Interesting title eh?
Well today while using the wonderful toolbar add-on of stumbleupon, I discovered some great sites that just stuck out of my mind.

I know almost everyone here has been to google’s website. I came across an interesting blog post(13 Amazing Google Facts You DONT Know—note that the image on the site is on the “mature” side–just a warning before you go there). One of the amazing things that I found on the site was the number of errors that the Google homepage has. That’s right, their home page! It actually has 64 validation errors! Thats just a little crazy, don’t you think? I think so! I really do!

So what other site did I find? Well. Have you ever wanted to try Linux without having to repartition your hard drive? Well there is this intriguing project that installs Ubuntu onto your computer without partitioning your computer. They say they modify the boot.ini file to allow the file to be booted as a seperate hard drive. I don’t know. But so far reviews seem to be good on it. This would be a great way for someone to try out and be introduced to Linux without having to repartition a hard drive themselves, or mess up their boot sector by doing something wrong or having the boot loader crash and error out on them. To check out this program, go to their website.

Have you seen those annoying Mac ads that say to think different that promote the Mactels? Well. Guess who decided to make their own parady of those commercials now? The unlikely contender here is Novell. Novell? Wait? Arn’t they having issues and all that? Their alligned with Microsoft, and they are taking shots at them? Nice thinking there Novell! Well to see their introduction of what Linux looks like, visit their online video promotion site.

Well I think that that is all for now. I still have a large paper to finish off and get printed(its so far 50 pages) and turned in by next week. This paper has taken so long, I can’t wait for it to be done. WHEW!

OK. NM previous statment. Just one more thought. Verizon sucks. They sued Skype because Verizon apparently has patented some VOIP technology. I can see where this is headed. A world of Verizon VOIP. So. Verizon = SCO Group Inc? Great. Thats not a great future for us. Either that, or all VOIP will be Verizon based—which is worse? I don’t know. Now I am gonna have nightmares!

Categories: General, Humor, Technology, Thoughts
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So I was working on my presentation for class tonight, when I decided to put my laptop in standby mode while Vista was still in presenter mode and projecting to another screen. Upon bringing my computer out of standby, the processor and hard drive were running at 100%. It was like this for over ten mins, so I did what any person who is impatient does. I held down the powr button and turned the system off. Well I turned the system back on and the computer looked like windows 2000 and nothign worked. I mean nothing. Ran system restore, and guess what/ It actually made the system workable again! Good job Microsoft!

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Usually I leave the food blogging to Drew and his blog, but tonight I was reintroduced with an old friend. Barbacoa. Or for those of you who don’t know what it is. Its Mexican Barbecue, specifically with meat from the face of the cow. I thought that I could only get it by going home, but apparently that little wonder of a restaurant had been selling it for some time. I went down there, and the paper at work was right. They do sell the glorious wonders of Barbacoa. It was a little dry, but it was still the good old Barbacoa of old. If you don’t believe me that its good, go and try some. You will love it. Aiight. Gots to go.

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Categories: videos
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So, there have been many times when I wish that I could go somewhere where there was internet access to work on my homework or other things, but I wanted to watch the latest tv shows at home on the tv to keep me kinda distracted. But then if I do that, I don’t pay attention my homework because I am looking upward at the large tv in front of me. Because of that, I thought of maybe getting slingbox. But. It is kinda expensive, especially the newest version. Well as some of you may(or may not) know CompUsa is closing here in Grand Rapids. I was browsing through their selection when I was in the software section(which was all 15% off) and I found this sweet new piece of hardware and software combination. It was originally 100, but minus the 15% made it worth it to get.
Its kinda like a slingbox, but for analog only signals. It can be a vcr, rabbit ears, or a direct cable connection. You connect it to a pc at home via usb 2.0, and you use a client on another computer. The program negotiates with the programs server, and creates a p2p connection between the two computers and transmits only that data(the tv signal) over the internet to the second computer. So effectively, I have my cable tv now on any internet connection that I am at. Even when traveling. As long as where I go doesn’t block the ports I need to use the software. I’m running some quality tests, and notice that the picture is still pretty good all the way down to about 200Kbps. Of course, the more action in the screen at that bitrate the more pixely. But its still pretty good. I find that if I leave the program on auto, it adjusts for the connection that I am on, and adjusts the bitrate of the image as such. The program doesn’t take up that much room on the screen at 100%(its adjustable) all the way up to full screen mode. From the client console, I can even initiate a recording of the show I am watching to my computer’s hard drive back home for me to view later. Now thats what I call awesome. The sweet thing is that they are updating the software all the time too. I couldn’t wish for a better program. And yes, the software is compatible with Vista and XP Sp2 and Windows 2000. Actually, the software can be used with any tv capture card. So if you have a sweet tv capture card on your computer already, you can use that as the input, and use the software to transmit the data over the internet as though you were using the default item that came in the package. If you want to check out this piece that I am talking about, go here: http://www.my-iptv.com
All right. I am going to get asleep. It took me a while to get my desktop up and running again properly today(thats what happens when it isn’t online for about five months) and I have had little sleep this week with a lot of projects due soon. So. Bed seems good right about now. Night!

Categories: General, Technology
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Just sitting down for a bit while I wait for some friends to show up. Nothing too much has happened this week, other than the fact that it was revealed that for the next few weeks I am going to be one busy person that is going to go crazy in order to finish two classes at once.
Taking two PGS classes at once, the last two none the less, probably wasn’t the smartest thing to do on my part. Actually it could be considered one of the dumbest things ever. But. I figure that once these last five weeks are done, that I will be able to de-stress for a bit. At least, that is, until I start up a degree in the fall. Ah school. I can never escape thee.

Finishing some write-ups on how to do Hardware Independent Imaging(HII) with Altiris. Man. I never knew that writing up documentation could take so long, or be so boring. But it is something that I am doing. That way we can continue it here at Cornerstone.
Speaking of Cornerstone, I just added two new sites to the BlogRoll(Worthwhile Blogs) to the right there. So go check the web site for the Bowers family as well as Drew’s new website on the food he eats. They are the last two items on the list, since they are the newest(maybe I’ll change the ordering on that). If you haven’t been there yet, at least try them out once.

Nothing else is happing right now, so I am going to get going. The next few weeks will be full of homework homework and more homework, but I think I might be up for the challenge. Now. If I could only figure out how to do math in my head, I might be ok…..

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So a few things have happened recently that are pretty much just random, but hey, they are a part of my life and I have thoughts on them.

I was getting lunch today, and the restaurant was a little behind(I found out later that someone in the drive up ordered ten double cheeseburgers, and thats why they were behind) so there was a little bit of a wait for lunch. In case you were wondering, the restaurant was McDonalds. So, I’m sitting there in the restaurant waiting for my food after I ordered and someone in line waiting to order his food looked over and asked “So what are you people getting for having to wait?” We all responded that we were getting nothing. So when this guy gets up to the line, he orders his food and then asks if he gets anything free for having to wait. The cashier said no(which was appropriate) and the guy asked why not because he had to wait. The manager heard this, and informed the person why they were behind(which is understandable after he explained it) and asked him to understand why they were behind. The guy didn’t care, and stayed at the cash register at the front of the line demanding that he get something free. The cashier kept insisting that that was not store policy, but because the guy was being a bratty baby, the manager eventually gave in and gave him a free small drink. That set off an avelance of everyone else waiting asking for a free small drink. I heard the cashier mutter under her breath “And thats why we don’t do that”. I eventually got my food(five minutes later, not that bad) and I walked out…..

As I was walking out of the place, I stopped right outside my car and thought to myself: Wait! What?!?
I found myself realizing something. American’s are continuing to think that each one of us individually is the most important person in the world. “No one is more important than me! Whatever you do, I don’t care as long as it doesn’t cost me any inconvenience. And if you do cause me any inconvenience, you owe me something as compensation!” Wait. Thats crazy. Why is it now that each of us are always the most important person in the world, and that everyone else owes us everything?
COME ON PEOPLE! Of course I can not expect people to follow Christian values, but, I find that this mindset is even starting to find its way into the Christian circles as well. On this, I actively care that it be removed. How will this be accomplished, I am not fully sure. I am not a theologian, but I know this—-the root of this thinking comes from pride. So. As an old song by the Supertones says “Take my pride away.” That should be our prayer, as this mindset is slowly(hopefully) removed from the US mindset. Slowly, changed one by one of us.

So what else am I thinking of. The movies. I saw two movies today. The first movie was 300. Its a pretty good movie. But I would not take anyone under 18 to the movie. Why? Every few seconds there is more and more blood. There is also some nudity and sex. The language isn’t that bad. But the nudity and the blood and gore take it over the top. I was surprised to see that there was a guy there, and he had his two sons there. They had to be no older than 12 or 13 each. 12 or 13! At that movie. I don’t think anyone under 18 should see it. Just because of the mature themes that are in the movie. I know. people are saying that I am too conservative, but man, yeah. There is a reason that movie got an R rating!

The second movie? Amazing Grace. I saw that movie with the youth group. For a Christian bent movie, it was done very well, and the message and story were really well done. For those of you thinking to go see it, go and see it!

Another thought I had today was that some people think that because someone has a degree in something that they have the ultimate knowledge on that thing. Its crazy. Just because a person has a degree(read bachelors degree) in something doesn’t make them an authoritative voice on that subject. True, they might have more knowledge then the average joe on that subject, but there is no reason to believe that they are the final authoritative voice on it. Also, just because someone studied in a specific degree doesn’t mean that they have a specific set of skills and because someone studies in another profession doesn’t mean they have that skill set. For example, some people that I know. One has a degree in psychology. The other in science. The one in psychology said that they have people skills, just because they have a psychology degree. Its kinda funny. Actually, its very funny! Psychology majors that have never been in a relationship are also funny. They think that their books cover everything that they will ever need to know about relationships. They then dispense relationship information based solely on their book and not on their experience. Its some of the worst, and funniest advice ever! Ok. What else….

The last thought that I had was this. Why do people put their names to something and say that they will do something(and will willingly be punished for breaking their word) and then not do what they say they will do and then complain if there is the threat of being punished. They also try to rationalize away the contract which they signed trying to say that it is more a guide(even though it explicitly says no on something, they think it means it means “do moderation”) to how they work. Those type of people. They drive me crazy. I know some people like that. Them. Well. Their word means nothing anymore. By putting their name on that contract, and then saying they will willingly not do something, and then they do it and don’t care(they do it over and over again without any remorse or thinking about it)…their name is meaningless now. Their name, their contract, their word. It means nothing anymore. I wonder why people don’t care about their names anymore.
Ok, for the rest of the random things in my life.

1. Watched the movie: A Scanner Darkley. Its an interesting movie. Its all animated, but animated in a way that looks realistic but tripy. And Tripy it is. The story is confusing, but good all at the same time. I think I will have to watch it again to get the whole understanding of the story. But basically it is about drug use in the future in america, and it turns out that the rehab centers that detox people are the ones growing and distributing the drugs in the first place. Kinda tripy, but a look at what probably will happen in the future.
2. Watched the video: Carlos Mencia: No Strings Attached. I don’t know why, but I have started to really love the comedic genius of Carlos. I guess it might be because I’m technically a half beaner(which means that I am full Beaner somehow–the math is crazy, I don’t know. I don’t know how to do beaner math although I am a beaner. Its circular, and I don’t know anything more than that) Carlos has a comedic style which is truly his own. And its original. He takes a crack at anyone, and everyone. It doesn’t matter on the race or religion or whatever. The thing about him, is that he is not afraid to not be politically correct. I hate political correctness. Which is why I think I love his stuff even more. Now I will say that a lot of his stuff is a little over the edge, so I can’t fully recommend it, and if you do watch his stuff, make sure to use discernment. But it is funny, and is something that has me laughing all the time(actually, I am watching season one of his tv show right now)
3. Got the tshirt for Fusion, so now I can wear a black tshirt with silver and aqua blue lettering. Interesting. I’m no fashion designer, but I know interesting when I see it
4. The brakes on my vehicle freaked out this past week. They triggered the error light, and then fixed themselves magically one day. yeah, thats being checked out soon.

Yeah, so thats all I got. So I am out of here. Gonna get some rest. And I am setting my clock forward an hour, cause if I don’t. I’m gonna be late. Oh. And check back here tomorrow for some funny video(I hope). Aiight. Night all. And all I got to say is: Dee Dee Dee

Categories: General, Thoughts
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