Whimsical.nu

Welcome to a Whimsical Blog~

Hi, I'm Angela, a girl with a blog on five different psyches:
girl, geek, reader, writer, gamer
Choose your poison ♥

The deadly thing about gaming breaks

I haven’t been in Azeroth (or Outland, if you want to be thorough) in over a month*.

GASP! SHOCK HORROR! HOW IS THIS POSSIBLE?

But yes, I haven’t. Eilonwyn is stuck at 84, and Talá hasn’t even started anywhere. I’ve said time and again to friends that yes, yes, I will log in tonight, alright already, sorry! and yet I have not gone online.

It’s not that I don’t miss the game, that is is not interesting to me anymore. I actually still check out the feeds I follow, and look at new stuff, and feel wistful at world firsts.

I do, but it’s kind of difficult to get back into the game after being out so long. This seems to be a common thing for a good number of people I know: take a long enough break, and suddenly it doesn’t feel as compelling to go online again. Some people say it’s because wow, I have a lot of free time now as opposed to when I was raiding full time! but it’s not that; I don’t think I’ve really done anything very significant with the “free time”.

It’s more about getting left behind. To be sure, I had no plans to take a break: I brought my gaming mouse with me on my vacation, and was looking forward to reaching 85 by Christmas. Maybe not geared up, but getting there. Sadly, I had not even been able to get my mouse out of my luggage! The two weeks without the game, stretching onward and onward…well, it’s not pretty. I’m still 84 while my friends and peers are likely kicking butt at raids; and I don’t begrudge them that, I don’t expect a raiding guild to wait around on people.

The 84-to-85 stretch, as well as the long hard trudge to get raiding-ready: HOW? Just, how? I started taking stock of the gear I needed, the reps I needed, arcanums and shoulder enchants, spending boatloads of gold for gems and materials, training up to max level professions for the perks. (I do not have the boatloads of gold, by the way. It would actually be a lot more fun if I had. Well, that’s what we always say, life is so much more fun if we have boatloads of moneys.) Just thinking about it, that long hard road…it’s not very fun, not when everyone else and their mother is raiding (literally). It’s a bit hard to stomach going from prime DPS to catcalls of “noob!” (Good-natured and all in jest and good fun, but it’s still not nice to hear.)

I don’t know when I’ll be coming back; I only know that I will, eventually. When I won’t feel too strongly about being left behind, and I can just carry on merrily and enjoy my largely solitary game, most likely.

*give or take a few days

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First (audio)books in a series

I seem to be mentioning audio books a lot in this blog. Frankly, audio books comprise a very small portion of my total reading, as I prefer the very tangible feel of paper against my fingers and the crisp letters on the page. However, audio books are also wonderful in their own way–with a good narrator, the book comes to life and draws you irresistibly in.

One thing that I love doing with my Audible.com subscription is to use my credits to buy the first books in an interesting series. While not all my audio book purchases are first in a series, a good chunk of my purchases are those first books: after that, I straightaway buy the same book plus the next books in the series.

This is because I feel that audio books, for me, are a great way to discover new worlds (be they whole worlds or personal ones). I am a fast reader; audio books “force” me to slow down and really get into the book (provided the narrator is good), giving me a great view (or, listen) into the beauty the series can be.

And this is why, when I found out about Audible’s First Books in Popular Series sale, I knew I had to blog about it. They are as low as $4.49 each, and the sale ends at February 8 11:59pm Australian ET. That is quite a steal for these babies, which can easily get up to $20 and more. I personally won’t be using any of my credits for this, because it’s so much cheaper than what I’m paying for the subscription per month ;) There is a wide range of genres available, from teen and YA, to adult mystery and suspense and historical romance and chick lit and…yeah.

First Books in Popular Series sale at Audible.com

An important note: you’ll notice if you go to that link, that there is no information about the sale–this is because apparently, only members are given this opportunity :( That kind of sucks, really. If you are not yet a member, you might want to try it out. The Audible Listener Gold monthly membership has a (seemingly never-ending) promo where your first three months are only $7.49 ($14.95 usual price which kicks in at the fourth month), and you can cancel any time. Now: I cannot be totally sure if totally new members will also be able to join the First Books in Popular Series sale, but I have asked and I will try to update this post ASAP. If yes, then I have checked with their customer support and yes, all active members including those who have just joined will be able to join the sale. If you see a number of audio books that you like, I daresay the $7.49 you pay to get good discounts in the audio books you want is worth it–you can just cancel after the first month if you like. :)

Please note: I am not getting anything from posting about this sale here. I’m not even an affiliate or whatever! I don’t receive a thing from Audible with this post. It’s just that I believe in the power of audio books with first in series books, and I thought this was too good an opportunity to miss. :D

Personally, I got Jim Butcher’s Storm Front of The Dresden Files for $5.04; I am eyeing a couple others but I will have a think about them for now–some of the first in series books I have been looking at aren’t included :(

I hope you find something in the list!

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Trying to choose between GPL and BSD licensing

I’ll be frank: I have no idea how to choose an appropriate license for my web work. The work I’ve done–mostly in the area of tools for small web hobbies–I’ve just slapped on a “license” that says:

This script is made available for free download, use, and modification as long as this note remains intact and a link back to http://scripts.indisguise.org/ is given. It is hoped that the script will be useful, but does not guarantee that it will solve any problem or is free from errors of any kind. Users of this script are forbidden to sell or distribute the script in whole or in part without written and explicit permission from me, and users agree to hold me blameless from any liability directly or indirectly arising from the use of this script.

Which has worked all right for me so far, but I’ve been thinking of jumping to a better-known license. Now, I know both the GPL and BSD licenses allow free distribution, and my homemade license prohibits it, but let me talk about why it was there in the first place.

Small scripts need some credit love too

Back when I started with Enthusiast, the de facto standard for fanlistings (the original purpose of Enth) was PHPFanBase. There were no other scripts in the community. I tried using it, but I wanted more out of it. So I decided I’d make my own script, for my own use. After a while, well, hell, I’d just put it up in case someone else wants an alternative.

Only a few people knew of Enthusiast then. I was extremely gratified that people found it useful, and I continued to work on it on and off. It wasn’t an instant hit, or anything like that; the response was gradual, but it was growing. For my part, I didn’t mind so much that it wasn’t too well known. I was just glad that people liked it, and came to thank me for it.

And then a friend of mine directed me to take a look at something. I found out that someone who was more popular than I am in the community (this may be wrong–I have no proof of this or otherwise, but I did know that I admired her work and thought her to be very popular) started offering her own fanlisting script. And it looked very similar to my own. I opened the source. Gone was my name and notes, of course, but the coding style down to the indents, the odd quirks and naming conventions…they were all the same.

I was devastated. Apparently, she had taken my script and modified it (how much? I don’t know; only that big chunks of code had been lifted verbatim) and released it as her own. It was a painful blow to me, a relative unknown, and to see the praises she had already received for “her script” without any note or credit to me.

This was a long time ago–I might actually still have been in college then. She did take it down, and apologize, and my own homemade license grew stricter.

So now what?

Yes, what? I’ve been doing a lot of reading on GPL vs BSD licensing, but let me tell you…it’s horrid going. If it’s not a very long and hard-to-read document, it’s a dubious-looking blog post with comments that refute the blog post, thanks to the infamous BSD vs GPL wars debates.

The licenses themselves are quite straightforward. They both require attribution. GPL requires derivative works to be open-source and also licensed under GPL, so programs stay open and free. BSD (new) prohibits using the copyright owners’ names to be used to promote/advertise derivative works.

That’s it. BSD does not require open-sourced derivative work, GPL has no restrictions on the whole promotion thing.

What’s more indistinct, however, is what this means both for the project and the creator. And that’s what I’m trying to figure out.

It’s easier to think how it may affect the project by looking at the nature of the product itself. If it might be useful in setting a standard, for example, and would be helped along by adoption into proprietary/closed-source systems, then BSD might be the right way to go.

As for the creator? That feels like a vast gray area to me. What rights have you, exactly, over the work?

  • I have read a couple proponents say that GPL is about equality across all contributors, so does that mean the original creator has less control over his work, now?
  • What does “derivative work” exactly mean in this sense?
  • If someone adds a patch to the script, is the result already a derivative work, and does that mean the one who contributed the patch is on even ground with the original creator?
  • What does either mean for significant new releases of a project, and the project moves in a direction I do not envision for the project, do I not have the right anymore to ensure it is in keeping with my vision?
  • As creator of two projects, likely I would be sharing code across the two: will that mean I cannot, anymore?

I realize that one of the basis behind open source software is that people are good and kind enough to want to improve programs for the good of the community. It is based on the belief that people are intrinsically good. But when that is not always the case, when I with my paltry few contributions have experienced someone trying to rip off my work–what kind of protection can one even fall back on?

Is there even a point in all this, or should I just close my eyes, pick a license out of a hat, and slap it on my scripts?

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30 before 30: video blogging

VloggingI’d always been interested in video blogging. Some years ago, a number of friends did some video posts and ever since then I set it as a goal that I would do one myself. It was an interesting way to talk to readers, it felt a lot more personal, and I was always curious at how my online friends actually sounded like.

My first attempt was very shortly after that. I took my trusty Canon Powershot A80 and shot myself talking. And again. And again. And again.

And then I trashed it.

(Uh, the video! Not the camera.)

I looked weird (the face I see in the mirror is the face I know of myself, not the non-flipped-over-face which everyone else sees apparently), I rambled and had lots of long pauses, and I sounded funny. I always sound funny on record, or on mic. I suppose that is my real voice, the voice most everyone hear me as, but I was facepalming all throughout listening to my videos with my high-pitched, little-girl voice.

So yes, being a radio DJ was out of the question.

But I still wanted to do it one of these days. Two years ago I actually tried with my notebook craft, but could not make it work with either my laptop camera or my real point-and-shoot camera. But last year while procrastinating on the NaNoWriMo forums, I came across some people who planned to vlog about NaNo.

Ka-ching!

So I did it, I did a weekly video post of my NaNoWriMo progress. I used my machine’s iSight, and iMovie to record and piece it together, and then uploaded it off to Youtube.

A couple of thoughts on the whole practice:

  1. Video editing is a pain. I had a number of effect ideas in my head for specific parts of the posts, but I had no knowledge or ability to make it happen. At one point I was so frustrated I wished it was a Powerpoint presentation instead so I could animate objects across the screen!
  2. Repeat a line enough times, and it becomes unbelievably boring.
  3. I need more facial expressions or variety.
  4. …and in that light, video posting about an activity while I’m doing said activity is more interesting than me talking about doing an activity. (Of course, video blogging what I look like while I’m writing is…quite boring.)

I didn’t hit any records with the video posts; it was probably more interesting to friends (“oh, so that’s how Angela sounds like!” and “aha, blackmail material!”). But I enjoyed the experience and I wouldn’t shy away from the medium if there is an appropriate subject or event for another video post.

As they say, the journey was more enjoyable and important than the destination.

This post is also part of the 30 before 30 challenge: a list of things that I want to do and accomplish before I turn 30 years old.

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The table is for you, too

Dear fellow DPS,

Hello. I am a mage, also known as The Vending Machine. You know I can chug out food and drinks for you guys, after all, you guys even request it of me randomly while I’m hanging out in Dalaran.

I bring down a table in every instance. It’s there, nice and shiny and floating magically. It also has an annoying shimmering sound whenever the table is there. You can’t miss it. You also can’t miss the clicky portal you just saw appear in front of you, too; you might have even helped summon it in from the Twisting Nether.

I expect you to take a stack or two of food, at least. Yes, even you, dear melee DPS who do not have blue bars. I expect you to take some stacks and EAT THE DAMN STRUDELS.

Why?

Because your poor healer is going OOM. I don’t care if you don’t have a blue bar and thus don’t need to drink. Strudels are also for eating. The healer needs to drink between pulls and YOU need to eat to TOP YOURSELF UP. Each time you stand there idly with 50% health while your healer drinks up, I want to smack you. Hard.

The table is for you, too.

Love,
Eilonwyn the mage

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Writer’s Block? What’s that? (A link roundup)

Crumped up paperYou might say I’ve been on a long, almost permanent (creative) writer’s block, starting from my college life up until last year. Self-inflicted, genuine blankness, and alibis: they can all hide behind that dreaded phrase.

I came across quite a couple of interesting posts about writer’s block recently, good ideas and tips to put that shameful event in its place.

What do you think of writer’s block?

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Oh my pretteh (Panasonic Lumix GF2)

BEHOLD.

Panasonic Lumix GF2 (taken with Instagram)

Once upon a time

Around the latter half of last year, I started to seriously look into upgrading to a digital SLR camera. I’ve been playing with my dad’s DSLR whenever I was home, and while I didn’t know what I was doing half the time, I loved the feel and I loved what I could do with it. Oh the pretty blurry backgrounds! <3

In truth, I’d been thinking of upgrading on and off for a long time now; but the biggest roadblock was the size and weight. I’d bring it out like, what, once a month? Take out the big guns when there are special occasions? I didn’t want to buy an expensive DSLR that I’d bring out once a month; no matter how shiny the tech and how cheap DSLRs are becoming, it’s still far too expensive.

So how?

I started looking into micro four-thirds. More and more of my colleagues started sporting it, especially the ones who actually had DSLRs and shot wonderful photos, and it felt to me like a nice compromise between a point-and-shoot and a DSLR. I couldn’t decide between the Olympus E-PL1 and the Panasonic Lumix GF1. But when I saw the pink GF1, I was in love. Why? Face it, when they make pink tech gadgets, they use hot pink most of the time. But why?! I dislike the color–it’s too strong for my taste. The “sakura pink” GF1, however, came in a light, pretty shade.

It was love at first sight.

This was around September, when rumors of the GF2 came out. Plus, I had no money budgeted for this, having just moved houses. I had to wait. January, they said. The GF2 will be out January 2011.

The impulse buy that wasn’t really an impulse buy

I wasn’t really expecting to get the GF2 until end of January. When we asked a local shop, they said it would be two weeks for stocks to arrive. The day after that, on an impromptu trip with friends to Funan, a spur-of-the-moment query at another photography shop led to the GF2 being available. Available! It was available, people!!

And so it felt like an impulse buy even though it wasn’t due to my months-long wait and research. I don’t really remember my thoughts or what I felt when I was getting it; everything felt surreal. I’ve read the reviews, I’ve done my weighing. All I needed to make sure of was the handling, and it was then actually in my hands, and in my more experienced friends’ hands. It was definitely a good thing I had done all my reading on the model before, and that my friends were actually there for support, because I might have just walked out of there in a daze.

Oh my precious

So there is is, my pretty GF2. I didn’t mind that there was no mode dial; I did not have any habits connected with the mode dial. I’m actually doing a lot of setting changes and the like via the various buttons at the back, as I’m used to that coming from my Ixus, but the touch screen is wonderful for manual focusing, and it’s very intuitive. I love the aperture of the prime lens that came with the GF1 (the 20mm f1.7 pancake), but the 14mm f2.5 that came with the GF2 is good–and size-wise, it is definitely smaller than the previous. I prefer my prime lens over the zoom, but I may just need more practice with the latter.

It feels solid in my hands, not too small and not too big. It won’t fit in any of my pants pockets (well, maybe it will fit in my cargo pants), but it’s just nice for tucking into my handbag (where my kikay kit has been delegated to the back portion). Carrying the camera diagonally across my chest, the weight is negligible, although I’m still too conscious of its presence for now (oh! I might hit it! oh! it might hit that thing! oh! what if it falls?? *hugs it protectively*).

For all you QQ-no-mode-dial-ers

All I can say is: this camera is not for you. Stick to your GF1. I actually had one shop owner try to dissuade me from the GF2, saying that the E-PL1 and the GF1 is better than the GF2; I could almost see the disdain wafting from him as he urged me to get either earlier models, rather than the GF2. I told him I wasn’t a DSLR user, I told him I liked the colors of the GF2 better (hey I’m not going to shoot in raw all the time), but he was distracted and I doubt he was listening to me. (Obviously, I did not get from him.)

I don’t mind that the GF2 is not a “serious” camera, that it lacks street cred (for what, not having a mode dial? orly?). What I care about is that it’s easy to use, light (it is lighter than the GF1), small (it is smaller than the GF1), and that I enjoy using it (it’s pink, fer cryin’ out loud!). I care about actually feeling excited about using it, and liking it enough to bring it along on ordinary days and possibly catch opportunities along the way. I care about taking photos, not what I look like taking photos.

And now the slow trek away from noob-dom

I have much to learn. I still need to stop and think about apertures and shutter speeds. I’m trying to figure out what “kind” of photographer I am; I know I love macro photography and still life (and uh, food photography), as most of my previous “hobby” photos fall under that–but I just don’t have enough experience with portraiture and landscape photography for me to rule that out: maybe it’s just that I suck at portraiture right now but I will like it later on, yes?

I am learning. I finally, finally know how to read all those numbers and letters on a lens name, and actually know what it means (well, maybe not all the letters). I’m not completely useless trying to work out manual settings. I am learning those little things that photographers do, like changing the lens with the image sensor down to keep the dust out.

Of course, I need to stop feeling a little too self-conscious about my camera and my noob-dom. I went out with a friend to run our new cameras through their paces, and I felt like a plodding turtle; but then, so what? It will take time to get used to my new shiny toy, and my GF2-created photos certainly aren’t award-winning, but more than half the joy is in the finding and the doing than the end itself.

Here’s to many photos to come!

This post is also part of the 30 before 30 challenge: a list of things that I want to do and accomplish before I turn 30 years old.

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Resolution finale: life in 2011

It was difficult to come up with a general, all-encompassing “life” resolution for 2011. I’m actually on the fence about the whole new year’s resolutions practice–while it is a good time to take stock of one’s life, changing for the better should be something done more often than once a year.

That said, it is fun to make lists. Lists are fabulous.

Ring out the old, ring in the new,
Ring, happy bells, across the snow:
The year is going, let him go;
Ring out the false, ring in the true.- Alfred, Lord Tennyson

I thought of many possible life resolutions:

  1. Do something new every week.
  2. Say yes.
  3. Be brave.
  4. Challenge myself.
  5. …and so on and so forth

–but as I sat down to write about these things, I realized that these were all “pretty phrases” but I had no real way of making sure I kept to this kind of resolution, or that it was impractical to structure the resolution in order to track “progress”. Do something new every week? WHAT new thing? Can I eat ampalaya and call it my “something new” for the week? Say yes–how do I measure “yes significance”? And so on. And so I kept going back to the drawing board.

And then, I realized–I already have a good list, a list I made quite a while ago. My 30 before 30 list is the best thing to draw resolutions from. Time is running out, after all! By June 2013, I should have done 30 things. (Iknowiknowiknow, the list isn’t even complete yet. Care to suggest something? :D)

By the end of 2011, I should have crossed off 15 things from my 30 before 30 list.

Talk about hitting two birds with one stone. The things listed are all “new” things, activities that require a bit of bravery, a dash of creativity. And I’ve (just about) finished three, so that leaves me to catch up with 12 items–roughly one item per month of 2011! It’s almost as if it was made for a new year resolution list. ;)

Here’s to 2011!

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Resolution week: books in 2011

My bookshelves (click to enlarge)There was never a lack of books wherever I lived. We had plenty of books growing up, and I positively devoured them; we were fed Nancy Drew with our meals. When I moved to Singapore, I brought with me some of my books, and I’ve only recently stopped bringing even more of my books from the Philippines back here. A house without a small library of any sort is not a house, I daresay.

Of course, that pretty much means that sometimes…there were far too many books. I would see something shiny and interesting in a bookstore and oh oh oh I must have it! And thus the to-read-stack grows ever higher and longer. It’s a mix of gifts and self-buys that I haven’t been able to crack open, sometimes due to lack of time, and sometimes, admittedly, due to lack of interest.

But all of these books are beautiful in the own right! Right? For shame!

So when I was thinking of a resolution in 2011 that I could do for my book-reading, I shuffled through ideas of “read 50 books” and “read books I previously put down because I couldn’t get through it omg” which felt like any ordinary resolution. I could probably make them every year and it wouldn’t really make a difference!

And then I came across my bookshelf, my bookshelf which has one whole shelf (plus more) of books I haven’t read yet. Bingo.

Why spend more and more money buying books when I haven’t discovered all the gems that were in my own bookshelf, right this very minute? Some might not be gems after all, but they all deserve a reading. They will probably surprise me, too! They are worlds on their own and each world deserves to exist, by getting read and experienced.

*pets bookses*

And so, my booky resolution of 2011 is to read all the books on my to-read shelf before I even think of buying more books.

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Resolution week: a writing project in 2011

A pause in my workIn 2010, I set myself to start writing this story idea I had a long time ago during National Novel Writing Month. I finished–not very brilliantly, but I finished. And then, during the first week post-NaNoWriMo, I decided I wouldn’t go back to the story. Better to get out while it was early, so to speak.

Two things changed my mind:

Around the same time, I saw Amos at the office pantry and we caught up and talked about my NaNoWriMo experience. He seemed so genuinely enthused, and interested in the story, and told me stuff that I knew but needed to be reminded of, like that I just needed to have a breather and step back from the story after that mad rush. And so I told myself that I’d give myself that breather and go back to my draft.

Well, so much for that, it was December, I went back to the Philippines for a vacation, there were such a lot of things going on (including machine hiccups, like the battery bloating like a damn balloon) that I never got any writing done.

While in the Philippines though, I was browsing in Powerbooks while waiting for a couple friends when I came across this poster promoting a writer and a book: Samantha Mae Coyiuto’s Flight to the Stars and Other Stories. She was (is) 16 years old, and it was already her fourth book, having started writing since she was six.

I wasn’t very different from that girl. I started when I was seven, I also drew the illustrations for the “self-published” (read: home printer, felt paper cover = win!) short story, and I also wrote short stories. I did not have any mentors until I was well into high school, but I had the support of my family. I was happy for her at the same time that I felt a pang of regret that I let myself be sidetracked.

Because that’s what it is: I let myself be distracted by other things. Up to now, yes. It’s not anyone else’s fault but my own.

So this year, in 2011, I will pick up my NaNo novel and work with it, and get to at least a fourth draft by the end of the year. I need to stop letting distraction, and my fear of failure, to get in the way of getting this done. Is it going to be a good story? Who knows. But that’s exactly it: no one, not even me, will ever know, unless I try.

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