Geek Habitat

I’m probably tripping Google’s “duplicate content filter” since I also posted this on my Wild Texas Forums, but c’est la vie!

The following was written by Justin, my better half, as a quick synopsis of our vacation this past week:

For the past week, Shannon and I have been on a much needed vacation. When I requested my time off from USAA almost five months ago I had big plans for this to be an extravagant vacation (e.g. The Grand Canyon, New Mexico, etc. etc.) Instead, we got so busy that vacation planning got put off to the last minute.

OK, I’ve learned never ever ever again to announce in my blog that I will be away for a couple days. Thanks to the (!@#*!# scum of the Earth spammers, I just spent my first bit of time back online deleting their trash comments from my blog.

Spammers … the modern day version of street taggers, except without the creativity, artistic talent and wry wit.

I’ll be out of range again for a week or so. Justin’s got a hard-earned week off work and we’re using it to take a fun “working vacation” to various locales in Texas. First stop: the Indian pictographs and other sights at Seminole Canyon in Del Rio, as well as a visit to Lake Amistad National Recreation Area on the Texas-Mexico border. We’ll be back in town after a couple days, then do two nights camping at Enchanted Rock State Natural Area in Fredericksburg. Intersperse some flying and local sight-seeing, geocaching and the like, and we’ve got a nice week planned for ourselves. We may also be doing our first General Aviation flight into Houston for an article Justin’s working on for General Aviation News.

DUNGEONS & DRAGONS: n. “Basically the new cowboys-and-Indians game. With wolves.”

Dungeons & Dragons turned thirty years old today — I knew there was a reason I was feeling an urge to resurrect my Half-Elven Cleric and play some Neverwinter Nights or Baldur’s Gate again!

However, my wrist is shot after all day working up logo comps for a new website (ours, of course — too busy to take on clients!) and 2 gigabytes of photo-taking on an evening flight with Justin — his second flight of the day! Kudos to Justin for his first “Young Eagles” flight this morning — nothing brings him more joy than sharing his love of flight with others, especially young people (and the young-at-heart!

“Yes, Virginia, we are ALL terrorists.”

Let’s apply Occam’s Razor, shall we? Is a 498-ton luxury yacht named “The Privacy” owned by terrorists and operated as a Vehicle of Mass Destruction (VMDs, not to be confused with VDs — which do exist — or WMDs, which don’t exist, at least in Iraq.) And is San Juan, Puerto Rico, the terrorists choice for the next big globe-shaking terror offensive?

-OR-, as Occam’s Razor reminds us, is it a multi-millionaire golf sensation and his new bride, celebrating their honeymoon on their brand new yacht (soon to be renamed “The Not So @!(#*!~ Private, After All!”) and wanting to hit port so they can do some lounging on the beach?

Cockpit bomb sight video:
F-16 drops 500lb. bomb on large gathering of people in Iraq

Watch it all; the Night Vision stuff at the start isn’t what I’m referring to at all…

I know far worse things occur in war (every war), far worse than this or even the “Highway of Death” (if you follow any of the other photos off this link, be warned some are graphic). And I know I’ll never have a “need to know” basis to be told that half or more of those people were “High Value Targets” (Or Not) or that they were armed and heading towards U.S. soldiers pinned down on the ground (Or Not).