House of the rising Moonglum

Initial reviews look promising. I’m looking forward to this one a lot, but I won’t be getting it the day it comes out. Too much work right now to dare to put a new OS on my machine.

Still, it looks like it actually has some interesting features in it.

Oh man, I haven’t been in bed before midnight this week, between work and church (treasurer stuff) and random other things in my life. Tired right now. Going to bed soon. But lots more helpers at work, so all in all life is pretty good.

I love my wife’s hedgehog. She is cute. She walks at night. She eats things.

So one of my friends (not naming names) is scared of Stella. He is scared that she will jump up and rip out his jugular. I find that funny because she is so little. I had some chicken on my hand from dinner and put my finger in front of her nose. She sniffed at it and went for it. I thought it was funny because she has such a small mouth. All she can fit in her mouth is a little meal worm. OR SO I THOUGHT! So we were sitting there having a nice dinner with our hedgehog, when it was decided that she needed some chicken, since she clearly wanted it. So I handed her a rather large piece of chicken. The piece was so large that it was bigger than her head. She fit the whole thing in her mouth. It was terrifying. I can not actually do it justice with words, and am afraid that I didn’t have my camera handy. Her mouth go so big that you could see the insides of her cheeks as she forced the whole piece in. She has learned that she can eat people. I think she can fit a whole small person in her mouth. Now I fear.

In the continuing adventures of Bad Stuff (TM) happening in my neighborhood, I present to you a car that you are really glad isn’t yours.

Wow, that has to hurt. Notice the tree “stump” next to the car. That used to be one of my favorite corners in my neighborhood because of all the really really huge trees there. Oh well. I guess it really was windy last night. The city workers cleaned off the street pretty quickly though.

And a reverse angle on that poor car.

Some Iraqi bloggers have been talking about a hostage situation in Madain for the past week or so. In addition many religious scholars in Iraq have been denying that anything is going on. The odd thing is that I have seen nothing in the news about it. Until today. The new government is not willing to give details yet, but it sounds like they have a pretty good idea of what happened. 50 men women and children were kidnapped and then killed and thrown in the river. What I find odd is that all the religious (Suni and Shia) leaders were denying that anything happened. Something very odd is going on there. This could be a good opportunity for the new government to prove themselves. I only hope they are up to it, and aren’t hindered too much by the religious authorities.

Well it looks like the new pope is the highly conservative Joseph Ratziger. His Pope name is Benedict XVI. He is apparently a very smart dude, and it will be interesting to see how he chooses to leave his mark.

Recently passed laws require the major credit reporting agencies to provide you a free report once a year. The rollout is based on region so some people can already get it and some still have to wait. The web page that Equifax, TransUnion and Experion set up seems pretty easy to use as well. Check it out. West and Midwest can get now, South and East need to wait.

The Trib is calling for DeLay to step aside as house majority leader after his comments attacking the Judiciary. Is this a sign that the republicans are becoming a bit self policing? Worried about the fringe costing them the next election?

More stupid web stuff. I have to stop doing these soon, or this is all my blog will be. FWIW, I seem to be more “General American English” or Californian as I like to call it than most my friends. The thing that gets me though is why I am more Upper Midwestern than Marty? Maybe the test is wrong.

“Dude you know what would be bad?”

“No what?”

“Uncle F***** in my pants.”

“Ow! My Nose! You just made me snarf wine!”

The next not a meme. I have to say that it was so hard to not pick other songs near these that would have worked about a million times better.

Only a northern Song In My Pants. (Beatles)
Paradise In My Pants. (Tesla)
Cherish In My Pants. (Madonna)
Your latest trick In My Pants. (Dire Straits)
I want you In My Pants. (Beatles)
Greensleeves In My Pants. (McKennitt)
No Time to Cry In My Pants. (Sisters of Mercy)
The Apparation In My Pants. (Iron Maiden)
Attitude In My Pants. (Metallica)
F*** her gently In My Pants. (Tenacious D)
Ice is a solid In My Pants. (Collins)
King Kastchei’s Dance In My Pants. (Stravinski)
X-Men In My Pants. (Modern humorist)
Rock me In My Pants. (Pills)
Bring me to life In My Pants. (Evanescence)
Spreading the disease In My Pants. (Queensryche)
Here with me In My Pants. (Dido)
Your Feet’s Too Big In My Pants. (Inkspots)
The wanton song In My Pants. (Zep)
Bleed American In My Pants. (Jimmy Eat World)
You must love me In My Pants. (Evita)
Torn In My Pants. (Natalie)
Bleeker St. In My Pants. (S&G)
The Fletcher Memorial Home In My Pants. (Floyd)
Zombie In My Pants. (Cranberries)

(p.s. Oops I Did It Again In My Pants.)

Please don’t make me do this again. I will make Pam spit up her dinner.

More along the lines of electing a new pope. This description of the elections takes a particular look at how hard it would be to fix the election. My favorite part: “And a third and final lesson: when an election process is left to develop over the course of a couple thousand years, you end up with something surprisingly good.”

Bruce Schneier is quickly becoming one of my favorite computer reads. In this latest article of his, he talks about the risks posed by identity theft and how to mitigate them. The main thrust of the article is that by focusing on securing the user’s data, the horse is leaving the barn. Personal data is no longer secret, and we need to deal with that. Rather than simply noting that this is not a viable solution however, he offers a solution of his own: make the companies responsible for fraudulent transactions.

This is how credit card companies currently operate. Rather than securing the credit card itself (when is the last time you had someone double checked the signature against the back of the card?) they secure the transactions. This means that they have come up with tons of clever ways to make sure that the transactions you make really are the ones you mean. The reason they do this is that they are liable for everything past the first $50. For misuse of personal data, we need to do the same thing. Rather than worry about the data being stolen, worry about the transactions that are being done with them. Right now the incentive is for banks to give more credit cards etc., by making them liable for that misuse, they will figure out how to fix it.

I would take it a step further and make the credit companies liable for incorrect entries in their databases, but I’m not quite sure how that would work. The main thing here is to make capitalism work for you rather than against you. As long as it is in the companies interest to use your data properly, it will be used properly.

I have been asked to run a game in the Steinhall universe again. Because I have some readers who may or may not be interested in this, I have made a new category specifically for game related material. Feel free to ignore it.

This new game will be set in Sandhaven, home of the Snake handling gypsy priests of Odin. TM. It is also home of the university of Sandhaven which we never ran into in the last game. Here is the history I handed out. For those keeping score, yes Draco did negotiate the entry of Sandhaven into the Kingdom 70 years before the start of the last game. Oh an if I forgot to invite you, please consider this an invitation.

The history of the region of Sandhaven, as of the year 302 in the Steinhall Era.

The city of Sandhaven lies on the northern edge of a vast expanse of swamp which marks the southern boundary of the Kingdom of Steinhall. Over the years Sandhaven has been the site of many battles due to its strategic position at the mouth of the Wide River which commands trade for the entire south eastern portion of the kingdom and even leads onward to the hellenic lands. Most recently it suffered from the slave wars and the Steinhall civil war. The many coves and cliffs, not to mention foggy bays in the region were excellent hiding places for slavers that operated out of Sandhaven. Much of that has been cleaned up at the end of the civil wars.

Both the Hellenic lands and Steinhall have suffered from civil wars precipitated by a drow invasion about thirty years earlier. The kingdom was hit less hard than the Greek cities and is once more ruled by a strong follower of Odin. The Hellenic lands by contrast have fragmented and become individual city states separated by lands roamed by barbarians, and there is very little land based trade or communication.

Sandhaven is known primarily for two things, trade and magic. It has a history of being ruled by the sea folk and as such has a strong trading tradition. Sandhaven was ruled by the sea folk for almost 75 years (to about 50 SE) The sea folk were never ones for ruling however and the land reverted to local rule for the next 150 years. During this time a tradition of land based gypsy trade formed influencing architecture and clothing to this day. (Locals prefer large tent like structures and bright clothing.) About one hundred years ago the city became part of Steinhall thanks to some clever legal wrangling on the part of an emissary from Lübeck. There was some talk of deals being made with demons to convince the local lords to swear fealty to the King of Steinhall. But really, why would some baron from the far away land make a deal with a devil for a small chunk of land? Sandhaven has continued as part of the kingdom ever since and has become the second most important trading center in the kingdom. Most recently the port was besieged and badly damaged by the sea folk when they destroyed Steinhall’s fledgling fleet turning the city away from their past engagement with the sea folk.

In addition to its location Sandhaven is also the home of the oldest center of learning in Steinhall and possibly in all the human lands. The University of Sandhaven recently celebrated its second millennium. This is not an institution that measures things in human years, and in fact it was founded by the grey elves that lived in the region since time immemorial. The university has survived the ravages of the years by making deals with the johnny come lately humans and powerful magics against the rampaging drow. (Not to mention the occasional deal with some unsavory characters.) The university itself is actually a good distance away from the town in the heart of the Drecksmaller swamps. An ancient deal with the local tribes of lizardmen keeps the grounds protected on a day to day basis, but most of the protections are not seen. The majority of the grey elves have left the region for the western lands even before the fall of Rome, but many can still be found in the environs of their great university. This is one of the few places in the eastern lands that the western grey elves still make pilgrimages to visit. And from this center of learning come many great sages and mages, though it produces few clerics. In fact there is some strife between the monotheistic grey elves and the local human who practice their own odd form of norse religions. (Though the local lizard folk have taken to their revivals, especially the snake handling portions of the ceremonies.)

Because of its distance from the city and dangerous environs, most of the attendants live at the university with their families. It is in these environs that the party finds itself. The party should consist of a least a number of people who grew up in and around the university so that certain protocols are known. Of course since it is a hugely famous university mages or some others could have simply come here to study.

One important note on the culture of Sandhaven, and the main item that sets it apart from other cities in the Kingdom, is that it is not what you would call a … good … city. The university itself is festooned with bas reliefs depicting the deeds of Vrba the great, which is hardly the fare for young impressionable children who wish to grow up as Thor’s Defenders. Odin’s perhaps. And he certainly approves of the university. Another oddity is the common presence of the lizardfolk guards. Duels to the death are not unheard of, and a fair amount of “cleanup” is done when the local baron comes to town. But at the end of the day the most important thing is learning, and people who mess that up are dealt with swiftly.

Another interesting note is that because of the university which outdates the kingdom by more than a millennium, and in fact outdates the PREVIOUS human kingdom, people in this region actually have a good sense of history that few humans share.

The university itself has three schools, a school of magic, a school of astronomy, a school of history and lore. In addition locals know (as in rumor) of a fourth school, but generally refer to it as the school whereof we shall not speak. The president of the university is generally a local lord, and is also the head of one of the schools. Currently the president is the head of the school of lore, one Lord Brahe. His son, Tycho, is currently the head of the school of astronomy. The school of magic, while powerful, currently has no nobility in its ranks and as such has not held the presidency for a number of years.

You’d think that Rumsfeld would be ready for this question. I could see that Afghans wanting the US to stay for a while, I’d think that they would have thought about this already, an not be caught off guard.

Ouch. It looks like in addition to service cuts, they are going to raise the fares as well. This should pretty much be the death knell for public transportation in Chicago.

From the article it looks like it might actually be a big game of chicken with the state legislature being the next to blink. If they push some cash into the CTA some of that service might get put back in, but if the CTA really loses 25% of their ridership, that should be a huge problem. In addition to losing that crew, they will probably lose occasional riders as well since using the CTA in general will be more cumbersome. Ugh.

Having recently finished the excellent Pragmatic Programmer I became excited about about design patterns and dove into Design Patterns Explained by Alan Shalloway and James R. Trott. It turns out this may not have been the best route. It is certainly better than picking up the gang of four book because it gives good examples of why you might want to use these patterns and why they came about. Having said that, the book itself is written rather poorly. The authors spend a huge amount of time talking about the philosophy of design, and then by the time they finally make it to the different patterns, have lost your interest in the programming aspect of design.

Having just finished the book, I can tell you a good deal about design principles in general, but would have a hard time naming all of the patterns that they describe in the book. This is problematic for a book that supposedly explains the patterns in a way that lest people understand how they work. After having read such a great book like Pragmatic Programming, it was almost depressing to read this book. The one thing it has going for it, is that it is a fast read. If you already know the patterns, it might be a good refresher and reference, but the the original GoF book might be as well, and without all the philosophizing. I appreciate the fact that they loved the Alexander book on architectural design, but in the end I got the feeling that what they really wanted me to do was put this book down and go read that one. At least they have a good bibliography. Hopefully I will soon be able to give a better review for the Head First pattern book I am reading now.

Not to be one to forward memes, but… My preferred weapon appears to be a short sword. Given that I have formal training in Epee, Foil and Iaido, this makes a good deal of sense to me.

Short Sword You preferred a weapon with 36% power over speed and 9% range over melee.

You use a Short Sword. Stylish and deadly, a short sword, sabre or rapier is your weapon of choice. You are well aware that an edged weapon puts you a cut above the rabble, but you also keep your blade relatively small to give you the quickness you need to stay on top. Your opponents seldom see your attacks coming, and by the time they could have regained their senses, they are all dead.

There are some who are calling for healing in America. And by healing I mean eliminating the separation of church and state and calling for the murder of supreme court justices. With the recent history of judges being murdered in this neighborhood, that one hits just a little too close to home. I’m normally not one bash on the other side, but if invoking Stalin is how they are going to “heal the nation” then I am afraid that no reconciliation is possible. If telling me how I must worship is their answer to the differences of opinion we have in this country, I am going to tell them to go to hell. But you know what I am not going to do? I am not going to pray for it. Because my God is a forgiving God, and Jesus deals with salvation not damnation. I leave you with the benediction from their conference:

“Father, we echo the words of the apostle Paul, because we know Judge Greer claims to be a Christian. So as the Apostle Paul said in First Corinthians 5, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, when you are gathered together, with the power of our Lord Jesus Christ, deliver such a one to Satan for the destruction of the flesh, that his spirit may be saved in the day of our Lord Jesus.”

I saw this article and then noticed the picture with it. Man that guy looks like Neo. Heh. I’d be hiding behind that wall if I were the cops too.