Essjam's Blog

A Simple Drink

2011-07-24T19:47:00.000-07:00

Cletus sat at his usual table slamming whiskey shots. His complexion was flushed red across his cheeks and bulbous nose, framing deep set rheumy pig eyes. His normal surly demeanor was getting more foul by the minute; he was spoiling for a fight. The tables nearest him were empty of patrons, they had seen this way too many times.

A horse and rider slowly emerged from a billowing dust cloud at the end of town. They were absolutely covered in thick layers of dust. The horse, rider, apparel and tack were all the same dingy tannish shade of brown. The cowboy dismounted at front of the saloon. Clouds of dust kept coming off the man as he continued to ineffectually swat himself. Making sure that his horse could reach the water trough, Frank gratefully stepped into the saloon.

"Hey barkeep! I'll take a whiskey!" said Frank as he moved slowly and stiffly toward the bar. Frank plunked a dust-covered coin on the bar and eagerly started to lift the drink to his overly parched lips. Abruptly, something crashed into his shoulder, spilling his highly prized drink. Frank shook his head in disgust to the accompaniment of many more motes. Frank's eyes angrily focused on the ugly face of Cletus; intense mutual hatred blossomed immediately.

"Hell, we don't serve your kind in here you filthy shit for brains rag bag." glared Cletus.
Frank turned to face Cletus, noticing the low-slung tied down holster. "Your mother must have been some sow, pig eyes!"

Cletus made a fast move toward his gun. He was not prepared for the bullet that found its mark squarely between his eyes. Watching Cletus fall, Frank smoothly holstered his weapon, the only thing he owned that wasn't covered in dust.

"I'll have that drink now barkeep."

On The Way to Golf

2011-06-11T22:31:00.000-07:00

A funny thing happened on the way to Golf. A War-Game broke out! I left the apartment with every intention of playing golf. As I got to the highway entrance ramp, I noticed this huge wreck, and traffic was in grid-lock. Rather than getting into all that, I was able to pull two consecutive clover-leafs and head back the other direction!

So now what to do? I had the whole afternoon open, so I decided to head to the local gaming store to wait out the wreck. When I got there; Phil (the owner) tells me to check out the back room, there may be old friends back there. Good enough, in I went.

Damn, here was a 16 x 6 foot table with a huge 20mm American Revolution set out on it. And two old friends hollering at me what the hell had happened to my old phone number? (That is a different story) Golf was quickly forgotten and we had a great afternoon of battle, tacos and catching-up.

Tales of Zimdar - 2 - Rivits

2011-05-24T10:28:00.000-07:00

After many days of rough passage, in the dark of the night, the Captain heard another sound over the winds. The sound was a crashing surf off to the starboard bow. He quickly turned the Drake starboard in hopes for shelter. The sound of surf grew louder and louder. The captain held the wheel hard over with all his strength and prayed. Abruptly the Drake slammed hard into something solid and popped rivets in a hail of shrapnel.

It wasn't a great landing, everyone was bruised and bloodied, but there were no fatalities. Within a short time the storm blew onward leaving them behind. There were just a few hours before dawn. Exhausted, bandaged and grateful to be alive everyone drifted off to sleep. What new peril would the morning would bring?

As dawn was breaking, so was the Drake. Amidst sounds of crashing surf could also be heard popping rivets, groaning metal plates, and straining bilge pumps. The shipwreck survivors slowly awakened from their exhaustion induced slumber. Slowly, as wits and strength returned, they made their way to the deck. They stood dumbstruck, gazing at what had stopped the projectile named RMS Drake.

Less than one hundred meters directly east was a pristine white sand beach that sloped upward and back into a dense tropical forest. Coconut palms, palmettos and ferns were abundant, as well as razor grass and other underbrush. The forest appeared very thick and deep, a quick breeze ruffled the tops of the trees as far as they could see. As they watched, a large flock of birds rose from the trees, screaming, diving and swooping, and disappeared inland.

The beach and forest stretched for miles to the north-northeast, until it disappeared on the horizon in haze and mist. From the Drake's perspective, the beach and forest also stretched for miles to the south-southwest, until it too vanished at the horizon. This was not a caricature desert isle with its single palm tree, this was a landmass that speculation predicted could be immense. Why it was not on any map was a mystery to Captain DeKaban.

Pop! Another rivet hurriedly leaving its berth brought the Captain's attention back to the Drake. It was past time to offload material and supplies that would allow survival. Water, food and shelter were immediate needs. In these climates, exposure to the elements was not an immediate risk, except for the sun. He prayed that was the last hurricane he would see for a long while.

The captain set his crew to gathering all the perishables that could be preserved and had them transferred into the two ships boats. Salvage of other material that would not be affected by water was delayed. The Drake was not going to sink, the storm had thrown her several hundred meters onto a coral reef. She was taking on water as the plates failed. The realization that survival may be a long-term activity had awakened in the captain's mind. He was determined to salvage every scrap of material that might prove useful.

As the captain turned to enter his cabin, footsteps sounded loud on the deck planking. Two crewman, breathless, wearing lop-sided and hopeful grins, came hustling up holding a waterlogged pigeon cote. The captain, in what seemed like the first time in years, smiled. There were five pigeons still alive.

Looking closer, all three that Fairvictory had given him in Capetown were looking back at him. Somewhat bedraggled and confused, the birds appeared healthy. Enlisting Lady Sarah's help, crewmen Burke and Duncan went off to warm, dry and feed the birds. The captain continued on below, now focusing on finding his navigation tools.

Sometime later, DeKaban used two of his precious carrier pigeons to send a message to Fairvictory. The second pigeon, was a cool gray blue with a confident eye. Everyone bade it good speed and fair travel as it mimicked a bullet toward the west.

Fairvictory, RMS Drake shipwrecked on uncharted island.
All Passengers and Crew in good health. Send help,Dekaban
14 46 30S 73 26 10E

For several hours the two ship's boats were kept busy salvaging the Drake. Dolphins, playing in the surf watched the small boats swim back and forth between ship and shore. They chittered at the boats every so often but soon tired of the game. They went back to feeding and surfing. The boats continued the salvage operation. Late in the afternoon, the boats brought all passengers and crew to the beach.

Snort stepped out onto a bright white sand beach, there was plant debris everywhere. Seaweed had been pushed high on the beach; undergrowth had been ripped loose and blown about by the storm. The scattered coconuts brought his attention to an immediate task. Survival would require food, shelter and fresh water.

With coconuts and fish to be harvested, food was plentiful, if not exactly gourmet. A remembered image of the swarming birds returned to Snort. There would be game available, but the birds also meant there was fresh water somewhere near. A scouting party should be sent out, soon. Snort turned to help Sarah out of the boat.

Sarah extended her hand to Reginald and stepped out of the ship's boat onto the sandy white beach. This place was beautiful and sent her imagination running back to her childhood. She remembered daydreams of far off islands full of adventure. She remembered them as much more comfortable however, and her pragmatic side pulled her out of reverie.

With Reginald at her side, she strode inland, until she was almost at the jungle edge. Looking around she found a few coconut palms that had been blown over in the storm. These would serve nicely as seating around a fire-pit. She began to gather material for a fire.

The next few weeks settled into routine, limited exploration and survival. Snort and some of the 213th Worcestershire soldiers explored the area. A little brook, that ran quick and clear, was found about a half-mile from their initial landing point. Construction of shelter close to the brook was immediately begun. Soon there were several buildings that offered a modicum of comfort.

As the days passed, Lady Sarah came to the realization that rescue may never arrive. She needed something to hold onto her courage. A remembrance from her childhood of a little white prick-eared terrier, with boundless energy and courage came to her unbidden. Her father had given her that dog, and told her that its name was Scimitar. She had not been able to pronounce that name, it tangled on her tongue and lips. Her father had smiled at the attempt.

During the evening meal, Sarah asked DeKaban if he had thought of a name for this newly discovered land. He had not. She described the memory and the link to her father and home that the little dog's name conjured.

Capt. DeKaban was delighted with the story and hastily organized a ceremony. Shortly after dinner, with everyone in full military dress, Capt. DeKaban proclaimed "This new land is claimed for Queen and Country and shall in future be known as - Zimdar". A toast was raised and downed at the christening.

A Lady Named Sally

2011-05-18T15:07:00.000-07:00

She was a sweet curvy little machine painted racing blue. Her interior featured red leather bucket seats without frills. She wasn't made for high top end speed. She was lithe, agile and pounced from corner to corner.

A quick little tap on the brakes would set her turn angle. Then she could be driven by counter-lock steering and the accelerator pedal. She was a '58 Porsche 356A Coupe named Sally. She was parked and locked safely at the side of the street.

He went inside a favorite haunt for a quick beer. Then some drunk sumbitch plowed a half ton pickup into her side, killing her.

A China Doll

2011-05-16T18:50:00.000-07:00

An exquisite rag doll with a china face was a gift for Beth's sixth birthday. Its facial features were hand painted, and its eyes were masterfully done. No matter which angle she looked at the doll, its eyes locked onto Beth's. Years of happy playtime passed until Beth grew into a young adult. She stored the doll away in a dark chest, forgetting about it.

Beth, now thirty four, opened the chest looking for something old, borrowed, or blue. As she picked up the doll to search underneath, china eyes locked onto hers. Beth shivered as there seemed to be palpable malice emanating from the doll. Hairline cracks appeared on the doll's eyes, followed by exploding china shards.

Beth was cast into darkness as two precisely placed shards claimed her vision.

A Day At Waterloo

2011-05-15T11:04:00.000-07:00

The day had started spectacularly. The regiment marched in nice straight lines. Shoulder to shoulder strode young men eager for a fight. Shakos, uniforms, cross-belts and muskets gleamed in the sun. Sounds of battle grew closer; lips suddenly became very dry, throats closed.

The order came to deploy into line. Drums and bugles marked the cadence. A slow advance with arms at the ready. An officer screamed "Volley Fire!" Then the repeat of "FIRE!" Reach into the pouch, bite off the oiled paper and prime the pan. Pour the rest of the powder and ball down the musket barrel and ram it home. Take aim and fire again. Can't see because of all this blasted gun-smoke.

Men screaming, crashing cannon, smell of cordite, urine and blood assaults all senses. What lunacy is this, standing here like a cow for slaughter? "Keep firing!" Mates to the right and left both scream at the same time falling dead. He is sprayed with ichor, blood and gore. Napoleon is a pompous imbecile that doesn't care if his men live or die! "Keep firing! Close ranks! Make those shots count!"

Never again, if I get out of here, never again! After an interminable age it is over. The silence is overwhelming, his ears ring loudly in the cacophonies' pause. With trembling fingers he sweeps the Shako from his head and lets it fall. He absently notes the Shako has a bullet hole and is missing a piece of chin scale. There is a burning, stinging sensation along his left rib, but it is lost in the flood of dissipating adrenaline.

"Form Up! Form UP!" He grabs his Shako, musket and takes his place in line. Merde!

Tales of Zimdar - 1 - Discovery

2011-05-12T12:10:00.000-07:00

Her Royal Majesties steamship Drake leaves Weymouth, England in the summer of 1847, sailing south towards the Cape of Good Hope. It is starting the journey to India and is loaded with trade goods, building materials, and mail for the garrison posts. The latter is to be delivered throughout the East Indies trading company expansion.

The weather is fair with a slight breeze coming in off the Atlantic. Crisp and cool, it raises gooseflesh on the arms of Lady Sarah Swithington, late of Darby Dale, fiancée of Sgt. Major Reginald Fitzsimmons. Lady Swithington gently rubs her arms and smiles in anticipation of the voyage to come and the experiences of exotic ports of call.

Meanwhile, in the middle Atlantic, weather conditions have been remarkably placid for much too long...

The RMS Drake lazily sambas her way southward calling in ports Brest, Bordeaux, Oporto, Lisbon, Cadir and Gibraltar. Sarah and Sgt. Major Fitzsimmons visit each port, sightseeing, sampling local cuisine and storing memories. Sarah cannot imagine a more perfect trip.

The Drake is resupplied and provisioned while in Gibraltar. Capt. Roger DeKabanbouy also has her inspected and is satisfied with the report. Although, nagging in the back of his mind, why did the boiler suddenly cease operation between Lisbon and Cadir? Leaving Gibraltar and turning south toward the coast of Africa, the Drake makes good speed and the boiler rhythmically chugs a happy little melody.

Out in the Atlantic a clear sky and merciless sun begins to heat the water. Wind directions in Antarctica change and begin blowing northward. And cool breezes have been following the Drake southward since Weymouth.

Down along the coast of Africa the Drake makes port at Robat, Mogadore, and Bofadar. Selling most of their trade goods, the Captain and crew are happy. It is their intent to buy more on the "Coasts" that are quickly approaching. The lure of cheap Ivory, Gold and Silver has them smiling in anticipation. This will be a very profitable trip.

After a small toast in the Captain's cabin celebrating crossing the Tropic of Cancer, Sarah and Fitzsimmons retired to their cabins. The small dram of brandy had merely whetted the Sergeant Major's appetite, not quenched a thirst. The men of the Highlanders had nicknamed him Snort because of the prodigious amount of whiskey he could drink. One of his mates, Mark Winguthban, had said "If he is not on duty, he is drinking, watch your whiskey boys, he just snorts it down." That had been a good laugh and had cost Fitzsimmons a few more drinks. The name "Snort" had been with him since that day. Now where was that bottle?

Sarah entered her cabin and began to make preparations for her evening's repose. She absent-mindedly noticed that the swell was somewhat larger and the wind seemed to be picking up. One of her lamps was guttering somewhat. She needed to trim the wick. One last thing, though, she had better go check on Reginald. She had noticed the wistful look on his face as the Captain had put the stopper back in the decanter.

The voyage continued down the coast of Africa with stops at Port Lokko and Free Town. The Drake stopped at Monrovia on the Grain Coast and resupplied some of the foodstuffs. Turning east, she then began her voyage on down the Coasts, stopping at every port imaginable. The Drake's crew and Captain traded diligently picking up Ivory, Gold and Silver. As she neared the Mouths of the Quorra, preparing to turn south again, the boiler went out. No warning, nothing, one second it was perking along normally, the next it was ominously quiet. It did relight, after some effort, but its rhythm had changed.

The water vapor suspended over the area that had been heating for weeks met with the northerly flowing winds from Antarctica and the southern bound winds that had chased the Drake all the way from England. Rotation around the hot spot started almost immediately.

The party for crossing the Equator allowed the crew to blow off some steam. Snort lived up to his name and enjoyed himself tremendously. Even though he could drink prodigious amounts, he was never out of control. That would simply be bad form. But once the Drake left Nazareth it was back to work. The boiler was running rougher now although it had not failed again. Capt. DeKabanbouy makes inquiries at every port but spare parts were not to be found. He decided to press straight on to Cape Town in hopes that spare parts or at least an adequate smithy can be found.

The Drake's boiler died twice between Mayumba and Cape Frio. The crew had tried everything including a complete cleaning of all the firebox components while docked at Cape Frio. That helped somewhat, it was still off rhythm, but it did not die again during the remaining voyage to Cape Town.

The growing storm had been gathering strength and had grown into a full-fledged hurricane. It had wandered around the area like a drunken tripod dog, not quite deciding to travel east or west. But finally the winds from the north grabbed hold and started pushing the storm southeast.

At Cape Town the inquiries for spare parts went for naught. There were several smithies but the Captain thought his crew was more qualified than the smiths. He set them cleaning, lubricating and polishing one more time. The Drake replenished its fresh water supply and added some fruit to the stores. Snort and Sarah spent a delightful evening with an old friend of the Captain.

Mark Fairvictory was an excellent host and conversationalist. He enjoyed entertaining his old friend and the other travelers from home. The meal was superb, with excellent cigars and brandy afterwards. The dinner conversation embraced many subjects including news from England, local hunting conditions and sporting events. Fairvictory was extremely keen on his teams chances in the upcoming Cricket tournament and regretted that DeKabanbouy would not be around to watch.

The next day dawned crisp and clear, but there were ominous clouds off in the northwest and the swell was rising. The captain ordered the Drake to cast off, he was going to run in front of the storm. The Drake should be okay once it got around the Cape of Good Hope and sheltered on the eastern side of Africa. The Drake dropped south out of Cape Town, the boiler chugging right along. It stayed out south of the Cape, the Captain wanted to make sure there was deep water under the keel. And finally the Drake started its turn to the east.

The storm was a monster and its winds were gaining velocity, it was now bound directly for the Cape of Good Hope pushing high seas in front of it.

The captain realized he had dreadfully underestimated the storm, the seas were tremendous, with waves crashing over the bow. He ordered all his crew to be tied to lifelines and anything else lashed into place. Sarah and Snort were told to stay in their cabins and to hang on. It was going to be a rough ride. Finally he called for all the power the little boiler could produce. The Drake was pounding along, and the captain was worried.

The seas were immense, the Drake was barely capable of maintaining steerage, and the storm was pushing against it violently. Late in the day, the boiler simply gave up. The rough pounding had exacerbated the nagging internal problems and it simply couldn't cope anymore. The Drake, now without power, could only be pushed along in front of the storm. All the captain could do was to keep the Drake from capsizing by using the rudder to keep the bow into the waves.

The storm blew for several days, the Drake was totally lost at sea and the little ship was showing signs of the incessant pounding. It was tossed around as easily as dandelion seeds in a breeze. The storm winds were so fierce and shrill that one couldn't hold a coherent thought. Sarah was violently seasick and Snort was not much better although putting on a brave face. All were privately making their peace with the Lord in one way or another. Minutes passed like hours and days seemed like years. The storm raged on.

An old home newly refurbished

2011-05-11T19:46:00.000-07:00

For some time, I have been using a Web-Hosting provider instead of Blogspot. When I received the renewal invoice yesterday, major heartburn commenced. So welcome back Blogspot! The relief is palpable that this site had not been removed.

It is passed time to do all the programming required to build my own site. So after some fumbling around, this has arrived at a look and feel that is not too dissimilar to my own.

I am looking forward to growing this site with what I hope is cool content. However, fair warning, blogging like any other hobby will be when the muse screams in my ear.

Primary foci will be Graphics, Music, War-gaming and Writing. Stay tuned.

A Simple Drink

2011-05-11T19:13:00.000-07:00

Cletus sat at his usual table slamming whiskey shots. His complexion was flushed red across his cheeks and bulbous nose, framing deep set rheumy pig eyes. His normal surly demeanor was getting more foul by the minute; he was spoiling for a fight. The tables nearest him were empty of patrons, they had seen this way too many times.

A horse and rider slowly emerged from a billowing dust cloud at the end of town. They were absolutely covered in thick layers of dust. The horse, rider, apparel and tack were all the same dingy tannish shade of brown. The cowboy dismounted in front of the saloon.

Clouds of dust kept coming off the man as he continued to ineffectually swat himself. Making sure that his horse could reach the water trough, Frank gratefully stepped into the saloon.

"Hey barkeep! I'll take a whiskey!" said Frank as he moved slowly and stiffly toward the bar. Frank plunked a dust-covered coin on the bar and eagerly started to lift the drink to his overly parched lips. WHAM! Something crashed into his shoulder, spilling the highly prized drink. Frank shook his head in disgust to the accompaniment of many more motes. Frank's eyes angrily focused on the ugly face of Cletus; intense mutual hatred blossomed immediately.

"Hell we don't serve your kind in here you filthy crap for brains rag bag." glared Cletus.

Frank turned to face Cletus, noticing the low-slung tied down holster.
"Your mother must have been some sow, pig eyes!" spat Frank.

Cletus made a fast move toward his gun. He was not prepared for the bullet that found its mark square between his eyes. Watching Cletus fall, Frank smoothly holstered his weapon, the only thing he owned that wasn't covered in dust.

"I'll have that drink now barkeep."

Things Fixed

2009-11-01T20:01:00.000-08:00

Fixed the comment form CSS & multiple instances per page.
Fixed the Embedded music player so that it works for IE.
Fixed PNG Transparency - Used "Unit Png Fix"

Things to do

2009-10-02T18:42:00.000-07:00

Add search button to header bar
Update CSS to a simpler position / float model.
Redraw Sarah Swithington's hair for god sake !!
Add Video folder menu for tutorials
Add an RSS feed from blip under the Music tab. (Possibility? / Legality?)
Possibly add a last Twitter Posts to main page.
Need to add a page for war-gaming, link to J ?
Rewrite Blog page so it uses MySQL and PHP not Blogspot

An Epiphany

2009-06-20T18:59:00.000-07:00

Finally, I have settled on a direction for my home website.

I am going to learn Inkscape, Blender and develop the characters for animation for our planned movies. The point here is that I am a beginner in these tools, and I will be recording my learning sessions. These videos will then be available under the Graphics section. Then as I gain experience, the movies will be the fulfillment of the site's original direction.

Finally, This should lead to some interesting and worthwhile content. I will learn how to drive interested Internet traffic to my site. This too I will share. I do not believe in the get rich schemes so prevalent on Twitter. This is going to take some time and hard work.

Click the "Home" link to return to www.essjam.com

Best Confirmation email ever received.

2009-06-02T11:14:00.000-07:00

Your CD has been gently taken from our CD Baby shelves with sterilized contamination-free gloves and placed onto a satin pillow.

A team of 50 employees inspected your CD and polished it to make sure it was in the best possible condition before mailing.

Our packing specialist from Japan lit a candle and a hush fell over the crowd as he put your CD into the finest gold-lined box that money can buy.

We all had a wonderful celebration afterwards and the whole party marched down the street to the post office where the entire town of Portland waved "Bon Voyage!" to your package, on its way to you, in our private CD Baby jet on this day, Monday, June 1st.

I hope you had a wonderful time shopping at CD Baby. We sure did. Your picture is on our wall as "Customer of the Year." We're all exhausted but can't wait for you to come back to CDBABY.COM!!

Thank you, thank you, thank you!
Sigh...

Linux Musings.

2009-05-23T12:16:00.000-07:00

I like the Linux operating system. It has shown to be remarkably stable. It has reached a level of sophistication in the GUI where my parents feel at home. However there are several knocks against it. Here are my ideas about moving the chip forward as a real competitor to Windows.

1. Linux does not play games well. Here I have to agree, the Windows Direct X experience is much more suited to real-time shoot-em ups without any twiddling.

Are you able to play Windows games on Linux? Yes, but you have to use and configure an emulator. The most widely used one is Wine, and that is not for the faint of heart. My experience entailed several layers of frustration.

My suggestion is to create an emulator that recognizes and configures the Linux Video and Audio system settings to a game's requirements. Not exactly easy, but I am sure there are talented programmers out in the wild that can accomplish this task.

Now ask yourself an honest question, how many highly video intensive games are you playing? If your PC experience is built around a business, email, word processing, spreadsheets, contact lists, streaming video, instant messaging, etc, that is all built into Linux. Linux is more than competitive in this context.

2. There are too many branches of Linux to make it competitive. In my experience there are about four or five choices that perpetually remain at the top rankings of http://www.distrowatch.com Most of these are Debian based, all of them eventually use the same Linux Kernel. My suggestion is to look at the top five, stay with a Debian based repository. Debian is my personal preference because of the Apt and Synaptic installers. You have narrowed your choices down to two or three distributions (distros).

Ubuntu has a huge following, and uses the Gnome interface. I prefer Mepis because of the KDE interface and because Warren Woodword make the best installers going. His installation scripts are rock solid. My PC is 5 years old and the Mepis installation was smooth as silk. There were no errors at all. I was up and running in ~25 minutes.

Look at the distrowatch site. Find an implementation that suits your preferences. Download an ISO. Most of the main Linux distributions offer a Live CD ISO. These let you try the system before installing. The myriad of Linux Distros has just been reduced to one.

3. Did I mention that Linux offers tons of free software? I do not use Windows Office products anymore. I am using the Open Office suite of tools on XP as well. There are literally thousands of choices to retrieve. So look at what you have spent on an OS, Office Tools and other software and examine what could be saved in the long run. Do a Google on "Windows Linux Equivalent Applications" You will be amazed at what is offered.

This is a prime factor in considering Linux. Some of the Open Source applications have been ported to Windows now. I still believe that I have saved $1500 - $2000 USD in software that would have been purchased for Windows.

4. New software lags behind the development for Windows. Yes this is absolutely true, for example the Chrome browser only runs on XP and Vista. This is sheer market share. Windows is king right now. My opinion here is that MS does a great job on promotion, but not on implementation. XP has been pretty stable, but Vista has been less than stellar. Windows 7 is due out Q4 2009. My company has decided to fore go Vista and wait for Windows 7.

The main distros of Linux are a better quality product. The security of the system is better. Viral attacks are diminished, but again that is due to market share. Crackers simply do not target the Linux share as often as Windows. I believe that Linux is less susceptible to virii but no system is immune. The biggest factor holding Linux back is the lack of promotion. The question is how to convince a large audience to move from the Windows world?

Since Linux is an Open Source movement it will never be able to compete in an advertising competition with Microsoft. Two things must happen to allow a gain of market share.

A. Use word of mouth advertising, blogs, wikis, social media sites to increase awareness of the available option. If you are a Linux advocate, then learn how to present its merits to a person questioning your sanity quickly. Think about an "elevator nugget" or a 140 character limit on Twitter.

B. Use hardware dealers that allow a PC build out without an operating system. The consumer should actually get the PC for less money. However, there may be a very large collusion hurdle to overcome between MS, Intel and the Hardware supplier giants to achieve this cost reduction. One option is to look for the Mom and Pop shops that sell basic PC kits, if you are feeling adventurous or have access to a friendly PC hobbyist.

5. Warning

Finally, before you do anything to your system, backup important data! You should be doing that on a regular basis anyway. If you are not, why not? One good bolt of lightning will create some havoc that you don't really need. Trust me on this one, living in the Midwest, thunderstorms are common.

Do the necessary due diligence to understand installation procedures. Have a plan. Take notes as you go along. Do you know all of your passwords to various locations, or is the current OS "remembering" them for you? Make a list of these. Last but not least - RTFM - many people have spent hundreds of hours documenting the system of choice. Read it!

Futures - A new direction

2009-05-17T21:57:00.000-07:00

Where do I want to go? What do I want to do? What do I want to be when I grow up? This last question is particularly meaningful. I have been in the IT sector since the mid 70's. When I was younger, I had a passion and flair for twiddling the bits and bytes. I was a damn fine programmer in Unix and C.

Now I have reached a stage where I rarely get to program. I run teams of application developers. I am the old fart that demands tight requirements and design. I make you do a design defense and code review periodically. I am the guy that demands yes, no or schedule impact answers in staff meetings. I am the guy that has learned to be dead honest with you and expects / demands the same in return. I am the guy that feels your eyes roll as I walk away.

Back to the question, what do I want to be when I grow up? Not what I just described. There is no passion in it. What the hell am I waiting for? It is past time to take control and make the life changes desired. That is a freaking scary sentence.

Twitter and some chance meetings have given me a new passion, a new hope. This web site and blog are the beginnings. I have so many things to do now, but there is finally a light at the end of the tunnel. I have discovered a sense of naivete again. It is simultaneously frightening and exhilarating.

I have taken the first bite of the elephant, now to keep chewing. We will see where this goes.

What's an Essjam?

2009-05-17T00:34:00.001-07:00

When I was in the third or fourth grade, I experimented with spelling my initials phonetically. SJM became ess-jay-em. During that few days, Mom fixed me a Peanut Butter and Blackberry Jam sandwich. I saw the word Jam on the label. I dropped the “Y”, the second “E” and a syllable. A moniker was born, pronounced ESS-jam.

It has stuck with me over 45 years. Naturally I was quite delighted to see the Domain was unclaimed. I grabbed it when I had the chance. Sometimes the little decisions in life play a huge part in one’s personality. Plus, I will always see my Mom’s face handing me that sandwich. She knew that Blackberry Jam was my favorite. Still is.

Introduction

2008-06-24T23:16:00.000-07:00

First post,
This will be my main blog site for Essjam's World. There will be links to other blogs of particular interest. This one will be aimed at my thoughts, ideas and experiences as I try to build a commercial site.

We shall see where this goes. Frankly the initial setup just to begin a site has been more hours than expected.