I am writing this on Adele’s computer in Lyons because we don’t have internet access yet. All the antennas etc. on top the elevator (where we get our signal) were blown off–surprise, surprise. So, other than that we are fine and Curtis has a new roof. Ted has his planting done, and I have a bit more before we head to Greeley CO for nephew Ian’s wedding. It will be great. All of our kids will be there. Take Care and we will get back to you all when we have internet again–no promises when that might be. lovelaine

[Here’s someone else’s video of the wreckage]

Hello,

My name isnt Dorothy, but I do have a tornado story and I thought you might want to hear about what is up in Beaver Crossing after the 5 PM Mother’s Day tornadoes. Maybe not so much what is up in BC, but what is down. And Tornadoes was plural on May 11. F3’s for what it is worth.  Continue reading →

I turned 33 this year. If you’d like a comparison… just scroll down a few posts. Although the blog hasn’t changed, I did switch from ASmallOrange to WebFaction hosting finally. This last year  was interesting, I worked on the television shows Capture on The CW and Killer Karaoke on TruTV. Now that they’ve both aired, I’ll probably write them up. I built custom hardware that the contestants on each show wore. Last month I sold my motorcycle which I had ridden less than 200 miles since registering it in California 6 years ago. In January, I sold my 1957 Chevy Panel Truck on eBay. It had become a drain on my bank account and spirit. It’s now on its way to France. I haven’t picked up a new vehicle yet and have been riding public transportation in the mean time. This month we’ll celebrate our 300th Hacker Drinkup. I’ve been attending monthly Spec.LA events where we show off technical projects we’ve been working on. I’ve also been buying more board games which we play every couple weeks. Sweetums is still where I post all the random things I enjoy; I did a daily project where I made a GIF for every single episode of Adventure Time. I’m still looking for work and next month I’ll have been in LA 6 years.

I turned 32 this year and we celebrated at Hacker Drinkup since our waitress Alia turned 40 and @n3wscott turned 29. I still live in Santa Monica and I’ve been unemployed for nearly a year. My last company, Tecca, closed last fall. I have been doing a lot of freelance technical work for friends’ companies like Virsix/Two Bit Circus and Angel Valley Media. It’s really interesting and fun work, I just wish I had more of it. I’ve been updating my LinkedIn profile as I go. I recently started a Tumblr for random nonsense that I would have shared on Google Reader Sharing if it still existed. On April 1st, I’ll have been in LA 5 years.

For the last few years, my friend pinguino has been celebrating her birthday at a party called NinjaPenguin. She’s often joined by other May birthdays like Dave, Jessica, and Erik. The party usually has a strong internet related theme. This year was Rise of the Breadcats, so I made two big foam pieces of bread with cat ears for people to wear and Grace made a breadcat piñata. One of the most memorable features of the party is often the cake; check out some of the past cakes below: Continue reading →

Q: Eliot, how do you always have such a fine mustache on May 5th?
A: I have a yearly calendar reminder on April 1st to stop shaving.

No, it’s not a real holiday; just a fun excuse to grow a stupid mustache once a year. Here are photos of years passed: Continue reading →

I’ve recently left my role as Producer with the awesome team at Tecca and I’m looking for new work opportunities.

What I do

I’m an online managing editor with 7 years experience. The majority of my work has been running diverse teams of remote freelance contributors. I’ve done everything from hiring and training full teams of bloggers to vetting CMS software to better serve both contributors and the audience.

At Tecca and Netscape/Propeller, I helped build out brand new properties. I worked with a team to shape their editorial voice and plan regular features. At Hack a Day, I ran all aspects of the blog. I hired and trained the contributor team. I performed site fixes and upgrades. I championed Hack a Day’s first venture into manufacturing custom hardware. For Syyn Labs, I contributed to new project ideation and guided hardware design and construction for large installations. Continue reading →

I completely forgot to do this post in a timely fashion. But I’m backdating it to March 9th, when I actually turned 31, otherwise I’ll never find it again. The photo above was taken a few days later. We celebrated my birthday at Hacker Drinkup and then went to Paso Robles for the weekend. I still live in Santa Monica. I’m unemployed and looking for editorial work while working on a couple interactive projects with friends.

My friend Matt Lewis has spent the last two weeks in the hospital and was recently diagnosed with PNH. It’s a very rare blood disease (1-2 cases annually per million) and has necessitated him receiving regular blood transfusions. He will be placed on the world’s most expensive drug to managed the condition but will eventually need a bone marrow transplant.

What you can do to help:

• Donate blood You can give an offset blood donation at a facility local to you. Just tell them it’s for Matt Lewis 11/4/1979 Kaiser Permanente Hospital in Los Angeles.
• Be the match A bone marrow transplant is the only way to cure PNH and it can be very difficult to find a match—a sibling has a 30% chance of being a match. By signing up for the National Marrow Donor Program, you have the chance of helping Matt or saving the life of someone in a similar situation. Once signed up, they send you a cheek swab kit to complete your registration. The more people we register, the greater the odds for everyone.

Thank you for taking the time to read this and I hope you consider giving.

You can watch the web series Video Game Reunion that Matt created/directed on Atom.

Aside: The photo above was taken by Erin right before Matt and I completed a SRS BZNS deal at Ninja Penguin 4.

Update: Regular updates on barkode’s condition are being posted here.

Update: Now with soundtrack!

My twin sister currently lives in Tokyo and this is her most recent email.

Konnichiwa Everyone,

Apologies for the silence on this end; it is difficult to gauge the true status of things, and I am not particularly interested in unnecessarily filling heads–my own included–with worrying remarks.

On early Friday afternoon (your laaaate Thursday night/wee hours Friday), I was at a conference in Nagoya (250km from home, 550km from earthquake epicenter) and rode out the earthquake in the lecture hall of a very modern building. Basically ALL trains stopped on Honshu and I was unable to return home, but able to contact a former frisbee teammate and stay with her. Luckily, I had planned to go straight from the conference to a frisbee tournament, so had toiletries and changes of clothes with me.  Continue reading →