‘The Furniture City Sets the Table for the World of Art’ is definitely a crowd favorite!

Happy Holidays!

As you might imagine, most questions are related to photography. A great example (thanks Mom) is, “what is my favorite photograph that I have ever made”?  (I haven’t made it yet.) I also get asked (thanks Don), “Is there something running deeper in your photos? Can I find a metaphor in a portrait?” (In some photos, yes, but I like to hang out on the allegory side of a metaphor.)

I also receive non-photography questions. “What are you reading?” (thanks subscriber #4) is a great example……. well, it is possible they were asking if I was reading anything photography related. In the interest of covering all bases, I will provide two answers to this question. Apathy and Other Small Victories by Paul Neilan and The Moment It Clicks by Joe McNally. My first “twofer”.

Let’s dig into the mailbag. Thrashing around…… mixing it all up…… grabbing an envelope and voila, a question:

• Are you THAT Darrin Wassom?

Where to start? Yes, I am ‘THAT’ Darrin Wassom. I am a geek. Guilty as charged, sir, guilty as charged. You caught me. Who are you? Bob Woodward? Geraldo? Digging up dirt like that isn’t good for the soul. Yes, I dabble a bit in the IT world as an information security architect.

Hmmmm, looking for a correlation to photography. How about a 50% discount on a wedding package? Be the first person to answer this question and you will receive a 50% discount on the wedding package of your choice!! No guessing allowed. You must explain your answer! : )

14:23:53.871046 192.168.72.132.21 > 192.168.72.128.32776: P [tcp sum ok] 4336:4375(39)
ack 1477 win 6432 <nop,nop,timestamp 101919 469170> (DF
) (ttl 64, id 60295, len 91)
0x0000 4500 005b eb87 4000 4006 3cc0 c0a8 4884    E..[..@.@.<...H.
0x0010 c0a8 4880 0015 8008 ee8b 77c4 0dae 5dee    ..H.......w...].
0x0020 8018 1920 9138 0000 0101 080a 0001 8e1f    .....8..........
0x0030 0007 28b2 7569 643d 3028 726f 6f74 2920    ..(.uid=0(root).
0x0040 6769 643d 3028 726f 6f74 2920 6772 6f75    gid=0(root).grou
0x0050 7073 3d35 3028 6674 7029 0a                ps=50(ftp).

Based on the packet capture above, what is the most likely scenario?

1. The remote attacker is attempting to FTP any files belonging to root.
2. The remote attacker may have gained root level access to the FTP server.
3. The FTP server always responds with UID and Groups.
4. A remote user is attempting to modify group ownership settings via FTP.

I am also this Darrin Wassom. This one and this one too. Since you are reading this blog, I hope you are more interested in me over here and here!

On a side note, I always assumed I was the only Darrin Wassom in existence. Wassom isn’t exactly a common surname and Darrin, well, Bewitched notwithstanding, isn’t all that popular either. If there is another Darrin Wassom out there, give me a shout! We’ll start a club! Secret handshake all up in this mug.

• Are you aware that you have “letter twins” in your first *and* last name?

Yes, I am aware of that little tidbit but thanks for asking. My parents are cruel, cruel human beings – saddling me with that burden. Wait, it gets better. My middle name and my childhood nickname follow the same pattern. My Mom and Dad really put the screws to me. Just think of all the time I wasted writing those extra R’s and S’s. I mean, c’mon, those letters take some skill. It’s not like a T or a Z. Thankfully, I don’t have to sign my middle name very often but add two cursive E’s to the mix and that’s a whole lot of curvy letters. Advertising plug in 3, 2, 1….. guess my middle name and save 20% on your print order!

• Did you go to college for photography?

Nope. To answer your follow up, yes, I did go to college. Officially, I have a degree in Telecommunication: Information Technology and Services Management from Michigan State University. Unofficially, I hold honorary degrees in event planning and band promotions.

At this time I will entertain one final question. Anyone? You there, yes? Oh, you were just scratching your head. Going once. Twice. Three times a lady. I hope this was fun and informational – hopefully both but I’ll accept an either/or this week. Stay tuned because the next Feedback Friday will feature another riveting round of questions and answers.

Don is the driving force behind Spunky Bean, a site devoted to pop culture, music, movies and some of the wackiest televesion shows you’ll ever watch. I will admit that I feel ‘not so hip’ when I peruse the site but I keep going back! If you are an American Idol junkie then this site should be your first stop! The current buzz over at the ‘bean is Mad Men. Check it out!

Okay, back to the kids! The Kowalweski’s have some great lookin’ kids! It has been difficult finding my favorites because there are just so many photos that are GREAT! I have been under some pressure with this series because I want Don and Kathy to LOVE the photos. Not that I don’t want all my clients to love their photos but Don and Kathy are like family to me. Don was my house mate at MSU. We were in the same fraternity, same major, same jobs and we both had a love of Sega Hockey that, well, kept us from going to class more often than either of us would care to admit.

Meet Jimmy!

The look on Marylin’s face is priceless!

This is Marylin. She could easily be in a Ralph Lauren clothing ad!

This is the beautiful Ada. She’s the youngest of the bunch but seems to be the boss! : )

Well, I’m happy to report I read TWO books in the month of January. I read ‘The Last Templar‘ by Raymond Khoury and ‘Next‘ by Michael Crichton. I won’t bore you with a long-winded review but I liked ‘The Last Templar’ and thought ‘Next’ was a little too predictable.

I am about 1/4 of the way through ‘The Rainmaker‘ by John Grisholm. This is my first Grisholm novel and I’m liking it.

Take and upload a photo a day for 365 days:

I started a ‘Photo a Day’ project on January 1st. As of February 3rd, I am still on track! I am posting each photo here on the blog and on my flickr page. Please let me know what you think.

Kiss my wife everyday:

This one is a no-brainer. It’s not like I needed to add that task to a list but I did so I am reportng on it. Check.

Become an Early Worm:

I’m still not what I would consider a “morning person” but I have been getting to the gym at 6AM three days a week.

Add to my blog at least once a week for a year:

My ‘Photo a Day’ project has made this task very easy. I have been posting on a daily basis so I think we’re covered on this task for 2008.

Post to Vortex at least once a day:

Check. January has been a very productive month on the ‘tex.

Visit a coffee shop and “hang out” at least once a week:

This one has been a bit harder than I anticipated. I just seem to run out of steam by the end of the day and just want to get home. I did manage to learn that Starbucks does not have free wi-fi access. What a joke. As such, I will no longer visit a Starbucks. I’m really not even that big of a fan of their coffee so I won’t miss it. I like going to Beaner’s and am starting to like Kava House.

Build a fire at least once a week in the winter in our fireplace:

Like clockwork, fires are being built on a weekly basis. We have one going as I write.

Check out Mint for tracking finances:

Checked it out. Don’t like it.