The latest Podcast is up!  Hear the guys delve into deepest geekery as we talk about Warhammer 40,000 and the Battletech universe.

Happy Holidays

So today has been Thanksgiving, at least here in the United States, turkey day.

Naturally I had a steak, and a damn good one too.

What we eat isn't important, and arguably the holiday itself is irrelevant. All that matters is who you spend it with.  I spent mine with family, how about you?


Check back tomorrow for the weekly podcast, and a longer, deeper analysis of the importance of family and why it matters that you check in with them a few times a year when the stars are right.

But for today: enjoy your tryptophan comas you fat bastards

Teh Podcast.mp3

So, our second weekly podcast is up and we delve deeply into what the Internet Culture really is, what it signifies and so forth, using Eve Online as a sort of stand in for all the interwebz.

The Power of Procrastination

A friend of mine has had a leak in her basement for the last three years. For those three years she has been convinced that her house is collapsing because the foundation is cracking, that the house is sliding into the sea.  She has settled into a sort of vague sense of fatalism about the entire ordeal, using a wet-vac to suck up the water several times a day when it rains.

The other day I went out to do some odd jobs: hanging cabinets, cutting down dead trees and moving heavy objects... the sort of tasks she can't do for herself.  She expected this would be an all day affair, because each of these simple tasks were beyond her ability, but I had it all done by noon.

So I removed the offending wall. In less than an hour I had the drywall cut neatly and the insulation bagged.  It turns out the leak wasn't from a crack in her foundation at all, but a shoddy patch around a sewage pipe. A quick drive into town for quick setting concrete patch and the leak was gone.  Replacing the hole in the wall will take another couple of hours; mostly waiting for stuff to dry.

Three years of doom and gloom for a job that could be done in an afternoon for less than she probably spent on the wet-vacc to keep the water under control.  Three years of increasing certainty that she'll have to sell her house, at a loss, and move into a crappy apartment somewhere.  She spent a thousand times as long worrying about it as it took to fix it.

In my own case, Procrastination has cost me measurable amounts of money... at least three thousand dollars in the last year from one source alone. I could be more exact if I wanted. I could detail out the various ways that I've hurt myself financially over the last year, the missteps and mistakes I've made along the way. I've drug my feet between jobs, failed to follow through on timely offers. I've never had a great excuse, either: I just put it off 'just another day'.

I am not a rich man by any stretch, and I have lost thousands of dollars in this last year alone because I have procrastinated, and many countless more in all the years before.  I burned out in my career because I put off taking vacations for myself, I've put off my writing and publishing because I was afraid, denying myself a possible fall back income.

And that is the power of procrastination. It weakens us, makes us weak where we should be strong. It torments us with worries over easily fixable problems and steals money from us when we aren't looking.  It is the drunk uncle who comes by without being asked and breaks your furniture and steals your wallet.

This is a live test of our first Podcast. The topic is Ender's Game in celebration of the recent release of the movie. Spoilers abound.

So, obviously we don't have any content up yet, but that's only because I've never hosted anything online before. We do have several 'casts in the can, so to speak, and a rough plan of action, including upcoming facebook page, twitter, twitchy videos for games and more.

Unlike the healthcare exchanges I honestly do expect to have a functional web presence by this weekend, with improvements to follow as I climb the learning curve.

Welcome to Tilting at Windmills. I am your handsome, charming and witty host, John Stuart Mill and I will be frequently debating with my various literary companions a host of topics ranging from politics, culture, pop culture, movies and deep arcane geekery.

From this central hub we will be hosting our weekly podcasts, youtube videos, twitter feeds and more, along with our favorite links, blogs and other diverse amusements for your edification.