Tuesday, November 30, 2010
WikiLeaks
Have you heard about the newest mass of documents WikiLeaks has released this week? I'm sure you have, and I'm shocked. I am siding with the government on this. A lot of that information should not have been released to the public, because it could harm a lot of innocent people. I just read on CNN today that one of the documents released stated that China was getting tired of support North Korea, and thinking it was a "spoiled child," and with the current situation over on the Korean peninsula NK could react very negatively and this could explode to a whole lot bigger of a mess than necessary.
What also is making me irritated is the creator of WikiLeaks, Julian Assange, is thinking he is some sort of hero now; saying he has documents that can tear down a US bank and thinking he is doing a public service by releasing thousands of classified information which could end up in bloodshed. This guy needs to realize that he is not doing a great thing, more like a reckless thing and that many people are upset with him.
Yes, people deserve the right to know what their government is doing and I agree with that; but releasing information that could cause more harm then good is not my idea of a public service. You have to weigh the costs with the benefits when it comes to something like this, and I feel that the costs are way more pricey than the benefits.
Disagree if you want, it's a free world on the internet, well hopefully. But that is another story.
Sources:
http://money.cnn.com/2010/11/30/news/economy/banks.wikileaks/index.htm?hpt=T2
http://www.cnn.com/2010/US/11/29/wikileaks.new.documents/index.html
What also is making me irritated is the creator of WikiLeaks, Julian Assange, is thinking he is some sort of hero now; saying he has documents that can tear down a US bank and thinking he is doing a public service by releasing thousands of classified information which could end up in bloodshed. This guy needs to realize that he is not doing a great thing, more like a reckless thing and that many people are upset with him.
Yes, people deserve the right to know what their government is doing and I agree with that; but releasing information that could cause more harm then good is not my idea of a public service. You have to weigh the costs with the benefits when it comes to something like this, and I feel that the costs are way more pricey than the benefits.
Disagree if you want, it's a free world on the internet, well hopefully. But that is another story.
Sources:
http://money.cnn.com/2010/11/30/news/economy/banks.wikileaks/index.htm?hpt=T2
http://www.cnn.com/2010/US/11/29/wikileaks.new.documents/index.html
Saturday, November 27, 2010
Empty Fridge
You would think that when one has a empty refrigerator they would go and purchase some more food. Not I however. I'm lazy and post poning it until I absolutely need to. Fuck having different food to eat, I'll just live off of spaghetti and chilli! I really should go shopping though. Try to stock up one more time before intense cold hits Oregon again.
Wednesday, November 24, 2010
Home
I'm home for Thanksgiving. It feels good. I needed to get out of Portland, away from the school, away from my girlfriend, away from my friends. Let's hope this vacation does good things. I think it will.
Tuesday, November 23, 2010
SNOW!
Portland got snow. This is a big deal, even though we only have like half an inch on the ground, everyone will be freaking out because they don't know how to handle it. Yet I still have school. This is lame!
Monday, November 22, 2010
My Quest for a Casual Xbox 360 Game.
I like video games. I like them a lot. It took me years to finally catch up, but I finally got my Xbox 360 this Summer. Right away I went in pretty hard, I bought Fable 2, beat it in a week. I got Dragon age: Origins, beat that in two weeks. Then things started to get dull. I picked up Magic the Gathering, the super nerdy card game with my friend, so all my time and money went into that. Because of this new-found hobby I wasn't putting in nearly as many hours as I should have on my Xbox. I am awful at FPS games Like CODMW, and I have a TV that is nearing 20 years old, so the on screen text is nearly impossible to read. So, as time went by, I drifted away from my Xbox.
I did not like that however, but with me being in school now, I never have time to actually sit down and play. I recently got Mass Effect, because it's supposed to be one of the best games of all time. I like the game, but the commitment of time it takes to get into the game and understand the story and each individual characters story is too much. So I realized what I need to enjoy my Xbox; casual games.
Now, finding casual games is a lot harder for me then it sounds. All games for the Xbox are built for Xbox live. I do not want to pay the $50 for a year of live, especially since I am going to be moving into a building where I cannot run live. So I've been thinking about some non-online casual games to play. I'm thinking racing games, something I can turn on, play for twenty minutes and then turn off. A type of game that if there is a story mode function, I can come back to it 2-3 weeks after last playing and understanding where I'm at. This is the kind of game I am looking for. I just bought Orange Box tonight hoping that Portal will be able to provide me some casual fun without requiring too much of my time. So far so good. I'll let you know how it goes in a week or so.
If any of you readers out there know of any good casual games that do not require Xbox Live let me know. I am in need of some things to do in order to kill time.
Cheers!
I did not like that however, but with me being in school now, I never have time to actually sit down and play. I recently got Mass Effect, because it's supposed to be one of the best games of all time. I like the game, but the commitment of time it takes to get into the game and understand the story and each individual characters story is too much. So I realized what I need to enjoy my Xbox; casual games.
Now, finding casual games is a lot harder for me then it sounds. All games for the Xbox are built for Xbox live. I do not want to pay the $50 for a year of live, especially since I am going to be moving into a building where I cannot run live. So I've been thinking about some non-online casual games to play. I'm thinking racing games, something I can turn on, play for twenty minutes and then turn off. A type of game that if there is a story mode function, I can come back to it 2-3 weeks after last playing and understanding where I'm at. This is the kind of game I am looking for. I just bought Orange Box tonight hoping that Portal will be able to provide me some casual fun without requiring too much of my time. So far so good. I'll let you know how it goes in a week or so.
If any of you readers out there know of any good casual games that do not require Xbox Live let me know. I am in need of some things to do in order to kill time.
Cheers!
Saturday, November 20, 2010
All hail the king.
Eminem is one of my favorite rappers; and in my opinion, one of the greatest, if not the greatest of all time. He is so good at writing quality songs that get you emotionally invested into them. His lyrics are out of this world, his flow and speed are second to none. Not to mention he doesn't rap about the usual rap stuff. You know, fuckin bitches, drinking Hennesy, smoking weed. Sure his stuff get's violent and offensive, but it gets you, like I just stated, emotionally invested into the song; which I feel is a key component to good music.
Eminem's song 3 AM is one of the best he's ever made. It's really violent, but the structure and flow of the song is that of something rarely seen in mass media rap music. His rhymes are incredible and the way he put's these words into a rhythm is absolutely breath taking. Here's the video for the song. Like it or leave it, it's one of the best I have ever heard,from the greatest rapper of all time.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hAuo8IOFNuE
Eminem's song 3 AM is one of the best he's ever made. It's really violent, but the structure and flow of the song is that of something rarely seen in mass media rap music. His rhymes are incredible and the way he put's these words into a rhythm is absolutely breath taking. Here's the video for the song. Like it or leave it, it's one of the best I have ever heard,from the greatest rapper of all time.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hAuo8IOFNuE
Friday, November 19, 2010
Wednesday, November 17, 2010
Productivity Woes
I have a Statistic's Midterm tomorrow that I need to be studying for, but there are so many other things I'd rather be doing. Here I am doing one of them, posting a blog about my woes, so you can read about them. I would rather be playing Pokemon Sapphire, because I have never beaten that game; I would also much rather be trying to get through Mass Effect, but that will have to wait for December when I am on my month long winter break.
I have always had trouble motivating myself to study for any test, largely because I have always been really skilled at school. I graduated High School with a 3.3 GPA without trying for a single class. So far my GPA in college is 3.2, again, without much effort put into studying. Writing is easy for me, putting words together to form coherent sentences is something that I take pride in; and as any of you who are in college know, college is largely paper writing. So now that I am deciding to take my math requirements for my degree I am faced with the problem of not being the above average grade, below average effort student that I have been for the last 15 years of my educational life.
This is a problem, it's effecting my self-esteem. I can't just coast through this class and understand everything the first time? This is new to me, and I know I'm sounding very narcissistic right now, but believe me, if you were in my shoes you would be feeling the same.
Luckily I found a way to get into the mood to work, and once that I am in that mood work get's done. It's a real simple thing, two websites put me into this state of work-overdrive. These two sites are:
http://www.rainymood.com/
http://www.endlessyoutube.com/watch?v=HMnrl0tmd3k
Listen to these two together my friends, these will put you in the mood to be classy, to relax, to get work done, or all three at the same time. You can listen to the song for three hours and not even notice that it has played through 30 or 40 times.
So that is my rant, and my solution. I hope some of you can empathize with me, and perhaps some of you are the exact same way. Hopefully the two websites I've given make a difference on your study habits, sleeping habits, or just give you something else to listen to while you are sitting in your room talking to your man or woman.
I have always had trouble motivating myself to study for any test, largely because I have always been really skilled at school. I graduated High School with a 3.3 GPA without trying for a single class. So far my GPA in college is 3.2, again, without much effort put into studying. Writing is easy for me, putting words together to form coherent sentences is something that I take pride in; and as any of you who are in college know, college is largely paper writing. So now that I am deciding to take my math requirements for my degree I am faced with the problem of not being the above average grade, below average effort student that I have been for the last 15 years of my educational life.
This is a problem, it's effecting my self-esteem. I can't just coast through this class and understand everything the first time? This is new to me, and I know I'm sounding very narcissistic right now, but believe me, if you were in my shoes you would be feeling the same.
Luckily I found a way to get into the mood to work, and once that I am in that mood work get's done. It's a real simple thing, two websites put me into this state of work-overdrive. These two sites are:
http://www.rainymood.com/
http://www.endlessyoutube.com/watch?v=HMnrl0tmd3k
Listen to these two together my friends, these will put you in the mood to be classy, to relax, to get work done, or all three at the same time. You can listen to the song for three hours and not even notice that it has played through 30 or 40 times.
So that is my rant, and my solution. I hope some of you can empathize with me, and perhaps some of you are the exact same way. Hopefully the two websites I've given make a difference on your study habits, sleeping habits, or just give you something else to listen to while you are sitting in your room talking to your man or woman.
Saturday, November 6, 2010
Text Messaging: Evil in Disguise
If I had to choose one thing to dislike about this information age, and trust me there are several, it would have to be text messaging. This handy means of communication has ruined communication between two people tremendously. Unfortunately, much like Facebook, the only ways to communicate with your peers is through text messaging. People don’t answer phone calls; but will respond immediately to a text. Myself for example, I send an average of 6,000 texts per month, and use and average of 100 minutes a month. Almost all of the texts go to my girlfriend, who lives a few blocks away, and most of my minutes are two my boss who seems to call me about anything and everything lately.
Now this ratio of communication styles is okay by me. The only problem is, I will spend 20 or 30 minutes trying to explain something to my girlfriend, or friend. This could have been explained in less than a minute had we been on the phone or face to face. However, both of us are too busy to actually have a conversation on the phone, or the subject matter of the conversation is that of private contents. However, as I have seen countless times, and have done many more countless times, we could move to a more private location to carry out this very short conversation instead of dragging it out 10 times longer then it should be.
Also, and this is probably my last reason, as this is a Blogspot post and not an essay for class, therefore I don’t have to be so thorough and detailed, the receiver of the text message is reading this message in entirely a subjective way. For example, my girlfriend will ask me if I want to come over, and I will respond with “Sure” and she reads that as “sure…” not thinking I want to come over. However, I meant that “Sure” as “Sure! You better believe it toot’s!” Once this message’s meanings has been mixed, I then have to explain that my punctuation-less "sure" really had a positive message, and not the negative one she read. And as I said above, I will now have to take the next 20 minutes or so explaining my statement in as few words as possible so I don’t have to text seven pages of text message so she can understand what I really meant, and because she is too busy watching Spongebob Squarepants with her baby brother.
I guess what I am trying to say is that, due to this cultural obsession with text messaging we have lost very important communication skills and are reading these messages we receive with the entirely wrong context. We are also wasting our precious and non-refundable time dealing with the nonsense of having to explain a simple sentence via 160 characters.
Now don’t get me wrong, there are worse things out there. Such as professors obsession with using our online services to teach and issue tests and readings; or employers only accepting online applications, removing a very valuable chance at first impression of your potential employees, or the youths lack of activity due to all the television and video games that they are playing. But this isn’t about those things, this is about text messaging and it’s evils.
I also understand the very beneficial things that text messaging bring along. If you have short messages to say and have no way to squeeze in a conversation about the problem, a text is a efficient way to get your message to the other person. Sending numerical entries as well, like phone numbers or addresses and such. But like the slow line in the grocery store, you really notice when these things go wrong, and not when they work oh so smoothly (Gilbert, Stumbling on Happiness).
Regardless of the convenience of text messaging, I really wish it would go away. A regress in that technology and this cultural fixation, and a resurgence of phone calls would not only free up a lot of time, but would save me, and I’m sure hundreds of thousands of from the hassles of having a message read in the wrong context and spending the half hour trying to explain themselves and change their significant others mind that they really want to come over and aren’t just doing it because they asked. However, I don’t feel this will happen, at least the later T-Mobile Sidekick’s have been able to make phone calls.
Now this ratio of communication styles is okay by me. The only problem is, I will spend 20 or 30 minutes trying to explain something to my girlfriend, or friend. This could have been explained in less than a minute had we been on the phone or face to face. However, both of us are too busy to actually have a conversation on the phone, or the subject matter of the conversation is that of private contents. However, as I have seen countless times, and have done many more countless times, we could move to a more private location to carry out this very short conversation instead of dragging it out 10 times longer then it should be.
Also, and this is probably my last reason, as this is a Blogspot post and not an essay for class, therefore I don’t have to be so thorough and detailed, the receiver of the text message is reading this message in entirely a subjective way. For example, my girlfriend will ask me if I want to come over, and I will respond with “Sure” and she reads that as “sure…” not thinking I want to come over. However, I meant that “Sure” as “Sure! You better believe it toot’s!” Once this message’s meanings has been mixed, I then have to explain that my punctuation-less "sure" really had a positive message, and not the negative one she read. And as I said above, I will now have to take the next 20 minutes or so explaining my statement in as few words as possible so I don’t have to text seven pages of text message so she can understand what I really meant, and because she is too busy watching Spongebob Squarepants with her baby brother.
I guess what I am trying to say is that, due to this cultural obsession with text messaging we have lost very important communication skills and are reading these messages we receive with the entirely wrong context. We are also wasting our precious and non-refundable time dealing with the nonsense of having to explain a simple sentence via 160 characters.
Now don’t get me wrong, there are worse things out there. Such as professors obsession with using our online services to teach and issue tests and readings; or employers only accepting online applications, removing a very valuable chance at first impression of your potential employees, or the youths lack of activity due to all the television and video games that they are playing. But this isn’t about those things, this is about text messaging and it’s evils.
I also understand the very beneficial things that text messaging bring along. If you have short messages to say and have no way to squeeze in a conversation about the problem, a text is a efficient way to get your message to the other person. Sending numerical entries as well, like phone numbers or addresses and such. But like the slow line in the grocery store, you really notice when these things go wrong, and not when they work oh so smoothly (Gilbert, Stumbling on Happiness).
Regardless of the convenience of text messaging, I really wish it would go away. A regress in that technology and this cultural fixation, and a resurgence of phone calls would not only free up a lot of time, but would save me, and I’m sure hundreds of thousands of from the hassles of having a message read in the wrong context and spending the half hour trying to explain themselves and change their significant others mind that they really want to come over and aren’t just doing it because they asked. However, I don’t feel this will happen, at least the later T-Mobile Sidekick’s have been able to make phone calls.
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