This post has multiple parts to it, so fair warning I’m guessing this one is going to be long.   Lately I’ve been more and more annoyed at traditional hard copy media.  It’s a pain in the butt to deal with and takes up way too much physical space (for those that know me you find that sentence greatly amusing).

Pictures

This started happening over the last year with photo albums.   Photo albums are terrible.   It means normally that one person has a copy of the image and you can’t share them.  It is essentially technology of the last generation.  Don’t get me wrong, I’m a believer in having prints, but the pictures themselves.

I’ve made it my mission to start getting the family photos and scanning them in.   I’ve managed to get most of my father’s photos from the era he was with my mother.   The ones I’m missing are any he has of the kids hanging on the walls in his house.   My next run is going to be the pictures from his current family (so a good 15-16 years worth of pictures to go).

My grandmother on the other hand has been very tightfisted with her photos.  I can understand her being protective, but so far I’ve managed to get 59 photos out of her to scan (out of literally over a 1000-2000).   I have managed to scan my photo album, and more recently used the digital SLR and took pictures of my scrap book from high school.   So both of these can be tucked away in boxes that I don’t need to look at and take up physical space in my house.

All the photos I have are now uploaded to Flickr.   You can also read about my photo sharing issue with my mother over here.

Continued tomorrow in part 2

When I say we are having a baby – I don’t mean in the abstract sense that it’s happening soon.  Literally we are having a baby right now.  This post like most of them I am writing ahead of time, so there will be some details missing.   The one most important is what day is this going to publish?   I’m not sure – the baby is due any day now, I have to be ready to rush out the door.  I am hoping to run by the blog for five seconds to get this alert published.  By the time you are reading this (depending on how quick you do) we should be either on the way to or at the hospital.  When we get home I’ll be putting up a new article with pictures and the whole nine yards.

The signs have started that we are going to be having our child in our arms very soon.  I don’t yet know the weight or length of him.  I don’t know what the time or day of his birth.   He is very close to appearing.  Some part of this since I’m writing this ahead of time reminds me of Linus telling Charlie Brown about the Great Pumpkin, in theory the Great Pumpkin is going to show up, but yet there is no proof.     We are hoping everything goes well, that there is no complications.   Wish us well.

I’ll be giving updates on my twitter feed, so watch that for the latest information.

I was the oldest child in my family.   I can also say I was a bastard older brother, mostly I think it was because I always wanted to be a single child.   So far barring any other additions (extremely unlikely) I’m the oldest of eight.   So my dreams of being a single child didn’t really play out as expected.   My sisters, well I was always protective of them.  My brother on the other hand….  Well we’ll leave it with the fact that we have never gotten along for any length of time.

While there are a few good stories I have about my brother, I’m going to start with one of the ones I was most proud of.  It was how I killed my brother.   Granted he is still alive and well and in November had his second child.   So I didn’t really kill him, but he thought I did.

One day my brother was being extremely annoying, but he was always up for dare (once in high school we managed to convince him to run down the street naked when there was six inches of snow on the ground).   Well that day I had a plan.   Now I’m sure almost everyone reading this has learned the method to check and see if a nine volt battery is still good.  Well in all honesty there are a few methods.

Method 1. – Plug it into something and see if it turns on.

Method 2. – Using a battery tester

Method 3. – Putting a penny across the two terminals and see if it warms up (great for melting crayons).

Method 4. – The old tried and true method of licking the battery terminals and see if you get a shock.

One day I decided to teach my brother method four.  I would say I was nine or ten years old, so he would have been four-five years old.   At first I explained the procedure, he (smartly) did not believe me.  So he wanted me to do it first.  I licked the battery, and was assured it was live.   I also showed no emotion to the shock of licking the battery (this was key).   I then proceeded to hand over the battery to him.  He was still sceptical but he proceeded to lick the battery.

His head shot back from the surprise shock ( I think it was a new battery).  He was upset at this time.   At first he was going to tell on me.   I then proceeded to tell him that licking the battery was going to cause him to die within a day.   There was no cure and there was nothing he could do about it.  He didn’t believe and pointed out that I licked the battery first.    I told him that I didn’t lick it at all, that I just acted like I did.  So I wasn’t going to die at all.

This had him livid and crying, but as he was about to run downstairs and tell my parents, I asked him what they would think if he told my parents that he did something so stupid.   He was upset and stayed up in the room for a little while discussing what to do.  Eventually he went down and told my parents.   I of course got yelled at for that one.  I can say that it was worth it though.

I’m going to die?

]]> http://creeva.com/2009/01/31/i-told-my-brother-how-he-was-going-to-die/feed/ 0 http://creeva.com/2009/01/24/my-hosting-debacle-and-resolution/ http://creeva.com/2009/01/24/my-hosting-debacle-and-resolution/#comments Sun, 25 Jan 2009 00:43:47 +0000 Creeva http://creeva.com/?p=4076

Last Saturday morning my blog was down for the count.  I had received an email from Are My Sites Up stating that Creeva.com was down.   It told me that my blog went down late night on Friday.    I verified on Saturday that it was still down, and I had wanted to do some writing on it.  I waited.    I attempted to call tech support but after being the first caller inteh queu for over an hour I surrendered.  Saturday came and went and no blog.   Sunday morning site was still down.

I called into tech support again Sunday afternoon.   I was fifth in the queu and I was moving forward about 15 minutes at a time.  Either people ahead of me were getting help, or they were giving up like I did the day before.   I held on and finally managed to get through to a person.  Upon talking to the tech support I learned that my hosting server had moved.   Not only had it been moved, it was moved back in October.

I had known that they were going to move servers, but the e-mail announcing this stated that most people would not notice an changes.   What this says to me is that a new server will be put up with the same IP address with very little down time in the migration.    This however was not done, so all of my data was moved to a new server.    Since October I had been updating my information and blog on the old server.   When I managed to correct my DNS entries at my registrar, I discovered my blog was out of date since early November.   I was missing literally hundreds of articles once you take into account my lifestreaming posts that don’t make the front page or RSS feeds.   I was livid.

I called back and they stated they would get it synced back up off of the old server.   Ten hours later there was no change.     I waited until Monday when I knew there would be more then just support in the office.   Since I’m a reader of the Consumerist I followed on of their recommended ways of dealing with this is, I sent an executive e-mail carpret bomb here is what I wrote:

To Whom Can Help Me,

I have been a customer with AN Hosting (anhosting.com) a division of Midphase Hosting (midphase.com) since 12/24/07.   In October you were planning a server consolidation/migration plan (notice sent out is given below my e-mail (removed from blog article)) – which stated that some of our accounts would be migrated to new servers.   At that time I created an offline backup of my domain. Things went on working as they normally did until Friday night 1/16/09 7:15 PM.  At this time my site went offline.  This was verified by the service Are My Sites Up? (aremysitesup.com).   I was not aware and didn’t check my email to be informed about this until Saturday 1/17/09 early evening.   I called the support line and though I was the first customer in the queue I waited over an hour before I gave up.

On Sunday 1/18/09 I called in with my problem.  It seems my “free” domain was working properly – I don’t really use this site so I hadn’t checked it.   My add-on domains however were not working at all.   My main site which is an add-on site (creeva.com) was not working.   The technician stated that I had been moved to a new server and the old server was turned off, but my data should still be available.   My old server IP address was  [REDACTED], the new server you had migrated me to was  [REDACTED].   The technician on the phone stated that if anything was wrong with the site to call back and they could pull the back-ups off the old server.  I thanked the technician and got off the phone to start relocating my DNS and testing the site.

Before I migrated my DNS I adjusted the local host file on my computer to make sure everything was working on my main site.  Upon loading it and checking the entries it seems at the closest date I could pin down my latest blog entry was written at 11/10/07.   It’s hard to pin down since in October due to other concerns I had written and scheduled blog posts for most of the month of November and some going forward to early December.   The data may even be from October because I use these functions of wordpress.  I called back in to the support line and explained the issue and asked if I could get the backup loaded that he previously mentioned.

He opened a ticket for me and stated he would get this assigned.   In the ticket language he was vague – here is was he entered on my behalf:
Hi, I am having issues with my addon domain(creeva.com). My account was migrated
to another box. I am not able to view the latest version of my website, its
pointing back to November 10. I’ve been posting updates to my blog. Can you
please look into my account?

thank you

I’m not sure why it had to be opened under my name using the “I” reference – since the technician opened the ticket (ticket number  [REDACTED]).  I would think this is misleading to the technicians working on the case.   I checked out the language after I got the auto-email generated when the ticket is assigned to another technician.    I added the following entries after the auto reply to clarify the situation:
None of my add-on domains to my account are up to date – these have been
constantly updated through the last few months – yet under the current server
migration I was told I was migrated about 3 weeks ago.  So there would still
have been a discrepancy of a month during hte migration.

The migration letter stated that it would be seamless to the end user -
normally in most scenarios this would include making sure that the data was at
the latest possible and maintaining the same IP address – since I’m sure I am
not hte only customer that use another registrar.  If monitoring this was made
more apparent in the letter going out about the migration I’m sure this would
have saved the technical support some headaches.

I was finished some major changes on my add-on site creeva.com at about 4PM
1/16/09 – if a backup of the previous server ( [REDACTED]) can be found after
that time that would be terrific.  Is it Midphase’s policy to make backups
before taking a server offline?

Also wanted to ad – my blog at creeva.com may seem up to date more Nov. 10 – but
everything going through a publishing right now was written to publish at a
future (now past date) and the blog is catching up with it’s scheduled posts.
The current date of the latest post is not an accurate reflection of the latest
data from a back up – the bet I can ascertain the date was at least Nov. 10th
if not earlier.

A while later one of your technicians had checked on the issue and issued this reply:
Dear Brent,

We have investigated your issue. We could find that your account was migrated
from our old server  [REDACTED] to our brand new server  [REDACTED]. Please let me know if
you are using any ftp clients to upload the files. If so please use the details
that we have mentioned below to upload the files and update your website. Please
check the settings of your FTP client.

Server name : [REDACTED]
Server IP :  [REDACTED]
Username : [REDACTED]

We have also checked the blog site creeva.com and entered a post and the post
was successfully updated. We have attached 2 screenshots along with this mail
for your reference. Please check it.

Please let me know the exact issue regarding your subdomains. It seems that you
are uploading the new updates to our old server. So please use the above details
in your ftp client so as to upload the files to the new server.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Regards,
[REDACTED]
Technical Support Representative.
Hosting Services Inc.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Since he didn’t seem to understand what I was asking I reiterated my request – also notice in  [REDACTED]‘s reply that he gave me a third IP address that I should be using:
I need the data off of  [REDACTED] – which is where my add-on host was before
yesterday – I wasn’t using an FTP client – I was directly entering the data via
the wordpress interface – I checked my e-mail  logs and at no time was I alerted
there was going to be a server move where I would have had to adjusted the IP
address records of my add-on domains, if I had received that I would have been
more pro-active and migrated the DNS earlier.

The problem is I need the lastest information from Friday off of the
[REDACTED]  – one of the advantages on your home page is the fact that you
do nightly back-ups – so the backups should still be available.

I’m missing approxiamately 200 posts on my blog – affiliates update
information, theme updates – and that’s just for one add-on domain.  I also
find it odd that you give me the IP address  [REDACTED] – earlier tech
support gave me   [REDACTED] – which restored my access to the site  – I added
the IP address you gave me and added it to my hosts file locally before I
updated my registrar – I was hoping it would give me a more up-to date version
of my blog – it didn’t and just delivered me to a CGI page and the site doesn’t
load at all.

The problem is not access – and I can re-adjust my own FTP software – my
problem is data -freshness

Can I please get my data restored from the old server?

While you stated that during the migration – “In most cases, the migration is completely seamless. We have brought in a team of experienced migration experts to ensure this effort is handled with the best of care. If you should have a problem relating to your site, please do not hesitate to contact us: support@anhosting.com. We have a team standing by 24/7 to help out!”  I question the migration experts that performed this migration.  Currently at my place of employment we are performing similar actions with our infrastructure – and there was more customer outreach then you have given.   Since you know what are add-on domains are are your servers – any customer with a third party registrar should have been alerted by e-mail that their DNS records would have had to be adjusted.

Further action should have been done to sites on the old servers that were still getting traffic.  Since my site was receiving regular and steady traffic that should have been a tip off to action by your IT personnel that the customer should be alerted to adjust their DNS records.   This is all a failing on your team of migration “experts” by things that could easy have been prevented by a little due diligence on their part.

The biggest coincidence is that over hte last week I’ve been in discussion with someone to move over to your service.  I also had planned on migrating one of the non-profit organizations ove to your service next year to a VPS plan when their contract runs up.  Currently in good faith I can’t advise this to either of those accounts.   This disruption and loss of data is just not acceptable when it could have been easily prevented by checking what was going on the old server before you took it offline.

I am merely asking to have my backups from  [REDACTED] restored to my account.   Is this possible or do I have to make some other plans?  I am also sending the Consumer Advocacy blog “The Consumerist” (consumerist.com) a copy of this e-mail.   While the migration diligence seems to be in error you can still correct this problem and an unhappy customer by performing adequate customer service.   One of your features of An Hosting that is touted on your site is ” Backup Storage -Nothing is more shocking and heartbreaking than losing ones data and hard work. We back up our servers nightly to ensure you always have ANHosting to depend on!”  I am solely asking for my data to be restored as close to 4PM 1/16/09 as possible and my faith that I can “always have ANHosting to depend on!”

I sent this e-mail out to the American general manager of the company, the consumerist, the European Executives, and support.   I received an e-mail from the general manager and he got a technician working on the issue right away.   The issue was resolved in a couple hours.   They pulled my data off the old server and synced it to the new one.   There was still some minor issues that I had to correct – wordpress needed to be re-upgraded, but all my SQL databases were up to date.   They also kept me informed during the whole migration.

I really wish I could have had that level of care taken of me on Sunday, or at least a time frame when the data could have been restored.    When they try to equate a blog with a normal static website, it just shows ignorance on their part.   It does show the problem I have with doing regular back-ups – which is in the architecture stages right now.    The only thing I ask of my hosting provider is to live up to the promises they have given me.   I don’t open tickets – really I’ve talked to them only about 3 times in the last year.   The first being a simple problem I had while waiting for my account to activate, the second inquiring about the share SSL certs, and the third this issue.    I’m glad even though I “yelled” across the Internet more then I should have, that they came through and everything is now working.

Picture from here

I could pick on a few things actually, once again I didn’t vote for the guy, but I don’t absolutely detest him.   I’m in wait and see mode.  Ars Technica is reporting about Obama’s plead to push back the transition to digital TV.   If we look at the digital TV migration timeline, we can see the originally scheduled date was Dec. 31 2006.   Because of multiple issues it was pushed back and brings us to this upcoming Feb. 17th as the transition time.

We can argue that the government hasn’t done enough to inform the public or make it easy for the public, but I would argue otherwise.   I was well aware of this migration when it was first discussed over 10 years ago.   All in all the government has pushed out this transition longer then necessary.   You can say that’s it’s a good cautious thing they are doing by waiting and delaying, but every delay costs the tax payers more money.

If we truly want to get through this we need to pull the bandage off as quickly as possible.

Picture from here

Though I don’t think it’s related to the search engine privacy story, Google has just released a web book for free titled Browser Security Handbook.   Some people are relating to this as Google’s answer to the security (and privacy) issues raised by Chrome.  Others belive it’s a way of giving back to the community based on the way Google looks at these concerns and how they address them.

Currently I’m reading through and thought I would share.   You can go to the project page, download test cases, or read it online.   If you have any interest in this field I suggest you at least do one of them.

Picture from here

Money isn’t everything.   We treat it like is though.   Some people can’t understand when I say I don’t necessarily want more though.   I of course do want more money, but at the same time I don’t.   What I truly want is more freedom, more time, and more enjoyment from what I do.

I’ve had a couple jobs that I enjoyed more then anything else.   The first was working at a small PC shop.  It was my first break into the IT industry, in which I’ve done well climbing the ladder.   I interacted with people, I was a problem solver.  I was one of hte go to people that could fix almost anything.   I’m the type of guy that you throw problems at and I’ll swat them away like annoying insects.   It was my forte, the only thing I was really lacking at the time was high end networking.   I could make computers talk, but as I learned in my next favorite job I truly knew nothing.

The next job I can say now that I truly loved was working at Symantec’s enterprise firewall support call center.   Like the small PC shop after a year or so I came into my own and had my own groove.   After three years being on the team I had closed more tickets then anyone else in level one and level two support (I left being the team lead).    I also held the record for the most calls handled in one day.   The irony about having the most tickets closed is that 30-40% of the time I didn’t even open a ticket for the call.   Our call center software was so slow that it took 5-7 minutes to actually open and write up a ticket.  I made a deal with my managers (I’m sure some higher ups wouldn’t be happy) – that if I could handle the call in under five minutes and be almost positive that they wouldn’t be calling in on the same issue that I could just skip the ticket process.   So for volume, by the time I left I handled far above and beyond what everyone else had ever handled.    Symantec has since dicontinued the product, it lasted about another year and half after I migrated into consulting that it went kaput.  I wonder if anyone caught up to me in the call record or number of handled cases before it was gone.

This isn’t about bragging rights, I’m sure it sounds like it though.   What did both of these jobs have in common though?  They were both hectic chicken running with it’s head cut off problem squashing affairs.   I work best where I have a new issue every fifteen minutes or a nagging issue that would keep me up at night trying to solve.   As you move up the ladder you loose that.  You are working on long and engaging projects where the problem takes five minutes to engineer, yet in turn takes six months to implement.   I’m still good at what I do, but it’s not exactly the best fit for my skill set.   This in turn leads me into a spiral or more money versus more enjoyment.

Me and my Grandfather (Not a Recent Picture)

I had a conversation with my grandfather a few weeks ago, he told me how lucky it was that I had a job in today’s economy (I am), and that it would be difficult to move up in the area I lived.  I started to explain to him that I could more then likely finding a better paying job, but it may not be as stable in the long term as my current one.   I also said for the right job I would work for less then I currently do.  Somehow in his mind that didn’t compute.   In an abstraction of what he said, essentially he thought climbing the ladder should be what is important.   I told him with the right job, I would take a 20% pay reduction.  Granted that wasn’t my end goal, but for the right job in the right environment I would take my family down to the bare level where we could maintain everything.   Why?  I would be happier.

We are taught early that you need to learn so you can better then”random example”.   So you can go to college and maintain that edge and not be a janitor.   So you can get the huge house and be better then your neighbors.   If you neighbor buys a Lexus you are taught that you should buy a BMW.  It’s a mad dash to prove that your better then everyone else.   To prove that capitalism runs the world.  If we are not working to that we are either considered un-American, stupid, or lazy.   Granted I am a bit lazy, but I can work.    I was born July 4, 1976 so I don’t consider myself un-American (I’m a Constitutionalist).   I’m not stupid either.

I think this mindset first hit my family when I wanted to go to college for music performance and creative writing.   They always said I wouldn’t make any money with that.  I was seventeen and brave enough to say that if I was happy I could be living on a street corner in a box as long I was writing and playing music.   They never understood that.  If I didn’t have my wife, and a love for electronics (I didn’t have that love back then), I could probably still do it.   My life hasn’t greatly changed at the core in the last decade though when I was first with my wife.   We live essentially the same way, we have a few nicer things, a house, a car payment – but our basic lives are still the same.  I’d say the greatest difference is that we can not stand hamburger helper anymore.   I still eat the occasional cheap ass boil it  ramen, and she enjoys Kraft Macaroni and Cheese still.

Too many people in this world work for money.   Money is needed to survive (I have a friend that would argue that), but at the same time it shouldn’t be your singular goal.   When I was younger I had a certain goal financially I wanted to make, I did through different means.   I’m not at that level right now (I have no stock options to sell anymore), but it didn’t make it me any happier.   These days I write more, I play in two bands, I’m learning new instruments, and I have a baby that should arrive in the next couple months.   I’m juggling the things that make me happy with work, what if I could be blissful with my job too?  Some days I hate my job, most the time I’m just meh.   If I could get the hair pulling problem solving hectic life going again it would be great (must be my undiagnosed ADD).  If I could do it at the same pay level or better, that would be awesome.

I really need to get some more recent pictures of myself

I’m a publishing cross-posting whore.  I admit it.  I don’t deny it.  I want to get my stories and information out to the widest possible audience.   I signed up with Associated Content on July 9th.   I was going to make it part of my crossposting network disseminating my thoughts across the intra-webs.   I however never actually published anything with them.  Today I received this e-mail:

Hello,
My name is Brenna and I am a Community Manager at Associated Content. I see you haven’t published anything since signing up with us.
I wanted to let you know that there has never been a better time to publish on Associated Content. AC has grown by leaps and bounds in 2008, and we’ve paid out over $1 million to our contributors. We’re offering thousands of Upfront Payments weekly, we put out new Calls for Content every day and our record traffic (over 41 million page views in November!) means higher than ever Performance Payments. We hope that you’ll take advantage of this great time to publish with us.
For our American Content Producers, we’ll be giving away six iPod Nanos to Content Producers throughout December as a token of our appreciation. Publishing a piece of content for Upfront Payment automatically enters your name in the sweepstakes, and we’ll be drawing two new winners each week starting on December 16. If you’ve a lready published for Upfront Payment in December, you’re already entered. No purchase necessary. Full contest rules available here.
Happy Holidays and I hope to see you around the Associated Content site soon.

–Brenna

So why haven’t I? Well that answer is simple.  If I want to publish with Associated Content I had to give away the rights to my work and I couldn’t keep them Creative Commons licensed.   That means if I wrote something I published on Associated Content I can not legally re-use or republish it on my site.  I also can not publish it on my site first.

This is a major issue for me.  I retain control on who/what/when my content is used, at least to the extent that I don’t want others to put restrictions on my work.   99.9999% of the time use my stuff, I just want the credit for originally creating it, beyond that do with it what you will.   However if I entered into an agreement by submitting work to Associated Content I would no relinquish that control without gaining anything since being paid is not a guarantee.

For those who do publish through Associated Content, be aware of what you can do with your own data.  If you are fine with it, good for you.   I’m not trying to say my method is the only one, it’s just not a venue I want to deal with.

I ran across this article by way of Slashdot.  A teacher had punished a student for handing out live linux distrubution discs, for those that aren’t familar with a liveCD, it allows you to boot your computer off of CD and test drive linux without modifying your hard drive.  You can remove the CD and reboot and be back to using windows or whatever in no time. This teacher wrote the head of this particular linux group and stated:

I am sure you strongly believe in what you are doing but I cannot either support your efforts or allow them to happen in my classroom. At this point, I am not sure what you are doing is legal. No software is free and spreading that misconception is harmful. These children look up to adults for guidance and discipline. I will research this as time allows and I want to assure you, if you are doing anything illegal, I will pursue charges as the law allows.

and also:

This is a world where Windows runs on virtually every computer and putting on a carnival show for an operating system is not helping these children at all. I am sure if you contacted Microsoft, they would be more than happy to supply you with copies of an older verison of Windows and that way, your computers would actually be of service to those receiving them..

Now the person at the Helios distribution had some key things in response (these are snippets):

First off, if there was even the slightest chance that I was doing something illegal, it would not have been done. To think that I would involve my kids in my “illegal” activities is an insult far beyond outrage.

linux is superior to MS windows in so many ways, they are too numerous to mention here…I am weary of enumerating them. Unlike Microsoft who meters their “improvements” and then shovels them to you every five years or so for purchase; Linux releases their improvements upon their completion. We receive the newest and the best of the system when it is tested to be usable and stable

The most disturbing part of this resides in the fact that the AISD purchases millions of dollars of Microsoft Software in a year’s time when that money could be better spent on educating our children. A dedicated School Teacher would recognize that fact and lobby for the change to Free Open Source Software and let the money formally spent on MS bindware be used on our kids.

Now I do recommend you read the original article, but I do think this shows the ignorance of the teachers in our systems. Some people try to tell me when my child arrives that home schooling is a worse option then sending the kid to public or private schools.   I know I went through similar issues like this with my teachers, sometimes it was on english, other times it was on history.   Teachers won’t admit they are wrong and will continue to spew the same crap to students year after year.  They feel they must be the ones in the right otherwise they wouldn’t be the teacher.

I’m stopping now before I bust into a complete rant – read the original article and let me know what you think.

Picture from here

Yesterday on the radio they were ranking which was the most important moments in history in which you can remember what you were doing. I found the link to the quiz they were using, which was originally put up by Slate. While I do rememebr some of the events, others seem to go by without notice. I wanted to comment on the moments that happened within my lifetime. At least it will give my future son an idea of what I thought about the events that we consider important in history. This list is not in order of importance, it’s just the descending order in the slate list.

Berlin Wall comes tumbling down – I can’t say I truly remember the actual day the Berlin Wall fell down. It was a vague thing, something that was expected for awhile that was built up over time. I could be wrong on that. The one thing I thought was kind of cool about this was the fact that at Higbee’s you could purchase pieces of the Berlin Wall in a sack. These days that type of action would make me immensely sad, it’s a sign of America’s need to profit off of an event. In retrospect how did we know that they were pieces of the actual wall?

Mount St. Helens Erupts – Though I was four I remember this. I also remember President Carter on TV so I have a good young memory. This was a scary thing to me. I think I had this thought that volcano’s didn’t exist any more, that they were something that was from the time of dinosaurs. That it could happen in real life was very scary to me. I’m sure I watched this at my grandmother’s house on her floor model console TV.

Katrina Hits New Orleans – For Hurrican Katrina Xie and I were at home, we were playing SWG and attempting to get a hold of our friend that lived in New Orleans. We managed a day or so later to get a hold of him and post a picture of his house. It was scary knowing someone that was going through the disaster. We almost went down to help but didn’t. The evacuations and such were keeping people at bay we didn’t know when to go or what to do. We both wish we had gone, but that time has now passed. We are left with what we did do.

Miracle On Ice – Ok this happened while I was alive, but I remember nothing about it.

John Lennon Shot – This is another one of those where I was alive, but I don’t remember it.

Elvis Presley Dies at 42 – I definitely don’t remember this one since I was only one year old.

San Francisco World Series Earthquake – If I had followed sports ever in my life I think I would have paid more attention to this. I do remember the earthquake and wondered if California was going to fall into the Ocean. If this was the proverbial big one. I’m influenced in that thinking because of Superman II.

Princess Diana Dies – I remember this. I also wsan’t sure what the big deal was. I know one of my uncles cried because of this. To many people Diana was the last true royalty. This was probably because she was the modern storybook princess.

Three Mile Island Nuclear Accident – Once again, I was too young and do not remember this one.

Reagan Shot – We heard about this when I was at school. Since it was a private christian school we all had a prayer session for the president. Reagan was like a god to me back then, the invulnerable most powerful man. This re-affirmed that when he survived, but I was on shaky ground at first. I was young and scared for the life of our president. To this day I still personally think he was one of four greatest presidents of the last one hundred years.

Shuttle Challenger Explodes – I was in school again when this happened. It was a big media event with the first school teacher going up with the shuttle. This was the event that shocked the nation. We got out of school early that day and I do remember being upset. For what seemed to be weeks they showed that footage on the news.

JFK Jr. Dies in a Plane Crash – I’m not sure why this made the list. I remember it, and I was sad in the abstract, but it didn’t really pull at my heart strings. Around the same time I remember John Denver dying – I think the guy that who sang with Kermit the frog being gone affected me more.

Shuttle Columbia Disintegrates on Re-entry – I woke up early that day and was watching TV in the family room in the Oregon house. I was shocked and hurt when I saw this. I started crying. I thought this was the worst disaster that I had witnessed since it would hurt human’s getting back to the stars which I felt was our future. I woke up Xie and told her, she didn’t understand why I was upset. I just was. This event truly affected me.

9/11 Attacks – I was driving to work at Symantec on the beltway and a radio announcer talked about plane hitting the trade center. I’m not sure if the second plane had hit or not at that point. I thought it was some weird joke by the disc jockey’s. It turned out it wasn’t. When I arrived at work ewe were told that if it was too much for us, then we could return home (paid). I went on with my day following events online. I called Griffaw and Xie at home to turn on the TV at home to see what was happening. We kept in contact through out the day via IM. Griffaw didn’t move form that TV for four days watching everything as it unfolded. I’ll leave my own political comments about this time out of this post.

Asian Tsunami – We didn’t watch a lot of news at this time. I was aware of the event and read about it online, but it wasn’t an in your face major thing for me.

Dale Earnhardt Dies at Daytona – Really? I don’t know why this made the list. I don’t know where I was or even if I cared at all. I don’t follow NASCAR so someone dying in a car crash is a risk that I was aware that drivers took.

There is one more I would like to do that isn’t on that list:

Kurt Cobain’s Death – I didn’t watch MTV so I wasn’t immediately informed of Kurt Cobain’s death. At this time period I didn’t even like Nirvana’s music (they are one of my favorites now). I was one of those kids the next day mocking the other kids that were crying. I understand this now though. Some people may disagree but in a way Cobain was a Lennon for our generation. A voice that spoke out and said what we were feeling. Someone who we could identify with. I have never had a living musician that I felt that way about, but I understand why everyone else was upset. Wisdom is granted with age.

If you don’t see all the video links make sure you view this a creeva.com.

Day late…

If you haven’t caught on to this series yet I have mother issues.   Because I have my mother issues I need to sit down and logically recognize what they actually do to me.  Things my mother has made me.

Growing up I was extremely self conscious of everything, how I looked, who had what, etc…  What has happened as an adult is that I just don’t care.   I don’t care what you have.  I want what I want for my own reasons.   As I’m getting older I can care less what society thinks about me, so essentially I’ve become the polar opposite of my mother.   Though Xie will tell me that isn’t always the case.

Because of growing up in my household I learned to thrive in chaos.   This is great in some of things I do since I can make order out of chaos (well at the same time creating more chaos around the thing I made in order).  Unfortunately for those around me this isn’t always a conducive environment for those that deal with me.

I get my anger from my father, and I’ve spent many years getting that in check and controlling.   It’s something I have to deal with.  I have learned however people like my mother are the ones that are most likely to set me off at a moments notice.  This is why I didn’t marry a girl like dear old mom.   My father after the divorce seems to have his anger issues in check, can we say common denominator?

I base(d) alot of what I know about relationships from my parents and their interaction.   When things aren’t going well in my own relationships I’m completely oblivious since things aren’t explosive like my parent’s relationship was.  While our child isn’t born yet we don’t know truly who the enabler and the disciplinarian will be.   I’m pegged for the enabler, and that’s not necessary a good thing.   If I get that from anyone it’s going to be my mother.   I just need to make sure my son doesn’t become a spoiled brat.

Frustration at stupidity.  The exasperation I get over comments that are idiotic, that comes completely from my mother.   I have mentioned her belief that ninja humanoid turtles were possible. I used to do all of her proof reading for her college homework when I was in high school, and I was responsible for the rewrites.  When I was about fourteen she said she was smarter then me.   What she may have meant to said was wiser, though I don’t think that was the case, since if she was wiser or smarter she would have said the word wiser.   Also for anyone wishing to defend her on that one, she still says she is smarter (Oprah must have told her she was).  I have a standing offer to pay for an IQ test so we can settle this once and for all, if she is write (highly unlikely) I may just kill myself since it will be proof that intelligence means nothing. On a side note recently I was just talking about sitting for the Mensa exam.  I don’t know if I’m Mensa smart, I may not be, but I’m confident enough to actually sit for the test.

The last thing is I get insane over little requests people ask of me.   I better be in the right frame of mind because I can go ballistic if it’s something they can do for themselves.   I’ll give you the story I use to describe this whenever I talk to someone about her.   When I was in high school I told my mother I was going to be taking a bath (yes I’m a boy and I like baths get over it).  She acknowledged me and said she was going ot cook dinner.  At this point everything is fine and dandy.   About 10 minutes later I’m in the middle of reading a book and my mother starts screamiming my name.   Now this isn’t a your in trouble name scream, nor was it a where are you at name scream.  What it sounded like was the “OMG THE HOUSE IS ON FIRE” scream.   I threw on a towel and rush down the stairs.

Well the emergency?  My mother needed a wash cloth to do dishes .  Her answer about me being in the bath?  “I forgot”.  In ten minutes she forgot what she had been told and acknowledged (and I’m sure she heard the bath water run) and put all of that aside for her immediate need of a wash cloth.   To make matters worse, she thought I was down in my room.   Now our family was a plit level.  The kitchen on the main floor, the bathroom on the second floor, and my bedroom on the lower floor.   In theory give or take ten feet I would have had to expend the same amount of energy to come from my room or the bathroom to come to the kitchen.   She would have expended half the energy (minus the energy to start yelling) to go down to the second floor and get it herself.  It was absolute pure laziness.   I pointed it out to her, and she didn’t care.   She wasn’t old or invalid, she was healthy and approxiamately the same age as I am now.   The worst part, I was dripping wet, freezing, and I still had to get the washcloth.

I was a sucker and should have said no, but I was a mama’s boy.  That story though is an example of many many things that are quite similar.   Because of her necessity or decorating the house for the holidays, I now loath decorating for the holidays/  I have never had a christmas tree in my  house, that may change next year with the kid on the way.   Compared to my mother’s house and her record breaking three christmas trees she did one year, my house will be quite sparse.

My mother likes to tell people how things are to be decorated and have everyone else do the work.   After the divorce I became the man of  the house.   I learned to loath the holidays.  When your mother is healthy you shouldn’t be fifteen and being Santa Claus setting up the tree late at night for your siblings, but yet I was.  I love the holidays, I just hat emy mothers version of them.  These days though i’m preferring Halloween over Christmas, black and gory for the win.

Ok  I’m stopping now otherwise this will become the post that will never end.

Read Part 1 Here

Read Part 2 Here

Read Part 3 Here

Read Part 4 Here

Read Part 5 Here

Read Part 6 Here

Read Part 7 Here

Read Part 8 Here

Read Part 9 Here

Read Part 10 Here

Read Part 11 here

Read Part 12 Here

Read Part 13 Here

Read Part 14 Here

Read Part 15 Here

Read Part 16 Here

Read Part 17 Here

Recently I did a forum interview on the swg forums (thread is located here), I didn’t re-subscribe, I just visited the forums during SWG’s free month back special.   Here is the text of that interview:

-Forum Related-

Forum Name:

Brentgueth aka “Creeva”

Any particular reason or meaning behind your Forum Name?

I’ll let everyone figure out the obvious.

Is there any particular board on the Forums that you like/hate? Why?
The Intrepid board. Some people don’t realize that there is a lot of history here and back in the day it was quite fast moving. By the time you answered a post there would fifty new posts. It kept me active and made me a part of the community

Beyond that I hung out in the entertainer forum a lot since I believe the entertainer class is part of qhat makes SWG unique and special. I’m rabidly anti-afk it was SOE’s stance in not patrolling or punishing for AFK that was the straw that broke the camels back for me.

Any particular forum topic that you are fond of?

Anything community related or inspired.  The community is what made SWG and Intrepid great.  If it wasn’t for the community we had the game wouldn’t have lasted past six months.

Favorite threads?

Intrepid Has a No Grind……
Clarks House…… <—I remember this thread too, Hilarious.

Any Forum personalities that catch your fancy? (Person who’s posts make you laugh or like to read)

In no real order:

Corndog
Keltrien
Padre
Qitu
Darthtuefel
Irasha
Shikazi

-Character Related-

Main Character you play:

Creeva Murkado – Twi’lek for the win – Lekkus Until Death

Any backstory to their name?

to the name – no it was something I made up in 10 seconds and went with.  On the front side though, creeva has become my avatar name for almost every online service I use.  Because of Intrepid I’m extremely attached to that name – I even own creeva.com.

What profession are they? Any particular reason why you chose that profession?

Entertainer for life.  I respecced to other professions only to get the badges.  Beyond that I’m a full time entertainer.  During CU I briefly tried BH and pre-nge I was 90% of the time master entertainer/master musician/master rifleman.

I originally started a character on Gorath – his name was Jonathan Lysak (sp?) – the third day after launch Gorath was down and Xie ‘lanthia and I wanted to play.  I said you know what would be funny – let’s make entertainers – that should be good for a laugh.   We randomly chose Intrepid because that server was up.  The rest is history.

Sometimes fate just happens to put in a place and position that surprises you and is the perfect fit.

Any interesting Chapters to you Characters life?(Marriage, Kids, War Hero, Galatic Senator, Winner of the Intergalatic Pie Eating Contest)

Grrrr.  This is a hard one – but let’s hit the highlights

Starting Planet – Talus
Moved to Tyrena – Where My Heart Will Always
Member of Star Dragon Entertainment – Intrepid’s First Entertainer Troupe
Winner with the Def Stars In the First Intrepid Jam Bonanaza
Performed at every Groovefest (I think) – worked and helped Xie organize entertainers for the first one (She did most the work)
Founding Mayor of Symphonia
Founding Member of DEF
Founding Member of STARS
Founding Member of IPS
Fighter for entertainer rights
Helped organize and participated in the Intrepid Anti-Decay Protest
Helped Enchi-Lada rename a house Clark’s House and caused mass confusion
Was at Moya’s Wedding
Started the Museum Movement
Founded the first somewhat comprhensive Museum  – my buildings were the second museum on the server (though I announced first and they built theirs before I completed gathering things)
The first Intrepid funeral for a character was in my name
Founding Mayor of Pirates Retreat
Ran SNN – The Stars News Network – when INN was no more
Did behind the music columns on the forums for retired musicians
Maintainer of the Intrepid History Project at starsofintrepid.com (it’s a wiki go update your entry)

um…is that enough

That’ll Do Creeva, That’ll Do.

Roleplayer?

Roleplaying Light thank you

Are you in a guild? If so which one and why?

Currently?  Well I think I am still in STARS

In the past – I helped found DEF to be Intrepid’s first and only Entertainer Guild.   I did the same with STARS (it didn’t have the staying power – or rather Xie and I didn’t have the staying power to work at it) – I was also briefly in NWO.

How many years have you played SWG? Taken any extended breaks from the game?

I started at launch  – I’ve taken extended breaks here and there – I theory I’m still on extended break.   I will come back officially when it’s Intrepid’s final month as a server and play in the Tyrena the final day until the servers go black.  I don’t care if that’s in 2 months or 20 years, I will do my best to keep that word.

Over the time you played SWG what is your favorite memory?

That’s not fair – I guess if I had to pick – winning the first Intrepid Jam Bonanaza by being the first entertainer group to actually use lyrics instead of just playing flourishes.

Though the people, hanging out, being at home – that’s what makes Intrepid great and that’s what I remember the most.

What is the funniest/most embarrassing moment you’ve had in the game?

Arguing with Moya’ over toilet placement in the galaxy. <—First Crafted Toilet on Intrepid if I remember correctly.

-Other People-

Favorite person you’ve played with over your characters lifespan?

Xie ‘lanthia

What you would say to them if they were in game and the server was getting it’s plug pulled tomorrow?

e-mail me – you can get the email address from creeva.com or use the contact me form there – I would give you my e-mail address to post – but for some reason SOE doesn’t like that and messages get deleted that way.

Favorite Guild or Group of people you’ve played with?

DEF and STARS

If you participate in the GCW what player would you call your most Respected Nemesis?

AFKers – there is always a war on them.  I miss when I could break AFK macros by stealing their nalargon or omnibox.

-The Game Itself-

Favorite Iteration of the game? (NGE, CU, Pre-CU) And Why?

Pre-Cu – the possibility and purity of hte game – instead of hte watered down version

Favorite Pet/Droid? Why?

The AFK bunny – he dances AFK for credits – though I tell everyone to make sure not to tip me.

Favorite Weapon or Armor you’ve had? Why?

Davinci “Widow Maker” Laser Rifle – When it was created it was the post powerful rifle ever made on the server (my character still has it) – and an entertainer owned it

Favorite Profession in the game? (Past or Present)

Entertainer

Your preferred GUI color palette and Keymap?

Imperial – and custom keymap to be pre-nge controls

Favorite Emote of all time?

Don’t know – I /waved a lot though

Favorite in game Location/Planet? (Lake Retreat/Naboo etc.)

My original musuems in Symphonia

Favorite Server?

Intrepid

What keeps you logging in to SWG through the good and the bad? If you no longer log into the game what things do you remember that kept you playing?

The People

-The Player-

Any SW related collectibles that you are proud of?

I have some toys – but I won’t stand on the fact that there is anything I’m proud of – I do own the PS1 game Masters of The Tera Kasi still sealed.

Favorite Movie/SW book?

A New Hope

Favorite Food/Snack?

Pizza

What hobbies do you have outside of SWG?

Blogging (creeva.com) – I’m right now working on a novel for national novel writing month, I perform in two community bands playing trumpet, and video game collecting.

Your Country/Hometown?

Ohio

What is the one thing to see if we come to your Hometown?

a normal ohio small town

Any of your family members or relatives remind you of a particular SW character?

My wife distinctly reminds me of Xie ‘lanthia

And most importantly if SWG player showed up at your door because they were stranded in your hometown you would:

I’d keep them for the night.  The only player that I didn’t work with at one point (Wong-Fei-Hung and Astrolite) that I’ve met was Moya’ I took her and her husband to dinner once.

My mother is obsessed with her house.   She thinks it is the most important thing in the world.  Above keeping adequate food in the house even.   If she needs something she’ll beg, plead, and cry until she gets her way.   She is as spoiled as she has made any of her children.

Her rational seems to be that people will look at her as a better person if she has a nicer house and furniture (a screwed assessment in my belief). Not only will they look at her as a better person, I honestly believe that she thinks it does make it her a better person. Should could have been Mother Theresa and feeding starving children on the streets of Calcutta and she would still be a terrible person in her mind if she didn’t have the greatest modern style in her house.

My father did amazing work remodeling the house of my parents originally bought it. In the end it was a useful, functional, and livable house. My step-father isn’t too shabby at work also, yet his designs are not as well thought out. He (with I’m sure my mothers chiding) turned half the garage into a ten foot by ten foot dining room. It was cramped and never felt right. It also negated half the garage and made it so you couldn’t pull a car in any longer. To make matters worse he had to put one to two wall jacks for various services into each wall in the room. Idiotic for a dining room. If you need that kind of outlet space get a surge protector, because I know her didn’t put a better breaker in the house.

My mother must have reached the realization at one point that this was a bad spot for a dining room. So she turned the front living room into a dining room. At first line this doesn’t sound too bad, until you realize there is no atrium or anything, so the dining room is the first room you enter when you walk into the house.

The last time I was there the house was so transformed you could hardly recognize it anymore. What used to be a livable space that felt like a lived home is slowly being transformed into a model home that just has residents. It is not a place you would ever feel comfortable in. While it doesn’t look bad, it looks like no one lives there except for the mess, maybe weekend renters that haven’t cleaned up yet. A nice place to visit, but you wouldn’t want to live there.

Read Part 1 Here

Read Part 2 Here

Read Part 3 Here

Read Part 4 Here

Read Part 5 Here

Read Part 6 Here

Read Part 7 Here

Read Part 8 Here

Read Part 9 Here

I don’t have my child yet, let alone more then one. I do however suspect parents have a favorite child. If not a direct favorite, at least a favorite to do certain things with. My parents were no different. I could pull out favoritism on my father’s side, but that doesn’t matter, when that was evident and apparent I didn’t like him very much. My mother on the other hand is what this piece is really about anyways.

My mother’s favorite child was either the trophy child or the youngest child. Sometimes they were the same child, other times they weren’t. I’m not going to say I was never the favorite child, I was quite a bit. i was the oldest child of her six, so being the first I’m sure she always had a bit of pride in me (of course now that this web series has ran….). But like most families the youngest child, the baby of the family, was always doted upon quite a bit. As far as i can remember I never minded, so that never bothered me.

The trophy child on the other hand was my brother immediately behind me. He was as spoiled as my youngest brother. He seems to have turned out just find, though a strong sibling rivalry is still there. Now I’m sure the question s why is he the trophy child. Well at one point he decided that he wanted to live with my father.  This was all well and good and lasted a few months (year?).  Until he started getting disciplined.

On a weekend visit to my mother, my brother just didn’t go back to my fathers.   My father didn’t fight custody over the matter, if my brother wanted to live with my mother, so be it.   The key is that my brother had hardly any rules placed upon him.  He was the biggest wild child of all of us.  That doesn’t make him a bad person, he seems to have turned out alright.   I don’t care that I had more rules placed upon me, I’m the oldest, it’s my job to take the brunt of everything.  I’m perfectly fine with that.   Maybe that’s why I’m so accepting of life now.

My brother got away with this because back in my mother’s brain, if she didn’t indulge him, then she would loose him again to my father.   My father and brother were very close when he was younger, this was my mother’s way to split a wedge in there.   It took years for my brother to talk to my father again, a lot of this is because of the poisoning that my mother had done.   He was her trophy over my father and she wasn’t going to let go of that.   I’m sure he doesn’t look at it that way, or is even aware of it.

My sisters on the other hand got both the poisoning against my father (it didn’t take) and none of the perks.   Even a decade after my brother had left the house, my sister (from the same father) had a much harder time and more rules placed on her then any of hte rest of us had.   She was actively disciplined, yelled at, and talked down to.   I’m sure my youngest brother won’t ever go through and be treated that way.  He’ll be coddled and spoiled, and probably living with my mother until he’s thirty, or at least until he wises up.

In the end it works out though, my brother can do no wrong in my mothers eyes (heck she even drank with him underage).  She has the same blinders towards him that her parents have towards her.   He gives her love, he doesn’t question her, he doesn’t push her to be a  better person.  Since they view the world in similar ways and there is no tension between them, he has become her perfect child. During my mother’s latest separation my brother even told my father that she didn’t have to worry because we’d take care of her. I’m not sure where this “we” comes from. Never was I going to financially support my mother, even when we were getting along.

Read Part 1 Here

Read Part 2 Here

Read Part 3 Here

Read Part 4 Here

Read Part 5 Here

Read Part 6 Here

Read Part 7 Here

Read Part 8 Here

My grandfather taught me a thing or two about respect.  I’m not going to say we see eye to eye, but I did manage to learn a few things.   The largest being that you earn respect.   My father taught me that you have to deal with the consequences of your actions.  My mother never learned either of those two lessons.   Somehow because she had the biological capability of having children that it meant that her children would have to respect her.   I however never had such a notion.  I also have never claimed that my mother was the sharpest tack in the pile.

My mother complained a lot to me that my seventeen year old sister called her a bitch all the time.   I stated that this was normal for seventeen year olds.   I also felt that my sister was working 20-30 hours a week, going to school, and planning for her future was better grounded then my mother who worked maybe 4 hours a week.  My mother would call my sister a bitch, and wonder why she got the word thrown back at her.   I’ve brought this up to her and she denies it.   I have witnessed it though.   Xie has witnessed it. My sisters can attest to it.   However my mother turned my grandparents against my sister over this.   They thought was sister was the wild child that no one can control (do we need to go back to school and work compared to my mother?).  They thought my mother didn’t deserve that language tossed at her.   They also have a strong refusal to believe that my mother would ever call any of her children such language.

HA.

My mother was using that language directed at my sisters before they were even teenagers.   My grandparents still think that I (in my thirties mind you) is still just telling stories and making things up about my mother. I don’t know how my grandfather who taught me you have to earn respect ever gained it for my mother. The only thing that comes to mind is the fact that she is a woman. Xie sometimes gets annoyed when my grandfather states that if I die, that I need to make sure that I provide for her. My grandfather is a bit sexist and thinks that women have a hard time to provide for themselves. I don’t completely fault the man, he comes from a different generation and my grandparents fit into very traditional gender roles that younger generations don’t follow any more.

Their daughter has not earned the respect of any of her children. Instead of inspiring her children to do more and be an example, she tries to elicit pity from them. This isn’t anger, my mom generally gets pity to pity her so she can get things. This is her control mechanism. This is why my brother states he will take care of her and my grandparents still do. I want help from people because I need help, not because they pity me. To be pitied is all around just sad, to be truly undeserving of pity because you got yourself into the mess; doubly so.

Read Part 1 Here

Read Part 2 Here

Read Part 3 Here

Read Part 4 Here

Read Part 5 Here

Read Part 6 Here

GU Comics by: Woody Hearn

The above image is from the latest comic from GU Comics.   The irony is that I was having this conversation with Xie last night.  I haven’t logged into the game for a few days, but she gave me her story of what happened to her, and I read it about it yesterday at work.    I still don’t understand how an Undead can be turned into a Zombie.   I’ve also had an issue with being able to Rez and undead.   I don’t understand how it can be done or the logistics around it.   Blizzard has shown we’re not zombies, are we original bad rezs that cna’t be truly brought back?   Why isn’t there a 1 and million chance every time you die to come back as a more complete being.   The healers can’t all be that bad.

Well it seems I’ve been lax the last couple weeks in my weekly summaries.  Let’s catch up:

Articles:

I Think Fragmented Communities in Social Networks Are a Good Thing

Interesting – Guess They Don’t have Time to Meet

Web Application Developers Can Learn A Bit From WordPress

Holy Legos Batman (Not About Lego Batman)

Some Great Macro Photography Images

Sad Day For Free Speech For Students

Had to Remove Some Sites From My Lifestreaming Page

Web Companies Today Are On Top Of Customer Service – Traditionals Take Note

Get an E-Mail or Twitter Alert When a Company Changes is Privacy or Security Policy

Pop-up Study Proves Users Will Click Anything

It Had to Happen Eventually – DHS Testing Pre-Crime Detection

Palin Hacker Is Not Indicted …So Far……

VHS Alumni Band 2008 Memories

Did I Blog Without Permission or Do You Not Understand Creative Commons

Daily Online Activity:

Online Activity for 2008-09-19

Online Activity for 2008-09-20

Online Activity for 2008-09-21

Online Activity for 2008-09-22

Online Activity for 2008-09-23

Online Activity for 2008-09-24

Online Activity for 2008-09-25

Online Activity for 2008-09-26

Online Activity for 2008-09-27

Online Activity for 2008-09-29

Online Activity for 2008-09-30

Online Activity for 2008-10-01

]]> http://creeva.com/2008/10/03/creevacom-weeks-in-review-91908-10308/feed/ 0 http://creeva.com/2008/10/03/did-i-blog-without-permission-or-do-you-not-understand-creative-commons/ http://creeva.com/2008/10/03/did-i-blog-without-permission-or-do-you-not-understand-creative-commons/#comments Fri, 03 Oct 2008 17:07:17 +0000 Creeva http://creeva.com/?p=3458

Picture from here.

Looking at my access logs on the site I noticed a referral from this page.  At the top of the page it stated this:

Blogged without permission to: http://creeva.com/2008/08/08/i-cant-link-to-your-web-site-man-your-retarded/.

Now my first instinct was “What the Hell”, I then checked and verified this came up under a creative commons search and made a screenshot.

Now under creative commons that applicable (Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs) (I searched to see what was allowed to do to the image after this came up) it states:

Under the following conditions:

• Attribution. You must attribute the work in the manner specified by the author or licensor (but not in any way that suggests that they endorse you or your use of the work).

  Attribute this work:

  
  What does “Attribute this work” mean?

  The page you came from contained embedded licensing metadata, including how the creator wishes to be attributed for re-use. You can use the HTML here to cite the work. Doing so will also include metadata on your page so that others can find the original work as well.

• Noncommercial. You may not use this work for commercial purposes.
• No Derivative Works. You may not alter, transform, or build upon this work.

I did copy (well I linked to the photo on Flickr) and I distributed the work because it was embedded in a blog post.

The conditions:

Attribution – I followed the norm for creative commons licensed Flickr images which is to link to enclosing page where the picture is from.   No other conditions were specified by the creator, so I took the industry norm for such usage.

Noncommercial - Though someday I would like to get paid, my blog is a non-commercial work and I would testify under oath and in court that my blog has never netted a single penny into my bank account, into my pocket, and in any tangible meaningful way.

No derivative work – when speaking of the image I did not alter, transform, or build upon the image in any way.

Using this image like I did I was well within my legal rights.  I left this comment on the page:

You know you stated that this was blogged without permission to my site on the page http://creeva.com/2008/08/08/i-cant-link-to-your-web-site-man-your-retarded/

The problem with this is that you released your photo under creative commons.  For all my posts I only seach for flickr photos licensed via creative commons, just so I can use images legally.

I clearly underneath the photo linked back to this page which is attribution – I didn’t obfuscate, nor did I claim it was my original image.  If anything it was to help drive traffic back to your site since I didn’t want attribution given to me any way shape or form.

Now I don’t mind the fact that you state it’s blogged without permission, but this comes down to the fact that you licensed your photo under creative commons originally, and you don’t seem to understand the rights you’ve given up by this.  I’m not using this commercially, so I am within my right.

Please see this flickr search:

http://flickr.com/search/?q=Kitty+Reindeer&l=cc&ss=0&ct=0&w=all

and you can verify that this image is listed under creative commons use – or see this screenshot http://flickr.com/photos/creeva/2909390861/

Under more in depth searches – you are not allowing commercial use of this photograph, which I am not doing.   You are also not allowing anyone to modify, adapt, or build upon – which I also am not doing.

Also though Flickr allows you to remove a creative commons license legally once something is released under creative commons it’s eternally released and irrevocable.

While my first instinct was to remove this image I’m letting it stand because of the license you chose regardless of your understanding of the license.

If the creator had contacted me in any way shape or form this may have been a different issue and I may changed the image (at least on this site I don’t know if I could catch everywhere I crosspost to).   Now however since I am a firm and hard believed in public domain and creative commons rights for creators, it’s become a matter of principle.  If someone doesn’t understand what creative commons is, they shouldn’t use it otherwise they will loose rights that they thought they had.  I did not publish this in a book and made no commerical profits off htis image.  I followed the license as it was written and intended.   If the creator didn’t understand those rights, well that’s another issue.

Saturday was the VHS Alumni Bands 22nd performance at the Vermilion High School Band Festival.   I originally marched for the Vermilion High School Sailor Marching Band from my Sophomore to Senior years (Senior Year Video) which encompass the fall of 1991 through the summer of 1994.   I had the option to put on the band uniform one last time for the Vermilion Fish Festival in 1994, but I declined that was the first time I performed with the VHS Alumni Band.

My first band festival (Fall 1994) outside of high school I didn’t get a chance to perform, I was marching with earlier that day for a home game with the Ashland University Marching Band.   I did show up that evening to watch the performance and hang out with friends.  I heard a lot of people say that this was their best year in Alumni Band, no disrespect to Joe, but I have to disagree, at least for myself.   The best year for me was my first festival back with the group at the Band Festival of 1995(?) which was Willy B’s (William Burt’s) last year as the Band Director for Alumni.   If it hadn’t been for Mr. Burt and his loyal students there wouldn’t have been an Alumni band today, so all of us can look back and thank them for making this possible.

I’ve marched many years with Alumni at the festival (1995, 1996, 1997, 1998, 1999, 2000, 2006, 2007, and 2008) and I only missed it five times because I was living in Oregon.  I can say I was extremely tempted to spend the money for a plane ticket and fly back for it during those missing years.  I’m extremely happy that I was there for Mr. Henry’s final year as both a high school director (my senior year) and his last year as an Alumni Band director.  Last year when he announced he was retiring as the Alumni director I had tears in my eyes (HEY I’M A SENSITIVE GUY!!).   David Henry is probably one of the greatest influences on my life, and I don’t know where I would be today if Jeff Luther hadn’t tried to convince someone who didn’t know how to play a note to join the marching band.    Someday I’ll write a whole article on Mr. Henry, today isn’t that day though.

My own personal tradition is to show up early for Alumni practice, I was always the first to arrive and just enjoyed being there sitting in the back of the band room anticipating the day.   This year I was dropped off and there already was another car there, three majorettes beat me.  For the first time I wasn’t the first one there.   Next year I guess I have to arrive at 6 AM.   My wife dropped me off, then she went a visited the grave of a friend to tell him about the new pregnancy.   Later in the day I told that friend’s sister, who is now in Alumni,  that we are planning on giving our child his name if it is a boy.

Mr. Price ran us ragged through out the day for the performance.   I’m not saying it wasn’t worth it, I’m just saying….   After lunch was practiced our closing routine for the first time and at the end we practiced the high step.   My ankles felt like they were going to break at any second.  It may have been the shoes, but I think it was age catching up with me.    I went out and bought a pair of ankle supports at dinner time.   I wore these for the rest of the night.   I managed to high step and I didn’t break an ankle.   On Sunday however I could hardly walk on my ankles at all.  By Sunday night it had migrated to just my left ankle.  It is still sore and tender four days later.

Pain and sickness isn’t new to me at Alumni Band though.   Two years ago I blew out and gave myself a sore throat in the morning practice.   Compound that by the fact that it was raining that night and eventually it got bad enough they moved the festival inot the high school gym – I was laid up sick in bed for four days afterward.  Last year I got the sore throat again, but it didn’t develop into anything more.  After last year I decided I wanted to be in playing shape – no sore throat and no dead lips.   I joined two community bands and that corrected the issue from that side.  I do think I’m going to have to start running again just to get my ankles in shape for next year.   These are the the things I do for Alumni Band.

Some things are funny, like the people being amazed that the current seniors were freshmen when they were seniors.   I pointed out that the current seniors weren’t even in preschool when I was a senior.   You have the differences in band style from the Burt to Henry to Price eras, and of course all of us think that our own era was the best.  There are things I missed from the past in Alumni.  Large groups of us used to sneak in Alcohol in water bottles and get lit before marching.   Before he did Dennis Pintur used to be notorious for that.   He was also notorious for blowing out his lip playing tuba and showing everyone his bloody white beard also.   The tuba’s back then actually did tuba chases, which I haven’t seen in the last few years.  During the drum breaks our tubas also used to twirl their instruments.   My first year in the band festival Mike Lewandowski put me on his shoulders during the drum break and we did a dance in our section of the field.

The band has changed and grown up.  This isn’t really a bad thing.   It may be why some of hte older members don’t show up still, but that happens.   The experience isn’t the same, people move away, people are busy – there are alot of reasons people don’t show up.   The rest of us… Well the the rest of us want to relive our glory days like Al Bundy.   In a way we are sad like some people think.   It is also glory.   The excitement of going onto that field, feeling the rush, and doing it one more time.   I’ll be there as long as I am physically able.  I’ll be there in a wheel chair and play for the middle songs only.   In the end I’ll be there.   I’ve lasted longer playing with the band then the band has played in the Vermilion Fish Festival (which BTW I think they need to start doing again).   I’ll survive and do it until there isn’t a band festival to march at anymore.   If it ever comes to that point I’ll just invite all the band members that want to show up on a fall Saturday, pull out some music, and play on the football field even if it’s just for ourselves.   Those that understand that, they are the ones that really want to “Do it One More Time”.

Videos:

Star Spangled Banner – Google Video Link

Festival Show – Google Video Link

Sideline Footage – Google Video Link

If you somehow missed it you can also always watch last years video here.

If you want to see the pictures I took – scoot on over to my Flickr set.

According to Wired.com, the hacker who last week broke into Palin’s e-mail account has left the grand jury without an indictment.   Now the real question I have, how does a crime with such national exposure and high profile as this one go without punishment?

The only logical thing I can come up with is they snagged the wrong kid.  If they don’t have the wrong that doesn’t mean he won’t be indicted (which he should be), it just means more evidence needs to be presented.

I’m not saying the kid attempting this coup is wrong (though it is), the proper thing after suceeding would have been informing Palin.  Unfortunately he decided to post the login information on an online forum.  At that point is when all hell broke loose.

Since I just wrote about DHS pre-crime detector which shows if the the subject is being deceitful or is planning on doing something, I wonder if they are aiming it at this kid as he leaves the courtroom?

No Indictment Against Palin Hacker | Threat Level from Wired.com