Majesty 2 launched on Friday, a game that I had been looking forward to for awhile. Unfortunately the multiplayer is significantly different from the original and from what was promised with the sequel. I’ve got an editorial up over on Co-Optimus examining the issue.
Tags: co-op · co-optiums · Majesty · Majesty2 · video games1 Comment
I’m sure that the general attitude towards Social Security Numbers is that one should protect them and not use them in ways that make it easier for them to get stolen. A friend who recently had his car stolen in Kansas City, Kan., forwarded this pamphlet on to me. The officer gave it to him after taking a report.
The pamphlet, in warning you how to protect yourself, suggests you use your Social Security Number to mark property that might get stolen.
Mark your property with your Drivers License or Social Security Number.
Perhaps their logic is that this makes the property more valuable, and so perhaps they will be more likely to try and track it down? Shame that criminals will already have not only your property, but valuable information about you too.
A quick Google search showed many government and private agencies suggesting that you absolutely not use your SSN this way.
From the City of Woodinville, Wash (Opens PDF, requires Adobe Acrobat).
Mark your valuables with your Washington State Driver’s License Number…(Ed Note: goes on to describe in depth how to use your DL number). Do not use your Social Security Number.
From the Oklahoma City University Police (their caps, not mine):
NEVER USE YOUR SOCIAL SECURITY NUMBER OR BIRTHDATE TO MARK YOUR BELONGINGS!
From the University of Illinois Springfield Police (They needed to use 3!!! exclamation points to get the point across):
Do Not Use a Social Security Number!!!
Unlike your social security number, your Illinois driver’s license is readily available to any law enforcement officer. It is available 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, and on holidays.
There were easily dozens of more examples like this from across the country just in the first few pages of that Google search.
Not that any of this might matter, turns out that clever mathematicians have a good shot at guessing your SSN anyway. Last month MSNBC reported on researchers who have found ways to identify SSNs using publicly available information like place and date of birth.
A completely random guess at a 9-digit SSN should be a one in one billion chance. But instead, their newly educated guesses have narrowed the odds down to roughly 1 in 1,000. Making matters worse, because of changes in the way the numbers have been issued since 1988, the numbers are getting easier and easier to guess as time passes. In one example, the researchers said, they can uncover a Delaware resident’s 9-digit SSN within 10 guesses about 5 percent of the time.
Tags: dumb · government · police · Social Security Number · SSN · theft1 Comment
Remember a couple of weeks ago, when I claimed that Tam was on the bleeding edge of fashion? Yeah, I totally wasn’t kidding. The Gap presents this years western themed footwear.
Tags: boots · fashion · ladytheoristNo Comments.
Bought this album yesterday, was jonesing for some new music and remembered really enjoying this song when I head it on Rockabilly Mood Swing (which I found my poster of while unpacking yesterday!). The album is pretty damn terrific, hard to find that sultry, vixen, noir vibe done so well by a modern artist. So yeah, check out Devil Doll.
Tags: Devil Doll · fantastic · musicNo Comments.
The thing that scares me most when Tam picks up a sledge is not that she will hurt me, or the house. It’s the constant sense that she is somehow about to take her own head off. But she does get in there and swing with the best of them.
These videos may not be that exciting, but the lady really wanted to show off that she could break stuff too, and Don wanted to share more of his demolition with some other people. Enjoy!
Oh yeah, these are from late may, about a week before we moved in. We realized there was no way we were going to get the kitchen done before moving, but went ahead and tore it all the way out so we wouldn’t be filling the house with dirt and construction debris after we had all of our stuff in it.
Tags: demolition · kitchen · remodel · sledgehammer1 Comment
Okay, as most of you know, we are finally living in the house. We moved in back in mid-June, mostly finished. All the rooms were done except the kitchen and the ladytheorist’s office. The office just needed flooring and some paint, the kitchen was still completely gutted (just stud walls and plywood floors). Since then, we have finished both those rooms except for trim and kitchen countertops. The whole house is basically done now, except a number of rooms still need the trim work finished. The hard work is done though. Over the next couple of weeks, I’ll try to get regular posts up showing the progression of each room.
Today we have the littletheorist’s bedroom. Her room had the least, structurally, done to it. No walls were moved or anything. We did replace the exterior door, replaced (and added) windows, replaced carpet with hardwood floors, insulated and replaced all the sheetrock. You’ll notice that virtually no before pictures of the house have carpet. That’s because it was so stained and smelly with dog urine that we tore it out within hours of owning the place, and before we had taken many real pictures of it.
And yes, you read that right, the teenager has an exterior door in her room. The room originally had an exterior door (the one that was broken into on the day we bought the house, but that’s a story for another day). We had planned on getting rid of it, but the windows we eventually found are not fire escapable. This is fine for the master bedroom, as it has a different kind of window in its bathroom. The kitchen, offices and living room also have other means of escape in the event of an emergency. This bedroom didn’t though, so we chose to leave a door in it for safety.
I think these are the first pictures I’ve put up with the flooring finished. That’s white oak that has no stain on it, but the polyurethane brought out the coloring and detail wonderfully all by itself.
We have gone with pretty simple, neutral white/off-white tones throughout the house, though we might change our minds on that eventually. In the end, picking out colors fried our brains after all the other work and decisions we have to make. The trim is just primered for now, we may add some color by painting it a bolder color.
We also extended the wall depth of the house on the west and north walls (both of the exterior walls of this room) to pack more insulation into them. Those two sides of the house take the brunt of the winter winds off the river. Before we redid all the walls, the wind just sailed right through them. Between the insulation and the new windows, the house is super efficient now.
We’ve also redone the electrical throughout the house. Previously, this room only had one or two electrical outlets in it. Now it has five. I probably overdid it on outlets in some rooms, but I really hate having to fight with cords to get things arranged how I want them in rooms.
Tags: bedroom · before and after · house · remodel5 Comments
My review/recommendation for Cory Doctorow’s book Little Brother just went up over on Co-Optimus. I really can’t suggest this book enough. I immediately thrust it into the littletheorist’s hands after finishing it. The ladytheorist plans on reading it next. I got Casey to read it, and now his wife has started it. Seriously, it’s that good and you need to read it (and my review of it!). You don’t even have to buy it, you can download a digital version for free from Doctorow’s site (the one linked above). He releases most of his material for free online, if you don’t mind reading on a screen.
Tags: book · co-optiums · Doctorow · gaming · Little Brother · reading · reviewNo Comments.
So it turns out the ladytheorist and her sister gave a hot fashion tip to a writer for Lucky Magazine while we were in New York.
My friend Carrie, one of the most urbane people I know was, improbably, raised on a huge working cattle farm somewhere in the middle of Kansas. Now, for many years firmly rooted in NY, she’s shed almost every vestige of her mid-western life (other than her wholesome good looks and iron-clad work ethic). From a recent conversation with her and her sister Tammy about their teenage farm wardrobe, apparently one of the first things to go after they moved away was the regionally ubiquitous Roper boot.
For the record, the ladytheorist also shed the name Tammie along with her Roper boots and her 80s spikey hair.
Tags: boots · fashion · humor · tipsNo Comments.
Update: Okay, so there has been some confusion about the origin of this table. It isn’t our nice kitchen table, it’s the table that was abandoned by the previous owners. It was all ready in bad shape, and we furthered its demise by using it as a workbench and tool holder during the remodel. It got burned as 1) it wasn’t fit for use anymore and 2) it was a kind of cleansing ritual to move from the remodel period to the finished project period.
Original post follows:
Oh kitchen table
Faithful servant, held our tools
We repay with fire
Tags: fire · house · remodel · tableNo Comments.
A pic from our recent trip to New York (from the Central Park Zoo). I’m hoping that an adorable picture of a baby animal will keep any of you from noticing that I haven’t updated for like, days, maybe even a week or two. I promise some updates on the house are coming. We did finally move in and have continued working on the place. The place is awesome, I’m so happy with how everything has turned out. But we’re still not fully done, nor unpacked, so any pictures I take include copious numbers of stacked boxes, which don’t do anything to show off how good the place looks. We should actually finish unpacking sometime soon, at which point I’ll put up a ton of stuff showing off more of the finished product.
Tags: adorable · distraction · house2 Comments