BitArtist, the thing that has eaten my soul all-day everyday for almost the last year and a half, is finally done enough that it can move to beta-testing. Now I can focus on bug fixes and getting a stable release candidate ready for launch…instead of feeling like a crazy person perpetually working on vaporware that people would just roll their eyes at as soon as I mentioned it. It’s real now, bitches!…yes, anyway.

At any point, I’ve got a few people interested in beta-testing for me and the people who’ve seen it in action seem to be rather pleased. So I’m very happy about the feedback thus far. I don’t plan to make a million bucks off it, and it’s been so long that I’m a little fuzzy as to why I put it out in the first place, but I’m glad I did in any case. It’s been a very good learning experience and I’ve found out more about programming on this project than any previous.

I also have plans to open up an open-source code repository of sorts as a community supplement to Way of the Geek at some point, but that’s still a ways down the road. Although when I do launch it I hope it does well. We really do have a lot of bright readers, and I think with the right motivation or even just the right project they could go pretty far.

Insert whatever cliched saying you’d like in the title, it’s all good. Point is, I’ve been extremely busy as of late. Between cleaning up the house, trying to workout at least three times a week, cranking away on the BitArtist project, podcasting, and everything else I don’t have much time to post here or sleep or do much of anything.

The good news? Well, if you’re a webcomic artist the good news is that my BitArtist project is almost finished and should be ready for beta testing next week. It’s going to be completely free, as in beer and speech. Hopefully people will find it as useful as I’ve intended for it to be. Quite a bit of work has gone into it, and I’d like to think that it shows. It’ll be under constant revision and upgrading and I’ll be building/modifying other software I’ve written for public use as well.

So there you have it, I’m a busy busy man. Nothing you didn’t know already, I’m sure. But you all should know by now that I can’t help but state the obvious.

Okay, so this is about the sixth time in three years that I’ve moved. Which means, on average, I spend no longer than six months at any one place (sometimes more sometimes less). The new place is a lot bigger than the old one, almost double the size…and minus all the deadly mold from our last hovel. So this is a nice change from the past year.

Things are slowly getting reorganized and put into their respective places, but it always takes longer to unpack than it did to pack. So it’s going to be a while. I’m just glad the heavy lifting and such is over. Chad Diez swung by to lend a hand on Saturday evening, which was greatly appreciated. Chad, if you read this, I don’t think we could’ve gotten the washer and dryer in without you, bud.

Oh, and on an extremely late and completely unrelated note, happy belated birthday Shawn. You’re a year closer to the finish line now, big guy. Better start pumping them Shawn-puppies out soon, you aren’t getting any younger.

Okay, it’s been a week since I updated. There’s a good reason for this, that reason has been the last week in total. Here’s a list of what’s happened just since my last post.

• My car broke down on Monday. It’s been to two shops and should hopefully be ready tomorrow.
• We’ve had to resort to a rental car.
• We found out our house has a mold problem (common North Cali thing) and we’re working on getting out of our lease and into a new place.
• My wife and I had our three year anniversary
• One of my friends has been in and out of the hospital.

Well, that’s been it. It’s been a very trying week to say the least. We’ve had some good news, but mostly bad. Hopefully the coming week will hold some good fortune for us.

The anniversary was lovely though. I got the wife a nice diamond necklace, took her out for a French dinner, and had a really nice time in all. It was good to spend some time out with her on our own, we don’t get to do it enough.

Okay, that’s enough about me. How have you been?

Traditionally, a red eye, is one shot of espresso in a cup of coffee. I’ve never been one for such weak traditions myself though, which could be why I usually throw three shots into it.

Why am I writing about this? Well, after a few years of diligent service my poor ol’ coffee pot finally stopped making coffee like it used to. I had to put paper towels under her to keep her from leaking all over the counter, the basket drip was pretty much shot and wouldn’t hold if the coffee pot was pulled out from under it, and she’d just seen better days. I’ll still keep a hold of her just in case I get an office somewhere at some point. She’ll do just fine for little jobs, but not the normal wear and tear I put her through.

So we bought a new coffee pot/espresso maker combo. Now I’m not really much for those emasculating European coffees, but a red eye is a pretty nice way to start the day if I do say so myself. So, while it does have the steamer and all that good stuff on it, I think I’ll save those things for making the wife some fancy coffees. I still remain a fan of the black and bitter usually, although I have been known to put cream and sugar in my coffee in my old age…at 26. Don’t get me wrong, she likes black coffee too she just can’t drink that much of it.

While it was a little more than your standard run-of-the-mill coffee pot, $100 isn’t bad at all for what we got. I don’t usually like Bed Bath & Beyond because I’m not into decorating and things of that nature (anyone who has ever met or seen me in real life can attest to the fact that I have no fashion sense), cooking is something that I do like to do and they have some pretty handy stuff there…sometimes.

I just thought I’d share my new morning company with you all. I should probably dial back on the coffee, but if I did that I wouldn’t get done with half my days workload. Besides, it just tastes so darn good.