The personal site and rant archive of Brad Leclerc

Lately I’ve been pushing myself to become a bit more social so I don’t end up becoming that crazy guy in the cabin in the woods that small children tell scary stories about. The main problem so far with that goal is that, to be blunt, most people kind of annoy me.

Thankfully I’ve been able to transition my habit of being a skeptic/rationalist/etc online into finding a few small pockets of people in the area that are actually pretty tolerable, and even downright interesting to be around.

One such group is CFI Ottawa, the local chapter of the Center For Inquiry, which is just starting up (though many of the founding members are from the other local skeptical/humanist groups that were already around). And it seems likely that I’ll be getting involved to some degree in future projects coming out of that group, or at the very least, taking part in their bi-weekly “Unsermons”, which are pretty interesting.

Only time will tell just how involved in such things I’ll actually become…but given that it’s the first group of people I’ve found in years that didn’t aggravate me to no end, I’m guessing they’ll have a hard time getting rid of me

I’ve officially started offering a pile of computer support and repair services both online and in-person (in the Ottawa area). Check out the shiny new site I put up for that stuff at ottawatechhelp.ca, or click the “Tech Support Services” tab at the top of this site to be redirected there.

I just got the site and facebook page up in the couple days, so things are slow going for the moment, but we’ll see what happens. Starting to spread the word on a more local level with flyers and such…it’s all a bit “up in the air” right now, but it’s all going in the right direction I think. Who knows if it’ll all pan out in the long run, but at the very least, it doesn’t cost much to spread some flyers and word of mouth, so…yeah.

I’m thinking about starting to offer tech support and computer repair services in my local area. After looking around at what others in the Ottawa area are charging for similar services, I can only conclude that they all pull prices directly out of their asses, as there seems to be no standard at all. Makes it hard to judge just what I should be charging, but at least it seems like there is some money to made at it.

Hopefully I’ll have enough specifics nailed down in the next few days to get a page up on here with all the details…who knows if I’ll get any work from it, but it’s worth a go I think.

Any thoughts/suggestions/etc are more than welcome.

Late last month I lost my job. I won’t go into detail here as to why, but it was’t ugly and I’m still on good terms with them. Good terms don’t pay the bills though, so I’ve been hunting for work, both on and offline.

The good news is that thanks to a friend (*cough* @wptavern *cough*) I quickly received a small handful of DM’s and email from people with kind words and potential writing gigs. Not enogh to end my job hunt, but a great start.

Of course just as I was gearing up to use my sudden free time to crack down on some neglected projects (and some new ones), my PC died. Dead CPU fan. If you follow me on twitter, you’ll already know that I have yet to get the replacement parts I need, so I’ve been without a PC for a little over a week now, with at least 2 days left to wait.

This has put a serious damper on getting work done, but it has forced upon me the chance to really explore the potential of my Android phone (a Milestone).

Mostly it does a pretty good job at allowing me to keep up with things. With TweetDeck for twitter, K-9 for email (with GPG support!), and all the other social media stuff (facebook, etc), allong with plenty of ways to keep myself entertained, there isn’t MUCH I’ve been missing besides the obvious “monitor and keyboard”. I’m also getting CRAZY fast at typing on the tiny keyboard (sadly Swype doesn’t work on the rom I’m running yet).

Another added bonus: I’m getting pretty used to the WordPress App…which I am using to make this post. Hopefully I can get into the habit of blogging regularly again now that I have the time. Even if I can’t do it front an actual computer for the time being

I’ve always had a problem with motivation. I have a hard time getting up in the morning, I am annoyed at having to do just about anything related to physical labor (for decent personal reasons, but still…), and just generally find that I am very quick to start a project, and even quicker to get bored by it and move on.

I mention this because lately I’ve been really trying to end that cycle, and in an effort to get my ass in gear and used to meeting some deadlines (not to mention pulling in some much needed extra cash), I’ve decided to join DemandStudios. Hopefully I can push myself into the habit of getting off my proverbial ass (getting off my literal ass would be counter-productive in this case), and get some writing done…and hopefully make a few bucks in the process. Hell, if it works out nicely, it might even end up being the shove I need to get out of my day job and back to working online full-time. Ya never know…

As for DemandStudios itself, I’m not entirely sure what I think about it yet. Too early to tell. I’m about to pick my first article to write for them and see how that goes. Once I have a few articles behind me I’ll write up my thoughts on the whole thing, but for now at least it seems somewhat promising. And hell, if Deb Ng from Freelance Writing Gigs thinks they’re alright, they can’t be ALL bad. So I’m willing to give it a go at least and see what happens.

The last little while I’ve been trying to seriously expand on my online profile and doing some guest posting in different places (most recently on xfep.com and bloggingpro.com), and it’s a lot of fun. Haven’t had much response to the posts yet, but being fairly new to the world of “problogging” that is to be expected really.

If you need/want someone to guest post on your blog, or know someone who does, I’m always looking for more opportunities to get my writing out there.

And in other news, the TV Gawker podcast has begun! The first episode was a blast to record, even though talkshoe did boot me out near the end. We even had a live listener, which was an unexpected bonus for the first episode, and hopefully we’ll get even more people listening live next time. It’s fun getting the instant feedback and ideas from people listening live.

Use the player below to listen to the first episode, or go to tvgawker.com for more details…

The next episode will be recorded on Friday the 13th, at 3pm EST, come join us if you’re around.

Well it looks like the TVGawker.com podcast is a go. I have a co-host, and we are gearing up to start producing an episode every wednesday night through talkshoe.com, and you’ll be able to find out everything you ever need/want about it over on TVGawker.com later today.

Now I just have to figure out what to do about the zombiejesus.ca podcast, and I’ll be all set. Fun times!

As for the obsession, I’m completely in love with Twitter again, thanks entirely to TweetDeck. It just makes using twitter SO damn easy and organized (which is the biggest problem I’ve run into with as many people as I follow).

It does admittedly take up a lot of screen real estate to really be at it’s best (though you CAN make it fairly small, it’s not nearly as useful), but with a large monitor, or in my case, an extra monitor (I’m up to 3 on my main system now, it still doesn’t seem like enough for all the multitasking I like to do) it works wonderfully.

I’d highly suggest it to anyone like me who follows a lot of people on twitter and just can’t seem to keep up with everything, as it allows you to organize people into groups, shows you all @ replies to you no matter where in the message the @ is (unlike most twitter clients), and is just PACKED with greatness. If you’ve got a bit of screen space to spare for it, it’s well worth a look. Cali Lewis over at geekbrief.tv has a great little TweetDeck tutorial to start you out on some of the best features, check it out below.

Now I’m off to find some breakfast and check the twitterstream.

I recently moved back to Canada (from the US, where I had been for a while), and as I’m settling back in, I’m slowly returning to the world of blogging/podcasting/etc. I’m actually gearing up to start TWO brand-new podcasts in the next week or 2. One based around TVGawker.com related to television (of course…), and one for ZombieJesus.ca, which will be a skeptical/science sorta thing. I really enjoy podcasting, and figure it’s time to push myself into that world with both feet. So look for those in the next 2 weeks. I’ll be sure to post an update here once they are going.

The only issue with the podcast projects I’m having is trying to decide on a way to add a live recording session to allow listeners to chat and/or call-in during the recording. There are a few good services for that (talkshoe and blogtalkradio are the first that come to mind), but I just can’t decide. Decisions, decisions, decisions. Any recommendations or suggestions would be greatly apreciated.

In added news, my good friend David Peralty has released a great new wordpress theme system packed with a nearly litteral ton of features, so check that out right over here, and you can find a demo of the theme right here (scroll down a bit to find some great walkthrough videos of some of the features). I haven’t had a chance to try it out yet, but from the demo and videos it looks pretty amazing. Once I’ve had a chance to really poke it around I’ll write a full review.

Over the weekend I officially took over tvgawker.com, and I’ll be posting there more and more now. I even have a podcast in the works, and a special surprise that will go public on December first. Fun times all around. If you like TV (and hate all the craptastic junk they put on TV these days) then check it out. I’m a picky bastard when it comes to TV, so I tend to dislike a lot of the crappy shows these days…but it’s not all negativity and complaining, I assure you. I hope to build TV Gawker into something glorious.

I’ve also posted about an insane story about a journalist who was sentenced to two years in a Burmese prison for taking photos over at DSLRBlog.com, and I’m really enjoying writing over there. Expect a lot more action on that site as well as I ramp up my online activity over the next little while.

I’m really liking this whole blogging thing…and I’ve got a small pile of projects that I have yet to start (or in the case of the Vinecast, to completely reboot into something hopefully amazing). Busy busy busy.

Oh, and my good friend David Peralty has relaunched a site that has lay dormant for quite a while this weekend too. It’s called Alt Sci-Fi. It’s all about science fiction, and he’ll also be starting up a podcast to go with it. So far it’s looking pretty interesting (and high on the “geek” scale…which I consider a good thing). He’s even got a poll going about whether Captain Kirk from Star Trek or Colonal Jack O’Neill from Stargate SG-1 would win in a fight. And yes…that’s me with the long-winded and rationalized comment. I can’t help it, I’m THAT much of a geek. For better or worse.

One last thing. I’m currently broke as all hell, and getting everything that needs doing done would be a LOT easier if I had a laptop to work on while I’m out of the house. So If anyone out there can spare a buck or two for my laptop fund (in the side bar there), I’d be able to get into serious “get shit done” mode all the quicker. Thanks in advance!

So BarCampPhilly is tomorrow. This should be interesting. Never been to a BarCamp, or any such convention. Other than getting up disgustingly early to drive into Philly in the morning it should be fun times. Expect plenty of twitter action(hash tag #bcphilly) from me tomorrow as I obsessively cling to my trusted Nokia n810 (which I tend to refer to as “Ziggy”, because I’m just that sort of geek).

Looks like there are a lot of great people going tomorrow, if you’re one of them, drop me a line and we’ll do lunch…always wanted to say that.

For now I’m off to charge Ziggy’s spare battery and pack by camera case…it’s time for some adventuring out into “the big room” (that’s “outside” for you crazy “normal” people out there).