Mikell311’s blog

Updates till now with a promise of more posts

nobody@vox.com(Mikell311) — Tue, 03 Jun 2008 15:22:53 -0500

So... have not posted in awhile. Whoops :P

Well a lot has happened, and since I don't remember where I left off (and am currently too lazy to go look), there may be some overlap.

1. Officially Buddhist - I think this is where I left off earlier. Not going shaved head or anything, but the meditation is making me a happier person and its got fairly simple rules that make sense.

2. Failed a class - Circuits II... I think I figured out why I failed at least. With circuit analysis theres no set method, there are various methods and approximations, and its more of a "what feels right" approach than a "start here, work to here...etc..." approach, and I cannot be taught things like that. So right now I'm wondering if I should change my major from Electrical Engineering to something else. We'll see.

3. Got a pretty good summer job - Doing IT Help Desk (Tech Support) stuff for the University. Its 40 hours a week, and for the amount of work I actually do, 9 bucks an hour ain't bad. And I can bike in! The only downside is getting to work by 7.45 am :(

4. I'm going to PAX for sure - woohoo! Though with gas prices I'm not sure whether or not we should fly as opposed to 27 hours of driving (less because I'll speed the whole way). Any suggestions? Seriously, gas prices are going to make the summer a bitch.

5. Roommate News - One of my roommates who was supposed to go to Europe found he had gallstones a few days before he was supposed to leave, so he has laproscopic (spelling?) surgery and had his gallbladder removed and he's been out of commission for a few weeks now. His surgery caused my other roommate who was going to Europe to delay his flight until a few days ago instead of a few weeks ago. Also, we replaced the douchebag roommate with a girl for the summer. Shes pretty nice, although I can't totally approve of anyone who likes to watch the Kardashians or American Idol.

6. People at work - Almost everyone here rocks. The other new guy who started with me is a masters student in percussion, the head help desk person is a linux geek girl who's pretty cool. The network and system specialists are all hilariously bitter and cynical, but know what they're doing. Then theres my immediate supervisor, who's a little weird. And by little weird, I mean seeing him on Dateline would not surprise me. Then to top it off, he's just not very good at his job. Everyone in the the office kind of dislikes him at the very least. He's just sooo creepy.

7. Facebook's upcoming changes - They're revamping facebook. Again. And from the screenshots I've seen, while it may make things (technically) easier to find, it will mean more clicking to get to stuff. And I hate clicking.

8. Twitters constant outtages - Got sick of getting a "Service Down" message when trying to twitter, so I switched to Tumblr. Woohoo!

9. Hitting a chipmunk on my bike - Ok, I was coming into work this morning, and a chipmunk dashed out in front of my bike and ran into the spokes of my front wheel! I got scared, because honestly, who the hell wishes harm on a chipmunk? So after watching him go all the way around one rotation of the wheel he shot out when got to the bottom, and I continued on... feeling horrible...

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I AM IRON MAN

nobody@vox.com(Mikell311) — Sat, 03 May 2008 01:58:29 -0500

SPOILERS!!

So Iron Man... most excellent movie. Summary: Tony Stark is an uncaring billionaire living the high life, demonstrates an AWESOME missle to the US military, then gets captured and told to make said missle for terrorists using parts from his other weapons, which they've been buying. Instead, he builts an iron weapons suit and blasts his way out. The terrorists recover the pieces of the first suit he made, as it was destroyed while escaping. He makes a new suit, with the help of an AI and some robot pets. He falls for a VERY attractive personal assistant of his, finds out his partner was the one who had the terrorists capture him, and that the partner has built a bigger, stronger suit. They duke it out, then the girl detonates a giant power generator, destroying the bad guy. At a press conference at the end, Tony Stark comes out and admits he's Iron Man. CREDITS CREDITS CREDITS CREDITS (to the song Iron Man)...
then you hear Samuel Jackson's voice... as General Nick Fury! w00t!

So this movie was just amazing. Action sequences were well done, the main character was likable even tho he was a jerk sometimes, main character was a crazy badass, there were parts that were just f-ing hilarious, and the story was great. I can't imagine how it could have been better in any way. Oh, and the CG... I couldn't even tell it was CG, there weren't any parts where I went "oh... thats CG... they should have spent more time on it."

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The office and scrubs

nobody@vox.com(Mikell311) — Thu, 01 May 2008 23:25:30 -0500

Spoilers ahead, so if you haven't watched them, hulu.com is calling to you.

Scrubs: So aside from the big news that there is going to be another season on ABC... I'm getting angry because they seem to be bringing JD and Elliot together again, and they've done that soooo many times, only to have it end badly. I was hoping this was going to be the last season so they could get together in the last episode or two and everybody is happy and blah blah blah.

The Office: So the previews said someone was going to get fired, and i was worried that someone i like was going to get fired. First it appears stanley is going to get fired, then michael surprises us all and DOESN'T fire him, but i got really scared when ryan said jim was being warned about his performance. fucking toby, michael was right, toby should be killed. (sorry ruiner... i know you kinda like him, but if he threatens jim and pam, he's gotta go)

Next week are the season finales... i'm excited. I love tv way too much.

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Rebirth vs Reincarnation

nobody@vox.com(Mikell311) — Wed, 30 Apr 2008 01:57:20 -0500

For years and years now I've been an atheist, going to church for family events just so my mother doesn't get upset, and mumbling out prayers to beings that I don't think exist. Then I started reading about Buddhism, and realized that I already believe in many of its core ideas, so I read up more. I liked what I read about the causes of suffering, how to avoid suffering, and how the medical community has conclusive studies proving meditation is pretty goddamn awesome. Then I got to the part about "Rebirth"...

I don't believe in life after death or in purgatory-like states. I believe that Buddhism is a way to improve yourself in this, your only life. However Buddha preached about many planes of existence where your mind may spend time after you die, where gods and demons abound, and that after intense meditation he could recall his previous lives. This is really the only disagreement I have with the Buddhist canon.

I've talked to a friend of mine who's a history major and he tells me that I cannot claim to be Buddhist without believing in everything they say, and I fired back by asking him if his views coincide exactly with what the Vatican tells him is right, which shut him up, but I still wonder, can I claim to be Buddhist without believing everything taught?

My current view is this: The people who preach this have had experiences similar to those before them, and that is why they teach this. If so many people preach this, there has to be some link, whether or not intense meditation or desire caused hallucinations, there is still a link. I can follow the rest of the teachings, and if I have an experience that lends credence to the other things, I can believe that too, if not, then I know it was because Siddhartha was raised in a religion that taught those things, and they arose in his subconscious while meditating.

Logically does my current stance hold? Can I call myself a Buddhist or not?

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Sex Education & Tortue isn't punishment

nobody@vox.com(Mikell311) — Wed, 30 Apr 2008 01:39:32 -0500

I watched the Daily Show tonight, and I was, once again, astounded by something incredibly stupid that an elected official said. In this case, it was an old republican congressmen. The topic was sex education, and the respected congressman said (something similar to) the following:

"Isn't it rather elitist to presume that the supposed experts and professionals who have studied this matter know how to teach our kids better than our parents?"

I sat stunned that someone would spout this off on national TV as an elected official of what is supposed to be the greatest country on earth.

It comes down to "Isn't it elitist to think that the people who are admittedly smarter than us know how to do things better?"

The answer of course is FUCK YES AND ITS A GODDAMN GOOD THING.

Do you think your doctor knows how to take care of you better than you? You better hope so. Do you think the people you vote for know how to run things better tan you? I hope so, or why are you voting for them.

Elitism is not an inherently bad thing, especially if there are reasons behind it. For example, Abstinence Education has wasted 1.3 Billion dollars on something that the experts said wouldn't work, and lo and behold, it didn't work. Experts are called experts for a reason, they have specialized to the point where they are, in fact, better than you, at least where it comes to their area of expertise, be it your body, your kids, the environment.

Still, this is only the 2nd stupidest thing I've heard a member of our government say today.

Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia did an interview where he was asked if torture fell under "cruel or unusual punishment." I saw this and expected... well, something about the changing times, or how its necessary, or some other bullshit he's concocted in order to live with himself. Instead, he sat and thought, and looked up and said "Well, has anyone ever said torture is punishment?" Torture isn't punishment? Torture isn't punishment?! It may be cruel and unusual, but its not protected under our constitution because it isn't punishment!? I'd never even considered that someone might believe that torture isn't punishment. How is it not punishment? They've been bad or been planning something bad, and so you hurt them! Thats what punishment is, ask any third grader.

There should be a third grader on the supreme court, he can't cast a vote on anything, he would only be on for a few years, but if any of the justices utter something so stupid that even the third grader says "WTF!?" the third grader gets to kick that justice off the court.

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Insight

nobody@vox.com(Mikell311) — Fri, 25 Apr 2008 20:10:06 -0500

On a slightly related note, I think I kinda save up all my anger and aggression, because I'm of the view that 90% of the time, its not worth getting worked up over, but eventually I reach a point where it starts spilling out and getting so worked up over something rather insignificant is the result. I'm still not backing down over the whole "remember your keys" thing, but its nice to know how my mind works in cases like this.

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Roommate Issues

nobody@vox.com(Mikell311) — Fri, 25 Apr 2008 20:07:17 -0500

So currently I have the douchebag roommate (freshman) and two cool roommates (juniors like me). Well one of them, the Irish one, and I got in a little spat due to last night. Heres the scoop.

He goes out around 10 with his friend after Lost and getting all dressed up.
He drunk dials me around 2 as its pouring out and he's looking for a way home, I tell him to call a cab, and we hang up. I remember something and immediately text him "You better not have forgot your fucking keys again..."
He texts me around 2.30 "Whats the number for XXXXX cab?" I wake up, get out of bed, go to my computer to look it up and send the number to him.
At 3.00 I get woken up again by pounding on the front door. He fucking forgot his keys again. So I go and let him in, but I'm angry.

FLASHBACK:
In the past, I've answered his calls/texts for the exact same cab number 3 times.
In the past, I've been woken up by his loud knocking (I'm the only one on the ground level) because he forgot his keys 4 times.

Now I'm usually pretty easy going, most things just aren't worth getting upset over, but he woke me up 3 times last night for things he shouldn't have needed. I don't get angry often, but I was angry.

SO I calmly told him that if he asks me for that cab number again, I'm not giving it to him, so he should put it in his phone, and that if he locks himself out again and I'm asleep, I'm not opening the door for him. He kinda freaks out and starts talking louder and faster, trying to tell me to man up and accept it, that it was an accident, trying to argue me out of it, I just kept on telling him that I wasn't going to let him in, that remembering your keys isn't that hard.

Personally I think he purposely leaves them behind, as he doesn't like carrying them around. He usually doesn't forget stuff, and the only times I've ever had to let him in has been when he's been out drinking.

And asking him to remember it isn't really all that much, May 19th he's leaving to study abroad in Ireland for the summer, and he won't be going out much with exams coming up, so basically I'm telling him "If you can't remember to take your keys with you when you go out (possibly 3 times?) for the next few weeks, you get to sleep outside."

I don't think he thinks I'm serious. I deal with the bills, with the landlord, I lent my TV for the main room where everyone else has their own, I run the router and do tech support, I keep the common areas vacuumed, I rarely use the common trash and dishes, but I still take it out and empty the dishwasher. I go out to the bars with people when they need it, even if i have other stuff to do or would like to stay home, I'm the one who listens when people bitch about their day or about a test, or when they're in an academic mood and want to talk about the line of scottish kings for half an hour (who cares?). I help them with math and science homework, I listen to their women troubles, I walk with them to the liquor store so they don't have to walk alone, but I'll be damned if I'm gonna back down on this.

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Vox Posts - Putting images in

nobody@vox.com(Mikell311) — Tue, 22 Apr 2008 20:37:44 -0500

So I went away for awhile and now am back and it appears that the posting page has changed quite a bit. I'm using a decked out version of the Firefox 3 Beta Release 5 right now, so that might have something to do with it, but I'm getting pissed trying to put pictures in my posts.

In my post on the primary in Penn. I had a few pictures of the website to go with the rants, but I would try to insert them when I reached the appropriate place while typing. So I would upload it, insert it, but instead of going where my cursor was, it would get put at the top of the post. wtf vox?

So after writing a nice long (better) post on the primary and how the news handles them, I tried to insert the pictures and drag them around to the appropriate place. Well that just fucked things up. The non-expanding writing box here is too small to drag them to the right place in one try, and I somehow ended up dragging a copy of the picture out its little presentation box and have it sit directly amidst the text, complete with word-wrap and resizing tabs, which I'VE never seen before. Is that something new?

Anyways, I deleted those copies and continued my attempts to drag them to the right spot, but I accidentally double clicked one. Well that turned the text entry area into what appeared to be a whole new browsing window, as it opened up as if one clicked the picture on my actual blog.

I clicked in it and hit backspace to perform a "Back" function, and yeah, all I had wrote was lost. ARGH!

That contributed to the angry tone in the post, whoops.

Anyone else have anything like this happen or is it just me and my oddly modded system here?

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Pennsylvania Primary

nobody@vox.com(Mikell311) — Tue, 22 Apr 2008 20:28:44 -0500

The media's coverage of primaries is just horrible.

First they tell have this big countdown timer on the screen to tell us when the poll closes. As if thats important, because when the polls close, no one knows anything. All you have is questions asked of people as they leave, and nothing is making those people tell the truth about how they voted. If someone asked me I'd lie and tell them to go fuck themselves because "Exit Polls" are the biggest waste of our time right after wondering if Obama scratching his face on the ABC debate was his subtle way of giving Clinton the finger.

Then they get the first batch of results in. How many votes in the first batch? Twenty five hundred. 2500. Approximatly 0% of Pennsylvania has reported in. Hillary was winning 67% to 33% at 2500 votes. Twenty five hundred votes reported and this is "breaking news." Twenty five hundred votes mean nothing. You can't call a winner, you can't even tell if someone stands a good chance of winning. I could get 2500 students to vote for Jesus this fall as a gag, is anyone going to report this as breaking news and say "Jesus currently in the lead, but its too early to tell, way too early to tell,"?

They get the second batch of results in. Now they're at three percent of all of Pennsylvania, with Hillary at 55% and Obama at 45%. A little better, thats enough to make a "breaking news" headline, but what do those sensationalizing bastards do? With three percent (3%) of the vote in, they call a winner. "BREAKING NEWS: HILLARY PROJECTED AS WINNER!" You know what you can do with 3% of the vote in? You can say "Three percent of the vote is in." End of story. Calling a winner with three percent of the vote in is the equivalent of me looking at a few square inches of skin on the untouched backside of a burn victim and determing that the person is in perfect health. I don't care that Hillary had been polling well, we know that doesn't matter, just ask John Kerry.

Now they've gotten like the sixth batch of results in, they're at 13% of the districts reporting, and I am laughing. Hillary stands at 52% and Obama at 48%. Apparently someone realized that "Hey, this race is closer than we thought, lets not project a winner this early and be wrong later," because they took down the "Breaking News: Hillary Projected as Winner!" banner.

Personally, as long as its a close race, I'm happy. Obama is in the lead right now, and even if the rest of the race is split 50-50 in who gets what, Obama still comes out on top, which is what I want.

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New Camera

nobody@vox.com(Mikell311) — Tue, 22 Apr 2008 01:21:04 -0500

My new camera shipped today! My old one's shutter broke, but I waited till I had some birthday money, and did some research. I really only wanted a point and shoot camera that took some decent pictures and could fit in my pocket. After some research, and price comparisons, I ended up picking this baby:

30-120-196-TS

The Canon Powershot SD750 Silver. I even paid for 2nd day shipping, so within the next couple days!

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