Summer of Fun

Dave is at Origins this whole weekend, Becky and I are going to be celebrating our 2nd anniversary at the ocean, and it sounds like most of my co-workers are going on vacation in the next few weeks. I don't remember the vacation season starting in late June last year, is this a new thing? Typically it's late July / early August where all work seems to shut down and come to a grinding halt as random people are out from one week to another.

Oh, and then there's Gen Con in mid August which I am positively thrilled for!

Musing

Is regret a uniquely human emotion? Is it even an emotion at all?

Time for some Politics?

I read an article in today's Washington Post about flak going between McCain's and Obama's campaigns (because they personally/specifically aren't saying some of the things) about terrorism and their respective stances. First it makes me curious when both sides use different stances to argue the same thing, both say their tactics will make America safer. I suppose they both could technically be correct, which would be the best case and a very good thing.

What really caught my interest is the write up about some specifics in Obama's anti-terrorism plans, which I've heard NOTHING of from him or any of the speeches I've heard of his, so I suppose we could say the media is failing to represent the democratic candidate (which is the opposite of the argument you usually hear), or Obama really hasn't said much about it. I'm not sure which is the case. I really like a lot of what was said, maybe even all of it, about Obama's plans to combat terrorism. I'm not sure where I stand on the debate between legal action against terrorists or military action against them, but if we legally pursue terrorists and it actually gets somewhere (which it seems to, vs. other types of cases that just don't go anywhere) then I can't argue too much with that. I don't buy the republican argument that arresting and imprisoning terrorists vs. just killing them outright is such a bad thing.

The other thing that really caught my attention was this paragraph:

But Obama has shown himself far more eager than Kerry and other Democrats to challenge the Republicans on the issue. He argues that the Bush administration's approach to fighting terrorism has been a failure, and he proposes an approach that mixes law enforcement, intelligence and military tools, including the possibility of invading Pakistan to pursue al-Qaeda if the Pakistani government does not cooperate.

How many people argue that the Iraq war is wrong simply because all war is wrong and any invasion of another country is bad and we're terrible human beings because we even thought about doing it? I hear way too many of those arguments, and see far too many bumperstickers about it, when it is such a completely naive and idiotic mind-set. Idealistic and happy, yes, but idiotic to think that such an ideal can ever be reached. But here you have Obama, the people's hero for saying he'll pull the US out of Iraq (would that be considered a defeat? what happens to nations that lose wars? how do other countries who want their resources view those countries?) saying that if Pakistan doesn't cooperate we'll invade them too! I wonder how that makes some people feel.

This should also make us wonder what the term "does not cooperate" really means, and if this is just a fake statement, ie - Pakistan could send us videos of terrorists partying in their capital and we would still give them more chances to cooperate, and what the quantitative factors are for cooperation. Did Iraq cooperate? Was Saddam within the realm of what Obama would consider "not cooperative"? Does this whole thing make Obama sounds like just another pushy, big-time American hypocrite?

Oh and also, Bush has called for a lift of the ban on drilling for oil around the US. What do people think of this move? I don't fully buy into his argument that the high gas prices are all the democrats' fault, but certainly if the war in Iraq was just for oil we really F-ed that part up by not taking much from there.

Questions

My friend Jared asked me these questions in comments a few posts back, I left them be back then because I was busy but now I should probably answer them:

You used to draw a lot right? As a kid, I'm talking elementary school here I drew a ton. My father was a Kobol programmer through all of my young life and would always bring home the old-school computer paper where each sheet was connected end-to-end and it had the holes punched in each side (which I just hated tearing off at the time). Several times I remember covering my bedroom floor from wall to wall with this paper that had drawings on it. Mostly Megaman characters, and stuff like that... Then I hit a lull, and even during I wasn't sure why. Until early highschool when I was re-inspired and actually started using a sketchbook and trying to draw each day in it. Even through highschool I probably only filled one sketchbook, then in college I filled another one/two sketchbooks. Now I'm about 1/4 through a newish one, I think I started it in january of '07? I'm behind on that one.

What made you draw? Typically I draw because the ideas just keep building up, and eventually I get one that I really just have to express on paper. I need to make it a habit and just start doing it every day even if I have nothing I conciously think I want to draw, and just start jamming / improvising with it.

How did you get in the right mode? Drawing, honestly. Once I start doing it and force myself to sit down and do it, after 5 minutes things typically start going pretty well and then I get in the mode. It'd be so easy if something ELSE got me in the mode, then I could do that and lead into drawing...but we all know I'd procrastinate that too!

What did you like to draw/ where'd you get your ideas from? Always videogames, if a D&D game is ongoing then that provides some iffy inspiration. Friends have always been throwing ideas at me they want me to draw, and I'm ashamed to say I probably only ever do 5% of them. As a child I remember that I was always drawing tanks, fighter planes, and a lot of stuff like that because my dad had a big influence in weapons of war with me.

Did you need a certain environment to get anything done? Paper, a pencil, and a little bit of patience. The patience is what always does me in, I think. Often I don't even make it to the paper or with a pencil in hand. Painting was a great thing because attacking a blank canvas with a brush was very liberating and new to me so it helped me overcome that hump. Maybe I should use more mediums than just a pencil? Even a pen intrigues me more, but I typically hate using them! (except at work I've been using pens a lot....hmmm)

what's changed to pull you away and what can you change to bring yourself back? It's always forefront that "I don't have enough time", but I don't think I buy that because you can always make time for what you really want to do, and you can always find money for what you really want to buy. It's crazy, how we are so broke and busy all the time but when you really want to do something, you find the time and/or money. My excuse before March 15th was that I didn't have my drawing desk at our apt, but now we're in the house and I have it set up (which I LOVE, having it set up now!) and I'm still not drawing much more. I'll have to ponder this question a bit more, me thinks.

Thanks Jared!!! These are awesome questions and I always kick myself because I pretty much never think of these important questions on my own, but they're crucial to the problem at hand. Any idea if you specifically learned these questions to ask in a case like this, or do they just come to mind as intuition?

Typology

So a co-worker sent out an e-mail about the Myers-Briggs personality test and all of that, which I'd taken a few times before but never paid too much attention to. In taking the short 72 question test, a few questions jump out at me as ones I change my mind on or am unsure of.

"You are more interested in a general idea than in the details of its realization"

"Strict observance of the established rules is likely to prevent a good outcome"

"You believe the best decision is one that can be easily changed"

"The process of searching for solution is moreimportant to you than the solution itself"

"You easily see the general principle behindspecific occurrences"

More on these when it's not late, and when I don't feel like passing out.

Owning the Nine Hells

Seems that we bought a house with a 4-5 year old Heat Pump (exterior unit that both heats and cools) that had a grand sum total of ZERO freon running through it. This is great, because it means when we've been running the unit through March for heating, thankfully April and most of May were cooler than usual, but now for half of May and June, for no reason! Not too bad really, just frustrating, except now the temperatures are up in the 90's and it sounds like this weekend could go above 100 (barely). Thankfully Becky's parents just bought a new window AC unit and lent us their old one, so we can stop sleeping in the basement and move back up to our bedroom. The basement is 90% underground with no stairs and very few windows, so it's a comfortable 70 degrees in there pretty much all the time! That's why we put the gaming down there, or at least that's my retro-reasoning for it.

4th Edition D&D is officially released today, can't wait to have the actual books in my hands!