are you handling that over at Origin? Jeffd just shakes his head saying "I can't really talk about it." I chuckle at this as I cut into the conversation saying, "Dude, the kid down the street from me won't even listen to Metallica's latest song about portal shifting because of their Napster stance! That tech just isn't all that secret no matter how you handle the FarClip! Don't be so uptight, Heck I had to portal shift just to get over the snow around the sidewalk outside!" Pretty typical talk for this crowd.

8:00pm

The party is starting to bop as most everyone has arrived. JohnR is taking a few of the most recent arrivals around the house giving a tour. One of the staples of the party is the oogling over the latest techno marvel that JohnR has acquired. Well this year is no different! You've heard of the Aibo, that little cute robot dog. Well JohnR has outdone himself this time because he has the newest prototype model, the Germshebo, a robot german shepard. It does all great robot german shepard tricks like rolling over and biting beer cans in half plus it has a fantastic amount of memory. The cool part is that it's voice recognition is not quite perfect, so just about anyone at the party can mimic JohnR's voice saying "ATTACK" and the metal shepard leaps into the air and pounces on CurtisC, knocking him over. Ya see, earlier Curtis accidently flicked some ashes on the it and the thing hasn't forgotten yet! Curtis was a good sport though. Everytime he got tackled, he'd just get back saying "Aw maaan. You guys..." That's class.

8:30pm

We almost have to break up a fight because one of the neighbors makes a side crack about the amount of polygons Ratcliff could display if he'd use OpenGL instead of DirectX. Tension was up but then SusanK came by with jello shots and distracted them. Dumb luck there.

9:00pm

Gift madness strikes as the party goers begin fighting over a little envelope that they think might be a trip to New Zealand. I back away quietly because I know that's the gift I brought, a gift certficate to Stuckeys. This might get ugly.

9:15pm

I am saved from embarassment because MelissaC steals the Stuckey gift certificate claiming that she loves their pecans. She is the one! I don't bother to point out that the Ratcliff's have about 12 varieties of pecans free in the kitchen.

9:30pm

The pressure is off. I got a number somewhere in the middle this year so no having to steal the best gift from anyone. I walk away with a portable army surplus toast maker. I've been lookin for one of these for years!

10:00pm

We head out to the new pool. We had seen pictures of the Ratcliff's pool as it was floating over their house when it was installed. But little did we know that JohnR would like it so much he would have it mounted permanently in the sky! That is impressive. The diving board was still on the ground but know one was testing it out so I didn't get to see how that worked. Bummer.

11:00pm

Things are getting blurry cause the jello shots were pretty tasty this year. I think Icomplimented JohnR's wife on her anti aliasing. I still don't know what the heck I meant by that but JohnR came up behind me exclaiming, "He's right!" Whew, social feux paus avoided.

12:25pm

I'm sittin on the floor watchin the ambulance guys patch up some unnamed party goer. He tried to steal a Playstation 2 from Dave Dean when JohnR tackled the guy yelling, "You can't have that, I need a good review on his web site!" I think John felt bad about it cause he ended up giving the guy an autographed copy of S.C.A.R.A.B. Some guys get all the luck.

1:12pm

We take our leave and thank JohnR and family for a wonderful evening. It was a blast! As a side note, I apologize that I must take advantage of a friend, but as a loyal spy from another company, I just had to do a little espionage and get a peek at his game Planetside. I managed to snag this screenshot. I'm pretty sure it's a view from on the side of the planet when you are lookin up at night. Hopefully, this beautiful scene won't get cut from the final product.

Look at those stars, this game is gonna rock!

Here's to next year's party! Cheers!
posted by Jeff Gatlin at 12/09/2000 03:00:00 AM

That Guy

Let's just keep it short for today. I posted a nice post the other day that revealed many things, and blogger ate it. So today is short.

I hold my friend Bruce in high regard and when I think of him now away to other places, I think just one thing...










... ... ... ... ... ... ... I still have his Terminator 2 DVD! Ha! Now he HAS to come back! MuHAHahahHAhahhaha *cough cough gag*

posted by Jeff Gatlin at 12/07/2000 11:50:00 AM