I plan on keeping this post shorter than the usual, I just wanted to share what I think is a growing concern about how we receive the news now a days. With access to 24/7 live news updates and a million different blogs and opinions on every subject imaginable, an amazing feat, I fear most people have begun to lease there opinions out to certain pundits and talking heads that they happen to listen to a lot. Be it politics, policy, or pop culture I feel like instead of looking at the issue subjectively, we start with a pre-conceived notion --> find a site/news/podcast that agrees with us --> begin exclusively using that source to reinforce our opinions. Its a feedback system which makes us feel good about ourselves and solidifies that we are right in all of our views which can lead to entrenched positions and an unwillingness to compromise.
I do it too mind you. We are all guilty of it, but to be aware of it and remember to shake things up and research an issue independently every now and then isn't a bad idea. Until the hypnotoad comes to make us all obey, lets try to remember to keep an open mind and develop opinions for yourself instead of just parroting what you have heard from your favorite talking head.
Tuesday, August 23, 2011
Thursday, August 18, 2011
Heeeerrresssss Jeremy
Hey everyone! I know I haven't wrote on this for awhile but I'm going to try to get back into the habit of writing on here probably tri-weekly. Its been a really eventful past couple months with a new potential job and all the stresses of moving into a new apartment. The apartment has proved pretty amazing so far. We have a fireplace, a patio, and 24/7 hot tub access. I am a happy man. We are hoping to have everything unpacked by monday, and hopefully we can invite some people over soon to see the place and have a housewarming party.
My beautiful girlfriend and roomie, Jennifer Miller, has started her own blog where she is trying to do one green thing a week! Check it out (here)
Sunday, July 3, 2011
Weeekly Recap
THE APT HUNT IS OVER!
I think I've found my new apartment. My and my girlfriend are moving into a one bedroom apartment over on Appian way and I'm really excited about it. They have a hot tub and our apartment has a fireplace! Not looking forward to moving though, i'm in the 'mass gathering of cardboard' phase now.
CALLING ALL PC GAMERS!
To any pc gamers out there, I bought the valve complete pack for $50 and just got access to portal 2, both left4deads, counter strike (which I never could get into), and day of defeat as well as all of half life 1 and 2 so if anyone wants to play. My steam name is sexypenguin6969...don't ask.
EXCEED YOUR LEVEL
This morning I was exercising on my bike and I had my head to the ground, watching the cracked gray cement below me and all of a sudden they changed. They became these perfectly manicured brick tiles with a diamond pattern in the middle. I looked up and there was a house that you could tell the owners were very ocd about keeping it up. Not a blade of grass was out of place. Then it was gone and the street continued on, and at first I laughed thinking how strange you would have to be to be that obsessed about getting every detail right.
Then I thought back to this great Bruce Lee quote about the desire to exceed your level. I'm trying to get back into shape and I know its never going to be perfect but constantly striving for that goal and pushing past your own limitations is what makes life what it is. The better man is always striving for some higher goal rather than wallowing in it. Everyone has different things in life that they focus on. For some its our minds, some our bodies, some that platinum trophy (cheevos for you xbox peeps), or some its making their house a better place than the ones around it. Just a reminder that no matter what you do every day, find some way to push yourself and challenge yourself every day.
I think I've found my new apartment. My and my girlfriend are moving into a one bedroom apartment over on Appian way and I'm really excited about it. They have a hot tub and our apartment has a fireplace! Not looking forward to moving though, i'm in the 'mass gathering of cardboard' phase now.
CALLING ALL PC GAMERS!
To any pc gamers out there, I bought the valve complete pack for $50 and just got access to portal 2, both left4deads, counter strike (which I never could get into), and day of defeat as well as all of half life 1 and 2 so if anyone wants to play. My steam name is sexypenguin6969...don't ask.
EXCEED YOUR LEVEL
This morning I was exercising on my bike and I had my head to the ground, watching the cracked gray cement below me and all of a sudden they changed. They became these perfectly manicured brick tiles with a diamond pattern in the middle. I looked up and there was a house that you could tell the owners were very ocd about keeping it up. Not a blade of grass was out of place. Then it was gone and the street continued on, and at first I laughed thinking how strange you would have to be to be that obsessed about getting every detail right.
Then I thought back to this great Bruce Lee quote about the desire to exceed your level. I'm trying to get back into shape and I know its never going to be perfect but constantly striving for that goal and pushing past your own limitations is what makes life what it is. The better man is always striving for some higher goal rather than wallowing in it. Everyone has different things in life that they focus on. For some its our minds, some our bodies, some that platinum trophy (cheevos for you xbox peeps), or some its making their house a better place than the ones around it. Just a reminder that no matter what you do every day, find some way to push yourself and challenge yourself every day.
Tuesday, June 21, 2011
Bookageddon Is Nigh!!
Reading has changed. Major bookstore chains such as Borders and Joseph Beth are closing down stores and filing for bankruptcy, newspaper and magazine sales are dropping faster than a priest's pants at a choir boy convention, kindle and nook online stores are selling record numbers of books, and book traditionalists have started claiming that the end of the printed book is upon us!! I'm not sure that I'm drinking that kool aid just yet.
I recently bought an e-book reader, the Nook Color, for school use and have been enjoying it ever since (although recently plants vs zombies has been taking more of my time). Recently I went on vacation, the best time for book nerds to read, and I noticed some interesting habits about how I choose to read now.
In the morning we would wake and ride our bikes to one of the local coffee places for breakfast and I would download the paper almost every morning onto my nook before we left. I loved the variety of papers I could get and it becomes much simpler to read the articles and find the sections you want rather than having to flip to the back to finish an article; then flip back to the front again to keep looking, all the while covering up your entire coffee table with the clutter that comes with digging out a specific section of the paper. I think that the time of the newspaper is at an end as people become more eco-conscious of the amount of paper wasted, the rise of internet journalism, and the technology becomes cheaper and more widespread. The bigger papers (NYT, Wall Street, even The Onion) have already started making the change as its time to adapt or die.
Books are an entirely different story. If you have ever seen my bookshelf you would know that I have always been a reader. For the past few years though, I haven't really had much time for pleasure reading. School kinda took the fun out of it honestly, but I still try to read a new book or two a year. I look at my bookshelf and I see some copies that are old and worn from the numerous reads and can smell the age on the paper. Some look almost new. Some are paperbacks, and some are textbooks. Each one is different however, and for me the tactile sensations of reading a book are something invaluable that a computer screen can't compare with. I don't know why it is that books are so important to have in their physical form compared to say dvds, which I recently sold most of my collection of after backing up their digital copies, but I think that it is something worth never losing.
The one area I think that could have the best improvement from a switch to electronic format are textbooks. Everyone that has been to college has had the experience of purchasing a 175 dollar textbook and being told that they can't sell it back at the end of the semester because a 'new edition' is coming out or else you'll get 20 bucks for it and they'll wrap it in plastic and sell if for 120. College textbook shops know they have you by the balls and they aren't afraid to twist. From what I understand, most textbook manufacturers are afraid to make the jump to digital right now as they don't understand the technology and are worried about how much profit they will lose from the re-buying cheap and selling high scheme they have going. The advantages of an electronic textbook are that other media (video, sound, games, etc.) could be integrated into the lesson plan and books could be leased out for a rental fee for a set period of time and automatically retrieved when the payment ends. I recently found out that my old high school will be getting rid of their textbook fee and switching to an ipad fee which students will be allowed to use to access their books. I think this is an interesting idea but that seems a little young for it to be of real use yet. Judging from how I used the school computers, there will probably be more pocket tanks being played than studying going on.
I'll still be downloading books, pdfs, and I'm especially excited to hear about DC comics new online strategy coming with the series' reboots this fall, but I'll take an old well read paper book in my hand any day.
Have a favorite book or story? What do you think about electronic vs paper debate? Do you think it could be more useful in some situations than others? Is it a stupid idea to give 16 years olds ipads and expect them to use them responsibly? Sound off in the comment like you got a pair!
I recently bought an e-book reader, the Nook Color, for school use and have been enjoying it ever since (although recently plants vs zombies has been taking more of my time). Recently I went on vacation, the best time for book nerds to read, and I noticed some interesting habits about how I choose to read now.
In the morning we would wake and ride our bikes to one of the local coffee places for breakfast and I would download the paper almost every morning onto my nook before we left. I loved the variety of papers I could get and it becomes much simpler to read the articles and find the sections you want rather than having to flip to the back to finish an article; then flip back to the front again to keep looking, all the while covering up your entire coffee table with the clutter that comes with digging out a specific section of the paper. I think that the time of the newspaper is at an end as people become more eco-conscious of the amount of paper wasted, the rise of internet journalism, and the technology becomes cheaper and more widespread. The bigger papers (NYT, Wall Street, even The Onion) have already started making the change as its time to adapt or die.
Books are an entirely different story. If you have ever seen my bookshelf you would know that I have always been a reader. For the past few years though, I haven't really had much time for pleasure reading. School kinda took the fun out of it honestly, but I still try to read a new book or two a year. I look at my bookshelf and I see some copies that are old and worn from the numerous reads and can smell the age on the paper. Some look almost new. Some are paperbacks, and some are textbooks. Each one is different however, and for me the tactile sensations of reading a book are something invaluable that a computer screen can't compare with. I don't know why it is that books are so important to have in their physical form compared to say dvds, which I recently sold most of my collection of after backing up their digital copies, but I think that it is something worth never losing.
The one area I think that could have the best improvement from a switch to electronic format are textbooks. Everyone that has been to college has had the experience of purchasing a 175 dollar textbook and being told that they can't sell it back at the end of the semester because a 'new edition' is coming out or else you'll get 20 bucks for it and they'll wrap it in plastic and sell if for 120. College textbook shops know they have you by the balls and they aren't afraid to twist. From what I understand, most textbook manufacturers are afraid to make the jump to digital right now as they don't understand the technology and are worried about how much profit they will lose from the re-buying cheap and selling high scheme they have going. The advantages of an electronic textbook are that other media (video, sound, games, etc.) could be integrated into the lesson plan and books could be leased out for a rental fee for a set period of time and automatically retrieved when the payment ends. I recently found out that my old high school will be getting rid of their textbook fee and switching to an ipad fee which students will be allowed to use to access their books. I think this is an interesting idea but that seems a little young for it to be of real use yet. Judging from how I used the school computers, there will probably be more pocket tanks being played than studying going on.
Cost: Your firstborn child
I did download an amazing book, Outliers by Malcolm Gladwell, to the kindle app on my nook over vacation and didn't complain a single time, often spending hours reading . Having an entire (and relatively cheap) library at your fingertips is an amazing achievement and technically the things is a marvel. A quick finger flick replaces stuck together pages. Autosave replaces the bookmark. I am able to search for additional information about anything I highlight at any time. When I finished Outliers, I immediately went to the island Barnes and Noble to get my hands on the weight of a book and eventually came away with a leather bound edition of the entire Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy series. Added bonus, ribbon bookmark built in. 
I'll still be downloading books, pdfs, and I'm especially excited to hear about DC comics new online strategy coming with the series' reboots this fall, but I'll take an old well read paper book in my hand any day.
Have a favorite book or story? What do you think about electronic vs paper debate? Do you think it could be more useful in some situations than others? Is it a stupid idea to give 16 years olds ipads and expect them to use them responsibly? Sound off in the comment like you got a pair!
Sunday, June 19, 2011
Japan scientist synthesizes meat from human feces - Yahoo! News
Japan scientist synthesizes meat from human feces - Yahoo! News
This was just too good to pass up. Would you try to be a turdburger?
Weekend Project: Get more out of your ps3 controller
I recently had a craving to play some older gamecube and ps2 games but didn't have either console. Unfazed, I found a good emulator online for my computer but needed a way to control the games because playing pikmin with a keyboard sucks. With a few drivers and a great open source program called motioninjoy you can use your ps3 controller to play all your favorite games and even control your computer!
Step 1:
Connect your controller to your pc via the usb charge cable. It should say installing driver software in the taskbar and the screen should look something like this
Step 1:
Connect your controller to your pc via the usb charge cable. It should say installing driver software in the taskbar and the screen should look something like this
Step 2: Installing Additional Drivers and the program
For the controller to be properly recognized with the program we are going to use there is one additional driver that needs to be installed. This is just a zip file with an .exe in it that will install the additional drivers for you.
The 32 bit version can be found here
The 64 bit version can be found here
If you aren't sure which version you need, go to Start > Control Panel > System then look for the "System Type"
Step 3: The Program
There will now be a program called DS3 tool in your start menu.
Once this is opened there will be a tab on the top of the page called driver manager. Click this and you will be taken to a page with a list of tech jargon and a check box looking something like this
Click that check box and click the load driver button. When you return to the profiles tab, your controller should appear connected! The best profile to load is the third option (PS2 w/ POV, joystick, and analog trigger) as this gives you access to both sticks, the d pad, all the buttons, and the triggers. The only thing the ps3 mode has is a beta version of the sixaxis motion control but i didn't really see the point in that.
Step 4: Test Run!
If you select the Game Controller Panel button underneath the two motor sliders on the Profiles page, you can double click on the controller that appears and this menu should pop up. Now if you press a button on the controller a corresponding light should light up. The cross in the middle should move with the joystick as well. Once everything is working its as easy as accessing your favorite emulator, configuring what you want each button to do and going to town :)
Playing Pikmin.. Like a Boss
Need any help or have any cool DIY projects, let me know in the comments.
Saturday, June 18, 2011
Snapple Facts I'd Like to See
- You are getting old
- When you are snoring, you cannot be dreaming
- Every time you masturbate, god kills a kitten
- There is probably no god
- A snail can have about 25,000 teeth
- Life is short, go run in the street or something
- Nerve impulses travel as fast as 170 miles an hour through the brain
- Yuo can slitl raed wrods taht are selpled worng as lnog as tehy hvae teh croerct bgneinnig and end ltertes
- Human civilization is 5000 plus years old, you're lifespan is tiny
- Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice, I ain't gonna get fooled again
- A kangaroo bear has milk in its pouch
- The unexamined life isn't worth living.. the over examined life isn't really living at all
- On a random video chat website, 6 out of 7 times you will see a penis
- 37% of smart phone users are on facebook at any given time
- Its never lupus
- Donnie Darko is one of the most over rated movies of all time
- Opinions are like mitochondrial dna, everyone has them and they're mostly all the same except for some small differences
- There is an inverse ratio between the loudness of a fart and the smelliness
- You are never going to have this moment back again
- In the end, the love you take is equal to the love you make
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