There might have been an 5.4 earthquake at the other end of the state. Actually, there was. About 273 miles south of here, but it was enough to wake me up at 4:30 this morning. So I'm a little tired now, but it sounds like there were no injuries, and very little damage. Whew.I'd much rather have a 5ish Earthquake every 10 years then be around for the 8ish one every 100.

A few months ago I opened an Electric Orange checking account from ING Direct. Part of my reasoning was that they pay a decent interest rate on the checking account (not great, but better than nothing), and to start to seperate some of our bill paying. The problem has been the transition from one to the other has been a bit arduous. Thankfully, this month we had some extra income, so we had enough of a buffer to start making the transition without worrying about a bill coming out of the wrong account and us not having enough money to cover that bill in that account.
Most of our accounts have online access, and those were easy to reset. However, a few require actual paper to be sent. These are the ones that are most concerning, because I don't have a confirmation about which account this month's payment will come from. If the paperwork goes through in time, it'll come out of the new account, but if not, it will come out of the old account. So I have to make sure there's enough money in both accounts to cover them. It's kind of a pain. On the other hand, I'm down to about 5 bills that I don't have automated (either though my end or the bank's) which greatly reduces the risk of missing a payment.
All of this means, my savings numbers won't go up much this month, but should jump significantly once I'm satisfied that all of the bills are directed properly and reduce the buffers in the checking accounts. We still have the car and job situations to work out, but progress is definitely being made. We're actually looking seriously at the possibility of me not having to go back to work once my job ends in September. At least not full time. If we can come up with a way to make this internet thing pay a bit, we may be able to pull it off.

Today is the big day. HabariCon 2008 is happening in a few hours (I should get to bed!) in at the lovely iPony facility. I'm even giving one of the presentations later this morning. It's very exciting, but I'm quite nervous having never given this sort of presentation before. Mostly I'm looking forward to meeting more of the community face to face. I think that this conference will be a big step forward for Habari.
Solidifying roles of members of the Habari Community and mapping the road forward is high on the list of goals we hope to accomplish. I'd like to thank everyone who's been putting this together for making the first HabariCon a major success already.

Here are a few of the sites and articles that caught my attention this week.

Legend of the Green Dragon is a text-base online RPG. It's a bit silly but fun. (Hat tip to Ringmaster)

DevFund is a new project that Chris J Davis has started. Seems like an interesting way of connecting developers and money on a small scale.

The Ten Tastiest Food Photography Tips from PhotoJojo has some good information for getting the best out of food. Hopefully I'll be able to incorporate this into my own work.

As part of the LibraryThing Early Reviewer's program, I was recently sent a copy of Careers in Crime: An Applicant's Guide by Michael Weinberg. This book is a send up of the typical job hunting books that try to cover the "best jobs" in a given field. It's filled with statistics, example of practioners of different jobs, and ratings. Each job is summarized, descriptions of working conditions, environment, likelyhood of arrest and more are given for each job from counterfeiter to prison wife.

This book seems to be exactly as advertised. It's funny, and actually informative on several levels. While not a book that you're likely to sit and read in one session, it's a great book to keep in the bathroom. Many sections made me laugh out loud and read them aloud to the people around me. (Oddly, sometimes people find this annoying.)

My only real complaint about the book had nothing to do with the writing. The copy editing was terrible. There were many misspellings as well as an entire paragraph that was cut off mid sentence. Usually with advance reading copies there is a note that it is not the final version, but this book did not carry that notice and didn't appear to be a specifically printed Advance copy.

Overall I'll give Careers in Crime a 3.5 star rating.

People who use the term "Flyover States" or think "Middle America" is interchangeable with "Dumb-Ass" should be kicked in the nuts. Seriously. Just because you live near an ocean doesn't make you special. You want culture, we've got plenty, and we don't consider it to be just something for the elite. We have some of the best universities in the country. I've been to art museums in New York and London and they don't hold a candle to the Art Institute. Yes, New York and LA have an international reputation, but that reputation doesn't give the people who happen to live there some sort of special magic. Oh, and by the way, without us... you'd have no damn food. So, shut the hell up.

A group calling themselves "Catholic Schoolgirls Against the War" disrupted Easter Mass at Holy Name Cathedral. Apparently, they determined that the best venue to voice their opposition to the war was:
A) In a Church
B) In a church that has vocally opposed the war
C) During a service
D) During a service on one of the most important Holy Days in the Christian Faith
E) By splashing fake blood on people at the service who were dressed in their Easter best.

Regardless of your opinions of the war, or the Catholic Church, I think you should be offended by the actions of these people. I don't understand what kind of logic goes on the heads of people like this. These actions will alienate them from people who are religious and oppose the war, and will definitely add fuel to the fire of people who do not oppose the war who feel that protesters are generally misguided and more concerned with getting attention than accomplishing anything useful.

First, the name of their group: "Catholic Schoolgirls Against the War"; I don't know about most people but "Catholic Schoolgirls" brings to mind soft porn more than anything else. Clearly, at least some of the group were not schoolgirls in any sense of the word (being male) and if they were actually Catholic they would most likely have more respect for their faith than to interrupt mass in this fashion. Then there's the choice of venue. It takes no guts at all to protest in a church opposed to the war. You are, quite literally, preaching to the choir. It seem that the only reason to stage a protest in this fashion is because you are afraid of actually having to face opposition to your protest. They knew there would be cameras, but security would be minimal and inclined to be gentle. No one is likely to attempt to shout down your "message". Finally, if you're going to commit a felony to further your political aims you should make sure it counts. The fundamental voice that Americans have is their vote... and felons can't vote. If convicted, these people have sacrificed their long-term voice for a single whisper.

There are people defending them, but I can't help but wonder if they'd be so inclined to defend them if they had staged the same protest in a synagogue, a mosque or a Buddhist temple on a major holy day. While I believe these people have the right to protest the war, and if they truly believe that it is wrong, that they have an obligation to do so. But their actions were misguided at best, and outright stupid at worst. They should be ashamed of themselves and others who oppose the war should be ashamed of them as well.