My first post will be all my old Myspace blogs combined, since I left Myspace and am going to use this site now. So this will be a long post, but here they are…
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Monday, March 24, 2008
The Male Ego
Current mood: grateful
Have you ever been asked that question…”If you could change one thing in the world, what would it be, and why?” I am not sure that if you ask me later, if I will have changed my mind, or I might have a better more in depth issue to use as an answer, but right now, the best answer I can give to that question, at least with my experience and in my daily dealings (especially with people online), would have to be…The Male Ego.
You see, many human strengths/weaknesses have both pros and cons, like the character trait “stubbornness” for example. Being stubborn can be bad because it can keep you from being rational, making smart decisions, or doing the same thing over and over expecting different results, thus wasting your time as well as everyone else’s. The pros of being stubborn are that you are determined, strong-willed, and won’t back down from your morals.
So, with that in mind, what are the pros/cons of the male ego?
Well, I can think of the cons. I honestly cannot say that male egos have achieved anything noteworthy, noble, or anything of a positive nature that is long-lasting. The male ego tends to do things like drive people apart, break up families, replace rational with stupidity, replace the logical mindset with the “because I said so” mindset (no matter how wrong I really am).
Also, the people who tend to have strong/irrational male egos are also the guys who think they have no male ego at all…they think they are blameless and everyone around them are the ones with the problems. They expect great amounts of praise for the tiniest bit of effort, and when they do not get that, they chastise others for minor faults that have nothing to do with the situation. these people also tend to be the ones who will be first to point out what’s wrong with something and the negative aspect of a generally positive situation. They find fault with everyone around them to excuse their own personal responsibility and create a resentful relationship with those around them, yet, when push comes to shove, they do not acknowledge having anything to do with creating that tension, and act completely aloof and surprised at how someone finally chooses to respond to them, yet it is their own habitually manipulative nature that got both parties to that point in the first place. These people, whose male egos run their entire life, as well as their family’s, tend to use qualifying terms, absolutes, and projection like “I never have this problem with anyone else,” or “Are you in a bad mood today?”…when in fact you might be 100% perfectly happy, but this person finds this as an easy way to put the attention on you, and excuse themselves of any wrong doing, because there is no way possible in their mind that they could be the ones eliciting these kinds of responses from you. No way on earth could they be in the wrong, yet they will find opportunities every now and then, on subject they do not care about, to offer up phrases like “I will be the first one to admit I am wrong about something,” when in fact, that is the last thing they ever want to do.
So in a nutshell these are the “My way or the highway” kind of people, who go down with the ship, and will drag their loved ones, friends, pets, whoever…down with them. These people will NOT get you anywhere in life, and definitely, do not look to them to build you up or encourage you. These people have an immature mindset that they never grew up and out of, and will have it until they die. This will sound cliché, but you cannot change other people, only yourself, but don’t change who you are just change how you operate. Remove yourself from situations with these kinds of people, and find your inspiration and companionship elsewhere.
BOTTOM LINE: All relationships, whether they be platonic, romantic, family, business, close, far away, pen pal or bed buddy; they all require two givers. No type of relationship will work with one giver and one taker, because the giver will always be drained, never receiving nourishment; they only work with two givers, and anyone who cannot learn to give up their ego and pride to be a giver does not deserve to have meaningful relationships.
Currently watching: Bee Movie (Widescreen Edition) - Release date: 11 March, 2008
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Monday, February 25, 2008
Yahoo Answers – Bittersweet.
I am more disappointed with the Yahoo Answers website than I am impressed by it, or convinced that it is a good thing.
Sure, you can go there and ask any question under the sun, and get hundreds of answers. But, 99% of the answers you get, even from the “top contributors” are terrible. For example, a 14yr old girl might ask “I got pregnant, what do I do now”, so she gets 5-10 answers back within seconds, and they all say “get an abortion” or “run away from home, you’re parents will get mad at you”, etc….and it is because the majority of people on yahoo answers are in the demographic of age 14-22. What kind of idiots would trust answers from 14-22yrs olds on adult/life issues? I mean the questions being asked by inexperienced people are also being answered by inexperienced people and kids!
Most of the questions asked on Yahoo Answers are questions that could be solved with a 5 second Google search. Like “Who conquered America”…well first of all, nobody “conquered” it, and second of all, DO YOUR OWN HOMEWORK! Jeez, like, I cannot believe they even have a “Homework” section.
Go here: http://answers.yahoo.com/ and click on the “Homework Help” section. People are asking Math questions, essay questions, English/History questions, every subject that is in school, and so basically all these kids do, is get home from school, post their homework on Yahoo Answers, screw around the rest of the night, then log on before they go to bed and copy everything down. Wow, that’s some good learning there for ya. If anything, Yahoo Answers is contributing to the laziness of our school children. And if you don’t believe me, just go read some of the questions, half of them are common sense things that you should never have to ask, and the other half are questions that teachers give out because they want you to have to do the RESEARCH to actually learn the material. Wow, what a novel concept that is.
AHH, it’s just so frustrating, to see literally thousands of kids asking everything from basic homework questions to get the easy way out, all the way to deep/important moral questions that they SHOULD be talking about with their parents!
I REALLY need to find a state to move my family to where parents still care about their kids, and public schools still think God is at least somewhat important. Gosh.
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Saturday, February 23, 2008
Free HDTV Over Antenna? SWEET!
Category: Web, HTML, Tech
WOW! HD rules! And I am not talking about purchasing an HDTV, buying HD service from a provider, then enjoying it…no, I mean DTV….what’s DTV u ask? Digital TV. It is over-the-air HD broadcasts…and best of all it’s FREE. I bought a HD TV Antenna for $30, and get about 40 HDTV channels that all come in crystal clear to my computer, and the program I use, called EyeTV records them all in full-quality HD H264 files that I can watch anytime I want (basically like a free HD Tivo).
Since it records in M4V format, I can upload the files immediately to YouTube, or open them in QuickTime and convert them to whatever I want, or edit them in video editing software…plus, you can have the program save them in 1080i/p or 720p depending on the broadcast station…man, it’s amazing. Here is a downscaled sample, from 1080i to 720p, saves it immediately depending on your settings since it encodes as you watch, or while you are away if you told it to record. The program uses TitanTV listings, which allows you to records over the air free HD, Analog Antenna, or Digital Cable all with the same program, amn I love it…Ok, here’s the sample. Originally 120MB, I compressed it to 45MB, but just look at the clarity you get over free antenna, it’s amazing!
http://www.corusa.com/public/dtv_hdtv_2008-02-23_snl_intro.m4v
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Friday, February 22, 2008
West Coast Companies vs East Coast Companies
Current mood: annoyed
Disclaimer: This is just a venting post…so if you are having one of those “me”/selfish/I’m a princess/needing attention, days, then you probably don’t wanna read this…
Well, it happened again…I order from the east coast, everything gets here fast and everything is fine…I order form the west coast, and I get horrible customer service, lazy people on the phone who could not care less about me or my $100 order, and then the item gets here and it’s not even the one I ordered.
Get this…I ordered a GPS from Semsons.com. I order the Qstarz Q-1200 (best bluetooth GPS out there – it’s solar powered!) and they send me the piece of crap Holux M-1200 ($50 cheaper than the one I ordered), so naturally, I’m disappointed, but ‘ok ok…it’s probably just some mix-up/accident, they both have “1200″ in the model number, and they just put the wrong one in the shipment, right?’ So I call them up, at 5pm (central time), they are in California, so that is 3pm their time, and they are already closed. They open at 10am western time and close at 3pm western time…so basically 12(noon) to 5pm central time…Oh and get this, they close at 1pm on Fridays, so Mon-Thurs they work 5 hours a day, then Fridays they work for 3 hours….r u kidding me? That’s a 23 hour week! How lazy can Californians get?
Every time I order from the west coast, I have to deal with these ridiculous hours, and it has nothing to do with the time difference…they just don’t work over there. I mean, I call on my lunch break and they are just waking up at 10am their time. I called and got someone today, they were rude, and mad that I had a problem with my order (a problem that is entirely their fault). Here’s how it went, I call, “Hello”, “Hello, I got the wrong item, and need to get the right one sent to me” (in a totally normal, just inquisitive tone, then he’s like “Man, you have a tone…you need to lose your tone bro.” So, I just ignored that comment, and gave him my order number. He then said “Whoa, hang on, slow down man…” *he yawned* …then said “Alright alright, what’s your order number” Like, what a pain, he actually had to do some work and take responsibility for something for once in his life.
Anyway, I guess I ordered a GPS from a kid in his mom’s basement, I don’t know, all I know is every time I order from B&H or American Musical Supply, or anyone east of the Mississippi, I have ZERO problems. Every time I order from somewhere west, I run into bad customer service, more returns, and hours that only banks on Saturdays have….like 10am to 3pm? come on! Does anyone actually work in California?
GRR.
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Sunday, February 03, 2008
Long Lost Twin
Category: MySpace
Is this my long lost twin?
http://profile.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=user.viewprofile&friendid=367551
The pic he has posted when I posted this blog looks like me…hopefully he hasn’t changed his pic.
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Unknown Date
Spending TOO Much Time Online
Current mood: drained
Category: Web, HTML, Tech
I NEED to spend much less time online. I have been addicted to being online since the green/black screen days of the 80s, where you had a 14.4k baud modem (yeah, I know geek talk)…Anyway, since then my daily routine is as follows. Go to school/work from 7am to 6pm, come home get on computer around 6:30 or 7, stay in front until 2am, go to bed. Being in front of the computer or TV ALL the time has not only fueled my insomnia and decreased my health, but also destroyed the barely flickering candle of a social life I once had…yeah I know, it wasn’t much, but at least I talked to someone that lived in the same city, face to face, once a week, rather than only old friends and family over instant messenger. Ok ok, enough pity-party, that’s not what I’m here to do. I really wanna turn this around, but I am not sure sites like this can help me…
http://www.wikihow.com/Spend-Less-Time-on-the-Computer
http://www.wikihow.com/Stop-Spending-Too-Much-Time-Online
I found those after doing a simple Google search for “spend less time online”, but those are geared for people I think that used to have normal social lives, and just got into the net recently for a couple years, and have realized they are now spending too much time…well, where are the links for the hardcore onliners? I mean, I’ve been gaming, chatting, trading, p2ping, posting, uploading, downloading and chatting since the mid 80s…before the Internet even existed. (Yes, you could do many things online before the world wide web and internet browsers came around).
At any rate, I need to get out of this slump….Ok, I need a lifestyle change. But how? all the links I have found are for casual internet users, like people who use the net 8-10 hours a day….I do that at work alone, then come home for another 8 hours…and yes, I found “Internet Anonymous” groups I could join, but they all meet online, like in a weekly chat…isn’t that counter productive?
Ok ok, maybe I am just making excuses so I can keep on doing this…but it affects my health/weight, sleep loss, I hate it. I feel groggy all day, and when I try to go to sleep, I can’t because I have been staring at a screen for the last 16 hours every day (with a 30min break for driving home)…yeah, it is pretty pathetic/serious, call it whatever you want. I will admit to it, I know I have to change my habits. Or generate new ones rather. Those sites suggested things like to “go play a sport”, but I don’t like sports, and to close all your networking sites like Myspace, Facebook, etc….but the only friends I have right now are online friends. I mean, I know two guys, which I hang out with like once a month…that’s not a social life. I wish I could hang out more with them, but get the feeling they both have lots of friends and get their fill enough already.
Well, I guess this was more of a venting blog rather than a problem solving blog, oh well.
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Bob Schneider – SNOCAP Studio Demos (Download)
Current mood: quiet
Category: Music
Bob Schneider “Snocap” Downloads including over 50 unreleased studio songs:
http://www.corusa.com/public/BobSchneider_Jan2008_SnocapDownloads.zip
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Wednesday, January 30, 2008
Brokeback Mountain – mixed feelings
Category: Movies, TV, Celebrities
First, before my republican and Christian friends fly off the handle after reading just the blog title along, please hear me out, especially those of you who haven’t watched the movie, and just outright pre-judged it as an immoral/unworthy movie right off the bat….and also, before my more liberal friends try and paint me as a bigot for saying “mixed feelings”, again, hear me out first.
Ok, so last night I watched Brokeback Mountain. It was on one of our Starz movie channels from 1am-3am. I know, I should have been asleep, but that’s an entirely different blog post altogether, so we’ll stick with this topic. So, I’m watching this movie, and other than the two kissing scenes, and one sex scene, I can’t think how I am any different than these two characters. Granted, I am not a cowboy, nor do I sell farming equipment, but they each had a wife, kids, and a “normal” life. Notice the word normal in quotes because who knows what that really means anyway.
Now, I am about to say something shocking, and for those of you who haven’t known me that long this might sound odd, and put you off to wanting to get to know me further, but it’s just honest. I can’t say 100% without a doubt in that situation I might never have fallen into one of those guys’ shoes. ’What? What did he just say?’ That comment is probably more shocking to those who haven’t watched the movie and realized it’s just about two normal people. ”NO NO, That’s what THEY want you to think! That it is normal, and OK, and fine!”…I never said it was “OK”. How many things have you done that even before you did them you knew weren’t “OK”? You can lie to yourself, but don’t message me and say you never do anything wrong knowingly. I’m not Mother Teresa, nor do I expect anyone else to be. So, back to what I was saying…”Oh now, is he about to say he’s bi? Oh now! Where’s the X to close this window, AHH, I can’t find it”…Shut up and listen. I am not about to defend the movie’s obvious political propaganda machine works, and at least it showed many practicalities of how homosexuality breaks up child/parent relationships, established marital relationships and the breakdown of the family value system, but I will say that it showed that side of people that can be just like you an me, and the next second so painfully different. Some call it a choice, some call it genetic, some say it is a product of the environment and we have very little control of who we are once we are grown, while others say you can change who you are in a heartbeat, just “make” the decision to do so. Well…all those view considered, i think it’s a combination of everything mentioned.
This next sentence is to the die hard Christians who speak what they were taught, without questioning it once they became adults. I’ve never heard this mentioned anywhere before, so here’s what I think…When you attribute a trait or characteristic to ONE definable cause like choice, you are basically saying to God that he created a simple being, not capable of complex interaction that could possible influence his behavior and personal makeup. So by saying it is the result of any one thing; be it genetics, choice, environment, or childhood alone, then you are diminishing our species of human beings down to a definable minute element; and putting this complex wonderful creation into a box a tenth it’s size. Think about it; what if I were to photograph a rainbow in black and white, and ask you to describe how beautiful it is. Isn’t a rainbows beauty in it’s colors. (Please excuse the coincidence that I used a rainbow metaphor in a blog about homosexuality, it was purely unintentional and really just the first thing that came to mind)
Anyway, so I more have talked about how the movie made me feel rather than the movie itself, I am sorry if you were hoping for a movie “review”, but my title did say “mixed feelings”, so that is what it was about, and I hope I have described them accurately. In a nutshell: this movie made me neither mad, nor happy, nor any more confused, or any less confused; it just seemed like a movie about the life of two men in special circumstances; no more, no less; nothing revolutionary that I couldn’t have already gathered from real life; but also in no way did it offend me. Maybe it just hit me differently; with more potency, since Heath Ledger just died, who knows. But, what you think about a movie or book the rest of your life, is determined by what you thought about it, and under what conditions you saw it or read it the first time. It never changes, no matter how many more times you see it again and even if under different circumstances, at least not for me.
Please – I welcome all comments, questions. It’d be nice to have someone to bounce this back and forth with rather than just blabbing into cyberspace, and no way to know who might read it.
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Thursday, January 10, 2008
Predicting The Term “Old Fashioned”
Current mood: curious
Category: Web, HTML, Tech
I am always thinking about the future, and that sounds like a responsible thing to say, but I don’t mean it in the responsible/good sounding way…I mean it in the trivial/so what kind of what.
See, the things I think about the future don’t matter…They aren’t going to affect me or anyone else, and the things I choose to think about are things I cannot change, alter or predict, yet I think about them constantly.
For example, what kinds of things will I say to my kids when I am older, about current inventions and technology, or my grandkids for that matter? Because when I was 12, I said things like “You have black and white TV?” or “You had to get water from a pump outside?” etc….But all that was commonplace to them, everyday kind of stuff, so it would have sounded weird to hear me react that way, but back then (if I could have). So will our kids say things that? Like “You had to sit in front of a screen to watch TV?” or “You had to use a keyboard and mouse with a computer?” (Assuming by then we’ll have little chips in our fingertips or something like that for direct connectivity to technology.
Rabbit Trail: I mean think about it…technology is getting more and more intimate. First, there was the computer that took up a whole basement, you stood 10 feet back from it and watch bulbs flicker…then there was the invention of the personal computer, where you sat two or three feet away from a screen, then there were laptops, a foot away (if that) then there are now PDAs less than a foot away. I mean eventually there won’t be any space between us and the computer…I foresee some kind of implant you can get that runs off the energy in your body, and is small enough to fit into an extremity, possibly for easy removal/maintenance if need be.
Ok back on topic…so what will our kids, and grandkids think about us that is so “old fashioned”…right now $10,000 Plasma TVs, 1080p and HDTV is new, exciting, and breakthrough…50 years from now will you even be able to find a plasma at a thrift shop for $20? Will we even be using discs anymore or solid-state chips/memory? I read an article in Popular Mechanics that in Switzerland they invented a metallic gel that can hold data. Imagine a small gel-cap, like the size and shape of an Advil LiquiGel pill, being able to hold gigs and gigs of data. In Switzerland, they were able to store 3TB (yes, that’s Terabytes = 3000 gigabytes) inside this new medium before it overheated. The main problem as I remember was being able to keep it cool, and not that we didn’t have the technology to keep it cool, but that it was so small that there was no way to control a flow of liquid nitrogen around the capsule without freezing it and getting it too cold…ANYWAY – so will our grandkids just have a Gel pill that sits on their desk recording everything the teacher is saying, that also doubles as a communication device/phone, music player, computer, email (if we even have that anymore), etc etc….
We as humans are constantly striving to make technology more personal, smaller, multi-talented, and more intimate. Nobody in the 50s would have dreamed up a hands-free headset for your personal cell phone, and that is directly in contact with our face…what is to keep us from having implants that interact with each other, one connected to our vocal chords, and one connected to our hearing system, constantly powered by our metabolism or the saline in our system. Yeah, this sounds totally nutso, crazy, out there right now, but it will be commonplace years from now. Did you know in the late 1800s, early 1900s people thought Ford was crazy with his car idea? Back then that would be like saying today “Hey, what about personal airplanes to get to and from work or instant matter teleporters?”…I mean now, cars are taken fro granted, but they were that wild an idea back then.
Ok Ok, so that was about 10 rabbit trails mixed in with what I was trying to say…What do we think right now is so advanced, that will be considered “old-fashioned” in 50 years? or even in 20 years? Like the internet…it has only been around for 14 years publicly…sure, before the WWW there was IRC and BBS, but only hobbyists, geeks, and the military would use them (I stand accused as a geek), but come on…is anyone else thinking about this? What are the things we MUST HAVE and that we take for granted everyday that won’t even exist in 30 years? On the other hand, what are the things that our grandkids’ generation will use every day, that they will insist there is NO WAY TO LIVE WITHOUT but that we never had and DID live without?
I think about this stuff all the time, and know that when I get to that point in my life, when I am 80 or 90 (hopefully), I will probably think they are no big deal…but I just don’t wanna be one of those old men that’s like “Listen here, we never had those in my day sonny, so stop filling your head with that garbage,” because the young generations at the time will just look at me and be like “Man, he is so not in touch with today’s needs” and they WILL use the word “needs”, so their technology will be just as important to them as our technology now, is to us.
I know I must not be making sense, but if you were able to follow that, please comment…I find this whole topic interesting.
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Monday, January 07, 2008
Mobile/Cell Phone Navigation Quandary!
Current mood: aggravated
Category: Web, HTML, Tech
AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH! Ok, had to let that out. Alright now, the topic of discussion is cell phone navigation software/services, like VZ Navigator that charge unsuspecting users $10 a month, and it costs Verizon and Cingular/ATT, and Tmobile (which all have similar navigation programs)….nothing! That’s right, it costs them ZERO dollars, yet they charge you $10 a month…and people do it!
Hey, to all those using these kinds of programs and paying for it…guess what? GPS Satellite signals are FREE. If your phone has bluetooth, you can actually buy a bluetooth GPS for $50, yes, $50, some of them are even $30, and that’s it…you are done paying. There is free Navigation software that will work with any GPS unit, or you can get the $20 TomTom software for mobile phones -or- PDAs if you have one of those, and NEVER pay a monthly fee. You see, the satellites they are using to give you a signal based on where you are, are government satellites, which means we the tax payers are paying for them already….why give another $10 a month to your carrier, when you can just buy a GPS receiver, or software for your phone and never pay?
I wish there was a site that constantly kept the unsuspecting public aware of scams and ways companies are trying to take advantage of them. Like, don’t buy an iPod when there are much more sane and easier to use alternatives that cost half as much, or things like this that make people aware they are throwing their money away and being taken for fools.
Ok ok, I am done with my rant, I just find it amazing that things come along, like the iPhone for example and people think it is “new”, or “cutting edge” technology, and it “revolutionizes” everything, when in fact they have had PDAs that made calls, played music, ran Windows or PalOS, as well as did GPS, email, text, and web since the late 90s….yet nobody knows that….they cannot get past the marketing and see it for what it really is. Did you know you can get a Dell Axim for $200 that will do everything the iPhone does, and then some…like Word, Excel, Powerpoint, Outlook…they also have built in IR so you can use them as a universal remote controlling everything from TVs, to Projectors and DVRs…hey guess what? They have been making them for 10 years!
Man, it just amazes me how gullible the public is, and how good Apple is as feeding off that technological stupidity. Every time I see someone with an iPhone, I don’t even bother with a meaningful conversation…chances are they won’t know what’s going on, and halfway through start “baa-baaa-ing”, then walk off and follow someone else.
Tags: archive, archived blogs, blogs, myspace, old myspace blogs