I’ll be at:

• PyCon: Feb 17-21 in Atlanta, GA
• Balticon 44: May 28-30 in Balimore, MD
• GenCon: Aug 6-8 in Indianapolis, IN
• Con on the Cob: Oct 14-17 in Hudson, OH. This one will be something special…Kris and I have a Clever Plan we’ll talk about in coming months.

If you’re going to be at any of these, drop me a line and let’s find some time to meet up.

Also, the latest episode of TRICKSTERS has been posted on The Secret Lair. Remember the girl on the doorstep from last week? Yeah. There’s more to her than meets the eye.

Then, the NanoMonkeys went silent, the domain was taken over by one of the less savory outfits on the web, and the podcast passed into legend, never to be heard again…

…until now.

Starting on 10-31-2009, The Secret Lair will present encore episodes from those original shows, releasing one a day for the month of November. Subscribe to the main feed, and you too can join the madness.

For more information and to subscribe, visit The Secret Lair.

First…I’m taking a hiatus from development on Podiobooks.com.

The reason is simple: I lack the time to do the PB 2.0 project justice. It kills me to admit that. When we started PB five years ago, I had two small kids, a simple 40 hour a week job, and my wife was not working. Now, I have a 12, 9, and 4 year old with all the commitments that follow from that, plus my wife is working full time, playing in two bands, teaching violin and fiddle, and I am working full time and filling in as Mr. Mom. It has become impossible to find the time to truly lead the project. Those things, combined with some recent health developments, have put the whammy on many of my personal projects. The PB2 project will go on (we are looking for new leads right now), and Evo and the PB2 team will continue driving it. It will grow and flourish, and I cannot wait to see where it goes next.

Second…Michelle and I will be recording the final Shadowdance podcast tonight. The reasons there are similar: my personal schedule and Michelle’s schedule no longer match up quite as well. She’s writing books, appearing on television and traveling, and I have my family and my career to look after. Also, my opinions on the subject matter of the show have changed, and I feel disingenuous continuing to give advice on a subject that I do not fully embrace. More on this in a future post.

For the record, The Secret Lair is still going strong: Kris and I will continue with our fun until the men in white coats come after us to take us away.¹ In fact, we just released Episode 29, chock full of goodness from the likes of Dr. John Cmar, Natalie Metzger, Jay Lynn, and our special guest, Mick Bradley.

So, that’s the news. How’s your day?

1. If they can get past the giant squid and the rabid zombie poodles.

If you want to drink my milkshake, this is the feed for you. Real time, scattered, and ultimately trivial. But it beats workin’, eh?

Read or subscribe at http://ctmiller.tumblr.com.

Why are we leaving?

We’ve found that L.A. is just not for us. L.A. seems like a great city if you’re single or a couple. There are a lot of things to do, if you’re into the night life scene. We’re not really, and with the kids, it’s hard to get out much.  The main reasons we’re leaving are:

• The schools are atrocious. The worst schools I’ve ever had the misfortune to step inside. I’ve never seen a state so proud of something so completely abyssmal.
• It’s too damn expensive. You cannot even USE the car insurance you pay ($260/mo for our cars), because if you are in a single fender bender, the cost will double.  It’s why there are so many beaten-up cars on the road. You’re basically throwing money away. And rent…don’t get me started about rent.
• Crime / safety. The LAPD helicopters were over our apartment complex last week for the thrid time in as many months.
• Too many goddamn people.
• We miss proper seasons, a city we can nagivate without reams of maps, proper forests and parks (The Cleveland Metroparks are AMAZING, and should not be taken for granted), our friends and family.

Where will we be living?

We’re settling in with my inlaws in Shaker Heights until we find a place. We’ll likely be renting for a bit, but if we find the right house at the right price, we might buy. Where is yet unknown.  We’ll be working that out.

Will there be a party celebrating our return?

I have it on good authority that there will be.

Will you be going to Origins?

I’m going to try, yes.

May I follow along with your Grand Adventure?

I’ll be writing about the trip across county, much as I did when we moved out here. You’ll be able to follow along from the comfort of your own home.

(special thanks to robotskirts for the awesome “How far is Ohio?” graphic, originally from Superpoop.com)

Additionally, Mahalo has great election result pages for every state.  Check out the full list:

• Alabama Election Results 
• Alabama Exit Polls
• Alaska Election Results 
• Alaska Exit Polls
• Arizona Election Results
• Arizona Exit Polls
• Arkansas Election Results
• Arkansas Exit Polls
• California Election Results
• California Exit Polls
• Colorado Election Results
• Colorado Exit Polls
• Connecticut Election Results 
• Connecticut Exit Polls
• Delaware Election Results 
• Delaware Exit Polls
• Florida Election Results 
• Florida Exit Polls 
• Georgia Election Results 
• Georgia Exit Polls
• Hawaii Election Results 
• Hawaii Exit Polls
• Idaho Election Results 
• Idaho Exit Polls
• Illinois Election Results
• Illinois Exit Polls
• Indiana Election Results 
• Indiana Exit Polls
• Iowa Election Results 
• Iowa Exit Polls
• Kansas Election Results 
• Kansas Exit Polls
• Kentucky Election Results 
• Kentucky Exit Polls
• Louisiana Election Results 
• Louisiana Exit Polls
• Maine Election Results
• Maine Exit Polls
• Maryland Election Results 
• Maryland Exit Polls
• Massachusetts Election Results 
• Massachusetts Exit Polls
• Michigan Election Results 
• Michigan Exit Polls
• Minnesota Election Results 
• Minnesota Exit Polls
• Mississippi Election Results 
• Mississippi Exit Polls
• Missouri Election Results 
• Missouri Exit Polls
• Montana Election Results 
• Montana Exit Polls
• Nebraska Election Results 
• Nebraska Exit Polls
• Nevada Election Results 
• Nevada Exit Polls
• New Hampshire Election Results
• New Hampshire Exit Polls
• New Jersey Election Results
• New Jersey Exit Polls
• New Mexico Election Results 
• New Mexico Exit Polls
• New York Election Results 
• New York Exit Polls 
• North Carolina Election Results 
• North Carolina Exit Polls 
• North Dakota Election Results 
• North Dakota Exit Polls
• Ohio Election Results 
• Ohio Exit Polls
• Oklahoma Election Results 
• Oklahoma Exit Polls
• Oregon Election Results 
• Oregon Exit Polls
• Pennsylvania Election Results 
• Pennsylvania Exit Polls
• Rhode Island Election Results
• Rhode Island Exit Polls
• South Carolina Election Results
• South Carolina Exit Polls
• South Dakota Election Results 
• South Dakota Exit Polls
• Tennessee Election Results
• Tennessee Exit Polls
• Texas Election Results 
• Texas Exit Polls
• Utah Election Results
• Utah Exit Polls
• Vermont Election Results 
• Vermont Exit Polls
• Virginia Election Results 
• Virginia Exit Polls
• Washington Election Results 
• Washington Exit Polls
• Washington DC Election Results
• Washington DC Exit Polls
• West Virginia Election Results 
• West Virginia Exit Polls
• Wisconsin Election Results 
• Wisconsin Exit Polls 
• Wyoming Election Results 
• Wyoming Exit Polls

We didn’t publicize it because we thought that the majority of the folks who used the site would want a customized feed on a schedule. Initially, that was the case, but as we’ve grown, we’ve had more and more people stymied by the system, looking to subscribe via a regular RSS feed.

Now they can.

On every book page, we’ve enabled the “auto-discovery” of the default feed of every book. Hit a book detail page and look up in the bar where you’d type a new URL. See that small icon on the right hand side (I assume it’s there for IE users)? If you click it, it will give you the RSS feed for the book as-is. You can’t change the delivery time or any of the cool features of our custom feed (and that’s still there, same place on the page), but you can quickly subscribe to a book and follow along.

Not so, good reader. There are two reasons for my silence. The first is that I’ve been traveling: went to the Google I/O conference in San Francisco then to Santa Monica for Codejam V at the Mahalo Mothership. For more about my views on how Google I/O went, check out the interview with me over at the Command Line Podcast.

The second is that we’ve decided to move to Los Angeles. This one…well…it’s huge. We’re looking to get the house on the market as soon as humanly possible, which means that we’ve been painting, patching, and handling all the stuff we’ve been putting off for a while. It’s a tough market out there for selling a house, and we’re hoping to have it done soon so that we can be in L.A. by Sept 1. Too optimistic? Maybe. So far, things have fallen into place every step of the way, and we’ve been incredibly lucky to have a our families and friends helping us out as we prepare. The insanity of all of this is the reason I’ve been off the interwebs for a bit. There’s simply not enough time in the day anymore.

For those of you who know the area, we’re looking to settle in Sherman Oaks. My good friend Nicole took me on a tour of the neighborhood while I was out there last week, and I really liked the feel of the place. If you know anyone looking to rent a three-bedroom house out there, hook me up.

Finally, I’m dropping a little something into my podcast feed this week. J.C. Hutchins interviewed me for his Ultracreatives series. We had a great time, and I think it’s my favorite interview to date. I got to talk about a number of things that I rarely touch on in my blog or the shows I produce, so it was a real treat.

More on the move as it develops. Otherwise…it’s good to be back.

This morning C.A.’s wife, Kelly, passed away unexpectedly. Our hearts, thoughts, prayers and deepest condolences are with C.A. in this difficult and tragic time.

If you have ever thought about donating to any of the podcasts that I produce, I’d ask that you please visit the donation site established by Mae Breakall and give what you can to help C.A. cover the expenses that tragic events like these always incur.

(originally posted by Kris Johnson at The Secret Lair)

In Jason’s words:

We’re looking for a really killer Systems Engineer here in Los Angeles to work at our very cool factory in Santa Monica where they will make their own hours (provided they at least make it in for the free staff lunch every day at noon , get whatever equipment they want, soak in stock options in the next big thing, and work with a team of totally kick-ass no BS developers who are KILLING it every day.

Interested? Get the details on Jason’s blog: Systems Engineer, Los Angeles.