Seeing Triple

I was helping Elliot build a computer today, because such things are fun. Anyway, the “onboard video” wasn’t really on board. I mean there was a VGA port, but that was about it. I mean there was nothing in the bios or the manual (yes we looked it up online) or coming up on the monitor for that matter. So, we took a field trip to my basement, the graveyard of computer parts (feel free to donate just about anything to me, its fun), and scrounged up two old video cards to try. Incidentally, I mistook one of the ones that I grabbed for another, and upon returning to his house, a fantastic discovery was made… IT WAS A PCI CARD! While, I doubt that means anything to most of you, but it means that I now have three monitors hooked up to the same computer. And that my mom doesn't have a monitor anymore (not that she was using it anyway).

Resources for the Resource Room

I honestly can’t imagine why the Resource Room, (the place where I go to “tutor” [where tutor means sit around and work on random homework and blog]) is the room most deprived of the necessary resources. I do not speak of resources in terms of people, there are more than enough useless people in the room at any given time, however, I am referring to the necessary supplies for the printer.

For some reason, nobody seems to have any idea under what purview the RR falls under. Some say it belongs to the English Department, but the majority of those in “authority” apparently have no idea. Needless to say, nobody especially seems to wish to take responsibility for it either. So begins the story.

Today, after being fed up for the last time about the printer being out of ink (not because I had to print anything, it was just the principle of it), I decided to do something about it. Most people are apparently content to say “Oh no! The printer is out of toner! I’ll go find another one and not do anything about it! Because it’s not my problem! Someone else will take care of it!”.

Anyways, I wandered up to the likeliest location to find the required toner, the AP.. err.. the AV Room. Incidentally, the IT department for the school also “operates” out of there (the same people that think Windows 2000 is better than XP and take a year to install PDF support [correctly] on all the computers of the school). So, I assumed, hey, this is a good place to start. They couldn’t give me the toner that I needed, because they didn’t know what department it was for.

So, they called down to the office, to talk to one of the secretaries, and naturally they knew (because secretaries secretly rule the world behind the figurehead of authority). So, I wandered down to the office and obtained the necessary toner, and installed it myself. And, would you believe that the school actually recycles? I was shocked and amazed. There must be some kind of government regulation to that affect

Oh, and I’ve gone down to the copy room for paper for it 6 times now.

So yeah, that’s my good deed for today, and this is my diatribe against the politics / structure of public education for the day. Don’t get me wrong, I’m not trying to be a good-two-shoes, but its just so disgusting that nobody takes care of something that needs to be done.

#84 on my list "Every day I lose a little more faith in humanity. "

AP-Ness

Padge: "The College Board answers to no one."
Shalga: "Those bastards."

Yeah, I hate Princeton. Sorry Jeff.

Celebrate Freedom

Well, before springbreak, Mrs. Young told me about an essay writing contest for the Rotary. I totally blew it off. But then I randomly wrote this tonight after an interesting discussion with Ashley on how much Anti-Americans suck. For some reason I was totally in the mood to write such a thing (Sousa for background music helped with the mood too).

It is despicable to suppose that as Americans we can truly celebrate freedom as a nation, whist there are those members of society that refuse to support the nation and the principles it is built on. Celebrate freedom? First we must appreciate it.

Yet, while driving down any given street, one is likely to observe a slew of yellow ribbons plastered on the various vehicles. One might even say that the vast majority are so adorned. However, the hypocrisy inherent in these decorations is tragically not as superficial as the magnetic ornaments. I do not wish to repress true expressions of patriotism; however, those that stop merely with words or a sticker are inherently meaningless.

The troops stationed at home and abroad are the greatest celebrants of freedom. They dedicate their lives, and increasingly often, their deaths, to the celebration of freedom which is War on Terror. While the objective is to quash terrorism, it has brought the same sacred freedom which is enjoyed in America to 26 million Iraqis and 29 million Afghanis. How can the morality of this war be denied?

George Orwell, in his seminal work 1984, states that "Freedom is the freedom to say that two plus two makes four. If that is granted, all else follows." It’s ironic that a disillusioned socialist provides us with such a fantastic definition for that which his principles deny. So often, in today’s culture, it is believed that freedom is the freedom to say that two plus two makes five.

The Founding Fathers bestowed upon America the most essential of all rights, the right to disagree. All citizens are given the freedom of speech and the freedom of assembly with which they may support or deny the actions of this great country and thereby affirm or attempt to alter it. However, just as this right is so often abused in the United States, it was, until recently, entirely denied to the populace of Afghanistan and Iraq.

It is our duty, as the free, to spread freedom to wherever it is denied. That is how we as Americans can best celebrate our freedom.

On another note, I think that everyone that doesn't like America should leave now. Canada is waiting. Jesus Land forever!

Amazonian Ants Attack!

This is the coolest thing I've seen in the natural realm in a very long time.

These Amazonian ants ambush unsuspecting insets, by laying an elaborate trap. With ants lying in wait in a honeycomb type structure they are able to trap, and then kill, far larger prey. These ants trap the insects by seizing its arms/legs/antennae and then bite and sting it until it is paralyzed.

Movie
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Shag-zilla

Paris brought in this fascinating picture of Shagla, I found it entirely too amusing. Evidently, he was persuaded (I think he volunteered) into letting a gaggle of girls put make up on him during a steel band trip.

'

I submitted it to BoingBoing and Fark.

---Update---
Four days later... he was singing "I'm so pretty, oh so pretty", because he was in my blog thrice.

Bibliophobia

I came across an interesting article, well really an excerpt from a book that I fully intend reading when it comes out.

“Only a small portion of the brain devoted to processing written language is activated during reading, while games engage the full range of the sensory and motor cortices.”

I would agree that the brain is stimulated in many more ways by video games and the like, however, I would beg to differ that it actually makes anyone more intelligent, which is one of the fundamental ideas behind books. Certainly, problem solving skills, leadership, and motor control have nearly unilaterally improved for players (as evidenced by studies done by the military), but I would question whether or not they have had significant intellectual gains.

Books are essentially compendiums of knowledge, with the obvious exception of the majority of fictional works. However, if one was to read Michael Crichton or Robin Cook, their books frequently require significant technical understanding, then I would suspect that they would be superior, in terms of educational value, to nearly any video game.

“Books are also tragically isolating”

As for the charge that books are isolate the reader is underscored by the fact that video games can be equally separating. Regardless, I would place far more importance on an individual that has developed intellectually, than one who has merely developed socially. But I’m a nerd like that.

I Migrated

I have officially, and entirely, relocated my computer to my room. This is a great day comrades (I've noticed that I'm using that word all the time now, I promise I'm not a former Soviet. I blame reading 1984 again.). I had really forgot just exactly how pretty my computer case was until it was released from its former den. I also noticed how bright the lights are on the case, and how much warmer my room is going to be now as a result of the increased electronic paraphernalia. Ah, but I do love the expanse of the monitors. I swear they make me more productive.

Oh, and having my computer chair in my room makes me feel a lot like Mr. Beckerink. I like being able to roll around to get things. I'm never getting up again.

My current setup.

Verbal Vexations

Something occurred to me tonight, while my father was conversing with me: I hate vocal communication. Well, at least anytime I'm using a computer, because then, more often than not, I have at least one pair of headphones on (sometimes two, depending on how much I'm trying to multi-task). But in those circumstances, I find verbal communication to be highly annoying, because:

1. I must remove my headphones (at least one ear).
2. I must focus on what is being said, enough so that I can comprehend and process it the first time it’s said.
3. I must then formulate some form of a response and convey it in a timely manner.

Whereas, with the awesomeness of text based communication, I can safely ignore a query or random meaningless comment for a couple of minutes, a few days, or indefinitely, until such a time as I can remove my attention from what I’m doing and converse. For that matter I can easily block an individual if I find them to be annoying.

Don’t get me wrong I love talking to people; it’s just the sudden distractions of verbal communication that I don’t like. I feel so much more ripped away from what I’m doing when verbally communicating and I’m far more likely to entirely lose my train of thought in the metaphoric shifting of gears.

Incidentally, I hate telephones even more. This is due to the fact that one step is added to the aforementioned process for verbal communication. That key step is finding the freaking thing.

My "Desk"

Well, as typical, I ordered my birthday presents a few months ahead of time (for the sake of convenience). I received a much needed 250 gb SATA hard drive (because one of mine is currently in the process of dying a horrible death) and 2 LG LCD monitors (my mom is theoretically going to end up w/ my old one). Originally, I was going to buy the another one of the same type as I already had, but after tabulating a bit, I realized that I could get a whole 'nother monitor for 40$.

Today they arrived. Much to my pleasure, and chagrin (I had been attempting to be productive and was succeeding until they arrived). However, I also quickly realized, that without some construction, I would not be able to fit them both on my desk. Ergo, I set up shop on the floor. I find it excessively comfortable, and have no intention of moving for the immediate future.

Here is the above view.
Here is an alternate view.

Free-For-All

Here's a quick run down of my favorite pieces of free legal software for your benefit.

Trillian - My communications program of choice, I have AIM and MSN accounts together on the same contact list. Amongst the features are renaming contacts, conversation logging, and my personal favorite: the ability to remain away forever. Yes, most people think its really hard to get used to, but after I started using it in 2001 I haven't looked back.

The pro version also has plugins for many convienent things (ie: spellcheck/autocorrect, RSS feeds, automatic message splitting, and text to voice phone messages). Yeah, they want you to get version 3 now, but I might still have a copy of 2 laying around… ;) Download Trillian 3 (aka the fat sucky version).

Mozilla Firefox - Sexy, non Microsoft browser. Plugins / Extensions. No popups. Tabbed browsing. 'Nuff said. Download

Mozilla Thunderbird - Good alternative to Outlook, and much more stable with a crapload of features and plugins. Download

StrokeIt - Background program for mouse gestures. These handy things let me move the mouse (when I'm actually forced to use it), in a specific way (while holding down the right button) to perform a command. For instance, if I move down then left the window closes. Download

HijackThis - My personal favorite way of killing spyware. Its very powerful, but if you don't know what you're doing you can cause more harm than good. Download

Virtual TI - Lets you have a virtual TI calculator on your desktop with ALL features there in. It really blows away the stupid M$ calc. Download

Winamp 2.91 - Yes, still the best version of all time. It's not especially feature heavy but it does exactly what I want it to: it plays music. Ergo, it's a great player to run in the background because it so light weight and thus, I never turn it off. Its also what I use to broadcast internet radio, when I actually have my server up. Download

Real Alternative - An alternative to Real player, it also plays Quicktime, Windows Media, DVDs, and just about anything else you have a codec for. The coolest part is that it looks like Windows Media Player 6.4 (but is even better). Download

Picasa - A picture organizer from Google. It has so many amazing features, including the ability to search your pictures by keyword (if you're crazy and actually go through and add them to all your pictures). Instant slideshows and export in a variety of ways. And it has the best red-eye fixer in the world. Download

Slide Show Movie Maker (SSMM) - Props to Eric Landin for originally showing this beauty to me. It lets you toss together a slideshow (with music) with a variety of pretty transitions in about 30 seconds (with 5-10 minutes of encoding depending on length). Download

MWSnap - My personal favorite tool for grabbing screen shots. You can capture entire the entire screen or click and drag a custom sized rectangle. Download

Scavenger Hunt

I hid a link somewhere on my website. Find it. There will be some form of a prize. I have no idea what yet.

Safety First.. Or Else..

So I was cleaning the excessive number icons off of my desktop (I'm down to about the usual 90 from 150. The plethora was the result of me dumping random documents and pictures and files on there rather than properly storing them. That and the fact that everytime I have a random thought that I want to remember, I promptly open a new txt file and jot it down [because "if you don't write it down, it never happened" {and I'm finding that to be more true all the time.} ]. Ew.) and I came across this picture. It's a shot of a poster in the back of Mrs. Cybart's room, and I found it to be entirely too amusing, and decided it was totally blog-worthy.

Grove City

Today my parents and I went on a journey down to GCC and it really refreshed my excitement at the prospect of beginning that next stage of my life in 4 months and 10.25 days (but I’m not counting…).

Amongst the coolness was:

• The speakers (I don’t think I’ve heard the word God that often since Footsteps).
• The tour (I figure I’ll be giving them next year or the year after anyway).
• The enormous dorm rooms (I’m going to take my futon and at least 2 tvs).
• The wonderful all-you-can-eat food (I know I’m going to get a freshman 15, but for a reason different from the norm).
• The awesome gym (yes, I’m actually excited at the prospect of being able to work out on a regular basis).
• The people (Yes, I, of all people, was seriously impressed with the coolness of the people. Everyone that I talked to there was awesome, warm, intelligent, and welcoming... students and potential applicants alike).

Yeah, I seriously can’t wait despite the fact that I really am going to miss a lot of people.

The List Part II

Yay. I did it. I increased the list from 100 to 200 things about me. I hope you find it informative, amusing, and aren't too offended as I make sweeping generalizations. And I just noticed I used a lot of cool words in there, so if you're stuck, try Google define (do a google search for: define:word).

Link

Announcements

First: If you would care to leave your name with comments, select "Other". That way it doesn't list you as "Anonymous"

Second: I'm probably not going to blog too much over break, due to a copious quantity of homework and studying that I must attend to (there’s a first for everything). And the fact that I don't have a random block of 160 minutes in the middle of my day to kill.

Third: Those of you who have read Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy should contact me so that we can set up a time to go en mass and watch that beautiful film when it is released. (April 29th)

Forth: I got 70 hits on Monday. That totally made my week.

Fifth: I'm considering increasing the list of 100 Things About Me to 150 or 200 Things About Me b/c I keep randomly thinking of things to add.

Sixth: Writing, which was indefinitely suspended this summer, will likely commence again, b/c I'm feeling the urge to begin again. New topics will likely include "The Nature of [Religious] Truth " and "Why America is So Great" and "The Future According to Science Fiction" and "The Value of War" [yes Jeff, one of us really has to write it]). I'm hoping to have something together by the end of the summer.

Seventh: I'm working on coming up with a list of awesome numbers. Like 42. If you have a number to suggest and a rational explanation, let me know.

Jillian Parsons is... Napoleon Dynamite

CCFS 13 was flipping great. It definitely ranks up there with the last one and the one with the power outage (was that really #10...? it seems so long ago...) in the annals of awesomeness.

Perhaps I will write more about the experience itself later this week, and get some random pictures up, but for the moment, I will content myself with posting Jillian’s version of Napoleon Dynamite’s dance (beware, its an 11 mb download... I think I used the Windows Media codec, but let me know if you're having issues getting it to play).

And I had entirely too much fun photoshopping the picture on the left, take a gander at a full size version.


And no, I still have no intention of ever watching the movie.

Joel The Inadvertently Wise

Joel had an excellent point today in government. However, despite the wonderful observation, he admits that it was mostly unintentional

He said: "The difference between ignorance and stupidity is that ignorance can be cured."

Seasons! Pepper! Oregano!

Padge decided to give the AP Physics class extra credit one day. The question was "Why do we have seasons?" to which Shagla (Eric the Elephant's Stunt Double) initially responded: "What do you mean by seasons?? Like the stuff you put on your food?" Then, after much thinking and grunting, he came up with the following response:

"We have season's because the earth rotates around the sun in an ovial pattern. So when the Earth at different distances away form the sun we get seasons. Also because of atmospheric pressure changes"



"The Earth is rotates on a axis that is at a angle as the Earth rotates on its axis and around the sun. As the face is toward the sun its summer, as the part that isn't towards the sun is winter"

Yes, this my friends is public education at its greatest worst.

An image of the entire page is available here.

Rule The World!

So you want an evil lair.... Then the Word Islands are the place for you!

Unfortunately, while there are no volcanoes in this island chain, the intro video includes the phrase "build anything you desire" thus allowing you to construct the lair of your dreams.

The main website has pdf files about each of the 300 or so islands that comprise this... um... artificial archipelago. For example, New York is island F17 and is about 10 acres in area.

Pricing for each island is expected to start at around $6.85 million (with complimentary missile silos and private armies included upon request). Not too bad considering it’s a $1.8 billion project. Perhaps my dream of ruling “the world" will at last be fulfilled with these islands.

Link