Patents
December 2nd 2004 -
Patents
I now have three pending patents. That is, the patents have been submitted to the USPTO (the US Patent and Trademark Office) and are in the several-year queue to go from “Patent Pending” to “Patent Approved.” Still, it is rather thrilling. I always wanted to be an inventor.
Only one of the three patents is only mine, however: the other two have other authors as well, and are actually patents done by other people with suggestions from me that improved them, thus getting me second authorship. I’m rather proud of my solo patent, anyway: it’s not (wholly) a software patent, which I personally feel are a bit of an iffy concept (while recognising that as long as they exist, we have to do them or we’ll get screwed over). I’d rather not describe exactly what it does yet – tune in again in three years if/when the patent is approved – but it is in the public domain now, so I’ll just say that it’s broadly to do with the microphones on video cameras.
D&D
We’re coming to the conclusion of our current campaign in D&D at the moment, and I’m thinking of retiring Lorenzo. I haven’t done his journal in a while, mostly thanks to other writing commitments, but to summarise, he has been dying fairly frequently lately, and with his new-found love of the easy life and the fact that he was never particularly cut out for fighting, he’s going to gracefully duck out and live a life of luxury in Westgate, supporting himself as a cleric of Mystra and trying to build his way up in the priesthood, and making a bit of money on the side as a sorcerer.
So I’ve been considering my new character over the last week or two, and I rolled the stats up with Richard (the new GM) last night, and it looks like they’re going to be rather good, which is nice.
Squash
I did a lot better at squash at lunchtime today: 4-4. Mostly thanks to my somewhat improved fitness and playing more reliably, ie. not perpetually going for risky shots near the lines. Good stuff. We’re pretty well matched.
Lexifab Says:
December 3rd, 2004 at 9:13 am
Congrats on the patent. Assuming the invention that you’re talking about was the one that was broadly inspired by something that I had something to do with, I thought it was a jolly cool idea, with some Next Big Thing potential. So g’luck, and all that.
I’ll miss Lorenzo. He’s rather cool, in a kind of Great Dorks in Fantasy way.
Andrew Says:
December 3rd, 2004 at 2:05 pm
Yes, the patent is the one broadly inspired by something you had to do with, so yay! And I owe you a beer. At the ski fields.
I’ll miss Lorenzo too. Writing for him was the easiest and quickest way of doing 2000 words I can think of. Writing from the point of view of a different character is going to be challenging. Fortunately, I have some ideas about what she’ll be like.
Lexifab Says:
December 3rd, 2004 at 2:52 pm
I’m about to start playing a cleric-rogue based on a loose recollection of Ian Ogilvy’s portrayal of The Saint, reimagined as if he were a fantasy theologian rather than an idle art collector (or whatever Simon Templar pretended to be).
Should be fun, though I do risk my characterisation straying into Roger Moore rathen than Ogilvy territory…
Andrew Says:
December 3rd, 2004 at 3:52 pm
And I’m playing a "Gloaming" Bard – the Gloaming are a race in the Underdark, small glowing winged things. I’m trying for a volitile latin personality, the type I’ve been getting a lot more exposure to since I started meeting Anna’s friends.
Andrew Says:
December 3rd, 2004 at 3:53 pm
I don’t remember ever seeing The Saint – was it on NQTV or the ABC?
Lexifab Says:
December 3rd, 2004 at 4:47 pm
I honestly don’t remember. It was British, though, so I’m guessing ABC is the better bet. But in fact the ‘real’ Saint is the character from the original novels, a cat-burglar/confidence man who robs from the rich, gets a little back for the poor and gives anyone with bastard tendencies a bit of the ol’ ironic comeuppance (which usually ended with them framed for his crimes or possibly whacked out by their criminal buddies). Good, old fashioned urbane pulp, like a less hard-edged Ian Fleming Bond novel.