For those thats didnt manage to write down titles of shows discussed over the weekend, here is what i remember:
1. Californication
2. Breaking Bad
3. The Wire
4. America's Best Dance Crews
5. Dexter
Out of these, i have only had time to check out Dexter so far, and i have to say that I throughly enjoying it. The premise of the show is not only different from most things i watch, but also very intriguing. I can't remember who suggested it to me, but thanks.
Here are websites that i have found that host the show (as well as many others):
www.alluc.org
www.fanpop.com
www.tvokay.com
Also, can someone explain to me the discussion about how to make a router better?
Wednesday, February 27, 2008
Tuesday, February 26, 2008
Okay I try again idjiot. LINK TO MY SPECIAL PICTURE PAGE <------ ME = DUMB
also how do you guys feel, about having pictures circulating on the internet with you holding guns? ahahha
also how do you guys feel, about having pictures circulating on the internet with you holding guns? ahahha
pictures take 2
I can try to post the photos again to the blog, but as you can probably see, I have been having some trouble getting them up there. Here is the link to my public picasa site.
There are the dope pics from this weekend and also of my new digs in denver. I also FYI took some of your advice and reflashed the firmware on my gay WRT54G v.8 router. So far it has been working amazingly better. No fails since I did it, and I have tried hooking everything I can think of up to it. Now we will see when my TV gets here, if xbox live works without fail.
I think I will try and post the pics anyway because i'm like that.
Good f*ing weekend gents. Im in for whenever we can get that down again. Maybe a little more low key spending wise but all the same I am in. And I have space in Denver.
Cheers,
Alex
There are the dope pics from this weekend and also of my new digs in denver. I also FYI took some of your advice and reflashed the firmware on my gay WRT54G v.8 router. So far it has been working amazingly better. No fails since I did it, and I have tried hooking everything I can think of up to it. Now we will see when my TV gets here, if xbox live works without fail.
I think I will try and post the pics anyway because i'm like that.
Good f*ing weekend gents. Im in for whenever we can get that down again. Maybe a little more low key spending wise but all the same I am in. And I have space in Denver.
Cheers,
Alex
Alternate Lives
I was talking with Kanna about this over the weekend. I think that to a certain extend, we've been denied some rites of passage by the very prosperity and good fortune we enjoy. Understanding that we were all graduates of a good college with stable families and support structures, we basically skipped over a 'drifting' or 'apprenticeship' phase that many people our age are still struggling through. I've been thinking about the things that I have thought about doing. Not things I wish I did, because do enjoy my current situation and all, just things that I may want to look back upon in 20 years and say, 'yeah, I did that, and let me tell you...' I'm sure I'll romanticize much of the gritty details, but this is just a blog.
My list:
- Being a bartender: I'm sure it would suck to have to clean up vomit and kick out bums at 2AM everyday, but haven't you ever wondered about how many interesting people you'd meed and how many fascinating stories you'd hear?
- Work in professional kitchen: This one's personal to me, because I've gotten a newfound itch to be professional chef. The hours and work would suck, but think about the glory!
- Peace Corp: Who wouldn't want to help refugees, spread good will, and contract malaria?
- Marines: I'e always wanted to be a Marine. Not to kill people and all, but when people know someone is an ex-marine, they just look at them different, as if at any moment, the post-traumatic stress could kick in and things would go off. Also, think of the career possibilities afterwards! Law enforcement, private security, or career military!
- Musician: Like hard-core rock star. Whether it's living in a van or pleasuring groupies with a mudshark (http://www.snopes.com/music/artists/mudshark.asp), that would be the life. Never mind that I don't have any talent.
- Political activist: Something very appealing about being with like-minded, young, idealists. Especially if they're hot and put out.
What do you guys got?
My list:
- Being a bartender: I'm sure it would suck to have to clean up vomit and kick out bums at 2AM everyday, but haven't you ever wondered about how many interesting people you'd meed and how many fascinating stories you'd hear?
- Work in professional kitchen: This one's personal to me, because I've gotten a newfound itch to be professional chef. The hours and work would suck, but think about the glory!
- Peace Corp: Who wouldn't want to help refugees, spread good will, and contract malaria?
- Marines: I'e always wanted to be a Marine. Not to kill people and all, but when people know someone is an ex-marine, they just look at them different, as if at any moment, the post-traumatic stress could kick in and things would go off. Also, think of the career possibilities afterwards! Law enforcement, private security, or career military!
- Musician: Like hard-core rock star. Whether it's living in a van or pleasuring groupies with a mudshark (http://www.snopes.com/music/artists/mudshark.asp), that would be the life. Never mind that I don't have any talent.
- Political activist: Something very appealing about being with like-minded, young, idealists. Especially if they're hot and put out.
What do you guys got?
Recommended Reading
This past 'Boys Weekend' was quite fun. I enjoyed it a lot and wish it could happen more often.
As I promised, I'd shard with you all some of the blogs that I use to populate my Google Reader, and thus steal away the productive hours of my day from Google.
Blog
- Feed URL (so you can paste it directly into your favorite RSS Aggregator)
- Unsolicited Commentary
xkcd
- http://xkcd.com/atom.xml
- if you're not reading this, you're not a nerd
w00t!
- http://www.woot.com/blog/rss.aspx
- not really news, but who doesn't want cheap crap?
Wondermark Lite
- http://feeds.feedburner.com/wondermark
- hi-larious
FAIL blog
- http://failblog.wordpress.com/feed/
- schadenfreude
Stuff White People Like
- http://stuffwhitepeoplelike.wordpress.com/feed/
- also hi-larious
Bruce Schneier
- http://feeds.feedburner.com/schneier/fulltext
- if you don't read this, you don't care about privacy and security. You should, because it's some scary stuff.
KSK
- http://kissmesuzy.blogspot.com/feeds/posts/default
- I read it more than I do Deadspin, but basically the same as Deadspin
Deadspin
- http://feeds.gawker.com/deadspin/full
- the aforementioned
Media Matters
- http://feeds.mediamatters.org/mediamatters/latest
- monitoring the mainstream media
Crooks & Liars
- http://feeds.feedburner.com/crooksandliars/YaCP
- why we should all move to Canada
You can also create feeds from NYT.com, ESPN.com and so on. But I just put the few blogs that have captured my attention so far.
As I promised, I'd shard with you all some of the blogs that I use to populate my Google Reader, and thus steal away the productive hours of my day from Google.
Blog
- Feed URL (so you can paste it directly into your favorite RSS Aggregator)
- Unsolicited Commentary
xkcd
- http://xkcd.com/atom.xml
- if you're not reading this, you're not a nerd
w00t!
- http://www.woot.com/blog/rss.aspx
- not really news, but who doesn't want cheap crap?
Wondermark Lite
- http://feeds.feedburner.com/wondermark
- hi-larious
FAIL blog
- http://failblog.wordpress.com/feed/
- schadenfreude
Stuff White People Like
- http://stuffwhitepeoplelike.wordpress.com/feed/
- also hi-larious
Bruce Schneier
- http://feeds.feedburner.com/schneier/fulltext
- if you don't read this, you don't care about privacy and security. You should, because it's some scary stuff.
KSK
- http://kissmesuzy.blogspot.com/feeds/posts/default
- I read it more than I do Deadspin, but basically the same as Deadspin
Deadspin
- http://feeds.gawker.com/deadspin/full
- the aforementioned
Media Matters
- http://feeds.mediamatters.org/mediamatters/latest
- monitoring the mainstream media
Crooks & Liars
- http://feeds.feedburner.com/crooksandliars/YaCP
- why we should all move to Canada
You can also create feeds from NYT.com, ESPN.com and so on. But I just put the few blogs that have captured my attention so far.
Monday, February 25, 2008
Thursday, February 21, 2008
A Small Measure of Enlightenment
It used to really rile me up that people like Bill O'Reilly and John Gibson had jobs. Not only jobs, but well-paying, high-profile jobs that could help them coerce women to sexually fondle them with loofahs (remember that Bill?). It was a mixture of anger at how they would boldly lie, bully, take out of context, and deliberately spread propaganda on behalf of the neo-con right wing of the Republican party and their masters Rupert Murdoch and Roger Ailes. I couldn't stand how they could be so wrong, and how so many people could listen to them and assume what they said had any bearing on reality. Most of all, I was panicked that the people who did listen to these idiots and those like them would go out and vote and perhaps breed to create more people to vote like them. This scared me to no end as I saw the country descend into a murky abyss where we'd spend more time debating gay marriage and saying 'Merry Christmas' than on important things like the national deficit, global politics, and of course Congressional hearings on steroids in MLB.
But recently things changed. I attribute this newfound enlightenment to a number of possible factors. Perhaps I realized that life is short and my time is too valuable to waste being angry about these things I cannot change. I just go about assuming that 50% of all the things Bill O'Reilly says are flat out wrong, and the other 50% is not worth knowing. Or at least, not worth knowing from him. I can't change the fact that someone chose to give him a show to vent his vitrol, but I can control whether I pay him any attention. I would make some analogy to a wound that would heal if you stopped paying attention to it, but really, most cuts on the roof of my mouth have 10 times more impact on my day to day than Bill O'Reilly. He can't make me angry if I don't watch him or pay attention to the things he says. And there's no reason for me to pay attention to the things he says. In light of this, why bother?
Maybe some of the ability to push people like Papa Bear out of my mind comes from the fact that I understand why he is the way he is and why he makes me angry. Part of it may come from the man that calls O'Reilly by that mocking pet name, Stephen Colbert. When the Colbert Report launched, it cemented in my mind the fact that the O'Reilly Factor and shows of that ilk are designed to make me angry. They are based on the cult of personality. The show sells to people who see the character as a caricature of their own beliefs and feelings, someone who is the larger than life embodiment of your personal opinions. The problem is the only way he can maintain his personality is to be belligerent, provoking an emotional response. If people like him engaged you on an intellectual or rational level, he'd no longer be a personality. Therefore he has to engage you on a baser instinct. In order to do that, he has to get more and more absurd, more and more outrageous. There is not limit to how insane you can sound. There is a limit to when the majority of rational people stop listening to you. (This is part of my 20-60-20 idea, but that is for another time, another post.) As people tuned him out, he's had to become more controversial to try and keep his current fans and try and attract new ones. But one day, he'll have tuned out enough rational Americans that he'll have no angry, stammering, callers who call in and try and make a counter-point, and with no one to shout at, his nonsense is awfully silent. Normally I would pity a fool on an errand of diminishing returns, but it would take a lot for me to pity Bill O'Reilly.
As for the Fox News faithful, the legions of the unwashed uninformed, I don't mind it so much. If a reasonably literate person here in the United States, with the access we have to knowledge and information, still decides to get their news from talking heads, then there's not enough reason inside that person's head for it to be worthwhile to debate them. They just do not have the frame of reference needed to do anything except make you angry; you can't debate the size of the equator if your opponent does not agree that the earth is flat. What is accomplished by trying to persuade or argue with a person that believes this stuff? More importantly, as the talking heads have gotten more out of hand, the fewer people are already listening to them. As per this, http://mediamatters.org/columns/200801290001, albeit Media Matters is a very left-leaning blog, a lot of their reasons make sense. Even the Democratic party has gotten wise to the fact that there is no point in debating on Fox News. They won't listen and they won't let you speak, so how can you change their minds?
So, in light of all this, let old Bill O off the hook. It's ok, he knows he's wrong, but it's too late now. If he starts being reasonable, his whole world would collapse.
But recently things changed. I attribute this newfound enlightenment to a number of possible factors. Perhaps I realized that life is short and my time is too valuable to waste being angry about these things I cannot change. I just go about assuming that 50% of all the things Bill O'Reilly says are flat out wrong, and the other 50% is not worth knowing. Or at least, not worth knowing from him. I can't change the fact that someone chose to give him a show to vent his vitrol, but I can control whether I pay him any attention. I would make some analogy to a wound that would heal if you stopped paying attention to it, but really, most cuts on the roof of my mouth have 10 times more impact on my day to day than Bill O'Reilly. He can't make me angry if I don't watch him or pay attention to the things he says. And there's no reason for me to pay attention to the things he says. In light of this, why bother?
Maybe some of the ability to push people like Papa Bear out of my mind comes from the fact that I understand why he is the way he is and why he makes me angry. Part of it may come from the man that calls O'Reilly by that mocking pet name, Stephen Colbert. When the Colbert Report launched, it cemented in my mind the fact that the O'Reilly Factor and shows of that ilk are designed to make me angry. They are based on the cult of personality. The show sells to people who see the character as a caricature of their own beliefs and feelings, someone who is the larger than life embodiment of your personal opinions. The problem is the only way he can maintain his personality is to be belligerent, provoking an emotional response. If people like him engaged you on an intellectual or rational level, he'd no longer be a personality. Therefore he has to engage you on a baser instinct. In order to do that, he has to get more and more absurd, more and more outrageous. There is not limit to how insane you can sound. There is a limit to when the majority of rational people stop listening to you. (This is part of my 20-60-20 idea, but that is for another time, another post.) As people tuned him out, he's had to become more controversial to try and keep his current fans and try and attract new ones. But one day, he'll have tuned out enough rational Americans that he'll have no angry, stammering, callers who call in and try and make a counter-point, and with no one to shout at, his nonsense is awfully silent. Normally I would pity a fool on an errand of diminishing returns, but it would take a lot for me to pity Bill O'Reilly.
As for the Fox News faithful, the legions of the unwashed uninformed, I don't mind it so much. If a reasonably literate person here in the United States, with the access we have to knowledge and information, still decides to get their news from talking heads, then there's not enough reason inside that person's head for it to be worthwhile to debate them. They just do not have the frame of reference needed to do anything except make you angry; you can't debate the size of the equator if your opponent does not agree that the earth is flat. What is accomplished by trying to persuade or argue with a person that believes this stuff? More importantly, as the talking heads have gotten more out of hand, the fewer people are already listening to them. As per this, http://mediamatters.org/columns/200801290001, albeit Media Matters is a very left-leaning blog, a lot of their reasons make sense. Even the Democratic party has gotten wise to the fact that there is no point in debating on Fox News. They won't listen and they won't let you speak, so how can you change their minds?
So, in light of all this, let old Bill O off the hook. It's ok, he knows he's wrong, but it's too late now. If he starts being reasonable, his whole world would collapse.
Wednesday, February 6, 2008
Grad School Status
I thought I would create a list of the schools I applied to for graduate school and keep you guys updated on the status. In rough order of preference:
Berkeley - Denied
CMU - Accepted <----- Going Here
Michigan - Accepted
Indiana - Accepted
Texas - Accepted
Georgia Tech - Accepted
San Jose St - Accepted
Thanks to all of you guys who helped me out with my applications. I'll update here as I receive more responses.
Berkeley - Denied
CMU - Accepted <----- Going Here
Michigan - Accepted
Indiana - Accepted
Texas - Accepted
Georgia Tech - Accepted
San Jose St - Accepted
Thanks to all of you guys who helped me out with my applications. I'll update here as I receive more responses.
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