The Cloud - A Breakdown and Opinion

Image courtesy of Wikipedia

So, a few weeks ago, Apple announced iCloud at E3.  Amazon launched their Cloud services earlier this year.  The "Cloud" seems to be the current hype nowadays in many technology fields.  Even in insurance we've started getting questions like "Does Wynsure take advantage of Cloud Computing?"  You might be saying, "What does that even mean?"  Well, in this post, I will explain the "Cloud" and tell you about the pros and cons of using it, as I see them.

What is "The Cloud"?
The Cloud is really the Internet.  I remember from my networking classes, several years ago, my professor talking about the internet was like a cloud.  You couldn't see all the little parts (like the raindrops in a cloud) from the outside, but you knew that they were there.  So, when Amazon or Apple talks about storing your data in the "Cloud", they are talking about storing this information on the internet somewhere.  What you need to know is that your data will not be floating about the internet.  It will be stored on secure* servers owned by these corporations, but accessible from anywhere you would have access to the internet.  While "the Cloud" has become mainstream, the concept of the cloud is quite old.  Organizations have been using the cloud for decades.  SETI has been using "Cloud Computing" for a long time to try and find hidden radio transmissions in all of the static and background noise of the galaxy.  Apple and Amazon have opened this up to the public for several reasons: hardware is cheaper than ever; they see a demand for this with all of the handheld devices out there; it's another easy way for them to charge whatever they want for a service that costs them very little (relative to the potential income).

Pros to using the Cloud:
1. Using the cloud will allow individuals and corporations to offload the costs of hardware maintenance and upgrades.
2. Cloud services are guaranteed not to ever have data loss**.
3. Especially in the case of iTunes using the cloud, you would never have to buy songs over again.

1: If all of your files are stored in the cloud, you don't have to have as much hard drive space on your servers and personal computers.  In fact, Apple is planning on launching a laptop that doesn't come with a hard drive that uses the Cloud to store the users' files.  This would be cool since you wouldn't have to keep buying bigger and bigger hard drives to store your ever growing library of ripped music and movies.  They would just all be out in the cloud.

2: Corporations spend a lot of money on fail-safes and backups to prevent data loss.  Recovering data after a loss is also very expensive.  This one is kind of an extension of #1, but I wanted to call it out specifically because most people ignore backups until it's too late.  I know that I am guilty of this as well.

3: I have songs that I know that I've purchased from iTunes, but I can't seem to find them on my computer.  So, I just haven't bought them again.  I'm sure that I'm not alone in this.  Also, Apple has offered to upload your non-purchased music to the cloud and they will allow you to count them as purchased if you pay their yearly service fee.  This in particular interests me.  I know that I have over 10000 songs in my library at the moment, but I also know that I've probably lost a couple thousand to moves from computer to computer.  Apple's service would prevent that loss.

Cons of using the Cloud:
1. Losing "possession" of your data.
2. Tracking my use and files.
3. Securing my data.

1: This fear of mine might be a little paranoia, but I'm worried that if I'm storing all of my files in the Cloud (like if I used that particular Apple laptop), couldn't Apple do whatever they want with my files?  If I have a particularly nice picture, couldn't Apple take that picture and sell it to an advertising agency?  Now, you might say something like, "They can't do that.  In their Terms of Service, they state that I retain ownership of my files."  Well, let me tell you two things about that my friend.  One, "possession is 9/10 of the law".  Two, Terms of Service change all of the time.  You may or may not have heard about a recent change to Twitpic's Terms of Service.  In it, you still retain "ownership and copyrights", but in the same Terms of Service you give Twitpic the rights to sell your photos.  That's some doubletalk right there.  Once whoever has your files, how are you going to be sure that if you end your contract with them that they aren't keeping your files?  There's no way to be sure of that.  In fact, they'll probably tell you that they're keeping your files for in case you want to join their service again in the future.  That just rubs me the wrong way.  I don't trust it.  Of course, I do recognize how untrusting and crazy this might sound.  I probably sound like someone who refuses to put any of their money in the banks.

2: Just think about it, if Apple and Amazon can track how many times you've played a particular song, isn't that the perfect market research?  Then, they can pitch you the artists (or e-books, movies, etc.) that match your plays.  Maybe that's not all bad, but I don't like having my activities monitored that closely.

3: With all of the hacking that's been going around lately (LulzSec and Anonymous and the other hacking groups targeting large corporations), eventually someone will hack into Amazon's or Apple's cloud servers.  Mind you, this isn't an "if", it's a when.  Now, how deep they get in is really up to Apple and Amazon (and whoever else starts offering these services).  Security is something that is often overlooked by a lot of companies because it's expensive to maintain and there are so many vulnerabilities being discovered all of the time.  Frankly, that's part of what would motivate a corporation to use a Cloud service in the first place.  But, how am I going to be sure that the data is secure?  After all, I would have thought that a huge technology company like Sony wouldn't be vulnerable to the most basic of exploits.  Let's just hope that Apple and Amazon learn from the mistakes of others.

Conclusion
So, will I be jumping on the Cloud bandwagon?  Not if I have a choice.  It's just not worth the risk and unknowns to me.  On the other hand, I've heard rumors of the WiiU using the cloud to store your game saves, and I would be alright with that.  My Wii has run out of hard drive space and that wouldn't be a worry then.  Will I be uploading my gigs and gigs of music and movies to Apple?  No.  Maybe (and that's a big maybe) once the service has proven itself.  For now, please excuse me while I go bury my files in my back yard.

*See part 3 of the Cons section.
**There is no such thing as "no data loss".  Servers and hard drives die, it's a fact of life.  Cloud services will obfuscate this so that you never see the data loss.

Lego Photography

I've been following the "a LEGO a day" blog for a while now and if you like LEGO, you should check it out. Since before Janice got her new awesome camera, I've been wanting to try to take similar pictures with my personal collection of LEGO minifigs. So, before we moved I tried with her old camera. The outside pictures with the skier came out great, but the indoor ones that I tried didn't come out so well.

A few months later, I bought Janice her camera for her birthday. After that, we moved and a couple of weeks ago I tried again. Most of the shots I took with the new camera didn't come out. Apparently, having glasses is a big disadvantage when trying to manually focus the camera. Below are the fruits of my efforts from both tries.

Caption: The King leads his men across an old bridge.
Notes: This is the minifigs on the rail of our deck. I tried to focus on the king and have the knights be out of focus.

Caption: Halia is ready for the luau.
Notes: The minifig is standing on sand that we brought back from our trip to Hawaii.

Caption: Rick out for a midnight ski.
Notes: Taken with the old camera at our Hastings house. I think that the skier pics turned out great. There are three more below!

Caption: Rick pauses to admire the view.

Caption: The powder is awesome!

Caption: Rick doesn't seem to notice the cliff coming up!

Story a Week 21 - Murder Cruise

Hello everybody! Here's the three week late Story a Week. I've learned a bit about my writing in the last three weeks that I've been trying to write today's story. One, I don't like planning my writing. I much prefer to write from the hip, so to speak. Two, I am a fantasy/sci fi writer. While I feel like I can write in other genres, I much prefer sci fi and fantasy. It flows out of me so much smoother. That doesn't sound good. :) Three, if I don't like the genre that I've chosen to write in, I just won't do it. This is the main reason that it's taken me three weeks to write this story. I like the story and I think that I'm bringing it off well, but it has taken quite a bit of planning and story development, which I don't enjoy as much as just winging it.

Anyway, I've been also thinking a lot about the Story a Week project. While in the depths of writers block of this story, I was considering quitting it and just posting stories as I wrote them, not on a schedule. My wife talked me out of it. She told me that I should write what I want, and that I didn't have to hop around the different genres, if I didn't feel like it. She's right, too. I felt like you all, my readers, wanted something different than my normal stories. I'm not quite sure why I felt that way since no one has told me that. So, I'm going to continue the project, post what stories I want to and if you read it and like it, that's great! If no one reads it, oh well, this is more for me than you all anyway.

Enjoy the story. It's a two-parter.

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Donald Caruso shot up out of bed. "Did you hear that?" he asked his wife, Erica.

She rolled over and mumbled, "Go back to sleep, Don. You were dreaming, I'm sure."

Donald turned to the door and said, "I swear that I heard gunshots just now."

When his wife didn't respond, Donald looked over his shoulder and saw that she was back to sleep. He went to the closet of the little cabin to get dressed, but stopped short.

'How could there be gunshots when we're on a boat in the middle of the ocean?' he thought. Shaking his head and smiling to himself, he moved back to the bed. As he lay down, he thought, 'Being a cop makes me jumpy sometimes. I really needed this vacation.'

A couple hours later, Donald was startled out of sleep again by a knock on the cabin door. "See who that is and send them away," his wife said, "it's too early."

Donald nodded and got up. He made sure to put a robe on before he opened the door. When he did open the door, he was surprised to see the form of the housekeeper, Michael Banks, standing in the hallway. "Michael, it's 6:30...," Donald started saying when he saw the gash on the man's head. "My God, man! What happened to you?"

The housekeeper stammered out, "I...I don't really remember... A...all...the rest of the crew is dead!"

Donald stared at the man for a moment, dumbfounded. "Come in, Michael," Donald said as he gently ushered Michael into the room.

"I'm sorry to bother you, Mr. Caruso," Michael said. "I figured, though, that since you're a detective..."

Donald cut him off, "Do not worry about it. If what you say is true, you've done the right thing. Give me a moment to think." Thoughts of an action plan started flooding into his brain. Eventually they started to form into a cohesive set of steps, so he continued, "Have you seen anyone else up? Did you speak to anyone else about this?"

Michael shook his head. "No, I woke up in the hallway outside of the bridge with a splitting headache. I touched my head and found the blood there." He showed the detective his hands. "I stumbled onto the bridge and found the rest of the crew on the floor."

Donald nodded. "Did you touch anything?" he asked.

Shaking his head, Michael said, "No, sir. I just checked each of them to see if any of them were alive and came straight here."

Donald looked back to his wife, still sleeping in bed. 'That woman could sleep through a tornado,' he thought to himself. "Please wait for me in the hall, Michael. I need to get dressed."

The housekeeper nodded and left the room and Donald pulled clothes out of the dresser and closet and put them on. As he was about to leave the room, he stopped short and grabbed the small notepad on the table in the room and a pen.

Michael was outside the room waiting for him. Donald said, "Take me to the bridge."

The two of them walked to the bridge together. Michael dug a key chain out of his pocked when they arrived and unlocked the door.

"Good thinking on locking that door," Donald said. "Do you mind if I take those keys?"

Michael shrugged and handed Donald the keys. Donald stepped through the door and glanced around. The scene before him was gruesome. From his experience as a detective, Donald could tell that the four crewmembers were shot, probably from someone standing near the door. At that point, a new thought came to Donald.

"Michael, please go fetch Dr. Rozhenko," Donald asked the housekeeper. "I need him to try and determine a time of death," he told him. 'Though I think I already know it,' he thought to himself.

Michael ran off down the hall and Donald examined the room as best he could from the doorway. He cursed himself for touching the door with his bare hands, though there was nothing he could do about that right now. He'd have to have Michael run to the little sick bay that was on the ship and get him some gloves.

Donald turned when he heard voices coming down the hall. He saw the older doctor verbally brow beating the housekeeper as they came forward. The doctor saw Donald in the doorway and said, "Donald! Can you tell me what's going on here? This buffoon comes banging on my door not long after sunrise and insists on me coming up here..." He must have seen the look on Donald's face when he got closer because he stopped talking. "What's wrong?"

Donald sighed and said, "I know that we're all on vacation, Alex, but it looks like at least you and I will be working today." He gestured for Alex Rozhenko to enter the bridge.

As soon as the doctor saw the carnage awaiting him, he spat out some quick words in Russian. "I am sorry for cursing, gentlemen, but I felt like the situation warranted it," he said. He then let out a dry chuckle, "Though I would bet that neither of you understood my words."

The doctor turned to Donald and said, "What do you want me to do, Donald? They're beyond my help now."

"I need you to determine a time of death, Alex," Donald responded.

Alex nodded and said to Michael, "Please go to the sick bay and retrieve some gloves, a thermometer, a scalpel, and a hazardous materials bag. Thank you."

Donald watched the housekeeper run down the hall. When he figured that the man was out of earshot, he said, "Did you look at that gash on his head?"

The doctor nodded and said, "It's not as bad as it looks. Frankly, I'm surprised that he was knocked out at all from it, but..." He shrugged.

Donald turned back to look into the bridge. He checked his watch when he heard Michael returning from the sickbay. "It's almost 7:30. I'd like to assemble the guests in the dining hall at 8:00. Michael, will you make that happen?"

Donald turned and saw Michael nod as a response. Donald continued, "Good. Be polite, but firm. Also, don't tell anyone about what's happened here."

Michael ran off and Donald turned to the doctor and said, "Alex, can you determine the time of death for me, then meet us in the dining room?" He waited for the doctor's nod, and then said, "Good. Lock the door behind you, if you would."

Without waiting for a response, Donald started down the hall. A few moments later, he arrived at a door labeled 'Captain's Quarters'. He took the keys out of his pocket and opened the door. Donald gazed into the room, but nothing out of the ordinary leapt out at him.

Shrugging to himself, Donald strode into the room straight to the safe behind the desk. Pulling the keys out again, he opened the safe and withdrew the pistol that was inside. He stared down at the gun, checking to make sure it was loaded and checked if it was missing any bullets. Satisfied that it was not the murder weapon, or at least was still fully loaded, he grabbed the holster from the safe and put it on under his jacket and placed the gun in the holster.

Donald closed the safe and locked it before heading out of the room. He made sure that the cabin door was also locked before heading towards the dining room. He saw Alex walking a couple feet in front of him, so he hurried to catch up with the doctor.

The doctor spoke first. "They were all killed around 4:30 this morning," he said solemnly.

Donald nodded. "That's about what I thought," he said.

Alex looked puzzled, "How could you have known that?"

Donald stopped short and it took Alex a step or two to stop as well. Alex turned to Donald as the detective sighed. "I woke up early this morning to what I thought was gunshots." He paused, looking up at the ceiling. "I knew that I should have checked it out, but I figured that I had been dreaming."

Alex studied Donald's face. Finally, he said, "Don't let it bother you, man. Even if you had rushed to the bridge, the killer would have been gone... or, you would have been his fifth victim."

Donald looked back at Alex and the two men stared at each other in silence for a few moments. Finally, Donald said, "Thanks, Alex. You're right, of course. I would have rushed there, unarmed, just to find nothing or to be shot myself."

Alex put his arm on Donald's shoulder and gently started him walking again. The two men continued on to the dining hall in silence. The rest of the guests were already waiting there, along with Michael.

Donald looked around the room as he took his place next to his wife. Alex moved to stand by his own wife, Yvette. Donald's eyes were drawn to Frank Trunk, a rich playboy notorious for his quick temper and bad attitude, who was fuming as he stared at Michael. The rest of the guests just looked puzzled at being summoned to the dining hall when there was not a formal event planned.

Donald glanced at Michael, but quickly determined that he needed to take control of the situation and that the housekeeper, even though he was the only surviving member of the crew, couldn't handle it. He stepped forward and cleared his throat. "Hello, everyone," he said. "I'm sure you're all wondering why Michael has brought you all here." He paused to make eye contact with each of the twelve people in the room. "I have dire news to share with you all. Most of the crew of this ship have been murdered this morning."

That's when all hell broke loose.

Story a Week 20 - Propheteering, Part 8

Well, after moving into our new house last weekend and a nice, leisurely week off of work, we come to another edition of Story a Week. This week, like the last few, is from the world of Uroth, a fictitious world that I started creating over a decade ago as part of a D&D campaign that I had been working on. I think that next week I will write something different. I love me some Fantasy, but I feel that it might be getting to be too much, for now. Anyway, I have just gotten a couple of ideas, so stay tuned for that.

In other news, this is my fiftieth blog post! I've technically had this blog for a couple of years, but I've only been regularly posting since last June or so. Fifty, or so, posts in a little less than a year is a good pace, I think. Let me know if there's anything you'd like to see me do in future posts or stories. If there's a genre you'd like to see me try writing in, post a comment! If there's a topic you'd like to see a regular blog post on, post a comment! I'm here not only to get my creativity on, but to share my views with you all. That's what blogging is all about.

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Rixi wiped the tears from her face as she stared up at Yif. Out of the corner of her eye she could see her friends also crouching or standing near her.

She heard Cuddlington growl and begin to lunge at Yif. The wizard motioned quickly and Cuddlington stopped dead in his tracks as a Hold spell took hold of him. The wizard shook his head at the dwarf, but smiled. "I know what you just went through, dwarf, but I am not to blame for the fate of your cousin," Yif said. "The point of the experiences you each just went through was to teach you that even when you know what is coming, you can't always change the outcome."

The wizard paused and looked each of them in the eye. "If you four are the prophets that I seek, you will know that you will change the empire. That will not change."

Yif started pacing as he continued speaking. "The other point of the exercise was to try to show you that you wouldn't be where you are today without those major events in your lives unfolding the way that they did."

He stopped in front of Cuddlington and stared down at the dwarf. "If you and your cousin hadn't met those drow that day, would you have ever left Goldendelve?" The wizard waved his hand in front of the dwarf, releasing the Hold spell. Cuddlington sighed at Yif and shook his head.

Next, Yif moved to stand in front of Melbrid. "And if you'd been accepted to the wizard school? Would you have been living in Telquirk as a sorcerer?" The sorcerer timidly shook his head.

The wizard then walked over to Meentha and said, "If your village hadn't been destroyed by the Bortan Empire, would you have left it?" Meentha stared hard at Yif, but shook her head as well.

Yif nodded and finally moved in front of Rixi. "What about you? I'm sure that if your parents were still alive you'd be living in Telquirk, but would you be a street rogue or a fisherman?"

Rixi looked down at the floor rather than meet the piercing gaze of the wizard. "I don't know...but probably a fisherman."

The former Archmage of the Bortan Empire nodded again, turned and took a few steps back. "I have high hopes for your group. You're the first group to get this far." He turned back to the group and smiled once more. "Good luck on the rest of the tests."

Before any of the group could react, Yif waved his arms once and the group was teleported away. Rixi looked around and saw that they were standing in a circular chamber with some sort of gravel floor. The chamber was about fifty yards across. She looked up, but couldn't see the ceiling of the room.

Rixi turned around when she heard a scraping sound behind her. She saw an opening appear on one side of the circular room. She was about to start walking towards it when she spotted movement in the shadows.

Suddenly, six goblins darted out of those shadows and charged at the group. They were yelling, screaming and jumping as they were running.

Cuddlington growled and pulled the battle axe from his back as he charged towards the group of goblins. Meentha quickly drew her bow and started letting arrows fly. Melbrid began chanting and waving his arms about as Rixi drew her two short swords.

Three of the goblins stopped to fight the dwarf and the other three gave him a wide berth as they passed him by. Rixi moved forward to try and stop their charge and to protect Melbrid. Meentha dropped her bow and drew her scimitar and stepped up beside Rixi.

Two of the three goblins came for Rixi as the remaining one went after Meentha. Rixi started the fight in a defensive posture. She whirled and parried the seeking blades of the goblins as she fought hard to keep them from flanking her too badly.

Suddenly, several bright orbs of light struck the goblin on Rixi's left. She immediately took advantage of the situation by kicking that goblin square in the chest. The goblin fell back and Rixi turned on the remaining goblin. The goblin growled at her and swung his crude long sword at her legs. Rixi shot the goblin a smile as she jumped over his swing. The goblin obviously wasn't expecting that move as his swing put him off balance. The moment her feet hit the ground, Rixi lunged at the goblin, piercing it in the chest and neck with her twin short swords.

The goblin fell to the floor when Rixi pulled her swords out of him. Rixi turned as the other goblin was rising to his feet. The goblin was already injured and was looking for a way out of the fight. Rixi, seeing the goblin no longer had the desire to fight, indicated that it should run away.

The goblin took two steps back and turned back the way the group had come from and ran. Rixi looked around to see how the rest of the group was faring. Meentha was standing over the bleeding body of a goblin and Cuddlington was cleaning his axe on the tunic of one of the three goblins at his feet.

Cuddlington stood and turned as he heard the footfalls of the goblin running towards the doorway. He dropped the axe and quickly drew a small warhammer and expertly chucked it at the retreating goblin. The warhammer struck the unfortunate goblin square on the back and the creature fell to the ground. Casually, Cuddlington picked up his discarded axe and walked over to the goblin and finished him off with a quick blow of the axe.

Rixi watched Cuddlington's actions with horror. She ran over to Cuddlington and shouted, "Why did you kill that goblin? It was done fighting! It couldn't hurt us anymore!"

The dwarf looked back at Rixi with confusion. "I don't understand yer concern for the creature. Goblins are typically evil creatures, lass. They're entire race are enemies of dwarves everywhere. The world is a better place fer havin' one less goblin in it, I say."

Rixi took a deep breath to calm herself. Before this horrible day, if it was even still that same day anymore, she'd never even killed a humanoid. Now, she'd killed or helped to kill at least two real humanoids and several more in that strange simulation that Yif put her through.

She felt a hand on her shoulder and turned her head to see Meentha standing behind her. "It's been a harrd day forr you, hasn't it, Rrixi?"

The young rogue nodded at the pantheron and replied, "Yes, I was just thinking about that." She turned her head back to Cuddlington and said, "I'm sorry for snapping at you, Cuddlington."

Cuddlington smiled back at Rixi and said, "No worries, lass. I know that this ordeal has been especially tough on ye. Yer too young for all o' this mess."

Suddenly, the ground started shaking. The entire group turned as a large portion of part of the wall started rising to reveal the large form of a five headed hydra.

The creature let out several simultaneous shrieks as it spotted the group on the far side of the arena. Cuddlington chuckled and said, "And the mess just keeps gettin' bigger."

Still Alive

Just wanted to let you all know that I'm still alive! :)

We moved to our new house this past weekend, so that's what I've been busy doing. As such, I will be waiting until next week to post another Story a Week. Sorry for keeping you waiting, it's just been such a hectic week that I never found the time to write last week's story.

I promise that this week's story will be good and timely. :P

Story a Week 19 - Propheteering Part 7

Well, another late Story a Week. I had a little writer's block last week and with all of the moving preparations as well... Anyway, it's here now. It's a little long, but this part of the story is pretty good. I'm quite proud of this one.

Without further ado...

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Rixi stood there staring numbly at her short swords as they dripped blood onto the dirt floor. She felt, rather than saw, someone approach her.

She glanced up and saw Meentha standing near her, a concerned look on her face. Rixi tried to smile, but she knew that her smile was weak, at best.

Meentha asked, "How arre you doing, Rrixi?"

When Meentha said her name, Rixi's smile grew. "I like the way you say my name," she said. "It sounds more exotic."

"Arre you okay?" Meentha asked again.

Rixi's smile diminished a little, but she nodded. "I've never killed, nor helped to kill, another humanoid before," she said.

Meentha nodded. "I thought as much," she said. "Do not worrry yourrself, little one. Minotaurrs are notorriously evil crreaturres. The worrld is a betterr place with the death of this one."

Rixi nodded. "I guess so..." she started to say.

Cuddlington interrupted their conversation by saying, "Lasses, ye all ready to move on?"

Rixi nodded to Cuddlington and he waved them over. Meentha started walking over, but Rixi put her hand on the pantheron's arm. Meentha looked a question at her, and Rixi said, "Thanks."

Meentha smiled and nodded back. When the four of them were all standing together, the dwarf nodded to Melbrid. The sorcerer mumbled some mystical words and waved the wand over their heads. Rixi closed her eyes.

When she opened her eyes she was confused to find herself standing in the town square of Telquirk. She quickly glanced around and noticed a few subtle differences in the town. A couple of the shops had the wrong signs on them and there were a lot more ships in the harbor.

Rixi walked around town in a daze. The town was busier than she remembered. She wandered down to the wharf. Suddenly she stopped short.

She recognized one of the boats docked on the pier. She also recognized two of the people on the deck. "Mommy? Daddy?" she whispered.

She saw that the crew was preparing to push off. Frantically, she ran down the pier shouting, "Stop! Wait!"

Her parents turned toward her when they heard her shouting. They looked puzzled as they walked down the gangplank onto the pier. Rixi stopped in front of them, out of breath.

Rixi's mother said, "Rixi, dear, what's wrong?"

Rixi took a moment to catch her breath and said, sobbing, "I don't understand, how can you be here?"

Rixi's parents looked at each other and shrugged. Her mother said, "I don't understand you, dear. Calm down now, honey, and tell us what's wrong."

Rixi looked about the pier for a moment as she gathered her thoughts. She recognized more and more of the ships there as some of the ones that were lost in the past ten years. Understanding dawned on her. Her parents weren't back; Rixi had been transported to the past somehow.

She looked at her parents again with concern on her face. There could only be one reason why she was transported to the past with her parents there. "Don't go," she said, "I have a bad feeling about it."

Rixi's parents smiled down at her. Her father said, "You know, Losa, we could use another deck hand since Maveri is too sick to sail with us."

Her mother, Losa, replied with a smile, "I think you're right, Luvar. What do you say, Rixi?"

Rixi considered their offer for a moment. 'Maybe if I go along I'll be able to prevent whatever disaster would befall my parents,' she thought to herself. Aloud, "I think I'll go along."

Her parents each put an arm around Rixi and the three of them walked up the gangplank together. Rixi followed her father into the Captain's Cabin. She went to the large navigation table in the center of the room. She saw the course charted on the map and turned to her father, "Why does your course take you so far away from the continent?"

Her father put down the spyglass that he'd been cleaning and strode over to the map. He pointed at the farthest point from the continent that the course would take them. "We've heard a rumor of some schools of exceptionally large tuna out here and we thought that it would be worth spending a little extra time to take a look."

Rixi nodded to her father to show she understood. She looked more carefully at the route and saw that they would come close to several uncharted islands. Her father interrupted her studying by saying, "We're going to be pushing off soon, want to watch?" She nodded and followed him outside.

The next couple of days Rixi spent with her parents bathing in the warmth of their love and company. She realized that this event or whatever it was might be fleeting, so she tried to take advantage of the situation as best she could.

Rixi was sitting in the Captain's Cabin on the fourth day when she felt the ship slow. She stood and went out to the deck. She shielded her eyes from the sun as she scanned the deck for her father. She spotted him at the wheel when he waved her over.

"The lookout thinks he's spotted a school of tuna," her father announced when Rixi approached where he and the pilot were standing. "We're going to furl the sails soon and throw the nets over."

Rixi spent the next two days watching the crew fill their hold with the largest tuna that Rixi had ever seen. She wondered aloud to her father how the fish was kept fresh. "Oh, all fishing vessels have magically enchanted holds that keep the fish fresh," Luvar explained. "In the old days, fishermen would have to salt the fish right away, but that wasn't a very good system and they wouldn't dare try a fishing run this far away from their home port."

Rixi nodded absently. She was busy staring at something on the horizon. "What's that?" she asked, pointing.

Her father squinted at where she was pointed. Sighing, he pulled out his spyglass. Rixi knew that something was amiss when his stance turned rigid instead of being the casual gait he normally affected. All of a sudden he put the spyglass away and sprang into motion. He jumped down onto the main deck and started shouting orders to pull in all of the nets and prepare the sails.

Startled, Rixi turned to the wheelman and asked, "What's wrong?"

"Me thinks yer father seen something he don't like in that ship ye spotted," the old sea dog responded.

Rixi's heart pounded in her chest. 'This must be what happened to my parents,' she thought to herself. 'I would bet that that is a pirate ship.'

Now Rixi jumped down to the main deck and ran back into the Captain's Cabin. She practically bowled her mother over as she charged into the room. "What's going on?" Losa asked. "I heard shouting..."

She must have seen the dread on Rixi's face as her own face steeled in resolve. Rixi wasn't sure what her mother mumbled next, but it sounded something like "Pirates".

Losa ran over to a chest on one wall of the cabin and threw it open. She pulled out several wands and potions and pushed them into her belt pouches. Rixi went to where she had hidden her own weapons and started equipping herself. She felt a hand on her back and turned to see her mother's stern face looking at her own.

"A battle is no place for a child," her mother said.

Rixi's face showed determination as she said, "Mother, I cannot explain it now, but I'm no child. I will fight with you and there is nothing you can do to stop me."

Losa was taken aback by Rixi's fierce words. Gently she said, "As you wish, Rixi." She kissed her daughter on the forehead and ran out onto the deck.

Tears welled up in Rixi's eyes, but she fought them down. "I can make a difference here," she said as she charged out onto the deck.

She shielded her eyes from the bright sun as she stared out at the approaching vessel. It was much closer than before. Rixi dodged the sailors running about as she ran to the forecastle where her parents were standing. As she approached she heard her mother say, "...no doubt about their intentions?"

Luvar shook his head and replied, "None. They display no colors and heed no signals."

Rixi reached the forecastle just as the sailors unfurled the mainsail and the ship started moving. "Can we outrun them?" she asked her father.

Luvar turned to his daughter. He saw the weapons and equipment she was carrying and started to say something but was stopped when Losa shook her head. Sighing, he said, "Not likely, my dear. If they're good pirates, their ship is built to be faster than ours, not to mention the fact that we're carrying several tons of tuna in our hold."

Rixi glanced back to fast approaching pirate vessel. "How long do we have?" she asked.

Her father shrugged. "Perhaps fifteen minutes," he said. "I plan to sail directly towards them and then turn hard to port just after we pass broadside of them. Hopefully, that will buy us some additional time as they scramble to intercept us."

Her father ran back to the wheel. Rixi watched the approach of the pirate vessel with apprehension. They were getting close enough for Rixi to make out sailors running on the deck. The ship was about the same size as her father's, but it sported broadside cannon where the fishing vessel didn't. Rixi saw smoke bellow from the front of the other ship, then saw a splash about twenty yards fore and starboard of the fishing vessel.

"Great, they have a forward cannon on deck," her mother mumbled. She pulled out a stunning red wand from a pouch and aimed it at the other ship. "Just one more minute until we get into range..."

The pirate vessel sent another cannon ball sailing towards their ship. The range on this one was good, though five yards or so to port. The next one would probably land squarely.

Before they could get off another shot, Losa let loose with her wand. Several bright spheres of light sailed across the open water and struck one of the sailors serving the forward gun square in the chest. The man flew back and landed on the main deck, unmoving. Losa smiled at Rixi and said, "I just hope they don't have a real wizard or sorcerer on their ship. I couldn't match them with my meager skill."

Losa drew another wand as the ship neared and let loose a fireball at the other ship. The fireball exploded on the bow of the pirate vessel causing the rest of the guns crew to fly backward. The sail above the forecastle burst into flames.

The two ships were beside each other now and the pirate ships broadside guns opened up on the fishing vessel. Rixi felt the boards beneath her vibrate as the roundshot struck home. Rixi grimaced when she saw the pirate sailors wielding grappling hooks. Their approach was close enough that most of them stuck when they threw them over. Rixi was nearly thrown from her feet when the ship slewed to starboard as the sailors on the pirate vessel pulled the ships closer together.

Rixi jumped down to the main deck as pirates began to make the crossing to the fishing ship. Her qualms about killing humanoids from earlier in the day were thrown out into the wind as she began slashing and stabbing the intruders.

Rixi didn't get much of a chance to gauge the status of the overall battle as it raged around her, but she did notice every time the ship shuddered when something struck it. After one particularly large shake, Rixi dispatched the pirate she had been fighting and glanced around. The first thing she noticed was that two of the fishing boats masts had fallen and the sail on the mainmast was on fire. The pirate ship was faring much better, the fire Rixi had seen on the foremast's sail was out and there wasn't much other damage to speak of.

Then Rixi noted a figure moving about the pirate ship. The man was wearing simple robes and walking about the ship confidently. Rixi could tell right away that he was a wizard. Growling, she stormed over to the rail and grasped the nearest rope. She swung over to the pirate vessel and landed near the wizard.

"Ah, what's this? One of the peasant fishermen wishes to bring the battle to our ship?" the wizard said.

Rixi ignored the man's brash comments and growled again as she charged him. He just stood there smiling as she passed right through him. Rixi stumbled for a couple of steps and looked up to see the wizard standing on the quarterdeck, smiling down at her. "You're no match for me, little girl," the wizard boasted. "I've killed the meager sorceress your ship boasted and I've been plastering your vessel with my destructive..."

The man's boasting was silenced when Rixi charged him again. This time, she stopped short of his image and spun around to where he had been standing before. Sure enough, the wizard was there. Rixi launched both of her short swords at him and quickly drew her daggers. She watched as the short swords reached their target and she stabbed into the image of the wizard standing behind her. She smiled as her daggers penetrated flesh and she heard the wizard gasp. The image on the main deck disappeared.

She withdrew her daggers and turned on the wizard. She stabbed him again with both daggers and watched as the life drained from him. Something inside her cried out, but she pushed the feelings down deep. She cleaned her daggers and returned them to their hiding places. She quickly jumped down to the main deck and retrieved her short swords.

Rixi took a moment to assess the situation. The pirate ship was all but deserted with most of the pirates aboard the fishing vessel. The fighting over there seemed to have stopped with most of the sailors dead or surrendered. Rixi saw that a full third of the fishing vessel was on fire. Tears welled up again in her eyes, but she fought them back as she ran to the rail. She swung back to the fishing ship. The pirates seemed to ignore her presence as they looted and corralled their prisoners.

She turned to run to the forecastle, but stopped short when she saw the wall of flames engulfing the entire deck there. Tears welling up, she ran instead to the poopdeck where the wheel was. As she approached she saw several bodies piled up there.

She cautiously began sifting through the bodies until she saw a shining spyglass. Sobbing, she pushed the body of a dead pirate off of her father's body. Tears began pouring down and blurred her vision. The closed her eyes and let the tears come.

After a few moments, she began to wipe her face and she opened her eyes. She was startled to see that she was no longer kneeling on the fishing vessel, but was in an unfamiliar room. She saw the wizard Yif standing over her.

TSA - Police State Agency

So there's a video circulating around the internet right now of a little six year old girl getting an "enhanced" pat down search. I've watched it a couple times now and I'm just shocked and appalled on two levels. One, how can anyone claim that this isn't a violation of our rights? And two, how could the parents of this child let the TSA get away with this?

The behavior of the TSA and their agents is getting out of hand. This is the kind of thing that the founding fathers of this nation feared from the English kings and why we have a BILL OF RIGHTS. The Fourth Amendment protects us from unreasonable searches. Now, this is an unfortunately subjective wording. The TSA and therefore the entire United States government are claiming that the searches and pat downs are not unreasonable in order to protect us from the possibility of terrorist attack. I say that we need to find another way. I understand their logic and I do think that their methods have probably made some terrorists think twice about their tactics. I do not think that the threat is great enough to warrant the blatant disregard of our "unalienable" rights. It's just a matter of time before some terrorist will find a way to circumvent the current TSA protocols and then things will get worse. We, as American citizens, need to put our feet down and say "This is unacceptable!".

It should be unacceptable. If I were travelling with my wife and children I would rather go to jail myself then subject my children to this kind of treatment. If the TSA insisted that my children go through that kind search, I would shout and make a fuss and do whatever it took to make sure that it didn't happen. Because it shouldn't! I wouldn't let them get away with it either. If they arrested me, I would call the ACLU so fast that it wouldn't be funny.

Wil Wheaton recently wrote about his experiences with the TSA. He mentions that he is speaking to a lawyer and the ACLU and I don't blame him. In fact, I applaud him for it. I would do the same and I would be glad for a celebrity on the side of good in this instance because it seems that these days people listen to celebrities more than they pay attention to right and wrong. I've been lucky in my travels to not have experienced this myself and I am not looking forward to that day. I'm sure it's coming and that saddens me. This nation is supposed to be about freedoms. I'm saddened because I'm sure that someday soon the government will try to violate my Fourth Amendment freedom while I'm traveling. I'm not sure, yet, how I'll react to the situation. Will I stand up for my rights or just take it and complain afterward? I just don't know yet.

Now, contrary to public speculation and rumor, the TSA is a government agency that reports to the Department of Homeland Security. The current administration is within its power to direct the TSA's activities and I think that an overhaul of its policies and procedures is overdue. Perhaps a changing of the guard as to who runs this agency is even necessary. I'm not sure exactly because I'm not a government expert, but it needs to happen before things get out of hand (which might be too late).

I'm going to end this post before it turns too much into a rant (might be too late!), but I'd like to encourage you all to watch out for yourselves and don't let the government trample on your rights. Remember that authoritarian regimes aren't always built overnight.