I really need to come up with a better name than “update”… I might as well not have any title at all.
Well this isn’t an update like the others, I just haven’t had a heart-to-heart kind of dialogue here recently due to all that’s been going on. I have my job, then 2 classes on Tuesdays and Thursdays at UCCS in the evening, and also I have to squeeze in time to practice violin. And after violin I have to get sleep in there, and still maintain a minimal social life so my brain will be okay, meaning I try to call friends and go out as much as I can, but “as much as I can” typically ends up being on my weekends off, if that.
Let’s see… I got effed up this week, relatively speaking. I left my dorm room a mess on a night we had a surprise inspection, but really I should have seen it coming. I’ve been leaving my room in disarray for a while now, so it’s nobody’s fault but mine that I got caught, and that leadership is mad at me for keeping a dirty dorm room. Oh well, I cleaned it, and I’m moving forward… I’m sorry that they caught me like that, and I can only vow never to let it happen again. Besides… clean room, clean mind, and in my case clean conscience… I should just do everything right so that I have nothing to be guilty about and everything to be proud of.
Other significant happenings? I returned a SATA HD that was just sitting on a shelf here due to it being busted, which gave me back $185. The lady at the return station was trying to sell me a Wii, and I have to admit I thought about it for a good minute, but then decided not to, because I’ve gone this far without one, I don’t see why I have to buy one now, since I don’t really have any interest in playing Wii games at the moment. What I did walk out of the store with, however, I deem far worse than a new console…
World of Warcraft: The Burning Crusade. I suck. I let my addiction get the best of me, and I can only dream (or have nightmares, rather) of how bad this will affect me. I’ve made a vow only to play on the weekend, but as I stated above the weekend is when I go out, so really… why did I buy it? I’ll probably only be playing for a few hours every weekend, less than 5 most likely until my classes are over, and even then I’m not stopping class until I get my MS.
Everything in moderation, I suppose. Just like drinking… I’m not so averse to drinking that I’ll avoid it. Quite on the contrary, given the right company I like to partake just a little bit. But I only really do that maybe once every 2-4 months. That’s not aversion, that’s just me not wanting to push my drinking tolerance… I like being a cheap date.
Also, I’ve been kinda updating the rest of the blog, putting in categories, pages of stuff, adding links… pretty much just filling out spots that I’ve been wanting to update.
Well I don’t have much more to say. I did have an interesting dream where I was getting yelled at by an army Sergeant Major. In the course of her ripping my ass, she started mentioning something to the effect of how surprised she’d be if I said something that would solve all her problems. She actually repeated that twice, and then I said:
Umm… well, all the bad things that happen to me, all my problems, they become not-problems whenever I pray to God. I remember that this life is only temporary, and all the hardship, pain, and pettiness that I experience in this life will disappear when it is complete.
At this point I was weeping with joy, and she started to weep with me and ran off or disappeared… it’s hard to remember dreams. The bolded words are what I remember mentioning in my answer to her, and truth be told I’m surprised I even said something like that, but looking at it makes me happy, because it’s the truth. One thing I didn’t mention above was probably an assumption I made in my dream, which was that the next life would be heaven, and I know I can only get there by trusting that God has forgiven me for my sins (thanks to Jesus), and that I make a best effort to show that I am worthy of that afterlife and that I don’t take Jesus’s gift for granted.
Phew! I hate to wax religious like that… I know it puts some people off, but I should be able to talk about my faith once in a while, right? I mean, it’s my blog, damnit :D. Anyway, I’m feeling extremely peaceful, mostly due to my sprituality, but also because I’m tired from killing myself at the gym yesterday. 
And now it’s time to go. To the mall. Laters!
-TJ
Well, I’m in trouble for being mediocre. Time to face the music…
-TJ
GO TO HELL, Chavez! (Context)
How about you build up a political support base from real values… “I hate the US” is not a value, it’s a gimmick.
-TJ
Another batch update due to not enough time during the week to play with the blog…
Standardized important-investor-issues reports
From http://www.thestreet.com/_yahoo/funds/mutualfundmonday/10332478_3.html:
“What we don’t want is a blizzard of new regulations and big government setting pay levels. His first proposal has a lot of merit. He simply wants to force companies to disclose executive pay more fully in advance, and to make sure shareholders get to vote on it. The problem right now is that although there is plenty of “disclosure,” it’s buried across pages and pages of legal jargon in the proxy statements. Frank could make sure that each proxy statement discloses the total amount, in clear English, that the top executives stand to make.”
So I was thinking that it would be a good idea to legally standardize the kinds of reports that are given to shareholders, and in the process make a summary section of sorts that would put all the important info at the forefront so that all shareholders can see transparently the issues that are important for investing considerations. I guess the laissez-faire folks out there would be against this in principle, but I think the times are changing and we should seriously consider this kind of government involvement into private sector affairs. I’ll expound on this later, I’m sure I’ll be talking about it again in the future.
Morningstar - the increasingly valuable trading tool
I am slowly discovering new items in my Morningstar premium service subscription. I’m coming to it increasingly due to all the different things I’m finding out the website provides. For example, I’ve recently found the price-to-fair value ratio that is denoted on the different stocks covered by the Morningstar analysts. It’s these kinds of in-a-nutshell data points that prompt me to do further research and make a decision on whether to invest or not. I’ve also recently thought about checking out the Motley Fool’s Rule Breakers service.
Google Reader - my shared items RSS feed!
That’s right! I just realized I could put more RSS goodness into this website by sharing articles I come across in Google’s Reader service! I’ll be attaching that to the sidebar when I have time to do it…
Blackberry Pearl - I like it!
So I bought a Blackberry Pearl this week, and I love it! I finally have a organizer that I’ll constantly look at due to it being my phone as well! I tried putting music onto it, and for the most part it works, but in this process I realized that…
iTunes Music Store is evil
Talk about making a contract with the Devil! I’ve decided to boycott iTunes Music Store (iTMS). (Note that I do not link their website… they don’t deserve traffic from me.) The idea of downloading from a vast library of music that I actually listen to was nice, but when I realized I couldn’t directly put my iTMS-purchased music onto my blackberry without having to (1) burn the purchased music to a plain old audio CD and (2) re-import the audio CD as un-protected media, it became “So long iTMS, it’s been a blast!”
If you need more evidence, check out this article that significantly opened my eyes to the existence of the anti-Digital Rights Management (DRM) scene.
New California Spanking Law?
So I was taking a breather at work and watching the news. Fox News Channel happened to cover a story on some CA government person wanting to ban spanking from the state. (Here’s an article from ABC7 news if you’re not familiar with the situation)
So, I suddenly had the notion to check out the current state of law in CA regarding spanking. I found the website where you can do a text search through California Codes, so I did a search on their website by checking “All” and putting in “spanking” as a keyword. I found the following (source):
CALIFORNIA CODES
WELFARE AND INSTITUTIONS CODE
SECTION 300-304.7
300. Any child who comes within any of the following descriptions is within the jurisdiction of the juvenile court which may adjudge that person to be a dependent child of the court:
(a) The child has suffered, or there is a substantial risk that the child will suffer, serious physical harm inflicted nonaccidentally upon the child by the child’s parent or guardian…. For purposes of this subdivision, “serious physical harm” does not include reasonable and age-appropriate spanking to the buttocks where there is no evidence of serious physical injury.
That bold text came directly from the results of my search, by the way. Nifty tool that CA has implemented… I hope I can find more like it when I start looking up law on a more regular basis.
…
And that’s all I have for today, ladies and gents. And ladies. (haha) I keep hoping to post on a daily basis but with all the studying I have to do (MS, Staff, AFOQT, GRE, Violin) that probably won’t happen. At least I have a life forming up that exists outside of the box.
-TJ
Sorry all, I’ve been busy. But you don’t come here to read excuses about why I don’t put up content… you just come for the content. So here’s what I’ve been meaning to drop word on for the last few days:
Lunarpages service upgrade
So I get an email from Lunarpages, my new and oh-so-good web host. My webspace parameters have been augmented as such:
- 250 Gigabytes Storage (Previously 35 GB)
- 2500 Gigabytes Data Transfer (Previously 800 GB)
- 10 Add-on Domains Included ($300 a year in free add-ons)
All I can say is “Hell yeah!” I was paying more for the add-on domains, I have 3 more attached to this website that I have to handle and they used to only give 2 add-on domains, but now I think my price has gone down. I’ll have to check on this later.
LOW 40 purchase
So I made a stock purchase on Friday. I’ve been looking at ways to diversify my portfolio and put the money I had sitting in my ING money market account to work for me. (ING Direct is great, btw. I recommend them to anyone looking for a high APY savings account, theirs is 4.50%, FDIC insured.) So I was looking around morningstar.com and I found an article (Here: Morningstar.com - The Berkshire Hathaway Portfolio). I just picked a good-looking stock that was not tech-related, and I ended up buying 40 shares of Lowe’s, as in the home improvement store. I know there’s a Lowe’s near my place, and just through some cursory research I found that their strategy is to simply keep expanding and building up a presence. Anyway, I’m hoping that my position in Lowe’s is one I will hold on to for a while… it’s the first store that most of my more house-improvement-experienced friends around here think of when it comes to buying home improvement stuff, so I think I’ve gotten into something good here.
Options trading
The other thing I’ve been working on (and just completed today) was an online CBT from www.888options.com which introduced me to the basics of how Options trading works. I applied for an Options trading account with my online broker
TDAmeritrade today, and I hope to hear back from them by the end of the week.
Violin out of tune… permanently
Well… at least until I get a new one. I just now tried practicing on my violin, and once again for the second time my A string sounded like E or F, which means that it was WAAAY out of tune, and this time I couldn’t get the peg to stay at the correct pitch. Azi said that my violin had a fickle E which tended to stray out of tune every time I’d come to class, so I think my violin just has a general problem keeping the tuning pegs at the right place. I’ll try swapping it tomorrow… I hope they don’t give me any crap, because I’m also late on my first rental payment. :((
No new girl prospects, not afraid of being alone… for now.
So I’m changing. Every day. And lately I’ve come to realize that being single and singly-single is not too too bad… I mean, I do have the time to do what I really want to do without having to worry about a girlfriend who may be mad at me for not doing something she wants me to do. I have a buddy at work, my military brother Stricky-Strick, who is happily married but constantly tells me to not get married anytime soon. Trust me, brother… you don’t have to tell me twice, I know that already. But anyway, I think if I just chill out and relax and not stress over not having the girl, the girl will eventually come to me, but in the meantime I’m free to pursue school, violin, and reading the books that I’ve been meaning to read but have been slacking instead.
Final Fantasy XII
Speaking of doing things I really want to do, I’ve been playing the hell out of this game. Ever since I bought my TV card I’ve been trying to knock this one out of the park before school starts so I wouldn’t be tempted to play it when I have other things I need to be doing, like studying for school or studying for my Staff Sergeant test or studying for my AFOQT (Officer Training School Test) or studying for my GRE so I can officially be in the MS program at UCCS instead of just a non-degree student… anyway, suffice it to say that I really better not get distracted this next couple of months, what with all this studying I need to do and preparation for a possible deployment. I’ll get it done, no sweat.
Gym…
Speaking of sweat… I’ve not been sweating enough at the gym, and I can feel my body paying the price of sloth. Random pains, general lack of energy, lower-back pain due to sitting on my ass too long playing FFXII… I need to get running more often. I love the way I feel after I go running in the morning and I hit my day knocking out one task after another… it’s just the getting up and going to the gym part that usually thwarts me for some reason. Once I’m in my gym clothes and my feet hit the track, I’m on automatic, music gently pushing me on thanks to my iPod Shuffle.
School starts on Tuesday
And if you missed it when I mentioned it before, I did register for classes this semester at University of Colorado, Colorado Springs. I signed up for two classes this semester in preparation for applying to be a grad student for the Computer Science MS program. I’m quite excited, really. 
I signed up this semester for Software Requirements Analysis/Specifications and Software Project Management… I find that I have the know-how, but I really don’t have the organizational methods to attack a software development project, nor do I know how to map out what a project would require… so here I am. Maybe I’ll FINALLY finish that damn survey application that I’ve had on hold for almost 2 months now…
*phew!* So much going on now, not like before where I was living mostly in my head, now I’m living mostly in and about town. I guess it helps to load up on shit that I need to do anyway, keeps me from over-analyzing the under-important aspects of life. All I ask is that God keep my soul, and continue to help me make the right decisions.
The jet turbines are spinning, it’s almost time to blast off….
-TJ
Good afternoon all. Don’t have much to say personally, but here are some Neat-O things I’ve come across that I wanted to share with you:
CTV.ca | New plastic can better convert solar energy - I read an article about the 100-mpg milestone for autos while I was in LA on vacation, and for some reason last night I remembered how one guy could achieve 100-mpg on his Prius because he mounted solar panels on his rooftop to help charge his battery. Then the same article mentioned as a by-the-way that solar paint was being researched. So last night I googled “photovoltaic paint” and eventually came across this article. The avenue of research mentioned in this linked article was of someone studying “quantum dots”, of which just one of the possible applications could be nano-scale solar cells which can be applied to a surface or woven like a fabric.
WiGLE - Wireless Geographic Logging Engine - I found this to be quite useful in Buena Vista, CO, where I was about 75 mi away from the nearest large town (Colorado Springs). My brother-from-another-mother Alvin helped me locate a few WiFi dots in this small town, which subsequently led me to a cafe that offered free WiFi. A bit hard to use, but usable.
-TJ
So I started violin lessons last month at the beginning of the month. I know I definitely wanted to start learning classical music, but I also knew that I was interested in more modern applications of violin. For some reason I kept envisioning playing tunes that would suit today’s alt rock, or (*gasp*) something to what you would hear in a metal-ish band… I don’t want to say “heavy metal” because my buddy Law would crucify me for getting the the actual heavy metal genre confused with whatever I’m actually thinking. Whatever Evanescence plays… I’m not a big fan, but that style would be something I’m interested in… without all the gothic blackness. I guess it’s how classical violin gets fun and interesting, as it gets applied to modern music.
So today, I just had a mental tap… somehow the name “Vanessa Mae” floated to the surface and I google-videoed that name up. I watched the first one that showed up, something from “Red Hot”, which I can only assume to be a concert she held at some point, and my ears liked what they heard. My eyes… that’s another story, but I think if I got good enough I could try to play that kind of rock-classical music, sort of like Trans-Siberian Orchestra except more stylistically integrated.
Anyway, the confusion and unfamiliarity bubbles up through the alien terms I use in describing music, as it shows that I still don’t really know what exactly I would like to play, but I have a decent idea. All I know is that I likes what I likes. I’m still practicing violin, although admittedly today was the first time I practiced since I left for Christmas break.
-TJ
I couldn’t help myself. I have a spending problem.
I should have put that christmas money away in my savings, but the clicking of my HDD, and my desire to set up my rig as a dual-boot WinXPPro/Linux machine AND be able to hook up my PS2 so I can finally play through all those PS2 games I bought all last year prompted me to buy a TV Card (I went cheap, and it’s good enough for me! ATI TV Wonder 200)… LG DVD+-R/RW/RAM/CD-R/W/RW because for some reason BOTH my CD and DVD drives were somehow making the discs STICK inside the drive (it looked like the plastic on the inner ring was melting…), and… a 400GB SATA disk.
Lord, and everyone else… please help me not spend *any* more money. No more games this year… no more consoles, no new game subscriptions, no new magazine subscriptions… nothing. Just school, violin, and living survival expenses until I somehow figure out a way to supplement my income. I wish I knew Arabic & Russian… that would be at least $100 per month extra.
-TJ
I bought a TV card, and I’ve hooked up my PS2 to my computer now.
…
Pray for me.
-TJ
(I also bought an iPod Shuffle. For running.)