I have a tendency to transverse my memory logs — as deep and vast as they are — for specific moments that led me to where I am now.

If I were a superhero this would be my greatest weakness; too much looking back, not enough looking forward. I suppose it has to do with the way I’ve engineered myself.

Exploring who it is that I was and continue to be, as a father, husband and artist comforts the person that I’ve become.

Just as there is no secret sauce to success, there too is no algorithm to knowing what choice we made (or will make) is the right one. Instead we lean on our past and entrust ourselves to influence future decisions and hope the best for the penultimate outcome.

Robert Frost, four-time Pulitzer Prize winning American poet, put it best in his poem,

The Road Not Taken

TWO roads diverged in a yellow wood,
And sorry I could not travel both
And be one traveler, long I stood
And looked down one as far as I could
To where it bent in the undergrowth;

Then took the other, as just as fair,
And having perhaps the better claim,
Because it was grassy and wanted wear;
Though as for that the passing there
Had worn them really about the same,

And both that morning equally lay
In leaves no step had trodden black.
Oh, I kept the first for another day!
Yet knowing how way leads on to way,
I doubted if I should ever come back.

I shall be telling this with a sigh
Somewhere ages and ages hence:
Two roads diverged in a wood, and I—
I took the one less traveled by,
And that has made all the difference

We’ve all stood before the fork in the road of our choices. Just as the person Frost describes above we chose one path over another and promise ourselves that if we ever face a similar set of choices again, we might consider the other path.

Yet, it is highly unlikely we will face the same situation, so we accept that whatever we did may or may not have had an outcome we were proud of and we move on.

I can’t say that every decision I’ve made has been the right one, in fact I’d be living in a delusional world if I believed that were true.

However, I know for a fact that many of them, right or wrong, shaped the person I am today and recognizing the journey to that fork in the road is probably just as important as the decision itself.

The difficulty for me is figuring out why I decided to take one path over another which ends up being an exercise fueled with curiosity and sometimes lends itself to insanity.

There are times when a design concept of mine fails to boil over in awesomeness and at that point I throw a sheet over it, shove it in a corner next to the mutated Chihuahua-Goat™ and ask myself why I even attempted it.

It happens so often, in fact, that I begin to doubt my instincts as a designer. It boggles the mind that a Designers Anonymous group doesn’t exist for this very reason, but I digress.

This way of thinking is ludicrous because everything we create is vital to the design process, no matter the context.

For example: That movie poster that you spent several hours on, the one that was eventually canned because the hero’s (or heroin’s) face ended up being badly contorted at a specific viewing angle would probably seem like a failed creation. You might even be tempted to trash it from your hard drive, never to speak of it again.

But guess what? Horribly mangled facial crufties aside, you might end up recycling the typeface or that speckled texture for a future poster or project.

Make it a habit, if you haven’t already, to file away your delightful creations for future use and avoid cursing your design work with voodoo.

It just never works, I mean what am I supposed to do with this Chihuahua-Goat™?

Just remember the three R’s: Redeem, Reuse and Rejoice.

It’s been extremely quiet here, but that doesn’t mean I’ve been locked away in some room carving odd symbols into the walls.

Actually, I’ve been tooling away at many things, one of which involves this very site, but that I can’t speak of quite yet. I’ll just say the redesign is underway and will mark the return of the crest. For older readers you know exactly what I mean, but for those who’ve only stopped by every once in a while the crest was once part of the brand of this site.

Beyond that I’m participating in Project 52 this year. What’s that?

Project52 is a personal challenge geared toward getting fresh content on your website. The goal is to write at least 1 new article per week for 1 year.

I’m challenging myself to a goal: to write something new once or more per week for one year starting January 1st, 2010. It doesn’t seem like a lofty goal really, not at all actually. It just means I have to commit to something that I’ve long neglected and somewhere along the line it might (I hope!) recharge the fizzled neon sign that is this “blog” or site, or whatever you want to call it. Call it “Fresh Fish Market” for all I care, which incidentally is the name of my wireless network.

There you have it. At least one new post a week for just a year and if I can adhere to that rule I think the prize is an all-paid expense trip to Tahiti.

One can dream such a dream, right?

The best thing about the future is that it comes only one day at a time. — Abraham Lincoln

Ever have one of those days where the future seems hazy, but you’re certain it’ll become clearer as you move through it all?

Today was that day.

As blessed as I am (mostly due to a support list that has too many names to mention — okay, one being my wife), I still ponder the journey.

Stepping stones…

There’s a scene in District 9 when the main character, after enduring a lot of pain and humiliation, has to make the choice of either running into battle guns ablaze or retreat. He chooses the latter knowing full well that his actions are driven by fear and selfishness.

District 9 or “D9” is many things all rolled up into a hard to describe package. Among them it’s a sci-fi adventure with all the elements you’d expect like blaster guns and an enormous spaceship. It’s also an unrelenting social commentary and an action-packed romp that refuses to let down its guard.

The effects and cinematography compliment each other quite well and at times it’s hard to distinguish between the two. That said, they are not of the slick variety that other films convey, but the grimy texture is beautiful and perfect for the portrayal of a enslaved race of aliens living in South African slums.

It’s an unforgiving, ravished and selfish environment, leaving barely any room for survival. It’s a film that is best experienced without digging for holes in the plot (of which they are a few) or making assumptions dealing with the character portrayal or progression.

I enjoyed it because it didn’t reveal too much of itself and yet what it did expose was raw (human and alien) emotion, flaws in the human fabric and a detached feeling of humanity, or at least I felt detached at times.

Even though my kids are aware that their Dad is an artist, it’s not often I get requests from them. That might sound surprising, but I probably don’t sketch as much as I should. Most of my artwork is generated on the computer and they just assume the zeros and bytes do most of the work.

Recently, my three-year-old son Quinn asked me to draw Beast from Beauty and the Beast. He handed me a Crayola Twistable crayon and two sheets of copy paper and stood by my side waiting for the results. He also reminded me that he wanted it delivered pretty quickly, as if he had a pitch meeting to attend or something.

Since then I’ve been doing some sketches of other characters you might recognize, the idea being that these are quick, dirty and recognizable.

The Sketches

Materials: A blue Crayola Twistable, regular copy paper.

Materials: Prismacolor colored pencil, regular copy paper. Source: Don Bluth Animation

I watched Captain EO (not sure what the EO means) with my kids (the toe-head twins) and it occurred to me that I had never showed it to them until now.

Their favorite line was one uttered by The Supreme Leader:

You infect my world with your presence! Turn the others into… trashcans!

Even though Captain EO was a favorite from my childhood, having seen it for the first time in the late 80s/early 90s, it took the passing of Michael Jackson and a flood of nostalgia to convince me to do so. What a shame.

We also watched Moonwalker’s Smooth Criminal sequence, but that wasn’t nearly as cool to them. I tried to explain that when I was a kid (early 80s), Michael Jackson was something special and even after all these years he’s still considered a true talent. What I didn’t go into was all the media hype, speculation, accusations, strange behavior or giggly interviews because none of that mattered to me and someday they can get the scoop on all of that if they really want to.

Michael’s message to the world was simple: be inspired and imaginative, loving, creative and good.

It’s something we all can aspire to be and for that I thank “MJ” for his influence.

George Lucas has created some wonderful movies and is undeniably a visionary filmmaker, story-teller and influence in the film industry. Recently, evidence of this has surfaced in the form of a PDF outlining the “Raiders” story conference.

He’s also responsible for some real stinkers. Movie stink that could quickly foul a room full of underdeveloped daisies and seldom come up in conversation for fear of one being exiled or worse, thrown to a bunch of ravenous movie critics. Now I’m beginning to feel nostalgic for the cartoon, The Critic, but anyways…

Howard the Duck is perhaps the worst movie on George’s resume (yes, fouler than even Clone Wars), failed miserably at the box office and yet it retains a charm all its own. There are even days when the movie strangely hovers around in my thoughts from time to time.

If this were VH1’s Behind the Music, this is the part when the guy would say.. “And now, the story behind the story.”

It all started with some comics

From Wikipedia:

[Howard the Duck] first appeared in Adventure into Fear #19 (Dec. 1973) and several subsequent series have chronicled the misadventures of the ill-tempered, anthropomorphic, “funny animal” trapped on human-dominated Earth. Howard’s adventures are generally social satires, and also often parodies of genre fiction with a meta-fictional awareness of the medium. [Wikipedia]

If you were to pick up a Howard comic during this time you’d notice very little difference between him and Donald Duck. This was intentional on the part of its creators but for obvious reasons wasn’t carried over in the movie.

Quack, Quack!

The movie adaptation, released in 1986, retained some of the traits from the comic in the form of its star, Howard, who was still ill-tempered and anthropomorphic. Instead of doing an animated feature, which would’ve been an ideal presentation, the film was instead live-action and the duck would be part animatronic puppet, part diminutive actor.

It starred a very young Lea Thompson and Tim Robbins. Tim Robbins, up until this point (with Top Gun’s release looming) had been known for bit roles in TV and film. Lea Thompson was (and will probably always be) known as the Marty McFly’s mother Lorraine in Back to the Future.

Together, they were supporting players to their feathered star and despite the sub par script and kooky special effects, managed to give somewhat convincing performances. However, there is something to be said about the human/duck relationship that is, to this day, uncomfortable to watch. I don’t think I was ever fully up to speed on the “birds, ducks and bees.”, but I digress.

Above all us, Howard the Duck, like The Dark Crystal, was a childhood favorite of mine because it was something I enjoyed watching with my family.

It was a fantastic, awful, bewildering and grossly underrated cult classic.

The Trailer

Additional Reading:

• http://www.fast-rewind.com/howardduck.htm
• http://www.toonopedia.com/howard.htm
• http://www.norcalmovies.com/HowardTheDuck
• http://www.answers.com/topic/howard-the-duck
• http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Howard_the_Duck

Earlier this week I picked up the book Rogue Leaders: The Story of Lucasarts by Rob Smith. There’s an interesting history that captivated me from the get-go, primarily because I’m a part of this fascinating lineage.

Lucasarts & Quantum Link

Lucasarts (then called Lucasfilm Games) was founded by Peter Langston, a musician/game designer who hand-picked a group of young and eager game designers to create original game properties.

In 1985 Lucasarts was working on a Commodore 64 virtual community game (coupled with a 300-baud modem attachment) called Habitat.

In the game you were to create an “avatar” (yes, they coined the term in this context), picking from a selection of colors and clothes using the “GET” and “PUT” commands and then chat and interact with other people within a somewhat graphical UI.

They partnered with a company called Quantum Link to provide the on-line service component and distributed a beta test. However, the game itself proved to be too popular and their servers couldn’t handle the load, so it was canceled never making it to retail.

Meanwhile the technology was sold to Fijitsu in 1989 and was later renamed Club Caribe.

Postmortem

Lucasarts went on to create many original gaming properties (successful adventure games like Maniac Mansion, Grim Fandango and Day of the Tentacle) and Quantum Link eventually changed their name to America Online.

The rest is history.

Additional reading:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Habitat_(video_game)
http://www.nationmaster.com/encyclopedia/Quantum-Link
http://www.nationmaster.com/encyclopedia/Habitat-(video-game)

Neatorama.com recently linked to an article by Popular Mechanics about how Americans are out of touch with practical DIY skills.

It would seem that many of us are losing the ability to actually perform DIY skills such as changing a tire, fixing the bathtub or installing a ceiling fan and yes, sometimes, changing a light bulb.

The article quotes sci-fi author Robert A. Heinlein as saying:

A human being should be able to change a diaper, plan an invasion, butcher a hog, conn a ship, design a building, write a sonnet, balance accounts, build a wall, set a bone, comfort the dying, take orders, give orders, cooperate, act alone, solve equations, analyze a new problem, pitch manure, program a computer, cook a tasty meal, fight efficiently, die gallantly. Specialization is for insects.

I’m not sure about you, but I can on a good day maybe task myself with one or two of the above (planning an invasion and cooking a tasty meal if you’re curious). Ask me to build a wall? I’d just point you in the direction of a great masonry. Balance accounts? Talk to my wife, the accountant. Butcher a hog? Well, you get the picture.

Granted, Heinlein’s task list is ambitious. It’s like asking a kindergartner to walk on stilts in the middle of a sandbox. It probably won’t happen. The kid might be smart enough to call his friend, the circus performer, who will not only gladly put on the stilts but he’ll hold a fishbowl as well. In this day and age, we’ve got contacts, professionals, who will do these things for a whole lot or a whole little greenback.

That said, it would seem impractical or more technical DIY is on the rise. Just to name a few DIY resources: Make Magazine, Readymade, Lifehacker, DIY Life, DIY Network and one of my favorites, Instructables, just about anyone can learn how to build a solar-powered kite or superpower an appliance.

The question is then, has the DIY skill set atrophied or has it evolved into something else entirely?

It’s no real secret to my family that out of every unsolved mystery/crime case in history, the one that I’ve become quietly obsessed with over the years is that of the “Zodiac Killer”.

Which is why when the media recently reported of a man revealing the actual Zodiac killer to be his stepfather, let’s just say my interest finally peaked. To the point where I blew the dust off my mind’s shelving of this obsession and now with this re-examining of the case I hope to file it away for good. Of course I said that the last time and if this trails off to nowhere I’ll be doing this again.

For those without any knowledge of the Zodiac case, the oracle of digital insight and magic Wikipedia says this:

The Zodiac Killer is a serial killer who operated in Northern California in the late 1960s. His identity remains unknown. The Zodiac coined his name in a series of taunting letters he sent to the press. His letters included four cryptograms (or ciphers), three of which have yet to be solved.

Creepy? Check. Despite the fact it’s unsolved it still remains an open case, unlike the stockpile of cold cases that may never see the light of day. As Hank Hill would say, “That ain’t right.”

I’ve even rented the movie, Zodiac, with Mark Ruffalo and Robert Downey, Jr. just to reacquaint myself with a fascinating (and yes, morbid) crime with a deranged man responsible for several deaths sending letters and greeting cards to authorities. It was all very Jack the Ripper but in modern times.

There’s also another thread to this that hits close to home. Her name was Cheri Jo Bates, a student at Riverside Community College and a purported victim of the Zodiac killer. Even though he claimed to be responsible for the murder, Riverside police were convinced his confession to be false.

I believe my obsession with this case has more to do with the air of mystery surrounding it rather than the gritty details, I’ll leave that to Hollywood and the media. Yet I do want to see it solved once and for all, if anything to provide some resolve for the victims and their families.

To meet my cute quota for the month, there’s nothing better than a video with my 4-year-old, head strong, toe-headed daughter named Zoe.

For the sake of actually writing something and to experiment a bit with Flickr Video here’s a short clip of my daughter, Zoe, practicing sign language with her Aunt Erin (Nina). Bonus: My son shows up in the last few seconds.

It’s been several months since I’ve written on here, since August of last year in fact, which equals to roughly 5 years in Internet time.

What have I been up to since I last mashed my fingers across the keyboard and published something of worth? Well, I was offered and accepted a position with AOL/Weblogs, Inc. as a designer for their network of sites. My first thought was; they pay people to design blogs? It’s become more than a dream job for me and I couldn’t be more thankful for the friendships I’ve formed and lessons learned.

There’s that, on the job end of things, and as a far as my personal life is concerned we’re plugging along quite nicely. My daughter Zoe just turned 4. For those of you who’ve followed this site for the 4+ years I’ve been maintaining it this is a huge milestone. My son, Quinn, is now 2 and between the two they manage to keep us busy, thanks in part to how often they annoy each other. We are expecting another child as well so there are more adventures to look forward to.

Speaking of which, this site, my favorite pet project has become more stagnant than ever. You could search the archives… oh wait, no you can’t because that’s yet to be fixed, but hey, if you could you’d find plenty of posts describing some sort of post-mortem. Moving on from here I’ve finally decided to use Expression Engine to use as the engine of this site. One reason for settling on EE is because I’ve used it sparingly in the past for projects and the road map of feature additions & interface enhancements (as showcased at SXSW ’08) looks pretty fantastic.

The other reason is I had dinner with Michael Boyink, recent hire of Ellis Labs (the team behind EE), and through his own articulation and excitement I myself became utterly convinced this was for me. He’s also the man behind Train-EE which is both an incredible and informative resource on all that is Expression Engine, oh, and he offers training course ware on it. How cool is that?

It’s been awhile and I realize that and it bothers me, but, it’s clear to me that the progression of this site is to become something more than a blog, but also it needs to be fun again for me.

It was ten years ago when I first saw Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone sitting on the shelf at Borders.

I distinctly remember the front cover illustration, how colorful it looked from afar and thinking how geeky the boy on the cover looked with his round glasses and oddly-shaped scar. Yet, because it was a children’s book I figured it wasn’t worth my time.

The Chosen One

I would’ve never guessed that not only would I read (and digest) every book in the series and watch every movie to date I would finally say goodbye to such a rich and imaginative world and a character that, next to Mickey Mouse, is so well known around the world.

The road to understanding Harry Potter wasn’t so smooth for me. It took some convincing on the part of my best friend’s father, who in his late 40s figured out something that I could not; that children’s books are written for children but also meant to be enjoyed by adults.

Adult fiction can be stressful and complicated, taking itself too seriously at times which is not to say children’s literature doesn’t stray from complicated plots, it’s just written in a manner that even at its most basic level a child could understand.

If you think for a moment of the best children’s stories turned to movie adaptations, sprinkled in there will be films that probably rate high on your all-time favorite list.

A few that come to my mind are:

• The Wizard of Oz by Frank L. Baum
• Bambi by Felix Salten
• Jumaji by Chris Van Allsburg

There are several others that have had such a profound impact on all of our lives and to think they all began as stories intended for children.

Moral Alignment

As for Harry Potter, after having read the first book, I had a cultivated initiative to finish the series to the end. It was my goal and since I’ve reached it there are thoughts that have stayed with me throughout the course of the story.

Many of which deal with the fact that Harry doesn’t fit the mold for a hero. He isn’t bulky, doesn’t have strength beyond his wand and depends on the aide of others.

However, he is the epitome of hope and strength to the wizarding world, which shares parallels with groups that in a historical context have been suppressed in every culture under the sun. While Harry never truly recognizes his importance, he remains humble and loving and these are traits that ultimately keep him on the straight and narrow, resilient to the evil that is always at bay.

This struggle between good and evil, right and wrong, decisions based on the protagonist’s moral standing are common threads shared by good literature. Literature that pulls you in, makes you feel sorrow and empathy and lays the groundwork for the ultimate showdown.

A World That Seems Real

While I consider myself a healthy reader there’s never been a series that has captivated me as much as the Harry Potter story has. I’m a lover of fantasy and while the Lord of the Rings books are grandiose, they can be difficult to read because the language itself (explored in depth by Tolkien) is a character unto itself.

The enjoyment of reading Harry Potter stems from the fact that Rowling doesn’t take herself too seriously and instead has fun with her material. I believe that beyond her shy persona is a woman who is witty and constantly imagining things as evidenced in the books. She managed to make reading interesting again for children and that alone deserves attention.

There’s a lot to like about Harry Potter and for that he’ll remain as real as other characters in fiction have become.

Lately I’ve been taking afternoon walks to free my mind of creative restraint or to just breath in the fresh air. It’s a change that I’ve welcomed, even if my legs don’t always thank me for it.

Instead of just taking in the sights around me I’m also beginning to listen more, paying close attention to the sounds of nature and the partial conversations I pick up on while on my walk.

Since we live in a village (with a population of less than 5,000), small talk carries itself through the walls of homes, in meeting hot spots like the park or the local supermarket and you’re always bound to run into someone you know.

It’s a lot like Cheers, where everyone knows your name or at least your family name.

On my most recent stroll through the village I noticed a fellow standing on the street corner in front of a Mom & Pop diner. He looked about in his 50s, but with all of his hair still intact and I kid you not, his attire consisted of a tank top, shorts and dress shoes. He was yelling to a friend across the street, who nonchalantly continued on his way until he noticed his loud companion.

They both laughed, one teasing the other and I moved on. You might see this kind of thing in everyday life, to you it might even be mundane or commonplace.

For someone like me who has tendency to extrapolate the small stuff, which works to my benefit and sometimes just the opposite, these kinds of occurrences are important for a few reasons.

One, that life really is like a play and there are patterns that we all recognize and become used to. There’s no special formula to observation, you either pay attention to details or you don’t. I’ve been informed by people that small occurrences in life like two guys meeting on the street aren’t worth remembering or mentally archiving.

Yet, life is an experience. It’s more than just a few months strung into years, it’s moments and memories and everything else.

When someone lets you know that their child stood up for the very first time, you might be interested for a moment and then together your reactions don’t align. For the parent of the child, this is monumental, a milestone in the growth and development of their child.

To you, even if you might be related, that same feeling the parent had isn’t what you are feeling because it may not be as important. We’ve got to keep track of a lot of information, this may not deserve a folder in the storage of our minds.

I might be a special case because I can selectively recall things/thoughts/occurrences that happened years ago. Most of these moments in time would’ve been long forgotten by most, but I hang onto things that might have made a difference to me.

Even if that means not having the same emotional attachment as the person who delivered the message or the guy yelling at his friend across the street, it’s something I cherish.

The only downside is my short-term memory leaves something to be desired. Recalling memories from years ago is no problem (in some cases), but there are times when I remind myself of something and moments later the memory or reminder only partially remains.

Driving home tonight after a delicious meal, my daughter, spontaneous as ever, looks up at me and in her best pirate expression growls; “Arghh! I’m a pirate!”.

What followed was a conversation between a three-year-old pirate, her parrot Steve and me, her “Pirate Daddy”.

Zoe: Arggh! I’m a pirate. You are a pirate too.

Me: Avast, ye scurvy sea dog! Y’best walk the plank.

Zoe: Okay. Daddy, this plank is heavy. I can’t carry it.

Me: (laughing) I said walk the plank, not carry it.

Zoe: I put it down here. That was so heavy, Pirate Daddy.

Me: Shiver me timbers! Where be your parrot, Steve?

Zoe: He flewed away! In the sky. Argggh!

Me: Yar! Next time keep an eye on Steve. A pirate isn’t a pirate without his parrot.

Zoe: Hand me a map. We need to go there. (points) And where we’re there, we then go here.

There are a few things I’d like to accomplish in my life before my time comes. Many of these will probably never happen while others have a greater chance of actually being fulfilled.

It’s not matter of when but how and using what for most, but for the sake of posterity and for fun here they are:

Jamaican Bobsledding

I’m not sure who to thank, Cool Runnings or John Candy, but I’d love to represent and make Jamaica proud by sliding down an icy slope with other strangers as crazy as me.

Be a Reality Talent Show Judge

Just sit, nitpick, joke, blink. Rinse & repeat.

Finish Super Mario Bros.

Sometimes I lay in bed at night, totally forget about life’s other worries (bills, squirrels in attic, etc.) and dwell on the fact that I’ve never completely finished SMB.

Run for Office, Win and Quit

At least I’d have a bunch of lawn flags for souvenirs.

Trade a paperclip for a stapler

It’s never happened before. Never.

Learn “Rocket Science”

Next time someone says, “This isn’t rocket science…”, I can reply; “Well, duh.” and then flash my street cred.

Swim alongside Whales

I have a real fear of deep ocean water. Pulling this off would be nothing short of a miracle, plus whales, how cool would that be?

Trade a stapler for gold popcorn

Solid. Gold. Popcorn.

Climb Mt. Fiji

Why? To bottle the best-tasting water myself.

Paint a Masterpiece

Sell said masterpiece for $23 million, invest $13 million and use the rest to buy Blue Flavor.

Leap off a high ledge into a river filled with Jello

My limited knowledge of basic physics tells me this might be a bad idea. (Note to self: Write the Mythbuster guys about this one.)

Color “outside” the lines

I’ve never once in 20+ years been able to break this rule. It doesn’t seem right.

Sail on a Pirate Ship

Parrot on shoulder (must take AA batteries), fake peg leg and a chest full of gold foil wrapped chocolate.

Build a Robot

Program it to say “Dis-assemble”, “Innn-put” and “Stephanie”. The last one he’d have to shout endlessly.

Learn Sign Language

For all the good reasons and so I won’t miss out on things, plus silent conversation is nice.

Take the family to Europe

Experience culture shock at its finest and for the souvenirs of course.

After much deliberation and temporary insanity I’ve moved this site to its new home at MediaTemple.

The neighbors here are pretty great. No cookies yet, but lawns are mowed, my mailbox is still standing and I’ve since removed the RamboLux security system. I kept the guard dog however so intruders beware!

My mail carrier is some friendly chap named Google. He’s helpful but the guard dog keeps a watchful eye in his direction.

For the time being the grid is stable and all my stuff is in order, save for a broken Mint. That’s okay though, I’ll just fix that later because I’ve got other fish to fry.

With that, I’m all out of clichés and my back is a bit sore.

If you have any comments, just slide them under the door.

P.S. – Remodeling is long overdue so please excuse any future mess.

For those who aren’t aware Dreamhost experienced a security breach. According to Dreamhost, approximately 3,500 accounts were compromised, the hackers taking note of FTP user accounts, user names and passwords.

With this data the hackers, using an automated script of some sort, added SEO links/inframes to every instance of index.html or php.

This is the last straw. I’ve been with Dreamhost since mid-2004 and recommended them on more than one occasion and even went so far as defending them when others complained about slow service or half-baked customer support, the latter being something I never experienced.

Not any more. It’s time to look for a new home.

Over the past two hours I’ve had to comb over my files, looking for anything that could have been stolen and to my knowledge some files might have been removed.

Not only that, but the password I used was one of the best passwords I’ve used in a long time and now, thanks to this, I have to piece together a franken-mash of numbers.

It’s sad because while I represent, according to DH, only .15% of the customers whose data was changed in some way, I just wish something could’ve been done to prevent this.

Yet, who am I to say that web hosting is safe from this kind of thing, which apparently it isn’t. I suppose I wanted to believe that they were impenetrable, even if that was a premature wish.

The culprits added inframes and linkage pointing to offshore sites displaying garbled information; SEO tactics indeed.

On the bright side of things, my entries are safe, every one of them accounted for since 2004. This wasn’t an issue really considering I’ve kept backups of my DB since the beginning and make it habit to do it frequently.

I’m also planning on moving to a new CMS and will be taking the entries with me to preserve for the future, when robots make swiss cheese sandwiches with George Forman machines.

Does anyone out there have any suggestions for a new host?