Category Archives: Rant

Rants, self explanatory

Personal, Rant

“n0 P0litiks P1z, kthx”

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So today… I was subject to a racial slur. I found it humorous, as the slur was chased with a foolish statement which negated the ire in his words. So I will paraphrase the exchange before I go into my rant…

Wacky Headcase (WH): “omgz! This country’s going to Hell! America’s lost it’s tradition!!!”
Student Instructor (SI): “Settle down… This is a MATH class, not government!”
WH: “Fucking Obama’s the Anti-Christ!”
SI: “There will be no political discussion on Friday… if you all even make the slightest thought, I will kick you out!”
WH: “This is bullshit! You’re obstructing my right to the first amendment!”
Zero: “School’s a fascist system, DEAL WITH IT!”
WH: “It’s people like you that are dragging our country to hell, you Chink! Go back to your own country!”
Zero: “I’m sorry, I was born in DALLAS! This is my country! If you think our country is going to hell… Live in another country and maybe you’ll understand what they go through!”

I mean, I will stand up and fight for a person’s right to say anything they want in the proper forum. I am a believer of Voltaire’s most beautiful quote: “I do not agree with what you have to say, but I’ll defend to the death your right to say it.” The only condition is… I will do it in the right forum and right place. I also feel using racial slurs, name calling, or generally lacking an open mind is down right childish. Personally I feel that school is not the place, save a government or debate class… School is a home of learning and fortitude.

Anyhow, with trying to use philosophical points with this coddy applejohn… It reminds me why I HATE talking politics with people. It leads to childish arguments and well it generally upsets a lot of people. The fact I had to use my brain with philosophy so early gave me a migraine and reminds me why RX-7 and RX-8 drivers warm up their engines before really ragging on them. So… If I see you online. No political discussions please… If I see you on World of WarCraft, put your McCain hate at your terminal and don’t bring it to Azeroth. If I see you in Guild Wars, you bet your ass that I want you to leave your Obama hate far away from Tyria, Cantha, and Elona. Hell, if I see you face-to-face… I want none of it.

Just for the record before anyone tries to con me out with “You fucking hate democracy!” I will state that I loved Ron Paul ’cause he actively campaigned about privacy, so there. I am getting the fuck out of this discussion with a vengeance. I just want to chill, mellow the fuck out, and say “Thank God the media circus and peanut gallery is over.”

Much love,

Rant

Special Request Article – The Romantic and Sexual Tendencies of Human Males

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This is a special feature requested from my classmate Amber and Haylee with some open discussion from my peers and colleagues for this. The article also was formulated by a few nights at the bars on weekends with friends cutting loose, so I do have some anecdotal data for my “hypothesis” and “theory”.

I have reason to believe that the way the male mind works with regards to romance and sex are all in a set of stages. The stages are cycles may repeat, depending on certain criteria not being met to progress on to the next stage. Some men end up trapped in a cyclical phase of the stages, sadly held in bondage and never to find a means to an end… However, there are others who do learn and have the luck/skills to break out of their sad twisted state of bondage to reach the one optimistic fairy tale ending that most women want.

The stages of romance are as follows…

  • Socialization Stage
  • Chase Stage
  • Lust Stage
  • Pure Stage

The Socilization Stage is pretty cut and dry… The male tries to see what actions make him socially acceptable to females versus which will cause them to avoid him with a violent fury. (Savage beatings from offended women are not accounted for, but they are not out of the realm of possibility.) If the stimulus pleases the female quarry, then the male learns “Oh, hey… she likes that!”.  The opposite should happen if she is displeased, unless the male is completely demented. Once they have reached reasonable understanding of the subject, the male proceeds to the next stage…

The Chase Stage can be compared much like a cat toying with a mouse. It’s the game that is played in an attempt to see if the male may be able to take pride in earning the affections of their desired quarry. If the woman in question plays hard to get… naturally, the man will see his quarry as a challenge. Depending on the mental fortitude of each party, this “Chase Stage” could last from a few hours to a few weeks… This phase is possibly where the gambit romantics takes place, in an effort to show the desired woman the extent of their physical or mental capabilities. Should copulation happen… That will bring things to a new dynamic.

The Lust Stage is probably one of the most difficult to break and shatter from. The male will (no doubt) be getting sex from their mate… but at the same time, their natural born instincts may betray them. They may seek to try sowing themselves into the wombs of other women. Once part is because the male’s biological function to propagate their DNA to as many mates as possible to ensure the longevity of their blood line… The other is more psychological and the desire to see what all else is out there. Things like a stimulating rumor about some woman who’s like a nasty whore in bed to a young virgin girl who has not been corrupted could be varying stimuli to a male in the Lust Stage. This stage can be self-destructive if not under control as it can essentially fracture the relationship built up from the Chase Stage. Things like infidelity, cupidity, and being two faced generally consequence to such actions. It won’t be until the man learns, for lack of a better phrase, think with his mind and heart rather than his penis that he’s hurting the tender emotion of a woman with his foolishness that he may move on to the final stage.

The Pure Stage is hopefully the last for a male. It’s where the epiphany is found that women are not objects of lust to be taken and abused relentlessly for pleasure… This stage usually gives yield to marriage and other noble things that women dream of. The best way to compare it is… It’s the stage that a man should be in should they want to settle or be sincere to the woman they are enamored with. This is probably the biological thing that most women gravitate to, the “protector” of their honor and eventually the defender of their castle. Sadly… Should parts of the pure stage not be met or become deviated, this could mean either a return to the Lust Stage or even complete and utter destruction to the Socialization stage. Once again, it can be simple things like material, emotional, or even sexual desires that are not met which may cause this recession to the previous stages of romance.

Unfortunately, some men may be trapped in certain stages because they have not come to that profound understanding to evolve their own existence. Some cases, it may be that the man is being held down by a lover who lacks understanding of their own intricate mind. Whatever the case may be… the themes seem to hold very common through out most males.

Rant

Sometimes… I wonder… [Humor]

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Ever since the Olympics, Shawn Johnson has been a hot topic for winning gold on the women’s balance beam and has gotten tons of press for it. She appears to already have endorsements, as evidenced by the commercial I will link you… though with modern day sexual innuendos, you would think her agent would have said “Er… can we the line..?” to allow her to evade being a topic of pedo bears. Especially as right now she’s already the idol of some pedophilic dreams of enough people already…

The line in questions is “[..] Makes my taco pop!”

I know I was browsing one of my ever favorite off topic forum at ClubSi and when someone said “I can’t wait for the hardcore techno remix yeah!” and later to be met with this YTMND link: http://makemytacopop.ytmnd.com/ All I can say was my kidneys were at the mercy of hilarious and crude humor.

Rant, Technology

Google May Have Android eDrama – Editorial

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A few days ago, I stumbled upon [H]ardOCP talking about a “front page” article saying that Google may have inadvertently pushed some Android developers to the iPhone SDK… This is rather an ironic tale of karmic shock as about a year ago, there were some whispers in the grapevine that Google was proposing to OpenMoko prospective programmers with a rather gutsy move to say “Come to our project, cause we are Google after all! We have tons of capital and our project is more financially stable.” So naturally, most programmers do want a buck for their efforts and most basically said “bye” to the OpenMoko Project and hopped on the Google Android bandwagon. In the midst of all the hub-bub of Google vs. OpenMoko, the Apple iPhone crowd was rather disappointed that their shiny $500+ toy had no clean API layer to play with like Windows Mobile or PalmOS. They managed to juryrig their own method of installing applications onto “jailbroken” iPhones by apps like iPwn or WinPwn to free the phone’s certification of applications in a means of giving the device a gray zone to play in. Of course, the problem with that was Apple’s coders releasing new firmware builds for the iPhone would render these “jailbroken” iPhones into paperweights unless the unofficial teams such as the “iPhone Dev Team” found ways to circumvent Apple’s check-sums. That somewhat changed with the iPhone 2.0 software release and the offical push of the iPhone Software Development Kit (or SDK for short).

Let’s delve into the background of the 2 “major” projects…

The Android project (in my observation) almost is a deceptive concept of “open source” as depending on how you rank with Google, you get certain layers of access with Android. What do I mean? Like if you’re an amateur coder who wants to make an application for fun, you would have basic access to the API. Now… let’s say you did something like won the “Google Summer of Code” competition or you are dumping millions of dollars to Google’s Android venture, naturally, you get premium access to the newest SDK builds and even API access to even control device functions. That could get some users who have slaved hours on Google’s Android project pissed! This is really the pressing concern from the article highlighted by AppleInsider, actually. Imagine that you and a few friends of yours make a killer app that just requires you to know the exact pressure sensitivity readings of the touch screen for an Android phone, but the caveat is none of your “staff” are big name commercial people or Summer of Code winners… This could be the one failing crux to your masterpiece to ever find completion. However, someone who won the Summer of Code competition may have an all access pass to all functions of the phone and could create a killer app that could rival yours. End result: Your team loses out on a chance to monetize on your killer app, yet your competitor gets a chance to dominate the market. Could you imagine the frustration to know your competitor’s app would be up for sale in Google’s Android App Shop for $2.99 a download while you’re going “If only Google let us access code on touch screen sensitivity…” with your friends?

Apple’s iPhone SDK is much in the same spirit like Google, an illusion of open source, but I feel they have mitigated drama by allowing all users certain levels of access. There’s the “Free” SDK which is just basic tools to build and test apps for personal use. But to get your name out there… Apple wants you to pony up $99 for a Basic Developer license which gives you the right to distribute your app to other iPhones via WiFi and also sell/give your app away at the iTunes App store. Should you sell your app, you do get 70% of the revenue. Then there’s the “Enterprise” license for $299 which allows you the power to make in-house corporate apps for the iPhone, like a trippy app that monitors and plays with your custom ECU for a tuner shop or other endless things your corporation wants to use the iPhone for. This license in particular is recommended for firms employing 500 people or more.

In my opinion, Apple’s rules are a little more concrete than the undefined access rules that Google has imposed on it’s users… We’ll have to sit and see how things brew down. The fact that Google’s been dawdling with producing a real and hard phone is making their time slip, while Apple and even OpenMoko have live phones to play with! Sure, Google has a deal with HTC to have a phone created as well as make it so that users with HTC phones can do a firmware update to have Android operational on their phones… Add to this that they are trying to fight between T-Mobile USA and Sprint|Nextel as official providers… You have a concept that may simply have trouble breaking the market in a solid fashion. I guess in a sense I am saying… Google better give everyone an “eHug” and get their crap straight or come up with a better strategy quickly unless they want to let Apple take more limelight from them..

Personal, Rant

[Mini Editorial] Gotta love the Feds sometimes…

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Financial aid is quite the “clusterfuck” as my former boss mentioned the quoted term.

A while back, I had a personal set-back and a medical condition that ended up being the one-two punch that basically had me dropping out of college while on a federal Pell grant. Let’s just say the Feds were awful quick to scream “ZERO!!!!! WE WANT OUR MONEY YOU ASSHOLE!!!!!” in a proverbial sense and they were aggressive as hell (like calling the day the semester ended). Once I paid them back… They conveniently kept a record on their files saying “Zero has paid his dues in full” however, the forgot to put it on my FAFSA file saying the same apparently all summer… I had contacted them about this flag since February, with various agents going “It takes time for the computer to flag an account as paid.”

Chain reaction: My school basically found that same flag and said “Zero, we can’t offer you any financial assistance cause your file is flagged as you have not paid the Feds their due cash.”

Cue this morning: I call the Feds up this morning and met with a amicable agent on the phone. Got hit with the standard gauntlet of questions to verify my identity of Zero, so after that I fire off my query of “Is there a way I could get my status immediately send over to my school for verification purposes and have my file cleared?” Sadly, I got the standard “It takes up to 2 business days for us to fax that to your educational establishment…” line from them.

That’s actually a bit ironic as when you ever owe the feds cash, they will hunt you down like a pack of bloodthirsty rottweilers. On the converse, when you pay them off… They just silently clear your file and set you free, while not updating anything else vital. That is almost a tactic that the nefarious credit companies would pull to try playing the game of “Oh… you still haven’t paid up” and conveniently putting off to the side you’ve paid in full.

Ugh… I hope the document updating my status shoots over sooner than “two business days”. We live in an era where electronic facsimilies are possible, it should not be that hard to pull up my file, drop in my financial aid office’s fax number, and then say “Send to this number.” I think I am going to be feverishly worried for a good while until my school goes “You’ve been verified and here is your financial assistance eligibility…”

Personal, Rant

Happy Bums

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Happiness seems to go hand-in-hand with laziness. The more content you become, the more you begin to slack off. Of the late I’ve begun to sleep for longer periods of time and my naps have become more frequent. However, there are those hours where my sleep schedule has been hacked into pieces and I find myself awake in the wee hours of the night. During this newfound insomnia I think of everything and nothing. All of my thoughts drag on and on in my mind but in reaching for my pen, pencil, or laptop to record them they dissipate. Eventually I fall into a good passing out.

I did manage to ensnare one floating thought, though. I’ve been a firm believer since before I can remember that a human can never be satisfied. We all seek happiness. Could it be that even if we were the happiest a human could ever be, that we would miss our sorrows? Maybe for the same reasons that a child wants to be an adult and an adult misses being a child, all of us want things we can’t have. This is probably something that we all know already and I might even seem stupid for pointing out, but I figure that we all need a reminder. Perhaps there is no way to cure this disease called desire. I don’t know. I do know that it can get the best of all of us so… Be happy while you can!

Well, the good news is that my inspiration is back. Not even sure what all the above meant but… Fear not! Heh, the fat, happy, chip-eating couch potato in me will be back soon.

Rant, Technology

The Second Coming of the Jesus Phone – 7/11/2008 – 3G iPhone

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With the summer here, all your big and essential technology shows are abound. You have the Computex show out in Taiwan being the big one for computer hardware and E3 for the gaming folks. However, if you’re an Apple fanatic, WWDC is the most noteworthy to you. This year has been no slouch either. If you are a big phone fanatic like yours-truly, then obviously you know that this year’s WWDC has the second revision on Apple’s new “killer handheld”, the 3G iPhone.

iPhone Announcement

For some, this is the boat that a number of frustrated Windows Mobile, Blackberry, Nokia S60 users have been waiting for. The inclusion of 3G cellular baseband chips, A-GPS functionality, and a few more things are just a few of the things that many iPhone naysayers and bashers had picked on the first iteration iPhone. This announcement has not shaken down some of the other competitors just yet, as far as I know. I have not seen any price breaks from manufacturers like HTC et al from the WWDC announcement, but then again, it may not matter to them because they may have a pocket ace up their sleeve thay may not be known to the masses yet. (The Touch Diamond is rather prohibitive at $700+ at the moment, eh? – Zero)

iPhone Profile Shots

Notice this time that there’s a curvature to the back of the iPhone, much like a Palm Treo. The device comes in two colors, black and white. The colors signify the device’s storage capacity: black being an 8GB and white being 16GB. This also signifies a change in how the device is built. The aluminum back of the first iPhone is a thing of the past, the back of the 3G iPhone is plastic. Some fans on the web have speculated the curvature and plastic back are more to accomodate the fun new additions of circuitry inside the phone.

The new iPhone boasts that it will be using the new 2.0 software improving the user experience with features such as a customizable Home Screen, the App Store, a Map App that can use BOTH A-GPS and cell tower and/or wi-fi hotspots to triangulate data. For those enterprising corporate users who are jonesing for a tricked out phone but were sadly disappointed in the lack of support for Microsoft Exchange server for their jobs, the new rendition of the iPhone has added support for syncing up to Microsoft Exchange servers. Early or late first generation iPhone owners can still get in on the some of these features with the new iPhone 2.0 software update, so they are not quite left out in the cold.

If you want to behold more of the features about the iPhone, check out the Official Apple iPhone page (Link)! Need more visual porn? Check out the new iPhone gallery link here.

“What about the pricing information? How bad will AT&T rape me for service?” are probably the next questions for curious 3G iPhone buyers seeing to get their hands one one and possibly escape their old provider. Let’s break into the leaked confidential bulletin posted up by Boy Genius Report and find out, shall we?

Before we pick through the plans… Let me make this one point from the confidential bulletin loud and clear for you curious readers: In America, there is no way to buy the 3G iPhone without committing to AT&T and GoPhone customers are not permitted to buy them for GoPhone use either. I repeat, you cannot just buy an iPhone without a plan even in the Apple Stores. In other countries, you may be able to purchase an unlocked iPhone due to anti-competition agreements, but not much information is known on that. The caveat for the American market is that due to this closer partnership between AT&T and Apple is that now AT&T can finally subsidize the iPhone to an entry price of $199 for the 8GB model and $299 for the 16GB model. A very gutsy move as this puts the iPhone right at the same price points as AT&T’s corporate communicator market. HTC, Pantech, Palm, and RIM Blackberry devices be damned, AT&T basically created an internal smartphone war within their ranks! This has me curious as to how RIM, Palm,and HTC will play their cards in America, but that’s another discussion… 😉 for later this week.

Let’s go over the major points quoted from the Boy Genius Report post:

  • iPhone 3G will be activated at point of sale when the device is purchased in store.
  • Return period has been changed from 14 days to 30 days
  • $199 and $299 pricing is for new activations or qualified upgrades with a 2-year agreement
  • 2G iPhone data rate plans will remain available for 2G device suntil further notice
  • The new iPhone 3G data plan is $30/month and includes unlimited data and visual voicemail
  • There is not a no commitment price. This means you can’t just walk in and bang $500 on your credit card and walk out.
  • If you are an existing iPhone customer in good standing, you will be able to extend your contract for two years when the iPhone 3G launches and get the ill-na-na $199/$299 price point. Doesn’t matter when you bought an iPhone either.
  • AT&T and Apple stores “unbrick” the iPhone 3G at time of purchase, but for some reason if that doesn’t happen, you’ll be required to use iTunes at home.
  • Pre-paid and Pick Your Plan will not be allowed on iPhone 3G
  • Device purchase limit remains at (3) per customer in AT&T stores.
  • Launch day will mirror last year’s launch. This includes extended store hours, crowd controls, etc. Security will be provided to stores requesting armed police or guards.
  • AT&T is working with Apple to roll out GPS-enabled applications.

One of the first things I noticed as a definite step to progress is the in-store activation. I had read a few accounts online about some people having trouble with doing the activation at home due to the servers timing out and having to activate their phones a few days after purchasing an iPhone. This ensures that end users will have a working phone on purchase instead of angry users griping that their new toy is useless until the server can activate their device.

The purchase of an iPhone will require an iPhone data plan. The unlimited personal plan starts at $30 with any qualifying voice plan, however if you need to link with corporate e-mail accounts… you’ll need to front $45 per month for the enterprise data plan. My assumption is that a “qualifying” voice plan is a plan that is priced at least $39.99 and has 600 anytime minutes. As far as the press release from AT&T goes, there’s no mention if the unlimited iPhone data plans will include any text messaging… but that could change come July 11, 2008. As far as AT&T’s texting plans go, that could range from $14.99 – $19.99. So about $30 (estimated) for the lowest qualifying voice plan, $30 for the unlimited personal e-mail, web and visual voicemail package, and then $15 for the texting plan. A rough grand total of $75 before miscellaneous taxes and service charges would be due on the billing date; possibly around $80 – $82 after those charges. That’s decently competitive to an individual corporate user with a smartphone or Blackberry configured in the same manner. This combined with the subsidized price of the iPhone actually gives AT&T some leg room to fight. If they combine texting with different tiering of iPhone data packages, like the unlimited personal data plan being able to also get unlimited texting for a total of $80 before taxes, this may give providers like T-Mobile, Sprint, and Verizon more incentive to step up to the plate and really be creative.

Tune in tomorrow when I’ll play Devil’s Advocate and spin my thoughts from the anti-iPhone camp from the eyes of the T-Mobile/Sprint/Verizon/HTC/Palm/RIM side of things. This will actually be a 3-part series of things. The floor is now open to any pro-iPhone comments. If you have hate or bones to pick with the iPhone, save your energy for tomorrow.

Personal, Rant

[Editorial] Empowering Debilitating Words

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A while back… My dear friend dare2dreamer had told me quite the interesting anecdote that involved the skill-toy folks. The tale was quite interesting and I thought the resolution that came to it was quite good!

One of my friends had posted a video of his demos online and some egotistical fellow out in New York basically slammed him for his demo. This person went as far as picking out “flaws” in my friend’s demo and even went as far as calling him “mediocre” and his skills “amateur”. Of course, this bothered my friend… however, the guy out in New York claimed he was doing skill-toy stuff on a professional level and made claims that the mediocre skills would not be taken seriously. I decided to pick apart the “professionals” use of the word “mediocre” and decided to re-spin it as a positive. We were joking around and going “I’m mediocre!” with enthusiasm. In essence, we turned the word mediocre from meaning “ordinary” to “awesome”. We may even go as far as making t-shirts just for kicks and have my friend do another demo video of his skills with the t-shirt. In all seriousness, it should have never gone this far.

With regard to this uplifting tale, I can see how we as humans can let debilitating testimony get us down. I know with personal experience that I have let too many trample on me just for the sake of their own glory to just simply gloat “I am better/faster/stronger/[insert misc adj. here] than you.” I have been spinning attacks made on me to a better light, because honestly… what’s the point of getting disturbed with pathetic and cheap-shot attacks? The next time you encounter someone taking a cheap shot at you by saying something that is derogatory… Turn it into something much better!

After all… We’re all mediocre! 😀

Edit: Get your “Mediocre” and “Am I Mediocre Yet” Apparel below!

“Am I Mediocre Yet?” Shop
“Mediocre” Shop

Personal, Rant

Damn Vehicular Envy and Lust, We Meet Again!

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Machinery and throttle have been in my blood since I was a wee lad… Most of my fans know that I had a very modest Acura Integra sedan as my “intro” car. I had observed and assisted my father with repairing his cars, so naturally my interest in cars is profound from watching the machinery evolve from a primitive rat’s nest to a very neat compacted power plant with wiring and hose work that almost looks beautiful. Sure, the bodies of cars have seen some bad days where you have designers butcher misshape metal into abominations… at the same time, you also have artisans trying to push the limits for new styles but embracing traditions.

I made the foolish mistake of thinking I could turn a project car into a daily driver… but it was one hell of a lesson. The majority of the foolishness was the fact that I was desiring too much for a return to my days of glory. Oh well, one day I will have my chance to revive Project Phoenix and relive my old days…

Continue reading Damn Vehicular Envy and Lust, We Meet Again! →

Personal, Rant

[Rant] Humanity, Thou Art Not as Sacred as Thy Claims…

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Proceed with Caution

Disclaimer: I am not a proponent of religion over science nor am I a part of a Buddhist sect. This is just a personal musing I happened to stumble on.

Last night, I got into a rather heated debate with a few friends of mine in regards to religion and how so many people are lacking in their faith in the modern day. Sure, we have science, but does it eliminate that there are forces beyond our own that we should revere and respect? It got my friends talking on how people almost have become egocentric with how society has advanced more and more in technology. Conversely, when the world turns topsy-turvey to these same people, they start spouting off something close to the following rhetoric:

Dear God, I am (in) [insert random expletive phrase here]. I pray to God that I am not [insert expletive here]. I never wanted it to become like that! Please God, help me!

Continue reading [Rant] Humanity, Thou Art Not as Sacred as Thy Claims… →