The year in review

Yesterday, james andrew and i went snowboarding. It was a lot of fun. I had planned on going more this year... I haven't been in a minute. Yesterday was my first time out this winter, but it's still early in the winter. Nothing too eventful happened. We're all still alive.

That's pretty much all i can think of that happened in the double oh five.

A good year then, i suppose. for more on the year, see cousin andrew's blog. he's better at sumarizing years.

The Book's Cover

I try not to judge people as best as i can.. or rather i try to think that i try not to judge people often. In fact, i judge people quite a bit. And although perhaps it's not my right, i think it's relatively helpful.
People tend to think these days that all forms of judgement of others based on any one critereon are bad. I would disagree. Indeed prejudices are wrong, but according to Mr. Webster, a prejudice is an adverse opinion or leaning formed without just grounds. And indeed any judgement of this type is as least potentially dangerous.
Counterpoint: (counter example, maybe) let's suppose a high school teacher is looking to get a student to grade papers for other classes. Suppose it's well known that the stoners at school tend to stick together and get in trouble often, and may be considered untrustworthy. Now suppose a teacher(or anyone) could tell with roughly 75% acuracy if someone were a stoner by the way he/she dress. In that case, would it be wrong for the teacher to rule out any students who look like they may be a stoner as candidates for teacher's aids? I say certainly not! Granted, i cant prove that the other students are more honest. One couldnt prove that should someone dress like a pot head that they too are a pot head. One couldnt even prove that if one were a pothead, then he/she would be untrustworthy. And yet, i still think it perfectly fair to rule out these students, because there are higher odds of choosing an untrustworthy student, if the teacher should pick someone who dresses like a pot head. Perhaps the odds are only slightly higher, and i'm not saying as a rule the teacher should not pick one of those students. I think that would be unjust. What i am saying is that i would not pick one of those students, because i like having the odds on my side.
That's basically just the reason i feel it's okay to judge people and why i tihnk it makes things easier, and has very little to with what it is on which i wanted to post.
I think you very often can tell a lot about people by a few details. You can see a lot by the way someone dresses, or by their taste in music, or a number of other things. We all know that though.
I'd like to point out that you can tell a lot about people by the way they manage their windshield wipers in rain and their windows when it's not raining(or if it is, i suppose). You can easily tell that someone is arrogant when their window is down lower than the window on the otherside. You can tell the person is just too weak if the other window is open more. If one window is open and one is not, you can tell that person is just tasteless.
Similarly, when you see people driving around with their windshield wipers going full speed after the rain has mostly settled, you can tell that person is either a control freak or just a bit to anal about certain things. Perhaps it actually means they are just too indifferent. Very rarely do you see someone with their windshield wipers too slow, so i'm not sure what that means. All i do know is it's just embarrassing driving with your windshield wipers faster than they need to be.
I guess the only morals of the story are that: 1) it's okay to judge someone if you're pretty confident you're increasing your chances for success, and 2) that it makes you look dorky when your windshield wipers are like hellafaster than the rain, and 3) i'm not sure how much of that i believe. I at least half way believe both of the aforementioned reasons.

A day in the life of a Best Buy merch employee

So i'm at work and we're putting up the ad for this next week, right. We get there at six am, and then we sort out all these signs and then put them up. The entire process only takes a couple hours, but that's irrelivant. So i'm putting up these signs, right, and i find this one allarious one. I think i kinda giggled audibly.


That brings us to this weeks supEr fun trivia question: Why did nick think this sign was allarious?
note: the prize will prolly be like mention in my next blog entry, and it will go to either james or thomas, whichever gets here first. whatever.

Christmas

We got together with mom's family last night and then dad's family today. A merry time was had by all. On christmas eve, i happened to snap a few candid shots of my cousin Christina. Apparently, she answers phones, so if you tell her that it's for her, she'll answer it. She doesnt know my name, and i don't think she likes me, but i got teresa to tell her it was for her, and got a few cute photos nonetheless.

Digg got owned

check it. so then this guy takes advantage of dig and posts a ton of comments on a ton of stories and what not, and they each link to his blog. Apparently the digg kiddies were quite mad, but i think it was hilarious, and he did it in as classy a manner as he could.
This brings up an issue though: the war between digg and slashdot. It's funny because this is a war only fought bu the diggers. (this is the same as the digg/shoutwire conflict) Noone on slashdot complains about digg or bashes digg. They really shouldnt be considered directly competing websites at all. The supporters of digg are so cocky and sure that they're perfect. Granted slashdot isnt perfect, and granted i like Digg a whole lot too. Let me explain what i think needs to happen:
Slashdot doesnt need to change much. They do as good a job they can to put up to date news when they get it. It might seem like if slashdot made their story promotions work like digg, it would be great. no, then it would be digg. One of the biggest problems with digg is that there are tons of things that people think are cool that aren't worth being on the front page of a news website. How many photoshop tutorials must we see everyday, or neat tricks flash. A lot of these things are interesting sometimes, but dont put them on the front page of news. Perhaps have a seperate page for 'cool links if you're bored' or 'tutorials.' And leave the front page for news.
The other huge problem is that digg allows anyone to comment. (the least they could do is have a captcha to avoid some of the spam) but that's not even what i'm talking about. If you want to read the comments on a story, you see 50 people saying "cool. digg++" or "old story no digg."
No one wants to see that. That's why they have the digg button. That should say whether or not you like it.
The point is digg absolutely needs a comment moderation system (i know they have one but it sucks) no one uses it. Slashdot has a great one, and it works. They label posts as funny or intelligent or helpful, et cetera. Not everyone can do this though. Mod poins are given out randomly and allow people to moderate. Perhaps diggers should earn mod points by digging other stories. I dont know how it would work, but that's why i dont code for digg. At any rate, I can't stand looking at the comments on digg stories anymore, and until they fix it, that and a few other things will be keeping digg at the level of 'An okay site to find some cool articles' and i'll be getting my news elsewhere.

Google gone evil!?!?

I'm glad the internet community likes to freagout about stuff for no reason. I'm sure you've seen the story about Google purchasing more stake in AOL. Apparently, this goes against everything google is about. They have finally crossed the line in their 'do no evil' policy. On the contrary, this is a great deal, and i'm very happy about it.

Two good things:
First, (this has been seen as a bad thing by others btw): google will be giving AOL's videos high priority in their searches. I think this is just what google video needs, actually. For those of us who use winamp video, we know AOL's video service is great. It's got a bunch of music videos and behind the scenes things with singers, and i like it a lot. One bad thing is that it introduced video ads to winamp before you watch the videos. I'm hoping google doesnt do the same, which i have a feeling they won't. If they do it though without ruining it with ads, It will have been a great change.

The other change is interoperability between google talk and AIM users. I'm not sure yet how that's gonna work.. if it will just let you log onto the AIM network in google talk, or what. I cant imagine they'd be combining networks, but that would be nice. More likely just add the abilty for google talk users to talk on the AIM network, but that works for me. I know longer have to use AIM because my less cool friends refuse to get with it. xD

Finals are over

Well, finals are over, and i have a bit more time now. I haven't bogged much recently, which is lame, because i've had a lot to blog about.

This is a few days old by now, but none the less hilarious. Nancy Pelosi has announced that democrats will not have one stance in the 2006 elections on the war in Iraq. This is not a sign of weakness though, it provides unity. There is no one right stance, they are all right in there own way, i suppose. They do, however, agree that the president is going about it the wrong way, but they each have their own solution.
Perhaps we remember that this is a change from the 2004 elections, during which democrats were strongly against the war. Heck, this is quite a change from a few months ago. Perhaps this is because democrats used to be strongly against the war, but they're beginning to see that their wrong. If you read my last post on iraq, you'll understand what i mean. Just after the elections in Iraq, which went incredibly well, the democrats have no stance on the war!
This is just like democrats too. Democrats tend to argue based on what is wrong with something, rather than giving a better solution. If you ask for one, well they don't have it, but the GOP has it all wrong. Or they dont know how to fight a war... but you gotta have a plan! and George w. has no plan. How often have we heard that there is no plan? maybe you dont know the plan. maybe i don't know the plan. There is a plan. Our president is doing his job to protect his country, and he is doing quite a fine job. He obviously has had a plan for this war, and is carrying out, but i think that's at not worth arguing. If a liberal would like to argue that, he had best give up on politics for a bit and take to football.
The point is now democrats know they're wrong, it has been proven in Iraq and so they change their stance.
That brings me to my next point. Democrats and liberals tend to be the people who don't follor politics much. The masses who have no idea what the hell they're talking about tend to be liberals. If you don't believe it, just read digg or slashdot when there is a story about politics.
Everyone flames the president. They just complain about everything, and there is no fact involved. Occasionally, someone will defend the truth and give coherent facts, but in general it's just the boneheads talking out of their rear ends.
A decent example of this can be seen in news regarding the Patriot Act. Not manye people know what it means, but _very_ many know that it takes away the freedom of americans.
How does it take away our freedoms, one might ask? people tend not to understand that the patriot act doesnt mean that the government can just spy on anyone they want. it's not 1984 just yet, hang in there. Actually, for the vast majority of us, the Patriot act will not affect us at all, except of course perhaps by saving a few lives here and there.
For example, I guess people are pretty upset that bush allowed the gov't to spy on some people. Actually plenty of americans, namely John Kerry apparently think that Bush should be impeached. Hah! i have begun to chortle. Here's a link to that story though. I wonder if the people complain realize that in order for the gov't to be able to tap your line and listen in, not only do they need probable cause for terrorist activity, but at least one of the contacts must be overseas, and the american is a known al-qaeda contact. That's quite far from what most people think. At least that's what i gather from reading the responses people give on the internets.

Anyhow, i'm quite confident that the democratic party is falling apart. It makes me feel good, sorta. It consists of two or three types of people: those who don't understand what they think they believe, but are influenced by the media to hate the country, and are thus democrats. Those who wouldn't be democrats, except that they side with one or two issues, namely gay marriage or being againg the iraq war(but near the end of '06, that group should be thinning.) And then those who think that they have to be democrats because their parents are/were and they're just stuck voting democrat because they think it's still right. The democrat is for the american working man. Hah! i've begun to chortle again. Look up walmart and and the unions in new york. I'm glad the working man has the democrats to help him (read:screw him in the ass). That group too though should be thinning too... ggnore, democrats.


I'm still chortling about john kerry impeaching george bush. He couldnt beat him in a real election, even without cheating, but perhaps he can impeach him.

Explains a lot.

I couldnt believe this candid photo i found on the internet, but i guess it explains a lot.




Disclaimer: the image i used in making that was from http://www.sbnbs.com/ and was used with out permission. Copyright ©1996-2005 Stephanie D. Lostimolo. All rights reserved

Winning Iraq

I just watched a program on TV called "Winning Iraq: The Untold Story." I wish i had taped it, or that i knew a way to show it to other people. It was a very good show and it seems it would be hard for anyone who watched it to not support the war in iraq.

I guess i'll do my best to sum up a few of the points i can remember. Actually, i'll just sort of recap the whole thing: It showed a lot of footage of people in iraq and how they're living now. People are better off now, and they're free to do what they want. Many normal, average people were interviewed and they were do thankful that we're there currently, and they know we'll be gone when the time is right.
In an interview, one man was asked how he feels about the attitude in america that we need to pull out. He said that they're not ready for us to leave yet. The reporter asked when he thought we woudl be pulling out. The man said (not exact quote, but as best as i remember): "They will be here long enough to get us to the point where we are completely stable alone, and then when we dont need them anymore, we'll say good bye to our american friends."

But how can this be, since all we see on the media is about violence and bombing? you might ask.
I think it's fair to say the american media hasn't been completely fair about all of this. Here are some of the things you may not have seen on the media: Iraq has a very active stock market now, and although it's nowhere near the size of like the NYSE, it's doing very well and is set to grow at about 16% anually.(the US is supposed to average 12% in a good year)
Iraq has reality shows. One in particular is about houses that have been devastated by terrorists, and it's a makeover show, where they rebuild the entire house. Another reality show has people who were actually arrested for terrorism and they are confessing that what they did was cowardly and that it's a losing life style. Perhaps that doesnt sound like a big deal to us, but it's huge there. The network that saddam used to run now it mostly shows of normal people living good lives. Once again, this kind of thing seems small to us, but it's monumental to them. There are over thirty television networks now, and over 75 radio stations. I'm sure you all remember a bit back the story about the simpsons being ported to arabic.
I also found this interesting: there's this guy in iraq. twenty/thirty years ago, he was living in the mountains and fighting against the iraqi army. (not random terrorists, but the national army) now, he's living in his home, and is quite well off. He has plans to build a new hotel, which will be the state's first five star hotel. It has a movie theatre, a shopping mall and a bunch load of condominiums(i forget the number) anyhow, it's huge and it's gonna be completed in the next few years. The cherry on top: he's building it directly where saddam would be building himself a palace, were he still in charge.
Also, now there are cell phone towers, and people are allowed to carry cell phones, which was absolutely forbidden under saddam. Actually, cell phones are becoming extremely popular there, and are the first things many people are saving up to buy.
Oh one last thing: the guy doing the show exposing terrorists only has one hand, because the other was cut off by saddam, who video taped the event to show others what would happen to people like him. He's doing quite a good job getting back at saddam though, i'd say and more power to him.
Other thing: there is a town that has been almost uninhabited for years now. saddam killed 10,000 people there and deported hundreds of thousands of others. Now people are returning, some being gone for a decade or more to live in their home town. I think that's pretty good news too.
Are we winning the war in iraq? I guess that's for you to decide(or rather whatever you decide is what you'll wholeheartedly believe so it may not be worth arguing with you, should you disagree) but personally, i agree with the iraqi people that we're doing the right thing and that we'll be there as long as we're needed, and when we do leave, iraq will be better for it.

I strongly recommend trying to see that segment though if you get the opportunity. I'm sure they'll be replaying it. I prolly missed a lot of things, and it's a good watch.

Also, i won 20 bucks playing poker tonight. elite.

Cow Tipping

I just lost my plans for the weekend, as this article explains why cow tipping is actaully a near impossibility. Although if you read, it would be quite possible with 3-4 people. If anyone's interested...

Survey

Take this here survey. It's a good survey, plus it's for andrew's class. If you're too lazy to take it, and would just like the results, they are as follows:

The most commonly asked, completely pointless question is "if you could eat just one food for every meal for the rest of your life, what would it be?"

95% of people worth talking to support the GOP.

A finity percent of people are fans of nick podges.

note: these results have nothing to do with andrew's survey, but are acurate, as far as i can tell.

College Stuffs

So anyhow, i had quite a bit of homework to do tonight. I had an essay to write for each of my two english classes, and a test to study for in two of my other classes. I guess i'm a bit of a procrastinator as it is, but i wasnt that worried about it. I try not to let myself get worked up over such things. Anyhow, by like ten PM, i was thinking about starting, and i had gotten quite worked up. Through conversation with thomas, i found out that one of the tests is in fact next week, and one of the essays is also due next week. I felt as if i had suddenly finished half of my workload for the night, and i was down to a normal night's work load. Julia and Aaron were watching a movie, so i went upstairs to study calc, and then i'd write the essay later.
It's sorta become a custom of mine that i drink tea at like midnight if i've got to be up late. Unlike coffee, you can make tea 5 times as strong my just adding more tea packets. (or at least it's unlike coffee in that the taste is still bearable) I lost my normal green tea though, so i made some jasmine tea, i think. I thought all tea was caffeinated unless otherwise specified, but now i'm begining to wonder. I certainly don't feel as energized as i'm used to...
At any rate though, i'm gonna write this here essay and hopefully get to bed early tonight.
I've gotta get up early. Tomorrow's a holy day of obligation, you know!

Do not be alarmed.

I know most of you are quite worried because of how long it's been since my last post. I forgot to mention it before i left, but i just got back from our european tour today. I'm real sorry about that, and normal posting should resume. Hopefully, i'll be posting some pictures of the tour too.