The Atheist Bug.

I've found I might have caught it.  I mean I already believed that, but I've been watching lots of videos on youtube about it, and I think they have been making me think more about it. 

Bringing it to the fore front of my thoughts.  I even thought of a few videos I could be convinced to try.  Maybe. 

I might write more about that, but the closing bell is almost here.

Harry Potter Test

"So, I was telling a girl about my crazy ideas for green things, and she actually didn't think they were crazy."

Brother: "You need to nab her before she gets away."
"Yeah, I was already thinking about asking her to Harry Potter."
Brother: "Oh..."
"I know, serious right?"

Halloween Costumes

Well it is approaching that time of year again.  The time of year when I don't know if, or what I'd want to wear as a Halloween costume.

But I did come up with two ideas. Both involve my airsoft gear, and one is quite corny.  

So, for airsoft gear I enough that I could pass as a random faceless soldier.  Complete with mask and goggles. 

Which is where the first idea comes in.  "Unnamed soldier number 3."  The basic idea is that I'd be one of the nameless, faceless soldiers that keeps cropping up in action movies and animes.  "Man did you see me die in Blood+, those vampires really tore me apart."  "What about my scene in Hulk?  Did you see him throw me into a building?"  I'm leaning towards this one if I do it, because I'd most likely only have time to go to the anime club around work.  So I could list off all the anime parts I had.  

The other (and the one I think is corny) is much the same as the above.  Full Tactical gear. Maybe not the mask on this one, because it might not matter as much.  Then I'd fill the various pouches and pockets with pens, pencils, notebooks, pieces of paper, and perhaps scrolls.  Then I'd be, the "Warrior Poet." And everyone would know how corny I can be.

Well, if you have a serious suggestion or choice, feel free to indicate it as a comment.

Otherwise, Happy Halloween. 

First day of classes

And here are the things I've learned. 

The first computer with a graphical user interface (what you are using to read this blog) for its operating system was made by Xerox.  It apparently even had mouse input too.  Before that, everything was text based.  Not very much fun to work on. 

I also learned that my suspicions about french were not unfounded.  I'll need to work to catch up in this class.

Furthermore,  I've decided to refer to a "weird french movie" is redundant.  I just got done watching one off of netflix that was in the future, and about this guy who was agoraphobic.  He'd been living inside for 8 years, and the movie is shown entirely through the point of view of his "visiophone."  Kindof like skype, but, you know, made up. 

The movie is about the people and things that finally get him out of the house.  But some x-rated weird stuff happens inbetween.  Plus, they have a weird view on the future.  Probably not entirely off.  But still pretty damn weird. 

Addiction

It is a human condition.  I know I have several, and not all are bad.  But I do have an odd one or two.  Perhaps the oddest is buying office supplies.

Sounds crazy right?  I think so too.  It used to be really bad.  I'd want to buy new boxes of pens and pencils every semester/ school year, even though I had hardly used the last ones.

Even now, just last week, when I was shopping for school supplies, I found myself thinking, what about some legal pads?  Do I need more post-its?  What about these pens?  Should I buy some more folders?  Note Cards?  Erasers?

I'm glad that I had a competing voice in my head this year that said: "You have some, you have plenty, still have a bunch left from last year, reuse the ones you have, and no and no."  Saved me some money, and allowed me to walk out with only a 3 subject notebook, a school planner, and some dry-erase markers.

So, that is probably my oddest addiction.  I'm not sure where it comes from.  Perhaps a nerdy instinct to be well equipped, and prepared.  Or perhaps it is the potential in office supplies?  You know, how new supplies could be used for anything. Even that.  Well, maybe not that...

Feel free to share your odd addiction, and see you around campus.

"I'm calling in about my daughter's..."

This is the time of the year.  The time when everyone is moving in, and getting settled in.  Where people need Internet, and Phone, and TV.

It is also time of the year of the doters.  The powerful Mom's and Dad's that are used to getting things done, and done immediately, for their babies. 

Often parents of students attending college, staying in the finest of apartments in Downtown Madison.

"Hello, my name is Such AndSuch, and I'm calling on behalf of my son Bob AndSuch, who is staying at Bon Chance, and needs to have his TV installed."

"Okay," I respond, " your son, or one of the other tenants in the apartment will need to be in apartment during the time of the install."

"Hold on," they say, "let me give them a call."

Perhaps if they had not done everything for their son or daughter up to this point, then their son or daughter could have handled the whole thing themselves.  Why are we getting calls for installs and technical support from parents several states away? 

"My daughter's internet is out."

"My Son is moving into X, and I had a few questions about pricing."

"My daughter can't seem to be getting connected to the network, hold on, let me conference her in."

Then there is the inevitable, what if this communication barrier, or some other force out of our control makes it so that I, or another person here answering the phone, cannot promise the parent what they *need* for their son or daughter? 

"That's unacceptable, let me talk to your supervisor.  This is just shit." And on and on.

For example, your daughter's number is on the account, we called her to set up the install, and left a voice message.  She didn't call us back, and now you think it's not very good service when you call in on a friday night at 10, and wonder why I can't schedule her appointment for monday?

I think you should let your daughter or son fight their own battles.

Horsey Rides and Computer Tips

So, one of the companies we now answer phones for is a horse carriage company.  And twice now I've had to fight really hard to keep my sarcasm in check.

So where are the stands?  They will ask.  I'll explain their locations, and then a select few will ask the inevitable, "What am I looking for?"

Horses.  You, my friend, are looking for a stand with horses.  I know they are on every street corner in texas, but I think it should be easy enough to spot. After all, ours are special.  They wear bright yellow biker shorts and pink top hats.

And then I feel bad.

Anyway, in other news, a coworker and I are starting a tech blog.  Nothing big, mostly just a record of the things we find out at our job, and in our studies, that we our selves find useful and worth remembering.

So, go ahead and check out mainboardgetburned@blogspot.com.  Right now it is in it's infancy, but we are in the middle of a big rush here at work, so we may not have time to update it.

Also, it might focus mostly on linux, and programming, but I'll try to throw some other interesting info on there.  Possibly introductory linux, or beginning how-to's.

"Some Fortune Cookies, contain no fortune"

I've been a frequenter of a local asian food place just down the street.  I know I should eat out less, but I often don't feel like cooking too much.  It's odd to cook for one, you know?

Anyway, I have a collection of three fortunes adorning my monitor.  One cradled by a stuffed panda that made it on the window above my last desk nearly a year ago.

The first I opened today, and it seems rather fitting:  "Avoid compulsively making things worse."

Always good advice.

The next, I got a few weeks ago: "Examine the situation before you act impulsively."

Which, I need to do more of. 

Finally, "Attend to business another day, nurture your love life."

That, I'm not sure is good advice, but maybe.

Edit:  Just found another one:

"Good people are good because they've come to wisdom through failure."

Driving Snobs, Biking Snobs

Today I read an article in the capital times, written by a biker, about how he, and others he interviewed, get treated while they are biking. 

He talked about how he had several bad things happen to him.  Such as getting yelled at, spit on, cursed out, cut off, and many other bad things. 

But he also noted that there are bikers who earn that, but not everyone. 

Personally, the only odd thing that happened to me while riding was someone yelled out there window to tell me to "get in the bike lane," when I was getting ready for a left turn in 2 blocks.  Rather than try to cross 3 lanes of traffic at the light for the left turn, I opted to get in the left lane.  Oddly enough, the bike lanes (atleast here) are a safety guideline.  You could be in any lane really, but it is safer in the bike lane. 

Sometimes though, I know that there are crazy bikers around.  I don't know why they run red lights and stop signs and the like. 

My rule of thumb I learned from my Dad.  And it applies to riding a bike, motorcycle, or walking, and it compares you to the car driver. 

"If they screw up, you lose.  If you screw up, you lose."

And on that pearl of wisdom, Back to it.

Good night and stay safe.

Midnight Rider

I enjoy my midnight rides.  Especially when there are patches of clouds and a full moon.

More so the ride down state street.  I get to see all the drifters, and nightowls like myself.  Some of them gather in groups, while others meander out of, or into bars.

Some are the homeless, talking and joking with their belongings in bags around them. 


Others are like me, people who stay silent, and ride through the night, pondering what it feels like to be central time plus four hours.

Work IRC server

Since we took on the call center, we have a guy who works for us ( who ran the company we took over) from Texas.

He had one of our phones shipped to him, and he can log in via virtual private network to our work network.

However, constantly calling him asking questions and seeking clarifications about the various companies we answer phones for seems a bit cumbersome.

So I hit upon the idea to set up a Internet Relay Chat server on our work network.  Then, we could all log in, and seek answers from each other, and the guy from Texas, in real time, while on the phone.

I thought of doing IRC, because it would allow us to host and control the chat entirely in house.  We could do something like msn or yahoo, but that puts us in the open.

However, I've tried a few clients so far, and I've not had much luck getting it up and running to it's fullest.

IRC2 is the older style irc server, and that was hard to learn how to configure.

Dancer-IRCD was an interesting style, but it had little or no documentation, and had an error that I was unable to find any information on, online.  I was able to get the IRC portion of it running by itself, but the Dancer specific service applications were causing the error.  I may have to fall back to this and just use it without the services. 

Right now I'm giving ircd-hybrid a try.  It seems to be up and running, but it's giving me grief over the port.

Edit: I don't have to get it to work anymore (even though I may just because I'd want to), my boss boss installed a IM server on one of our servers. 

Position of Power

It's odd to have people who answer to me ( and of course up the chain too).  But it just feels odd to be telling people what they should be working on.  Showing them how something works.  How to deal with a certain issue customers are having.  

I mean, I've been here a year and a few months, but I'm not sure I have much more over these new part-time workers other than time.

Plus, I'm showing them the new answering service procedures, which I just learned that on the First.  Just a week of training, and I'm training them.

But, we need the help, so it's all good.  

Night Owl

Things are changing.

At work, my main boss felt that there was not enough going on at work during the day, so he decided to buy a call center, and take it over.  Right now I'm at work, and I will be until midnight.  Now, I'm not complaining, since I volunteered for the 4-12 shifts Tuesday through Friday.

What does this mean for me?  Well, I get to in a normal week, go home after work on Saturday (4 pm), and stay there until sometime on Tuesday morning.  Maybe I might actually get some stuff done in late July/August.  Also, in theory more time to spend with the family and friends back home.

What does it mean for you, my hundreds... dozens... of readers who randomly pass by?  More posts, because there are times like this, where there are not that many phone calls.

But all this is turning me into a night owl.  I still feel like doing stuff when I get home from work, so I've been playing games or putzing around and I'm up until 2 or 3.  (The take over of the call center was effective at the start of July).

So, I may or may not be seeing you around. 

Hanging out with James

I work with nerds.  We all play video games, (except the boss boss, but he just gets really into politics), a few of us are trying to program games, and one or two of us play with "magic cards." Crazy I know. 

It's interesting, but a time and money sink.  My brother and I plus a few of our cousins were into it back in junior high/ early high school.  But we were never into it seriously, and we kindof all stopped buying cards about the same time. 

The problem with the cards is, they come out with newer and newer cards.  Generally the newer cards give more for less in the game, making it so that if you want to stay competitive, you have to keep buying. 

So we got out, but James invited me to come play with him and his friends last night.  It was fun, it got me out of the house and away from the computer, but it also got me back interested in it. 

Plus I feel bad, I kept James up late, and he had to work in the morning.  I don't have to work until this afternoon/evening.  But, it was a good time.

Drawing a Blank

Whenever I try to draw something I always get about a third of the way into the picture, and then I can never get any further.  It is never right.  I keep restarting it, erasing things. 

Something a psych major would probably attribute to issues with fears about being wrong, or what people will think when they see it. 

Or perhaps they'd think what I think.  I look at what I can do, and I look at what others do and I think I should be able to do that.  Why isn't it as good as theirs? 

I think I've also ran into this with learning to program PHP.  I just want to do the really cool stuff.  But it takes time.  And that time makes me annoyed. 

June, So Far

Life with out video games is surprisingly easy.  I don't think I've really had the need for it yet.  The "detox" if this were an addiction.

I've been taking a bunch of photos.  And one of my coworkers thinks I should post them on a site for stock images, see if I can make money off of them.

Other than that, working 40 hours a week helps.  Plus I have several things to do over june.  I'm planning on starting the guitar again, drawing again, and programing.

Also this weekend and the weekend after next I have two things planned.  This weekend I'm going to the rennisanse faire with my family on sunday, and then the weekend after next I'm going to an airsoft practice event for one of the local teams.

Also I thinking about starting a Linux blog.  Writing about things I do with it.  Tips and tricks sort of stuff.

June Bug.

I got things done today. 

I actually did stuff. 

I have a white board in my room with a list of things to do, and when I get home I can erase 4 or 5 of them.  

Before work: two loads of laundry, put lights on my bike, started reinstalling my work computer, and I got a hair cut.  

Further more, no video games so far today. 

The last post I made may have seemed like I was really depressed, but I took the party as a wake up call.  I've decided that, inspired by my cousin, I'm going to do as I hinted at.  No video games in the month of June.  

It will be challenging, I may need to remove my gaming computer from my apartment for that month (or reinstall only linux on it), and I may need the help of my friends, but it will be worth it.  

So, wish me luck, and good night. 

Up to Par

Recently I was at a friends graduation party.   She made it, and did quite well, and I'm happy for her.

At the party though, I realized that I have some work I need to do on myself.  It was an odd feeling going to a party filled with friends and family of her and her roommate, all quite skilled people.  Dancers, and doctors, and theologists, and activists. 

And there I was, wondering what I could talk about with them.  Work... work was all I could come up with. 

I had pretty much the same conversation with three people, and I didn't have very many conversations.  Mostly I just hung out by the food area.  I probably looked like a freeloader... 

It is apparent, that I need to take up interests in something other than computer games and tv shows/movies. 

Also, I need to figure out how to talk about my interests.  I just feel I'm not good enough in any of them.  I could talk about how I got a picture in a newspaper.  I could talk about how I wish I took photos of the snow storm, and the hockey game.  But those all seem so trivial compared to "I'm a doctor, what I do saves lives," or "I spent a semester in a 3rd world country trying to avoid crime lords, and I have a motorcycle."

I know I shouldn't hold myself up to others.  I know I have my own skills, but I'm pretty sure I botched my college career so far, and mostly because I am addicted to games and stories.  Not as bad as my cousin, who when into therapy for it (16 hours a day, had to drop several classes, and still almost failed out of college).  But he's getting better after taking a break. 

This summer, I plan on working on that.  I plan to get more into photography, programming and learning.  Plus I might even take a vow of abstinence from video games for the entire month of June.  Maybe I'll start a web comic, or learn how to animate. 

I just know something has to change.  Video games should not be my life, especially when the rest of my life depends on these years in college. 

And to my friend, sorry if I rained on your party.  The only person I knew there was you, and I'm glad you appreciated me being there enough to let me know, but I still feel bad about how I didn't really talk to many people.  To be honest, I felt out of place, but I shouldn't have let that hold me back.  So, if there is another party of yours I end up going to, I'll try to get more involved.

Good luck, and have fun.

Hrm?

Tech- Thank you for calling, how can I help you?

Customer- You know what, I have to look at my stuff before I can talk to you.  I thought I was hitting my router fine, but I guess not.

Tech- Okay?

Customer-So, let me do that, and if I have any issues I'll call back.

Tech-Alright.

Would rather not think about it.

But, since I tell myself that, I think about it more.  The amount that you do think about something is inversely proportional to the amount that you want to think about it. 

Say something and it didn't come out right, you'll probably be thinking about it for the rest of the day.

Get dumped by someone, probably for months. 

Why are our brains hardwired to be annoying?  Why can't we just let the bad things slide?

ERm... what?

One morning,  there was a college student sitting at a table in the library Cafe waiting for the people he arranged to study with.

Then, another student, not of the people to be studying with, comes up and asks if he can sit at the table.

The first student agrees, and both students proceed to work, while avoiding eye contact.

Then, the other student... GETS A BLOody Nose...

Not a huge one, but it's just awkward.  Also, not what the first student had in mind when the other one asked to sit down...

(But he couldn't kick the other out, because he forgot to make him sign the terms and conditions of sitting down, the health and safety guidelines, the new regulations regarding fire alarms, a promise not to smoke, and, a signed photograph if the other ever got famous)... 

Saturday...

...is not a study day.  I don't care if Sunday is the first day of final exams.  What the freaking crap!?

And I have a 7:45am exam that Sunday too. 

Classes and Pictures

I registered for classes.  French 203, Art 112: Drawing I, CS 368: Learn a new Programming Language, CS 537: Intro to Operating Systems, and Poli Sci 219: Intro to Public Policy.

In other news, I went to the Day of Silence march and took a bunch of pictures.  There were about 100 people there, and it went up state street to the capital. 

I took the pictures, simply to get my camera out and about.  But the cool part is, after posting them on facebook, one of the friends I linked to, was friends with an LGBT group here, who apparently is associated with an LGBT awareness newspaper. 

The bottom line is, they want to use one of my pictures for an article!

Distracted.

Getting a bit more optimistic, but still unsure.

Contradiction...

Is it possible to be optimistic and sceptical about the same thing at the same time?






I think it is.

In the next few weeks.

I want to:

• Get Linux and Windows to once again work in harmony on my desktop...
• Perform the miracle of dual-booting Linux on my new laptop (with no cd drive and a hard drive full of partitions)
• Start drawing again (1 and a half drawings so far)
• Write more, and not just blog/college stuff either
• Study more/better 
• Getting homework done on time. 
• Working ahead on big projects (I.E. my technical report)
• Read Appropriate Sections before Classes
• Learn to program in C
• Keep better track of things
• Keep better care of myself.
• Watch less Anime/Play less video games (need to make time for the above)
• 3 shows every weekday max.  No video games Sunday through thursday (Atleast for one week so far)
• Friday/Saturday little limit. 

Wish me luck.

IT Technicians are not Gods

We, the IT nerds of the world, are not Gods.  We don't magically know what's wrong.  We don't magically fix it.  There is frustration.  There is failure.  There are times where any one IT nerd cannot fix the issue, and they themselves have to go for help.

So, that in mind, let's listen into this latest tech support call:

Mother: "Could you bring up my account?  I'd like to see what I'm actually paying for."
Tech: "Okay, one second."
Mother: " I'd like to see if I'm getting the phone and the internet. "
Tech: "Yes, you're getting the internet and phone bundle."
Mother:" My daughter's phone hasn't been working for months, I'd like to cancel the phone."
Tech: "Okay...? What seems to be wrong with it?"
Mother:" It rings, but she can't talk on it.  The sound doesn't work.  She called in before, and someone came out when she wasn't there."
Tech: "Did she try another phone?"
Mother: "No I don't think so."
Tech: "I could do some diagnosing on the server side, and some diagnosing over the phone with her, but it might end up requiring a service call."
Mother: "Would the service call cost anything?"
Tech: [pauses because this is the worst part of every conversation]
Mother: "No!  I'm not paying on more penny to get this working."
Tech: "One second, let me explain how it works."
Tech: "After the thorough diagnosing, if we feel that a service call would be needed, we would schedule one.  However, if we got on site and there was an issue that was not a problem with our equipment, then there would be a fee."
Mother: "I'm not going to take that chance on something that hasn't worked yet, especially if it might be something like she didn't know she needed a battery."
Tech: [Not able to stop himself] "She wouldn't know she needed a battery?"
Mother: "Yes, she's busy, she wants to use the phone, but that's why she hasn't tried to fix it more."
Tech: "And does she have a room mate that could diagnose it?"
Mother: "Her roommate doesn't give a crap about the phone."

What the tech wants to say next is "apparently neither does your daughter."


The point of all this is:
If you have a problem with your internet, or phone, let your service provider know.  They have an entire network to look after, and it is a difficult task keeping up on the "electrons behind the curtain," much less monitoring every apartment and house we serve.

I mean, would you (and that mother) have preferred this situation:
Tech1: "Looks like the audio bug we install in 90210 Coastie Av Apartment 777 seems to imply that the tenant's phone audio is not working."
Tech2: "One second I'm too busy watching this girl do her yoga videos on the spy camera we installed to make sure her cable was working."

Okay, now that's a bit overboard I know.  But the point is.  You can't fear that we are watching everything you do, AND expect us to know whenever your service breaks down.

Stay the course? or choose a new path?

I'm not doing very well as an engineer.  I don't seem to have much interest in it.  I'm not sure what my interest is anymore.  But one thing is sure, I'm not likely to get into the college of engineering, especially not without lots of work catching up. 

I'm not sure what my passion is.  Everyone I know in this city is passionate about something.  My childhood friend and her best friend are both crazy into school, pharmacy and biochem respectively (I think).  Plus her and her friend (but more her friend) are deep supporters of LGBT rights. 

My brother is passionate about building computers, and his girlfriend is passionate about art and creativity. 

The other part time employee of the company I work for is passionate about learning about networking, and quite passionate that he is not worth much (much to my attempts to convince him otherwise).

And then, the friends I met at school all have their passions.  For two it's dancing, and school.  For another, it's school and computer science. 

They all have plans, and goals.  And here I am still wondering what I like to do most.  Maybe I'm passionate about stories.  Or maybe Ideas.  I do spend a lot of my time thinking up interesting things, but I rarely get a chance to actually make/do them.  Maybe I'm passionate about video games and animation?

Or maybe I just need to get it into gear?

I think I will end up leaving Engineering and going to Letters and Sciences.  From there, I don't know.  I could use the little bit of transfer over I have from ECE, and go for a computer science degree.  Or I could try something new.  Art, or English perhaps?  But anything that's not computer science related might take another 2 years.

I don't know what's best.

Random Thoughts

Deleted speech openers:
    "Equipping our troops with the best Body armor research can offer is important because then we could finally give up the notion that civilians equipped with civilian weapons could ever stand a chance in a revolution, and maybe be a bit more relaxed about our second amendment rights."

   "Anyone who has every played a first person shooter knows that body armor is important.  It allows you to take more damage while owning the newbies in the face with your assault rifle."

In related news, I have a theory that the more pockets something has, the nerdier it is.  My bookbag?  Quite nerdy.  My coats, quite nerdy.  Military vests, very nerdy.  Of course my definition of a nerd might be a bit off from yours.  My definition is that it is anyone who takes a greater than normal, usually obsessive, interest in something others do without the obsession.  Construction workers with their huge tool bags. Nerds!  U.S. and other Western soldiers covered in pockets and bags. Nerds!  And me, a Computer Technician who feels the need to carry a few tools with him everywhere, "just in case".  Nerd!

Japanese Music

I think I should explore Japanese music more.  Not the Jpop stuff people tell horror stories about.  But their rock/alternative music.  Similar to the music I like in english, only in japanese.

For instance, the below attaches to the opening theme of the second half of an anime I've been watching recently.  

Darker than Black Second Opening - (uh, hard to sum up, but I'll just say it's interesting so far)

 I thought I liked them because they used rhythms differently than singers who sing in english, but now that I think about it it's probably that I don't know what they are saying, and it is just another form of an "instrumental" then.  I'm sure my ex would be really smug about the fact that I'm learning to appreciate songs without knowing what they say (what was said was never important to her).   
xxxHolic - weird supernatural anime.  Explains some of the footage.
Outlaw Star - one crew in one ship verses the universe.  Or, close enough to sum it up.
Blood+ opening 3 -  Amnesic Anemic seemingly Teenage Girl who is really one of two twin queen vampires who have been battling for centuries, fights against her sister's offspring, as she regains her memory.
D.Technolife- UVERworld- Another one by the band that did  Blood+ opening 3.  This song was used for one of the *many* Bleach anime opening.
Stereopony - Tsukiakari no Michishirube - Used as the Second Season opener for Darker than Black.  Has a cool rhythm and intonation in the chorus.

Today, could be better so far.

So, Today, Kronos, my car, spluttered to a halt, and refused to restart at the first stop sign outside of my parking lot.  At this point it was 9:50 or so.  I had to be to work in ten minutes.  Well, that wasn't going to happen, since it was about a 6-10 minute trip going about 30 mph.

So, I spent the next 10 minutes or so literally "putting my back into it," pushing Kronos backwards, back into the parking lot.  2300lbs on tires goes fairly well on level ground, but there was an incline into the parking lot, and then a decline once in the parking lot.  So once in the lot, I had to push it back upwards into it's spot.  Not the best way to start your day, but Kronos hauls me around everywhere, so why complain when I have to return the favor?

On a side note, I know it's nerdy to name my car, and even worse to make the direct reference to it being a Saturn, but eh... It works for me.  It deserves some recognition for being a worthy companion (not starting aside).

Then, when I got to work, I found out I forgot my laptop power cable.  So, to save that for tonight (having learned my lesson from missing the movie last night and having nothing to do while waiting for the next showing, so we decided to reschedule. So, I decided to bring my laptop tonight), I'm not going to use it during the day.  Which works.

About what's wrong with Kronos? Well, I think it's probably the rain got somewhere in the ignition system.  It seemed to be running on 3 cylinders before I was acting like a total newbie and flooded it.  So I think that maybe the coil for one of the cylinders, (2nd one from the drivers side I think), or the spark plug wire, have some water shorting them out.  This also happened on cold days.  So maybe I just have a bad coil?

Walking is not so bad, Today is not over, and with the day starting out as it did, perhaps the rest of the day will seem better?

So, The rant I promised.

This stems from my process of thinking through a conversation or a situation a head of time.  Which, likely, stems from my residual social awkwardness.

This is, more or less, the thoughts I was thinking about saying to a person on my facebook.  He apparently was having a hard time with a woman or some such thing.  So he took it out on all women, at least all women he had on his facebook.  Or, as he put it, he "thinks all the women on the planet should go die. Sure, humanity would be [f@#$ed], but at least all the men would be pretty happy all around until we died."

This is the behavior of what the internet calls "Trolls," named after the technique of fishing known as trolling.  Where you put out bait, and slowly propel the boat through areas with fish.  In this case, the bait is the outrageous statement, and the fish are anyone who would give this troll the time of day.  Good or bad.  

He then went on to in his next post try to bring out the Twilight fans by bashing everyone's favorite glittery vampire.  


If he was having trouble, and simply came to facebook saying, "this is what's going on, does anyone have any ideas?"  Or if he came directly to me and asked "Hey, I know you've been in relationships before, how do you get over a woman who hurt you?"  (or what ever his problem was).  I would have been much more open to sympathy.  Instead he takes it out on the good women out there.  That I can't abide.  


But I missed the moment, people moved on, he apologized.  Next time I see it happen though.  Maybe I'll just say what I've been thinking. 

Mosquito Laser is done.

And if your quick, you can look it up in Wikipedia, and it will be close to what we (myself, and two other aspiring engineers) intended it to be.  Before the ravaging masses descend upon it.

Enjoy:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mosquito_laser

To the lady who looked to be panicing.

No I was not following you.  I live here.  Just because I ended up walking behind you for 4 blocks does not mean I'm stalking you. 

So, Please, calm down, slow down and quit giving me that "Why is he still there" look. 

Mass Effect 2

I just beat it.  It was quite good.  Awesome.  And many other words of approval.  So awesome infact, that when they offered to have me restart the game with the character I just beat it with, I played 15 minutes before I realized it.

It was a great story line, but I wish it could have been a little bit longer.  I mean, Dragon Age: Origins clocked in at about 45 hours.  I believe ME2 came in at about 25-27.  Now, I by no means did everything in ME2, but if I know myself as well as I think I do, I'm pretty sure I didn't do everything in Dragon Age either.

Overall a glowing example of my theory about Video Games being the ultimate way to tell a story.  Maybe I'll have to explain that in more detail later, but for now.

Good night.

Snapshot.

Recently, I've been working on some random things.  I'm writing a program to solve sudokus.  Because I can.  It's currently in the "if computers could speak english, this would work great," stage. 

Other than that, I had a company outing last night, but not the boring kind with ties, and conversations with people you've never met before.  With spouses and significant others, my company came in at a trim 20 people.  Then, about half or so of us retired to one of the buildings our sister company owns, and played video games, pool and even some card games.

Lastly, I'm working on a longer post involving rants, and false facebook friends.

Good night and good luck

Mosquito Killing Lasers, and other news.

In a event one involved college student claims "blew [his] mind," there actually is enough information to write about a system that kills mosquitoes with lasers, for a technical writing class.

It is quite marvelous. It can distinguish between male and female mosquitoes, and doesn't disintegrate your other favorite flying insects. Funded in part by Microsoft and Bill Gates, the system would be used to attempt to stop the spread of malaria by putting up a laser grid around towns to kill the female mosquitoes (the ones that bite humans).

In related news, someone has a PHD in Mosquitoes... A PHD in Mosquitoes? What the freaking crap. Is there a Annoying Insect department? What about a Masters in Silverfish? What are the prerequisites? B.S. in...? Well enough of that.

But seriously, there is nothing wrong with a degree like that. It's just surprising it exists.

Semester Heats Up

Time to see if my new spurt of academic focus will pay off on my first real midterm. Last week I did do pretty well on my first major graded work. 52/60 on a quiz that is worth 1/9th of the grade in that class. The midterm for that class is next week.

In other news, while fixing my laptop, I found out that there is a piece of it that is "not for sale in, use in, or importation into the United States." Which is where I am, and I had no idea when I bought it. Ironically it is the piece acting up, so maybe the government is cracking down on imports?

It's not going to last long, I guess it's time to start shopping for a new laptop.

Good night, and good luck.