PetSmart called — apparently they’re not allowed to board FIV+ cats, which they just finally noticed today after they’d had Dasher for 12 hours. After all, we only checked twice when we were making the arrangements that it wouldn’t be a problem. Forunately, a bit of panicked calling got Dasher shoved off on a friend until Monday night.

Then Laurie fell down on the escalator. -.-

STOP IT, CON!

Laurie’s okay, just some bruises. And once I hit the bar, I should be fine.

*thud*

-The Gneech

I should’ve known something was up when my cat and my dad were both sick leading up to the convention — but I really should have figured it out when the pet-sitter wouldn’t return our calls until yesterday afternoon. But clearly, there is a malevolent force trying, for reasons we can only guess at, to keep us from getting to Dragon*Con.

I mean, seriously, when your plane arrives early but can’t open the door because the caterpillar walkway mysteriously breaks? Then the automated check-in kiosk fails, gives you a ticket that says “Take to any Hilton partner,” but the concierge is just snarky and sends you through the long line at the hotel desk (which was the whole reason for going to the automated kiosk in the first place) … and then you’re given not one, but two sets of keys that don’t work?

Yeah. There’s something up with this con. I’m keeping my eyes open!

-The Gneech

Okay, look:

“PEAK” is the top of something, usually a mountain.

“PEEK” is a quick, furtive look at something.

So if you SNEAK PEAK, you are stealthily climbing to the top of a mountain. If you are getting an illicit preview of something, that is a SNEAK PEEK.

Please stop getting this wrong. It is beginning to walk up and down on my spine.

Thank you.

-The Gneech

Edit: And of course, I get a typo of my own. Pfui! That’s how thrown off I was. Bad grammar is contagious! Stop using it!

On the Dubious Merits of Being “Gifted” and Learning to Do Things the Hard Way…

To get things on the table right up front: going by standardized IQ tests of the ’70s (which is when I last took one), I was listed as being almost, but not quite, a “genius.” Which is to say, I’m not krellborn, but I am smart enough that everything thrown at me by public school was in the “no brainer” category. (Well, except for P.E., but hopefully the reasons for that will become apparent.)

As is often the case with kids in that situation, I learned exactly the wrong lesson from it, which is: “Work is bad. If something requires work, it’s probably not worth doing.” I also learned that if I don’t pick up something immediately, it must be because I’m useless at that thing. Like any kind of sports, for instance.

This really came back to bite me in college, where a lifetime of being smart had left me totally unprepared for having to do things like “study” or “pay attention in class”. I had huge SAT scores and coasted through my pre-college education, but being smart very nearly caused me to flunk out of college. Because I didn’t know how to work, because if something required work, it probably wasn’t worth doing. This is a common problem among people within my band of “not-quite-genius”-ness.

See, “normal” kids don’t have this problem, because they learn “work or fail” early on. By the time they get to college, they’re used to stuff sometimes being hard, and are not afraid of that. Not that they like it, of course, but they are at least trained for it. (I don’t have direct evidence of this, other than observation, but it seems like a pretty reasonable deduction based on what I’ve seen and read.)

Well, after dropping out for a semester, discovering what work was like, and having the fear of God put into me (so to speak), I sucked it up and went back to college and more or less aced it the second time around. Not because I wanted to do well in college, but mostly because I didn’t want to have to get a job. But alas, all good things must come to an end, and so it was that eventually it was time to work or starve, and I’m not a man who tolerates starvation well.

But the general pattern of “if it’s like work, avoid it” continued through my adult life. I did over time become more willing to work at something, but it takes a lot to justify it. Drawing something over and over until I get it right: worth it. Learning to drive a stick shift: not worth it. Dragging myself out of bed in the morning to go to a job in order to keep from losing my house: Worth it. Barely. Mastering the “hard mode” of a video game: not even close.

Recently, however, as I have become more aware of this pattern, I’ve been trying to subvert it. In point of fact, I’ve started seeking out the “hard mode” on things. Because I have found that if I stick with it, and if it’s something that really does matter to me, I will rise to the occasion. And the more “hard stuff” I do, the easier the “easy stuff” gets.

To pick a video game example, as the most direct illustration of this: I have a racing game I enjoy (Outrun 2006 for those who are curious). The game has two modes that I most commonly play: basic “zoom down the course from easy part to hard part and try to beat the time limit” mode, and a more free-form “pick a level and race it over and over again” mode. For a long time, I was unable to beat the basic mode (and I still can’t, for the harder courses), so I would just do the easy courses on the pick-a-level mode because those were relaxing and fun. But one day, I decided that dangit, I wanted to beat that basic mode! So I went to the pick-a-level mode, selected the hardest courses, and started running them over and over instead. It wasn’t as relaxing, nor was it as fun, and I never did do very well. But it did dramatically improve my skill with the game. The next time I went back to the basic mode, I beat it easily.

Of course, anybody who grew up getting props for how hard they worked to master something (instead of for how clever they are), this is a no-brainer. But for me, it was an illuminating moment.

What does all this lead to? Just this: my recently-announced new comic project is gonna be, well, hard. Every page, heck just about every panel, is going to require that I operate on a level comparable to my current best work if it’s going to come off the way I envisage it. I’ve essentially promised myself to do a comic where every page reaches the quality of the “Dover and Comfort V-Day Kiss” pic (or hopefully better, as there are flaws in that piece that still jump out at me every time I look at it). Yes, I can do the work, but great googily-moogily, it’s going to be tough going!

But … on the other hand … if that becomes my daily norm … how much more awesome will my next “level-up” piece be?

That’s not why I chose the look I did for the comic, but if it works, it’ll be a nice perk.

-The Gneech

PS: Two bonus points to the first person who names where the post title came from.

EDIT: For more on this topic, see this page.

According to Borders, yesterday was “Bad Poetry Day.” On their Twitter feed, they asked for people to send in their bad haiku. And as I have an occasional knack [1] for writing bad poetry, I tossed some submissions their way. (I’ve also included a few responses, indicated by username.)

…

Five syllables and
seven syllables and then
HAIKU! … gesundheit

…

Who writes a haiku
only to pimp their website
go to gneech.com

…

(And since traditional haiku usually is about or at least references nature…)

Rain rain rain rain rain
Rain rain rain rain rain rain rain
Rain rain rain rain rain

…

Twittering haikus
there are so many now, that
Oh no! The Fail Whale!

…

(Starhound joins in…)

Look there at @the_gneech
Tweeting haikus on the net
He is a bit odd

…

(Rebelsheart calls me out on Twitterfail…)

just had to tempt fate
posted prose excessively
@the_gneech broke twitter

…

(JadedFox @ed this one my way…)

Start the day with rock
loud drums and guitars wailing
better than coffee!

…

(Heatherzundel finishes me off…)

Oh wow – so in love
it’s hard to write bad haikus
rock on tweet fail whale.

…

A fun time was had by all.

-The Gneech

[1] Not to be confused with an occasional table.

Spending most of my day yesterday and today at CFUnited, which is one of the major get-togethers for ColdFusion developers. This is my third, but alas also my last, because it’s everyone’s last. They’ve opted not to do any more after this one, which is a major bummer. As much as I gripe about my specific job, I really like ColdFusion in general, and always learn interesting and exciting things at CFUnited.

If nothing else, my take-away from CFUnited this year is that I’ve got to get more involved in the CF community, particularly locally. There used to be a monthly CFUG (ColdFusion User Group) at the Center for Innovative Technology at Dulles (a.k.a., the Darth Vader Building), but sometime back it moved downtown to the Figleaf facility at DuPont Circle, which is considerably harder to get to. So one of my co-workers and I discussed yesterday the possibility of setting up an alternate CFUG out here again, which is something I’m going to be looking into in the upcoming weeks.

Of course, CF users are net-savvy folks and so most of the CF community is actually net-based (via blogs or Twitter); I don’t have the programming chops to do a technical blog — but if there’s one thing I’m good at it’s talkin’ about stuff! So I’m going to start looking at ways I can combine my communication skills with my interest in CF, whether or not the alt-CFUG idea comes to fruition. My recent experience creating and teaching an HTML course suggests a direction that’s worth investigating. Teaching low-level CF concepts could allow me to get into the CF community, as well as helping me develop more advanced skills of my own.

-The Gneech