Quote for the Day

"A wise man's questions contain half the answer."
-Solomon ibn Gibriol

"Sidewalk Philosophy"

[Photos: babasteve]

Quote for Today

"Love is a symbol of eternity. It wipes out all sense of time, destorying all memory of a beginning and all fear of an end."
-Author Unknown

Love

[Photos: Shahril Affandi, Neil Wykes, _Gabri_, La Petite Gourmande]

The School Year at a Climax

Right now, I am the busiest I have been all year with school. Within the next two weeks, I have more homework than there is blue in the sky, I have about three tests, all of which are difficult, and, then, to complete all of the fun, I have exams. All of this is on top of having a life!

The good side to all of this is that after these two weeks, I am practically done with high school. Then, class rank is locked, letters of intent handed out, and scholarships turned in, which means the rest of the year is a flight in clear skies. No more bad weather to complicate any more of my days. After this, in order to ensure I can walk on graduation day, the only thing I will have to worry about is avoiding trouble. Everything else will be set; it will just be a matter of passing time. Once graduation passes, I will be free. I'll be sailing the oceans of college, exploring the new world waiting for me.

This rant has been rather nice, but, as one would presume, I have work to do and places to go. No time for blogging. Ironic that I am writing about how I have no time to write, huh?

Essentially, this whole mess will be over in two weeks, but until then, I most go make use of my time...

P.S. For the above reasons, quotes, pictures and links will probably be favorite items for posting because of the minimal effort and time required.

"He's a big boy"

I am sick of hearing this type of talk from my Step-Dad.

Who he is (some background information):
He is a total old-fashioned conservative. He grew up subordinate to the Baptist regime and had little money. Consequently, his views of raising a "man", as he calls it, are distorted. He is a huge fan of tough love, natural consequences, harsh discipline, and independence. He thinks he knows everything and is always right. I've never met someone more stubborn or arrogant. In addition, he may have you believe he is a psychologist or a political scientist. One positive thing I can say is that sometimes, when I'm in the right mood, he can prove to be entertaining; his political lectures and cognitive analysis' are rather amusing at such times. The rest of the time listening to him talk is down-right torture; it makes you wish you were deaf. As you might suspect, he and I don't get along very well. The fact that he is a confrontational kind of person doesn't help. Anyways, that should be enough of a background.

The Story:
At the time of the crime (tonight), I was in the entry way, which doubles as a laundry room. I needed to do a load of laundry. Like I always do, I got side tracked talking and doing who knows what. Anyways, I started walking out of the laundry room to go take a shower because I had forgotten that I was doing laundry. My mom stopped me and said "The detergent is right here". I was like "Oh, woops, I forgot that I was doing laundry. Thanks." Of course, my step-dad then had to butt in and say "He's a big boy" followed with something to the effect of "He'll figure it out", which is his way of telling my mom not to help me.

My thoughts on this:
It’s not as if I don't know how to do laundry. I know the reason he intervened is because he thinks I should be extremely independent since I'm off to college this fall. His logic is extremely ridiculous. First of all, for the majority of peoples’ lives they live with someone, which is how it will probably be for me, too. In a future scenario, the person saying “The detergent is right here” could have been a friend, roommate, girlfriend, or wife. The idea of total independence is irrational to me. I am not the type of person to seclude myself into the dark, lonely corner of society. Therefore, it is likely someone will be there to help me out sometimes in my life. Notice, I didn’t say all of the time, but, yes, sometimes people help people. What a novel idea, only if my step-dad knew…

Regardless of all the aforementioned, the most frustrating thing of it all is that he is such a hypocrite. I am more independent than he is. The next time my mom does anything for him I am going to have a hard time not saying "He's a big boy". In regards to my step-dad, making a list of what my mom doesn't do would be quicker than making one of what she does do for him.

The Conclusion:
To keep peace and sanity in the house, I am going to try and avoid confrontation with him because it’s not worth the fight. It’s just that sometimes he makes me want to scream. In the end, all of this just makes me look forward to college that much more. As much as I love my mother, getting away from him will be nice. Only six more months...

Fast Four

1. George Orwell has 12 writing tips that you may find useful.

2. Ever have the rude, loud, and obnoxious passenger sitting next to you on a plane? Following these steps will quiet almost anyone down on a plane. (Take note of the disclaimer at the bottom)

3. Bungie releases their Halo3 Teaser.

4. These thought-provoking explanations of numerous countries' flags will have you think twice and question your view of the world.

Quote for the Day

“Hope is the pillar that holds up the world.”
- Pliny the Elder

Link Mania

In "Working for Netflix at a Shipping Center", a former employee describes his experience working for Netflix. His experience wasn't as fun as he thought it would be.

"Wow! web 2.0 is really here" is a quick blurb about web 2.0 that mentions a few noteworthy sites the author has found. One of site that I particularly liked was Clickcaster. Mainly, Clickcaster is a site for hosting audio files, but it even goes so far as to record audio from within the site. Its functionality regarding audio storage is similar to what YouTube does for Video and Flickr for photos.

Halo3 Beta FAQs from Bungie.

Check out this article on Digital Rights Management by Engadget. "DRM: the state of disrepair" talks about DRM as it relates to the current controversy over copyright on the internet, adding in another viewpoint into the feud started by Steve Jobs.

A huge advance has been made in printer technology by Zink Imaging. Their innovative idea is for the paper to hold the color, thus allowing for inkless printers. Read more here.

SEOmoz created a list of the top 15 CSS properties that are rarely used that they believe people should consider using.

If you haven't heard, Joe Rogan has called Carlos Mencia out as a phony. He proves that Mencia steals jokes from other comedians. Rogan's conviction is very convincing. Check out this video.

Marriage in America

Recently, Time magazine's John Cloud wrote an article about Marriage in America. He begins the article with this statistic: "51% OF WOMEN ARE NOW LIVING WITHOUT SPOUSE".

I am not particularly fond of the wording, but Cloud defends marriage well throughout the rest of the article. I don't exactly like the introduction, but it provides a nice contrast for his rebutting oppositional view.

The author takes a pro-marriage stance, which I wholly agree with. He assures us that marriage is not declining as much as we may think. This news is comforting to hear for those in favor of marriage. Overall, the article was quite intriguing and provided some interesting statistics.

My take on marriage:

Marriage is only a subsidiary of much larger problems in America. Society's acceptance of many other controversial issues has changed in accordance with marriage over the years. This includes the rise of atheism, the greater acceptance for homosexuality, and etc. In my opinion, these other issues exacerbate the problems surrounding marriage, which eventually perpetuate its decline.

Personally, I think it’s rather sad that marriage, the once sacred institution, is slowly fading. I hope that it will gain ground in the future, but the chances of that look slim. To me, it appears marriage is only one of many things going wrong in the world. Many things seem to be taking a turn for the worse. I don't think change is bad, but the outlook for the future seems bleak. Hopefully, it will all work out in the end, regardless.

The issue seems to be black and white for most people. Many see the decline of marriage as innocuous, whereas others, such as myself, see it as a tragedy for society. Although I take the pro-marriage stance, I try to stay as neutral as possible on this subject because, truly, I am not sure what the best answer is, which is why I try to keep an open mind.

Only time will tell...

[Photos: babasteve]

Friday's Fast Links

Check out the promotion for the Take Action Tour over at purevolume.com. The promotion is a playlist that compiles an array of different artists from the tour. The purpose of the tour is to help fight depression. Bands that will make performances include: My Chemical Romance, Taking Back Sunday, Emery, The Red Jumpsuit Apparatus, Cute Is What We Aim For, Senses Fail, A Static Lullaby, Scary Kids Scaring Kids, and many more.


Tom's Hardware reviews five of today's top web cams. I thought the Logitech QuickCam UltraVision looked the most appealing because of the high ratings it received regarding video quality. Who needs "extra" features? Ideally, isn't the main purpose of a web cam to capture or stream video? The Logitech is a little pricier than the others, but seems to be worth the extra money, if you can afford it.


"Think Small" by the New York Times. This is an article about small dwellings, which have seemingly become increasingly popular in recent years. Many people enjoy houses of this type, especially as a second home, because they are cheap and require little maintenance. Here is an excerpt from the article:

This reduction of scale makes sense for a lot of people. Second homes are often geared toward outdoor activities, so for several months of the year interior space is superfluous. Minimal square footage means reduced maintenance costs, less upkeep and reduced energy consumption. Prefabricated and pre-built models can require little or no site preparation, which means no anxious weekend drives to the country to make sure construction is moving along. Add to this an element of instant gratification (once the planning stage is over, most houses go up in days, even hours, and many are delivered, turn-key, to the site).

Halo3 Previews & Beta

Check out this video. A guy leaked video of himself playing Halo3, in Alpha, to show everyone what the weapons will look like. Personally, I don't think they are anything spectacular in comparison with Halo2. The lineup looks nearly identical to what Halo2 had to offer. The best part, and the only thing that looked different, is that they're bringing back the pistol from the original Halo; well, it appears that way, but I can't be sure. If this is true, I hope it will be far less powerful than it was back in Halo's beginnings. Oh, I remember the glory of one shot kills in the head from across the map, with a pistol of all weapons. Nonetheless, Halo3 looks extremely promising. It has some big shoes to fill when comparing with the success of it's predecessors, Halo and Halo2.In other news, this article reveals a new feature in Halo3 (the title summarizes it well):

Halo3 will "mute idiots" via button

I think this feature has been long overdue. I used to get caught up in the trash talking gimmicks of Xbox Live, but, now, I try and keep my mouth shut. What can I say? Sometimes it’s hard to resist when you’re playing with "that one kid". If you've every played on Xbox Live (especially Halo2) then you'll know what I'm talking about. It’s the kid who curses more than a sailor and feels the need to teabag your corpse every time he is fortunate enough to get lucky head shot; all of this is happening while you are totally annihilating him. In some instances, a somewhat "vulgar" response is required, with the hopes of his parents being in earshot so that they'll run over, pull the plug, and never let the kid on Xbox Live again. At least when I do want that moment of silence, it will only be the click of a button away now.

Saving the best news for last... Guess who got into the Halo3 beta?

Me!

That’s right; yours truly is officially entered into the beta. I received the e-mail February 13th. The content of the e-mail was congratulation, followed by the useless required legal information. I'm psyched to start playing the beta. I'll make an update on this at a later date.

Keep up to date at www.halo3.com.

Thursday Quote

"If I had eight hours to chop down a tree, I'd spend six hours sharpening my ax"
-Abraham Lincoln

Interesting Finds; Wednesday Links

First order of business, here is a cool video I found that shows the evolution of photo manipulation in our society. This video highlights precisely how dramatic the results of photo manipulation can be when applied properly. The video shows an "average" looking female and, then, transforms her into the media's standard of a "beautiful" woman.

Personally, I hate the whole principle around this. We live in reality so why create superficial standards for people to look up to. The skinny, flawless standard that has been created by the media is extremely harmful to society. This false standard destroys the self esteem of millions of girls and women each year. In some cases, it leads to illness such as anorexia or depression. When not treated, many of the consequential illnesses have a debilitating or deadly result.

That is only a dabble into my thoughts on women and feminism in today's society. Check back another day for more ramblings. Moving on to some quick links as promised:

• I came across Zoomr the other day and, to this day, it is the best photo sharing/storage website I have found. I have knowledge of and have experimented with the likes of Imagestation, Flickr, Smugmug, and Photobucket, but none match up to Zoomr. The best part is that its only in beta, which means there is only room for improvement. Zoomr matches all the other sites in almost every area, but reigns superior because of the many extra features the others lack. Check it out!

• Taking a nap may save your life! Studies now show that taking an afternoon nap may help prevent heart attacks and death. More on this at The Consumerist.

• Have you ever wanted to refine your writing skills? Haven't been able to find the right tips or info to accomplish this? I found an excellent in-depth guide on how to write better called "A Guide to Writing Well".

PC Security and Gmail

Many people, especially the internet savvy, already know the basics to PC security. If your not one of those people, or if you just want to review the basics, I've found a great website that details the basic information of computer security. I found the article on Digg, but it originates from www.itsecurity.com. The article goes in depth and covers almost every element of basic PC security.

Check out "The 20 Minute Guide to PC Security".

Second, if you are in need of a new e-mail service or are flat out tired of the one you have, then Gmail may be for you. Compared to most mainstream webmail services, Gmail is superior in numerous areas, especially storage size and spam protection. Most of all, it is free. The highlights of the service as advertised on their website include:

• Free
• Over 2,600 megabytes of storage
• Superior spam protection
• Fully supports all major browsers (Internet Explorer, Firefox, Opera, Netscape, Safari...)
• Integrated chat
• Free forwarding and POP3
• Supports 40 languages

Tired of spam? Tired of paying for an overpriced webmail service? Want more storage? If so, you can now sign up for Gmail for free. It was released to the public about a week ago.

Google inches closer to "perfection" everyday.

The Third Beginning

This post is the beginning of another attempt at blogging. Although I have not consistently written in this blog over the last two years, I have read and followed countless blogs somewhat regularly. For a myriad of reasons, I haven't been able to successfully create and post new content in a regular manner for the last year and a half. Topping the list, school is the most obvious answer. Staying honest, I must admit that stress and procrastination are the two factors carrying the most weight, with each feeding off the other. Procrastination stresses me out and increased stress makes me feel lazy, thus encouraging more procrastination and beginning the viscous cycle.



Nonetheless, I shall attempt, once again, to create and maintain a successful blog. When saying this, I am defining successful in my own terms, only relative to myself. As for what those terms are, I am still trying to figure that out. Not only that, but I am trying to figure almost everything in life out.

So hereafter continue the garrulous ramblings from a small town, eighteen year old male, looking for his place in this world as he begins the "adult" life. I only say adult life because the societal stereotype is that anyone 18 or older is deemed an adult. Personally, I think the term adult is better defined by a person's character, maturity, and the like.

Anyways, let the journey begin...

"A journey of a thousand miles must begin with a single step." -Lao Tzu