August 29, 2002
I would have updated my blog earlier but I've been busy. extremely busy. Today is thursday, the 4th day of the first week of class. I have been under a lot of stress lately. I don't have classes on Mondays, or Wednsdays. I have only one class on Fridays. My last class for today is in around 20 min. My Friday class is canceled this week (it's a recitation). I'm looking forward to the almost 4 day weekend. I have to open at work tomorrow. I'm not looking forward to that but it keeps me alive. I've been strongly considering getting a cell phone. They're @!$@%ing expencive. even the ones I can get through the school on a discount are high. The campus telecommunications office had a booth in the Union today. I talked to the bimbo behind it and she was well uninformative. One thing she did tell me is that she's never seen a single person order text messageing for their phone. I was a bit surprised. What the f@#% is the wrong with the text messaging? other than the fact that it's horribly overpriced around here. I'm not sure if the lack of demand causes the high price or if it's the other way around... what I realy want though is one of those PDAs with a built in phone.. that'd be cool... I'd blog more but I need to get a good seat in my next class...
August 09, 2002
I now know what keeps the winos and bums in the student union. People give them stuff.. There is one guy that's always hanging around the union... he wears a hat, a t-shirt and some kind of vest or jacket. He has an fairly large and unkept beard. Hes sitting across the study area from me right now. He seems to have some kind of mental and/or physical dysfunction. There are times when he seems to have trouble controlling his arms. The movements are similar to those of a person with turrets syndrome. I suppose he's unable to find a job or keep a job as a result of this.. however I wonder where he came from. I mean he wasn't born on the street... he came from somewhere. Is he a wino? is he lazy? I can't really tell. Is he mentally ill? I have no way to be sure. Do I feel sorry for him? no not really. I think that some people do though. I'm sitting here in the union killing time before I have to go to work.. The bum I've been describing has been sitting across from me for around 20 or 30 minutes.. (I haven't paid attention really) A guy in a yellow-ish polo shirt and khakis walked over to the bum. and placed a bottle of juice, a sandwich and a cookie where the man was sitting, and gave him a double "thumbs up". I did not notice any response of expression from the bum.. (I couldn't see the bums face so it's hard to say how he reacted) The food items were obviously just purchased at "The Bakery" The guy didn't look like a student, nor do I belive I've seen him before.. so he's most likely a visitor of some kind. I think that his charity is commendable but ..it will do the bum no good in the long run, in fact it will only encourage him to stay in the union. In the last 4 years that I've been here at the university the bum problem has really gone down. When I was a freshman it was a serious issue.. bums would hassle students for money, and fight with students and other bums. In addition their uncleanliness made the union unappealing (I'm talking about their smell and the messes they;ve made.. not their appearance) They cracked down on the bums and now theres really only the one that's still here. He seems harmless.. and I've never seen him harass or even talk to another person
.. I'm trying my darndest to observe this guy without staring.. I have my digital camera with me.. I discreetly took a picture.. if a few minutes I'll stop by the CoeLab and upload one to my server, and add it to this post. I find it interesting... I'm not big on material things.,. but having useful tools makes me happy. having a web server, a digital camera, access to the internet, blogger, all of these are tools.. all of these things help me to be content with life. I wonder what I'd give up and what I'd want to keep. I wonder if the bum I've just mentioned is content with life.. or happy. I don't think he wants any thing.. if he did he'd go after it. What things are important to me? I'm not sure I know. I get up, I go to class, I go to work .. I go to bed. There are some things that I would not want to loose. The internet for one.. and electricity.. mostly because non face to face communication relies on it (for me anyway). The more I think about it the more I think that the reason that tools allow me to be content with life is because a properly used tool becomes an extension of yourself. No matter what form that tool is in.. be it an algorithm, a piece of software, something electronic, or something simple like a screwdriver. When I have and use a tool I'm improving myself. I'm allowing myself to do more than I could have. Some of my favorite tools are those that allow me to express myself and allow me to communicate with greater efficiency. Computers, blogger, a camera, ASL.. all of these are tools.
Back to the bum across from me... he just had one of his, for lack of a better term, spasms. Whatever his condition, be it physical, mental or both, it clearly controls him at times. He has been slowly eating the food that was given to him. This man is not free. He can go where he wants, he can sleep where he wants, but he is not free. he has few tools, a free lunch is not a tool. I wonder if this man is aware that he is not free. I wonder if he wants to be free. By saying he is not free I mean that he is in many ways reliant on others. Dependant on others for food, for shelter, for escape from the heat or cold. Only with the right tools (abstract or concrete) can one regain such things when they are lost. It's like the old saying "Give a man a fish, you feed him for a day, teach a man to fish and you feed him for life."
Update: Server is back up!!
.. I'm trying my darndest to observe this guy without staring.. I have my digital camera with me.. I discreetly took a picture.. if a few minutes I'll stop by the CoeLab and upload one to my server, and add it to this post. I find it interesting... I'm not big on material things.,. but having useful tools makes me happy. having a web server, a digital camera, access to the internet, blogger, all of these are tools.. all of these things help me to be content with life. I wonder what I'd give up and what I'd want to keep. I wonder if the bum I've just mentioned is content with life.. or happy. I don't think he wants any thing.. if he did he'd go after it. What things are important to me? I'm not sure I know. I get up, I go to class, I go to work .. I go to bed. There are some things that I would not want to loose. The internet for one.. and electricity.. mostly because non face to face communication relies on it (for me anyway). The more I think about it the more I think that the reason that tools allow me to be content with life is because a properly used tool becomes an extension of yourself. No matter what form that tool is in.. be it an algorithm, a piece of software, something electronic, or something simple like a screwdriver. When I have and use a tool I'm improving myself. I'm allowing myself to do more than I could have. Some of my favorite tools are those that allow me to express myself and allow me to communicate with greater efficiency. Computers, blogger, a camera, ASL.. all of these are tools.
Back to the bum across from me... he just had one of his, for lack of a better term, spasms. Whatever his condition, be it physical, mental or both, it clearly controls him at times. He has been slowly eating the food that was given to him. This man is not free. He can go where he wants, he can sleep where he wants, but he is not free. he has few tools, a free lunch is not a tool. I wonder if this man is aware that he is not free. I wonder if he wants to be free. By saying he is not free I mean that he is in many ways reliant on others. Dependant on others for food, for shelter, for escape from the heat or cold. Only with the right tools (abstract or concrete) can one regain such things when they are lost. It's like the old saying "Give a man a fish, you feed him for a day, teach a man to fish and you feed him for life."
Update: Server is back up!!
August 08, 2002
what a week this has been... I'm so happy it's thursday.. pay day... the day before friday... I need sleep... I need something to drink.. ugh I hate working behind the desk for 3 whole hours by myself.. I'm so stressed out and I'm not sure why..
I didn't do as well as I had hoped on that speech... apparently I put my hand in my pocket while I was giving the speech.. I was unaware I had done that.. I guess I did ok considering I wrote 90% of it the morning that I gave it. I'm ready for that class to be over.. unfortunately there are 5 more days of class. bleah. There is no final exam though.. I'm happy about that.
At work today a tech outsourced by Dell came and replaced the motherboard in one of the notebooks we have here. This notebook is used in a classroom.. so it can be moved but it's still tethered to a desk. The odd thing is that it would only sort of work for a while.. half the time it would.. half the time it wouldn't.. then while trying to see what the problem was it stopped working.. (um I should clarify. it'd POST but half way through loading win2k we'd get this odd disk error.. the original problem was that the thing couldn't' find the drive at all .. it was odd) anyway it seems to be working now . but the other odd thing is that this is the 2nd time we've replaced the motherboard in this machine.
In more personal things... I may have mentioned that consonants are the first to go... well today.. I discovered that as far as on the phone.. they're F@$%ing gone. I felt a very odd feeling today.. it was part despair.. part humiliation.. and part.. frustration. a very odd feeling... life is not fun.... speaking of not having fun.. I talked to an old high school buddy last night... he's living at home.. has a cushy part time job... and goes out clubbing 4nights a week.. and he's dating a hooters girl, who, according to him has won multiple wet t-shirt contests at said clubs. He's not going to school either.. yeah maybe his life lacks substance.. but.. he's having the time of his life.. I wonder how the hell he has the ability to loose weight so quickly.. I mean he's kinda short..and weighed around 300 lbs last time I saw him.. he's back down to like 230 or something like that.. makes me sick. I think the drugs he's taking have something to do with it (they're prescription ones not illegal, I seriously doubt he's smoking pot. considering the type of drugs he's on)
I didn't do as well as I had hoped on that speech... apparently I put my hand in my pocket while I was giving the speech.. I was unaware I had done that.. I guess I did ok considering I wrote 90% of it the morning that I gave it. I'm ready for that class to be over.. unfortunately there are 5 more days of class. bleah. There is no final exam though.. I'm happy about that.
At work today a tech outsourced by Dell came and replaced the motherboard in one of the notebooks we have here. This notebook is used in a classroom.. so it can be moved but it's still tethered to a desk. The odd thing is that it would only sort of work for a while.. half the time it would.. half the time it wouldn't.. then while trying to see what the problem was it stopped working.. (um I should clarify. it'd POST but half way through loading win2k we'd get this odd disk error.. the original problem was that the thing couldn't' find the drive at all .. it was odd) anyway it seems to be working now . but the other odd thing is that this is the 2nd time we've replaced the motherboard in this machine.
In more personal things... I may have mentioned that consonants are the first to go... well today.. I discovered that as far as on the phone.. they're F@$%ing gone. I felt a very odd feeling today.. it was part despair.. part humiliation.. and part.. frustration. a very odd feeling... life is not fun.... speaking of not having fun.. I talked to an old high school buddy last night... he's living at home.. has a cushy part time job... and goes out clubbing 4nights a week.. and he's dating a hooters girl, who, according to him has won multiple wet t-shirt contests at said clubs. He's not going to school either.. yeah maybe his life lacks substance.. but.. he's having the time of his life.. I wonder how the hell he has the ability to loose weight so quickly.. I mean he's kinda short..and weighed around 300 lbs last time I saw him.. he's back down to like 230 or something like that.. makes me sick. I think the drugs he's taking have something to do with it (they're prescription ones not illegal, I seriously doubt he's smoking pot. considering the type of drugs he's on)
August 05, 2002
I gave a speech today... My topic was Computer Virus Contoll
As promised here is he information:
McAfee Anti-virus (mcafee.com)
http://software.unl.edu
I also mentioned disableing the "rollback" feature of MS Windows ME or later.. The offical name Mircosoft gives that is "System Restore" Those of you who have had a virus like Nimda or Klez may be aware that you need to disable this to fully remove the virus. As I mentioned in my speech disableing this (or at least knowing how) is a way to prevent infected files from being backed up. Directions to do this can be found via McAfee here. (please note that I am not responcible for any damagaes occurd by trying to configure your computer. This is a helpfull hint you can use in addition to good anti-virus habbits) Wether or not you choose to disable system restore, its still a good idea to shell out a few bucks and buy a nice data backup system. there are many ways of doing this. you can buy a program like Norton Ghost which will allow you to back up your entire hard drive to another disk or CDRW disks. If you have "system recovery" disks that came with your computer, keep this in a safe place. should a virus wipe out system files rendering your computer inoperable you will need these to get up and running again. Also if you have such disks it's not nessicary to back up all of your system files if you're not worried about loosing your settings.. like desktop preferences. You will still need to back up your data however. Invest in a CDRW drive. You can get a good one for $50 - $100. if you don't have one allready.
Disableing system restore is a bit extreme for most people. Disableing marcos and HTML is not. As I menoned in my speech there are too many different e-mail programs to list here. If you only use web based e-mail you should be ok. Hotmail for example scans all atachments. Unfortuately web based e-mail is not the answer for all of us, and I'm not ready to put all of my trust into it.
I think this post is long enough so if any of you have questions just ask.
As promised here is he information:
McAfee Anti-virus (mcafee.com)
http://software.unl.edu
I also mentioned disableing the "rollback" feature of MS Windows ME or later.. The offical name Mircosoft gives that is "System Restore" Those of you who have had a virus like Nimda or Klez may be aware that you need to disable this to fully remove the virus. As I mentioned in my speech disableing this (or at least knowing how) is a way to prevent infected files from being backed up. Directions to do this can be found via McAfee here. (please note that I am not responcible for any damagaes occurd by trying to configure your computer. This is a helpfull hint you can use in addition to good anti-virus habbits) Wether or not you choose to disable system restore, its still a good idea to shell out a few bucks and buy a nice data backup system. there are many ways of doing this. you can buy a program like Norton Ghost which will allow you to back up your entire hard drive to another disk or CDRW disks. If you have "system recovery" disks that came with your computer, keep this in a safe place. should a virus wipe out system files rendering your computer inoperable you will need these to get up and running again. Also if you have such disks it's not nessicary to back up all of your system files if you're not worried about loosing your settings.. like desktop preferences. You will still need to back up your data however. Invest in a CDRW drive. You can get a good one for $50 - $100. if you don't have one allready.
Disableing system restore is a bit extreme for most people. Disableing marcos and HTML is not. As I menoned in my speech there are too many different e-mail programs to list here. If you only use web based e-mail you should be ok. Hotmail for example scans all atachments. Unfortuately web based e-mail is not the answer for all of us, and I'm not ready to put all of my trust into it.
I think this post is long enough so if any of you have questions just ask.
August 02, 2002
Wow .. nearly a week since I last updated my blog.... not a lot has been going on.
I've been busy with my class and work.... I had lunch with my friend Amy today... She told me about a sort of community get together/camping trip taking place at a nearby lake next weekend.. I don't think I'll go but I'll keep it in mind the next time something like this comes up.
I've been busy with my class and work.... I had lunch with my friend Amy today... She told me about a sort of community get together/camping trip taking place at a nearby lake next weekend.. I don't think I'll go but I'll keep it in mind the next time something like this comes up.
