The Asylum

New Home

2009-02-05T08:23:00.004-05:00

Okay so the new home is up and running. It will constantly be updated (maybe not with new info; but new appearance pretty often). Next project is to setup some type of blog/weekly report type page. Hope you all enjoy it...feel free to email thoughts to robinson.me@gmail.com

Edit: For John the title is the link but here you go (though apparently that was broken because blogger tries to internally redirect you or something wierd): Here

New Home

2009-02-03T07:22:00.002-05:00

As soon as the landing is prepared The Asylum will be travelling to a new home. (it allows me to do a few more things with my own website; updates will not occur as often as they have in the past here but they will be much more meaningful)

First steps and Custom Desktop

2008-12-05T20:28:00.005-05:00

First thing to do is the update.

Next I went to skype.com and downloaded their skype install package for Ubuntu. After this was installed I did the restart that the update required.

Next I decided to start customizing my desktop a little by cleaning up the panels.

First, I right-clicked on the top panel and deleted it. Then I right clicked on the bottom panel and added a new panel. Then I deleted the original bottom panel. I grabbed the new panel and moved it to the bottom (if it wasn't already there). I then right clicked this panel and did an add to panel. The first thing I added was the workspace switcher. I right-clicked, selected move and dragged it all the way to the right hand side and locked it in place. Next I added the clock and moved it all the way to the right and locked it. Next came the notification area then the window list.

Then to work on the left side of the panel. I first added the show desktop, moved it all the way to the left and locked it in place. Then I added the main menu, moved it all the way to the left and locked it in place.

Now to add a program launcher to the panel just click the menu, find the program in there and right click it...then choose "Add this launcher to panel". I went ahead and added Firefox, Skype, Pidgin, Gimp, OpenOffice Writer, and gedit (my most used stuff). Okay now we'll right click the panel one last time and go to properties, background. Here I chose solid color (hex code #000000 is black; #FFFFFF is white) and went black. Then cranked the style all the way to opaque. Now this does cause the text in the panel to be unreadable so to fix that we go to the Menu -> System -> Preferences -> Appearance where I chose the Dark Room theme for now.

Now the last thing I'm going to do today is to change my desktop background image. I'm going to cheat and use an image I found a long time ago on the web. Since then I've done a little bit of color editing on it so that it is red (rather than the original blue). Okay so the image I want is in my Pictures folder so I right click directly on the Desktop and choose "Change Desktop Background". I then click on +Add and browse to my Pictures folder and find the file I want. Click open. Set the Style option to Zoom (choose the option that looks best to you) and I changed the background color to black as well (just to be safe).

And now my desktop looks like this: (same as yours different image I would imagine)

So because the background image is black towards the bottom it looks like the bottom panel is floating there. Which is what I like. :)

Okay last thing for the night is make a keyboard shortcut for the terminal. So we go to Menu -> Preferences -> Keyboard Shortcuts. In the Keyboard Shortcuts window scroll down to the Desktop section there is one called Run a terminal click this line and then hit whatever key you want to be your terminal key (I used the Super L on my laptop which is the window button up near the top right). Okay that's all for the evening. Enjoy.

Fresh Start

2008-12-05T14:52:00.002-05:00

Okay so in preparation for the New Year I've decided to go ahead and carry out my "Fresh Start" program (which I just conceived).

I'm going to be wiping my comp and doing a nice fresh install of Ubuntu 8.10 (Intrepid Ibex) and then blogging about every detail of customization and whatnot from then on out. So in preparation for this process I nabbed a 2gb USB drive from my uncle (who got it at Wal-Mart for $5 a great deal).

Onto this drive I have loaded the following:
from my home directory: (folders that are preceded by a . are hidden and can be found by using Crtl+H)
.gimp-2.6/brushes
.gimp-2.6/fonts
.mozilla/firefox
Documents
Pics

These were all the folders that contained my various writings, codings, pictures; of the three hidden folders the two gimp ones contain all my downloaded brushes and fonts, the .mozilla/firefox folder holds all my bookmarks and saved passwords. So everything that can't really be remembered very easily (like I need to download Skype and Pidgin and enter my usernames so those buddy lists get restored). Anyways if I'm not here for a day or two it isn't because I don't like you...I'm just busy reconfiguring.

P.S. I didn't get any books from library thing early reviewers.. :(

Thanksgiving and Holidays

2008-12-01T18:24:00.002-05:00

Ah...Thanksgiving how I love the Pecan Pie you bring about. So another year's Thanksgiving where we all get together and eat obscene amounts of food then throw away more leftovers than many families see in a week; such a joy to be American. In any case we actually still have some leftovers as they are still good for a few more days so we'll try to eat them before the end. Was a great weekend. A pipe burst at my grandfather's so he had to shut off his water causing Thanksgiving day lunch/supper/dinner (whatever it's called when you eat at 2pm) to be moved from his house to my parent's house. My mother of course was a nervous wreck since it was moved the morning of and she didn't have time to "properly" clean, even though the house probably would have passed a white glove test. Well family came over, food was eaten, football was watched, and naps were taken; good times had by all (especially me since I was one of the nap takers). After the family was done at my parent's house we headed over to my mom's mom's house where that side of the family partially gathered for desserts; I say partially because my Grandmother hadn't been feeling well so she canceled the official dessert party she usually has. Friday nothing happened. Saturday nothing happened. Sunday nothing happened. Today was Monday...nothing happened. Tomorrow I plan on applying for a job at the casino before heading to my class in the evening. We'll see what happens with that. I promise I'll re-install Ubuntu soon and blog the whole customization process but I just haven't been in the mood to mess with that lately. Anyways, downloaded new fonts and brushes for Gimp (free art program very similar to Photoshop but free), and I've been playing with that lately. Enjoy the most recent work. That still needs to be cleaned up and professionalized.

An animated user bar for a forum sig...got to love VanGogh vodka:

An actually proper sig for a forum not much but still something I made:

Another uneventful weekend

2008-11-25T20:48:00.002-05:00

So yet another do nothing weekend. I babysat on Friday night (my nephew who is 3 and niece who is nearing 2). Then after that I went to a friend's house (Matt the Pellilo for those in the know) where he, Stites, and I (three Matts so very confusing) played Halo 3 and drank...until about 3am...then we started playing quarters while watching Boondock Saints (it was decided quarters was better for our liver than doing a shot every time they said fuck - 213 or so). Waking up the next morning we proceeded to watch Tropic Thunder (a ridiculously hilarious movie that I recommend watching either drunk or another form of intoxication though none is required for enjoyment). After the movie we played some more of The Halo. After enough time we all headed to our respective houses. Not much done on Sunday some stuff with my online game. Monday I slept a great deal...such is life. Today I have done nothing except go to class and write this post. I need a project to work on. I think I'll start my computer reconstruction either Friday night or Saturday. Later all.

Wacky computer fun

2008-11-21T04:59:00.003-05:00

Okay so we all know that I'm a geek. I love my technology and I haven't posted enough about technology lately so today I'll be posting about my current computer and set-up (that means I'll be editing this post all day so keep checking back).

First, I no longer run the evil empire's OS. The move to Vista was something I didn't want to be a part of plus I wanted to expand my knowledge of the software workings of my computer. So I long ago switched to Ubuntu Linux. Just the other day I finally upgraded to 8.10 (the Intrepid Ibex). I have to say that so far I am very happy with the new version it seems even more stable with fewer visual bugs than 8.04 (Hardy Heron); though Hardy Heron was still a good OS.

Well that's it for now as I'm feeling ADDish so I'll be back in a few hours with some more notes on how I've customized my set-up.

(This bloody spellcheck is British!! it wants customize spelled with an s instead of a z. Ah well thank goodness for Add to Dictionary)

Edit 4PMish: Okay so I haven't exactly come back and updated this. I think I've decided that I'm going to instead rip everything off...re-install and then chronicle the whole process (things like where to find files that you want to save so they aren't formatted over and the best ways to go about saving those files and such). After doing that which I'll probably blog over a week or so I'll start posting about Adobe Flex for Linux which I have recently discovered and want to talk a bit about. In any case I won't be updating this until either late on Saturday or sometime Sunday because I'm off to babysit niece and nephew in a bit and then I'm playing video games later tonight and all today tomorrow with Stites so busy with very important things. I'll catch you guys up later on though.

Laying the smack down

2008-11-19T21:29:00.002-05:00

Okay so one of my current duties in my online persona is be a forum moderator. Now I'm kind of the head forum moderator (admins have said it but the positional ranking doesn't reflect that, because of various reasons). Anyways, we have a person of a lower maturity level who tends to not differentiate his in-game persona and his moderating persona. This of course leads to some serious issues since he is one of the more powerful players in the game. Recently he decided to overstep his authority and do some retarded things thus seriously pissing me off. Never a good idea. Anyways, so I'm in the middle of laying things down to him and he is pretty much ignoring what I'm saying because he doesn't understand the way that even though our forums reside within someone else's...we're totally separate. So I bring in the game admin to the chat conversation.

His entire attitude changed instantly. Was like night and day. So we got the basic guidelines sorted out to him and made him realise that we operate independently and differently than the forum that we are within. So now the admin and I are bringing in another moderator whom I've known from gaming for a while, but the best part is that he and the immature mod don't really get along too well. Hilarity will soon be ensuing. Anyways, the reason I'm posting this is because my general life is boring. I need to find a hot woman with enough money to make me independently wealthy. That or get a job. Later all.

Free Books!!

2008-11-16T15:50:00.005-05:00

Okay so yesterday (I think it was) the list of available books for Library Things Early Reviewers came out. Here are the one's I'm trying to get. Sorry about the length but you can scroll a lot easier than I can figure out how to stagger and spoiler box.

Hotel on the Corner of Bitter And Sweet - a book about the Panama Hotel in Seattle and one man's memories of WWII and the interment of our Japanese citizens.

Circumference - a book about Eratosthenes an ancient Greek who made the first accurate measurement of a spherical Earth.

Gomorrah - being a novel of the corruption of Naples. (Having just finished City of Falling Angels which is about Venice and Venetians I think I'll enjoy this one if I get it).

Firmin - a novel about a mouse (or a rat) born into a bookstore where his family feeds mainly on books. He actually reads the books. An interesting idea that I find would make a compelling story line.

Genius and Heroin - a novel about how some of the most creative artists, writers and musicians have also been drug abusers. As someone hoping to one day be a writer it will be an interesting introspective into some of the figures that I admire.

There were a few others that I have elected to pick up. But these are by far some of the ones I'm really hoping to win. In any event I'll let you all know as soon as I know. Well back to your lives of not posting on your blogs (or commenting on mine). I'll talk to you all later.

Lucky Son of a Gun!!

2008-11-12T01:39:00.002-05:00

Okay so I'm a little late on this post however the evening was well worth it.

So after my class this evening I went to the Casino here for dinner with my parents and our neighbors. After dinner since I only had $60 in my pocket (no job sucks) I talked my father into "loaning" me some money. He gave me $40 and said that was all he had for me. So I proceeded to walk around looking for a "lucky" slot machine (I am now certain that is an oxymoron). So I found one called Mermaid something-or-other and put $20 bucks in. Betting 20 lines at 1 credit per line (a credit being 2 cents) my first spin cost me 40 cents. This spin however garnered me 10 free spins. During the course of these 10 free spins I won 20 more free spins and the 30 free spins total won me about $48 so my total money in the machine was $68.40. Now the debate of staying or going on this machine. I decided one more spin wouldn't hurt (and if I lost would put me at a nice even $68 as I hate change). So I pressed the button and wonder of wonders, I lost. So I cashed out and went in search of a new machine to win on. After two failed machines I decided that maybe my being up $8 or so was a sign and cashed out my tickets. This left me with a little over $100. I promptly headed for the poker room.

I walk up to the poker room sign in desk and get a seat on a $1-2 No-Limit Hold'em Table. I turn to buy chips and don't even have to stand in line as there is a brush (manager type) trying to offload chips for whatever reason. So I grab my $100 in chips and head to the table. After one or two small wins and some throw away hands I'm sitting at about $80-90 when a guy on the other goes on tilt. Now sometimes being on tilt can be good but most (if not nearly all) of the time it's very bad. The guy takes his stack of $75ish and goes all-in before the cards are even dealt. Normally I'd be ecstatic about behavior like this because I'd have a deep enough pocket to rebuy and eventually bust him but tonight I've only got what's on the table. So after about 5-6 hands of him going all-in blind (I think he got 1 call and he ended up winning it by luck) I'm about to ask for a table transfer. I check my hole cards and see a beautiful Ace, King off-suit. Now the worse that my starting odds could be are something like 48% (unless someone had pocket Aces or pocket Kings but that's a low likelihood) so I'm elated by my luck. The guy next to the blind all-iner calls (although he may have called blind as well crazy people up there), then the guy two seats in front of me calls as well. I now have a chance to pretty much quadruple my $70ish dollars. I make the plunge and push my chips in.

We all roll our cards. First guy, the blind all-iner gets lucky and flips an Ace, five off suit. His blind caller next to him has Ace, nine off suit. The guy two seats in front of me rolls over Ace, three suited. I roll my Ace, King and everyone not in the hand decides I better win because I have the best starting hand.

Dealer lazily rolls out the flop. Jack, Seven, Ten. We all check that nobody paired and the two card hole flush is now dead as he didn't match up suits. Turn gets a dramatic pause and it's a queen. I can't believe that no one has paired yet as I'm freaking out that a pair can kill me the guy just in front of me who had folded says, "You've locked it with a straight." There it was Ten to the Ace. The only thing I didn't want to see was a river King because then we'd all split out. River card is held as the dealer plays up the moment. He flips it and we've got six no pairs for anyone, no King to give everyone the straight I take down a pot worth about $350. I nearly shat myself. Thankfully our tilter still has more money and he rebuys for another $100. I'm happy now because I can call him on his blind and bust him again whenever I get good cards.

A few hands later we're discussing what would be good enough to call a $100+ all in pre-flop when the guy after me calls it. He rolls over pocket Kings and we're all certain he's taking the pot when out comes a miraculous pair of Fives on the board to match the hole Five that our tilting all-iner had. He continues his antics pushing in $253. I've got around $350 dollars so I can call and still be good for the night as it's been enjoyable so far (but those hole cards are going to have to be damn impressive for that). We're all joking about calling with things like Brunson's Ten Deuce when I look at my hole cards to see pocket Queens. Now being the lover of the ladies that I am I knew this to be a sign. I start counting chips and the table goes crazy..we're going to have a $500+ pot pre-flop.

The dealer counts out my chips and smashes together a huge pile for us to go to war over. I flip my Queens and our tilted all-iner goes pale. He checks his cards for the first time and tosses out an Eight Deuce off suit. "Dealer I'll give you $25 if you make it happen." he calls across the table.

I look at the Dealer and say, "Billy you already know how good a tipper I am from last time." Flop rolls out with Five, Queen, Seven; I've now got a Set of Queens. The ladies are in love with me. Turn is a bust delivering no help to anyone so I've now secured this pot. River comes out Five giving me a Full Boat Queens full of Fives. I rake in a $500+ pot after a few more hands I decide that it's a night and head home. I paid back not only the $40 I had borrowed earlier that evening but also the $100 I had gotten some two or three months before (I hadn't wanted to use the ATM and then had just never repaid him). My mom of course then asks for $20 because she apparently doesn't have any cash so I give her that (since I'm a good son and owe them so much anyways). So right now on my dresser is $385; of which about $300 was earned in about 3 hours playing some really exciting and enjoyable poker.

Well good night folks and I wish all of you some luck in whatever you do tomorrow (don't worry I'm not going back to the casino for some time as I have to build my karma back up). Later all.

You folks are slacking out there

2008-11-10T15:32:00.002-05:00

Okay, so I skived off posting this weekend. I did not hear groans of misery or wails of protest occur within the comments section so you folks are slacking out there. On to my life though.

Well, Saturday I spent with family celebrating a cousin's wedding. He got married down in the Islands so only a few folks were able to attend and he hosted a dinner at the Columbia (in Ybor) so that his family here could celebrate. Excellent time and good food. I was entrusted with the job of photographer so I'll let you guys know how those turned out in case it's a possible career path (doubtful). Yesterday was fairly uneventful just lounged around the house as it was a Sunday. Throughout the weekend I did some bug testing and a small bit of writing (not nearly enough though). Well back to the grind. I'll see you folks tomorrow.

Where's the Dominatrix?

2008-11-07T23:18:00.002-05:00

Okay, so no one has sent a dominatrix over yet so I figured I'd go ahead and post. Not a lot happened today. Went over to my uncle's and repaired his PC (had some bad memory and corrupted version of Windows on the HD due to power surge); that took a large portion of the day. Then I cooked up some dinner. Well left-over chicken from last night, but I cooked up some green beans, yellow rice, and peas. Overall great dinner. The rest of the evening was pretty much spent goofing off with one of the admins and another tester from Chaos. Chatting on skype and just general bouncing ideas off each other. Tomorrow may or may not get a chance to post as we're celebrating my cousin's wedding (he got married down in the islands and now he is taking us all out to the Columbia restaurant for celebration). So that's about it for the day then. Later all.

Habits are created by forcing yourself to do unusual things

2008-11-06T09:36:00.004-05:00

Okay so the old rumor is that if you do something for like 10-15 days it will become a habit. Well here goes. In an effort to get this back to a regular occurrence I figured why the hell not. Crystal in answer to your question in the comments: well that all depends on how attached you are to your husband's soul, or even his presence. Seriously people spend ridiculous amounts of time on that game but if he enjoys web-based games he may want to check it out. It being text based it may not appeal to him but one never knows. And if he just wants to check it out and then has any constructive criticism feel free to pass that along. On to other topics. I'm about to go take a shower (see I stay hygienic and clean because long ago I was forced to take them every day so now it's a habit) and then go and apply for a job as either a teacher or teaching assistant at the day care down the road from my house. I'm not certain if this is a good thing or a bad thing. It'd be a job that requires me to conform to a regular schedule, however (and this is a big however) I think I may kill a child because I can't usually stand them for any length of time. Especially younger ones that are allowed to act like they don't know the difference between right and wrong. You know they know it however they are such manipulative little bastards that no one else realizes it. Anyways, I'll probably apply to every location between there and the interstate because I need a job for the holidays at least (if not something more permanent).

Ah well, in any case if anyone reading this is interested in perhaps resurrecting the tradition of supporting artists feel free to send me checks and I'll write poems, stories or whatnot dedicated to your patronage. Speaking of which I need to finish this short I'm working on to try and get it published. Okay, I'm out for the day. If I'm not back tomorrow send a dominatrix to tell me what a bad boy I am. (I'm seriously thinking of skipping tomorrow in the hopes that someone will do that.) Good day to you all.

Late Edit: I've added the link to my Library Thing profile in the World's Beyond Section on the side. I've also replaced my Hamlet quote with something I wrote myself a bit back. Comments are fine.

O how I love to resurrect old things...

2008-11-05T07:16:00.002-05:00

So, maybe this will hold a bit better this time. Who knows I may lose interest after just this post yet again. Don't count on anything very regular as we all know I'm bound to just go wandering off after some tangent thought that obliterates all recollection that this even exists. In any case. Onward, for you Crystal (because you probably don't know yet and I know you'll get an RSS on this) I graduated last May with my degree in English - Creative Writing (woohoo). Now all I have to do is find a job (I love my parents!!).

Things I currently find fun. Well John just introduced me to this thing called LibraryThing where you can put all of your books into an online library and so forth (no I haven't yet finished listing all my books it takes a while to get books, find the ISBN, enter it and then select them). In any case that is something I'll probably find entertaining for a while because they may send me free books to review (and I would never tire of free books).

Next up we have my daily entertainment. I began to help work on an online browser based video game (honestly I'm not sure any of you will enjoy it as it is a text based strategy game that eats your soul...I mean life). I no longer play it though because it just takes up so much time however I still help test new developments, find and kill bugs, and I believe I may start doing some actual coding for it. Anyways it is thematically based off of the television show Stargate and Stargate: Atlantis (how I found it) but theme is about as far as the basis goes. Here is the link. If you happen to check it out you'll find me beating people on the forum under the name of Thade (it's an anagram of death how clever am I?). In any case that's that. Other current areas of entertainment for me are watching House (which is on USA all the time now so the DVR has like 10 episodes to view at a time for marathons) and going to my brother's house to see my niece and nephew. All in all I lead a very uninteresting life at the moment. After having talked to John and Tiff the other night I want them to move to London or Paris and take me with them so I can get a crappy job without a work visa get found out and deported so I can begin my career as an American Political Activist (a very brief stint in a foreign jail could possibly be beneficial as well). O well the stuff of dreams.

Anyone out there interested in helping me write a cyberpunk television show? I've already got about 3 episodes outlined just need to actually have someone focus me into writing them (focus is always my issue I'm so much more an idea man). Toodles (that isn't used enough), I'm signing out.

O like a phoenix

2008-03-06T07:43:00.002-05:00

Okay so today is March 6 of the year 2008. Let's just go ahead and admit that I'm not perfect. I know groans of disappointment and despair are echoing around the world as people read this. In any case first things first, I believe that death is the only definition of life, therefore I must come to grips with the fact that regardless of my personal belief that science and medicine will extend life expectancy to beyond 200 years I'm much more likely to die before I'm 80. Thus I must begin getting on with the whole living for a purpose thing. Now the hard part.

What the hell is my purpose? Yes, yes, a rather esoteric and pretty meaningless question to ask, especially rhetorically, even worse when I don't know the answer myself. Well, for the time being I'm going to go ahead and examine what possible purpose I could have by exploring other avenues that are currently available. Namely, what am I passionate about? Now most people would consider this an easy question to answer, they'd spew off a list of at least five if not twenty things which they feel they are genuinely passionate about. I however was once broken up with by a girl because she said I lacked passion for anything. At the time I thought the girl wrong but she was all to right. I really could give two shits about everything. Is this really a bad thing? Well, I'll worry about that later. I've just endured another sleepless night and now that it is near 8am I"m thinking of doing something rather unproductive like veg in front of the TV watching idiotic stupidity or veg in front of the TV playing meaningless unrealistic video games. Ah, the choices of the quarter life crisised white anglo protestant male. At least I'm not out buying a sports car....wait that's because I've got about $100 and no current money making prospects....

Is anyone actually reading this?

Happy Birthday to Me

2006-10-27T18:31:00.000-04:00

Okay, so yesterday was my b-day. I'm still waiting for all of the fabulous gifts I know everyone bought me to arrive but I'm sure they'll be here by the end of next week. And now for your thrity second update. Mid-terms were great two 89s and a 95. my other two classes don't have mids. My essay writing style has vastly improved and my creative writing (poetry) has improved in my head though I haven't actually gotten anything on paper. I'm considering joing the the Nano writers month idea in order to write a novel and be encouraged by a large group to do so in small bits every day. In any case that's your time limit on the update and I'm off to prepare for the most insane drunkfest of all time that is being covered as a halloween party and we're making the girls dress as skankily as possible and drink insane amounts to encourage less inhibition. As you all can notice I still have horrid spelling, not sure that will ever improve. Good night and good luck with your helloween partying. Pictures of tonights event will be posted unless very incriminating. Later and Night.

Happy Birthday Josh

2006-10-11T03:50:00.000-04:00

Okay so today was my brother Joshua's birthday (10th) which means we're that much closer to my birthday (26th). I know that you are all planning on sending me some fantastic gifts so go ahead and drop them in the mail so they get here on time. So happy B-day to my bro, now moving on.

There is no real theme or central idea for this post I'm just bored and I finished most of Shakespeare exam so I figured I'd take a break and write a blog entry since I hadn't done that in a while. Speaking of which, the fact that I haven't been able to update as often as I like is now remedied. My parents decided that since my desktop was broken, and they were tired of me coming home all the time in order to use their computer for homework, they went and bought me a new laptop. Now I really can't express my gratitude so I'll just say that I'm really happy and I'm not expecting a birthday present from them, probably not even a Christmas present. So I'm slowly getting this bad boy set-up to my standards and expectations (you know removing IE and setting up firefox, installing OpenOffice, all the usual nerdy basics). Anyways, if anyone knows of any cool programs for customization or any nice desktop backgrounds feel free to drop me a line and let me know about it.

Well I'm really not sure what I was doing with this post because I got completely distracted in the middle of writing it so here's to moving on and just publishing. Hope it all goes well. Good night and be zen.

Think About It

Galactica

2006-10-06T22:59:00.000-04:00

“You can enjoy ”Battlestar” as one of the best, well-made, written and acted sci-fi series in the history of the medium. You can also see it as the single most devastating, incisive critique of the Iraq war ever promoted in pop culture.

Substitute New Caprica for Iraq, the humans for the Iraqis and the Cylons for Americans and you won’t sleep well at night.”

-By Mark A. Perigard at the Boston Herald

This simple parallel could of course be argued for, but why couldn't one simply reverse this as well? I mean the Cylons are the ones who launch a sneak attack that undermines the Caprican defenses, similar to the terrorist attack of 9/11. The Cylons are all reborn just as the suicide bombers believe they will be rewarded for sacrificing themselves for the cause of Allah. I think what the writers of "Battlestar" are really trying to accomplish is something much deeper, they don't want to draw current political parallels, they would much rather draw broader conclusions that can be applied more generally and have a more timeless appeal. The Cylon vs. Children of Kobal war could be drawn to illustrate nearly any war in human history, simply pick a side and begin to draw basic parallels to support your argument. The writers are attempting to show the pointlessness of war – especially, I believe, from an offensive side. When one side attacks another, even if there was little, to no, hostility towards the initial attackers, the side which is attacked must then make a choice. That choice is: fight for who we are and what we believe, or, surrender to the wishes of our oppressors and give up our way of life because the fight is too much. Starbuck says, “We fight until we can't fight anymore.” She doesn't say 'we fight until it is pointless.' The immortal words of Emiliano Zapata would be of great benefit to those of New Caprica sitting on the fence as to whether they should join the Resistance, “It is better to die on your feet than live on your knees.” I do have to agree that "Battlestar" is most definitely one of the best ever conceived and executed shows, past or present, on television; however, I worry that due to being a sci-fi show it is too quickly dismissed, or outright ignored, by larger audiences. The commentary that one is capable of through the combined medium of science fiction and television allows for mind-boggling ideas and concepts to abound, one can only hope that the sci-fi channel will continue to shelter such innovating shows.

On a completely different note, well kind of, check this out.

Reworking

2006-10-05T02:47:00.000-04:00

Okay, so as a pioneer of change and adaptation/adoption, I have decided to convert over to Blogger Beta and try out some of their control features. They offer more flexibility but also have a higher learning curve. I'm going to have to take a weekend some time and really dig into what is going on with the HTML/Scripting within the page. Overall I think Blogger is moving in the right direction by trying to become more customizable for individual users. I'm looking forward to being a part of this beta and whenever I screw-up my page I hope you all don't laugh too much at what's going on with it. That's all for now, I have mid-terms that I must needs return to. Good night.

AAAAAAAAAAAaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa

2006-09-24T17:08:00.000-04:00

Blah I was seriously bored after finishing some research for my Coffee Presentation due for Brit Lit tomorrow. I'll see if I can figure out a way to post a powerpoint slide show later. For now, enjoy this randomness.

Modern, Cool Nerd

82 % Nerd, 60% Geek, 26% Dork

For The Record:

A Nerd is someone who is passionate about learning/being smart/academia.

A Geek is someone who is passionate about some particular area or subject, often an obscure or difficult one.

A Dork is someone who has difficulty with common social expectations/interactions.

You scored better than half in Nerd and Geek, earning you the title of: Modern, Cool Nerd.

Nerds didn't use to be cool, but in the 90's that all changed. It used to be that, if you were a computer expert, you had to wear plaid or a pocket protector or suspenders or something that announced to the world that you couldn't quite fit in. Not anymore. Now, the intelligent and geeky have eked out for themselves a modicum of respect at the very least, and "geek is chic." The Modern, Cool Nerd is intelligent, knowledgable and always the person to call in a crisis (needing computer advice/an arcane bit of trivia knowledge). They are the one you want as your lifeline in Who Wants to Be a Millionaire (or the one up there, winning the million bucks)!

Congratulations!

Thanks Again! -- THE NERD? GEEK? OR DORK? TEST

Everyone needs an Addiction....

2006-09-20T17:28:00.000-04:00

Okay so, I have a presentation on Monday in my Brit. Lit. 1616-1780 class. This has to be on a historical thing somewhat related to our current readings. Since we just had to read some newspaper/periodical (personal) essays from the time period i noticed there was continuous reference to coffee houses. Being an addict of the bean I decided that perhaps this would be an appropriate topic. Any and all help on this would be appreciated, places for research and such (John I know you're an addict as well so if you know some sites that give a history of the bean in England I'd appreciate it. But not just the bean I mainly want to examine the phenom of the coffee house. They were used as gathering places for discussion and depending on the house different topics of discussion.

First, who decided what topic in what coffee house?
Second, why don't we do this anymore?
Third, why coffee houses and not somewhere else?
Fourth, how long did this phenom take to grip the public?

So with those questions in mind I am setting off on some research before my evening class. Any and all help that can be converted into powerpoint slides would be appreciated. thank you.

love,

Where does all the time go?

2006-09-13T17:14:00.000-04:00

So here I sit in the library out at USF waiting on my most interesting class, Comparative Translation in Lit. and Film, to begin. Now I've slowly come to the realization this semester that I am attempting to bite off quiet a bit more than any normal human could possibly chew. I have 15 hours AT school. I usually work about 30 or so hours at Macaroni Grill, I've started another part time job where I do about 8 hours a week, with a bit of driving time. So when we look at my total week hours I'm at 53 hours actually doing something and probably about 7 hours of driving time. So 60 hours are accounted for. Now I'd say I probably average about 7 hours of sleep per night so that's another 49 hours bringing us to 109 hours that are definetly being used. There are what, about 168? hours in a week? (confirmed with calc. 7 * 24) where are these 59 hours I'm supposed to have going? even if I averaged about 9 hours of sleep bringing me to account for 123 hours that's still 45 hours I can't find. I believe the evil viewing box in the downstairs living room to be the evil culprit, though perhaps it could be friends and alcohol. I try to read for homework as much as I can but it just seems there isn't any time. I'm going to have to study my habits closely this week in order to see where all this damn time is getting off to. I think football ate some of it this weekend but that was a decent investment as I won $90 off of a football pool at work. With Stites's help I picked 13 winning games out of the 16 played.

Well I leave you with this message from E. B. White found here
“I get up every morning determined to both change the world and to have one hell of a good time. Sometimes, this makes planning the day difficult.”

and from Aristotle found here at the bottom
“We live in deeds, not years; In thoughts not breaths; In feelings, not in figures on a dial. We should count time by heart throbs...”

Signing off for now,

The New World Order

2006-09-06T17:42:00.000-04:00

I really shouldn't title this post that, but I'm currently drawing a blank on what else I might call it. Anyways, let's see what else is going on. I actually went to my classes today (well not the 6pm one because that hasn't occured yet though I am rushing this post off in order to grab some Starbucks and still make class on time - or close to it), so that makes three successful days of classes, only about two dozen more to go. Anyways, the primary elections were yesterday and sadly Rhonda Storms (searched for a webpage but couldn't find one in time) won the Republican primary for State Senate so I'm looking closely into Stephan Gorham who is the Democratic candidate for the State Senate in my district. So when I have a bit more time I'll post more, for now I have to grab some Starbucks and run to "Comparitive Translations in Film and Literature" or something like that, we're watching Lost in Translation. Everyone else have a great night and we'll talk later. I may be able to provide a review of Beerfest later on.

How terrorism is winning....

2006-08-30T11:49:00.000-04:00

Okay so, here I am at school once again (the whole my comp doesn't work thing) and my first class of the day is canceled (after 15 mins and the teacher not showing up we made a roll and left). I head over here to the library to check a few things, one of them being Crystal's blog (I've been way out of the loop but I picked a great week to get back in). In her blog she talks about her friend Andy's blog which was discussing an article written by an Arab-American. Here is a quick little excerpt from that article but I'd recommend linking through the title of this post to the entire story:

He said "people are feeling offended because of your t-shirt". I looked at my t-shirt: I was wearing my shirt which states in both Arabic and English "we will not be silent".

I said "I am very sorry if I offended anyone, I didnt know that this t-shirt will be offensive". He asked me if I had any other T-shirts to put on, and I told him that I had checked in all of my bags and I asked him "why do you want me to take off my t-shirt? Isn't it my constitutional right to express myself in this way?" The second man in a greenish suit interfered and said "people here in the US don't understand these things about constitutional rights". So I answered him "I live in the US, and I understand it is my right to wear this t-shirt".

Okay so now you're getting interested and beginning to wonder why I titled my post this way. Well think about it folks what are the goals of terrorists? To corrupt and destroy the culture of the West (for us that's the American culture, life liberty pursuit of happiness and so forth). Who cares what the t-shirt says even? It is a person's constitutional right to express themself through free speech. I understand shouting "fire" in a crowded theatre is illegal. But standing on the street corner and decrying the state of our government is not. If a guy wants to wear a t-shirt that has arabic script on it, I'd still get on the plane and not give a rat's ass about it. If there were a plane half filled with people wearing t-shirts with arabic script I may be a little more hesitant but I'd probably try to start a conversation with one or two of them to figure out why so many folks on the plane were wearing an arabic t-shirt. In any case I've got to run off to class (if this one is canceled as well I may just call it a day).

The new challenges for me in life are to keep up with school, continue to make money for bills, and stay up to date on all the political and social retardation that is occuring within this once great nation I currently call home (I will be relying on some of you out there to keep me updated with stories like the one I stole from Crystal). In any case have a great day everyone and keep it real.

A bit of a revealing tease....

2006-08-28T19:04:00.000-04:00

So I figured I would attempt to start this school year off properly and once again take up the torch of my long forgotten blog. Well first things first. I am currently single, so all you ladies feel free to drop me a line any time you happen to be in Florida or even if you're not in Florida as I enjoy conversing with the opposite sex on matters intellectual, social, and ridiculous. So now that the big good news is out of the way on to the more mundane.

Yes, I am still in school. Unlike John though I am not pursuing a Master's degree I am still attempting to find that damnable Bachelor's one first; they have it hidden rather well down here at the University of South Florida, I think they like the AKA of U Stay Forever. To be a bit more precise within this news I am currently enrolled in four classes: a writing class, American Lit 1912-1945 (the teacher being Stone from my Con(temporary) Lit. class the previous Spring), Early Shakespeare (we're doing Romeo and Juliet, The Merchant of Venice, As You Like It, Henry IV - Part I, and Hamlet, and Brit(ish) Lit. 1616 - 1780 (one that has been a plague before); I am also attempting to get enrolled into another Selected American Authors class (depending on the authors), as well as a Form and Technique of Poetry (this one just requires a form to be filled out plenty of slots). So feel free to bug the crap out of me regarding how any of these classes are going or if you are really insane and wish to have any discussions on any particular topics that touch upon these classes let me know because I may be insane enough to engage in such conversation - perhaps from the mingling of our two insane conversations a genuinely brilliant thought may form.

Next up on the list is the discussion of work. God how it is horrid. I watched Office Space the last night and I realized that this is most definitely how I feel about being a server/bartender at Macaroni Grill (or most likely any restaraunt if I were to try somewhere else). I have begun looking/training in another part-time job (yes I'm a busy busy little bee or whatever). The new job basically involves doing financial services for families. It's a company called Primerica, a subsidiary of CitiGroup (red umbrella). What I do is both recruit new associates/agents and I do complimentary financial needs analysee (is that the proper form of analysis?). We then help the family/individual get on track for becoming debt free and prepared for retirement as soon as possible, so we sell Life Insurance, Mortgages/Loans, and we do Securities Investments. Don't ask me how the pay is I don't really know yet but I know that the person in charge of the office I work out of has only been with the company about two years and already makes over 200k per year (not such a bad chunk of change). If anything it should prove to be a rewarding and lucrative part-time job.

So for this evening what is planned you ask? First, I need to finish this up. Next, I'm rereading an article "Can Poetry Matter?" by Dana Gioia (first published in The Atlantic Monthly, May 1991 (we're discussing this in poetry on Wed.). Then I'm heading out to some bar with Katie to have a few drinks and then chill out at my house. Ah, yes something I forget completely about because I haven't realized how long it has been since I updated this. I no longer live at home. I moved into a house with that girl from the last post, Gibson (we went out but that is no longer occurring and I have to say I'm really glad about this because I realized how completely different we were), there are also three other guys living the house, it's pretty damned big so it's not a huge deal to have five people living in one place; in fact I barely ever see my housemates except the two I work with and I really only see them at work (my god what a horrid run-on but I like it). Needless to say with five folks living in a house rent is cheap but utilities are high, I seem to have reallocated all my going out to dinner/drinking money towards bills instead so this necessitated a change in lifestyle to being a bit more of a homebody so books and movie recommendations are always appreciated, intellectual fare preferred for during the course of the semester, though weekends may be great for vegging.

Last bit of news. I don't really have a computer right now (no idea what's wrong with the current just crapped out), however I will attempt to post an entry as often as I can by stealing time on the 'rents' comp as well as the roomies' comps. If you are feeling particularly generous drop me a line on how to send donations we here at the Matthew Robinson Needs Money Foundation are willing to accept cash or check and make sure that 100% of the donated money goes towards our cause with no administrative fees what-so-ever. (I'd be willing to wager you'll not find another charity with that kind of usage rate (double meaning on the word usage). )

MacDaddy Cool

2006-03-07T19:15:00.000-05:00

John, we all know I am MacDaddy cool. It's just how it is. As for where is MacShack, it is how I and several other employees refer to Macaroni Grill, the place I've worked the last two years now. Wow....I had totally forgotten that I was writting this and all of a sudden I found the tab open so now I'm back. In any case. School is going well. I've got an A and a B on my philosphy papers, the mid-term for that is tomorrow I should be fine. I've got an A in my Contemporary Lit. class. I've gotten mostly A's on things for my Narration and Description class and I should get the mid-term back tomorrow for that (I feel good), my Selected American Authors class though has me worried, I get that mid-term back tomorrow as well but we only have three grades in that class, mid-term, final and journal. Hopefully I did well. Anyways, not much else going on in life. Work, School and a bit of a social life. I've met a really great girl, her name is Gibson and I work with her. I've actually been hanging out with her pretty much since the Superbowl. She's a lot of fun but our philosophical views are a bit antagonistic to one another, for example she doesn't really believe in the human soul. o well, in any case she's cool and whenever any of you stop into town you should at least meet her because she's fun to talk and drink with. Well I'm off to go watch Capote I'll update you all again in a bit.

Zen-ness :-) Will be coming to you at a later time due to internet difficulties.

"When the people fear their government, there is tyranny; when the government fears the people, there is liberty." -Thomas Jefferson

Are you happy now?

2006-02-20T11:20:00.000-05:00

School takes up a lot of time. Life is good. I'm now also a bartender at MacShack. Hope all is well with everyone. I have a philosophy paper due in about 4 hours, I haven't started yet. I have a mid-term tonight that I have to finish preparing for. Hope you folks are better at not procrastinating than I am. Your Zen courtesy of Matt Stites, who is actually getting a real job soon. More on that later.

As seen on Break.com

Lost in posting

2006-01-18T22:39:00.000-05:00

I wrote a post but firefox crashed in another tab I had open causing all of the work to be lost. Leaves something to be said for those crappy seperate windows that IE uses currently. Ah well such is life. Everything is going well and I've got homework. I'm not going to rewrite a post. Later all.

Follow the link for your moment of zen since Blogger won't let us view video through them.

School Daze

2006-01-11T01:21:00.000-05:00

Okay. So I'm sure you're all overly anticipatory about my first day back in college. Let me tell you now it was a big relief. We'll begin at the beginning and end at the end – I hear this is usually a good way to go about doing a narrative.

First off I woke up at about 6:30 am....holy crap. I usually only see this time of day as I'm getting home or beginning to think about bed; I had to go to bed at like 11pm on Sunday night. Morning routine...yadda yadda. I get out of the house just after 7am – how do all these people do this? Morning drive seems a lot longer than it ever has before, must try a different route to school on the 23rd.

So my first class of the day is Science, Technology, Society Interaction. I'm going to admit that I'm a little worried about the class. However, it seems as though we are going to be able to take the course in nearly any direction that we as a student/participant wish to take it. So rather than dropping and getting a refund – although I technically haven't paid yet so I would get a refund just a reduced price – I've decided to go ahead and stick with it and get my exit requirements finished as well as practically develop an STS course for myself. If I really have as much leeway as I'm imagining then I'll really enjoy the course. Second thing about it, self-grading. Sometimes bad, often good; I'm looking forward to this part. There is going to be a bit of outside work required, projects (what class doesn't have them?), site visits (should be interesting), media watch (I'm not really sure on exactly what this is yet), journals (all classes apparently love these now), and video reviews (should be some good videos at least). Overall, should be a good course, the only worry is that since only four people are in the class there is the possibility it will be canceled and all my thought on the subject is moot.

Second class is Selected American Authors. I had no idea who the “selected authors” were – turns out we're going with Melville and a smidgen of Hawthorne – but I was a little worried about the course and had a few back-ups in mind. In any case, the teacher turned out to be rather funny, though she does have a habit of clearing her throat every few sentences (something I'm sure I'll eventually tune out). Some of the other students seem pretty intelligent, funny, and most importantly there are some cute looking girls in the class. The teacher said the class is going to start slow in order to make sure we don't get too far ahead, in case students join the class at the end of the week and then we don't have class on Monday because of MLK day, so we won't really get started until Wednesday of next week I guess. Overall, this class seems as though it should be a lot of fun and I'll learn a thing or two about Melville and Hawthorne.

Third class was my Narration and Description class, a requirement for my Creative Writing major (it's also a prereq for several other writing courses). Well the class was interesting, we're going to start off writing poetry (not sure about this), move into short short fiction (maybe some long stuff as well), and then creative nonfiction (looking forward to this the most). Hilariously, a young lady from my American Authors class was also in this class, and having already met and talked with her some we were in a group together for the discussion of a quick writing we did in class. The fast assignment was to write an apology letter to God from the perspective of either Adam or Eve. Just something short a paragraph or so. Here is what I came up with on the spur-of-the-moment.

Dear God,
It was all Eve's fault. She's such a beauty, and you made her so well I couldn't resist such a small request. To bite an apple. How simple a thing. Yes, yes. I know it was the one request you had of us. Eve had already given in to the vile serpent and I saw no harm come to her. I thought perhaps it was a different fruit, from another tree. I was tricked by her and so I'm sure you understand that all the blame lies with her.
Most Regretfully,
Adam

The writing was received rather well and taken for the humorous writing that it was. Blah blah class occurs. The teacher learned that WTF stands for “what the fuck” and had no problem saying it aloud as she was amused by the whole idea; always a relief to learn that a writing teacher understands that words are simply words and has no bias against certain ones. She then tells us she wants us to rewrite our letter into a poem with no rhymes that is about 12-14 lines. This is crappy.

Anyways, jokingly I said to the young lady who was in my previous class (we'll call her “Alice” – not the real name – for easier reference), “So are you going to fall me all over campus?”
“Alice” says, “Well what do you have next?”
“I've got Philosophy of Mind. You?”
With a copy of her schedule in hand she begins laughing and shows me we're heading in the same direction yet again.

By weird coincidence I share three classes with an intelligent, cute young lady I've never met before. Well we're off to Philosophy class and while I'm somewhat interested in the subject reading philosophical writings is a difficult and time consuming matter. However, I'm a fan of the idea that one day machines will think and eventually there will be a convergence as Kurzweil calls it. So “Alice” and I walk into this class and there is this guy who is apparently HARD CORE about philosophy. Well we sat about in the middle of the room and we noticed that there was a huge diversity within the class. The front section was made up of those who are serious nerds (well not all of them), and the back was comprised of those who you don't expect to see at the end of the semester (probably not all of them). Anyways, the class is going to be difficult however it should be rather enlightening and help me refine my current theories.

So at this point I head on over to my brother Josh's house in order to have dinner with him, Susan (his wife), and Evan (their 10 mo. old son). So having got some spaghetti, meat sauce, and toast into my system I head back over to school for my last class of the day Contemporary Literature. Now my understanding of contemporary literature was that it was books after 1945 leaning more towards the current time period. I now believe this to be incorrect. I won't go into my current thoughts on this as I haven't finished formulating them yet. The teacher is intelligent, witty, and passionate about the subject so the class should be a good time. We're starting with a novel called Wieland written by Charles Brockden Brown, the first American writer as the novel was published in 1798. We're reading this in order to get a better understanding of what it is for a novel to be American. After that we're reading The Great Gatsby, a novel in which a woman achieves the American dream and man doesn't get the girl because it is one of those depressing Modern novels written by a hard drinker. Finally we're reading In Cold Blood by Capote in order to decide whether it is a Post-Modern work or a Contemporary work. After those three we're checking out M. Butterfly and possibly Brokeback Mountain. Should be a rather illuminating course with a great teacher.

So I had been at school for about twelve hours. A long, long, long day. I went on home and finally sacked out as a reward for making it all the way through the day.

Today, Tuesday, I worked this morning then came home and worked on this blog and a few other things. Watched Jeopardy, Gilmore Girls (yes that's right), then Shade came on (great movie about cards), then The Whole Nine Yards (who can resist a movie about a hitman?). A great two days and now I need to convert that apology letter by Adam into a poem of some type. Wake up early so I can get to school, buy a book, and read my Descartes for Philosophy, go to classes, return the book, go to dinner with family out at MacShack (family in from out of town so Grandpa is taking everyone out). Again another eventful day that I'm sure I'll write about in order to bore all of you avid readers.

Until I post again, don't bother me I'm being overwhelmed with reading and writing, enjoy. Now your future Zen.

"I have never let my schooling interfere with my education." ~Mark Twain

Image from here.

All I got for Christmas

2005-12-27T16:03:00.000-05:00

Okay so I'm updating before everyone else so as not to be the slacker in the group.

First, I hope that everyone had a great Christmas/Holiday break and got to do everything you wanted; as well as received everything you wanted.

I'll start with the visitation as that was really the most fun. Monday evening, the scene at Barnacles consisted of a team of 13. John's family (minus Jeff), myself and my parents, Crystal and Jason, Derek R., Crystal's sister Melody (I think I spelled that wrong), a friend of Crystal's named Les, and Matt Stites and Katie. So our team, named the Mistletoe Maurauders, was doing exceptionally well all evening; we were in fact tied for first place when it was time for the final question both teams had 57 pts. The last question concerned box-office gross for a movie. Feeling fairly confident we wagered the maximum of 15 points. We said that "Mr. and Mrs. Smith" out-performed "40-year-old virgin", "Sin City", and "War of the Worlds". We were wrong. "War of the Worlds" was the highest grossing of those four. What's bad is that the other team we were tied with also got it wrong and had wagered 15 points as well. We both dropped into 4th place which receives no prize. Had we bet nothing we would have taken first without trying. O well such is life. Moving on to happier thoughts of ripping open presents.

Christmas Eve at Grandmother's house (mom's side). I unfortunatly have not been able to open that present yet because the cousin who had drawn my name was sick and no one in their family came at all. However, I see this as benificial in that it makes me realize the season of giving lasts all year, rather than simply one day out of 365 (366). I still do not know what that present is and anticipation is driving me slowly insane.

At my house and my Grandfather's house (dad's side). I received "Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex" vols. 1-3. A most excellent anime show based off the classic. I got a few clothes. A phone that I can hook-up in the bathroom so that I can talk to all of you while I drop friends off at the pool. I also received a sudoku book, a little black book on poker, and "On Literature" by Umberto Eco. Gift certificates flowed as well with one from Best Buy and one for Barnes & Noble. The best gift I have saved for last. I am to receive an Apple I-Pod 30GB (capable of playing video). The coolest thing about not having it under the tree was that I learned Apple gives students a discount on this product (from 299.99 it drops to 269.99 for students). They also will provide free-shipping and free laser-engraving (27 chars x 2 lines). Now the hard part of deciding on what I shall engrave. For the moment I have settled on this "We shape clay into a pot, but it is the emptiness inside that holds whatever we want." from the Tao te Ching . I will of course reduce that to "It is the emptiness inside that holds whatever we want" fairly appropriate for an I-Pod in my opinion. If any of you have any suggestions please email them to me using the link over on the sidebar; I'd really appreciate it.

Overall some good loot this year. Additionally, I also got to drink a Yuengling and a Warsteiner from Matt Stites's and John's presents because they each got a holiday 5-pack. Anyways, continue having a great holiday and remember I updated first over the holidays so I can slack for a while now.

"How strange is the lot of us mortals! Each of us is here for a brief sojourn; for what purpose he knows not, though he senses it. But without deeper reflection one knows from daily life that one exists for other people." - Albert Einstein

Image from NASA

Nothing Much of Anything

2005-12-21T10:56:00.000-05:00

Last night John, Matt, and myself went to see Narnia; great movie. They did a wonderful job adapting certain sections into movie format. They stayed true to the novel in nearly every aspect that I can recall with clarity, and they even maintained the Christian message that Lewis originally had within the work - a huge surprise from Disney. In any event I highly recommend everyone to go see it. If you have a child even more so because it's great for the kids AND enjoyable for you as well.

Well the mail me link in the sidebar is working, however the picture background was not so I changed the picture host and hopefully it should be working now (even if you have IE).

Well, I submitted my desktop to the Lifehacker flickr desktop show-and-tell group, here. Some really nice desktops, though most of them are Apples (very few windows desktops). This one has to be one of the best and Lifehacker thought so as well.

In any case your moment of zen is my everyday workplace. Here is my desktop with nice little flickr notes and all for you to check out.

"The true way to render ourselves happy is to love our work and find in it our pleasure." - Francoise de Motteville

Pimpage

2005-12-19T23:17:00.000-05:00

Okay, so first thing for this evening is to discuss the title. Today on Rocketboom Amanda mentioned a website for Pimping out a Nutcracker. Imagine Mr. PotatoHead in a pimp style is plastered over the nutcracker. Hilarity insues. I personally find the large pink/red cowboy type hat to go perfectly well with the pinkish fur coat that can be found under fully pimped, give him some nice gear like a chain with the PIMP attached, a bottle of champaigne, and the requisite starbucks coffee and the gentleman is set.

Other occurences this evening were the trivia night at Barnacles. Our team, The Drunken Elves, placed in something around 5th with 46 points, had we remembered that Elton John released Candle in the Wind during the 90s we would have gotten 2nd. O well. Needless to say the evening out with the Jacksons was a good time.

I know have my flannel sheets on my bed and I slept until 4pm this afternoon because of it. Comfiness increases the sleep time.

If anyone knows anything about Desktop Customization (through widgets, overlays, or outright shell conversions) please drop me a line so I can pick your brain before utterly overloading mine. I like to keep up to date with PC customization software and I've fallen behind. I have until Jan. 9th to get a grasp once again.

Why until Jan. 9th you ask? That is when the Spring semester begins at USF and I have signed up for 16 credit hours. I think I'm slowly going insane (this is preferrable to quickly going insane as I can at least track my progress this way).

In any case I have nothing else for this evening except that everyone should check out DeviantArt some very interesting things on there. Also, please let me know through comments if the background image for my header is working (if it's not I'm going to have to get some advice from Lewis on making that work). I'm also going to try and set up a mailme link in the sidebar so please try that out and let me know if it is working by using it to email me (no I won't spam you or sign you up for porn sites - though that would be funny). In any case goodnight and Merry Christmas to all. Here is your moment of zen.

"Out of clutter, find simplicity. From discord, find harmony. In the middle of difficulty, lies opportunity." - Albert Einstein

Image from here.

Sitting on the Edge of One's Seat

2005-12-13T00:41:00.000-05:00

Is it possible to make an exciting, intense, controversial, mind-warping movie about a corporation? Absofrickinglutely!!! But only if that corporation is involved in oil and energy trades, has friends within the US government, and is able to throw money around in the Middle East in order to keep those who are close to us, well close. Syriana is go from the moment those crappy trailers end. Yes, those trailers are crappy because what ever movie is being previewed ain't got crap on what you're about to see. What scares me most about the movie is that while I know it is fictionalized in order to make it more appealing to a wider audience and get some explosions in there; one can not help but wonder exactly how much is true. I am going to go out and immediately check out See No Evil by Robert Baer because the movie is loosely based off of this nonfiction work. I must say that I wasn't exactly sure what I was going to feel about this movie, being the conservative Ayn Randist that I am who is all about less government and Laissez-faire economics, however, the writer, director, and actors all make compelling performance and evidence to think that perhaps the best way to support peace is through equality of economics (which actually fits right in with my views anyways). The only thing is that everyone has to want to work for that equality.

Slight spoiler: the man who is the "bad guy" to the American government, is in my opinion the man they should be working closely with.

It astounds me the shortsightedness of certain decisions that are made within the movie and yet I can very easily draw similar parallels between actions within the movie and actions that are known to the American public. Immediate gratification will most likely be the ultimate downfall of our society; we have already had several past expedient solutions become serious problems afterwards (Saddam Hussein for example; hell even Bin Laden). Immediacy is why we are a debt culture and why credit companies make so much money, no one understands how to save up for something if they can just charge it now and worry about paying later.

I have three credit cards: a clothing store card, and two Visas (one of which has never been used in the four+ months I've had it), I also have a Debit card since I think writing checks is something I'd never keep track of or do properly. Not once have I carried a balance I couldn't pay immediately (building credit requires a small carry over), I simply buy things I can afford, or wait and usually forget about it.

The movie allows segues into several areas of life, I've just run off on my economic anti-debt spew. It's one am and the movie just let out. I need sleep so forgive my definitive way of writing on the subject I'm sure you'll all argue meaningful concise opposing views to which I may or may not have an answer once I am a bit more lucid and concise of thought. Thank you for your tolerance as reward your moment of Zen.

P.S. Before you have "your" Zen, here is mine. I won $578 at the Casino this afternoon; not so bad for 6 or so hours of work. I'm that good.

" Imagine there's no countries,
It isn't hard to do,
Nothing to kill or die for,
No religion too,"
-from Imagine by Lennon (in honor of the recent anniversary of his passing)

Image stolen from Peter Menzel Photography.

All About Me

2005-12-12T03:14:00.000-05:00

So I have little to speak of from the weekend. I believe I have finally caught up on all my sleep, though we'll see for sure as my schedual is now all out of whack. I'm thinking I'll go see either Narnia or Syriana tomorrow evening. Both movies look great and which ever I don't see tomorrow I'll just see shortly thereafter. Made a few updates to the page here (mainly in the sidebar because it needed it). Anyone who wants a Christmas list for me don't worry I'll be posting that in the next few days along with some pictures I have yet to take. Hope everyone's holidays are going well and they aren't being ruined by exams. Goodnight.

Edit: Why cruising with the next blog button is entertaining. Saturn out of Saturnalia an argument to all the Christians worried about Christ being taken out of Christmas when it wasn't even our holiday to begin with (nor will it ever truly be a Christian Holiday, that's what Easter is for). So remember the paganess this year and drink up the eggnog.

Your moment of Zen:

"It is the addition of strangeness to beauty that constitutes the romantic character in art." - Walter Hagen

Image stolen from Zen Mischief

Jose Gonzalez

2005-12-09T03:07:00.000-05:00

The next big thing for US music, in my opinion (which is the only one that matters here) is Jose Gonzalez. He will over take Jack Johnson and John Meyer (because his music is still real unlike Meyer with his live sell out albums and I just haven't been impressed with Jack lately), his sound feels like Elliot Smith something you should all go check out. I think of the four songs on that myspace site I either really like "Heartbeats" or "Crosses" I haven't decided yet.

I have nothing else to add for today. You should all be glad I've updated anything at all. Some of you are becoming big slackers like me, I'm allowed to say this.

**Edited in at unspeakable hour.**
Wrongfully Accused. As Instapundit put it this is the flip side of the Air Marshall case from Miami. Basically this is why I'm against the death penalty and why I believe IQ tests should be mandated for juries. Truly sad case and if enough people get pissed about this miscarriage of justice perhaps the big fat asses from Mississippi will get up and right the wrong that has been perpetrated upon this poor man.

"Many waters cannot quench love, neither can the floods drown it." - Anonymous

Image stolen from A moment of Zen (how ironic)

Air Marshall Shoots Suspect

2005-12-07T18:15:00.000-05:00

Okay so for those of you who don't know a man was shot in Miami today after claiming he had a bomb in his carry on. He ran from Air Marshalls and when told to get on the ground proceeded to reach inside of the supposed bomb carry on. Marshalls opened fire and the man was dead shortly after. After the fact the man's wife reveals he had bi-polar disorder and hadn't taken his medication. Several things are learned by this incident. First, never joke about bombs and airplanes, no one actually finds it funny and you could get anything from fines, jail, or being shot. Second, if you (or a loved one) has a mental disorder take your medication (or make sure they take it). Thirdly, the Air Marshalls were actually a bit reserved before shooting the man, he apparently told them about the bomb on the plane and then ran all the way off the plane and made it to the terminal area before trying to reach inside the bag and being shot. Fourthly, always do what the man pointing a gun at you says to do. Lastly, from reports of other folks within the terminal D of Miami the airline/airport personal were a bit confused on exactly what procedures should be followed after the shooting. Overall it was a sad affair and one that several will misuse in order to claim we need to reduce the Air Marshall program.

Today was the anniversary of Pearl Harbor and the event was commemorated with a service of rememberence.

If you have links (I'm really looking for another fe good video blogs), news, or a moment of zen you would like to recommend please feel free to email me the information at mattsasylum@gmail.com . That is not my regular email address that will be used solely for this site. If you'd like my real email address then email me there and if I like you I'll give you the real one.

I think that's about all for today if more develops I'll be sure to edit it in. Now for your moment of zen.

Chicago man sues Microsoft over his X-Box 360 being designed poorly and over-heating.

"A lawyer with a briefcase can steal more than a thousand men with guns." - Mario Puzo

Greed never fails to amaze me. Check out the Greed. More Greed with 24 systems.

Weblog Awards

2005-12-07T03:26:00.000-05:00

Okay so I'm cruising my links and at Rocketboom I come across a mention of the 2005 Weblog Awards. Now I hadn't realized there were awards for blogs but apparently there are. I cruised on over there in my new Firefox 1.5 browser and discovered several different categories of blogs. After scoping a few within the categories I made some votes and even linked up a few new blogs. In the sidebar you'll now notice within the Photobloger section the new addition of Mute (some really nice stuff seen there). And down in the World's Beyond section I've dropped in Lifehacker, I believe this was in the technology blog section and it looked rather interesting and was not your everyday Slashdot crap, and Instapundit, I'm sure you'll love that one Crystal, I haven't really had time to do in-depth investigations into any of the sites that were over at the Weblog Awards but those were some of the ones that caught my eyes enough to get a link up. Next year I'll be sure and remind everyone to nominate me for a Weblog Award in the category of "Most Up To Date Blog" hehe. Well I finished watching the second part of the Triangle and things are beginning to become more and more wierdified (I create words when I feel like it). Let's just say the Navy is apparently involved in secret electromagnetic experiments that result in wormholes or possible the aligning of alternate realities with our own. In any case things are becoming more and more interesting and the Team may soon actually figure out what is going on.

Crystal, Family Guy is your saving grace for that night of TV (it's really the only thing I recall being on).

And now for something completely different. How many of you have heard of Sudoku? I was wandering Barnes and Noble a few weeks back and they had an entire table dedicated to books filled with Sudoku. For those who don't know it is a number placing puzzle. In any case I picked up a beginners book with 300 easy puzzles and now I'm an addict. So now along with caffeine and most forms of alcohol I'm also now addicted to these annoying puzzles that must be completed in groups of no less than two at a time or else you slowly go insane from detox.

Lastly, and probably the least important, I have begun background work on a story idea. The fruition of all my current labors will most likely never see the light of day, as the best writing always occurs in the dead of night, but I would like all of you to continually ask for updates (namely some kind of word count). I'm going to see about getting one of those NanoWriMo word counters that acts like a little stat tracker. I could add it over into the sidebar and that would push me to always be working on the writing in order to update that and not have you folks breathing down my neck about it. Anyways, off to do some playing hope you enjoyed the read and now for your moment of zen.

"Western society has accepted as unquestionable a technological imperative that is quite as arbitrary as the most primitive taboo: not merely the duty to foster invention and constantly to create technological novelties, but equally the duty to surrender to these novelties unconditionally, just because they are offered, without respect to their human consequences." ~Lewis Mumford

Image stolen from Wired News

The Triangle

2005-12-05T23:38:00.000-05:00

So wasn't that last post just really annoying and I'm sure it inspired a few of you to run off and blow at least 15 minutes taking one or two of those tests.

Blogger seemed to be acting a little wierd earlier. First, it wouldn't let me actually look at any blogs (well they were taking way to long to load and I have very little patience for internet load times). Now they are planning some maintence to begin at 9pm PST so I have about fifteen more minutes to finish this post. Shouldn't be a problem.

Okay so as you should all know I'm a huge sci-fi freak. This evening was the beginning of The Triangle a sci-fi miniseries in three parts. As you can probably guess it is about the Bermuda Triangle. The first part focused on past events and explanations for them time divergences and possible wormholes. All interesting and theoretically possible so I'm happy that the writers didn't do anything retarded right off the bat. Tomorrow night looks to be a bit more divergent with current mythology as it seems to me that the Triangle begins to expand and effect things on land. Overall some interesting stuff and if you missed this evening you should check it out tomorrow night when it reairs again on Sci-Fi channel at 7pm. Get a VCR or DVR if you don't have time to watch it right away.

While watching the Triangle I saw a commercial that said Stargate would begin on Jan. 6 can not wait as the last show was a huge cliffhanger with America undergoing a quarentine due to a virus that was unleashed on them by the Priors. Should make for some great TV.

Well I'll leave you all with a little moment of Zen. (A new tradition I'm stealing from I believe it was the Daily Show.)

"Worship me with fire and blood; worship me with swords and spears." from the Book of the Law by Aleister Crowley, 1938

Image stolen from here.

Blogthings (Annoying yet Perceptive)

2005-12-04T00:30:00.000-05:00

Here is one I spent a bit of time doing the other night. I have nothing insightful to say at the moment. I'll get some pictures up during the next week, discuss some new theophilosophical thoughts that have bombarded me, and talk about my real plans for the future as that future develops. Until such time enjoy the mindless, yet insightful, blather that follows. Yes this long is and each one is really annoying. Hehe.

My new name:

Your Pimp Name Is...

Professor Slick

What's Your Pimp Name?

So this is what you folks really think?

Slow and Steady

Your friends see you as painstaking and fussy.

They see you as very cautious, extremely careful, a slow and steady plodder.

It'd really surprise them if you ever did something impulsively or on the spur of the moment.

They expect you to examine everything carefully from every angle and then usually decide against it.

How Do People See You?

They know why I blog even though I don't

Your Blogging Type is Pensive and Philosophical

You blog like no one else is reading...
You tend to use your blog to explore ideas - often in long winded prose.
Easy going and flexible, you tend to befriend other bloggers easily.
But if they disagree with once too much, you'll pull them from your blogroll!

What's Your Blogging Personality?

My quick IQ test - we all know this test is off by about 80 points...

Your IQ Is 135

Your Logical Intelligence is Below Average

Your Verbal Intelligence is Genius

Your Mathematical Intelligence is Genius

Your General Knowledge is Exceptional

A Quick and Dirty IQ Test

Machiavelli and Crew - Plans for World Domination continue as planned

You Are Machiavelli's Spawn

You're going to get what you want, and no one's going stand in your way.
(Even if it's just knocking out your roomie to get the last ice cream sandwich!)
People who slow you down, simply need to be taken out - by any means possible.
You are the master of charming, wooing, manipulating, and intimidating.

How Machiavellian Are You?

Personality in a Picture

Your Personality Profile

You are elegant, withdrawn, and brilliant.
Your mind is a weapon, able to solve any puzzle.
You are also great at poking holes in arguments and common beliefs.

For you, comfort and calm are very important.
You tend to thrive on your own and shrug off most affection.
You prefer to protect your emotions and stay strong.

The World's Shortest Personality Test

Brain Patterns - I'm actually hoping mine looks more like the regular grey matter though slightly more developed than average

Your Brain's Pattern

Your mind is a creative hotbed of artistic talent.
You're always making pictures in your mind, especially when you're bored.
You are easily inspired to think colorful, interesting thoughts.
And although it may be hard to express these thoughts, it won't always be.

What Pattern Is Your Brain?

Personality in three questions

Your Personality Is

Rational (NT)

You are both logical and creative. You are full of ideas.
You are so rational that you analyze everything. This drives people a little crazy!

Intelligence is important to you. You always like to be around smart people.
In fact, you're often a little short with people who don't impress you mentally.

You seem distant to some - but it's usually because you're deep in thought.
Those who understand you best are fellow Rationals.

In love, you tend to approach things with logic. You seek a compatible mate - who is also very intelligent.

At work, you tend to gravitate toward idea building careers - like programming, medicine, or academia.

With others, you are very honest and direct. People often can't take your criticism well.

As far as your looks go, you're coasting on what you were born with. You think fashion is silly.

On weekends, you spend most of your time thinking, experimenting with new ideas, or learning new things.

The Three Question Personality Test

Sellout with me

On Average, You Would Sell Out For

$1,105,578

At What Price Would You Sell Out?

I'm an extra in the movie version of my life

The Movie Of Your Life Is An Indie Flick

You do things your own way - and it's made for colorful times.
Your life hasn't turned out how anyone expected, thank goodness!

Your best movie matches: Clerks, Garden State, Napoleon Dynamite

If Your Life Was a Movie, What Genre Would It Be?

With the exception of Napoleon Dynamite I actually like and enjoy both those movies.

Rockon - Yes I picked the Cowbell as my instrument of choice

You Are an Indie Rocker!

You are in it for the love of the music...
And you couldn't care less about being signed by a big label.
You're all about loving and supporting music - not commercial success.
You may not have the fame and glory, but you have complete control of your career.

What Kind of Rocker Are You?

My plans for the future

You Should Get a PhD in Liberal Arts (like political science, literature, or philosophy)

You're a great thinker and a true philosopher.
You'd make a talented professor or writer.

What Advanced Degree Should You Get?

My inner age (wow only a year off)

You Are 23 Years Old

20-29: You are a twentysomething at heart. You feel excited about what's to come... love, work, and new experiences.

What Age Do You Act?

Hmmm...

2005-12-03T23:53:00.000-05:00

What is this strange thing I have discovered. Ah...a relic from the past. My past to be specific. There are two reasons I do not keep a journal (blog): first, I always worry that someone may find it and so I am not entirely honest (this is especially a problem with a blog which is supposed to be read), second, I have a horrible habit of getting out of the practice of updating it with any particular regularity. Now I have to say I was doing pretty damn well, from July 24 until September 30, probably the longest I have ever mainted a continuous journal/blog/anything (besides relationship). For one reason or another I simply no longer am interested in anything to do with it. In any case I occasionally have tried to resurrect old journals so perhaps I shall try the same thing with my somewhat deceased blog. A Christmas present to everyone who reads it, all three or so of you. It'll also be a Christmas present for myself I suppose, something to do in the weehours of the morning when I should be fast asleep but for reasons of overactive thought processes am not. Not much to talk about just wanted to see how many responses the return would generate. I will be posting my Christmas Wish List and address soon so that all of you can buy me what I want for Christmas and then ship it to the proper place. So I say goodnight to all of you avid readers who have finally been updated. By the way, I just haven't really needed an Asylum to get away to recently because nothing of worth has been occuring. I look forward to boring all of you soon with what isn't happening in my life.

Pink Ribbon Post

2005-09-30T21:55:00.000-04:00

October being Breast Cancer Awareness Month I figured I'd get a head start on everyone. I'm going to cross-post this into my community blog as well because I think it's a great idea and I want to make sure as many folks as possible see it. Anyways, Wired recently did an article about the Blogger Boobie-Thon. The article tells you everything about what the site represents. Basically they donate all proceeds to either Breast Cancer research (a great thing, save the boobies, forgive my crassness), or to the Red Cross to help victems of Hurricane Katrina. It's a cool idea that is done in good taste so everyone at least check it out. If anyone donates a picture let me know. I'm currently thinking about it.

Check out this post that inspired me to go ahead and post about the Boobie-Thon. Since most of you are mindless liberal followers, I mean free thinkers, you'll enjoy it. Hahaha.

Image provided by http://www.carolsutton.net/pinkribbon.html from their free page. Thank you much.

After some brief web surfing...

2005-09-28T05:53:00.000-04:00

Okay well I've been goofing off all night and just cruising around random sites to find interesting things. I don't really have anything to do tomorrow so staying up all night wasn't that big of a deal, I've got two books to read but that's become like second nature so shouldn't be a problem at all. Anyways, on to the cool and interesting things which I have encountered.

Okay so I was reading a supplement to my Wired magazine intitled "Fashion Rocks". I found this idea interesting in that it comes from a magazine about tech and gadgets, but with a picture of Gwen Stefani, David Bowie, and Alicia Keys on the cover I couldn't really pass up reading about of a few of the featured musicians. The most intriguing was Gwen's as she talks about her high-end fashion line L.A.M.B. as well as her easier access one, Harajuku Lovers. Now the whole Harajuku thing interested me because it seemed a Japanese word (I was right) and yet it had some imported-into-English feel about it (I was partially right). Harajuku isn't really defined yet (other then being a district in Tokya near Yoyogi-koen park). It also is a fashion culture (to me it is an overendulgence in all things cute and the idea of cuteness) as illustrated by the following image which may disturb some of you.

If you really wish to see more of these crazy pictures just search on Google Images for Harajuku.

Next I came across a great site about music videos, those things you can never find on TV anymore even though three stations used to be entirely dedicated to them. Anyways, cliptip is providing streaming video of a different indie groups, though sometimes big names as well, and commenting on the videos posted. Great site, I learned about this one from my regular Wired magazine.

Rocketboom.com a great video log from a young lady in New York City that talks about interesting things her viewers have submitted. They range from technology, fellow bloggers, TV, and nearly anything I think. I didn't check out that many of the videos, which usually last less than three minutes, but they all seemed to be very interesting and up-to-date.

Writely is actually something I found the other night and never got a chance to write about because I needed sleep after working all day and needing sleep for the next day of work. Anyways, it is about colloborative writing online. An amalgamation of word-processor and e-mail. Everyone who you include as a user to a document can log in and either edit or simply view it depending on the permissions you assign them. No longer would companies, or colloboraters in general, need to worry about document version everyone would be accessing the same document from all over the world through the world wide web, think project editing in real time. An interesting and brove new frontier in the field of literary development.

Lastly, I began to visit a few photoblogs for some strange reason, I was just compelled at about 5:30am to begin checking a few out. Here are my two current favorites (if you have any photoblogs you enjoy please let me know). First, Chromasia, great photos with descriptions of the shots and details about how they were shot, very professional in feel. Here are the permalinks to my two favorite, so far, from this site. Company Fierce #2 and Under Ice. Secondly, Bluehour, a slightly less professional feel but still very intense images. The descriptions of the photos aren't as in depth as chromasia but still good for a person who enjoys photos but knows little about photography. Here are my two favorites A Tree Stops For A Drink and Caught in the Sun. Both seem to me to be very intense shots that convey real power somehow.

Lost in Thought

2005-09-21T23:49:00.000-04:00

Last evening I went and saw a great unknown band called The Chris McCarty Band. They are based out of Gainesville but do some touring, and Tampa is one of their favorite stops because the bongo player is from here. I picked up their third CD Dreaming in Stereo, they didn't have the first two there for sale. They were also doing some recording for a fourth live album that'll be released later. Anyways great band, if they are coming near you, Nathan they have a New York show, I'd highly recommend checking them out. They can best be described as a Modern Hootie and the Blowfish. They do a lot of original work but also do some great covers. Very high energy show, I may post a few pictures later (might even try to get video to work with the mobile blogger). Anyways, check out the website and you can hear some of their work through that MP3 link on their page. Hope you like them. Now onto other thoughts.

Okay if you haven't ever watched Lost (TV show) and plan to stop reading now. If you missed the premier this evening you should go find a recording of it and then come back. I don't want anything you read off of a spoiler website that's total BS when people do that. I want your personal thoughts and ideas about where the show is going and what is going on.

First off we have this hatch turn out to be some type of quarentine thing, why is it written on the inside though? (perhaps the online is on quarentine from those inside?) everything inside the hatch seems to be from around the mid60s or so, except one person pointed out to me that the washer and dryer are very modern. The guy inside the hatch was actually outside recently (we learn this through Jack's flashbacks during the episode) and he was apparently preparing for some Around the World Race...how did he get on the island? and how did he get inside the hatch?? Lastly concerning the hatch...what the HELL do those numbers really mean????

Next what happens with the three guys from the raft? We can assume they make it back somehow (we'll learn next week).

Another thought, we know what is going on with all the survivors from the midsection of the plane (they are the stars of our show), we know there were no more survivors form the front/cockpit of the plane. What about the later/tail section of plane? The one lady's husband who was in the bathroom? Anyone else back there? Are they somewhere on the island as well? Or did they all die out at sea?

Last question, where did the "Others" come from? and where did they get a boat with a motor at? I was originally thinking they were maybe somehow the descendents of folks who wrecked on the island in the "Black Rock" slave ship but their English (if that was even what the majority of them spoke) would be a bit different from ours? So who are all these people on this mysterious island and who did they all get to and survive on this island that is apparently not on any maps (even though it is fairly large)???

What are your thoughts folks?

By the way it was an excellent show answering some questions but also causing more questions. I also watched Invasion afterwards, while I think it is not up to the same level of quality, or even mysteriousness, it seemed a decent show. Thoughts on that as well if you have any.

Science Fiction

2005-09-17T01:31:00.000-04:00

Well this evening was the season finale of Stargate SG-1 (nice thing about Sci-Fi is that their season is the offseason, now I have Lost to look forward to). What is really annoying about TV shows is that they are always leaving you with these very disturbing mind-boggling cliffhangers. The SG-1 season ends with three threads left dangling just from the last two shows. Will the Jaffa go into a Civil War? Will the Prior's (think priest type guy of the devil) powers be effected by the machine Samantha built? Will America remain under quarantine due to the plague that the Priors have unleashed upon the Earth? Now SG-1 has been around a while and they do deal with the ethical questions, doubtful that it is on the scale which Battlestar attempts to tackle and grasp with such issues (as that entire show seems to be based on ethical/moral/religious conflict), however I can not imagine the agony that will befall Battlestar fans next week as that series has its season finale, which will undoubtedly be a cliffhanger. Why do they do this to us? Why are Season Finales always cliffhangers? Some question before going off...some hero protagonist in danger (sometimes mortal danger)... There has to be a better idea to run TV shows then the current model. This whole season idea drives me nuts...I'd much prefer they produce an entire show and run it beginning to end as well as selling the DVD. All in one go...no crappy season break-ups...you'd also keep actors better this way as well. The audience wouldn't lose interest as easy (as long as the writing remained well thought out). Hmph, I hate TV network executives. Who died and put them in charge of my entertainment schedule?....Tune in five months or more later for the answers to these and other questions you never thought to ask...because you're still going to be caring.

Yet another Monday...

2005-09-12T20:57:00.000-04:00

Okay here is yet another Monday to be annoyed with. Sunday football utterly destroyed my chances for this week's matchup. Culpepper posted a very disappointing 1.7 or so...basically less than 2 points from a guy who should have put up more than 20. O well on to other things.

I really need to work on my motivation for school and my planning abilities. I have a fair bit of reading in Don Quixote still left over, I'll get it done I always do. And tomorrow before classes start I've got to buy the book that Amazon lost, read the General Prologue of Canterbury in the Middle English and then write a quick paper comparing a few of the professions to modern equivilents (no outside research just personal thoughts and comparisons). The paper is supposed to be around 1000 words so it won't be that difficult but once again my procastination is getting the better of me. Perhaps I should begin to treat myself like a child and not allow myself to do anything until my homework is all done. Ugh, I'm an idiot at times.

On to better things. Last night was the Foozer concernt (Weezer and Foo Fighters). The opening band was some group named Mae they were decent but a bit loud thus distorted on the vocals so true ability was unjudgable. Weezer was the first main act and they utterly blew all expectations away. Solid playing combined with a real interactivity with the crowd just made the show phenomonal (my being on the floor about fifteen people away from the stage really helped as well). Their encore was great because the lead singer came up on the sound board island alone and did an acoustic then returned to the main stage for some more rocking. Next up was the band I really came for Foo Fighters. Dave Grohl was simply ON. Part way through the first song his mic goes out so what does he do? HE simply gets out almost into the crowd and just starts singing along with them getting everyone on the floor to combine into "his voice". After the mic is replaced he finishes and tells us we were great and to do the same thing if it happens again. Overall the best part of the show was everyone else in Foo Fighters leaving the stage for Dave's solo acoustic version of Everlong. I'm so glad they didn't do the rock version because the acoustic is just that much better. Anyways, it was a great night and now I'm off to cheer Philly on against the Atlanta Falcons. Hopefully Westbrook can make me some points some I'm not utterly crushed this week. I also have some reading to do.

It's been a while...

2005-09-09T15:08:00.000-04:00

It's a decent song so stealing the title isn't that ridiculous and we all know I'm a thief when it comes to being online.

So it's been a while since I've posted anything. Man I think my brain finally exploded and everything will be a lot better now (kind of like Fight Club at the end where he just lets go of everything and eliminates the part of himself he dislikes). I didn't get rid of any bad habits but I guess I'm just beginning to realize that I'm only human and so I'll do as much as possible and make the rest up as I go along. The reading has been intense, this past week I've read nearly all of Part of Don Quijote (will be into Part 2 by Tuesday), I've read Night, Metamorphosis, The Dead, Paradise Lost Book 1, as well as a few poems and some introductory material/historical information on the Man from Stratford, Aka: Shakespeare. This is in addition to reading the interesting articles of The St. Pete Times, and the USF Oracle (where interestingly enough my response to the editor was published). I've also shot some pool inbetween classes, watched a few movies, Primer, Pi among them both interesting a far out, they really deserve second viewings for best understanding but time is money (especially with Blockbuster Online). However I have recently discovered the renewed power of Peer to Peer and so I decided to check out two shows I've heard a lot about but never seen. The first one, Lost is phenomonal, I've watched the first three episodes and I'm seriously thinking about buying the First Season DVD based on those three alone (see sharing causing folks to buy things they never would have before). The second show was Rome on HBO. I know get HBO as well as HBO on Demand so I can watch ROME whenever I wish, they are on episode 3 which I think I'll be watching later tonight (again file sharing caused me to buy something I would never have bought before, now having HBO I'll also checkout Entourage, also out on DVD First season), and Deadwood as well). Did I mention I've also managed to cram a few hours at work into all this mess? Well I somehow did.

More exciting and recently though. Fantasy football has begun. Last night in the first game of the season I had Deion Branch playing (Wide Receiver for New England) he was projected to post 8.88 points, instead my boy posted 17.65. The real deal is on Sunday (though I have a few players from Philly who play Monday night) I'm really excited about how well my team will hopefully do. A lot of thanks go to Matt Stites for helping me pick the team and stay on top of who should be played and such.

Anyways, check out Nathan's Blog for a great article about the impact of early dating life on marriage. Then stop in at Crystal's Blog for comments on the state of education and reform within our great nation. Both topics that I commented on then lost my train of thought as I've done with this post. Enjoy.

Edited In: Last thing for those who have ever noticed my scroll box in the sidebar. I've updated it so that you can follow my insane reading list, I also changed all the links from Amazon.com over to Barnes and Noble.com because Amazon lost a book of mine and didn't realize it until 8 days after it was supposed to be delivered, I had to call them, argue with their automated system in order to get a person (it wasn't an option I finally just started talking to the machine like I was giving it instructions, it said it couldn't understand finally and that it was connecting me with a person for future assistance). I will say that after five minutes he determined the package must be lost because after pickup on the 29th there were no future updates. The book now takes over 9 days to ship (when I ordered it, it shipped in 24-48 hours) so getting it shipped next day was out of the question. I got a refund and now have to go to the bookstore and buy the book like everyone else. Very upsetting. O well, guess I'll stick to Ecampus in the future and avoid amazon.

Stolen Photos

2005-09-01T23:50:00.000-04:00

Sorry about double posting now you have more to read...you are closer to understanding my dilemma. Anyways, was blog-surfing with the next blog button when I ran across a blog about a woman from New Orleans (title links to it). Her most recent post was just hilarious and I had to steal it. Anyways, I'm sure you can all see the hilarity yet sadness of this picture for I'm sure that in certain places it is all too true.

The Joys of the College Newspaper

2005-09-01T23:02:00.000-04:00

Today was another joyous day of classes here in Tampa, Florida. I had my Modern Short Novel class (the teacher I'm sure suffers ADHD which should make for interesting times in a three hour class). Overall, after one week of class I'm very excited about this semester. There is going to be a lot of reading as I've mentioned, as well as a fair bit of writing. I feel more than equal to the task.

The most annoying thing about being back on a college campus is the liberal bent to nearly everything that is occurring. I was reading the Oracle - USF's newspaper linked to in this blog title - when I ran across an article titled Above it All this article featured a picture of Bush in Air Force One looking out a window. As you can follow the link to read the full article I'll briefly summarize. "Hurricane Katrina and all the damage to New Orleans caused by it, and the loss of life caused by the Hurricane were all Bush's fault. And he isn't doing a damn thing about it even after the fact." Now this is of course a gross overstatement of the article however, as this is my blog I can do that if I want, go read the article yourself. What upset me was the misrepresentation of the truth. First off Bush did cut short his vacation to return to Washington to meet with Advisors. The photo opportunity idea is just absurd and the article's writer should be kicking himself in the ass concerning the stupidity of including those comments. In any case I wrote a letter to the editor, I'm sure it won't get published there, so I have decided to publish it here in order to gather the opinions of those whom (is that the proper use John?) I respect and believe more qualified to argue with me than those at the Oracle. Here is a copy of the letter I sent them.

In response to your recent criticism of the President's actions concerning the damage caused by Hurricane Katrina; I would like to ask what you would have done had you been President? Yes, going on the air prior to the impact may have encouraged a few more citizens of the city to evacuate - only for them to be stuck in traffic on I-10 with several thousand other individuals. However, due to the liberal leanings of the city it seems more likely they would have just ignored his warnings and done as they planned. They believed themselves more intelligent than the experts so they ignored all advice and decided to stay having no idea of the consequences of that decision. Now that Katrina has passed you say the President should do something. Perhaps the President should have followed your advice and been seen to consoling the victims of the hurricane in New Orleans where several shootings, rapes, and lootings have occurred. One man even began to fire at evacuees from Charity Hospital. In times as stressful as these we should most certainly endanger our Commander-in-Chief for mere photo opportunities. I believe his choice was the best decision he could make. He flew over, assessed the damage as he could, then proceeded to Washington to meet with Emergency Help Coordinators who are better trained to handle such situations and could advise him on the best course of actions to take. Such recent decisions as, sending in more National Guard and Reserve troops and releasing part of the National Petroleum Reserve in order to combat rising gas prices caused by oil shortage. You are correct that cutting funding to the levee system was a mistake, however past powerful hurricanes had hit the area and done minor damage; the unpredictability of weather is what caused this disaster not a decision by the president. A president can not just stand up and issue a command that a hurricane turn aside simply because it turning aside would be more beneficial to his people. A president needs to believe that his citizens are capable of thinking and taking care of themselves to a certain degree. As Katrina turned West then North after entering the Gulf citizens of the likely impact area should have been thinking about past storm intensity and seen the rate of growth that Katrina underwent, these should have been clear signs of imminent danger. Unfortunately they did not heed the warnings of Mother Nature or of the meteorologists whose job it is to predict and forewarn concerning these things. A government that is always telling citizens what to do is not a democracy but rather a dictatorship or socialism, neither of which are systems I wish to live under. Bush acted in a manner consistent with allowing a people to make their own decisions then helping them as much as possible once they realized the horrible bounty those decisions had reaped.

*Note* Please edit as necessary for grammar, spelling though I believe these are both fine. As this is simply an informal letter of opinion I did not give reference to the AP articles I used, if necessary please contact me and I will be happy to provide websites. I do however find it interesting that not all the facts of the story were correct, namely concerning Bush's vacation which he did cut short on Tuesday after hearing reports of the devastation, even if this response does not get printed please begin to check all your facts for validity before going to press. Go here. Thank you for this opportunity.

I'm hoping that you will find it a bit cutting, succinct, and yet tactful enough to be considered for publication. Everyone, let me know what you think I could have done differently with it.

I am Still Breathing

2005-08-30T22:51:00.000-04:00

Well that's one day down about 31 more to go. It seems all my classes are going to be fairly entertaining as well as informative (I have not had my Modern Short Novel class as that is only a Thursday night class). My Brit Lit class is going to be a nice over view from Milton on into 1780, however it is WAY TOO EARLY (9:30am). Chaucer:Canterbury Tales should be really fun (John I may need your help on some Middle English you crazy guy). In Late Shakespeare we are only doing five plays, Hamlet, Othello, Macbeth, King Lear, and The Tempest. All those classes together should really help me understand my other two class Modern European Novel (though this class is more focused on the continent) and of course Modern Short Story (I think this is also more focused on the Continent). Overall I'm really looking forward to these courses. Modern Euro Novel will probably be the most illuminating as I'll be reading seven texts of which I've only read one before (and that a bit ago in a class that I didn't pay much attention to, though I'm fairly familiar with Metamorphosis by Kafka).

I've got two papers in Chaucer both of which should be fairly easy as they will require no research for the first (900-1200 words) and provided research for the second (2000-3000 words).

Modern Short Novel's syllabus states there will be two, two to three page papers for that class (critical essays on works read). These should be fairly easy.

Modern Euro Novel is going to have two papers. First (500-1000 words) no critical refrences. Second (4-6 pages), analytical paper on a topic from a list. This one is a bit more developed and researched, will probably one of my most difficult papers.

Brit. Lit. has one in-class writing, not much prep on that except to read and think. There is also a research paper on an outside time/social topic for the period (I think I may do coffeehouses/newspapers/The Royal Society or who knows). This paper is not to exceed eight pages and has to have five sources cited. However as it is not a critical essay but a topical essay of choice this essay should prove fun.

Late Shakespeare is going to have five summaries (one for each play) she wants these pages to be less then two pages (closer to one preferred), no problem here. There is also going to be a research paper for this class however I currently don't have any information on it.

Overall, I'll be doing a serious quantity of reading. A fair bit of easy writing, and a small, very intensive amount, of researched/critical writing.

Sanity slipped a bit from my grasp this morning (I was waking up at 7:00 AM this morning - usually if I see this hour I'm about to fall asleep).

Anxiety

2005-08-30T02:27:00.000-04:00

The third definition found at dictionary.com suites me best.

3. Eager, often agitated desire: my anxiety to make a good impression.

In seven hours and ten minutes from the time of my typing this I'll be a student in college once again. I'm a person very much concerned with first impressions, not only with my teachers but my fellow students. I haven't looked forward to a semester of school this much since probably high school (sadly about five years ago). Not only am I excited about expanding my mind I'm a bit nervous at my work load. Besides working in a restaurant probably about fifteen to twenty hours a week, I'll also be taking fifteen hours of classes, Literature/English classes to be specific. Let me just say that my reading list will very soon be extensive and have multiple volumes on it as once. I'm beginning with Don Quijote, The Canterbury Tales, Night, some 17th century poets (then onto Milton), and Hamlet (do plays get underlines?). Needless to say I'm going to go insane rather quickly the spiral into madness will be preserved for posterity here within my blog, I ask forgiveness for this while I am still coherent and lucid.

Now as I promised Crystal here is the Philosophy test that apparently everyone that is cool is doing (now ensues the jumping off a bridge question). Take the test here.

1. Ayn Rand (100%)
2. John Stuart Mill (84%)
3. Epicureans (75%)
4. Aristotle (71%)
5. Aquinas (67%)
6. Jean-Paul Sartre (65%)
7. Nietzsche (63%)
8. Kant (56%)
9. Prescriptivism (56%)
10. Jeremy Bentham (54%)
11. Cynics (51%)
12. Thomas Hobbes (47%)
13. Plato (46%)
14. St. Augustine (45%)
15. David Hume (42%)
16. Spinoza (41%)
17. Ockham (40%)
18. Nel Noddings (33%)
19. Stoics (33%)

No great surprise that I ended up with Rand as my 100%.

John, the statcounter I use can be found at Statcounter.com located at the bottom of my sidebar. Just sign up and follow their instructions if you have any questions let me know. Sidenote, I learned from the Statcounter that you Crystal are not using Firefox or Mozilla, but rather MSIE 6.0. Escape the domination of Microsoft and convert to the world of the Gecko family. See the link in my Navbar or at the bottom of my sidebar. I guess I'll still love ya if you continue to use IE but at least try out Firefox, it's so nice.

I also learned who my California visitor is. Apparently it is InktomiSearch which is a webcrawling search engine spider that apparently likes to visit my site fairly often for some unknown reason. Ah, well not gaining national recognition afterall. I guess I'll have to tell the few people in California that I now recall I do know that I have this. That way I can say I'm read Coast to Coast. Haha.

The Power of the Internet

2005-08-28T22:32:00.000-04:00

Okay so I recently installed a StatCounter on my blog here, just to see how many visits I was getting, and how long those visits were lasting. I'd like to thank John and Crystal for stopping in as often as they have. As well as Lewis(I believe) and a few others who have stopped in from Infinite Monkeys. But what really intrigued me was that someone from California has made multiple visits to my website. Now I personally do not know anyone in California so it intrigued me when I saw that someone from there had stopped in at least twice on two separate days. So I just wanted to say hello to everyone that I don't actually know who reads this. Feel free to introduce yourself as I'd love to check out your blog in return. By the way the StatCounter is totally free and is pretty interesting to see. Things like 63 Unique visitors on Friday but only 9 on Sunday. In any case hello to all the strangers that the power of the Internet has brought here.

Next up my Fantasy Football Draft. If you care to know here is my team. Feel free to comment.

Team Name: The Fall Down Drunks
1. Dante Culpepper - QB
2. Laveranues Coles - WR
3. Roy Williams - WR
4. Jimmy Smith - WR
5. Clinton Portis - RB
6. LaMont Jordan - RB
7. Deion Branch - WR
8. Brian Westbrook - RB
9. Carnell Williams - RB
10. Jake Delhomme - QB
11. L.J. Smith - TE
12. Mike Anderson - RB
13. Larry Johnson - RB
14. Philadelphia Eagles - DEF

Now I opted not to take a kicker because the differences between kickers really aren't all that great so I wasn't too worried about picking one up after the draft completed. I'm a bit heavy on RBs but you need depth due to injuries. Our league starts 3 WRs and also has a WR/TE flex position. Being a match-up league I'm feeling fairly good. I've got probably the highest scoring QB. Larry Johnson for RB for when Priest Holmes gets hurt. Delhomme as a very nice back-up QB for Culpepper's bye week as well as in case of injury. I've got some decent RBs but I'm hoping someone will trade multiple people for someone that is a bit higher up in the rankings. Now all there is to do is wait for the first week of games to start on 9/8 through 9/12. After that then my serious trash talk will begin. Good night all.

P.S. As I ran the spell checker over this I noticed that Blog is apparently not in the dictionary for this spellchecker. How hilarious. Of course neither is spellchecker. Haha.

Spamorific

2005-08-26T14:11:00.000-04:00

I'm sorry to announce that I'm going to have to turn on the word verification in the comments. Made after a week or two I'll turn it off and see how things have settled down but for now I'll turn it on. You can still post anonymously, you just have to pass one of those annoying word verification tests for any comment post (yes I know they are hard to read and annoying but not as annoying as spam, at least to me). Hope it isn't that a big a deal for you folks, if it is...well comment on it. =P

You are in Violation of....

2005-08-25T16:59:00.000-04:00

After my recent post about hacking the Navbar from Blogger I got a comment from one Graeme about the possible violation of the TOS. A bit worried about this because I hadn't considered it before I went ahead and researched it just to be on the safe side. I actually went through and read both the TOS with Blogger.com and with Blogspot.com . Here is my personal opinion on the matter (we all know how wrong that could be).

It is possible that I am violating subsection

“(e) upload, post or otherwise transmit any Content that infringes any patent, trademark, trade secret, copyright or other proprietary rights of any party; (f) upload, post or otherwise transmit any material that contains software viruses or any other computer code, files or programs designed to interrupt, destroy or limit the functionality of any computer software or hardware or telecommunications equipment;”

from Section 4 of TOS with Blogspot.com

However, it is my personal opinion that the new flag button gives other members the ability to easily violate this section.

“Member shall not interfere with another Member's use and enjoyment of the Service or another entity's use and enjoyment of similar services.”

From Section 12 of TOS with Blogger.com

Another thing for them to keep in mind is this section

“You understand that by using the Service, you may be exposed to Content that is offensive, indecent or objectionable.”

From section 4 of TOS with Blogspot.com
Right there it tells everyone that you may occasionally find something offensive, indecent, or objectionable...earlier in the TOS they state that you shouldn't use Blogger.com or Blogspot.com to violate any laws. I really don't understand the reason for the flag button except that it may eventually be adapted to help us the members police ourselves from spammers and others who would violate the law with the services and cause possible legal problems for Blogger.com and Blogspot.com I do not want this to happen as I enjoy a free place to blog and keep friends up to date on what I am doing. Therefor I am against the current implementation of the flag feature but would like to see it become a feature where we the members use it to help Blogger be policed against potential illegal activity not against the subjective opinion of what is "objectionable". Thank you.

Damn Censors...(sorry about the length)

2005-08-24T22:46:00.000-04:00

Okay, I'm not sure if any of you have noticed however there is a nice new feature added to the navbar across the top of blog pages. It is called the flag. This is to be used for the flagging of "possible" "objectionable" content. There are a few things wrong with this flag button.

First, it is anonymous. It should be tracked what a person rates as "objectionable" and quantitatively added into the formula for determining if something truely is objectionable. This whole idea stinks. If it is not illegal leave it alone.

Second, there is no accountablity for it. A person could get a perversive kick out of randomly flagging things.

Thirdly, the blog owner is not informed they have been flagged.

What does a flag do? From my understanding it removes the blog from the random "next blog" thing, as well as removing the blog from being featured on the blogspot site. Now neither of these are a large concern to me because I could care less if anyone else besides friends ever were to read this. However, it is the concept that I find deplorable. The mob mentality of judging the "objectionablity" of something within a personal blog is absolutly retarded. If something is not illegal it should be left alone. If you care to here is a way to remove the navbar from your blog.

To remove the navbar from your blog, copy and paste this little piece of code into your template somewhere between the style and /style tags and republish your blog:

#b-navbar{
height:0px;
visibility:hidden;
}

I'm going to attempt to figure out a way to remove just the retarded flag icon form the navbar though it may be beyond my coding skills. If any of you figure out a way please let me know. I am really moralistically, ethically, valueistically (these are all words now) oppossed to this mob rule censorship that blogger has decided to adopt.

Edit: Okay I have found a massively nasty way to fix this. Basically I hide their navbar and then create my own without the flag button. Here is what you need to do.

In your template between the style and /style> tags place the following. (I'm not sure if it is all needed but mine has it all and it works.) (More instructions follow.)

#b-navbar{
height:0px;
visibility:hidden;
}

#c-navbar
{
background:#111;
border-bottom:1px solid #222;
color:#999;
}

#c-search
{
background:#333 url("../../img/navbar/3/corner.gif") no-repeat left bottom;
}

#c-query
{
border:1px solid #555;
}

#c-this a
{
color:#ccc;
}

#c-this a:hover
{
color:#fff;
}

#c-navbar
{
width:100%;
padding-bottom:5px;
border-bottom:1px solid #111;
min-height:24px;
font:x-small "Trebuchet MS",Verdana,Arial,Sans-serif !important;
color:#47a;
font-size/* */:/**/small !important;
font-size: /**/small !important;
margin-bottom:10px;
position:absolute !important;
top:0;
left:0;
z-index:1;
display:block !important;
}

#c-navbar a img
{
border:none;
display:inline !important;
}

#c-navbar #c-logo
{
position:absolute !important;
top:3px;
left:5px;
width:80px;
height:24px;
border-width:0;
}

#c-logo img
{
display:inline !important;
}

#c-search
{
background:#111 url("../../img/navbar/corner.gif") no-repeat left bottom;
margin:0 0 0 100px;
padding:4px 7px;
line-height:1em;
font-size:85%;
text-align:left;
}

#c-more
{
float:right;
padding-top:2px;
display:block !important;
}

#c-more a
{
margin-left:4px;
}

#c-query
{
margin-right:.25em;
width:12em;
}

/* hide from IE5-Mac \*/
#c-query
{
font-size:x-small !important;
}
/* end hide */

#c-searchbtn
{
position:relative;
top:-1px;
margin-right:.5em;
vertical-align:middle;
}

#c-this
{
display:block !important;
}

#c-this a
{
margin-right:.5em;
white-space:nowrap;
text-decoration:none;
line-height:1em;
}

#c-this a:hover
{
color:#fff;
text-decoration:underline;
}

Now after your style tags in the template you should see the head tag and then a line or two later the body tag. At this point paste the following. (more instructions after)

<div id="c-navbar"><a href="http://www.blogger.com/" id="c-logo" title="Go to Blogger.com"><img src="http://www.blogger.com/img/navbar/3/logobar.gif" alt="Blogger" height="24" width="80" /></a><form id="c-search" action="http://www.google.com/search"><div id="c-more"><a href="http://www.blogger.com/" id="c-getorpost"><img src="http://www.blogger.com/img/navbar/3/btn_getblog.gif" alt="Get your own blog" height="15" width="112" /></a><a href="http://www.blogger.com/redirect/next_blog.pyra?navBar=true" id="c-next"><img src="http://www.blogger.com/img/navbar/3/btn_nextblog.gif" alt="Next blog" height="15" width="72" /></a></div><div id="c-this"><input id="b-query" name="q" type="text"><input name="ie" value="UTF-8" type="hidden"><input name="sitesearch" value="mattsasylum.blogspot.com" type="hidden"><input src="http://www.blogger.com/img/navbar/3/btn_search.gif" alt="Search" value="Search" id="c-searchbtn" title="Search this blog with Google" type="image"><a href="javascript:BlogThis();" id="c-blogthis">BlogThis!</a></div></form></div>

That's all you may need to adjust the background color in #c-search...as well as the border-bottom color in #c-navbar (the second one I believe). Hope that helps folks.

Words of Wisdom

2005-08-24T21:38:00.000-04:00

Well perhaps not so much wisdom as mere words. However, my excuse Nathan is similar to yours. I have done nothing except work and read these last few days. My last post was titled boredom for a reason I simply can not wait for school to begin as life is fairly boring while I am in full anticipation of that day which is less than a week away.

I have somewhat begun to prepare (buying books counts right?). I have some background reading to do, begin with English history during Chaucer, move through Shakespeare then into later history through 1780. After that it will be to understand the influences of the Modern Short Novel and the Modern European Novel, by the way Modern European Novel begins all the way back with Cervantes apparently as we are going to read at least part of Don Quixote. But yes John I have begun that background reading as well as reimmersing myself in the art of reading multiple books/texts at once (well not simultaneously but you understand). I am nearly finished with Barth's Floating Opera and I fear I may not have time to read The End of the Road. At the bookstore today I begin to read Gilead:A novel by Marilynne Robinson, the name attracted me as well as the fact that it won the Pulitzer this year. I've read up to page 51 and I must say it draws one in and urges them to continue the reading I may pick the book up, but more likely I'll read it at B&N. Anyways, as soon as I finish Barth I'm going to begin Wiesel's Night which is our first text for my Modern Short Novel class. Don't expect much until Tuesday evening after my first day of classes.

Secondarily, I began work on a personal project which may one day become a novel, a graphic novel, an anime TV/movie program, or remain digital 1's and 0's (the most likely). Anyways, I will talk with you all again.

Sidenote, school is much too expensive for students to ever afford it, I spent $630 on tuition alone after my FLORIDA PREPAID, come on I'm going to college so I can get a real job and make money, what is up with these upfront costs....it's just like those get rich quick schemes that never pan out....ah well. I will definitely have something Tuesday evening...probably not before.

Boredom...

2005-08-17T00:59:00.000-04:00

Well it has been an uneventful last few days. School starts in just under two weeks and for the first time in a few years I'm actually looking forward to the start of a school year (I do not however envy John or Nathan who are both neck deep in more work then I will ever desire). So at the moment I'm getting in as much reading for pleasure as I can, Robert Jordan (again), Dan Brown, Barth; I'm sure I'll pick up a few more things because once school starts I'm fairly certain that I'll be reading about 2-3 books at a time and several poems, shorts, essays, and articles, all in a continuous state of fluctuated understanding within my meager brain. Life will become interesting and I'll once again have concepts, ideas, and thoughts to discuss with other folks rather than just "what I did today". Speaking of which, the other night Stites and I went to see Four Brothers. Word of warning, this is a drama movie with a few action scenes, not an action movie with dramatic moments. A bit disappointed because I was expecting something different I came home and watched The Transporter, the sequel is coming out soon and I had not seen the original I figured it was about time. This movie happily satisfied my need for gratuitous explosions and gun-fire. All in all this past near week has been rather boring, school seems so far away, but work is early tomorrow morning. Good night all.

My Hott Friends will be here Soon.....yeah RIGHT

2005-08-12T02:49:00.000-04:00

John and I are supposed to meet Stephanie Handel (a girl we both knew in High School, very cute, outgoing, and generally fun to hang out with...she still is). We meet her, Matt ends up not having to work so he meets up with us for a few drinks and pool. Then my cousin calls and she and hot female friends are out at Whiskey Park North. "Let's go" is the general consensus. So, John, Steph, and I head out there Matt goes home. We arrive. "Hott friends will arrive in 30 minutes." Sure no prob let's drink until then. 45 minutes later..."where are your hott friends"..."I'm not sure." Damn o well. So we hang out see a guy we haven't seen since high school (Brent Selph, who is now in Law school at FSU second year). Turns out he worked in the Public Defender's office with a guy who likes my cousin. After a while, Marie's (my cousin) one female friend who was there decided she drank too much and her body begins the wonderful cycle of regergitation (vomitting). John and I decide to do our good deed for the week (month...year) and offer to take her home because some pyscho guy who is in love with her wouldn't leave her side. We get her in the car and after a few stops along the side of the road we finally get her home, where after dumping out her purse she finds her keys and gets inside safely. We then proceed home where I am now and wondering if my cousin made it home safely or if I have to go kill some guy that either didn't help her get home safely or took advantage of her. Either way he gets to suffer before death. I'll see you all again tomorrow or Saturday, goodnight.

Skyrockets in Flight...

2005-08-10T00:11:00.000-04:00

Okay so as you all probably know, Zorro and the Blue Footballs (our team name for trivia) totally bombed out of trivia on Monday night due to horribly phrased questions and incorrect answers that the judge's insisted were right (well we never argued but I'm pretty sure we couldn't have done as bad as we did unless the judges were cheating us). Anyways, tonight was a whole new ball game. Instead of going out to play pool, shoot darts, and drink then ending up singing kareoke. We went out with the actual intention of singing kareoke. Very little drinking occured at our table this evening. Matt (Stites) and I did our rendition of Rapper's Delight which got a nice round of applause and a few compliments. Then we suffered through untold hours of agony as people chose the slowest, saddest country songs that were available in the book and then proceeded to sing them horribly. Nikole sang two songs in her very distinctive voice that can totally belt out hits with more volume and power then one would imagine coming out of her tiny little frame (I will say the second song probably wasn't such a great choice because I'm not sure she knew it as well as the first but she still did a hell of a lot better then most people in that place on the second, the first song she did was probably one of the best sung tonight). However, I have to say that the award for the best done kareoke song was "Wake me Up before you Go-Go" by wham as sung by Matt, Matt, and John. We missed most of the first verses, I thought the song was over before it was and had put my mike down, then a little after Matt (Stites) thought the song was over before it was and had put his mike down. The worse part is that Stites was the only one who really knew the words and he has the worst voice out of us three. In any case we left quickly so we didn't suffer through more of sad, sad country songs folks were picking. Side note, even though John spent five years in Troy he had never heard of the song, "She thinks my tractor's sexy". He is a big disappointment. Well goodnight all.

P.S. Unfortunatly we did not get to sing "Afternoon Delight" as Matt and I wanted to, nor did John and I get to sing "One Week", the country songs were just too bad to hang around.

So I'm Drunk...

2005-08-08T01:41:00.000-04:00

Let me just say that before I was drunk the girls were hot....and that's all that really matters. John and I play a few games of pool and then darts. We decided to sing "Sweet Home Alabama", all John's idea. We bought a few girls some shots.Since I knew the bartender I thought it'd be okay but it turned out not so hott. Anyways, I talked to some hott girls and then we ran out before singing the song they requested which would have them talking to us more. Anyways, John owes me and we were both trashed. I'll talk to you all tomorrow night at trivia. Later.

Edit: I don't even remember writing this post. Good times.

Okay Two Things for this Evening.

2005-08-06T23:47:00.000-04:00

First up, a really cool website for any fan of ascii art, the matrix, or interesting websites. The Ascii Matrix is probably one of the most unique sites I've ever run across and it is once again thanks to Stumble. So if you haven't gotten Stumble for your Firefox browser get it.

Second up, my evening. I went to dinner with my parents (if it's free why on Earth would I refuse?) at Johnny Carino's. Now as some of you know I work at Macaroni Grill. Both are country italian restruants, in most people's opinion Carino's is pure knockoff of Macroni Grill, this is mostly true. There are a few dishes on their menu though that we do not have on ours, namely Lambchop Marsala. MMMmmm, good. Not nearly as much lamb as I had hoped for at the price, but still are rather nice dish that went well with the Shiraz (Rosewood I believe) that they carry. Now in order to make a family evening of it we decided to go ahead and get a movie over the cable box with Movies on Demand. None of us having seen Hitch and all being fans of not only Will Smith but comedy (even if they are romantic comedies) it was an easy choice, I think I had seen nearly all the other options. It was your classic romantic comedy plot. Boy meet girl, fall in love, girl do something stupid (or sometimes the guy), guy lose girl, guy fight to get girl back. Will Smith and Kevin James really make this a movie worth seeing. Smith's smooth style and James's social ineptness really make the two mesh well as co-actor's allowing the male side of the story (the main plot him overcoming fear in order to fight for what he wants) can really be told by two great actors. If you haven't seen it, go ahead and drop the $2-4 and rent it for a date night (or to pick up a few pointers if you're currently dateless). Overall, a pleasant and relaxing evening.

Tomorrow is an all day at work and Monday night is trivia because John-boy is back in TOWN. Until I write again.

Last thing, Sunday (the 7th) is my friend Nikole's birthday, her 21st to be specific. So happy birthday to you dear and you're now world famous because we all know that the movers and the shakers of the world read my blog.

Amaztype - Crazy things that are out there

2005-08-04T22:03:00.000-04:00

Amaztype
Okay here is one of those really cool things I found with that Stumble Addon I wrote about a few days back. Anyways, what it does is make a collage of whatever you search for based on the images that amazon gives back as a response to the search. Very interesting. In any case my cough is pretty much all the way gone, my neck muscles seem to be about back to normal, and I slept for nearly 24hours yesterday/today. Overall I'm ready to get back to a normal life now. Hope everything is well with all of you out there.

Update....

2005-08-03T17:08:00.000-04:00

"BullSheff said...

I need an update, damnit!"

Okay so here is my update. I've been coughing and hacking up nasty, nasty phlegm. No sore throat, no temperature, just annoying coughs and pain in my neck muscles whenever I decide to turn my head. I begin self-medication the other evening with little effect, however I can no say the cough is nearly gone but the muscle pain is even worse. Someone needs to buy me a masseuse to make this pain go away. Anyways, I've done very little recently. I was invited to join a fantasy football league which should be interesting. I've never "REALLY" followed football but I do know that the object of the game is carry that little ball around and avoid other guys. Crazy sports we Americans have.

Anyways, no worries that you are all missing out on some great big stories. I just hurt when I move my head so I haven't read much or done much of anything. Don't worry though I'll be better before John comes in town so we can do something insane to commemorate his last free week before Grad school. Side note, I start school on Aug. 29 and part of me can not wait, the part that lives a very boring life, the other part is smugly sure that 15hours of Lit/Eng classes is too much for any one man to pull off, I tell this part to shut-up and remind it of my clone machine (think Calvin and Hobbes).

"Jackson said
(PS- I hope a beer will be waiting...I've been without since I got here)."

To this I say,

Wouldst thou care for a pale or a dark lager, or any particular brew?
It shall be the one waiting on you.
The other beers will all have been drunk by myself, Matt, or drinking Matt, but we'll save you one.

Hahaha

Reasons to Work in a Restruant (or Hardly Work)

2005-08-01T00:14:00.000-04:00

Okay so Saturday night was Jefwas in July, an annual celebration that involves drinking, a theme (this year was the 80's notice the costumes), and of course Sara Michelle Geller. Now, this is one of the bonuses of working in a restruant, crazy parties with alcohol and beautiful young ladies (most of which want absolutely nothing to do with you). Okay so a few more pictures from the party and then on to other things.

Sorry about the blurry qualty of the pictures had I realized how many great photo moments would have been generate by an 80's themed party I would have brought my real camera instead of just my phone cam. Anyways, these are probably some of the best costumes at the party. The sports coats, t-shirts, jeans look was huge in the 80's, especially ripped jeans.

Now for the bad news about working in a restruant. There is always your last day on the job. If you're one of those people that are easily offended don't look; if you enjoy funny junk take a peak. Anyways, this was Evan earlier today after his last shift - for the time being - at Macaroni Grill. Imagine whip cream in his hair and all over the right side of his face, not to mention the flour someone tossed on him. Man are we evil. Side note, yes this is the type of stuff that occurs in the back area of restruants that you can't see. I will say however that I, nor anyone that I know of has ever done anything nasty to food, drink, or such that goes to a table. We do goof off as much as possible though in order to alliviate the strees of dealing with crappy tables who do nothing but bitch over one too many ice cubes in their drink and then leave a measly ten percent or so tip and think they've made your day with it. Twenty percent is what I always expect and nearly demand, I gave change back to a guest once and told them it was change not a tip. They weren't really happy but at least they didn't insult me, they must have forgotten the tip entirely. Ah well, such is life. Sorry for the server rant.

Well it's all been a great bit of fun these last few days. Sorry for not keeping you more up to date, but the bed calls more loudly then the blog does, at least at this point and I hope it stays that way until I'm making money off this somehow.

Parting words, I have floor tickets to Weezer and Foo Fighters Co-Headling tour which appears in Tampa on September 11th at the St. Pete Times Forum. Should be a damn good time.

Mmmm....Chocolate

2005-07-28T22:57:00.000-04:00

Okay so I just went and saw Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. A most peculiar cinema experience. Similar to the original yet O so different. Truer to the book yet with occasional improvisation. I found the combination of Dahl's humor and Burton's antics to make for a rather off-the-wall encounter. Depp did a stupendous job but I feel that had Wilder been in his prime now to work with Burton the movie would have been even better. All together a well spent evening. I would say more concerning the movie but I wish not to ruin anyone's time if they have not yet had the pleasure. So if you were waiting before deciding your wait should now be over. The money and time will be well spent.

Thesauri are rather useful when wishing not to sound redundant.

The Heart of the Matter

2005-07-27T10:33:00.000-04:00

Okay, so about five minutes ago my mom called and told me that my uncle had suffered a heart attack, full blow not some minor attack. He had some emergency stints put in and is now in stable condition at UCH. This isn't his first heart related problem though his most severe. I'm not sure if I should drive on out there to see him or just wait until later to go see him. In any case I guess I just had to write it out to really wrap my head around it. Why do hearts fail at times? He is a healthy guy, a bit over-weight perhaps but in fair condition, much better then most of America, and he's only a little over 60 I believe (not sure). Not things to ponder so early in the morning. The sun shines yet it will be a dark day in my thoughts I fear. All go back to your lives and just be healthier about them.

*Edit* @ 11:45PM

Just so you all know my uncle is doing very well and will be moved to a regular room at the hospital tomorrow so I'll get a chance to head out there and visit him. My mom saw him this evening and apparently he is doing very well. So no worries.

The Wonder of it All

2005-07-26T21:50:00.000-04:00

Okay in an effort to make my blog a bit more universal in appel, though I'm sure you all want to hear exactly what I do on a Tuesday, I took a trip over to the Firefox extension website and picked up a few tools for my browser that'll make blogging (and even web surfing) a bit more interesting and entertaining.

First up, The Blogger Bar, this little beauty will add in the Blog This option to any website. So you're surfing along and find a site you'd like to dedicate an entire post to. Hit that button and all of a sudden you're blogging away directly into your blog because it's smart enough to know who you are (though I think that has something to do with my "Remember me" settings). Anyways, wins a big thumbs up from me.

Second up, Stumble Upon! this one right here has you register and pick some categories to choose from. Whenever you press the Stumble button you are jumped to a random site within those categories that have already been rated by other viewers. You can then say, "I Like It" and it gives you more in a similar vein, or, "Not-for-me", and similar sites are removed from the randomness. You can also see who originally recommended the site and view other sites they recommended. In all a great little tool to help me find sites I would never have found using just Google and my own search words. Now to show you what this tool did for me already.

www.chrisjordan.com This is the website of a prominent photographer whose works have appeared in such things as the New York Times and the Smithsonian Magazine. Here are two works that really struck me as powerful.

<-- Cell Phones (click large view) Cigarette Butts-->

Very interesting works that I never would have found if not for Stumble Upon! So thanks Stumble!!

Another seven hours older

2005-07-26T05:26:00.000-04:00

Okay so I just spent the last 6 or so hours at Matt's (Stites) house playing a game that really isn't all that great. I did warn you folks however that I was fairly sure tonight wouldn't be much of an evening, I mean come on it is Monday after all. Anyways, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles 2: Battle Nexus is an enthralling game that will suck away many hours of life just so that you can watch that next story sequence in cartoon format. I guess things really were better when we were kids because not only did the story make absolutely no sense but the voice acting for the characters wasn't really all that hot. I suppose it was more the reminiscing than the actual game play or story line (the fact that it even had a story makes it about twenty times better then about 75% of the games currently available). In any case I'm now seven hours older and have absolutely nothing to show for it; we haven't even beaten the game yet. Well it's a damn good thing I don't work tomorrow so I can just sleep sleep sleep. Hahaha to all you suckers that live in the real world.

Theft is a Way of Life

2005-07-25T16:38:00.000-04:00

Just so you all know I stole this from Nathan's Blog because I'm fairly certain that today is going to be a fairly boring day. I'm to work in a little bit but other then that nothing. Anyways, theft is certainly a way of life because it allows those without to get so there and enjoy.

You Are an Irish Coffee

At your best, you are: wild, spontaneous, and outgoing

At your worst, you are: too extreme and reckless

You drink coffee when: you want to keep drinking booze

Your caffeine addiction level: low

What Kind of Coffee Are You?

Now I have to say that I do drink coffee instead of booze fairly often (mainly doubles at work); however, I'm probably not the most wild, spontaneous, and outgoing person in the world. The worst I'll leave uncommented upon.

Chips and Change

2005-07-25T01:29:00.000-04:00

Well tonight was poker night. I really need to find a new group of folks to play with. I got second in the first tourney (so I got my money back). However, I lost seriously in the next two so I just decided to call it quits and leave while I was only a little down; besides everyone else had left anyways. Maybe I'll head out to the floating casino and try my hand at Blackjack again. Seems the only game I play really well is one where I know all the odds and how to play them. Well, work isn't until late tomorrow so I'm off to get some reading done and maybe goof around with a background graphic for the header on this blog; we'll see. Night all.

Image courtesy of http://capmarine.com/cap/graphics/Ace-1.jpg

The Value of Family

2005-07-24T18:21:00.000-04:00

Okay here is a picture of my nephew Evan Meyer Robinson and of course his Grandma (my mom). Sorry about the grainy quality but it's just a mobile phone image for now. Little ones teach us what it means to constantly be filled with wonder at the great world around us. Playing with him is probably one of the most enjoyable things I do in life and something that you can never really get enough of.

Here is another family picture, this one of my cousin Eric learning about physics using a Pilates ball and my Uncle Ben as the teacher. Today's lesson, for every action there is an equal and opposite reaction. So if five year old Eric takes the Pilates ball and runs at Uncle Ben who is about four times his size, the reaction is that Eric goes flying backwards and ends up hitting his tailbone on the sofa, even though he thinks he's invincible Eric soon learns this is not the case.

Today was our Birthday celebration for the month. My dad's side of the family all gather at my grandfather's house and we BBQed some ribs and chicken, had some baked beans, and corn (not on the Cob because SOMEONE left that at home when they had been reminded to bring it over). In any case it's good to be around family and continually renew those bonds of love, cause if your family can't love you who can? I've got to say I'm really blessed in that because I have a huge family and there is plenty of love. Well enough sappy stuff for a month I think. I'm off to see what can be done with the rest of the evening. Later all.

The After Party

2005-07-24T02:44:00.000-04:00

Matt Stites is a jerk. Last night he went to Chambers (a gay club) and was hit on by some guy after consuming serious quantities of alcohol - or so he says. In any case my phone number was given to the gay guy instead of Stite's number and 2 messages have already been left about the evening. Perhaps a new friend is in order but what's the point at this place in the game. In any case it was a good laugh. Now onto other things.

Okay, so this evening was so passe. I went to a bar for seriously cheap drinks (knew the bartender) and to play some pool and darts (specifically cricket). After getting there and playing a few games, Matt (Stites) got a call about a party in Fishhawk for work. This was of course welcome after 3 Vodka sprites. We didn't know who was throwing the party but we knew I was driving because Stites had at least 5 Long Islands. We venture to Drinking Matt's house (Matt P.) where more drinking takes place and then we drive the 15 (or so) minutes to Fishhawk where it turns out it is Rachael's birthday, a nice young lady who is only 20 and has a boyfriend. The one redeeming factor of this party was FREE beer (Guinness). Other then that it was a total sausage fest. In any case I'm now home, a little tipsy, and about ready to go to bed , maybe a bit of reading before hitting the hay but I'd probably forget anything I read so what's the point.