Scattered Thoughts

So classes start today, and I'm not too excited about that.

My list of classes are:
INFO I300 – Human Computer Interaction (HCI) 3cr.
INFO I308 – Information Representation 3cr.
CSCI A202 – Information Infastructure II (Java) 4cr.
ECON E202 – Macroeconomics 3cr.

I am looking forward to HCI, Java and Econ, but not 308. I've heard from many, many of my friends that 308 is the hardest class you have to take in the School of Informatics. Books for HCL and 308 haven't even been reported yet and classes start today.

In other news, I have completed the RSS feeds and syndication of other's blogs on mine. If you know the address of your RSS feed, please send it to me so I have it. The syndications will change when someone's blog becomes boring and I need a change. I have placed the photoblog and resolutions blog links at the bottom of every entry to make them easier to get to.

Anyway, enough with that. On to something that matters.

I'm moving to Wyoming. Peace and quiet, nobody around, cheap gas… ahhh…

Ok, click on the link below to see why I choose the excerpt that I did today. I have explained for all to see my interpretation of the Scout Law.

Alright, The graveyard is almost over, so I'm going to jet. More later.

peace out y'all

Song of the Day – Free Ride – The Edgar Winter Group

Quote of the Day – "You should just become a Mormon, practice poligamy, and then we could all be your wife." – Lindz at about 4:00 this morning, maybe later than that even.
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It's been a couple days since I've made any update in my life in this thing.

Biggest update is that I re-designed my entire home and root domain. Check them out by clicking on one of the links below. The root domain is my professional site. It contains information about me, my resume and that's it. Readers of my blog are previliged enough to see my home domain (or at least have the URL). It is my personal site. It stays hidden just because people don't know any better. It's got a pre-photoblog photogallery as well as access to my semester's schedule. If sometime in the future the home site asks you for a password to enter, shoot me an e-mail and, if you're worthy, I'll send you the username and password.

Website Links
Root site
Home site

Enjoy those. Comment it up and tell me what you like/dislike on the home site. I spent 14+ hours working on the graphics and overall layout of that site. It's definitely going to stay that way for at least another year.

Today was the staff recognition dinner at Camp Belzer. It was good to see a majority of the people that I worked with and lived with over the summer/past summers. I got a few pictures, but none of them are any good. Check them out at The Photoblog. There are also some random pictures of things like what I had for dinner (you all would call it breakfast) this morning as well as "Lake Henderson" and some Monkeys for Lindz.

Last night on my graveyard shift, I experienced something I never have before. My great friend Erin made me so fuming mad and so extremely happy at the same time. I'm not going to post the details here, but if you want to know, hit up the e-mail, cell or IM names (tlmasonaea or firecrafter695). I will be happy to explain. I'll just say this… my future lovelife is now quite uncertain.

I just realized this evening that I have a dentist's appointment Tuesday morning at 8:15… I really don't want to drive back up to Shelbyville just for an appointment and then drive back later that morning. blah… what can ya do though.

I tried to get some good pictures of some of the flooding around Bloomington, but the cloud cover limited the lighting and the pictures came out black. Oh well, though, what can ya do?

That's about it, really. Nothing major has happened in my life that I'm willing to post in here. The best way to find out the intricate happenings of my life are to IM me or call.

And I leave you with the end of the blog rundown…

Song of the Day – Another Brick in the Wall – Pink Floyd
I'm returning to the roots of today's music, the bands that made Rock as diverse as it is today.

What's in My CD Player? – In the Car – KKDC Mix Vol. 1 and Vol. 2, Dark Side of the Moon – Pink Floyd, Greatest Hits – Styx, A Rush of Blood to the Head – Coldplay, and Disc 1 of The Best of Bowie – Davie Bowie. In the House – Pet Sounds – The Beach Boys (a little earlier than the other stuff I've been in the mood for, but good nonetheless).
I WISH I HAD MY BEATLES CATALOUGE BACK FROM DUSTIN!! AAARRRRGH! >:-O

Hero of the Indefinite Time Period – Erin

Villian of the Indefinite Time Period – He Who Shall Not Be Named, and Dustin for still having all of my Beatles albums.

Movie of the Week – Almost Famous

Quote of the Day – deafening silence… Again, there is nobody here over the graveyard… blah.

later days!

I found myself leaving very large comments on a couple of my blogs today so I'm going to leave a long blog entry as well. Both, I felt, for good reason. I'm going to continue my ranting here…

First thanks to Jess for sparking the malice that has been building up inside.

On the whole court ruling on the RIAA's ability to use subpoenas to get names of music downloaders.
The US court system made the right decision here. Copyright law doesn't allow the RIAA to subpoena any information from an internet service provider. I bet a lot of you are breathing a sigh of relief right now, right? Well, don't breathe too long. It is still possible for the RIAA to sue the ISP because of copyrighted material traveling into, out of and within their network. You can bet your bottom that as soon as an ISP is slapped by one of these lawsuits, they will plea to the RIAA to not sue them if they turn over the names of the individuals participating in the illegal activity. This is not illegal. Most ISPs require you to sign a contract upon the start of your service which allows them to revoke your service and turn you into the proper authorities if you are participating in illegal activity. Better start hiding your music downloading again… or better yet, why don't you just download iTunes or Napster and get your music the honest way, the legal way. It's not even that expensive through these services… Check them out. it will save you a lawsuit. One of these days, everyone will be caught, unless you are an uber-skilled hacker.

On netiquette
Nothing more than what my good friend Jess has already said. Check it out at Clever Lines.
A few ammendments to her posting…
Things change a bit when you get to college. It becomes acceptable to IM someone when they are away. Examples of just causes for this: Waking them up to go to class, or better yet, an exam, Leaving them a sort of "IM voicemail" to let them know what's going on, and to ask them to help you with some task when they return.
Also, puting a cell phone number in an away message, acceptable at times: When leaving the number because you are awaiting someone's call, When moving forward with the evening's plans without someone who planned to attend, etc.
Blogging, not much, just one thing. It's ok to comment on your own blog when participating in a dialouge. If you're going to start a whole new rant, make a new entry.

Tom's Netiquette
1) Do NOT under any circumstances design a web site using bright, harsh-to-the-eyes, contrasting or otherwise offensive colors on a web site. Contrasting colors are those that lie opposite each other on the color wheel.

2) Make your font big enough to read! Nobody should need to increase the font size on their browser to read your web site (unless they are viewing it at 1400×1360 resolution).
3) Don't steal web designs if you are perfectly capable of making your own. Part of the expression of the internet is how your information is presented. Be yourself! Now there's nothing wrong in using a site as inspiration, or in using other sites to learn about HTML, shoot, that's how I did it. I have a problem with flat out stealing without giving credit where credit is due. dont' do it!
4) If you are going to have floating layers or whatever they're called, make sure they are wide enough and display enough of your content that we do not have to scroll down for five million days to read one section! This goes for both blogs and regular informational sites.
5) If it's hard for you to read, it's hard for me to read too, DON'T USE THAT DESIGN!

I was going to insert a new rant here, but this post is already long enough…

*sigh*
Ok, now that that's out of the way… I think…
I went to an interesting site linked from Jess's blog, Political Compass. It had a quiz to see what political orientation you are. I am most definitely a Libertarian Lefty. Check it out and see what you are .

I didn't get to go climbing yesterday because I slept too late. I did, however, get to go on a nice run. I ran four miles, and man am I dead from it. I haven't run that much since the end of the summer. I was so excited that it was 60 degrees outside today that after my run, I just sat on my roof and did some internet surfing… oh the joys of wireless. I just wish the weather would have stuck around for New Year's.

News from the digital camera store… Apparently for "security reasons" the company I orderd from will not ship to my bloomington address unless it is a part of my credit card as well. So I had to call the bank and have them add it as a secondary address… I dont' want to jump through hoops, I just want my freakin camera! And it better be here before New Year's or I'm going to be very, very upset.

I finished the Kappa Kappa Psi, Alpha Zeta web page. Have a look! Now all I have to do is collect some pictures from the chapter and post them. Also, update the calendar that I thought was broken, but I was able to fix.

Although I'm not in class, I'm keeping myself pretty busy, as you can see. I think I may head up to Galyan's today (this afternoon) to purchase a campus board. Not sure where I'm going to put it in my house yet, but I'll figure that out when I get some free time… oh yea… right after I get home

Anyway, I think I've chewed your eyes enough, I'm outta here for the day. I will write more tonight.

Song of the Moment – Drug Ballad – Eminem

Hero of the Day – Jess for giving me something to rant about

Villian of the Day – The Auditor's computer at work… I HATE THIS MACHINE!

Quote of the Day – "Everything is broken" – Me when answering a question about something being broken tonight. I'm in an awesome mood, believe it or not.

¡Quedo de Uds. muy atentamente!
¡Hasta luego amigos mios!

First of all, read.

I sure would hope finding a head in a shed would prompt a lawsuit. That's generally not something you would expect to find in there. Old Schwin, hole riddled garden hose, sure… A HUMAN HEAD! What sick-o would do something like that?!? Now I worked in a funeral home for four years, I know that there are laws governing the disposal of human remains. This breaks just about every single one of them!

Second read.
Only in Oklahoma would this be possible. How does a jail Misidentify an inmate? Don't they wear suits with numbers on them? Maybe OK is too good for identifying inmates by numbers. I know that story is from the 25th, but I'm just now catching up on my web surfing. And after your own funeral, you call home?!? Man, some people are strange. This is just another example of irresponsible government.

Ok, now that I'm done ranting about the daily news… I'm feeling much better today than I have been the last couple days. A few close friends of mine are the cause.

For those of you who care, I purchased a digital camera today. I bought the Minolta DiMAGE G400. See the link in this entry. I figure I'll never use all 5MP of the G500, nor should I have to pay for it. I got the G400 for a little over $300, which is stellar because that means I get to save some oc my Christmas money… probably for books.

To go along with my new little purchase, I will be starting a photoblog. I plan to carry that camera with me everywhere I go, just because I'm a loser like that. Every evening when I get home (or morning after I wake up because I was too tired from the night before) I will post a few images in my photoblog (address forthcoming) for you all to see. You'll have to bear with me because my photography skills aren't that great, but I'm going to use this as a means for me to get better. I can only dream to be this good. If all goes well, my camera will be here before New Year's Day, so be looking for that as the launch date of my photoblog.

Whew! I'm pretty long winded tonight… sorry bout that. not very often do I get to make a large post. Of course, this isn't even eight hours of post, more like fifteen minutes.

When I get off work, I am going to head to either Borders or Best Buy (whoever is open first) and buy the Lord of the Rings Trillogy Soundtrack. I loved that music, and I want to own it. It's going to be part of my christmas gifts.

Also, sometime later today, I plan to head to the climbing gym for a bit. If you want to join me and are close to Bloomington, hit up my celly.

Anyway, that's all I got for now.

later days

Song of the Night – Touch from Lust – Ben Harper

Hero of the Night – Nova boards for keeping me awake at the end of my shift.

Quote of the Night – *deafening silence*

word out yo

First of all, you all are probably noticing the new design of my blog. This is one of many web sites that are getting a re-design over the holiday break. I'm interested to hear what you guys have to say about it. It is best viewed using a monitor set to the resolution 1024×768 or greater with the window maximized.

I haven't posted since I have seen Lord of the Rings: Return of the King, so here's my summary post.

**WARNING CONTAINS SPOILERS WARNING CONTAINS SPOILERS**

Ok, let me begin by saying it was an awesome movie. Having read the books then seeing them on the big screen was awesome. I've since bought my own copy of the books (including The Symarillian and The Hobbit.

Now for what I would have done differently…

Did anyone else notice that the movie could have ended nine times after it climaxed? Not to mention that it went on for a good hour after the climax to wrap up the story. Nobody cares about Sam's wife and his new family, or their wedding for that matter. Those all could have been left out. Granted, a majority of the Return of the King book is this wrap up information, but I maintain that it has no place on the modern screen.

The fight scenes were amazing. This goes for the whole series. They just kept getting better and better the farther into the series we got. The way Peter Jackson followed the storyline in all three movies has got to be the best anyone has ever followed a book when basing a movie off of it. Congratulations. I smell some academy awards coming from this one.

**END OF SPOILERS END OF SPOILERS**

Ok, for those of you who didn't want to read the spoilers, you can start reading again. Not that they were really anything worth warning everyone about, but I know some people who read don't like to be told what happens in a movie, even if the movie is one of the best book series ever.

Ok, tonight's shift is pretty dull and boring, hence the "graveyard boredom" title. Here's the one thing that stuck out in my mind today while surfing the internet. I give this man all the respect that I have to give.

Foiled Robery

This 70 year old man risks his life to stop a man from robbing his store. Now what makes this story so interesting is that the reason the man stopped him was because he believes that you should earn your living rather than steal from others. This is a prime example of what we all need to do more (myself included) – stand up for what we believe. If you don't believe in something strong enough to stand up for it, don't try to force your will upon others – you can't back it up.

On a related note…
Someone asked me the other day (name has been left off to protect the innocent) why I wear scouting clothes a lot. My answer was, of course, a simple one: "I like them, and they're comfortable". I'm speaking of Class-B uniforms, obviously. It boils down more to the fact that I believe whole-heartedly in the Boy Scouting Movement. As long as I have the means, I will do whatever I can to support the program. It has given me so many life skills and taught me the essential principles of life that I want my sons (and daughters) to have the same opportunities that I did.

*steps off soapbox*

Ok, last item, I promise.
I am planning on starting a venture crew. See "The Link Below" for more details.

And for now, I leave you in peace.

Song of the Day – Clocks – Coldplay

Quote of the Day – "It's a job that's never started that takes the longest to finish." – J. R. R. Tolkien

peace
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