Happy

After using the Cooler Master Ten-Key-Less (TKL) keyboards for a while, I decided to take it to the next level, and the POK3R really is something completely different. The Limited Edition RGB LED Black Pok3r keyboard is a great 60% keyboard with almost of all the features a mechanical keyboard enthusiast would want. I didn’t really like the Cherry MX Blue or Brown switches very much. The clicky noise of the blues overwhelms my senses and makes me nervous, the clicky-ness does help hide the mushiness of the tactile bump. The tactile-ness of the browns feels very mushy to me, I would prefer the tactile bump to be really short and sharp. With all that in mind I wanted to go with a linear switch and see how that felt. ...

I had a great time at DragonCon this year, actually got to play Dungeons & Dragons Adventure League on 3 mornings in a row! More pictures are over at my SmugMug site.

We had a great time at DragonCon this year. The costumes were amazing, the photography staff did a great job capturing the event, and we actually got some sleep. Our son Eli stayed with the grandparents where he got to run wild and play with new toys. My favorite costumes were How to Train Your Dragon, the Music Box Dolls from Chitty Bang Bang, and The Dreamer. [](http://photo.davenelson.com/DragonCon/DragonCon-2014/i-w6CtMvx) [](http://photo.davenelson.com/DragonCon/DragonCon-2014/i-Rp4Fdrh) Bobbie made a great costume from a lost episode of [Doctor Who named "The Celestial Toymaker"](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Celestial_Toymaker). [](http://photo.davenelson.com/DragonCon/DragonCon-2014/i-RwbJvgZ) [](http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/galleries/p0122z2l) My favorite panels were Colin Baker, [Ron Glass](http://photo.davenelson.com/DragonCon/DragonCon-2014/i-zPHCpsX), [Jeri Ryan](http://photo.davenelson.com/DragonCon/DragonCon-2014/i-zHs3Q82), [Terri Gilliam](http://photo.davenelson.com/DragonCon/DragonCon-2014/i-B5Kn4d4), [Evanna Lynch](http://photo.davenelson.com/DragonCon/DragonCon-2014/i-PhcGgxm), and [Sparkfun](http://photo.davenelson.com/DragonCon/DragonCon-2014/i-CqQCkVD). [](http://photo.davenelson.com/DragonCon/DragonCon-2014/i-zPHCpsX) [](http://photo.davenelson.com/DragonCon/DragonCon-2014/i-zHs3Q82) [](http://photo.davenelson.com/DragonCon/DragonCon-2014/i-B5Kn4d4) [](http://photo.davenelson.com/DragonCon/DragonCon-2014/i-PhcGgxm) [](http://photo.davenelson.com/DragonCon/DragonCon-2014/i-CqQCkVD)

I burnt myself out trying to learn to many JavaScript frameworks, build tools, unit testing, Debian eccentricities and BeagleBone Black programming so I decided to take a break and play a video game. Steam was having their summer sale and Skyrim happened to be a great deal. I bought “The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim – Legendary Edition” and have been playing it for a couple weeks now. Back in 2011 when The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim was released I remember reading and hearing from a lot of friends, acquaintances, and internet personalities who played it and talked about it for weeks on end. So my interest was peeked, but I didn’t have time or the desire to play it then. ...

It is finally time to upgrade from a second generation Drobo to a Drobo 5N. I bought my first Drobo in January of 2009 and it has been in constant use for the intervening 5 and a half years. I have only had 2 issues with it, the fan died about a year ago, and it now feels really slow. When the fan died I went to my local Microcenter computer store and bought a whisper quiet 120mm fan. With a bit of Googling and some wire snipping followed by a bit of solder the Drobo has been much quieter and cooler ever since. In fact I can’t hear it over my home office noise at all. ...

I bought the 14 books of the Dresden Files from Audible.com and listened to them using the Audible iPhone app and my iPhone. I ran out of books in my waiting list and decided it was time to re-listen to all of the Dresden Files books, one after the other as quickly as time would allow. What a ride. Taking the series in like this was great, it was like having one extremely large book to listen to with no interruptions. Butcher has created a universe and characters that I will never forget. ...

Last weekend I attended the Vintage Computer Festival and Apple Pop-Up Museum at the empty CompUSA store off of Holcomb Bridge Road. It was nice to see someone doing something with one of these abandoned storefronts. It was great fun seeing all of the old Apple, Commodore, Atari, and other computers and gaming consoles. It all made me very nostalgic, but not so much as I would trade in any of my current computers for any of them. It was really amazing what we were able to produce using those old machines. ...

The last couple of weeks have been a whirlwind of activity. Working my way backwards: Scott Kelby’s Worldwide Photo Walk and the pictures I took in Little Five Points (L5P) Norcross 9th Graders had a great game against North Gwinnett. As an experiment I posted a lot more pictures of this game than I normally would. I left in a lot of slightly out of focus and poorly framed shots to give more context to the story the pictures tell. Anime Weekend Atlanta was a lot of fun as usual, the Moonlit Forest Gala Ball and Costume Contest were great. DragonCon was good, nothing really stood out for me this year. But Sylvester McCoy and John Rhys-Davies were a lot of fun.

Terry Pratchett is my favorite writer and Discworld is my favorite fictional universe. I find the Discworld novels to be incredibly fun reads and the Young Adult Tiffany Aching series is no exception. The main body of Discworld novels are targeted at adults while Tiffany Aching books are in the same universe they are targeted at YA readers and I believe they really hit the mark. ...

Baby Eli Myers Nelson was born at 9:12 this morning. He is 4.9 lbs and 18.75 inches.