Life of Wade

Booth Babes and Costumes of PAX 2008

noreply@blogger.com (Wade Hone) — Fri, 12 Sep 2008 14:40:00 +0000

I missed my camera the first two days and missed some great shots, it seemed like people came more on the third day to enjoy pax, and some of the convention favorites (Privateer Press) were sadly absent when I went to take pictures.

that said here are the few that I did get:

Here is Violet, I'm not sure what game she was representing... but count me in! it looked Fantastic! ;-P

Here is Pat with Violet... I'm not sure what he did, but it looks like the sentence was death.

Here is Storm Trooper guy:

Here is me, paying proper respect to the Empire... :

Here is a candid shot of 'Darth Vader' letting his hair down.. er.. Helmet off, at least. Even Darth has to take time out to replinish those vital fluids...

Ok, this wasn't really a 'costume' per say, but still - Privateer press really went all out this year. My friend pat is the guy NOT on the pedestal.

Here is some uniformed guy showing off for his Girl Friend, hes next to a statue that was in the Fallout 3 area.

I think I saw this guy in Splinter Cell... correct me if I'm wrong.

Probably the only time that I could say "Hey princess, can I take your picture?" and not get slapped... yes, I really said that.

Here are a couple of Bandaged Babes from 'Alone in the Dark' (I think.)

Here are the same two 'zombie girls' as before... only this time with a new victim.

Here is another Army dude looking Bad-A.

Here is an Alien from Sins of a Solar Empire... you can tell she is an Alien due to her EyE's.

Ok, so when Pat rode to PAX with me, he probably didn't know I was going to make him stand in all the pictures heh. Here is Pat and the 'SotSE' girl.

Here is a random person that I thought looked cool...

There were of course, the 'obligatory' smattering of scantily clad babes at the booths...

Of course, much like pokemon... I had to 'catch them all' Pat obligingly stood next to some for me.

and another...

I know it's hard work, but somebody had to do it! Thanks for taking one for the team Pat.

Magic man!

Here's a creepy big headed alien dude... and some blue alien guy saying hello. (I kid, I kid! heheh)

Here's our blue friend, and as you can see, in this shot the girl is smiling... had I waited just a few seconds, I could have got the shot of her asking for a restraining order... apparently some Aliens are 'Extra Friendly'...

Here is some fan that dressed up like Jerry Holikins, I was shocked by the authenticity of the replication...

hehe ok ok, actualy crept up on Jerry Holkins, one of the founders of PAX and writer extraordinaire of the Penny Arcade, and had Pat take the stealth shot. I would have liked to say a few words to him and thank him for putting the whole show together, but, he was deep in conversation with people already... so I let the opportunity pass.

This Shot is of the PAX Enforcers getting down to a Rock Band Concert:

So this last one I include with a bit of a story to go with it... I had been asking folks that were dressed up if I could take their pictures for some time now, and as I walked up behind this girl, I saw bright red hair and figured she would make a good picture too... well, as I got close to her, I realized that perhaps she wasn't 'dressed up' as anyone at all, I quickly did a rework of my approach and asked instead, motioning with my arms to what looked like a group of her friends, "could I get a picture of you guys, there's a great background I want to get a shot of with people in it." Good cover eh? anyway, here's the picture:

And that's the Booth Babe / Costume Tour of PAX 2008, like I said, I missed a ton of good pictures from the first two days... I'll try to do better next time.

Wade -out.

Review of the WoW miniatures Preview at PAX.

noreply@blogger.com (Wade Hone) — Wed, 03 Sep 2008 17:20:00 +0000

Hey all,

I got the chance to play test the mini's game at PAX. I figured I'd post my thoughts and toss up some pics.

My first impression of the game is that it is AWESOME! I'm really excited about rolling it out for my friends to play. I play Warmachine and Hordes (Circle of Orboros,) but many of my friends in my play circle don't want to get into mini's to the toon of hundreds of dollars spent, and all that time putting models to gether and painting them. After Playing the World of WarCraft Miniatures Game, I'm really stoked about the possibility of getting some of my 'lesser hard core' friends into finally throwing down on some miniature warfare!

I may have had a lucky shake, in that the fellow running the demo game that I played in was Justin Gary lead designer / brand - Product manager for the WoW Miniatures Game. His enthusiasm for the game was contagious, it seemed that he was really enjoying showing us the demo... with four of us standing around rapid firing machine gun like questions about everything we saw; "what are these numbers on the side for?" - "What does that marking around that hex mean? Is it rough Terrain? How do we move into it?" - "What is the VP spot on the map for?" All of which he would have gotten to, if we'd have let him just do his presentation heh, he was a good sport and answered our questions patiently, jumping back into the planned demo whenever possible.

I really liked the approach taken with movement, by simplifying movement, you don't have to break out a measuring tape for each model, and basing 'turns' on a clock mechanic, you alleviate about a billion things that discourage me when playing other mini's games. For one, there's no debate over whether something is 'in range' or not... no 'slips' of the measuring tape that seem to give your opponent an extra half an inch on every move. heh. Perhaps you've never had that experience, but trust me; it's nice not to have to even worry about it! By doing movement based on a grid map, and basing powers and attacks on a clock mechanic, many of the rules are simplified without removing the 'tactical' portions of a miniatures game.

----------------------| A couple of the Miniatures |---------------------

Here is a picture of the play area and you can see the figure scale... as compared to a 288 pound man...

Plastic pre painted: Well, I can tell you, there just isn't anything cooler than an army of metal figures painstakingly painted with tender loving care all spread out on a battle field, and that's just how it is.

That said, there are plenty of draw backs which pre painted plastic fig's fix. I'll just list em here: (ya sure, I'm doing this as sort of a personal exercise attempting to complete my conversion to the medium... but stick with me for a sec.)

Here goes:

Price: Plastics are just less expensive. That's a given.

Time: And this one is HUGE! Seriously, if I can get a fig put together and painted in less than 2.5 hours, I'm doing pretty dang good. That’s allot of time I coulda been playing.

Transportability: sure Metal is stronger - but I'll be honest, I don't feel like I have to be as protective about my plastic figs as I don metal ones. No special army transport case for plastic... unless a cardboard box is special...

ok, those are the best arguments - so, I guess I have to place those against the fact that I really like the feel of Metal figures, and the look of Painted metal Figs. and put that up against the above arguments, as well as consider the fact that these plastic minis look FANTASTIC! I counted 6 individual colors on one model alone while I was at the preview game. That's great! The sculpts were fantastic! So, at least if they can't be metal painted figs, they do still look just about as good as a person could get.
I suppose if someone was real ambitious, they could paint over the pre-paint... call it a sort of a primer coat. But, honestly I don't think that people will need to do that, the figs looked great!

Some other features that I really liked were the universal removable game bases. Very cool. When I have these on a shelf, they can look like a great collectible. When I want to play, snap on a game base, and I have some great info. For use in my games! It’s like they took the thing that wasn't fun with Hero Clicks (that all the models had that clunky base on them,) and the thing that wasn't so cool with DnD minis. (That all the models don't have anything that helps use them in a game on them,) and came up with a solution that works for collectors and players alike. I love that idea! I just hope that the bases or figs don't were out so that it’s difficult to get the figure to stay attached to the base... we shall see.

Well, I'd like to write a bit more about my experience, but I'm all out of time. I had a Blast, and really appreciated Justin taking time to run me through a game!

I'm really looking forward to Bliz Con where I'll be able to play in a turny it sounds like, where I can keep the models that I play with.

oh.. Dang, I didn't mention the 'powers' cards - What a cool concept! By making powers on cards that you can mix and match, it really ups the re-playability of the game! Seriously, using cards that can change to 'enhance' the powers of your min is such a cool idea! I loved it absolutely and can't wait to learn all the 'powers' and put together an unstoppable force!

Thanks again!

zWolf -out.

(Wade Hone.)

A Brief Re-cap of the weekends activities...

noreply@blogger.com (Wade Hone) — Mon, 18 Aug 2008 19:38:00 +0000

I'll see if I can't post some about last weekend, here is a 'short list':

Drinking a mana potion: I didn't know that such foulness would be legal to sell... and I thought cough medicine was bad!!! it did indeed keep me awake though... (went to Sleep at 7:30 am got up at 11:30 for a wedding.)

Fable II

My friend Tom's wife was out for the evening, so he logged in and we played Fable II pub games... getting our characters for Fable II deep in debt... the game isn't even out yet and already I've put my toon in the poor house!

We then played some Soul Calibur IV - and I, having been trained (more like 'schooled',) by the masters, Ryan, and Brandon Hone, (my cousins, ages 6 and 8...) - was able to hold my own pretty good. (Keep in mind I've played the game for several hours and this was Tom's first time with it... he was still able to beat me down far more often than I'd have liked... but, I don't think he got any 'perfects' off at least. :-P

We then loaded up Civilization - that is one fun and addictive game! it's what I played most this weekend (even more than Warhammer online! can you believe!)

Civilization Revolutions for the Xbox 360 (I have 700 of 1000 achievement points so far! that's pretty many for those of you unfamiliar in the art of collecting achievement points on the Xbox 360.)

We played this until late... but at least it wasn't 7 something in the morning... I save that for weekends. heh.

It was great though, we played against the computer, and honestly... I don't remember if we won or lost... I think we lost actually - but that is what is so cool about it, even while losing the game, it's still fun just trying to hang in there for another round.

Anyway, it was all good fun. If Marcel's xBox hadn't have had the red ring of death happen on it recently, we would have played Rock Band with him I'm sure.

Warhammer Online

I did get in the Beta test, and it's awesome! They are doing the PvP exactly like I had hoped they would... which is to say 'GOOD!' and enjoyable. Pat from Boise, is in this test also, so when he's off work, we'll be able to play. It comes out 'for real' on September 19th, so, I'm kind of holding off playing too much since all the progress that my character makes will get erased when the game goes live.

one 'less trivial' thing that I did was go to Don and Carol's Wedding on Saturday. (it was great! I even skipped sleeping in on a Saturday to go to it!!! -I'm so proud of me. :-P )

Also I spent some time visiting with the folks. I spent a couple of hours at their home, I was going to take a nap, but enjoyed visiting with them so much I skipped it.

On Saturday Nights I have been playing an RPG Game @ Gamopolis it's Warhammer Fantasy it's a Pen and paper adventure where you roll multi sided dice (like 20 sides...)

-is it geeky? ya.

is it fun? - you bet!!

I have a blast spending time with the guys at the game shop. eating snacks, laughing at the antics our characters pull off, and pretty much pulling off a rather cool inter active story while we are at it.

On Sunday - woops, I slept in a bit - but then,... There was more Civilization goodness!

and there you have my 'mostly frivolous' list of things I did this weekend - It was awesome! I am recharged and ready to sell a million bucks worth of work this week!

yes, mr. Covey, the saw, has indeed been sharpened!

Wade -out.

a very lazy Sealion....

noreply@blogger.com (Wade Hone) — Mon, 18 Aug 2008 18:42:00 +0000

I just had to post about one of the funniest things I saw while vacationing in Oregon a couple of weeks ago...

there was this Sea lion trying to sleep on the Newport Docks. the problem was that he was laying on the dock in such a way that his head extended out past the edge of the dock. As the Sea Lion drifted off to sleep, his neck muscles would start to relax and his head would slowly lower towards the ocean waters...

Soon his entire head would be below the surface of the sea... you could see little bubles coming up out of the watter near his head. it wouldn't take long before the big guy would jerk his head out of the watter, eyes wide, stareing around as if trying to catch one of his buddies playing a joke on him... then slowly his eyes would close and the process would repeat it'self.

I watched this for 5 minutes, laughing the whole time.

I finaly wandered off and took some pictures of the dock and Brian and Kamber and their kids. it wasn't until just today that I noticed that I had a picture of 'sparky' the lion seal with his head fully submerged... blissfully un-aware that soon he'd be in haling sea watter in stead of oxygen.

here's a closer look at the pic:

Sweet! I made it to Kambers Blog!

noreply@blogger.com (Wade Hone) — Mon, 18 Aug 2008 18:05:00 +0000

a momentous occasion has occurred! I have my own link on Kamber's Blog! yahoo!!! I took a screen shot of the event to mark it's occurrence.

Hopefully this will motivate me to put up some quality posts eh?

heh, anyway thanks Kamber!

here's the screen shot:

Here is a little instant message chat I had with a friend of mine... it relates to this post so I'm going to paste it in here - keep in mind that I'm 'adding' this too what you saw above...

[13:07] tcorcoran977: HALE!
[13:24] wadehone: and to you sir! Hail!
[13:25] wadehone: I updated my blog - o.
[13:25] tcorcoran977: which blog
[13:25] wadehone: http://life.wadehone.com
[13:26] tcorcoran977: wow
[13:26] tcorcoran977: you're really excited that your sister has acknowledged your existance
[13:26] tcorcoran977: lol
[13:27] wadehone: hehe.
[13:27] wadehone: yes, yes quite.
[13:28] wadehone: well... it's more to 'shame her' for not linking to me for the past two years... I havn't said anything to her about it... (one shouldn't 'ask' to be linked right? it's not the 'cool' thing to do.) but I have languished... non linked for years whilst barely known friends get links on her blog... it's been quite traumatic....
[13:28] wadehone: I can now go about my life, a whole person.
[13:28] tcorcoran977: yeah I agree
[13:28] tcorcoran977: I can see how that would be damaging
[13:28] wadehone: hehe.
[13:29] tcorcoran977: she actually put zwolf on there eh
[13:29] wadehone: well... I will admit, my blogs about all night LAN parties don't really fit in with the ' how my potty training session is going for sara' posts that the rest of them make....
[13:30] tcorcoran977: hahaha
[13:30] tcorcoran977: and you're at the bottom of the list
[13:30] tcorcoran977: I see it's alphabetical
[13:31] tcorcoran977: but both listed under Wade or zWolf will put it at the bottom
[13:31] wadehone: :-P ya, I just got on... I'll work my way through the quilifiers and try to get at the top of the list.
[13:31] tcorcoran977: hahaha
[13:31] wadehone: lol, I'm going to post this chat on the blog... I think it's funny.
[13:32] tcorcoran977: lol

All in fun, sis, all in fun. :-P

Family Vacation in Oregon!

noreply@blogger.com (Wade Hone) — Tue, 12 Aug 2008 04:05:00 +0000

What a Fun time I had in Oregon this past week! I got to see lots of Family and I got to totally relax, I mean seriously, you know your totally relaxed when you forget to kick it because your too busy chillin!

I'm going to throw up some pics something I have been a bit lax in doing in former Blogs. I think a bit of AV help will be a welcome relief.

Ok, there were tons of activities going on while I was there, 3 Golf games I could have gotten in on, a Trip to Astoria, where I could have had the pleasure of seeing the one and only Randilicious (can't believe I missed out on that one! sheesh! There was a Tour of the Tillamook Cheese factory... a Sea Fishing Excursion, a Crabbing session off the pier - seriously there was no shortage of fun things to do.. but guess what, those things are the list of some of the things that I DIDN'T do!

For my vacation I chose to chill by the beach, read books (by the beach, or at the very least with the ocean peaking at me from a window,) watch Olympics while squinting in to the setting sun, play a bit of X-box 360 (once again, lovely beach setting in the back ground... can't forget that,) Eat wonderful meals with Family (Steak Fry anyone?) I ate at a wonderful coastal restaurant called Georgies a couple of times as well. (the Salmon prepared in a black Berry Glaze is to die for,) and I really enjoyed playing Settlers of Catan in the evening with the fam.

The Kids were fun to hang around... I'll admit it - My Nephews can Kick my Can in some of the video games... that would be more understandable if it weren't for the small fact that my oldest nephews are 8 and 6... and they both got perfect Scores at Soul Calibur IV against me... It's so humbling to admit that... oh man. But I'll fess up and try to be a graceful loser - so, Ryan and Brandon to both of you I offer a salute, and a hearty congratulations on your win - I'm looking for a rematch soon!

hmm, I promised some pics, let me get those in here: (It's getting late n I wana sleep some before tomorrows big day back at work so I'll do descriptions later on these.)

The Memory Game thingy.

noreply@blogger.com (Wade Hone) — Fri, 18 Jul 2008 18:33:00 +0000

I filled out one of those 'questions about you' e-mails, that you send around to your friends and then anytime I got one (if I remembered,) I'd just send that list that I'd done instead of what ever other random list was circulating at the time... it was/is a great time saver.

here is something similar, in blog format... I'll play for a bit, but I'm mostly posting it because I don't think that I'll have to 'do' many memory things as this isn't a 'heavily read' blog. (heck my sis won't even list it on her 'blog links section and she has like 20 other peoples!!! :-P ) - I probably swear to much or something...

but I digress - here's the instructions:

1. As a comment on my blog, leave one memory that you and I had together. It doesn't matter if you knew me a little or a lot, anything you remember!

2. Next, re-post these instructions on your blog and see how many people leave a memory about you. It's actually pretty fun to see the responses. If you leave a memory about me, I'll assume you're playing the game and I'll come to your blog and leave one about you. If you don't want to play on your blog, or if you don't have a blog, I'll leave my memory of you in my comments...(probably.)

My musings on life - for today, 6-19-08

noreply@blogger.com (Wade Hone) — Fri, 20 Jun 2008 06:16:00 +0000

Hmm, I’d like something fortuitous or awe inspiring to write about, but alas nothing comes to mind. The life which I have chosen to live these days is one that is fairly low stress… unless it is self imposed stress like pushing to meet a goal for work, or worrying about whether to order pizza hut delivered, or go to that Mongolian bar-b-q down the road, of course the thought that ‘neither’ would be the best answer and that I really ought to spend some time using the ‘wii fit’ instead of cramming food in my face will flit by on the outer edges of my conscious mind, but that ‘flitter’ is more often than not, quickly dismissed.

Were I to write regarding the things that are on my mind – they might actually be interesting to some… They’d involve stories regarding 2 girls who are past loves turned into present friends, 1 girl who should have been a past love but will forever remain friend, and 1 specific girl who is a present tentative friend and what all that might bring – as well as the general thoughts on love and the open road of the future – the age old debate as to whether to join the chase of possibly increased happiness via forming family ties or continue on in definite happiness of solitude and not trying for the bonus to happiness that dating may bring because the odd’s are great that there’d be allot of sadness along with any happiness gained. Thus would run my musings of the moment.

That said, it’s easy to move on and think about the fact that I’d like to get serious about some ‘next steps’ in my entrepreneurial plan… the ‘help build the family business’ part is moving along nicely – so it’s time to really start looking at what I’d like to be doing in 3 years from now. How do I want my relationship with the family company to be then, what would I be looking for from them in the way of support in regards to any new venture that I decide to undertake etc. etc. etc.

When I look back on the road I’m taking to get to where ever it is that I’m going to, I’ll be able to look back on this long windy road, and see many places that short cuts would have been possible. Right now, I think that I’d look at all the twist and turns, and recall the enjoyment that I have had so far, getting to where I am, and going to where I’m going, that I wouldn’t want to take any of those short cuts for fear of missing out on memories made along the way. I hope to hold that same view when I look back in 20 years.

Well, My thoughts are in a rambling mode right now, and I’m a tad drowsy which would account for it. I’m going to call it a night and post this up. Perhaps I can be more regular in my postings on my blog from here on out.

Wade Hone 6-19-2008

Say – lets see what I was doing the 2nd year of my mission way back in 92 on this date shall we? (it sounds like fun to me, and it is my blog – so there.)

- hmmm first thing I pulled out was a sappy “please don’t let it be over” letter to an X-Fiancé… It obviously never got sent heh.

Ok, here we go.: I mentioned that I’d eaten a potato boiled in sugar water for a long time (dulce de papa) and that it tasted horrid. I talked about the great day that we’d had (7 discussions, and nobody missed their appointments with us – that’s was definitely a rare day!) and mentioned a ‘language goof’ that I had. Apparently I had told some one that natural Honey had less prophylactics in it (les that what I know not.. ) but what I had meant to say was that it had less preservatives… oh the things that we say when we are learning another language eh?

I mentioned the feelings of excitement I felt, for the work. How much that I loved seeing the progress of the families that we were teaching. I talked of how blessed that I felt for the privilege of being there. And about a girl ‘Maria Noel’ that was in a car accident and walked away not badly hurt. She took this as a blessing of protection and was looking forward to her baptism.

And then I closed with the phrase: “I LOVE MY MISSION!” WH. (which I certainly did.)

Anyway that was a great day to just randomly pick up! And now, this blog entry is WAY too long –but I’m gonna post it anyway – I haven’t done any for a long time, so I guess it’s ok that this one’s so long.

It’s after midnight now, so I’m off to bed for sure!

G’night.

Wade -Out.

How social networking sites might bennifit large coorporations like AT&T Wireless

noreply@blogger.com (Wade Hone) — Mon, 19 May 2008 17:27:00 +0000

First, let me state that this is the 'end part' of a rant that turned into an intetesting discussion.

I took some time writing it, and it sort of falls in the veign of a blog, so I thought I would post it here.

I just wanted to warn you of the format - I may eddit it into an article at some point, but for now, here it is Raw: (the best part is at the end...)

Wade -out.

---

(Start Palmetto)

Maybe there aren't any.

(edit Any = bennifits to social networks like face book, in the work place. end edit -WH)

"...the very author of the article by merit of her position alone, should be able to come up with arguments in favor of the things she was attacking."

Maybe there aren't any, especially if a professional tech writer can't find any. I'm still waiting on someone to post some suggested workplace uses for these tools, preferably intranet based on a closed network. Maybe I've missed them; I'd be happy to reread any posts you suggest.
Posted: 05/18/2008 @ 05:03 PM (PDT)

Palmetto 14

-----

(start Wade)

How dare you try to lift this post above my petty name calling and low brow antics! ;-P

Ok, ok, you win, if you insist, I will attempt to climb up to your level and treat this subject with some respect and dignity. heh.

sarcasm aside, kudos to you for keeping it professional and the opposite to me for starting the thread with such a flammable title anyway - your right, I should have been more on topic if I disagreed instead of flaming Toni's professional role - can I take one more little jab though then call it quits on that topic? read the intro sentence... she's been avoiding the new tech of the social websites... happy to trudge along with blogs being her only inlet to the 'high tech world of the tubes of those darned intranets...' <--- Bah! there I go again... degenerating the discussion into petty and childish insults... ok ok ok.

here:

http://www.virtualworldsmanagement.com/research/index.html

that's a link to a page that will have some business reasons for corporations to look into this virtual world thingy that's hanging on the horizon.

Second life has some reasons as to why virtual worlds are currently valuable to employers and corporations - but... honestly most of there info is more about the potential than a real benefit.

As far as a hard faced 'real' benefit - I think that it is yet to be fully developed. But, I think that the benifit to virtual world in the work place going to be seen most prominantly in the training aspect. The beniffit will come from the results of something developed like what linden labs (second life,) and www.3dbuzz.com have done.

I attended a 'virtual' classroom in second life, where I watched a Harvard law professors class broadcast into a replica of a Harvard law school setting.

The experience was very moving... I a 'not so wealthy' man in Idaho was receiving the same lecture that 'uber wealthy/uber smart' kids were getting at an Ivy League school in Boston. I could have just watched the video on you-tube sure, but they were using the virtual environment to tie together many aspects of the class so that the experience became more robust. Bulletin boards in the virtual worlds that pointed to class forums - and web pages that had additional information etc. Also, there was the 'interaction' between other students in the area - I was rubbing shoulders with people and making contacts - read networking just like people do in real life on a golf course, with ivy league kids... now I didn't personally forge any life long friendships and spring board the next revolutionary web 3.0 idea or anything, but - it was VERY easy to see how that kind of thing really could happen.

Ok, now, juxtapose that over the www.3dbuzz.com website, and education system that they offer. Instructional videos that can take you from a neophyte 'kid with a dream' to some one that can actually put together 3d graphics presentations and contribute to popular applications via computer generated content.

The community that develops around the 'classroom' atmosphere is phenomenal - now the example of 3DBuzz.com has some holes in it, largely that it's not really a full blown 'virtual world' or anything yet. But, it is boardering on a social networking site, and it's just so easy to see where going 'virtual world' may actually be the case for the 3dbuzz.com site, or sites like it in the future.

I can envision a community like 3dbuzz, that provided the same level of instruction for K-12 education - I mean wouldn't that be cool if that anyone with a connection to the internet could have access to a K-12 public school education without even having to get on the buss and go to school to get it. (sure that could sound horrible to some, but there are many cases where that would be absolutely wonderful - shut ins, developmentally challenged, lets say an adult that couldn't yet read perhapsl.

I see such a wonderful exiting future for all of this 'virtual community' out there, that I get a bit frustrated by people that turn their noses up at it and 'poo pah' any possibility of there being a success in that field.

Then to have the 'poo pah' person turn out to be someone that 6 years ago wouldn't have even been able to call themselves a 'Blog Manager' or what ever that fancy schmancy title was that Toni has attached to her name plate is, with out the advancement of a technology so similar to the tech that she's 'poo pah'ing'... well it's just frustrating is all.

If we wana get the debate score card out and mark points down, I'll just go ahead and concede the battle to you, but I do hope at least that you can understand a bit where my initial vitriol came from.

Thank you,

Wade Hone -out.

----
(start Wade)

This topic of ‘the benefits or lack thereof, of online social networks in the workplace,’ is similar to the one that we (you and I palmetto,) are discussing elsewhere, but I'd like to get in on this one too...

I'm starting to understand that you, (and I'm guessing Toni falls into this category as well,) honestly don't see any specific advantages to social sites "like Facebook" in the work place.

It's just hard to fathom is all... but lets take that at face value, and imagine ourselves in an IT department of a major corporation... I'm going to choose a Wireless Telephone Corp. for the hypothetical, because it's not much of a stretch for me... ( I managed the So Cal. IT Sustainment Dept. for AT&T Wireless from 2000-2004 until their purchase by Cingular,)

ok, so, in that situation, lets say you have 12 Managers, spread out across the nation, each manager, manages 8 to 15 technicians that maintains the desktop infrastructure for the company.

One of the goals of upper management is to implement nation wide policy and have it implemented the same in each area across the country. This may sound like a given, but if it does, that would reflect a lack of knowledge of how much technicians like to take proposals from management and um... make them better, shall we say.

That said, upper management isn't absolutely stupid, so they would like to be using the best technique available, the only thing is they don't want each department picking and choosing which of the various methods and policies they will follow. does the scenario make sense?

ok, we have e-mail as a tool, we have forums and message boards, (which I can see you have a hard time associating with as part of a social site, but let me assure you the forums and message boards are a large part of each social network,) but here is where a social site really can help.

Lets take Face Book - personally I'd tweak quite a bit, before using it as a corporate tool, but lets just take it and imagine that there's no budget to create a proprietary social network site for our company.

First - there is a biography part, I'd have each person have all their vital training info. and expertise’s put in their Bios. in a method that it could be easily searched.... problems with printers, bobby over in New Jersey has just completed an HP training course and will probably have some good insights to offer - Jeff in LA can see that from on bobby's profile page (or do a search / perhaps have a group that’s set up for printer experts where bobby is a member / but anyway, Jeff does a search for and finding that info out about bobby, - Jeff then posts a query on bobby's page – bobby is notified on his cell phone that he has a message, and can reply thus saving Jeff allot of time.)

ok, lets say I'm the national manager, of the Retail team, all of my techs use their cell phones or the web as they are leaving a retail kiosk with info on when they will be at the next location - a few words, and presto, if I have an issue come up, I can instantly see on my tech's page, where they are and what they are working on thus making it easier to decide which tech to divert to the other location.

This could easily work for the sales dept. or product placement dept. or many other departments.

That's two tools, and I haven’t even started on how it can solve the initial scenario of having a central location to discuss policy, and establishing the 'best practice' in an insanely more effective method than existed back in 2004 when I left AT&T Wireless. In today's world of High Tech, I'd have the social site be a central hub of passing the policy info back and forth, a central information processing point where everyone could go to - submit their ideas for how it (and by it, I mean a policy or technique used in our dept.) might be done better, but yet still have access to the current best practice that is being used across the nation. There would be info. On how to submit the idea, and an easy to use process for the managers to make the call on what the current ‘best practice’ would be, thus allowing for a recommendation to be made to upper management, approval, and deployment of the best practice so much more efficient. In 2004, this process would take 3 weeks to infinity – with a social networking site, properly executed, the process could conceivably be completed in a day – a HUGE benefit when deploying a virus solution during a virus attack and you want every one across the nation to be following the same exact process on all the desktops.

The thing is, there are so many other benefits, but I have killed a good 30 mins of my day responding to the post - time I don't really have. We will call it a lunch break.

There IS some benefit to sharing a bit of personal information about life on a social network too - we do it at the water cooler, and that is nice for the team that is all at the same local office, but in this instance, we have a national team, the more that these techs get to know each other, the better that they will work together is the hope. It works in Real life, and from what I have seen so far, it helps in the virtual lives that we are all developing as well. For this hypothetical, I could easily see some one posting that they have an interest in Halo, or Counter Strike on their Bio page.. another tech, 5 states away, sees that info, they get on the same server, play as a team, frag some bad guys together, chat about work and Whamo! I a connection and friendship has been established that will be a benefit to the company for years to come, and perhaps a relationship that will be of benefit to the two employees for life. All because of a work based and encourage social networking site like face book.

yes, even you, your here aren’t you? on TechRepublic’s Social Network... talking with peers and industry experts about ideas, learning, sharing, teaching... that's what it is all about.

I see so many values to exploring the technology, it's frustrating seeing some one that is IN the industry writing for an online periodical called 'Tech-fill-in-the-blank-becuase-anything-following-the-word-tech-makes-one-think-the-site-at-least-promotes-technology,' state clearly that they can't see any uses for social networking sites in the workplace.

It boggles the mind.

I would expect to read this kind of article in print, on old fashioned news paper. The kind that has been around for hundreds of years.. that way I can scan the article, smile knowingly at this ‘ancient worker bee’ that just 'doesn't get it' and move on.

When I see some one that is supposedly a part of the 'TechRepublic' with such an archaic attitude, it incenses the mind, actual anger bubbles up as an emotion - "how dare someone within the industry not have the foresight or imagination to see the advances that social networking sites are bringing and will continue to bring to the world!" I think to myself (then post those thoughts on this blog...)

I say it ‘boggles the mind’, but that’s not entirely true, I do see how it’s possible - I see it in Toni's original article, and in your post as well. She states at the start that she has 'avoided' them, and similar to Toni’s comment you your self,) state that you have no experience with social sites at all.

So, honestly, the best way to see how Sites like Facebook, can unite employees, is to just sign up on Facebook, look at the tools that are available there, and then put yourself in the role of a consultant trying to help a corporation find uses for their social network tool that they spent millions implementing.

I think that even the most backwards technophobes could come up with an idea or two on how to help the company 'unite their employees via social networking sites.'

Thank you,

Wade Hone.

Desending further into Geekdome and loving it.

noreply@blogger.com (Wade Hone) — Thu, 01 May 2008 07:38:00 +0000

As wtitten in my gamers blog:

---

So, I purchaced some minitures not long ago... ok, 6 months ago or so. They are called 'hordes' I liked them becuase they had wolfs and druids, that seemed to fit my style so I bought that army. you can play against warmachine minitures, and that's what I've done mostly. here's a link::

Hordes - Privateer press games.

Anyway, I really havn't played much, but did get in a game to night. it was game one for me in a 5 week campaign. I had a blast, but lost in a magnificent blunder of a move... I wanted to try out a spell... which I did, however, it landed me in the midst of a bunch of baddies, and my honorable opponant didst capitalize on the error of my ways.

I'd say the most significant part of the evening came when I saw the doom massing on the horizon and I asked: I know this is lame, but can I conceed if I see doom approaching, so that I can take advantage of the bonding rule? (which states that any warbeast left on the table gets to role for a permanent bond / advantage for the rest of the campaign.) Several people proclaimed their consent that indeed, it was definitly lame... so I added, "but is it legal." I got a few laughs at that... at least untill I actualy did it. :-P but hey! ya gotta try for those advanteges eh?

---

ok, after that I got to sit in a single run through a role play session - there were 6 of us playing pre-made characters for a Warhamer 40k dark herey adventure. We had a blast, but, I must admit, I did the most damage to a fellow teamate when I failed a willpower check and went temporarily insane, attacking anything in site. I happend to critticle on my attack, and really dished out the dammage on that - lucky me, I didn't finnish him off, and he was the guy that saved the day in the end getting a grenade to go off and chase away the big bad evil fellow that was about to start helping me chomp on my pals.

- well the night was fun, and I figured I might as well start using this gamers blog to start bloging about gaming.

-as far as World of warcraft goes, I'm plannig on bailing out of that until the expansion comes up. I'll keep doing the karazhan raids once a week with the guild till my subscription runs out - but I'm looking forward to being free of the WoW Addiction for a while - though I must admit I sure had fun, and with all that epic pvp gear - I really feel like I got a good taste of the 'end game'. that's a change.

on the horizon = GTA4 (I succomed to the pressure of the game industry claiming that this was the best video game... pretty much 'ever'. till now I havn't played one of the GTA's as I'm not a big fan of the 'dark hero' theme they set up... I couldn't get into the 'your a gansta against the law' motif of the previous games. This one promises to be a tad better - enough to make the 'escaping from the organized crime syndicate from eastern europe character' apealing to play.

Also - more Hordes, and Dark Heresy (warhammer 40k rpg) goodness - yay, and the big one will be 'Age of Conan' wich comes out at the end of the month. I'm all pre-ordered and ready to roll!

zWolf -Øut.

Snow: a negative influance:?

noreply@blogger.com (Wade Hone) — Thu, 01 May 2008 07:30:00 +0000

Ok... seriously, I'm a pretty upbeat guy most of the time. I like to look at situations and choose to see the good in them in stead of the bad. I mea hey, I gotta live in this world, and I might as well see it as a good and wonderfull place to be instead of looking for doom and gloom. thats what I think at least.

However, Tonight I choose to see a bit of doom and gloom. IT is now officialy May... and guess what I drove home in tonight?

yes - a FREAKING SNOW STORM.

Seriously folks, this is getting OLD! I am about Fed up with the bad weather, the cold days, the wet mornings that we can't get a crew out working in - and just mostly the Freaking SNOW!

I am quite seriously considering how to get out of this forsaken SNOWY land eventualy. I mean I love working with my Brother and Parents in the company business, so I'm not serious about that short term at least, but on the flip side... I really don't know how many 'years' I'll honestly stick out this crap.

ok, I just wanted to vent a bit. I think that having lived in Cerritos California, where the majority of the days in the year rang in at around 72 degrees, and fair sky's may have tainted my expectations on weather just a tad. but the damage has been done, I know realize that there are indeed places where snow from September to May just isn't really an option - which makes living in one of those places, a HUGE option in my book.

---

Accountability and Personal Success Defined

noreply@blogger.com (Wade Hone) — Wed, 13 Feb 2008 20:44:00 +0000

2-13-08 This is a re-write of my original ramblings from 11-05-06 -Accountability and Responsibility and More:- which I have left intact on this blog but swapped out on the Entrepreneur blog.

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Accountability. The dictionary definition reads:

“the state of being accountable, liable, or answerable.”

The dictionary listed a second definition when the word is applied to educators:

“a policy of holding schools and teachers accountable for students' academic progress by linking such progress with funding for salaries, maintenance, etc. “

I appreciate the second definition of the word, as I think it helps to explain a larger concept of accountability. The concept being that being accountable means that there is a cost to failing.

In many situations there is a social cost. If a father fails in his responsibility to his children to raise and protect them, by abandoning his responsibility, then in society he is looked down upon. One of the ‘costs’ of his failure is his standing in society. Of course there are many other costs associated with this particular failure as well, and unfortunately children often are the ones to suffer because of it.

This social paycheck is quite powerful. Most people are motivated by the respect and admiration that they gain as they increase their financial holdings or position in work or even political position in government. The motivation that a person draws from increasing his status in society varies from person to person.

Most every one, if they stop to think about it for a moment, can think of someone else, or some social group where they would like to be respected and though highly of. This may, (and should,) include a spouse and other family members. For most people even old acquaintances, and to varying degrees even perfect strangers can elicit at least some desire to be respected and thought highly of by them.

There are of course many other ‘paychecks’ that can be used to motivate a person to be accountable. One motivator is of course an actual paycheck that you bring home from your job. That money helps to motivate employees to fulfill their duties at work.

Another paychecks or reward that can be used as motivator is ‘Self Accountability’. I’d like to define that as the reward (or cost,) of meeting (or failing,) the requirements of success that each individual sets for themselves. Every person’s standard for measuring what success means to them is different from every other person. Like a finger print, that ‘Success Standard’ helps to define who we are, and yet like a finger print, every persons definition will vary to at least some degree.

The social groups that a person belongs to will all have an impact on the definition of success for that person. If some one works at a job, belongs to a golf club, attends a church, and has an extended family that likes to stay close, then all of those social groups will impact the personal definition of success for that person. If they also participate in the community, in the PTA, or on a city counsel for example, those social groups will also play a part in how success is defined for that individual. The priority that the person puts on each of those influences will also play a part. For example – when there is a church meeting, a PTA meeting, a work responsibility and a daughters beauty pageant that all fall on the same night, where a person spends their time that evening will tend to define the priority that person places on each of those groups.

The main point is that every persons definition of success is different from every other persons, and there are thousands of influences on that definition.

This definition of success still exists even if it isn’t written down, or even consciously defined. All of those motivators from self, and the outside influence of the various social groups that people belong to all mix together to form a personal definition of success. On some level, a personal measurement is made against how they are succeeding or failing when compared against their internal definition of success.

I once read, though I can’t remember who wrote it, that;

“Every day a man should know whether he has won or lost.”

I completely agree with that.

The point that I am trying to make is the same point that the Greek’s and those that continue their discussions, have been chit chatting about for Eons.

“Temet Nosce!” And no less important, “Sui Juis”

(“Know Thyself” and “One’s Own Master”)

That personal definition of success is already a part of every person – those that can do a bit of introspection and dig it out to look at it, can then start to revise it to have a conscious impact on that definition of success. Instead of blindly letting some sub conscious ambiguously defined definition of success impact you on a continuing basis, a person that has taken the time to clearly define what success means to them, has a much better chance to actually attain it that some one that has not consciously clarified that definition.

Once you have that definition of personal success, you can begin to allocate your time accordingly. With conscious thought put into the definition you may see that things that seemed so important at work, that took so much time up, don’t really fit in to your true definition of success.

Something that happens if introspection doesn’t happen and success isn’t consciously defined for a person, is that it becomes easier for other peoples wills and desires to influence you.

To explain, lets take for example a man that has a job that has started requiring him to work late most every night and most weekends. If he hasn’t clearly defined all of the other areas that he wants to find success in, like family, church, local government (city council for example,) then it becomes easier for him to let the demands of the workplace take priority and soon, there is just not enough time for him to succeed in those other areas of his life that have importance. Some of those areas, like family, may be way up on the priority list when compared to his job, but they may suffer, if a conscious effort hasn’t been made to define the priorities.

Now, this same situation could occur and may even fall right in line with the plans of that person, but there is a difference when it is a planned sacrifice verses being led by another’s will. A person may actually plan to spend a few years really working hard to save up money for their family so that they may have a better life. Sacrifices on extracurricular activities might be made in order to achieve some goal or another. Personally I know of many families that have made sacrifices while a husband or wife finishes school in the hopes that those sacrifices will pay off in the long run and that the education will benefit them. The difference lies in the fact that they are all following a course of action that will help them to succeed at a very clearly defined goal.

Once that goal has been defined, there are many things that can be done to help to measure accountability. There is a book by Frank Bettcher that is very helpful to anyone in the sales industry. He defines several things that he did to help track his activities in sales that he says ‘raised himself from failure to success.’ I have several ideas on measuring accountability that I will save for another article.

For now, let me conclude with the sage advice I received from my father. He said;

“Write down your goals.”

He actually said a lot more on that subject, but that is the short and the sweet of it. I have found when I followed that advice, 9 times out of 10 I’ll achieve the goal I wrote down. If I just ‘think up’ a goal and let it float around in my brain, not captured by pen or paper, those odds really go down.

So, bottom line is this, if you will;

First:

Think about all the areas in your life that you would like to succeed in. (introspection)

Second:

Prioritize those areas and clarify your personal definition of success.

Third:

Prioritize and write down the goals for each of those areas.

Here is what you will get:

You will have a much easier time achieving those goals because they are written down and you can focus on making choices that will help you succeed.

You will receive the hard to measure value of having a measuring stick to let you know whether you have won or whether you have lost each day. With that measure in place, you can start making choices about where to spend your time and efforts that will eventually turn each day into a win!

Best of all you will understand what it feels like succeeding at being accountable to yourself. When you are measuring up to your own definition of success that accounts for all of the variable in your life properly prioritized in order of importance and when you are succeeding at the goals set in each of those areas, the feeling is incredible!

By,

Wade L. Hone

My Million Dollar Idea ( part 1 )

noreply@blogger.com (Wade Hone) — Wed, 13 Feb 2008 11:22:00 +0000

I’m pretty exited about the upcoming year – a lot of that excitement comes from the success of last year. I was in charge of sales for the company for that year, and we broke the record for sales in a year by Imperial Asphalt including breaking a million dollars in sales… to bad it snowed and shut us down before we could complete all the work that was sold! Oh well, next year for sure we will break that million dollar mark I’m sure. Overall though it felt really good to take over sales, and have this be the best selling year in the history of the company.

With that success behind me and a great year coming up, I start looking at ‘what’s the next step’ in the plan of becoming a true Entrepreneur. With Imperial asphalt as a ‘base’ that provides a source of income for other money generating projects, it’s time to start really defining what those projects should be.

I have been working on a few online businesses, one of them is Intagoal, which has an ambiguously defined purpose of providing online education. Also in the mix is Level20.com which is where I have had some sort of a game themed idea for a company twirling around in my mind. In addition to it being managed in a revolutionary ‘manage by project’ style – I really want it to be something that I am passionate about.

Tonight as I drove to meet a gamer friend of mine for a late night burrito at rolbertos, I had what I believe was an epiphany of clarity… now, I’m not sure that those two words really go together, but I like how they sound, so I’ll leave them there for now. Basically a clear picture of a method of generating income off of my passion for gaming formed in my mind.

I’m not going to go into the details of what exactly the idea is, I honestly don’t believe that the ‘what’ of the idea is really relevant to the success of that Idea, it’s the fact that it is something that I can really get passionate about. THAT! Is the key.

Honestly the idea is fairly mundane, the fact that I am exited about making it a reality is what is unique. I feel like there are several pieces of a big puzzle that are already positioned in a way to make the whole puzzle come together quickly and with great odds of succeeding on the first stab.

I’ll definitely be writing more about what the details of the idea are. I just know it has been a long time since I did an update in here, and I felt like this was a significant enough event that it merited being noted in this blog.

I’ll admit, this is the ‘slow’ part of the plan, but I’m really enjoying it – part of what is key to my vision of success, is getting ‘there’ in a vehicle that I will enjoy the ride in, and so far, this family owned business venture of Imperial Asphalt, very much is fitting the picture. It is a pleasure to have planning and goal setting meetings with my father, mother and Brother Trent, all sitting around the dinner table. We plan a bit, then tell a story for a while. Meetings that could be finished in an hour, can sometimes drag on for three. That may seem very anti productive, and I’ll admit, it is, but honestly, that is EXCATLY part of the pay check that I want… to enjoy what I do – and folks, I’m getting paid well in that department. At the same time, the paychecks on the financial end of the scale really haven’t been too shabby, and they are shaping up to be much better in the future. So, as far as how things are progressing – I’d have to give a ‘so far so good’ response to that query.

Wade Hone –out.

Kayak Practice - Video Editing Practice

noreply@blogger.com (Wade Hone) — Wed, 14 Nov 2007 05:39:00 +0000

So,

I had the opportunity to 'think' for awhile as I drove back from Boise after some 'how to get more business from the federal government' classes that the SBA put on for free. I was thinking along the lines of getting more work, and using technology to do it, and this idea for putting together a blog on 'how to' subject regarding Asphalt Maintenance evolved in to a Video Blog where I interviewed professionals in the industry and posted those interviews for free on our web site.

Thus getting more traffic, and hopefully more business - perhaps even opening um new product lines.

So, I decided that instead of just 'thinking about' this idea (As is often the case with me,) I'd follow Guy Kawasaki's advice and actually 'do' something about it. I got a video capture device, plugged it into my computer and looked for some material to capture and process.

Here is one of the first pieces that I put together... it's actualy jsut the last part of a longer video that was made for DvD (a Kayak Trip to hagerman.) that turned out to be about 15 minutes and maybe someday I'll post it.. but this is a small 4 min. clip at the end.

it's a fun clip of Lance surfing a small rapid in Grovland. Kambers filming and other than the first 'total miss' of lances run through the rapid. (she was to zoomed in and missed his ride,) she did a great job. The proof is in her many good videos she has posted over on her blog - check em out (link on the right.)

This post is actually a 'test' as well - testing posting to a blog heh. This 'first didy' is just a link to You Tube where I posted the clip.

lets see how it works:

Nostalgic Game memories:

noreply@blogger.com (Wade Hone) — Fri, 12 Oct 2007 16:53:00 +0000

In a forum I frequent the 'what were your top three games of all time?' question was asked.

Tokek (a good friend of mine that some of you may remember from once upon a time a long while ago as a member of the AoA that played with us in UO n EQ ... or maybe just EQ has been a profesional Game tester for EA mind you, only posted two games and then.. well actually I'll just paste in the forum conversation here:

--start --

# by Sarpedon on Tue Sep 11, 2007 03:06 PM PDT

This might sound like a gay myspace bulletin, but if you guys had to pick your three all time favorite games, what would they be? Mine would be Symphony of the Night, Vagrant story, and Final Fantasy Tactics.

# by Tokek on Tue Sep 11, 2007 03:59 PM PDT

Monkey Island series, Mafia

Can't think of a 3rd

# by zWolf on Tue Sep 11, 2007 10:22 PM PDT Edit

/Flame on

Ok Mr. "I'm a Game tester but can't think of 3 games that I like..." Grarrrrghhhaggggurggleee! (thats the sound of me choking on Bile...)

I actually have tons more to say on that, but ... I'm just too speechless to verbalize my displeasure.

/Flame off

In spite of that, your still one of my best all time friends.

zWolf -out.

# by zWolf on Tue Sep 11, 2007 10:23 PM PDT Edit

I'm going with Diablo II, and.... hmm nothing else really comes to mind...

- Z.

# by Attech on Tue Sep 11, 2007 10:27 PM PDT

Games?

Hmm...none really come to mind...

# by zWolf on Tue Sep 11, 2007 10:35 PM PDT Edit

HAHAHA - oh the Mirth!

ok ok ok, but seriously, heh, ahem - like if I had to pick 3 games to play while I was stranded on a Deserted Island... that had a computer, but no internet, they would be: (no internet because probably my all time Favorite would have been Star Wars Galaxies Pre NGE. Then other MMORPG's - and what kind of a survival story would it be if the deserted island had Internet anyway! -I know powers a stretch... but maybe I'm a wiz at making Electric Generators and computers out of coconuts or something... anyway, here's the list:)

Diablo 2

WarCraft III

and Oblivion.

WC III and Oblivion both have map editors soooo - I'd never 'truly' get board you know?

So, those are my 'Stranded on a deserted Island' (with Electricity of course...) Pics.

As for the games that had the most impact on me:

Diablo BattleNet Beta Test - the original... I actually spent 54 hours straight, no sleep, pizza to eat playing that game one time during the beta... It was awesome.

Star Flight - an old space exploration game that was just Awesome with a very cool plot line and character development and .. a whole TON of stuff...

StarFlight on Wiki

And I'm going to have to go with an old text adventure game named 'Wishbringer' ... I remember playing to a dead end - and laying down to sleep at like 3 am... and just as I was drifting off... a possible solution to the dead end came to me! I jumped out of bed to try my theory, and it worked! I finished the game, and when I went to sleep, I don't think I'd ever been more satisfied. (...I was young.)

Wishbringer on Wiki

I could go on n on with various 3 categories... we haven't even scratched the FPS's, RPG's, Adventure, Puzzle, - '

Fun Question Steve er.. I mean Sarpedon thx for the march down Memory lane.

I think I'll stick With SWG as my all time favorite though. ya... that's a good one.

zWolf -out.

--- End Thread ---

So ya, it was kind of fun to think about what games were the best.

What were yours?

-zWolf / Wade out.

Wade Returns to Blogging - Blame Facebook.com

noreply@blogger.com (Wade Hone) — Fri, 07 Sep 2007 17:55:00 +0000

ok, so it's true - I have not blogged for a long long time. Well, I recently signed up for Facebook - the social networking software developed by students at Harvard, and I'm very impressed. I like it much better than anything that I have seen so far.

It happens to have a feature that will allow me to 'import' anything that I blog here. Sooo - once I set that up, I felt inspired / obligated to begin Blogging again.

Have no fear, the lack of 'text' in this document over the past recent months is not an indication of 'nothing' happening. Quite a bit has happened. I'll try to get summaries of major events in here - but above that, I'll try to stay caught up on 'what's happening' in the here and now.

With that as an Intro - I'm off to get back to work. I'll do a more 'info filled' Blog later.

Wade -out.

Online Education and Second Life

noreply@blogger.com (Wade Hone) — Mon, 18 Dec 2006 01:19:00 +0000

So, this is very interesting and right up my ally. Apparently there is a large community of Educators that are involved with providing content for the virtual world called Second Life.

Second life is: " Second Life is a 3-D virtual world entirely built and owned by its residents." The difference of this 'virtual world' and say World of Warcraft, or Everquest, is that though users could build game content, the content itself is not included. Rather just the tools to create are provided.

This allows people like educators to put together classes, and schools even in this virtual world.

here is a little 'intro video' for a course that a Harvard Law Professor put on last semester in Second Life: http://blogs.law.harvard.edu/cyberone/ (or try: Video Link for the video)

This is something that I have just started looking over the past couple of Days, however, I am very exited about the possibilities. For now, and from what I have seen so far, I'm not sure that this will be 'THE' big Virtual Learning environment, but what ever it evolves into, I am totally convinced that it will definitely play a large part in forming the landscape of Virtual Learning Environments for the future.

Wade / Zak Vacano <-- My online Avatar's name. -out.

Summary of events for the past while:

noreply@blogger.com (Wade Hone) — Thu, 07 Dec 2006 16:29:00 +0000

I made a post on a gaming forum to a group that I've known and played with for several years... it was a decent summary of some of the things I've been doing the past few weeks sooo, I figured I'd post here:

Posted by zWolf on the EZCO guild forums 12-07-06:

Good News n Not as good News

So, Good news. Imperial Asphalt (my Dad's company that I'm managing sales for,) just won it's biggest contract ever. The 'not so good' news is that we could have put another 20K in and still won it. But se la vi, the 167K will keep the doors open during the winter. Boise is 4 hours away, but it's a bit better climate so you can work all year around, winter is normally a time we close up shop due to weather around southern ID where the main business is based.

Oh well, the extra 20K sure would have been nice, but we knew we were going in cheap. When it's the difference of having work or not having work then you bid to win ya know? We ran the #'s and we'll still make decent $$, just not plasma TV buying 'extra' $$'s.

Imperial Asphalt will be doing quite a bit of winter work in our State capital again this year, this will make 7 out of 8 years that we've won the contract, so it's no new thing for us. Just that this is the first year I'll have been directly involved from the beginning.

Heh, I guess this isn't really 'game related' but over the years - a guy feels like he can share stuff he's exited about in hear ya know.

Wade -out.

Thank you,

zWolf

zWolf@level20.com
http://www.wadehone.com

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posted by Aztlan 12-07-06:

cool zwolf! congrats bro! how's everything else going?

-Az

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posted by zWolf 12-07-06:

hmm Every thing else is going pretty good - recent events include:

Moving a brother from one home to another in the same town (same Day)

Moving a brother from one town to another (different cities different days,)

Moving the rest of my crap from Boise to my new place. (the boxes are still stacked in the dinning area though...)

Conference trip to run a booth at the Idaho Highway District convention in northern Idaho, I didn't see any Skin heads - but was sick most of the time I was there. heh, my voice was gone most of the whole time which really sucked cause I was supposed to be talking to all the road managers.

Thanks Giving goodness - at the parents house- mmm mmmm Mashed Potatoes n Gravy! -added- Also that evening a movie with my Dad, Brothers and good friend Danny - it was something with Denzel Washington and someone that I thought was Hally Berry (but someone said I was wrong... n I havn't been to IMDB yet to find the truth.) -end-

2 Baby Blessings - (My brothers are very prolific....)

A Brazillian Dinner @ Rodillio Grill and a Symphony Excursion with a good friend (who happens to be an X-GF.)

Trip to Boise to Bid that job we won.

heh over all that's allot of Travel time. You can see by my X-player Icon I've taken pretty much 0 time to play anything.

Oh lets see I was able to write a multi page manifesto on some internet deployed and distributed employment model... but I was high on a 'RockStar' Tripple Shot - so I'm not sure how coherent it is....

hmmm then several other odd's n ends 0 hey this is a pretty good little summary... I think I'll pop it up on my blogg - heh.

I've been reading about WoW and the latest updates though... I may not be able to hold out till mid January on getting back in... it sounds pretty cool.

z -out.

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Over all, it's been a fun past few weeks. I got to see lots n lots of Family, I have the coolest Nephews and Nieces in the world! I sure miss my Sister n her Family though, living in London just gets to be too far away once every one's close together where we can have regular family get-togethers ... in those times the absence is really missed. but at least she keeps up a great Blog! and I get to see sweet pic's of my Niece Samantha. that's very cool.

I'm definitly looking forward to the next couple of months too, I'm jst getting over a long ole cold, and I can feel the energy of being healthy surging through me just waiting to invest in accomplishing my goals.

I'll be reviewing a priority list with Dennis later today to go over where to focus my sales at this winter. Guess you could say we were going over our strat-ee-ger-y for the next few years.

My thoughts on Nancy Grace from CNN

noreply@blogger.com (Wade Hone) — Wed, 06 Dec 2006 17:31:00 +0000

I wrote this to CNN a while ago, then ran across it in my old documents. I saw her on TV again (not sure why she's still on CNN and not some late night low budget cable TV channel but oh well...)

I just thought I would post this here in my blog.

Letter to CNN:

I just wanted to comment that I normally just change the channel when Nancy Grace comes on due to how emotional and bias that she seems to get once she decides to take a side on an issue. I just thought that was part of the theme of her show, a sort of ‘shock em to entertain em’ shtick. Personally when I look for news stories I look for reporting, not soap boxing. Then I saw a clip of her claiming that her show sought to present just the facts. I don’t recall the particular quote, but it made me feel that she was attempting to argue that her show was one that didn’t show bias.

I just had to write in at that point. It’s one thing to run an entertainment show that uses the news as it’s source material, The daily news on the comedy channel, and many other shows like it, are quite successful at entertaining. However, It made me wonder how stupid she thinks that her viewers are if she thinks she’s shooting straight news and not mostly entertainment. If she’s trying to do news, she needs to practice not raising her voice so much and practice not getting so emotional about issues, as well as learning how to look at both sides of an issue and not joining one. If she’s going to continue with the entertainment shtick, then she shouldn’t try to persuade her viewers that she’s doing the news. For myself, I’ll just continue to change the channel when I see her yelling questions at her normally respectable guests. For others that may be insulted by her trying to fool them into thinking that they are getting real news, she may want to tone down her claims of reporting the news.

by,

Wade Hone.

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