One for the head...

The World of Work

2006-04-08T15:21:00.000-07:00

Well, I've started working agian. I took some time off because of SAT prep class on the weekends, but now that I took the SAT, my Saturdays are open. I'm still working for RightClick (RClick.com), but we changed locations. We have taken over part of the offices at Harvey's.

Harvey's is kind of a strange company. They make bags out of seatbelts. I know, it is kind of wierd, but they have made a lot of money doing it. The seatbelt bag factory is actually on the other side of one of the walls in the office. Anyway, the new office is on Dyer, which is right off of the 55. This is a huge step up from the tiny office on Red Hill we were in before.

I'm not quite sure where I am going with this, so to make reading this worthwhile, here are some songs you chould definatly listen to:

Dangerdoom- Old School
Basement Jax- Lucky Star
O.A.R.- Crazy Game of Poker
Spoon- My Mathmatical Mind
TV on the Radio- Staring at the sun
The Ponys- Sad eyes
The Libertines- Time for Heros

Our Japanese Friends...

2006-03-21T20:55:00.000-08:00

Those Japanese crazies strike agian! Watch the insanity here.

Google Mars

2006-03-12T22:04:00.000-08:00

If you haven't seen it already, Google has a really cool map of Mars that shows 3 different views (Elevation, Visible, and Infared). Check it out here.

"¡Ask a Mexican!"

2006-03-01T21:38:00.000-08:00

I usually don't read the local periodicals, but I happened upon an issue of OC Weekly on an ill fated trip to Starbucks. I happened to stop by a local Starbucks where a rack featuring the OC Weekly was being presented, obviously beckoning me to grab a copy. I did. I started to flip through it, seeing as I was a little bored, and stopped instantly on a column titled "¡Ask a Mexican!". I have to say, I was a little bewildered by the title, seeing as most publications tend to be politically correct, and this is most definatly not. Well, the "Mexican" being asked is a Mr. Gustavo Arellano, who is a 27 year old, forth generation Mexican. Before I go on about the content of the column, I would like to point out that this is the only colomn worth reading in the OC Weekly.

Anyways, the questions asked of Mr. Arellano range from rediculous to thought provoking...sorta. Oh, and because it is his own colomn, Gustavo answers the questions in his own little way. Here is a great example of a typical question:

Dear Mexican,What's with the Mexican need to display the Virgin of Guadalupe everywhere? I've seen her in the oddest places, from a sweatshirt to a windshield sticker. As a Mexican, I find it a little offensive and tacky to display this religious symbol everywhere.

Dear Pocha,…I've seen her painted on murals, woven into fabulous silk shirts worn by Stetson-sporting hombres and — one holy night — in my bowl of guacamole. But while I share your disdain for the hypocrites who cross themselves in Her presence before they sin…. I don't find public displays of the Empress of the Americas offensive at all.

Mexican Catholicism is sublime precisely because it doesn't draw a distinction between the sacred and the profane. We can display our saints as comfortably in a cathedral as we do on hubcaps.

In my opinion, this colomn is a breath of fresh air. I'm amazed it is such a controversy, but I'm glad the OC Weekly has the juevos to print this colomn. If you want to read more, go here. And if you ever see one of those little wire racks with the OC Weekly logo hanging from it, make sure to pick up a copy and read Gustavo's colomn; I know I will.

Microsoft Designed Ipod Packaging

2006-02-28T19:33:00.000-08:00

I have nothing agianst Microsoft, but it is true they have horrible product packaging design. Watch and be merry.

Fuel cell cars could be a possibility now...

2006-02-23T19:40:00.000-08:00

It seems that a certain mutant algae, being developed at UC Berkeley, could produce tons of hydrogen. This would solve the major problem with fuel cell cars, which run on hydrogen, because the manufacturing of hydrogen was so expensive it pretty much ruled out the idea of an infastructure for fuel cell cars to run on. Now it seems as though hydrogen powered cars could become a viable solution to the world's energy crisis and dependnecy on petroleum based fuels. I for one am pretty excited, not because I'm a tree hugger, but that we won't have to deal with those middle eastern princes that are running a monopoly on oil.

Speaking of that, Canada is going to be hitting it big in the oil department because of the oil sands that should have more oil than the entire middle east. If you want to make a killing in the stock market, buy a ton of Suncor (which is the compoany responsible for the lionshare of Canada's oil sand development) shares. I did and it is paying off so far. Check out the 6 month graph below. It can only go up from here. Trust me on this one.

Winter-Flavored Olympics

2006-02-18T22:24:00.000-08:00

Unless you are living under a rock, you know that the Winter Olympics are on. Now, I particularly enjoy events sich as alpine skiing, skeleton, speed skating (short track), ski jumping, hockey, and even curling. There are, however, a few events that should not be allowed in the Olympics...or at least televised. Here is a list I put together of events, not in any order, that should not be allowed to be on TV.

1. Cross Country Skiing: Probably one of the most boring things I have ever watched in my life. They should replace CCS (which is my cool abreviation for cross country skiing) with a watch-paint-dry event. I'll admit, you gotta be a beast to be good at that godforsaken event, but please, don't televise it.

2. Figure Skating: Not as boring as the CCS, but still pretty close to one of the most boring and drawn out events in the games. Not to mention the judging is rediculous.

3. Ice Dancing: I didn't remember how rediculous ice dancing was until last night. Nothing else worthwhile was on, so I decided to check out ice dancing. It took me about 15 minutes to realize that all the "teams" skate to the exact same song and do the exact same dance almost exactly the same the whole time. Let's just say you will be looking around for a knife to stab yourself with after a little while. In case you were wondering, the program I turned on instead of watching ice dancing was Kunoichi: Lady Ninja. Don't bother watching this movie unless you are really high or extremely innebriated. It is about a bunch of tiny ninja girls, called Hori women (try to say that with a straight face), that are trying to get revenge on some transvestite dude. The plot is very strange and confusing...plus it is in Japanese. Anyways, these Hori women discover they have "special powers" after much duress. These "special powers" consist of one girl shooting lightning out of her nipples and another girl who can absorb stuff in her...well I will let you figure that one out for yourself. I was expecting to see a traditional sort of hack'em up Japanese flick. Needless to say, I was utterly bewildered.

Anyways, Back to the Olympics. There is one event that gets its own little category: the two man luge. Now, give me one guess as to what is wrong with two guys spooning on a sled obviously made for one.
What is more competative then two guys on one sled in such an orientation? I would think two guys on seperate sleds going down the same track would be. How cool would that be? Two sleds going 80+ mph down an ice tube. A whole new strategy would be involed, consisting of passing and blocking. Shoot, we could introduce some racing terminolgy like "trading paint". I don't even have to mention the most exciting part of racing: crashes. Please, save yourself the humilation of the two man luge (if not for you, then for us).

Valentines Day :-(

2006-02-14T22:08:00.000-08:00

Well, another Valentines Day come and gone. Personally, Single Awareness Day (which, suprisingly has an acronym of SAD) is a much more fitting title.

Oh, and this week has been extremely bad so far. In fact, I think it tops the list of the worst weeks I have had in school...EVER. The only thing I am really looking forward to is getting a new phone (SLVR L7). Make me cookies of something so I can at least eat my depression away.

New Input Technology

2006-02-10T17:50:00.000-08:00

This is amazing. When this goes mainstream, say goodbye to your keyboard and mouse forever. Multi point touch input is definatly the future. Watch a video demonstration here if the one on the website doesn't work.
"While touch sensing is commonplace for single points of contact, multi-touch sensing enables a user to interact with a system with more than one finger at a time, as in chording and bi-manual operations. Such sensing devices are inherently also able to accommodate multiple users simultaneously, which is especially useful for larger interaction scenarios such as interactive walls and tabletops."

Pretty cool stuff.

Super Bowl!

2006-02-05T10:49:00.000-08:00

Well, today is the Super Bowl. It will start around noon and end...well, whenever. The actual game isn't going to "start" until 5 1/2 later, but who doesn't enjoy a pregame show that long? Man, I love to just plop down on my comfortable recliner and watch a whole day of ex players blabbering on for 10 hours about a football game that will take less than 1/2 that time to play. They will also take this time to talk about everything in the news from the last 3 weeks. Go on, you try to fill that time with something when you have essentially nothing to say. Oh, and they have a post game show to do as well. Great. So what will the Super Bowl be like? Here is a list: (Caution: SPOILERS!)

2 1/2 hours of talking about Jerome Bettis. OMG, he's from Detroit! Think of the stories...
The aformentioned ex-players will predict and then reenact the plays each team may use on the "field" in the studio. Sweet.
The coint toss will be elongated to 30 minutes. The commentators will blather on about who will call what and what the possibilites of getting it will be by looking at every coin flip from every Super Bowl since the beginning of time. Yippie.
The pace of the game will be 10x slower than a regular season game. So much so that they will have to spray the players with water to make it seem like they have been working hard.
In actuallity, more people watch the Suepr Bowl for the commercials. It is just a venue for the creative marketing muscle to show off. Lemme let you in on something: most of them will suck. I will guess one or two will be worth the millions of dollars put into them.
Half time will not include boobs. Well, bare, female boobs.

During this whole mess, I will be at Saddlecrack taking a super boring SAT prep class with a super stupid teacher. I will get home around 5:15. I will then procede to stuff my face with food and then turn the game on at 6:30 and maybe watch it. It will be tough, however, because the Lingerie Bowl is on at the same time. Now that is a game worth watching.

(Don't get me wrong, I like football, but the Super Bowl is just too drawn out and even boring at times. Just play the game.)

BORED

2006-02-03T21:43:00.000-08:00

So I stumbled on this wonderful invention today. It is a "dating napkin". It allows you to approach future dates by just writing some general things about you. Ehh, I thought I would share this with you dear readers. I'll write about something when I'm not so bored at another time.

I'm feeling different inside...

2006-02-01T20:10:00.000-08:00

After a much needed break in which I took a nice ski trip (but I snowboard) to Vail, CO, I'm now back...and boy do I feel refreshed! I have, however, recently started to feel differently inside. Most of my die hard readers know I'm kind of a nerd. I've been a die hard PC guy since I was old enough to use a computer. I remember my shiny 386 from back in the day...oh the memories. Recently, however, I have started to feel differently inside. It is kind of a hole in me that I need to be desperately filled.

It all started from an ill fated trip to the Apple Store. Before then, I really haven't thought anything of Apple computers except for that little white nugget of paradise called the iPod. However things have changed, and I have started to take notice to Macs. In fact, I can't get them out of my thoughts.

I have tried to dash these desires by upgrading my current machine. I slid in a pair of fatty hard drives and another stick of RAM into the beast. As I did, however, I found that I was fantisicing about a G5. I have to say, I have always been fond of the Apple design. Back when I had a laptop, I would look in awe at the guy with the sleek PowerBook sitting across from me in airport while I was trying to hide my 12 pound Dell brick in shame.

I have since tried out those milky white marvels in their native environment: the Apple Store. I have stealthy slipped into the Apple Store in Mission Viejo Mall many times just to enjoy the Mac sensation. I would play for hours on the dual processor G5 with the gorgous Apple Cinima display. My ecstacy would end when I would notice one of the salesman in my perif walking towards me. At which point I tried to log off, only to find myself saying "How do I end you!".

I suddenly became increasingly curious when Apple anounced Intel processors will be slipped into those sleek silver and white beauties. I want one even more now. Whats more, Macs aren't looked down upon anymore. In fact, being a Mac user is popular. I can't keep lying to myself anymore. I think it is time to come out of the server closet. I'm not embarassed and proud to say I like Macs!

Now, this weekend I'm going to go to the Apple Store in South Coast Plaza during my lunch break to caress the alabaster beauties and maybe drop a wad on a Mac. I just need to figure out how I'm going to tell my dad...

OMFG!!!! Like WOW!!!!

2006-01-23T22:13:00.000-08:00

So if you haven't already seen it, this is the best joke in the world. It really is. I'm not kidding. Click and be merry, fellow citizens.

Oh those crazy Japanese...

2006-01-22T18:24:00.000-08:00

Our little Japanese friends are silly. It is kind of funny to see how much different the Japanese culture is from ours. On my little tour of the internet this afternoon I came upon some wacky beauty products. Theese aren't just a little odd, they are insane. I stumbled on a website today that sells beautification products, called Rakuten. I was a little suprised at the first thing I found. I wasn't sure if I should laugh or not. It is a nose clamp of sorts.
The whole idea with this beautiful piece of plastic is to strech the cartalidge in your nose. To achieve this, you wear this barbaric clamp thing for a couple minutes a day. Apparently the Japanese like pointy noses. It could be yours for $6.94 (USD).
The next crazy contraption I stumbled upon is a neck stretcher. Before you laugh, the add says that you inflate the crazy accordian tube thing with air, which will then give you a "refreshing sensation" as it streches your neck. Oh, that can be yours for $25 (USD)...that is if you could buy it in the states.

The last product that I will talk about here you can actually use. It is called "Night Cocoa". The idea here is...well, here are the steps on the website:
1. Bowel Movement
2. Fat Combustion
3. Sound Sleep

So if i get this right, you drink some of that "Night Cocoa", which then acts as a laxative, which in turn makes you use up your fat deposits becuase you just "got rid of" the energy you ate, which then makes you tired, understandably. I bet it tastes just like Nesquik!

If you read Japanese and would like to translate, let me know what it says on the pictures and stuff.

Oh, and before you think Japanese are wierd, you don't have to look far to find some crazy inventions. As you know, we American like to have parties and tailgate, but then you meet limitations of normal kitchen appliances. Take the blender for example. When you go out with your friends for a tailgate sesh, you would like to mix some drinks, maybe even a refreshing milkshake or two. Unless you carry a generator around, a normal blender is all but useless. Not anymore, meet the "Daiquiri Whacker Gas Powered Blender". This marvel of engineering uses a two stroke gasoline engine to blend anything your heart desires. I bet it would make some killer mulch....

Interesting Stuff...

2006-01-18T19:50:00.000-08:00

I usually try to stay away from political debates, mostly because I do not enjoy the heated debate that always ensues among my friends. I feel I should probably let one post be about the war in Iraq, but don't expect me to talk about any more than I have to. From what I have seen, The war costs way too much. It seems apparent to me that Bush didn't quite think this through (not that I am a Bush basher, but this is rediculous). There is a running (and up to date) calculator of the cost of the war in Iraq, take a gander.
Now, this seems a little excessive if you ask me. It turns out that the Iraq war costs about $433,000,000 a day. This is a whole other topic, but the US government (according to the budget) spends around $7 billion a day. Here are some other things we could have done instead (these are the results at the time of writing this) of fighing this war:

-Paid for 31,082,334 children to attend a year of Preschool.

-Paid for 140,522,060 children for one year of health insurance.

-Hired 4,066,893 public school teachers for one full year.

-Paid for 11,376,386 scholarships to students going to attend a 4 year university.

-Paid for 2,113,004 additional homes for poverty stricken people.

-Paid for 9 years of the world without hunger. This could fund every anti-hunger foundation during that time.

-Paid for 23 years of the fight on AIDS. Every anti AIDS foundation could be funded in this time.

-Paid for every child to recieve basic immunization for 78 years.

-Paid for 23,467,331,000 laptops for children worldwide.

Now, what would you rather do?

Fun Fact time! Here is what it costs for us to fund the war in the OC:

LA Auto Show 2006

2006-01-11T20:04:00.000-08:00

Well, I meant to post this yesterday, but I had a ton of homework to do. I'm here and writing this now, so let's just forget I didn't post when I said I was going to. Anyway, on with the show!

So my dad and I decided it would be pretty cool to go to LA for the day, speciafically to go to the Auto Show. As we usually do when we go to LA, we go to Farmers Market. This place has been around forever, and I mean that too. It is just a hodge-podge of food stands of sorts, many of which have been around for at least 50 years. It has been nice for me to see the same places still there and doing the same thing they have been doing forever every time I go back. In staying with my heritige (Armenian), I eat at Moises whenever I go. I also had to hit up Benette's for ice cream (which they still make right there in Farmers Market every day).
After lunch, we headed to the LA Convention Center for the 2006 LA Auto Show. Before I go on about the auto show, I should just say that GPS is amazing. We took my dad's Prius up there (and it has GPS) and we didn't get lost. I can remember before we had GPS, we would be constantly turning around and getting lost (ok, maybe not all that often, but still). In short, GPS is amazing. Anyway, I found the Auto Show to be pretty good, but it was REALLY busy. I know I probably asked for it, but still, it was like being livestock in that place. I have to say the coolest cars I saw were the Spykers. Not only had I not heard of them, but they are some of the most inspired cars out there. Fisker Coachbuild is another company that suprised me. They take already high end cars (MB SL55AMG, BMW 6-series, etc.) and competely rebuild the car into something special. There were tons of cars I would like to talk about (like the Lexus Lf-A concept and the VW GX3 concept which has 3 wheels), but it would take another couple hundred words. If you haven't already, check out the Auto Show...preferably on a weekday seeing as the crowds aren't as bad. I have many pictures of cars I saw in my Flickr, so go check out all of them (about 130 of them actually). I'll leave you with a picture of the Bugatti Veyron 16.4 (aka the worlds fastest and most expensive production car).

Nights of Fire! (and some robot dancing)

2006-01-08T22:21:00.000-08:00

The internet is just a cournocopia of hilarious movies. Here are a couple that have entertained me tonight in my quest to avoid doing "work".

This first one comes from those wackos in Japan. Apparently it is about a guy with atrocious breath, give it a gander. Nights of Fire!

The next one here takes robot dancing too far until it is almost freakish. The first two dancers are crap, but just wait for the last one, who makes it all worth it.

I will be back tomorrow with my account of today's adventure to L.A. to the Auto Show.

I'M BACK!!!!11111oneone

2006-01-07T16:15:00.000-08:00

I'm Back!!! Well, I have been back for a while now (like 5 days or so), but I'm back to the blogging community. Christmas and New Years was amazing, and I will post some pictures of my trip and stuff. I will also be unveiling some new material to further enhance the blogging expierence. Anyway, I'll update pretty soon.

Christmas!

2005-12-24T10:16:00.000-08:00

For those of you living under a rock, today is Christmas Eve! You know what that means- Christmas is tomorrow! Hopefully you got all the presents for your family in order, because now is not a good time. I would suggest writing a check and making a card to put that check in if I were you, because every store in the country looks like a bomb went off in it from the hoards of people ravaging the shelves for a whole month, non stop.

Anyway, IT IS CHRISTMAS!!!!! As you could maybe tell from that, I am very excited. Partially because I want Santa to get me something nice (unless he got arrested), but more because I am going to Sun Valley, Idaho. My family goes to this little slice of heaven (and it really is, just look at the pictures (1) (2) ) every year with my mom's sister (my aunt, if you didn't get the relation there) and her family for a little over a week. It is probably one of the most fun trips I take in a year.

Well, what I originally was getting at with this post was to wish all you readers (all 6 of you) a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year and that I will be gone until the 3rd, which means I will see most of you when school starts back up. Caio!

The Change Game Update

2005-12-10T14:54:00.000-08:00

As I do on Saturdays, I went to the Wahoo's in South Coast during my lunch break. Keeping up with the game, I was going to pay for my meal in change. So let me run it down for you: I walk into Wahoo's and order my meal. I bust out the 5lbs. bag of change. I then procede to count out $9.03, at which point the gentleman behind me handed the cashier a $20.00 and paid for my meal. That's right, he paid for my meal. Apparently he figured I was a poor kid, so he decided to pay for my meal. Or maybe he was in kind of a hurry and didn't want to wait for me to count out the change. Either way, I got a chicken bowl and an orange juice for free. Right now I'm just laughing at the people who thought my game was lame.

I'm cool.

2005-12-08T19:21:00.000-08:00

As you know, I'm not a shut in...ok, well maybe sometimes. Nevertheless, I'm cool. Unlike the usual "geek" or "nerd", I get out and maybe do a little partying once and a while. And, because I am really cool, people invite me to lots and lots of parties, but I'm not going to some pansy, weekender fun guide party. No sir, not for Thomas Edward Jenkins III. As a result, I have utilized the power of the internet to satisfy my party craving these days.

Ok, so this is the party of the century, folks. Because I'm groovy, I got an email reguarding a cool costume party some guys are having in Chicago. Check out the picture I got with the invitation:

I have already gotten plane tickets and a room at the Best Western where the party of the century is going to take place. I've even found someone to share a room with. His name is Tugger.

Ok, seriously, I have no idea how I manage to get this kind of stuff. Not only did this whole "costume party" happen a little less than a month ago, but just the thought of such a thing makes me throw up a little in my mouth (ok, maybe a lot). Oh, and if you are into that kind of thing, I'm sorry, but you are a sick man. A very sick man. Since getting this, I have further tightened down my spam filter to that no more of this kind of crap gets into my inbox.

And kids, the internet is BAD. It is the work of the devil. Another thing, if a man dressed in any way like the fruit basket pictured above asks you to come to his van-o-treasures for some "candy" or a "stuffed animal", kick him in the balls and find yourself a policeman to give the sick SOB some "sticktime". Jenkins out.

And you thought your Christmas lights were cool...

2005-12-07T19:45:00.000-08:00

It is that time of year when you get out the good ole Chistmas lights. Then you figure out that the whole 1,000 blub strand (of those super duper icicle lights) doesn't light becasue of one bulb that has died, at which point you go to your local K-Mart...wait, they went out of business...well, Walmart then and buy a new set of lights. Then you get home and string up your fresh set of lights. You kick back with a nice tall glass of egg nog (gotta get into the Christmas spirit early) and wait for it to get dark. As soon as it gets dark you flip on the lights (or have your new-fangled timer do it for you) only to find that the Jones's next-door have Santa's slay (with all the reindeer) on the roof and the entire Nativity on the lawn with greatest hits Christmas songs playing in the background. In short, you feel outdone.

Just imagine what the neighbors of Carson Williams felt like when they saw this (.wmv) across the street on Thanksgiving week. Carson, who is an electrical engineer, has hung over 25,000 lights and syncronized them to music (which is broadcast by an FM transmitter so people can tune in to listen) to create the most amazing (albiet rediculous) light show...all for a little over $10,000. It is sooo worth the bragging rights. Here is another video (.wmv) of the light show extraveganza. It turns out Miller Brewing company spent 7 hours filming an upcoming commercial at his house, the Trans Siberian Orchestra has invited his family to an upcoming concert, and Inside Editon is producing a piece on the family's light show. Cool, huh?

You may be thinking that this is going to attract a lot of attention, and you would be right in that assumption. It turns out that Carson's website gotten over 850,000 hits so far- so many that he had to switch to a different host. More importantly, there has been a streaming line of cars for the nightly show. Sadly, since there has been all of this traffic, there was bound to be an accident on Winding Creek Court (the street the Williamsons' live on), leading to the light show being suspended indefinatly. Oh, and if you were curious, here is a list of the songs that are played in the light show (which lasts 12 minutes):

Frosty the Snowman by the Jackson 5
God Bless the USA by Lee Greenwood
Wizards of Winter by the Trans-Siberian Orchestra
show.

Edit: apparently the video made it to Ebaumsworld too.

The Change Game!!!!

2005-12-04T13:01:00.000-08:00

I just recently discovered this "game" when I realized that I didn't have any paper money yesterday during my usual pilgrimage to Wahoo's during my lunch break. I did, however, realize that my cigarette ash recepticle (aka ashtray) was an overflowing cournocopia of those little round things the lady at the cash register gives you after you make a purchase at such fine dining institutions as the BK Lounge: coins! So, I plucked out exactly $9.03 and proceded to Wahoo's with my now extremely heavy pocket, where I payed the cashier for my flame broiled chicken bowl (without beans). Anyways, on to the fun!

I find that this game is pretty entertaining and adds a little excitement in your daily life. Here is the deal, you need a ziplock bag and TONS of change. I'm not talking about like $5 in change, I'm talking about a bag of change that weighs close to 5lbs. There should be at least $30 in change, including lots of pennies and nickles (not just quarters, you cheaters). Once you have fulfilled this task, you are ready to partake in a game that will be the benchmark for all games (too bad it will be the lowest benchmark you have ever seen).

Anyway, the rules are simple: pay for everything in change. This means that you will have to carry your bag-o-treasure around with you everywhere (looking much like the strapping young lad pictured above), but it is worth it. Now, you may feel kind of lame carrying a 5lbs bag of pennies, nickles, dines, and quarters, but when you go to pay for something, look at the reaction of the people around, especially the cashier. Not only is this a good way to unload some coinage, but it improves your math skills. So go knock yourself out if you are bored enough.

Disclaimer: Now, when you go to the local grocery store to get food for the week, don't just take your bag of change in and start counting out $42.16. The guy in the Mettalica t-shirt with the 24-pack of budweiser may just beat the living crap out of you. Instead, prepare by wrapping your coins in purpose made coin wrappers (pictured below).

Musical Tendencies

2005-12-03T10:33:00.000-08:00

I guess you could say I have always been into music. I thought it would be interesting to see how I came to my music taste, so I just wrote a little history of my life. You may think this is kind of lame, but I thought it was interesting.

From as long as I can remember my parents (my mom especially) would always expose me to different kinds of music. My parents had pretty similar music tastes. My dad had (and still has) a fondness for classic rock. My mom, however, had a very diverse music preference. I think my music preferences stemmed from her more than my dad.

I can distinctly remember days after school (when I was a wee one) when my mom would come and pick me up, she would pop in a Kenny Loggins or Beatles tape (before everyone switched to CDs). She would always have different genres on hand, everything from classic rock to country. I never was all that interested in music back then, but I am positive that it has influenced the way I look at music these days.

The first time I took control of my listening was when I got my very own CD player for my birthday when I was 10. My music tastes were not developed at all, in fact I can remember buying a Scooby Doo CD (which probably suited my age at the time) to put along side my parents collection of CDs. As time went on, I went through very radical phases as far as my music tastes. I was into classic rock for a month or so, then I would become fixed on metal or rap for another month or so. Through these changes, I became exposed to a variety of genres that I would probably have never listened to these days.

The defining moment of my musical journey came with the MP3 revolution, beginning with the introduction of Napster. Becasue of this, I could get any music I wanted, free of charge. As a result, I would download almost anything from any genre, which in turn developed my music preferences. I still had my juvenile tendencies toward music, as I would still gavitate toward the popular artists, but I was progressing.

That phase lasted until my freshman year of highschool where I became more selective in what I would listen to. I became solely interested in rock for a majority of that year, but I still had a very diverse music library. At the beginning of my sophmore year, I entered into the phase I am in now. The iPod was (and still is) all the rage, so of course I jumped on the bandwagon and got one. This was the tool that would lead me to where I am now. Because there was seemingly so much space on the iPod, I started puting everything in my music libray on it and I would just listen to everything. I now have over 5800 songs on about 35GB. I have genres from classic rock to post punk and country to hip hop. I still have a proclivity to rock, but I still listen to (and more importantly enjoy) everything in my library.

To me, music is something to be passionate about. Even though I do not play and intrument or produce any music, my music taste shows who I am. I have now added a spot in the sidebar of music I am enjoying at the moment. In closing, here are a few songs you should consider listening to (in no particular order):

1. This is for Keeps by The Spill Canvas
2. Hold On by John Lennon
3. The Infinite Pet by Spoon
4. Men of Station by 13+God
5. Los Angeles, I'm Yours by The Decembrists

Edit: afther reading what I have written, I thought it was interesting how advances in technology have influenced my music preferences.

In the breakroom...

2005-11-29T17:39:00.000-08:00

As a couple of you have said (*cough*Sydney*cough*) that I haven't updated in a while. Well, you guys are right, I haven't. I suppose you would think of many reasons why I haven't posted in a while, like that I'm busy with school or I have just given up with the whole blogging thing. The real reason is that I haven't been able to come up with anything interesting in a while. I realized that after my last post on the worlds fastest production car (Bugatti Veyron 16.4), and that is why I haven't had anything new. I have actualyl enjoyed the "hiatus" from blogging because it gave me time to just read other things and not worry about blogging at all. I promise you I will have some new material (and even an "interactive game" I have thought of) for you to check back for. Make sure to check back in a couple days.

Bugatti has stepped upa a level with this one...

2005-11-20T20:05:00.000-08:00

OMG! The Bugatti Veyron 16.4! Fastest production car ever (253mph top speed), but also the most expensive at $1.25 million. Just read about it here and prepare to drool.

Things That Piss Me Off: Part 1

2005-11-16T17:26:00.000-08:00

I'm starting a series of posts that I call "Things That Piss Me Off". As the title implies, I will be talking about things that piss me off. I will undoubtably bring various grievenes up once and a while. For my first post on these such grievens that piss me off, CAPTCHA is on the chopping block.Have you ever seen something resembling this? It is everywhere. Whenever you try to sign up for something, or even post a comment on a blog, this blurred and distorted text is there. It was a good idea that went horribly wrong. Before I go on about how much I hate those abundent letters and numbers, it would be necessary to see what CAPTCHA is. CAPTCHA is an acronym that means: "completely automated public Turing test to tell computers and humans apart." Computers take random text, distort it, and then put it as a step on various forms on the internet as an image file. The inital idea was to keep out computers from spamming everywhere on the internet because a computer cannot see what the letters and numbers are in an image such as that. All it really did was piss people like me off. Spammers now employ people with an IQ under 90 to punch in the sequence of numbers and letters. Shoot, people everywhere are trying to find ways around it using computers, and are very close too. I would much rather find a way of having a "reputation" on the internet so that I would be not known as a spammer and completely bypass this "human recognition" test. Sure, it was a cool idea at first, and actually curbed the spamming on the internet, but then it was taken too far.

This is the kind of thing I'm talking about. Not only does this keep the spamming computers out, but it keeps the humans out as well. Not only can people with disabilities not read this, but not even someone such as myself can figure out what the hell this says. Good job computer, you got me.

Blessing to Others

2005-11-13T19:03:00.000-08:00

As any other Sunday, I was driving home from church (around 11:00) when I realized I needed gas, so I got off the freeway at Crown Valley. When I was stopped on the offramp, I noticed a homeless man with a reflective vest (like the ones construction workers wear) who had a sign asking for a donation. I didn't think much of this man at first, and was actually searching for the lock button on my door. I casually looked around and saw that a rather old Explorer that was not in very good shape was stopped behind me. Two girls, about my age, were in the Explorer and they were waving to the homeless man, signalling to him to come to their car. The girl driving handed the man a couple dollars, and then I had a revelation. I was driving an Audi, while they were driving a beat up Ford. While I was searching for the lock button, they were searching for their purses. When I was looking away when the man was walking by my car, they were waving to him. I saw then what it meant to give. The sermon Pastor Steward gave at church 15 minutes before I was stopped on that offramp was on how to be a blessing to others, yet I did not think about giving anything to this man but a cold shoulder. I saw that I was blessed so much more than those two girls seemingly were, but it didn't cross my mind for a second to give to that poor man. I see now what it means to be a blessing to others.

Spam that you could live on...

2005-11-08T21:20:00.000-08:00

One day I decided to check on my "spam account". I have a special email account that I use for signing up for free stuff (giveaways, magazines, and the like). It has all the storge I need and gets only the finest spam around. I logged in and found there were 1,590 new emails. Score! (oh, and for the record the last time I checked this account was 2 months ago)

I casually looked over my inbox, all of which is spam, to see what kind of stuff I could win. As I perused the vast sea of spam, I realized there is really a contest, giveaway, or "deal" for everything. You could practicly live off the stuff that is pouring in my inbox, everything from college scholarships to free gas. You need help getting a job, how about being a police officer, fashion designer, or even get paid to golf? Air conditioning broken? Get a new one for free (for a little while at least)! Sick of your old clunker? Get an Escalde for free! Need that special gift for that special someone? How about a Tiffany's "Bangel" Bracelet? Are you in horrible debt? Here is a loan, and as an added bonus, how about getting that lovely debt "erased" for good? Are your clothes tattered? Go on a $500 shopping spree! Are you hungry, but don't have any money? Here is some free food at Dennys! Don't have a laptop? Get a free Sony Vaio. Do you have a hard time staying awake? Here is your very own coffee maker! Last but not least, how about a million dollars? If you can "crack the code", it's yours!

In case you were wondering, all of that was within the first 40 emails that came within the last 2 weeks. You may wonder where I'm going with all this. It seems to me that the world today is desperatly trying to get as much out of the suckers in our society. There are so many rules in the fine print that no-one would be able to redeem any of the things advertized in the email. The victim gets nothing, but the advertising company gets your personal information that they can sell to other advertisers, only leading to more junk mail (both snail mail and email). It is sad to see these kinds of shananigans in this day and age, and it doesn't seem to be slowing down. This is just sick.

Most (if not all) of these are scams, but then I got to thinking. There actually is a possability that you can live on contests. Yes, I said live on contests. It has actually been proven on a Japanese television show. Now, this is one of the most inhumane shows that has ever existed, but it proves a point. No-one should ever subject themselves (or others) to this kind of treatment, but it is an interesting study. Nasubi (you can read about his show here) was the poor guy who "won" the spot on a new Japanese TV show. What followed was something worse than torture, but proved that you can indeed live on contests and giveaways. Here is a summary of what he won during his captivity:

2 vacuums, rice (4 times, 35 kg), shoes, a watermelon, a cutlery set, ice cream, chocolates, natto (twice), bicycle, television (no antennae in the apartment), a globe, stuffed animals, dental care products, videos, pickled egg plant, a poster of Hirose Ryoko, free tickets to the Spice Girls movie, a coupon for a free English lesson (twice), headphones, a CD Rom, videos, a huge box of potato chips, duck meat, a barbecue, several unidentifiable varieties of Japanese snacks, a belt, some sexy women's underwear (which he tried to wear but couldn't put on), Matsutake mushrooms, steak, a tent, an attache case, a set of tires, a photo book, golf balls

Oh, and if you want any of those emails, you know how to get a hold of me.

Barcode Art

2005-11-02T20:57:00.000-08:00

Yeah, art out of barcodes. It is pretty cool.

I feel kind of bad about posting 2 random (aka crappy) posts when you are anxiously awaiting my amazing posts. To all, I'm sorry.

Moment of Zen...

2005-11-02T19:28:00.000-08:00

I'm writing another amazing article, but it is going to take some more time, so here is something to hold you over. Here is your moment of zen...

Windows is Live, Baby!

2005-11-01T18:18:00.000-08:00

As you know, Google has been taking over the internet by putting themselves into everything from the ubiquitus Google search to their forays into online video hosting. And all of this is free. Not to be overshadowed, Microsoft is trying to essentially copy Google's very successful idea of a simple personalized homepage that loads extremely fast and has what you really want on it (called Windows Live). Microsoft is upping the ante by having another service (called Office Live) integrate with the Microsoft Office suite to bring it into the internet.

It sounds cool, but really isn't. Sure the homepage looks and feels about the same as the already awesome Google version (with a few more doodads you can put on it for Microsoft products), but to utilize the Office capabilities, you have to own the Office suite. That doesn't sound like something to complain about, but when you see that it isn't free (not even close, with the basic version running around $150 and the cheapest version, student and teacher, running around $130). Now, a lot of computers today come with office, but for those computers that don't have Office or don't have a realativly new version, this will be a turn off. It is a worthy effort at trying to curb Googl'es coming dominance, but I just don't think it will work. Oh, and I forgot that to use Office Live, there is an add based version or a subscription service that you have to pay for. Now how did you know Microsoft would try and make a couple bucks off of this?

There are certain things I like about Windows Live, particularly the new web based email app, but I'm not all that impressed with the idea of Office Live, mostly because you would have to pay for it or suffer through adds to use it. You can check out the beta of Windows Live, which is apparently live here.

Comical Thievery Close to Home

2005-11-01T18:01:00.000-08:00

Now, before I go on, ponder this question: What kind of thief goes into a restaurant to make a pizza? Ok, on to the story:

When I get home from school, I try to hit up some of my favorite websites before I really buckle down and do homework. I check my email, read some of my favorite blogs, and then just peruse the news. Well, it turns out I didn't have to look too far to find this story. It was posted today (considering it happened today) on Reuters "Oddly Enough" section that is on my personalized google homepage. Apparently, a thief decided he wanted something to go while he was stealing the safe to Sonny's (yes, in San Clemente), so he thought he would whip up a pizza. He never got to eat the pizza because a late night employee came by, which forced the burglar to flee (taking the restuarants safe with him) and leave his pizza in the oven. The police are still looking for him, but they have a tape of the "midnight chef" in action and will most likely make it public.

Oh, and to answer the question: A very hungry thief.

Quite Possibly the Worst Job Ever

2005-10-25T20:09:00.000-07:00

YES YES YES!!!!!!!

NSFW becasue of language...

San Francisco is made of Jello!?

2005-10-24T15:40:00.000-07:00

I knew it!

Link

Oh those tricky people...

2005-10-23T21:19:00.000-07:00

As you know, I work on Saturdays at RClick. Well, yesterday at work (while fixing a computer for Merril Lynch), I came across a rather unusual sticker on a graphics card inside this particular computer. It read: "Warranty Void if Broken". Usually when a sticker says this is when it is over a screw hole that would let the usuer gain access to part of the device or over a seam on a device, but this one was different. This sticker was not ever any such thing. It was just stuch to a rather unpopulated part of the PCB (printed circuit board). When I say unpopulated, i mean that there were a few traces (little conductors inside the board) and no resitors, diodes, capacitors, or anything. It was strange, but then I thought, "Why whould they put a sticker here?". I came to the conclusion that this particular company put the sticker there because they were saving themselves. As it says, "Warranty Void if Broken", so if the card was broken, the terms stated in the warranty were null and void. Tricky, tricky people...

Attention: Your Laser Printer is Out to Get You!!!!

2005-10-20T20:12:00.000-07:00

It's true. Your color laser printer is doing you a disservice. Apparently certain color laser printers put tiny yellow dots on everything you print that tell when you printed something and the serial number of the printer. Not only can this be used in investigations, but if your school ever found out about how to read the dot code, you may never be able to use the excuse that you left your assignment in your printer and conveniently forgot it, but that is between you and me (so if you plan to use that excuse, make sure you are using an inkjet). Here is a list of printers that have the "yellow dot" feature enabled. Oh, and you can easily see the dots by printing something, then scanning the document and using Photoshop, set it to CMYK, and then adjust teh curves and the hue/saturation of the indiviual channels. Maybe it is time to put on your tin foil hats..and ditch your color laser printer.

ESA must have failed math...

2005-10-18T16:14:00.000-07:00

Check out this study done by the EAS (Entertainment Software Association) here (.pdf, so have Acrobat handy). Now, get out your handy dandy calculator. You don't need anything special, just a cheap calculator. Now, lets take a journey through the "2005 Essentail Facts" document.

The first thing you should draw your attention to is the pie chart of the ages of people that play videogames. Lets see here...Under 18 (35%), 18-49 (43%), and 50+ (19%). Let's brush the dust of that calculator and plug some numbers in. By golly, it adds up to 97%...which must mean that the other 3% of gamers are fetal. Wait, that doesn't make sense...

Lets move on to the next page: Genders of people who play videogames. Take a look at the chart: 55% male and 43% female. Now, do a little calcualtions and OMG, it adds up to 98%. Apparently there are 2% of the people that play videogames are hermaphrodite...wait, what!?

EAS surveyed 1,500 households to come up with this information, but unfortunatly they failed math. If you look at some of the other numbers, some are closer to 90% than 100%....and there are also some of the graphs that are over 100%. It is pretty disapointing to see this kind of stupidity in the world today.

Grandma vs. Mercedes

2005-10-17T20:14:00.000-07:00

I just had too much randomness to put into one post. Here is the runoff...

This pretty much made my day...Grandma vs. Mercedes

An Italian man awoke from a two year coma he was put into from a car accident...only to say that he heard everything people said around him. Check it out here! How crazy would that be to hear the doctors say that they are going to pull the plug, but you can't say or do anything.

This is the first website hosted on a PSP. I really want one just because of all teh cool stuff you can do.

Now, this is really strange. Apparently you lose most of your immune system when you go into zero gravity. So getting even a minor sickness could be fatal.

MI6's first website. I'm suprised it took this long with the popularity of James Bond. You would think that a government agency like SIS (formerly known as MI6) would have a website. Now they do...

Ok, I swear I'm done for today...

Rainy Day Blogging

2005-10-17T19:34:00.000-07:00

This is going to be a really random post, so bear with me.

I want to start out this post with something that proves the Japanese are crazy. You have to check it out here. How could they subject Nasubi to such torture? I'm amazed he was able to survive on contests, but it did make for good TV, right?

Well, today pretty much sucked. It was cold, rainy, and dark practicly all day. I am drained on days like this, so getting through the day was a little hard to do today. By some stoke of luck, I don't have any homework. No homework at St. Margaret's? How lucky am I?

You may know that I am kinda, sort of a computer nerd. Well, my hard drives are dying on my main computer, so I went and ordered 2 300GB Seagate 7200rpm hard drives. I thought it might as well upgrade and go a little overboard. I only have about 200GB of stuff on my computer right now, but I thought I should go big or go home. I will have roughly 600GB of storage (a little less because the NTFS filesystem takes a piece). Well, I got the hard drives in the mail a few days ago and found that one of the drives was damaged. I'm getting another one from Monarch Computer in the mail. It should be here any day now. Oh, and if you are buying any kind of computer part online, make sure it is a reputable company. Monarch Computer, ZipZoomFly and Newegg are my favorites. K, I'm done being nerdy for now.

In the absense of anything productive to do, I decided to find some interesting websites that would pass the time. I came up with some suprising results. The first site I came across is a gem. It is called Opacity and is a photojournal of old, raun down, and abandoned buildings. These building range from insane asylums to power plants. It is really quite facinating. The second site is a little wierd, and even made me ask the question "Why?". It is called the Common Census Map Project. The idea is to draw a map of the country based on the public's votes. It is an interesting, but at the same time I don't see the need. We have had the state lines in place for a very long time, why is there a need for change? Anyway, there is my randomness for today (or tonight rather). Tune in tomorrow for more.

Along came a comment...or four

2005-10-13T18:14:00.000-07:00

I was in a particularly philosophical mood, so I decided to look around the internet for something witty or laugh-out-loud (lol for the uber 1337 folks out there) funny. Alas, I came up with nothing. I have to admit that I spent about 3.36 minutes, but by then, I should have found something. I was let down until I came to my blog, and by golly, there was some material just waiting for me. Now, you may be wondering what kind of material I am talking about because my blog is really not that interesting. Well, you didn’t look close enough, my friend.

As I perused my blog, I came upon comments of praise that were left by especially nice people. I don’t happen to know these people, but they were nice enough to drop by and give me some positive feedback. I would like to take a look at a couple of these.

The first comment I thought would be appropriate for this is one by a dear friend of mine by the name of “gizmo”. I do not know this fellow, but he dropped by and left a comment on my blog. He apparently enjoyed my blog, but that was not his intent on commenting. Out of the 25 words, only 2 pertained to my blog. The other 23 words (with a link and a rather amusing smiley) was an invite to check out his website about “california mortgage refinancing”. Now, I do not have a mortgage, as my father procures the money for the house. I was a little confused by this, but then it hit me: this kind gentleman (I am only speculating here, it could be a woman) was giving me this link to aid my father and potentially relieve a little of the burden of paying for the home. Needless to say, I was touched.

The next comment that drew my attention was one by my good friend “supper blogger”. Before I go on, I have to comment on his name. Now, a fellow with the internet handle “super blogger” must be the king of blogging. I decided to look at his blog, butmuch to my dismay, it was empty. I must not be 1337 enough to read such blogging. He too was kind enough to drop by and leave me a comment. He said that he enjoyed my blog immensely and that he would bookmark me. Now, I was deeply honored that such a distinguished blogger such as him would bookmark such a lowly blog such as mine. He must have seen the comment by “gizmo” and decided I needed some more help with the necessary payments that come along with owning a home. He also left me a link, but this time to a website for “home owner insurance”. This was a very kind gesture, seeing as insurance is a necessary thing to have these days. I was very appreciative.

Then I stumbled on a comment by a gentleman by the name of “ts”. He must have seen the other comments that “gizmo” and “super blogger” left me. He thought my problem was more severe than excessive home payment problems, but that I was just not making enough money. I was pleased that he was kind enough to help a guy out, but at the same time I was disappointed he did not comment on how good my blog is. I guess it stood out to him that I need more income.

I saved the best for last. An acquaintance of mine named “eddhunor75875806” left the comment to end all comments. My good buddy not only guided me to a wonderful website, he included 4 links to it. I guess he figured that even if I was mentally challenged, I would be able to find my way to salvation…or just a new laptop. Sure it is a pyramid scheme, but it was free, right? In any case, I was glad he took time to give me the secret to free stuff. Of course I clicked on the link (all 4 of them actually) and installed all 6 “friendly programs” so that I could attain a “top of the line” laptop for nothing. It was funny, but once the install was finished, my computer was acting like a fat man running on a very hot day with the humidity of 98%. In other words, it felt a little slow. I then filled out the form to guarantee me a laptop (I even included my Social Security number, just to be safe). Again, I was very appreciative of his kind intentions.

Golly, I want more comments like these!

(oh, in cae you were wondering, these comments have "magicaly" disapeared from my blog)

Edit: How ironic? as soon as I post this, "shopper" dropped by with a very similar comment. Sorry to say, it got lost in the world wide web.

A not so typical trip to work

2005-10-08T09:11:00.000-07:00

Most of you know I work on Saturdays at RClick, which happens to be in Costa Mesa. I would have usually taken the Toll Road, but since it costs a small fortune, and I had plenty of time to get to work, I took the 405. It is a pretty usual drive up to work, until I hit MacArthur. As you may know, MacArthur is a rather large street with fairly high traffic flow. Well, I get off the 405 and I'm driving in the right lane of MacArthur. I pass a light and then all of the sudden, I see this black Mercedes pulling out of the airport...going the wrong way! At this point, there is this wall of cars (with me in the front, in the right lane) closing in on this black Benz. I look over at the guy next to me (who happened to be driving a Civic) and he looked back with this look like "Oh Sh*t". Now, the guy driving the Benz decides it is a fun idea to swerve through all the lanes, which then made me even more nervious, because he was making his way back to the right lane, my lane. I was going to take a picture, but thought against it because I didn't want to die. His little escapade happened to catch the attention of the police, who gave chase. Now there is a black Benz and about 3 police cars going the wrong way on a very busy street. I have never been in this situation before, so I was a little scared and pretty unsure of what I should do. I could either stop or put my A4 into Star Trek mode at "Warp Factor 6" (there is a "S" button that actually makes the car faster, just in case you were wondering) and pull some crazy driving skills. It would have made the story better if I had chosen the latter, but I did indeed stop. The elderly gentleman and the cops passed me and about 25 other cars. I looked in my rear view mirror and saw that another 2 cop cars were waiting for him at the next light. It isn't very often you get to see an old guy driving a Benz on the wrong side of the road with 5 police cars trying to stop him. I'm actually a little dissapointed I didn't snap a picture...

Well...I'm kind of a big deal...

2005-09-27T17:20:00.000-07:00

Quite frankly, I'm 17. That's right folks, today is my birthday. I can legally see rated R movies now!!!!!

Fun Fact: It is Google's 7th birthday today. Guess what that means! I have the same birthday as Google. How cool is that?

I dun got shot by that thar dohphin!

2005-09-25T22:38:00.000-07:00

Probably the wierdest story coming out of Katrina...actually, definatly the wierdest story. Apparently, the Navy had some super secret dolphins they were training to hunt terrorists and they got swept out into the Gulf of Mexico because of the hurricane. Now, here is the best part, these dolphins are armed. That's right, they have a dart gun and know how to use it. At least the darts only put somebody to sleep and not kill them. There should be some funny stories that come out of this one...

OMG!!!! Humor Needed!!!!!!

2005-09-22T20:11:00.000-07:00

I was reading through my sorry and utterly pathtic excuse for a blog out of sheer boredom (but mostly to excape the black whole of Sr. Lanning's homework) only to find that it is rather...how shall I say this...BORING! I know, I shouldn't practice self torture, but it occurs to me that I have been lacking in my posts. Once and a while there is a decent, definatly not funny by any stretch, post about my life. These are few and far between. The "between" consists of stupid websites or articles I post, mostly about computer crap. I wouldn't have doubted my posting until "Jane" left me a comment saying that my blog was full of interesting content and that I should click on a link for a place in Canada that sells Viagra by the pound. I declined this invitation, but it got me thinking...why is my blog not funny? It is a simple answer really: I'm LAZY! I started this blog primarily to see what everyone was talking about, but mostly to be like Chris Knight, who is the unconstested Blog King. I then got caught in this long chain of random crap to appease the 6 people that read my blog, but that plan failed miserably. Bear with me, oh loyal readers, for I will be back with teh funny!

Grow Cube

2005-09-20T19:50:00.000-07:00

I found a pretty amusing, but also time wasting puzzle on the internet today. It is called Grow Cube. You start out with a boring looking cube, but you have to click on the objects on the sides in the right order to eventually transform your cube. To win, you have to max out the levels of the objects, which means you have to use a certain sequence. If you just get stuck, you can ask me for help. It took me about 20 minutes to complete, but once you figure out what is trying to happen, it is pretty easy. The picture above is what it looks like when you complete it correctly.

Opera = Free

2005-09-20T16:57:00.000-07:00

As some of you know, I have switched from Firefox to Opera after getting it for free on their 10th anniversay. I love it, but still recommend Firefox just because of the larger selection of plugins. Anyway, Opera is now free to everyone. I sould highly suggest dlwonloading it and seeing how fast it really is. If you are using Internet Explorer now, you will be extremely suprised at how slow it really is after you use Opera for a few minutes. You can get it here.

Best Weekend Ever

2005-09-18T18:10:00.000-07:00

I have to say that this weekend was the best weekend ever. I'm exhausted, but it was a lot of fun. Friday was pretty much the craziest day ever (and we have pictures to prove it too). We (Drake and Kevin) went to my house a attampted to dye Drakes hair, but that failed miserabley. Then we went to Audrey's tennis match, but Drake failed to find the right parking lot so we walked across some school in Tustin, and ended up having to hop a fence to see the last 15 minutes of her match (where she completely took apart some girl). After that, we went to the Spectrum and spent about an hour trying to find scene glasses. I'm embarassed to say that I went into Hot Topic, which is an all time low for me, but I got some pretty awesome Elvis glasses (which I ended up selling to Brian...I'm kinda bummed about that actually). Then we ate at Wahoo's, where we ended up getting into a food fight, which signalled the end of that meal. After our "peaceful and relaxing" meal, Kevin thought it was about time to make his first manicure appointment (for extra points of course). We eventually made it back to school where we made some pretty cool shirts for the "Glow Down". I have to say that the dance was a lot of fun.

Saturday was also pretty fun, except for that whole "work" thing. Some of you know that I work for a networking company based in Coasta Mesa (http://www.rclick.com/). I only work Saturdays, which is nice because it enables me to have some extra money around. Anyway, to the fun part of the day! I went to the SMES vs. SVC football game and it was pretty interesting until we completely destroyed them. After that, I pretty much socialized the rest of the game. On a side note, the cheerleaders are actually interesting to watch now that there is a small army of them. Anyway, after the game I went to Sydney's house where practicly anybody who is anybody was. And that pretty much rounded out the evening.

And then there is today. Today was a lot less exciting, but was still pretty fun. As is the usual thing for me to do once a month, I had to get up early and work at my church. After that, I went to the Angel game with my parents and Mark Kanow and his parents. We fianally made a game exciting and won, but almost lost it due to Shields. After that, nothing really exciting happend and here I am doing homework and writing this. I hope more weekends go like this...but maybe without so much stuff scheduled.

Whoa!

2005-09-15T17:09:00.000-07:00

How about a music player made from simple elctronics that fits in a clear, plastic cd jewel case? Well, here it is! It is a pretty cool device made by a fellow by the name of Tristan Perich. It isn't a very high quality player, and you can't readily put your own music on it, but it is super cool. Who wants an iPod now?

Cool Artwork

2005-09-14T20:08:00.000-07:00

As time has gone on, I have found some pretty cool artists' websites. After looking through my bookmarks, I have stumbed on a very cool artist by the name of Jason Sho Green. His website has some of his works that he does on a variety of surfaces as well as his Photoshop creations. He has done work professionally for a while now, he even made a poster for Victory and Trustkill Records. Check him out, he does some pretty cool work.

School is in full force...

2005-09-12T21:23:00.000-07:00

This time for round 3 in highschool: Junior year. I have heard it is teh most difficult year of highschool, and from the 3 full days of classes so far, I would have to agree. It is definatly a more challenging year because the college process starts about this time with the PSAT and the SAT, as well as the usual SAT II subject tests. I have to say that while last year in Dr. Beemer's AP Modern European History class was difficult, AP Biology is defiantly going to pose it's challenges for me. It is a completely different subject matter (which is a welcome change, seeing as I am not as inclined to history as I am science), but the workload is jsut as tough. I can forsee some long nights and multi-hour sessions of purely AP Bio, but that doesn't bother me too much. I know what is expected of me in an AP class and I know i can do it. The rest of my schedule is pretty relaxed with classes such as Photography, regular US History, regular English 3, and of course free block. The only thing I am suprised by this year is that I have had so much homework for how few classes I have had so far. It seems to me that the teachers are kicking it into high gear earlier than last year, which I am not too thrilled about. Speaking of homework, Sydney (who is a senior at SMES) was kind enough to help me with my spanish homework today at lunch, which was much appreciated because I am not in the "spanish mode" quite yet. Atay tuned for more updates from my little world comprised mostly by SMES...

iPod nano

2005-09-08T18:36:00.000-07:00

It's true, apple is phasing out the iPod mini and replacing it with the iPod nano. It looks very sleek and chares more of its larger sibling's styling, but just much, much smaller. The major thing different about this iPod than the iPod mini is that it uses flash memory instead of the mini's hard drive. This means that the iPod nano can withstand all the abuse you throw at it without skipping a beat.

Just another day...not really though

2005-09-06T22:44:00.000-07:00

I have to say today was actually pretty good. School was exactly how I expected, with the exception of AP Bio, which is going to be a very difficult and taxing class. It has been a pretty long day, but the most exciting part was after school when I picked up my new car. I'll post some pictures tomorrow, but it is a dolphin grey Audi A4. I can't tell you how excited I am.

Eve before school

2005-09-05T20:40:00.000-07:00

Well, it is that time of year agian: school. I have enjoyed myself over the summer and really don't want to go back to school. It is not like I have not finished my summer reading or anything, but I just don't want the work. I guess it won't be that bad, but I still wich I could get some more summer in before the mountain of work ensues. I guess it will be nice to see some familiar faces.

P.S. The school revamped the website, check it out here. It will take some getting used to, but it looks pretty clean.

"Wiki" for Katrina

2005-09-02T15:54:00.000-07:00

This website has a map of the area affected by Katrina. Just like Wikipedia, people are encouraged to contribute. The map consists of points that people have added with information. Some points are where there is a fire or even where there are pets trapped in a building. This is an asset for the rescue effort because all of this information is centralized on the one map. One note: the map may have inaccurate information because anyone can submit a point. Let's just hope it is...

Katrina vs. the 'net

2005-09-02T08:37:00.000-07:00

It seems there is one hosting company is still operational in New Orleans. They are running off of a diesel generator and at 20% capacity, and they keep on chuggin'. They are also taking the liberty to take photographs of looters around their 27 story building. There is a webcam you can look at too. It will take a while to load because of all the site tavel though, so be patient. Read more about it here.

Filk: Music for Nerds

2005-09-01T17:19:00.000-07:00

Flik is defined as: "A popular or folk song with lyrics revised or
completely new lyrics and/or music, intended for humorous effect
when read, and/or to be sung late at night at SF conventions."

These nerds take being a nerd to a whole new level. Ckeck out this article on the growing filk genre. The lyrics are deeply rooted in science fiction and have some very interesting "stories" within the songs. If you want to listen to som filk, tune in at the world only filk radio sation.

The Worst of People

2005-09-01T09:02:00.000-07:00

Evacuation of the Superdome was suspeneded today because there was shooting at military helicopters and fires making it difficult for the busses to get close to the Superdome. From what I have read, the conditions inside the superdome are horrible, so why would people decide to halt to relocation of these people (to the Astrodome in Texas) by shooting at a military helicopter? These people should be helping the effort. When the tsumani happened a while back, there was no looting or this kind of violence. People banded together and helped each other survive. For some reason people can't seem to figure that out in Lousiana. I just hope the situation improves in the near future.

Opera: 10 years and running...

2005-08-30T14:18:00.000-07:00

Today is Opera's 10 year "birthday." For those of you that do not know what Opera is, it is a very fast web browser. As most of you know, I use Firefox. Firefox has not done me wrong, but Opera is another alternative to Microsoft's swiss cheese (as far as security is concerned) browser, Internet Explorer. Opera has many of the same features of Firefox, but seems to load table based websites faster. Usually you have to buy Opera, but since today is their 10th birthday, they are giving away free liscenses. Jump on this offer!

NO!!!!

2005-08-29T08:59:00.000-07:00

I know I haven't updated in a while (and placating you with random news articles I have found), but I have been pretty busy.

Anyway, apparently Yahoo is going to require Flickr memebers to get a Yahoo ID next year. Now, as you may know, I use Flickr and this dissapoints me...a lot. I like the free service and the interface is nice, but I DO NOT WANT a Yahoo ID. I won't use any other Yahoo services, so why would I want it? This has not only outraged me, but a lot of other Flickr members that are going to "Flick Off" unless Yahoo drops the requirement. I would use anothing service, but that would mean I would need to redo all of my posts with pictures, not to mention there is really nothing like Flickr for free. If you are as irritated with this as 400+ Flickr users are, then join the cause here. I could probably get over it, but it is just another login I have to remember and just more hassle. I wonder if Google is going to come out with something like Flickr? (Picasa is not a viable alternative to Flickr, just to let you know)

Laser Cannon: How cool is that?

2005-08-24T17:44:00.000-07:00

I guess this makes Star Wars seem a little closer to reality. How cool would that be to fly around with a laser cannon on your plane? Well, it is coming. It is every boy's dream...

Sleep Depervation: A thing of the past?

2005-08-24T10:22:00.000-07:00

Wow. A pill the offset the effects of sleep depervation...well in monkeys at least. Check it out.

Google Talk

2005-08-24T10:00:00.000-07:00

Well, Google finally did it, they made an IM client called Google Talk. It just so happens to be much cooler then any other client because you can talk to the people you are messaging. The interface is also very straight forward and there are NO adds. Download it and hit me up.

My Classes for 2005-2006

2005-08-23T15:16:00.000-07:00

Well, I just got my schedule yesterday from Roland becasue for some reason the office never sent me my schedule. Here it is folks!

A- Ap Bio with Mrs. Ingalls
B- Photography with Mrs. McClurg
C- US History with Mrs. Adamson
D- Precalc with Fusco
E- Spanish 3 Honors with the new guy
F- English 3 with Dr. Hatcher
G- Free Block

Overall, I am pretty pleased with my classes. Well, as pleased with school as anyone is right now... Let me know if I have any classes with you.

Sloooooooooow Motion

2005-08-22T21:44:00.000-07:00

This is a pretty cool website with a bunch of videos shot with a highspeed camera. They are slow motion videos that show a lot of detail. Definatly a worthy place to waste your time.

Can we finally cut the cord?

2005-08-18T14:17:00.000-07:00

Xirrus released a new wi-fi array consisting of 16 integrated access points and a WLAN switch. The device is relatively affordable for businesses where wi-fi is mission critical with a price of around $12,000.00. The company claims that this array has over 800 Mbps of bandwidth. I think that is plenty of bandwidth for us to finally cut the cord...

Overheard in New York

2005-08-17T21:18:00.000-07:00

This site has bits and pieces of coversation overheard throughout New York. Some of them are actually pretty funny.

What is it with people and buying stuff?

2005-08-16T18:12:00.000-07:00

This is just disgusting...all for a laptop.

Drumroll Please...

2005-08-16T15:39:00.000-07:00

Here is the moment you have all been waiting for: the Cape Cod/Boston post! I know is has been well overdue, but it is finally here!

This trip was a lot of fun. I went to Cape Cod (at the Meritime Academy) for a baseball camp (Frozen Ropes) for the first 5 days of the trip. The Maritime Academy is in a pretty cool location on the water. To see more pictures, check out my Flickr page. I would have taken more pictures of this beautiful place, but there was almost no down time during the day. Everday would start at 6:30am and end at about 8:00pm. Lights out was at 10:30pm, which left a couple hours to hang out. Speaking of hanging out, some guys in my dorm brought poker chips, which we used in poker tournaments every night. This was about the only thing we could do to pass the time because we were not allowed to socialize with the other camps that were at the Academy. I ended up getting third in the main tournament and I lost $5 in the side games, in case you were wondering. Anyway, about the camp! Throughout the week, there were special guests, mostly college coaches, that would come and talk with us about sertain aspects of the game. The only thing that disapointed me was that we did not play more games. We mostly worked on, well at least for me, pitching and hitting. The guy running the camp, Tony, was really into what he called "Diamond Strength" exercises. I found this to be boring because I came to the camp in pretty good shape. It was basicly 5 stations that did everything from really light medicine ball exercises to a variation of Yoga. I was able to do all of the exercises without breaking a sweat. Most days there was an afternoon activity. They ranged from going to the beach (where the water was a whole foot deep, but the sand was awesome) to a Cape Cod Baseball league game.

I love the Cape League games because there are some of the best college players from all over the country. Speaking of people from all over, there were 3 Belgium guys and a whole team of French guys that came to this camp. I ended up hanging out with the French kids (even though I don't speak French) and found them to be really awesome. I could tell you all sorts of stories about different French kids, but the show must go on.

After the camp my parents picked me up and we drove up to Olin College for a tour. I have to say this had an eery resemblence to St. Margarets...just with a machine shop. There are only 300 students and there are 2 main buildings. They call the building with all the classrooms the "antfarm", which fits it perfectly because the one side is almost all glass and you can see all of the people going up and down the escalators and steps. I was extremely suprised to see the dorms. They are like little apartments with a bathroom, microwave, refrigerator, air conditioning, and TV in every room. I could definatly go for that!

We left Olin and drove up to Boston, where we checked into the Hotel at MIT in Cambridge. The next day I met up with Roland for a tour of MIT. I never knew the MIT was so large. I was very impressed with the very different buildings on campus. They look a little funky, especially the computer engineering building (which you can see photos of in Roland's Smugmug), but it is what makes the school special. After the tour, my parents and I walked around Cambridge and then ate lunch at Mr. Bartley's Burger Cottage. If you ever go to Boston, eat here! They make some of the best burgers and frappes (which are milkshakes). Then we went to the MIT Museum. It is a very small museum, but has a lot of cool stuff. I didn't see anything past the 1990's, but it was still cool to see the robots and other stuff that was developed at MIT. Later that evening I met up with Roland and fellow SMES-ers for dinner in the north end.

Sunday we really didn't go on a formal tour, but we looked around BU, at which point I decided that I didn't want to go to school in the middle of a sprawling city such as Boston. Later in the day we walked around the heart of Boston and ended up going to Quincy Market for lunch. for dinner, we went to a quirky pizza place called Upper Crust. It was a very small place with only one table. At the end of this pretty big table there was a guy rolling the pizza dough. The pizza here was of the thin crust variety and was actually quite tasty.

It was now the last full day of the trip where we were going to to tour WPI and Northeastern...and have a little fun too. WPI was first on the list, but it was about 40 minutes outside of Boston in a town called Worcester (pronounced Wuhster). WPI is situated on top of a hill that overlooks Worcester (which is a pretty cool city with about 10 colleges). The campus itself was very cool and had a lot of character. The buildings were brick on the outside, but very modern on the inside. I liked the fact the school had old, classic campus looking buildings, yet was very nice to work and live in. Probably the coolest thing about the school is that they have their own nuclear reactor. It can power 2 computers and a toaster. One of the best parts of the school was the food. The cafeteria was more like a cafe. They had a huge variety, and even a Burger King for those who want fast food. This was the only school that gave the visiters free lunch. After lunch, we drove back to Boston to Northeastern. I was not impressed with Northeastern at all. It looked like a business park and the people there did not seem happy at all. This was the only college where an admissions person did not give us part of the tour (or even talk to us). The thing that was a little scary for a potential student is that they cannot guarantee housing. I was not impressed with the engineering part of the school either because it was one building the size of the Upper School at St. Margarets that enclosed all of the engineering classes. Another thing that did not impress me is the Co-op program. Essentially they ship you off to work for 6 months becasue they do not have housing for you. I don't think i will be applying to Northeastern any time soon...

Overall this was an awesome trip. I found out that I would like to go to a school in a suburban atmosphere. Something not too big, but also not too small. I want to thank Roland for the list of schools that eventually led me to this discovery. Stay tuned for more updates!

OMG!!!!

2005-08-14T22:11:00.000-07:00

I know ther ehaven't been any updates since I have been back from Boston, but I will have a very large post coming up soon (maybe tomorrow). This post is just a plug for Firefox and they hit the 80,000,000 downloads mark. If you aren't using Firefox, you need to get it now! I don't know how I survived without tabbed browsing...and that is only a small part of Firefox. Click on the button below to get it.

My trip so far..

2005-08-01T18:57:00.000-07:00

Well, I am writing this on a borrowed laptop. I have been having a lot of fn so far here in Cape Cod. I will be going to Boston at the end of the week ad I will try and update there. I will also post some pictures I have taken of the beautiful Cape Cod. Until nxt time...

Busy, Busy

2005-07-29T23:09:00.000-07:00

Well, Special Camp came to a close today. I am a little sad, but at the same time pretty happy. Jason had a great time and I was very pleased with my expirience at camp. I will definatly be coming back next year.

Tomorrow I will be leaving for Cape Cod where I will be going to the Frozen Ropes baseball camp for high school players. I will be there for 5 days and then I will be driving up to Boston to tour a bunch of schools. Along the way I will be meeting Roland Allen and a few of my friends. Stay tuned as I will try to update this blog while I am there.

Hollywood is going digital...finally

2005-07-28T18:11:00.000-07:00

It's true! Hollywood techies have gotten together and decided to get rid of the old reels. You can read about it more here.

Special Camp: Day 3

2005-07-27T18:15:00.000-07:00

We went to Adventure City today and Jason really liked it. For those of you that haven't been to Adventure City, it is kind of the kiddy area of a larger park like Knotts (where we are going tomorrow). I think it was perfect for today, but i was very dissapointed with the park. The first thing that I didn't like was the lack of good bathroom facilities. There were only 2 bathrooms in the whole park. There was one on the outside that only had 1 stall. That stall had a toliet that was full to the brim with fecal matter and toliet paper. The other bathroom in the park didn't have toliet paper or paper towels. Even the rest of the park was lacking. It was very small and the rides were very jerky. I guess it is alright for little kids, but I would rather go down the street to Knott's.

Another great day...

2005-07-26T22:04:00.000-07:00

It was another great day at Special Camp today. I have to say it was a lot more tiring than yesterday, but my camper, Jason, had a great time. We went to Ivey Ranch and rode horses in the morning and then went to a beach in Oceanside for the rest of the day. I'm exhausted and sunburned, but it was great to see Jason having a good time. Stay tuned for more updates!

New Map...

2005-07-22T22:58:00.000-07:00

Well, the first tech post i made was on a Google feature i found most useful. It seems I found another cool creation from Google. It isn't a creation, but more of an improvement on Google Maps. I find this particularly cool. It is sort of a hybrid between the satelite view and the classic map. I think it is extremely cool, and you can check out an example of what I mean here.

Google Homepage

2005-07-21T22:57:00.001-07:00

As you know by now, i am a little bit of a geek. I will always find time to point out a cool aplication or service, most of which are free. This little service comes from Google. You know how you have your My Yahoo page? This is Google's attempt at a customizable homepage, and it does a much better job than Yahoo ever did. All you have to do is go to http://www.google.com/ig and log in using your gmail username and password. After that, you are free to add cool stuff like stocks and weather (that you can even move around to your desired positions on the page). The best part of all of this is the fact there is no adds and it is free.

Out with the old, in with the new...

2005-07-21T22:57:00.000-07:00

Well, some of you saw my old blog, but i had to lay it to rest. I was dissapointed with the layout and really wanted to start new. I'll try and update this a couple times a week with all sorts of stuff. Most of you know this, but for those who don't, I am a little "nerdy" or "geeky". My largest obsession is computers. Mostly hardware, but I dabble in the software realm a little. Anyway, I will have cool, new things in the technology scene posted on here if I think about it. Well, enjoy!