People Seem To Have Been Hoodwinked......

After reading one of the latest Rasmussen Reports Scientific polls, I have come to accept, though not easily, that most people tend to believe the government tells them the truth. The poll that I am referring to was taken in the wake of a recent terror attempt aboard an airline flight bound for Detroit. The polls indicates that 46% of Americans now think that airport security is not strict enough. I repeat, not strict enough. I was totally blown away by this recent poll. It seems that people trust the government to increase the asinine "security" already in place. Here's an idea! Completely overhaul it, and bring in law enforcement professionals to train your TSA agents properly.

According to this law enforcement professional, the way in which "random" searches are carried out will never catch someone intent on hijacking or blowing up an airplane. Now we have Janet Nopalitano, the head of homeland security telling us that letting a bomber on an international flight was the system doing what it's supposed to do. I'm going to repeat what many all over the radio and web have said, and that is the TSA has never done anything to  prevent or stop the progress of a terrorist attack. It has been upon the passengers of flights and law enforcement in the air and on the ground who have shouldered the weight of the TSA's real job.

Another problem that the government is making is the decision to charge the bomber in federal court, and not in a military court. This article discusses the legal rational behind the Obama Administraions decision not only to charge this recent terrorist as an American, but all of the Guantanamo detainees. To make it plain and simple, al-Qaeda trained this guy and pretty much everyone else who commits acts of terror against the United States. Even though they don't where uniforms, they are still armed militants. They are the jurisdiction of military courts.

Good Tidings To All

Christmas is now over, and part of me is glad for it. I have made some major life decisions over the break, and I am eager to go and get to work. I know that some of you may find going back to your jobs to be a downer, and rightfully so. But after having a good holiday to get rested up and get a renewed prospective on life have done a lot of good for me.

A new dynamic this Christmas season for me was the extreme lack of feeling the same "spirit of the season" that I used to feel as a kid. I was trying to bring those feelings back, but found that I could not. I don't know if many people experience this, but what it allowed for me was to ad something new to my holiday. Growing up, we all know Christmas as the time of year when we get tons of crap and think we should have gotten more. You would be right in telling me that just a few posts down I was ranting about all the things I wanted for Christmas. All I can say is that it is healthy to hope for things in your life, but it is not healthy to get mad when you don't get what wanted. Often we think we want something, and then once we have it, it looses it's luster. There are other things that we should have in life that are not "things". We should use this season to cultivate familial relationships, to learn how to give(if you're me, that means learning it again), and most important, to learn who Jesus Christ is, and what the holiday really means.

You've never heard me say much about my religion, but I wanted to say a little bit now. I learned a lot this last month. It was not told to me by some preacher or anything like that. But what I did learn was what I remember from being taught as a child about the life of Christ and what he  did for mankind. Christ's mission was so profound, that no man could ever effectively teach what He did by himself. But let me tell you what I know. Christ gave, so we must give. He served, so we must serve. He used His time and money wisely, and so we must do the same. What Christ gave us was the ultimate example for the perfect life, and during this season which bears His name, we must learn what He did, and do the same. That is what we need to do to effectively celebrate Christmas. This brings a different spirit, the Spirit of Christ.

So even though I didn't feel the same 'ol Christmas "spirit" that I felt as a child, I found something else, something that I hope I will continue to build upon for the rest of my life.

This Explains A Lot

I'm going to tell you a tale. This is not a tall tale. It is absolutely true.

Last night as I was trying to mosy on over to netflix to catch a movie, I could not get there. It was totally weird. I tried other sites, including Amazon.com. What was really odd was that I could get to many web site, but at the same time, the number I couldn't get to increased. I thought it had to do with one of our ISP's(we have two and load balance). So I went about my business, and got my highly qualified brother(CCNA, CCDA for those of you who know what those certs are) to look at it, and he told me it was totally weird as well. Well that was a load of useless.

Turns out that there was a DNS attack on a number of shopping websites last night, totally rendering those sites incapable of being viewed by the outside world. I still don't know if I can really say that netflix was involved in all of this, but it certainly turned my on to the larger problem, but who knows. What's really important is that some shmoe cost these companies a lot of money. I don't know whether to congratulate him for his craftyness, or condemn him for such an illegal act. Actually, I'll do both........ But then again, it really caused me alot of grief. Ya, the guy is an official deuche.

No Wonder Kids Seem Crazier These Days.....

In a recent article, it was shown that 2 of the top 5 Google searches this past year where "sex" and "porn". I'm not going to give a hypothesis as to why there were this many searches of both of these words, but I am going to say that something is making these kids not curious, but perverse. Kind of disturbing.......

No wonder kids are crazier these days....

Things I Want For Christmas

I realize that Christmas is a time for giving, and I love to give, but the "inner child" wants lots and lots of swag! I'm greedy, I know, but wouldn't a blog post about how giving instead of receiving be just kind of boring? And I couldn't show off awsome pics. That really spices up the look around here.

1) Marc Ecko Watch. I don't care what it looks like, how much it costs, or anything else aside from it being a watch made for a man. This company really knows what looks good.

2)Marc Ecko Hoodie. But not just any hoodie. A StarWars clone commander hoodie. This thing zips all the way over your head and make you resemble a "real" clone trooper.


3)Anything to do with geekdome; If you took a look at some of the stuff I can see here, I would totally be thankful for life.

4)Star Trek, District 9, Terminator Salvation. All three really brought the geek out in me.


Well, if I listed anything else, I'd be reaching. I already have all my XBox gear, the TV to back it up, and netflix. I guess I just gotta be thankful for what I have. And thank you for indulging my two year old "I want that" complex. I just happens this time of year.

It's weird how things work out

I'm not going to bore you by regaling you with the subtleties of life, but I am going to tell you that life seems to be weird sometimes. And it's not that society is creating this feeling in me, but rather, the culprit seems to be myself. Let me explain, and you can listen for what you find may be similar to yourself.

I hate school. I hate going, doing the homework, group projects, the works. And it was worse this last semester because of a job that kept me in a constant state of fatigue. I was hating life more than at any time before. But now, however, having been done for two weeks or so, I find myself missing some of the things involved with school. Mostly the structure. I go to community college, so some may not see any set structure to their lives while going to school, but that is what I found. This is beginning to sound crazy to myself a little bit.....

Anywho, it really is weird how things tend to work out, and how we may start missing the things we like to hate. But I guess that's how we are wired.

Sell-Out? Or not....?

Am I or am I not a sell-out? I believe that is for you, gentle reader, to decide. I have actually been trying to tastefully place ads all over RandomBrainwork.net in order to see if earning money were possible. I hope it is. I spend an inordinate amount of time do a lot of back end work to keep this place going.

My purpose, however, is to asses from you, my four loyal readers, to let me know what is tasteful and what is not. Please not that if things are deemed to flashy and in the way, that it will be left alone. Maybe you'll accidentally click on it.... Hehehe......

Why do we even try to make friends with this guy?

For a long time now, I've been wondering why we try to make friends and support Hugo Chavez and his communist regime. He took over Venezuela and changed it's constitution so that he can stay in his position indefinately. That pretty much what Castro did in the 1950's. Now he wants to kill capitalism in the whole world. He says it's the enemy. What he's trying to say is that he wants a country full of slaves to his will. Chavez is becoming an enemy that cannot be ignored. Chavez made his comments about killing capitalism here. 

Now Chavez is making threats against the U.S. Over his government owned news network, he said that there was a U.S. spy plane that "violated Venezuela's airspace" and that he will shoot down any other that does.

Here's the problem. We have a lot of U.S. military activity in the area due to the drug war. U.S. planes are bound to get close at some points in time. And they don't intend to spy. Chavez is just taking pot shots at us to try to provoke a violent response. Why does Obama even try to make friends with this guy? He's even insulting Obama himself. This a dangerous guy, and we need to keep an eye on him, not make friends with him.

Come On, People!!!

For alot of you, what I'm about to share with you may seem like simple logic. While I concede the point that some people have made, to me, it's too stupid to ask a set of people to change just so we can get more people into a certain profession.

Now to add some context to my lamentations.

In this recent Wired.com article, Stanford professors have concluded after conducting a study that the "geeky" and "nerdy" stereotype associated with computer science has driven women from choosing that as a profession. I don't see a problem with that. Often people create a subculture that they attach to a profession or class. The "subculture" as it were, often contains it's own slang and a set of shared experiences that we cannot presume to dictate. I don't go into a beauty college and tell them that if they are going to get more men in the profession to just throw out some comic books in the lounge. It's plain stupidity. Leave things the way they are. It's when we meddle where there is no real harm being done that creates huge problems.

And for all those who need to be "scientific", my observations are merely that, observations. Don't tout what I say as me presuming to be the end all of truth on this matter.

They Don't Build 'Em Like They Used To

A truer statement there never was. 

So now that I got my artful writing out of the way, I'd like to tell you of an amazing journey, that took all of five minutes of true travel time, but in virtual procrastinator style, took a month to prepare for and lot of BSing myself more time. There are those who took my 'putting it off' style with great patience, and they know who they are(That's you, Dad).

My preparations were all about 'thinking through' the conversation I might have with the person at the other end of the line. Things like, "I've got a 32" westinghouse lcd tv that doesn't show picture, it only plays sound. I don't know if it's faulty circuits...." and on and on that approach would go. Another, "My TV's broke. What's it gunna cost to fix it?" That was the other end of the spectrum of potential scripts that I would use for this task.

Today is the big day, I would tell myself. This I did many times over. Maybe it was a month I did that. But today it was actually true.

I looked up some repair shops (On a side note, don't rely too much on fancy repair directory websites, dexonline is the place to go). Back to the story.... I called the first one on the page. This is how it went: "I've got a 32" westinghouse lcd tv that doesn't show picture, it only plays sound. I don't know if it's faulty circuits...." at this point I was cut off. "Hol, hol, hold it right there. Just so yer clear, kid, I can't tell ya nothin' about what it's gunna cost fer yer repair. I need you to know that all we can tell ya over the phone is what it's gunna cost ya fera diagnostic." Me: "Sorry, I got it. How much for a diagnostic then?" The man replied that it was $50 dollars. Not too bad of a price. I then thought, 'how could I be that stupid, thinking they could tell me the problem like they were a genie or something.' That's not too bad an idea, training repair men in mind reading..... Back to the story, sorry....

My next call was a little awkward. Let's see if I can catch the mood of it in writing. After a few rings into the call, a lady answered. "For allin V epair......" and she stopped abruptly and tapered off at the same time. How do you do that? It's impossible. But, it was done magnificently well.I was amazed at this, but I said nothing for a whole second which felt like ten. Then I stammered out, " what does a re, ah, diagno, ah, what'll it cost for a tv diagnostic?" $75 dollars was the answer. All I said then was, "Okay... buy". Pathetic, Daniel, just pathetic.

So that was my adventure for the day. The moral of the story? Don't think too much about a task so simple a monkey could do it.

I'd Sleep In That Bed

This is the most awsomest bed in the whole wide world. I got the picture from the Official Starwars.com Blog, but they found it at Kayla Kromer's facebook, where she displayed her creation for all to see and covet. Check it all out here, or here. 

Cha Cha Cha Cha Changes!

Although I believe it willfully ignorant of me to think that there are people who actually read this, I will still mention the fact that I decided to make some changes to the layout of my blog. There were many things that I wanted to do with it, but alas, my plans are too far-flung to achieve at this point in time. I must stick to what I can do; and that is to write, to find interesting and note-worthy things to fill people in about, and to write well(repetition originally unintended, but now I think it has a ring to it, and those who think it doesn't, you're probably right).

Now, some real news. For a lot of you who know me in person, one of these great changes is that I have left my employment at UPS. It really was a good job, but not a good job for me. I don't have the same physical capabilities that I once had. I know that sounds funny coming from a 22 year old young man, but due to certain chronic conditions, my body could not handle the very physical work required of an employee at UPS. They truly have worker satisfaction at heart(my bosses at least), but I couldn't keep up.

The college semester is now over for me, and I am in waiting for the next one. Due to continuous fatigue that has hampered me for the last little while, I haven't done very well at school. That should change, hopefully..... I still have a lingering hatred for homework and sitting in class. One wonders how he graduated high school. At any rate, I now know my limits and can carry on in a more efficient manner.

So now all you people got the scoop on me. Consider this the worst Christmas Card you've ever received.

By the way, I'm glad they put spell checkers in web browsers now or else I would never remember the "i before e except after c" rule. You almost got some obvious misspelling right at the end of the last paragraph.

What A Day

'Tis true that a few days ago was my birthday, and in honor of the occasion, my parents took me out to diner. PF Changs was the my restaurant of choice. All the food was amazing, but what really caught my taste buds was the chocolate cake that they served up afterwards. It was up there with some of the best cakes I've ever had.

And just so you all can know what the purpose behind this post is, well, it's purpose is just to brag about a delicious meal and the great cake afterward. It was very photogenic as you can see.

Cheers.

Requisite

Yes, I feel that it is required of me to post everyday, even if the subject I choose seems totally arbitrary. I paid the money for a domain, so now I gotta use it I guess......

Any way, today's obligatory post finds itself in the middle of a cool new sci fi series on ABC, simply titled "V". Without taking too much time to explain what it is about(I gotta go to bed), V stands for visitor in the series. The plot line is fairly simple in theory. I'll try to explain it the way the truest valley girl would know how (simply because that would be easiest for me). "So, like, there are these people, the human race or something like that, and one day, like, these alien ships come out of nowhere, and totally fly their ships into earth. Then the bottom of the ship, like totally turned into a mirror or TV, and this woman started talking to the humans. So like, the humans tell the aliens that we're their friends and stuff(say that like a question), but the aliens really aren't. It was, like totally weird stuff."

And now, to spare you the annoying valley girl speak. Simply put, V is a smart series that has the potential to go for a good seven or eight seasons on TV. It's a very engrossing show. The writers seem to be pacing everything very well. They give us enough new plot every show to keep you pumped up, but at the same time they don't let cat out of the bag to soon either. The writers seem to have a trick up their sleeves every show so far, but the real magic will be to keep it that way. Like I say, there can be life in V for a long time coming, but the writers really have a big job to keep things moving and building.

Scientific Polls Don't lie

According to a new Rasmussen Poll 55% of Americans oppose the idea of a federal bailout for the struggling news industry. I'm not going to say much more than that, but I did find a very interesting dichotomy in some polls that cover similar ground. In another poll that Rasmussen conducted, where people were asked if they found the network news agencies as reliable, 55% say that they "now are at least somewhat confident" in them. "By contrast, just 25% are at least somewhat confident in the reliability of news reports from bloggers and Internet journalists", the same article went on to say.

In my mind, this is a plain and simple oxymoron. People say that they don't think that news found online is reliable, yet the large network news agencies are failing because the news is beginning to circulate on the web because more people find it all reliable. To say otherwise you would be lying to yourself. How do you think people will react to the polls I just cited? I don't know. You could argue many different ways. But this is what I think. If people can recognize the name, you got instant credibility. If they don't, they chalk you up to being some conservative zealot(Hey, that's what I am!)

Most People Can Tell If You're Lying

And those White House party crashers are not an exception. In a recent CNN article it was revealed that the Salahi's had crashed another party earlier in the year; the President was also in attendance. When it was discovered that they were there without tickets, they were escorted out by security(not secret service). The article clarifies that at this earlier dinner the Salahi's had no access to the President at any time.

Now, on to the mild satire and analysis.

The Salahi's claim that they are not, in fact, publicity hounds. I beg to differ. If, in fact they are not publicity hounds, then why did they hire a publicist to make their statements for them, as shown in the article. The Salahi's are facing possible criminal charges, and yet there seems to be no lawyer involved. I wonder why that is.....?

Number two point: The Salahi's are in fact publicity hounds because they insist that no news organization do a profile on them until after they do interviews and conduct "press junkets". So these people are taking a whole week to do interviews and be on the news, trying to show themselves as innocent bystanders. If it was me, and I honestly thought that I was invited to this dinner thingy via an email that turned out to be meaningless, I would seek my privacy because of embarrassment. But not the Salahi's. They are getting all the press they want, getting news organizations to bend to there will. It's infuriating. Insulting to my vaunted intelligence.

Robin Williams Plays C.O.D

Forgive me again for posting inconsequential news these last few days. I can't help myself. It may just be a rut. We all have 'em. Unless, fearless reader, you are perfect in every way. But alas, I let my insecurities get the better of me. But that does not diminish in any way the coolness factor here, with just a touch of weird to garnish it. Robbin Williams, the hairy/funny man himself is a video game junkie.

A few days ago when he was on Jimmy Fallon's late night show, Williams discussed how he is a Call of Duty player, and also named his daughter for the classic Nintendo video game Zelda. That's what you call a hardcore gamer if I every saw one. You can check out the story at Joystiq.com.

Private Rocket Reaches Space; Plus an Online Arrest?

Yes. You did read the title correctly. First off, said rocket was built by a private company in New Zealand by the name of Rocket Labs. The company's owner, Mark Rocket(that threw me off just a little, it's not why I thought it was called "Rocket") said that this accomplishment was “... a huge technological leap for New Zealand.” The rocket made it to about 62 miles above the earth, which is a sub-orbital flight, but considered space nonetheless.

Now this next story is kinda "interesting" if you ask me. A man was arrested in England for stealing usernames and passwords from people who play the RuneScape MMORPG. According to Slashdot, this guy was also known to have stolen a bunch of virtual money, called "kredits", which he somehow used to place a down payment on an actual house. How do you turn what amounts to monopoly money into a house? This guy must be a true maestro de fraud.......

One Hilarious, The Other Awsomeness

Two stories for your rapt attention. The first, slightly, no..... mostly hilarious. This is what can go wrong if you put a live Twitter news feed on a billboard for the public's viewing pleasure.

Now for the awsomeness. I myself am an avid startrek fan, but if a war broke out between trekkies and fanboys, I would find myself most assuredly a fanboy. Starwars is just pure awsomeness. Here are some pics to demonstrate the point.

I hope you enjoyed that, because it'll be a while before I can stand some more of the hoky and coincidental.

No Change? No Problem!

At least that's the prospective of the Salvation Army, who are now accepting credit cards as a means of receiving donations. It's a crazy idea, but I think it's only logical for the SA to make this move. I know I might feel more guilty when I pass those bell ringers. The Salvation Army people are making it hard for me to have a good excuse.....

I Really Need To Stop Taking Things Personally

It's bad for my blood pressure.

But seriously, most of you who may read my blog already know that BYU won the annual rivalry game against the Utes. As a Ute fan, all I have to say is that the Y gutted out a tough win, Hall overcame the stigma of five interceptions of last years game, and all in all, a great game to watch. What you also may know is that Max Hall, BYU's quarterback, made some harsh comments after the game. Some of what he said,

 "I don't like Utah. In fact, I hate them. I hate everything about them. I hate their program, their fans. I hate everything," Hall said. "It felt really good to send those guys home." "I think the whole university and their fans and the organization is classless," Hall said. "They threw beer on my family and stuff last year and did a whole bunch of nasty things. I don't respect them and they deserved to lose."

I don't know Hall at all. Only ever seen him on TV. Some of what I said on facebook after the fact:

Max Hall is a retard. He totally made himself look like a jackass in some of his comments after the game.

btw deseret news is obligated to back up Hall because being BYU quarterback somehow qualifies you a free ride to the celestial kingdom.... 

I don't like being associated with beer throwing fans. The other thing that Hall has shown the world is that BYU tends to foster the "I'm holier than you because I'm mormon" attitude. Thats not cool either because just because I'm mormon I get associated with that. Hall just made himself 100,000 + enemies tonight, and the only way he can get past it is to apolagize. I feel symathy that some idiots threw beer at his family, but that's no reason to "hate" a program and a whole fanbase either. Stupid Jackass-like comments he made.

"Do you really want me to go into it? I think the whole university and their fans and organization is classless. They threw beer on my family and stuff last year and did a whole bunch of nasty things. I don't respect them, and they deserve to lose."-Max Hall after the game. So just because I'm a Utes fan I'm a beer throwing lunatic. Well, I guess I need some more practice at it.....

Rain falls on even the good people. God has nothing to do with BYU sports or the Y would be #1 in the nation every year. But if we wanted to bring God into everything, we should pray for the sense to take it all as a rivalry, not make anything personal, and to have a good time playing. Hall didn't do it. Nobody does. This is what our world comes to in most facets of life. I'm sorry for all the rants Josh and Sean, but I just have to vent when I feel a personal attack, even if Halls comments don't look that way. Y fans, don't take my comments personally, either. I'm just callin' 'em like I see 'em. The Y gutted out a tough win, Hall overcame the stigma of some mistakes, all in all a good game. I just wanted to mention some things the way most of my peers don't realize.

Compare what I said to what Hall said. He didn't say much. I made myself out to look like a total dirtbag. I think that this is the tendency that a lot of us have, to make something stupid develop into something undeservedly overblown. All over the internet we see it. It's what make the news entertaining some nights. It's how we identify the idiots of society(like myself).

I realized this while I was trying to come up with a new zinger to throw at Hall and his fans. You can see my last comment in quotes that I was beginning to feel this way. I wanted to make this post to show myself, more than anyone, that we should not see ourselves as better than someone else simply on the basis of a few comments. I'm sure Max Hall is a great guy, and if I end up going to the same ward(I belong to the same church as Hall) as him, I would hope that we became friends.

These are the types of things that I can see driving other sectors of society apart. We need to realize it where it happens and stop it.

For those who have viewed some comments of mine on facebook and took offence, I offer my sincere apology, and hope that this doesn't deter us from a good relationship.

Now that I have said all that, I feel a little bit better. Just put this behind me so that I can blow something else out of proportion. ;-)

A little prospective for ya'll

I found a picture that says a whole rant so that I don't have to. Thanks whoever made this thing.

Twitter Desktop Clients

Before I get into any of this, I first have to say that I am very biased toward TweetDeck. It was the first desktop client that I found, and I fell in love with it. TweetDeck has been very reliable for me in all the time that I have used it.

So now into the reviews and comparisons. Please, if you feel the need to ridicule my disjointed and unstudied prose, use the comment section to it's fullest ability. I can take it.

Like I said before, I have been using TweetDeck for a long time now. The screenshot that you are looking at to the right is one that I took in TweetDeck itself. As you can see, the client, like so many others, will support not just twitter, but Facebook and Myspace as well. What I like about TweetDeck is all of the different tool and window options that  are available. The ones that I use beside the Twitter and Facebook windows right now are the 'tweetdeck recommends' and 'direct comments' windows. You have the option to search on any given subject in twitter, and TweetDeck will put the most relevant tweets into it; or you can search for twitter users themselves. The list of options can go on for TweetDeck. Another new feature that the TD guys have added is the option to get the full news feed from face book, which includes the ability to comment, and view applications and so on. You virtually don't need to go to facebook anymore with TweetDeck. The program is very well put together. I found it completely intuitive to use for the first time, and has been a robust application. I really like this thing. Keep it up TweetDeck Guys!

Next on my list was Twhirl. This client looked very appealing to me at face value, but was a little different from what I thought it would be. Let me explain this. First off, in my own stupidity, I thought that it would be a full window program, but I really neglected to look at the screen shots that the website makes available. The next slight misconception was the way it worked. Twhirl can support almost any micro-blogging website or social network you want..... through a web service called Ping.fm. What the way it all works is that you set up a Ping.fm account, connect all of your social networks to it, and then you access Ping.fm from your desktop with Twhirl. When you update Twhirl for your twitter account, you can opt to update your Ping.fm account at the same time, and thus update your Facebook, linkedin, Myspace, you name it.

Other than all of that, I found on very apealling feature. Twhirl is in my estimation one of the only clients that offers you the option to recieve direct access to friendfeed. This is really why I wanted it. I can run it in the background along with TweetDeck. It's turned out great for me. I fully intend on keeping it around for a while.

The next client is called Sobees.com. What intrigued me here was the touted ability to link me not only to twitter and facebook from the desktop, but also to linkedin. Sorry, no screenshot here. For starters, Sobees failed to run in Ubuntu Linux. On the bright side, however, they are working on making it available to Linux users as soon as they can. I was not overly impressed with Sobees. It has the same old stuff in it like the rest of them, but what really rubbed me the wrong way was that it promises to set you up with linkedin.com access, but I was unable to access it. No matter what I did or where I looked for for support, I coudn't get linkedin to work. But I can say that there is a silver lining for Sobees.com, and that is the visual design that the developers put together was very appealing. I wish that TweetDeck had something similar.

To make mention of some other desktop clients, specifically Linux ones, I wanted to talk just a little bit about Gwibber and Twitux.

Gwibber worked okay for me, but I was not impressed with either the speed and reliability, or the layout and design. I don't run a very powerful system, but for a desktop client, that's no excuse.

I've heard much ado about Twitux. I haven't made myself very familiar with it, but I just wasn't impressed with my first outing in it. Twitux didn't combine my desire to have my Twitter, Facebook, linkedin and FriendFeed all together in the same client. It just did twitter. I might as well go to Twitter instead of use Twitux.

I hope that these short reviews have helped you all, at least the four of you who probably read this. But, seriously, I hope that you have got some good prospective with your Twitter desktop client search from me. My one last piece of advice would be to try a few out for yourselves. But, just so you have been duly warned, my preferences may differ greatly from your's.

Also, let me just make a quick mention about how much I have enjoyed using products(TweetDeck & Twhirl) programmed in Adobe's .air format. It is a very robust platform and has worked just fabulously in Ubuntu. All I had to do was download a plugin, and whammo! it all worked.

Looks like every time I post, this tweet can be seen on five different services that I use. Amazing....

Pay-As-You-Go Wireless Data Plans

Here is something to chat about around the water cooler. AT&T is now going to offer pay as you go data plans for those nifty 3G enabled laptops all the wireless dealers are pushing these days. As stated in the article, AT&T is trying to reach a larger customer base.

This seems to me like the logical thing to do from a Huge Company point of view.

My illustrious and vaunted point of view?

Tons of people have cell phones these days, and they don't come cheap, especially on a month to month basis. Owning a cellphone, however is considered a necessity while having a netbook with 3G wireless network is not. I mean, if I can get free wireless internet with my netbook at most McDonalds' or airports, it doesn't make sense to pay Sprint or AT&T exorbitant amounts of money just for internet. Am I expected to pull my computer out of my pocket and start video conferencing for school while trying to drive on the freeway?(I wish...)

But for those gullible enough to go with the pay as you go rubish, they are going to get less bandwith for near the same price. $60 for a regular two year plan, $50 for the month pay as you go plan. It's a no brainer to me.

You never know though. There is probably some guy out there fantasizing about being able to type up and send that report to Johnson while wrangling with traffic on the 405.

More Basket Ball?

Shouldn't Obama be presidentin? I think so. I figure the harder you work at a job the better you learn it. If you learn it right, then you won't dig us deeper than $12 trillion.

According to this Wall Street Journal article, Obama has played 25 full games of golf. First off, thats more already than Dubya played in two full terms. Second of all, do you people know how long 18 holes of golf takes? Just flip the channel on Sundays and find out.

But the real kicker is there are some "critics" who just want our illustrious president to play more basket ball, the better to worship with. Sickening........

Who Reads The News?

I, for one, am one of those fuddy-duddies that is totally obsessed with the news. In the past, I ended up visiting like 10 to 15 news sites frequently per day. It was monotonous, but I need the news to feel "plugged in" to the world. I ended up finding Google Reader, an RSS feed reader. It's been very useful with consolidating my news and tech updates that I just couldn't live without. It was okay at organizing everything. It was also very robust, and loaded very quickly. I would recommend it to anyone who is just discovering the greatness that is reading the news via RSS.

In my daily travels across the vastness of the WWW, I discovered something that I should have found long ago, being the avid Firefox user that I am. This discovery is the one and only Feedly. What it does is give you all the tools you need; not only consolidate your news reading in one place, but Feedly can organize it into many different formats. Some of these formats include categories(not unusual for some RSS readers), magazine format(very nifty), digest, and latest updates. Feedly also has a unique edge on the competition because it incorpates a Firefox extension. Because it's a browser extension, Feedly took the advantage to ad some useful tools that make it easier to ad new feeds to your account, as well as share anything you come across with your twitter minions or facebook friends, not to mention the ability to share your cool discoveries amongst Feedly users as well.

The sleek design incorporates any picture or screenshot of a video associated with the headlines. When you click a headline you see a flash pop-up with both the head line and the first few lines of your story. Some blogs will show the whole story in the pop up, which I find time saving(if only a few seconds of waiting).

Along with all of these great features, I really like the option of seeing my news in so many different formats. It makes for a quick trip to find exactly what I'm looking for. A great option that you have is that you can set which one of these pages as the one you see first when you log in.

For all of you who are current Google Reader users, you needn't worry about having to re subscribe to everything you already get there. As an extension, Feedly will automatically see your browser history and incorporate all of your Google Reader stuff.

All in all, I was very surprised to find an RSS reader that would exceed my bias towards Google Reader, and Feedly did just that. With the great way to organize all of your feeds, wide range of features and a slim and robust design, I really have come to love using Feedly.

Clicker Is Cool

In the course of my usual perusal of a great many favorite websites, I came across a curious link. And where did it lead me to, you ask? Well, it lead me to the best site in the whole world, at least for today. I found Clicker. What Clicker allows you to do is base your TV watching operations from one site. As we all know, there is tons of TV just waiting to be streamed from online, but its scattered all the way to kingdom-come. So when you create an account with Clicker, you can search for your favorite shows, and it will create a playlist for you. All you do is select the show, and it links you right to the original source for your viewing pleasure.

Another nifty feature is that Clicker also includes in its pool of searchable programs professional, high-quality web-shows that are gaining in popularity by leaps and bounds. So when you go off on a search in any category, you can discover some great new shows that are web-based.

I've been playing around on Clicker all morning, and I've got to tell you all that it's definitely worth getting an account and seeing what it can do. Best of all, the service that Clicker provides is free!

Utah: Life Behind the "Zion Curtain"

In the first few years of my life, I was a California boy. Culture was different in many aspects of life. Most notably, stores were open on Sunday's, stores also stayed open later, there was a heck of alot of traffic to deal with and so on. In some respects, I felt like the people I knew were "real". I don't know really how to describe this, except to say that no one had to put up some sort of facade to fit in.

This is where I can catch a lot of flak, my opinions and so forth. I need to be clear that I'm not bashing every single Utahn there ever was. But I just see those people here and there, on the rodes and in stores who seem to have a sense of entitlement. It feels to me like certain people really feel like they are better than the other guy. You can really feel it, and even see it on the roads. In 2006, late in that year, I was driving down a major road, trying to get to a job. It was late in the day, but as a satellite dish installer, that doesn't tend to matter. Traffic was horrible because of a concert that was to take place just up the road. Some woman in her husband's pickup with an 8 in lift and new Eddlebrock pipes, rode up onto the sidewalk, and drove past the traffic.This is just one extreme example of the common attitude of "I'm the entitled Utahn". I can continually see people forcing their way into another lane on a merge, jerk-like, not even caring that it would cause an accident unless it were for the person who was forced into courtesy. I never see such driving habits on the roads of California. Everyone there seems to know the rules, and while they are extreme drivers(driving there is like racing) people tend to work together on the roads. It's an attitude that carries over to other parts of life.

These aren't the only things happening. There are multiple manifestations of an over reaching problem. The "I'm better than you" thing. I can't really say it's because some are Mormon(I'm Mormon myself), or if it's because people feel like they are rich, or because every Utahn has a chip on their shoulder. I don't know, but I think that it comes out to a combination of the three.

Don't get me wrong, Utah, I love the state and plan on living here for a long time to come, but we all really need to work on this attitude problem.

What really set me off on this topic was the recent news article that appeared in the Deseret News paper. The article presents some of the bills that rep. Carl Wimmer is having drafted for the upcoming session to open in January. The thing with all of this is not necessarily the bills themselves, but the purpose for which they will be presented. The first is the one I really have a problem with. After being involved in a minor fender-bender, Rep. Wimmer decided that the guy who caused the accident should really have to pay double to triple the fine rate just because it was rush hour. And so now he's taking a personal vendetta against all who make the same mistake. Why don't we all get the opportunity to make laws because they are personally motivated. Again, don't misunderstand me, I believe that any representative can and should feel some personal motivation to pass a bill that he sponsors, but I mean, come on! Just because it happened to him means it should be changed? No sense in the reasoning.

So now you all know life behind the Zion Curtain. These certain things that motivate Utah life and politics. We as a whole really need to change.

Google Chrome OS

The thought has intrigued me since I first heard the news that Google is currently developing an OS of their own, based on the Linux kernel. There has been a lot of buzz around the internet, and in particularly within the last few days, surrounding a Google press event held yesterday to show off a preliminary version for reporters, and to answer any questions.

From most of the reports that I've read, the presenter, Sundar Pachai, who is a Google VP, danced around some questions that press in the minds of many who follow Google. For instance, some may ask what the pricing will be for an OEM netbook, or something similar, and the answer invariably is "we can't say". For the most part, according to this Cnet article, Pachai did not reveal anything that hasn't been known already, which to me is a big disappointment.

On the upside, what fascinates me with Chrome OS is that Google is developing the software with netbooks in mind. They are focusing in large part on bringing to bear the power and connectivity of a regular laptop and at the same time making it  mobile, quick and responsive. In the link embedded in the previous paragraph, you can see exactly what Google's hardware specs are for the OEM version.

Other problems that skeptics(and you can include me here) is the OS's branding. I don't see why Google has both a browser and an OS of the same name. True enough that Chrome OS and the Chrome browser will be very similar in style and function, but I'm concerned that there might be some confusion and lead to some branding issues.

All that being said, as an avid(though novice) Linux user, I'm excited to see the launch of Chrome OS sometime next year. No doubt we'll see many blog posts and news articles all over the internet divulging new features or problems, so I'll keep my eye out.

Mearsk Alabama Attacked Again

Yes, you've probably heard the news and know that the guys on board had a security team which scared the pirates off before they could board, but I wanted to weigh in on what some are saying about this latest encounter with Somali pirates. Here is a quote from Foxnews.com to show you exactly why I wanted to say my piece:

"However, Roger Middleton, a piracy expert at the London-based think tank Chatham House, said the international maritime community was still "solidly against" armed guards aboard vessels at sea, but that American ships have taken a different line than the rest of the international community."

 First of all, both from reading past this point in the article and then using common sense, I would tend towards wanting to have at least a few armed guards aboard.

Middleton went on to suggest that to have a security force aboard ship makes it a privateer, out on the high seas to put an end to piracy. I seriously doubt that's what Maersk had in mind when it put a security force aboard Alabama. I just makes sense to have at least some who are armed aboard ship especially when in potentially dangerous waters; this is even part of the industry's "best practices" according to ADM. Gourtney.

Oh yeah, I've got to add something for good measure.

Did those pirates realize that they were attacking the same ship that made the news all over the world, especially here in the U.S.? I mean, they need to understand what we do when you mess with us. I thought the Navy SEALs tought them that. Apparently the Somali pirates needed to be shot at again to figure it out. But I doubt they did. They'll just go after ships from other countries. Hopefully those other ships have adopted industry "best practices".

(photograph courtesy Foxnews.com)

Grooveshark Blows Pandora Away

Grooveshark is the shiznit. Seriously. I just found it, so for those of you who are way ahead of me, sorry for the repetitive nature of this post.

Well, on to the review. This online music streaming service works in a similar way to Pandora. The big, and decisive difference is that it's just like you had the biggest cd collection in the freakin' world, which means that you get to pick and choose which songs play and which ones don't. You search for artists and individual songs, pick 'em, add 'em to a playlist and save it. Just like that. You just have to put up with a huge ad on the side, which isn't too obtrusive at all.

I also liked a few more things that Grooveshark did. Formost among them is to add a "similar artist" search. That way it allows you to branch out without having to wade through a bunch of crap like Pandora makes you do. You also have at a mouse-click the ability to see what others are listening to and to see what is popular that day.

I know that this was kind of a short review, but I gotta play around with this stuff some more. You can check out Grooveshark for yourselves here.

Monday's: The Bane Of My Existence

Everyone has their bane. For some, it's test taking, no matter what the subject is. Doesn't even have to be academic for some. For others it's crappy drivers. No, not those kind of drivers. Now I have you all confused...... Anyway, for me, as I stated above, it's Monday. I've been battling this choice and capable foe since I was in 1st grade and learned how to play hooky. Monday still doesn't relent in it's onslaught of making me go back to work, getting things done, being productive and what not. Judging by this picture you can see how fried I am. Oh, wait just a minute, I gotta put the flash card in....... Here we go. (None of that was for you, I just need a minute for the pic to upload)

So now it's 30 minutes later(don't ask) and the picture is finally up. It's important to note that I don't feel like I look. But this is what Monday's do to me. It sucks.

But enough of me ranting on about my Mondaphobia. Time to bid my guestimated 4 readers adieu.

Ubuntu Linux: Way Better Than Windows

I know what you all are thinking. "Daniel's gone insane(I know you knew that already dad), Windows 7 just came out and he's just jealous that he can't have it, he doesn't really know what he's talking about" and on and on it could go. I admit, many arguments may have a foundation on truth, but that's not at issue here. (or is it)

To tell you the truth, I bought a netbook about 6 months ago because it would serve me as my college note-taking and paper writing platform. I has done very well so far, but there are a few things that would just bug me all the time. Foremost among my hate for some things windows is the insane time it took to boot the operating system. It was way to cumbersome(under my standards) to boot the stupid thing in class. Other reasons to hate the thing is that Windows(I was using XP) would have these crazy seziures all the time. I don't know what was going on there, but it just wouldn't handle a certain number of programs running all at once, have a coronary, and keel over. How did I remedy said problem? Reboot. Microsoft might even say the same thing. I heard a funny joke a few years back.... or was it a true story based on fiction... anyways, the most seen fix for most windows issues is of course, format and reinstall. It's true, if you got something unfixable, you can just try to back up all your files and blow away what you got going on, and start over, and repeat ever 1-2 years. There, your set for life.

But, hearkening back to my swingin' computer nerd days(I'm a geek now, but most don't realize that there is a fundamental difference between them)when my brothers and I would play around with lots of different Linux distros and UNIX or BSD, I looked into Ubuntu linux, found out my dad and another brother were running it, and looked into it. Turns out they have an OS optimized just for netbooks. I looked into some more, here and there, and finally decided to take the plunge. Turns out it was great. As you can see from the screenshot taken from my machine, the desktop layout for netbooks is way different from what you would normally see in most(even linux) OS's, the model for norm being taken from Windows and Mac. The desktop layout has been optimized for the screen size of a normal netbook. It makes it so everything is displayed cleanly, but also adds the practicality we've come to expect from normal GUI interfaces. Everything looks clean, is extremely customizable, and if you dual-boot with windows, will even automatically port all of your documents and desktop settings from windows.

As you remember, I was most concerned with the Windows boot time being tediously slow. Now don't just tell me that "you've got a netbook, Daniel, is just gunna do that to you." Well, I reject you reality, and substitute my own! My very first boot into ubuntu took just under a minute from pushing the on-button to checking my email. Now tell me netbooks are crap. I'm also pleased that I can go to class and start taking notes on this rig just as fast as if I were using a real pen and paper.

For all of you now intrigued, but not willing to give up on windows, you can partition your harddrive so that you can boot both windows and ubuntu. As a matter of fact thats what I did.

You can read a very good review on the latest update of Ubuntu, now at 9.10, here at technewsworld.com.

Something is Always In The Way of A Man's Job

Great blog post for you all. Especially if you like stories that are based on a true story. Some detail may have been changed.

So it was one fine warm middle-of-the-summer day, when all of a sudden the trees started to loose their leaves, just like they would do in fall. This wasn't the start of the freakyness, mind you. So, being the good young men that my brothers and me are, we go and clean the yard up.

So we're raking it all up outside at this point, and I was even using the mower, when we discovered insane amounts of dog poop. Now don't get disgusted by me making mention of that, our dog just has a high metabolism. It's going along fine too, when I decided stop for a small break and lean on the mower for a minute or two. I gazed out to the west at the Oquirr Mountains, but they weren't there. What I saw was a huge freak storm headed our way. Being the brave and slightly stupid, though strapping young men that we were, decided to push on with the job.

Needless to say, this was not the best idea any of us had ever had. We ended up fighting the storm for "yard supremacy", a feat still not attained by any man in the world to date. The battle continued. We had to fight the storm or else we wouldn't ever be able to get the leaves up. But as we persevered, we completed the task in the nick of time. Some of us had what we had dubbed, "Everest Finger Condition", where your fingers get so numb that you can't feel them. It can even get to the point where they might get frostbite. But that didn't happen. Mother Nature was no match for us. In the fashion of a braindead teanager who insults everybody, we too insulted that storm.

We don't know now, looking back on it, whether that storm is holding a grudge against us. It might just be. Mother Nature has been known to be vindictive that way. But I tell you now, so that you all can learn a lesson, don't mess with storms. I have nightmares and flashbacks like it were yesterday, even though all this happened today, and it isn't pleasant. So know this you young people, learn my our mistake, and just take it easy when a storm roles through....

The Joy of Saturday

But not really joy, more like mixed emotion. Joyful at the fact that I don't have to get up at 3 am to be at work on time, grateful that I don't have to worry about heaps of homework because I did it already. But at the same time not excited for the yard work that I have to do, and the chores that need to be done. Alas, the only day for this writer to get the needful things in domestic life done is Saturday. Sunday is church, we try to keep the sabbath, and Monday through Friday, all those other pressing needs like working so that we can keep a roof over our heads and meal on our plates. So Saturday becomes the day of days.

Well, I guess I should stop belly-aching and git'r'done.......

I've Been Waiting For This Day

A man in California(go figure) was arrested for wearing navy medals that he did not earn. They included a Navy Cross, the Navy's highest honor just under the Medal of Honor, a bronze star and others that the article lists.

He was spotted today by an actual Navy Commander, who then called the FBI.

I have been waiting for this day with a certain diabolicalness(the spell-checker let me say diabolicalness). Don't get me the wrong way, but hear me out. My dad is currently a Navy Commander himself, and both of my grandfathers served in the army. To give a little more context to my opinion, I will tell you that I have seen the buying and selling of such medals in gun shows and army/navy stores, which I think is disrespectful. The medals should remain with the family of the person who was awarded them, and if those people want to sell them I think of as despicable. These things should not be bought and sold because you think they are cool and are worth something. They mean something to the man who earned them, part of the sometimes inadequate compensation. Sometimes it is impossible to compensate our brave soldiers for their service.

Respecting the medals that these men and women earn in the right way is only one of the things that we can do to properly honor their service.

Pass The Tuchie To the Left Hand Side......

Los Angeles City Hall is thrashing around as the City Council and mayor belatedly try to control a pot-shop explosion they ignited, which has spawned dozens of freewheeling weed emporiums near public schools. The Los Angeles school board’s response? Nada.

Google Wave Invites

Okay, so I've been thinking about this for a while and I've come to the conclusion that with just a few Wave invites left and no one to give them to, I'd offer them up here. I have 5 left.

To reference back to an earlier post of mine, Google Wave is an innovative real-time collaberation tool that is similar in some respects to email. In fact, google intends for it's Wave protocal to replace email. What happens is you place a message, add whichever contacts that you want to see the message, and the post is there for all to see, and is meant to be edited and added to. Neat apps allow you to have video conference, ad a poll, ad a map with the destination of an even and so on. It's a great tool. Let me know if you want one of the 5 left in my comments section.

Third In A Row

Yet another shooting took place today, this time in Oregon. I really couldn't believe my eyes when I saw this article on Foxnews.com. A third shooting in just a few days! Preposterous. I don't really understand why a person would feel the need to go on a shooting rampage. Nothing, can justify the killings of innocent people. Any act like this or the others like it are just pure and simple acts of terrorism, because they strike Terror into the hearts of the regular citizen.

Change is good

But not too much change.

Alas, A home to call my own!

I finally "bit the bullet" yesterday and bought a domain name. It took me days to figure out what I really wanted to call this place, and to some, it probably doesn't seem to show. But for me, and my limited brainstorm capabilities, it is a triumph of engineering, or science, or literature. One of those, you can choose.

So this blog shall forever after be known as RandomBrainwork.net, in homage to no particular subject that permeates this website. But no need to fear, I do plan on making plans for some future posts so that it's acutally worth it to read and even debate my controversial opinions on a number of subjects. Mostly politics. Maybe some other stuff like technology and StarWars. In any case, it will be entertaining. I am making a promise to all four of you who might have seen my blog before. Check back later today for some killer postage action.

Ridin' The "G"-Wave

Google Wave is unlike anything we’ve all seen out on the internet. I’m by no means an expert on the subject, but because I have been able to get a preview account, I’ve been playing around with it.

First of all, you need to understand what it’s purpose is before you can really be excited for it; at least that’s the way it was for me. Wave was conceaved with the thought that went along the lines of, “what would email look like if were developed today?” And so the Google team took this idea and ran. Find out the whole story from the Google guys themselves. The rest is history, at least for them. For us it’s just beginning. What Wave does for us is to create a real-time collaborative environment, where users can post messages, select who can see the message, and then add to or edit the message in any place. Gone are the days of cut and paste into a reply message to gain maximum clarity. Just place your reply beneath the statement you’re replying to.

Along with these abilities that will virtually eliminate forwarding or replying(and hopefully get rid of “chain email”) many third party and independent developers are working on applications to fit inside a wave. Uses for these are manifold. Some of the currently available extensions include a “yes-no-maybe” poll application that makes it easy to quantify how many will attend an event or who agrees or disagrees with you. Others that can be used are a map/trip planner powered by Google Maps, handy in setting meetings or trips, video conferencing, and a few others. There will most likely be loads more by the time the official release comes around.

As with any product in beta testing, there are bugs to be hashed out, but Google is doing a great job with keeping up with a wealth of reports, as well as keeping a help forum well managed. Additional functionalities seem to be forthcoming,(probably somewhat based upon user suggestion?) like mass-selecting waves in your inbox so that you can trash or move to a different folder. At least I would like to see that feature added.

All in all, I have enjoyed my experience getting to know Google Wave. With the real time communication/collaboration at it’s core, with all of the functionality to edit and reply to specific messages and statements, to the extensions, and last but not least, the users who find great ways to use the product make Wave a real force to be rekoned with.

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Are You Missing Something?

Who here has experienced a time in their life when you were reasonably busy and were doing something purposeful, but felt like you were missing something?

College Sucks

I don't know why I feel compelled to write about this, but it could be that I am sitting here working on a humanities assignment, and the fact that I think it's a waist of a class, especially if taught on a socialist agenda. Even a right wing agenda. It all turns out to be an indoctrination class. That is my beef with a lot of schools out there. The curriculum is developed on so much of a bias that those who haven't set their own moral beliefs will believe only what they hear, and not learn all sides of the equation.

Now I'm not advocating getting rid of one bias or another. Just the perceived attitudes of a professor who will gloss over one point of view to give credence to the one they believe. I've only had one or two teachers out of the handful I've been in class with that would actually be the "devil's advocate" against their own beliefs in order to display "the other side". This is a very hard thing to do for a person, but essential for a student to understand why they take the stand that they do. This creates people who think for themselves.

There are those who will contend that students will become freethinkers even with a totally biased teacher. But that teacher who cannot "let go" enough to teach from multiple points of view will teach that their point of view is the only right one, and that leaves little room for diverse thought.

So that, my friends, is the problem I have with college in specific, and the emerging socialist system in general.

Really?

I don't know if any of you three who probably read this blog have seen this, but a six year old boy who brought his favorite camping utensil to school to eat his lunch with was forced into reform school for 45 days with hardened delinquents for it. This kid was obviously excited to be in the cub scouts. According to this Fox News report the local school board is working to change the rule that will put the boy in reform school to exclude kindergartners and first graders.

My irrelevant opinion? The school district board members and school administrators really need to use their brains, and think through a situation. The current policy means that they give this punishment out despite intent. The system of law we work on often relies on intent. Why are they exluding that as a defence for this boy?

Sweet Hubble Images

Just been checkin' out some of the images that the hubble telescope has taken. Check some of 'em out here. Really quite amazing pictures.

Can't Fathom it......

A man drowned in a jacuzzi tub after a day of drinking in florida. I can't even imagine how somebody could get so inebriated as to lose all faculties and drown in three feet of water....... Must have been some good beer and lots of good football games.

Check out Orkut- You'll Be Suprised

Just when you thought that there couldn't be room enough on the web for another social networking site, there is one more.....

Google Is Awsome

To be absolutely honest, I've been a Google customer for a long time, but have never been one to take advantage of a lot of their products outside of Gmail or the calender app. But for the past few weeks, I've been kicking myself for not learning how to program and create new apps for the internet like my younger brothers have learned to do, because if I had, I'd be working on Google wave right now, enjoying it's awsomeness. But, what I have gained from it is a new-found love for all that Google has to offer. If you haven't looked into Google beyond it's better-than-anything search function or Gmail, you must at least investigate what it has to offer. I have found tons to play around with and even more to make life easier.

Like I have mentioned, the calender function is far and away better than Microsoft Outlook because it is a whole lot easier to figure out, and it doesn't lack for features. I've dabbled with a lot of the apps for years, but like I said, the last few weeks have taught me what I can really do with Google Apps. I've really been impressed with Picasa, with it's facial recognission feature, to it's internet accessability. I enjoy the RSS reader, and have also been using it for years. I have used iGoogle as my homepage for a while as well. What I have really discovered is apps like Knol, Docs and Blogger. The genious here with google is linking it all together with one account. I don't have to sift through heaps of internet crap to get what I need. It's all here. I've found I almost always have a google tab open in my firefox window all the time.

So remember, take the time and get to know the Google Apps.

Sheesh.....

So now the President feels like it's his job to tell the media what to do. How outrageous is that? I thought that free speech was everybody's right, even if people chose to be 'rude'. The president clearly feels like the job of the media is to further his agenda, such as his healthcare mumbo-jumbo. That was the clear message of his recent appearances on network and cable news shows: to stop being rude and talk about the dems side of the healthcare debate. I'm sorry Mr. President, but there are more sides to healthcare reform than the democrat side; and more solutions to it than one.

This is total nonsense....

Speaker Pelosi, in making some public statements has likened genuine public outcry and concern over government run healthcare as very similar to violence that occurred in '78 San Francisco. The other side of this blade is that this was the year Harvey Milk was assassinated. This just seems like a scare tactic and an unfounded emotional ploy. There haven't been any instances of domestic violence and terror on account of the healthcare debate. I just can't get over the fact that us right wingers can't have peaceable demonstrations just like the left and not get tagged as terrorist and extremists....

Revamps

More often than creating new content, I'm constantly trying to update and reinvent this blog. Problem is that no one will look at it if there is no content. But I guess that if I have a good idea to run under, it will be easy to create interesting content. One of these days I'll hit the nail on the head.....

Anyway, I figured that if I renamed my blog for what I want the content to look like, it would give me purpose. So, what used to be "Run of the Mill Stuff", is now Uncommonly Common. I know it really seems like a bad take on Thomas Paine's Common Sense. But I wanted to relay that idea in my title, but also show that the common sense Paine talked about is not so common these days.

Another idea that I tend to hold close is one that was discussed at length by Friedrek Bastiat, political author durring the second French Revolution in 1850-51. He talked about unseen consequences of hastilly drafted quick-fix laws. In his pamphlet entitled "What is seen and what is not seen", he discusses the fact that there is a higher probability of the ocurrance of the "law of unintended concequences" when a government ennacts a law that is meant to fix a probem within months, rather that consider something that will not fix everything quickly, but sometimes takes a matter of years or decades to put things where we need them to be. Bastiat treats this subject deftly, considering small scale problems to effectively carry us through his thought process.

So with these new ideas I endeavor to ad my opinion to the hundreds of millions shared in this country today.

The Cap & Trade Crap

I am very opinionated, for the reason that I feel that I need to be. Why must one always be opinionated? Because it is needed for one's survival. And I could argue that an opinion is founded in values and personal morals and therefore the lifeblood of the way someone makes decisions. If we had no compass that tells us how to make decisions, then we would have a race so passive that no one would have the will to live.
That being said, I have an opinion to share. The Cap & Trade bill will be the single largest tax increase in the history of the country. You can look at wikipedia on the subject and see how impossibly complicated it is to explain the "science" of regulating carbon dioxide emission, handing out pollution credits, trading them, making us pay for the "allowance" to use pollution and so on. How convoluted have our so called leaders become to think that they can do this.
We need to look at what produces carbon dioxide before we can tax it's use. We know that cars produce it, but what else will be driven out of business, I ask? Well, for one example, the beef and dairy industry will go up in smoke, driving many who rely on beef and cattle out of business because of the amount of money they would end up paying our lovely dictators in Washington. Apparrently the cows poop too much. Why, I breath every day and produce what Pelosi wants to tax. Why don't they just tax my body and get it over with.
I know I'm sounding histerical and seem to be overreacting, but I am not. So much industry is just going to be replaced. With all the regulation that would happen here, we would see a shift from automotive and agricultural jobs to jobs that mostly do with shutting every it all down. What will happen when lots of the economy is so overtaxed that most of it goes out of business? Will there be anything to regulate and "make green"? I say that even though in the short term there will be new jobs, but in the long run, we won't even have an economy because of this.
Some of you may argue this, but I would like to point out that if a government-controlled economy is considered a free market or even a real working economy, I beg to differ. If it is by the whim of our government that we can buy and sell goods, invent, build and so on, is that really an economy, or is it the government just "dispensing priviledges?
The Senate needs to see from beginning to end on this issue. If they are as power hungry as Obama or Pelosi are, we are in deep trouble. The Senate is our last stand against this tyranny.

PolySci

It's amazing how one can just forget or put off writing something for the blog.....
Just a few comments to make for the record.
First, I am back in school. My major is PolySci. I look forward to getting into it more; government and history has always been an interest, and I hope to find a career in law or policy making. But we'll see how it goes. I'm not happy with most of the parties out there, even the big two, especially because of all of the politicking involved. It sounds funny that I would like to be involved in such a field, but something has to be done, even if I don't like or do politics very well. I might even launch into why I don't like politics on another post.

The New X-Men Movie

So, I just got back from the movies, having seen the new X-Men movie. I do have to say that it was pretty good. There was a feeling that something was left to be desired, but I couldn’t put my finger on it. Maybe it was the fact that there was so many x-men in the movie, but only a few of them were featured. Yep, I think that was it. Now I want to see a sequel…..

Anyway, if you want to see a lame scene, wait ’till the end of the credits.

What is the meaning of life?

It's a simple question. But for some reason to a lot of us here it seems that the answer is most incomprehensible. But, as a missionary for the Lord Jesus Christ, and as one who has sought salvation at His hands, I will endeavor to show you what I have found for my self, and no other man(and many have tried) can dissuade me from the knowledge given me by God Himself through the power of the Holy Ghost.

This post is only preliminary to the next posts or even pages that I will add in the near future, so keep an eye out! But I also refer all who see this post or any others, to visit Mormon.org to find out more.

$19,000

Recently, a rare copy of Harry Potter sold for $19,000! It blew my mind when I heard about it. Why would someone spend that much money on a book? I can understand it was the birthday of this guy's wife, but you could have taken a huge vacation over sea's or something. Unless,if they are uber-rich and can do both...... mmmmm.... interesting......

Education Reform....

President Obama has unvieled his educational reform plan. On the whole, I agree with some critics in the fact that all this money has to come from somewhere, and we don't really have much money as a country at all. But that being said, I do have to agree with two points of his plan.

"If a teacher is given a chance but still does not improve, there is no excuse for that person to continue teaching," he said. "I reject a system that rewards failure and protects a person from its consequences." If some one that I have entrusted a child's education with doesn't feel like doing their best, or improving their skill and ability, they don't deserve to teach. It would not cost a lot of money to improve education in this way. If some really are invested in the state being in charge of education, it must be done right.

Number two thing, is Obama's call to the states to lift the cap on the number charter schools allowed to exist. This would allow more choice for parents in their child's education.

Every thing else I adamantly disagree with, because any way I look at it, it would require the government to dish out billions more money than there really is. I don't agree with a parents' attitude that the state is totally in charge of their childrens education, and blame any shortcomings on the state, and don't do anything to improve the situation beside whining. If we dump untold billions into giving free college to everyone, allowing everyone access to nurses and head start personel, and setting unrealistic standards for every single child, we foster the false reality that education will improve dramatically. Really, if we put the responsibility for education completely in the parents hands, the level of education then will go up, cost to the state will go down, and in a round about way, will bring a diverse and robust economy in a few decades.

Half Time

It's half time right now in the game of the Houston Rockets against the Utah Jazz. The Jazz came back from a 5 point deficit to lead the game 48-46. I've just been frustrated with all of the loose balls that the Jazz haven't been able to control. We'll have to see how they do in the second half. If they want to win the game and keep Yao Ming out of the game, they need to keep running the floor.
But we'll see how they do. I'll update later.

Frustrated; With More things than one

Well, still looking for a job. Many good leads though. I have an appointment with Convergys, a call center. It looks like a good lead for me, but call centers attract a lot people and have a lot of turnover. I'm hoping to get well established with them.

On another front, for any of you who saw Pres Obama's speach last night, it looks to me like he is planning to spend more money..... He claims that this is not the case, but with the creation of more agencies to the government, rising taxes to the so called "rich", losses to DOD contractors and sub-contractors, along with all of the bailouts and a trillion dollar defecit, I only have one question: Where the heck is all this money coming from? Are we going to print it all? That would mean inflation. We gonna barrow it? We're already borrowing. What do we do then?

If I was a financial advisor to a young couple thousands of dollars in debt from credit cards, I would tell them to get rid of those cards, cut their spending where they can, and use any and all excess money from savings and other sources to pay the debt quickly. That would avoid a larger catastrophy for that couple. Why doesn't the government see things that way. Why do we have to spend money that simply doesn't exist? If anyone has any good comments, it's open for discussion.....