Year: 2003

Alexis pointed out that I had neglected to include “Joe@” on my list of nicknames on my survey page (it seems like I get sent another batch of these every six months or so, so I just merged a bunch of them
together and answered on the webpage, and direct folks to that when they send me a new one). That omission has now been rectified (thanks for pointing it out,
Alexis, and those McVities’ chocolate caramel biscuits sound awesome…they only have the Digestives and High Tea at Spec’s, but I love them both).

It occurs to me, though, that most folks don’t know the stories of the various nicknames, so here they are:


Joe Carl
Don’t know if that really counts as a nickname, since it is my legitimate name (for more on, see my name
page. First usage that I recall was by Gordon Baxter on a very sentimental radio program on KVLU after I graduated from Rice; currently used by one of my
clients.
Joe C
Another obvious one, used primarily by Greg Kahn
Joe@
A bunch of Rice folks invited me to play Mafia with their group in 2001. There was already a Joe playing, and it got a bit confusing, so someone
(anyone recall?) dubbed me Joe@, since I had my own domain. Used pretty much exclusively by the RLOS bunch.
Capn
The summer after my freshman year in college, I was a counselor at a church camp. One night the inspiration struck me to don a helmet made of
watermelon rind, a cape made of a beach towel, and a hockey stick, and I dubbed myself Captain Idiot. The rest of the week all the kids referred to me as the
Cap’n. When I came back to school that fall, I had my first exposure to what we now call IMing. The ‘nick’ I selected was Capn. Used to this day by Luigi Bai
MacDaddy
Based upon my love of the Macintosh computers. Used mainly by Eb Keshavarz and John Tran.

Usually after a show is done, I go into a bit of a funk, but so far I haven’t. Not sure why. Managed to cantor for the evensong service at St. John’s this
afternoon through the gunk that is still plaguing me by going a bit nasal and really pushing through the breath (thanks, Kitty!). Now that I’m almost better,
and have most evenings free once again, I’ve got lots of clients to get caught up with. And also the hovercraft and MacMAME cabinet projects to address.

Dun. Ever since I returned to working for myself in 2000, I have included on my invoices a notice at the bottom:

Terms: Net 30, 1.5% per month (18% per annum)

What this means is that payment is due in full within 30 days of the date of the invoice, and late payments are subject to a fee of 1.5% of the past due amount
per month or 18% per year…which, when you get down to it, really is not that bad, considering some rates on credit cards and the fact that I am not really in
the money lending business. I had never had to use this clause until this past month, when one of my most frequent customers neglected to pay their bill for
work I had done in August. I had intended to post their name if the check hadn’t arrived today, but it did, so they are apparently getting things under control.
Still, I think I may need to review my rate…I may be limited by statute.