7. January 2009 by Samldanach.

Well, that’s the damnedest thing.  I just spent several tries getting that post up, because it kept erroring out.  By doing multiple edits, I was able to narrow it down.

 Wordpress hates the phrase “data into information.”

(Except, of course, in this post….)

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7. January 2009 by Samldanach.

Well, hello there, and welcome to my blog. I have been an avid user of LiveJournal (as samldanach) for a few years now. I’ve moved over here for a couple reasons. First, I can’t get to LJ from work, which makes keeping up with updating hard for me. (I know, I’m such a slacker that I have more free time at work than at home.) Second, LJ has undergone some major upheavals lately, including just laying off 20 of their 28 employees. Third, the community of friends I used to interact with on LJ seem to be posting with a lot less frequency, and the quality of the few posts that do go up is less and less.

As such, I’m making some changes to my online presence. First, this blog, where I will make longer posts. I’m hoping to actually kick-start my writing again. Essay-like posts, ficlets, bits about various game worlds, reviews of books and movies, and, occasionally, a brain dump of what’s going on in my life. However, the last bit is more likely to actually begin to consist of Twitter posts. That is where I plan to make random comments about what I’m eating, what coworkers are stressing me out, and general trivia. I’m probably going to adjust LoudTwitter to dump here eventually, but I might try to keep them separate. Finally, I’m going to actually look into this “RSS feed” thing the kids today are on about. I’ve actually got Google Reader on my phone, so I figure that will be the easiest app to use. If anyone has recommendations of a better app, I’m open to suggestions.

If you want to keep up with me, my Gmail/Gchat nick is samldanach, my AIM nick is samldanach, and my Twitter nick is samldanach. I might go ahead and start a MySpace and FaceBook account under that name, too, just to round it out. Maybe I should register “samldanach.com” as a domain? Nah, too much, I think. Anyway, if you see “samldanach” anywhere as a user, it’s probably me (the advantages of taking a terribly obscure word, Samildanach, misspelling it, as the original account was limited to 10 characters, and using it as a user name). I’m also on a number of forums as “Lugh,” though not as much anymore.

Of course, just to do this totally backwards, I should probably identify myself. I’m known in certain circles as Marshall Smith. I’m not too worried about people finding this blog with Google, as a science fiction writer and a disease pretty neatly split the first three pages of results between them (excepting, of course, www.marshallsmith.com, which is just some actor’s business card).

Anyway, I am a sometime writer, primarily of RPGs (I have credits in 7th Sea, Spycraft, and Edge of Midnight). I love gaming. It is my hobby, nay, my passion. If I could get away with it, I would play in a dozen concurrent campaigns, and go to a con at least once a month. If I ever win the lottery, I will spend a lot of time writing RPGs. However, I’ve talked to enough pro writers out there to know that I never want to make the leap from hobbyist and occasional freelancer to real pro.

I am a database guy to make money. Specifically, I am currently working as a Business Objects Administrator. I support a userbase of about 4000 people who create reports using the Business Objects Web Intelligence tool. I have in recent years discovered the concept of “business intelligence,” and decided that it was a good career path. Business intelligence is the art of turning data in to information.

I am married to a wonderful woman, and have been for 15 and a half years now. We don’t have kids, and don’t want kids. I came to a realization about that a couple years ago that I think serves me well. We went back and forth several times over our marriage about wanting kids. But, we were never sure. I finally decided that I would rather regret not having kids, than regret having them.

My political views tend towards the liberal. I am an atheist, or more specifically a mystic humanist. That is, I believe that there is no divinity higher than mankind, but that magic and the supernatural are real forces in this world. I’m sure I’ll write an essay or six on that topic, as it is near and dear to my heart.

What else do you want to know? Comment, and let me know you found this site. I look forward to using it.

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