Di Mortui Sunt is my personal blog and it shows, the things I write about here are varied and mostly unrelated.  In an attempt to perhaps focus the blog on a specific topic and to satisfy my own curiosity I visited Wordle and had a Word Cloud made of my blog, (it’s that image up there, at the top.  The one that looks like a large grouping, or cloud, of words) two things happened as a result of this:  I found a really fun new font, coolvetica, that I will be using in documents; and two, that I write mostly about games.

The question is do I want Di Mortui Sunt to be a blog about videogaming?  As much fun as that sounds I don’t see myself contributing much to the discussion, when there are really excellent gaming blogs out there (Gamespite, Dubious Quality, Gamasutra, oh, and my own Gamestooge to name only a few) who are taking the hobby seriously.   Okay, so gaming isn’t what this site is about, what about writing?  I’ve posted my writing here and I’ve certainly talked about it here.  Since, writing is important, as is the written word, I think it’s safe to say that they are apart of what Di Mortui Sunt is.  I’ve talked about government here as well and I’ll continue to do so, as I’m involved in it at a professional level and I won’t be able to get around it

I think that I’d like to see Di Mortui Sunt have more focus.  I’m writing for myself here, but I’d like to have what I say be of some use to those who read it, even if they take nothing more from it but a smile.  Since, I’m lacking inspiration now, besides making this a blog about the lack of Gods, (the title up there says “the Gods are dead” in Latin) and everyone know we have a overabundance of atheist blogs and sites.  I’ll ask you dear reader what you think?   Perhaps a blog about being spiritual without being religious?  Or attempted at living authentically in an inauthentic culture?  Or maybe I should just rant here about the black helicopters, Glenn Beck and Area 51?  Let me know in the comments.

I’m going to keep writing about games and other things but I think I’ll find a new place to do so.

EDIT:  Light colors on a white background doesn’t work very well does it, click for the full-sized image and things will be easier to read

This is going to be a short post but an important one for me because I’m telling you about my poem being published in a chapbook!  The Yolo Crow is a literary magazine for the California county of Yolo, where I live.  I submitted one of my poems, Reflections on Autumn, in June and I found out at the end of last month that my poem had been accepted for publication and would be appearing in the Fall 2009 issue (it’s the first poem in the book.) You should visit their site and order a copy of it!  While you’re doing that tell them why you’re buying it too.  I might have posted them poem here before but I think re-posting it is in order, so you’ll find it below. 

 This isn’t the end. I’ve submitted other poems to other magazines and will continue to do so.  I do need to spend more time writing poetry though.  Next month, as this month is NaNoWriMo and I’m participating again for the third year.  I’ve never been able to successful complete a NaNoWriMo challenge and I don’t see that happening this year either.  Instead of writing a 50,000 word novel I’m aiming for 10,000 words this month ,which should be difficult enough.  What is 10,000 words, a novella?  We’ll call it a short story. 

In other news, I’ve got the garden all planned out and priced, as well as the fire pit and patio around it.  They’ll both becoming together over the next month and a half.  As soon as I get a camera and a scanner I’ll be uploading pictures and images of it all.  We have a composter on the way too, which should cut down on our garbage and help with the garden.  Busy, busy times!

I’ll end with a random thought, Lava Lamps.  Are they the most amazing thing to come out of the 1960’s?

Reflections on Autumn

Light pierces the eye, hits the pan of the skull,
a dazzling display that with every fold of color, every shimmer, brings pain.
The sky is empty and the eternity of clear blue is marred by only
the stooping sun.
The breeze lazily curls around the body, seeking, slipping through thin cloth, brushing against flesh;
flesh pale and cold, unwarmed by blood that is too thin,
pumped by a heart that works like the engine of a run-down Chevrolet,
pumping, struggling….and finally pumping again.
The wind carries merely the hint of things that once were
which now lie buried by ash and forest debris,
fermenting in soil.
On barren trees but for a few leaves
fruit hangs overripe on the vine,
pungent skins cracked and bleeding
drawing endless clouds of insects
which fill the air with the sound of
contentment.
Contentment that lasts for but an instant, a flash, and it is gone
and they are gone,
small bodies littering the ground
struck down by a cold that comes from the north,
from lands far distant.
From plains of unbrushed life,
fields of ice radiate  iridescent
under an atmosphere thinned,
thin like the flesh of a grape,
or the calm on water,
easily torn, easily broken.
Thin like the soul…

Seeing as this game came out almost a month ago and the 2 minute attention span of the Internet has moved on to the next “big thing” I thought it’d be appropriate to talk about Scribblenauts the game by 5th cell for the Nintendo DS.   The game enjoyed near universal praise while it was being shown at conventions and show… Everyone kept talking about how great the concept was and how much fun they had solving the various puzzles the game presents you using the most ridiculous items possible (a personal friend kept telling me about using Cthulu and a laser sword (lightsaber being copyrighted) to complete one).  On this wave of praise I made sure I had ordered the game and looked forward to playing it especially because it looked like just the type of game D would love as well.

When the game arrived I eagerly slid it into my DS and booted the system up, the game has a short tutorial (that I felt was still too long, this isn’t rocket science and besides the manual is lying right here in front of me!) and then you dive into the meat and potatoes.  A quick description might be in order, in Scribblenauts you solve puzzles by summoning objects that you write into the game.  The first 30 minutes was a blast, as I spent most of the time trying to think up the ridiculous things to summon into the world: black holes, clones, pirates, ninjas, etc., etc.  After playing around I settled down into solving the puzzles and my enjoyment began to wane almost immediately.  It wasn’t the concept of the game that had failed though, rather it was the imagination of the designers who came up with the puzzles.  Very soon the obstacles placed before you become repetitive.  And, despite the vast vocabulary at your disposal there are only so many variants on a flying, diving, and tying things together…  I’m going to surmise that 90% of the words included in Scribblenauts dictionary will never be used.  For one, there is no list and so players do not know their options.  Second, players vocabularies aren’t vast.  Finally, the game doesn’t really give you a reason to think outside the box, the puzzles are all variants on common themes:  fetch this, bring these two things together, avoid this, etc.  I could use a vine, wire, cord, or chain to tie two objects together but in the end I’ll keep using the rope.

An hour in and I had become bored and set it down.

I’ve gone back to it but each play is for a short period, never more than a puzzle or two, anymore than that and I find myself being burned out on how unimaginative the designers were and how despite all the tools at my disposal I’d only ever need a handful of them to get through the entire game.  Scribblenauts is a great concept, a nice toolbox, a good first draft, but it isn’t much of a game, and definitely not a fun one.

We Look Happy...

So, if you’re my friend on Facebook, follow me on Twitter, or know me in person than you already know this but I felt I had to give the moment its proper due and to document it appropriately.  On September 4, 2009, I, Jonathon Rudd Howard married Diana Elizabeth Burkart-Waco.  We had a simple ceremony done by my friend Dave Rosenberg, the presiding judge of Yolo County Superior Court at the Woodland Courthouse.  It was a simple affair but its already supplanted every other moment in my life that I once regarded as the most important.  Diana is a wonderful woman and I feel truly blessed to have found her and, somehow, convinced her to spend her life with me!

We’ve moved into a home and got a dog, all we need know is the 1.5 children and we’d be the average American family (shudder).  Things are great though and I don’t know if I’ve ever been happier.. without pharmaceutical assistance.  Diana has her own blog too, by the way, Origins of the Cook.  If I knew how to create a blog roll her’s would definitely be in it, and bonus I sometimes make a guest appearance over there (because I can cook too, Ladies.)  Diana writes about the food she cooks, I help by taking the pictures.  I can personally vouch for all of her recipes!

Now, that things have slowed down at work, I’m hoping to return to a regular posting schedule.  I’ll also be posting over at Hardcore Gaming 101 soon, I’m doing the King’s Quest games for them, as well as some misc. other Sierra games… I’ll provide links when appropriate

I know that one makes new goals on New year’s day but, for me, that only insured that I didn’t spend any amount of time actually thing about what I wanted to accomplish in that year and, worse, not following through.  Last year at the end of July I wrote out a large list of goals.  I gave myself a year to accomplish some of them, others I gave myself more time (five or ten years.)  That year recently came to an end and I wrote about how I did here (the short version: pretty darn well.)  I spent the last 2 weeks thinking about what I wanted to do this year and why, any time an idea came to me I jotted it down and then went back to whatever I was doing, after it was all over I had quite the list.  I then sat down and reviewed them, using a few criteria: why did I want to do this?  Could it realistically be accomplished in a year? Is this something that should be broken down into multiple goals? Does this make me a better/more interesting/smarter person?  With the criteria I whittled it down to a list that I felt was workable for the year and wit my multi-year goals.

Here is my list of goals for the year between August 4, 2009 – August 4, 2010

1. Get my scuba diving license

2. Go skydiving

3. Become an Oddfellow

4. Brush-up on my Latin – Read Harrius Potter et Philosphi Lapis

5. Write 10,000 word story (this is for NaNoWriMo)

6. Complete my BFG fleet, Horde army, and Chaos army (maybe too much here…)

7.  Make a gaming table

8. Climb Half-dome in Yosemite

9. Get in great shape (swimming, running, cycling, maybe I should look into Triathlons?)

Copyright Myhaela

I’ve decided to end the Tuesday Share posts. I wasn’t getting any feedback on them, and they didn’t seem to draw any additional traffic. In the future items I find on the Internet that interest me enough will get full write-ups here. All other interesting items will be shared through Google Reader. You can see those items, as well as any comments I might have on them,  here.

part 1 of this series can be found here.

The Duty of a Senator is to guard the liberty of the Commonwealth

Part 2.  The Policy Committee Process

In Part 1 I described how legislators introduce bills into their respective houses and the first few steps of the legislative process.  We left off with bills being assigned by the Rules Committee to a policy committee that.  The policy committee is where the public has an opportunity to address the legislature concerning each bill and legislators have the opportunity to question the bill’s author and those who support or oppose the bill.  Policy committees each cover a specific policy field and are staffed by legislators interested in that field.  The Assembly has 26 policy committees (and two fiscal):  Aging and Long-Term Care; Agriculture; Arts, Entertainment, Sports, Tourism, and Internet Media; Banking and Finance; Business and Professions; Education; Elections and Redistricting; Environmental Safety and Toxic Materials; Governmental Organization; Health; Higher Education; Housing and Community Development; Human Services; Insurance; Jobs, Economic Development, and the Economy; Judiciary; Labor and Employment; Local Government; Natural Resources; Public Employees, Retirement and Social Security; Public Safety; Revenue and Taxation; Transportation; Utilities and Commerce; Veterans Affairs; and, Water, Parks and Wildlife.  The Senate has 19 policy committees (and 2 fiscal as well):  Banking, Finance and Insurance; Business, Professions and Economic Development; Education; Elections, Reapportionment and Constitutional Amendments; Energy, Utilities and Communications; Environmental Quality; Food and Agriculture; Governmental Organization; Health; Human Services; Judiciary; Labor and Industrial Relations; Local Government; Natural Resources and Water; Public Employment and Retirement; Public Safety; Revenue and Taxation; Transportation and Housing; and, Veterans Affairs.

Once a bill has been assigned to a policy committee it is put on the committees agenda (State law requires that 4 days notice be given for bill hearings) and the committee accepts letters from the public and private sectors regarding it.  At a committee hearing the author presents their bill and then those who are in support of the bill are allowed to make a presentation, and the public is allowed to comment.  Questions can and are often asked by committee members to the author and supporters of the bill,  debate often ensues.   After the supporters have finished presenting those who oppose the bill, if any, are given time to address the committee with their concerns, and proposals to remove their opposition to the bill.  After arguments for and against the bill have been heard the author gives a closing statement to the committee.  During the presentation of the bill amendments to the bill can be offered by committee members to the author, who can either reject or accept them, though bills can, and are, amended without the consent of the author.  Once discussion of the bill has ceased the Committee will vote on the bill.  If the bill receives a majority vote to pass it on, then it continues through the legislative process, if it fails passage the bill is dead.  Authors are generally granted reconsideration after a bill fails passage in committee, giving them time to talk to committee members and convince them to vote the bill out of committee.  Once a bill fails on reconsideration it is dead.

After a bill leaves a policy committee on a vote a number of things can happen.  If the bill has costs associated with it (over $250,000) it must go to the Appropriations committee before being heard on the floor (I’ll talk about this fiscal committee in a future post).  If the bill covers more than one policy area (say a bill about about college funding for Veterans that would be heard by both the Higher Education and the Veteran Affairs committees) it will go to the second committee it was referred to.  If the bill is going to be amended, it has to go to the Assembly desk to be amended, read a 2nd time, and then it goes to 3rd reading or referred back to committee.

If you remember from the first post every bill has to be read three times before moving out of its house of origin.  Next time I’ll explain 2nd and 3rd reading and talk about the two fiscal committees.

I need to get the hang of writing postsbeforehand andscheduling them for later release so they don’t all tumble out at once and then the site goes dead for awhile until I’m able to update again.  I have a lot of great links.  I’m thinking these linking posts are getting boring.  Does anyone who reads the blog find any of the stories I put up here interesting?  Would a themed post be better, or should I simply eliminate them? 

Ok, let the random linking begin!

I’m a sucker for video games and pixel art and this post combines both so it showing up here was almost guaranteed.  Darkstalkers was one of numerous SF2 clones that Capcom made, the games only claim to fame was basing all the fighters on horror staples like Frankenstein, Dracula, the Wolfman, etc…

Follow this link to see the Penn and Teller Bullshit episode on video game violence.  Penn and Teller are libertarians and I don’t agree with some of the things they say but it is always interesting.

It appears this post already has a theme: video games, and this next link fits in with it as well.  Microsoft is rebooting the Mechwarrior franchise and part of the marketing campaign they’ll be releasing Mechwarrior 4 and its expansions, for free, to begin promoting.

I was going to post a link to the story of the US soldier who doesn’t think President Obama is a citizen of the United States of America and so doesn’t have to take orders from him, but these “birthers” are getting way too much attention form the media which only legitimizes they’re special brand of insane, so I won’t be linking to it and no one else should either.  They people should be shunned and humiliated not giving the spotlight.

A short interesting piece on climate warming and the arguments made against the United States enacting any law or provision that might reduce the use of fuels that contribute to it.  The gist of it is if the USA is worried about other countries not following in our footsteps by simply refusing to provide funding for dirty power plants.  Obviously this issue is more complicated than that but the post is a good jumping off point.

There are too many myths about the Star Spangled Banner (which are in good company with the scores of other myths and distortions about the birth of the United States)  all of which are busted by Ed Darrell from Millard Fillmore’s Bathtub.

Mediums get busted on this BBC show, I don’t know anything about it I just found the “mediums” so bad and transparant, and the dupe so funny.

Again, let me know if this is part of the blog you’d like to see continue or if you don’t bother reading them.

It's a GOAL!!!!! by Gunnisal

Last year I made a list of 15 odd goals, 4 to accomplish in one year, 5 in five years, and 5 in ten years.  It’s been one year now and it is time to review my goals and see how I did for the year.

On July 21, of 2008 I committed myself to accomplishing these four goals:

1. Start a career in civics
2. Get a scuba diving license
3. Be engaged to Diana
4. Submit work(s) for publication

I started working for the Speaker of the Assembly in the Democratic Floor Alert on January 5th of this year, strike out the first one.  I didn’t have the time or the spare money this year to work on getting a scuba diving license.  I asked Diana Burkart-Waco to marry me on June 20th and she said “yes”, strike out #3, and so far I’ve submitted 3 poems for publication (one to a local quarterly chapbook and two more to another chapbook on the East coast.) 

I’ve also accomplished one of my ten year goals as well: to have a retirement.  It was a vague sort of goal, but when I started working for the State Assembly I set up both a 453 and an account with CalPERS.  Before the year is over I’ll also be able to cross off one of my five year goals:  Be married, which I will be on September 4.  I think accomplishing 1/3 of all my goals in just a year isn’t bad at all and while I’m upset that I wasn’t able to get a scuba license this year, I’m sure I’ll rectify it in the coming year. 

The entire point of writing these goals down and posting them in a prominent place was so that I’d be reminded of them and to actively work towards them.  I think doing so has been a great success.  Looking up from my desk day after day for a year and seeing this list with my signature below them was a motivator.  Furthermore, it has me excited about making new goals for this next year and working on accomplishing the five and ten year goals (four and nine, actually.)

Over the next week I’ll be thinking about what I want to do in the next year as well as come up with strategies for reaching the ones I’ve already set.  When I have those I’ll post them here, as a public reminder.

It is the duty of the Legislature to create Just Laws

Part 1. Bill Creation and Introduction

Writing all this down is such a hassle and a poor way to explain a fairly involved process, I tried to draw a flowchart that would show just how the system works but either I’m very bad at using simple graphic programs (unlikely) or the makers of flowchart software like their programs being unintuitive and overly complicated (more likely).  So until I can figure out these arcane and obscure drawing programs I’ll have to use words to paint this picture…

Like everything legislation (laws, bills, statues, code, etc.) starts out as an idea.   Most of these ideas come from regular people like you and me (or organizations of regular people like you and me) who’ve taken that idea to their state representative, either an Assemblymember or Senator (find your’s here), and convinced them to try and make a law based on it.  Or the member has their own ideas (truly?!)  Once a legislator has an idea they fill out a form that explains what they want the law to do and how they want it implemented and hand that over to the Legislative Counsel of California. Leg. Council is the team of lawyers and attorneys who work for the Assembly and Senate, they do legal research, draft the actual bill language, find out where in statute it’d fit, conflicts that your new law would create, tell you if a similar law already exists or has been attempted before, etc.  In rare instances they serve as the actual lawyers for members of the Legislature if the they need legal representation, counsel, etc.

Once all the legal book work has been done the draft bill is returned to the legislator for review (by him/her or the people (individuals, interest groups, lobby groups) who originated the idea).  If there are problems the draft is sent back to Lg. Council for correction.  Once the bill has been drafted to the author’s satisfaction the bill (the actual physical document with the author’s signature is delivered to the desk (either Senate or Assembly).  The bill is assigned a number (bills are numbered on a first come-first served basis) by the Chief Clerk, for the Assembly, or the Secretary (Senate).  Once the bill has been assigned a number it is read for the first time at the desk, the California Constitution states that a bill must be read on three different days before it is passed out of a house (this can be suspended with a vote of 2/3 of the body).

Once a bill has been introduced and read for the 1st time, it goes to the Rules Committee where it is assigned to a policy committee for debate and public comment.  The bill is then sent to the State printer to be printed.  Bills cannot be acted on until after 30 days  from their introduction and printing. This gives citizens, policy institutes, and legislators and their staff time to read and understand each bill before it is taken up in a policy committee.

Next post I’ll explain the policy committee process, describe the various Senate and Assembly policy committees, and how bills are amended.