Rorschach.net

You’d like to think the staff of our elected representatives (both Republican and Democrat) should meet a higher standard. You’d think the job they do day in a day out to shape the laws of our country would infect their work ethic and they’d all be going about the business of the country with drama and gravitas. You know, like they do in West Wing. Yeah, not so much.

I make a living in Information Security, which means I don’t trust a lot of people, and I often see the worst of what individuals do when they think they’re hidden behind a keyboard and screen. I guess it’s a small comfort to see my worldview validated in such a lofty environment.

This is why I want there to be checks and balances in government. This is why I don’t want a unified federal database monitoring our movements, financial transactions, and communications. Because when you get right down to it, it’s all being run by people and they can be as incompetent, petty, and juvinile as you or me.

Welcome to the post-Ipod era of consumer electronics. First thing’s first. Don’t even bother with the “Core” system. They don’t even call it the Premium system on the webpage anymore, it’s just the Xbox 360 system and the Core Xbox 360 system. The Core comes in a green box so make sure you’re leaving the store with a white box or you’ll wind up eventually spending more than the $100 you save getting the core.

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My favorite middle brother turns 28 today – hope your day is fantastic!

It seems like only yesterday he was proudly declaring his status as a 3 year-old to all with cameras. Ho many fingers now Kent?

Age 3 Age 6 Age 21

His debonair personal style was apparent at a young age. Dressing to the nines by age 6. Still, it took many years of practice to perfect his smooth routines.

Age 27 Son Avri – Age 6

At long last, he’s found someone who appreciate his swanktified self and started down the path of passing along his personal style to beloved son Avri.

Happy Birthday!

Well thanks to the help of a nifty application I was able to acquire an Xbox360 today. I took an early lunch and bought the 9th system out of 14 in the shipment. Sure they just got the shipment that morning and the employees already bought 9 of them. And people wonder why there’s none on the shelves and so many on Ebay.

Anyway, for those of you who actually visit the site and don’t just read the RSS feed, you’ll notice the gamercard on the sidebar. That’s a new feature that tracks the most recent games I’ve played and the latest achievements I’ve gotten. The stars are my online reputation (more stars means I’m less likely to be a jerk online) and the total score is a maximum 1000 points for every game. You can see after playing a few games tonight I’ve already started building up my score.

Expect more posts about the 360 soon. There’s a lot of interesting things built into this console besides prettier graphics.

2^nd Week of Class –
I know what all the new buttons do in InDesign. Yeah – now I can go back to being as productive as I was before they changed everything. Next week, advanced techniques and shortcuts.
Weekend Update –
I could tell this weekend was going to be a good one early on.

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This is funny: Ultimate Showdown of Ultimate Destiny

So is this: Tripod Music Video.

Still unable to speak, I attended a class today on Adobe InDesign to re-learn how to do all the things I already knew how to do in Pagemaker before they changed it.

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Roe went to the vet today as a follow up to his Thanksgiving ER vet visit to have some x-rays done of his back and assess what was going on. While he was doped up, we had his teeth cleaned and nails trimmed. Always best to deal with the pointy bits while he is sedated.
It turns out Ro has a bad back including a degenerative disk. He’s not in any pain yet but we have to try and keep him from doing further damage to the area. We have new rules to follow that include:
1. Use a harness (not a collar) to walk him.
2. Keep the ball low to the ground when playing fetch.
3. No Frisbee or jumping games.
4. No wrestling that involves head shaking.
This will hopefully work as option number two is surgical. They don’t do lumbar disk replacement for dogs – in fact the latest advancements in disk replacement are only available in the US in clinical studies so we hope it doesn’t come to this. We would probably not be able to get him in.

The biggest problem with dogs is they don’t age the same rate as people. You shouldn’t have to watch your “kid” get older like that.

Yes, we’re going to Vancouver to play videogames. This is all about the Sword of the Stars wiki I created last month. The game is scheduled to be out some time between April and June. The development team invited me up to meet with them and I took them up on it. So we’ll spend a day with the dev team, get to learn a little about making a video game, play some of the latest build. It’ll all fit nicely into a long weekend. Amy says she’s along for the ride, but we’ll stop off in Seattle to meet with Felice, her friend from college, so there’s something in it for her as well.

One of the great things about San Diego is the change to get out and about. We’ve made it our goal since moving to take advanatage of as many as we can so we won’t someday move away with a lengthy list of missed opportunities. It was probably there to some extent in Kansas City, but being as how it’s mostly Paul and I making plans here, we’re getting out more. Upcoming cool things we are going to include:

Restaraunt Week – in moderation

Much Ado About Nothing – shakespeare done in the style of the Avengers

The Cirque De Soleil – for Valentine’s day

Vancouver – to play video games