My website got defaced today. I've never taken much time to worry about the security of my website. I've always relied on luck and obscurity, which really aren't tactics. Now I don't even know what to do to prevent it from happening again. Luckily it didn't seem like any of my stuff was destroyed, not even my main page edited, just a new one put in front of mine. Still though, I have to ask the question, why do people do things like that?

What does someone get out of messing with my computer? I say the same thing for people who cheat at games and some other activities. What is so fundamentally wrong with some people that they get pleasure out of hurting others in this way? I didn't indent to make my website all that secure. It isn't a challenge. You aren't cool or talented or 133t or anything like that, why do you think you are? Honestly, is there anyone out there who gives any respect to people like website defacers, spamers, crackers, or vandals? What do they do it for then? What is the attaction and the prestige in something that I can't even imagine other people who do it respect? Sometimes I wish that all stupid people like that would just be gone. Humanity is wasted on them, and they really don't deserve to be able to perpetuate their genes. There are explainations of crimes like robbery, assult, rape, murder, and genocide, even though there is of course no excuse for these much more terrible acts, but I can't even imagine any explaination why someone would want to be a petty nusaince like the things I'm talking about. I say either be completely evil so that we can lock you up, or stop bothering people and be a productive member of society. I know that seems kind of harsh, but the way I feel right now just seems to warrent that level of hyperbole.

I need to follow up on a few previous entries. A couple weeks ago I wrote about my hearing loss. Well, after a follow up appointment with a different doctor it turned out not to be as serious as previously thought. There was a bunch of wax and junk that was stuck to the front of my ear drum. She peeled it off and suddenly I could hear again. It hurt a little, and at first hearing again was weird, but now everything is normal again.

A week ago I wrote about the upcoming game competition between the ETC and USC. The competition was this past Friday. We won 4 out of the 5 events. We swept them, 2 games to 0 in Carcassonne, Literati, and Set (played after we knew we had won). There was fierce competition in the Burnout game that we won 5 races to 3 out of 9. The only event we lost, Halo 2, where they swept us, was a bit of controversy as they had changed the rules after the original challenge and we didn't get informed of that. In an unofficial game played later by the original rules, we swept them.

Oh, and the Pats won the superbowl again today. Sweet.

Any fan of The West Wing would be jealous of the day I had today. A few months ago, my mom went to a charity auction to benefit MS. One thing up for auction was a personal tour of The West Wing. Knowing what a big fan of the show I was, she bought it as a gift. This week she was going to be in LA anyway for a business conference so I flew up on Monday to join her.

First of all, the weather is beautiful. It more than makes up for the rainy conditions when I visited several weeks ago. I spent Tuesday walking on the beach and sitting by the pool. But that wasn't the exciting part of the trip.

Today we went to visit the set of The West Wing. It was Bradley Whitford that had put up the tour for auction so it was his assistant that arranged for us to come and show us around. At first we had some difficulty with the gate guards. We ended up circling around 3 times, before we were able to convice them that we actually belonged there.

It was exciting to meet several of the actors from the show. First we talked to NiCole Robinson who plays Margaret. Of course, we saw Bradley Whitford, we said hi to Allison Janney briefly, and we also were able to talk to Martin Sheen. We also saw Richard Shiff who wasn't acting but directing. Everyone was really nice. We actually got to hang out with Martin Sheen for a minute in his trailor, he signed some autographs, we took a picture with him, and then he invited us into the West Wing to watch a scene they were filming. It was quite surreal because of how similar people seemed to their characters.

( Read more... )

There's some question as to whether I should write journal entries that are so personal, like the one right before this (which may or may not be there, I keeping going back and forth on whether it should be public or private). My website is a very public forum and there is no telling who might read it. I try to keep things vague and benign so that there's no room for true damage. One of the worries is that someone who might be a potential employer might find this website, and there is no need for them to be reading my most personal feeling. Does that give someone an upper hand on me? My goal is to get these things out though. There are people, my friends who I want to see this stuff. The reason I have a journal is to save me saying the same thing to several people at different times, and to save myself from telling it to people who might not actually care. If they come here and read it, then they must care. The way I see it, I hope that someone whom it might not be appropriate to read such things about me won't, and I don't make it so explicit that it would be bad if they did.