My Precioussssss….

I am now the proud owner of a computer that was made in this century. Using a chunk of a consulting fee that we had earmarked just for this purpose, I went out yesterday and purchased a brand-spankin’-new 17-inch iMac:

Edit: replaced the giganto-huge image with a much more polite version, for those who don’t like having to scroll…. :)

For the tech geeks in the audience: 17-inch widescreen LCD screen, 1.25GHz PowerPC G4 processor, NVIDIA GeForce FX 5200 Ultra graphics card, 64MB DDR video memory, 256MB DDR333 SDRAM, 80GB Ultra ATA hard drive, SuperDrive DVD-R/CD-RW, running the latest version of OS X (Panther).

Yum.

GMS

Another Interview

I think this’ll be my last one, as I’m too busy with freelance and prep for the GAMA Trade Show to spend more time on these. These questions are from Jeb Boyt:

1. What do you like best about winter on the Great Plains?

The expanse, if that makes any kind of sense. When the large, flat areas that you see all around you are a uniform blanket of white, it re-inforces a feeling which I also feel, though with less strength, in the green of spring and summer. Being surrounded by that expanse is a very similar feeling to being out on the open ocean, which is something that I enjoy.

2. With your various creative pursuits – gaming, fiction, electronica – do

you find it difficult in choosing which one to focus on at a time?

Oh, Hell yes. I’m pretty much a textbook case of adult attention deficit disorder…I shuffle through interests like a chimpanzee with a TV remote. So much so that I pretty much have to be working on more than one thing at a time…so I guess the real answer to your question is “no”, because I *don’t* choose to focus on one at a time. I do it all.

3. What portion of your average work day is spent writing or composing?

On average? 10-11 hours. I get up and start working at around 10, and work straight through until 6 or so, and then usually put in another few hours after everyone else goes to bed (starting at around 11 or so, and usually crawling off to bed at about 2-ish). Most of that time is spent writing–or editing or whatever I’ve been hired to do. The compositional stuff is not really work-related for me, so I tend to do that during weekends, or on the occasional night when I feel that I’ve done enough during the day.

4. With many counties in the Plains states having less population than they did in the 1890s when the Frontier was closed, it has been suggested that these areas could be revitalized by purchasing land, taking down fences, and establishing a Buffalo Commons where bison are again able to freely migrate. Good idea or bad?

Sounds like a good idea to me.

5. Have you ever been to the Orkneys?

No, I haven’t. With my name, you’d think so, though….

GMS