This is Mickey:

A few weeks ago, Mickey was diagnosed with hyperthyroidism and started on a once-a-day pill treatment. Unfortunately the treatment lead to him not eating. He lost a lot of weight and by the time we got to the vet, his liver was not in great shape. He was taken off the thyroid meds and we started force-feeding him 4 times a day. Another vet visit, however, uncovered the fact this his digestive system is not working properly. Twice-daily shots to help his GI tract and more feedings didn't seem to have helped, so he is now in an animal hospital where they can monitor his condition and give him a steady drip of meds designed to get his digestion working again.

Mickey is such a sweet kitty. He's so friendly and he absolutely loves to meet new people. One of his favorite things to do is roll on concrete, despite how dirty this makes him. We're all hoping and wishing that he comes home safe.

On June 26th, the United States Supreme Court recognized that the 2nd Amendment to the U.S. protects an individual right to keep and bear arms, a decision that I agree with. What is disappointing is that it was a narrow 5-4 decision. I hate 5-4 decisions.

Some people confuse the questions of "What does the 2nd Amendment mean?" and "Is the 2nd Amendment still meaningful and applicable?". These are two very distinctly different topics and the Supreme Court is really only there to address the former. The latter is simply out of their scope and as a part of the Constitution, has a well-established procedure for changing.

There are cries of judicial activism any time a court makes a decision anyone anywhere disagrees with and this time is no different. It's at the point where the phrase has no meaning. To mean, it's always indicated a situation where a judge voids a law not because it violates protected rights, but simply because he/she disagrees with it. This is of course not the purpose of the courts, yet it happens and there's frequently nothing to be done about it (McCain-Feingold campaign finance reform comes to mind). In this case, we have the case striking down a law based on clear constitutional grounds and so the accusations of judicial activism ring quite hollow.

I have yet to read the entire decision and I'm curious to read the dissenting opinions. I have seen that the majority opinion mentions US v Miller to some detail and denies the gun control interpretation of that decision. Miller has always been abused by those looking for any excuse to curtail gun rights, despite that decision's very narrow scope and unusual circumstances. Hopefully this will put an end to that.

My wife and I just got back from our 10th anniversary trip to Hawaii. Despite the occasional (brief) rain, we had a really good time. And I can tell you that 12+ hours in airports and airplanes, red-eye flights with screaming and crying children, returning to 90+ degree weather, and breaking my new sunglasses, these things do not make for a happy homecoming.

I've been replaying the Baldur's Gate series recently. I never did play the expansion for either game -- Tales of the Sword Coast for BG1 and Throne of Bhaal for BG2 -- even though they've been sitting on my stack for a number of years now. It's not that I didn't enjoy the games. It's been more of a commitment issues; I found it hard to commit the kind of time that it'd take to finish these sprawling RPGs and their expansions.

A GWJ discussion on a mod for playing the games in high-res widescreen finally spurred me to action. I finished the first game and its expansion last month. Tales of the Sword Coast I found to be less than I'd hoped. More cramped dungeons that wrecked havoc with the game's poor pathfinding. Mostly it was a few combat-centric quests.

When I'd originally played the two main games, I remember being disappointed that BG2 lacked BG1's open world. In BG1, you can effectively explore the entire world (or at least a very large portion of it) right off the bat, just by marching through each territory. However in BG2, however, most areas outside of the city are not accessible until a related quest places them on your map. And what I've found is that this constraint in BG2 makes for a tighter gameplay. I wasn't overcome with the urge to continue exploring, resulting in a game with better pacing. Yes, there is exploring. However it's tempered and a bit more spread out. You interact more with the game first, with the quests and with the NPCs.

They say the Baldur's Gate series reinvigorated the RPG genre. I don't know how true that really it, but they sure are a couple of great roleplaying games.