Archive for the ‘General’ Category
Filed under: General
Writing and studying is a two edged sword, especially when you need to do both. Both are great fun, but having both to do cuts into how much of each you can get done. It makes it challenging to complete things in a timely manner, mainly because timely becomes highly subjective and you get lost in the minutes. No, I am not drinking anything, just letting the thoughts wander so this is going to be another one of those “what the” posts. It is easy to find that you haven’t any idea what you have been doing when you look up at the clock and wonder where the time has gone.
I tend to find myself thinking that almost every day anymore. Things just get busier and busier and as that happens it often follows that less gets done. Comparatively more gets done but it feels like less is being accomplished. Which can cause even less to be done because we fall into the idea that we aren’t getting anything done so we start to feel somewhat incapable, when in fact we are already working at a higher than normal rate. People need to take breaks every once in a while, myself included. Take the time to refresh as you can and get caught up with yourself. It can be easy to find yourself lost and following along behind your actions wondering when you will get a minute to contemplate what has gone by. Although as I understand it some people aren’t that way, and find it nonsense to even think about thinking about what they have done or are doing. Self contemplation is truly anathema to some. However, one thing to keep in mind if you are into history or just interesting facts, gnothi sauton is written on the temple at Delphi, something that everyone who entered saw as they passed through to the inside. It means, “Know yourself.”
Filed under: General
Summer is closing down and that means winter driving conditions, which in turn means those that have trouble driving on just plain dry pavement are going to have trouble. The only problem with that is that the rest of us have to share the road with them. Therefore their trouble becomes ours and makes our commute more of a challenge. Who am I kidding; it makes getting into the car just plain more dangerous. A light rain and some people go into a panic. They either drive way too slow for the conditions or just ignore them completely. Both ways can lead to disaster, and a very unpleasant time for all involved. People forget all the rules of driving in rain and snow. They just let it all hang out, flapping in the wind, the rain and the snow flurries, for everyone to be hit with.
This is just a general shout out, and a request to all of the other drivers out there on the roads, wherever you are. The winter is coming up, icy conditions, slick conditions. Please pay attention to what you are doing and to those things around you. It’s not only your life it is all those people around you as well. How would you feel to find that some idiot driver who wasn’t driving and taking into account the current weather had killed your loved one? It is just not worth the trouble, and driving stupid just causes to many accidents that could easily be avoided.
Pay attention to what is happening around you while driving this winter, and more importantly be a little thought full. Slow down, let the other driver in, it won’t hurt and it could keep bad things from happening to everyone on the road. You don’t have to be courteous but at least try to be respectful, act like you want the other drivers to act towards you.
Tags: attention to the road, aware drivers, curteous driving, winter driving
Filed under: General, Internet
I complained a bit about having an antenna and how frustrating it can be sometimes to try and watch TV with it. But, I didn’t really talk much about IPTV, and I am sure many of you were thinking about that while reading my complaint post on antenna TV. Just getting TV over the internet would actually meet both of my requests, having more stability and being able to pretty much watch when I want to watch instead of being restricted to a schedule around TV. I like the idea but you have to have your computer connected to the TV or a big enough screen that you can use it as both a monitor and a TV. I bet, though, that they have other things out that are all in one items, where you can surf through your TV. The only ones I can think of in that regard, though, require you to have cable television as well as the internet. I will take a quick look. I am sure there are other options besides having to have cable and SDSL.
I just did a real quick search and in the UK and in the states you can find several places online that will let you watch TV. That’s pretty neat! Might save me some money. I also know that the local stations tend to offer many of their shows online for watching as well. Actually, one of the things I like about the local stations online is the way they handle their advertising there. The advertising online for the local channels is much more focused. Each show normally has only one or two sponsors so that is all you get as far as commercials, plus the amount of commercials you get is cut down a lot. It makes for a much more pleasant viewing experience to be honest, don’t forget, you can pause online as well.
Tags: air broadcast, nice online tv, Television, tv
Filed under: General
Don’t you hate studying? I mean the school required class type studying. Learning itself can and is normally fun, especially if you are learning something you are interested in, but having to learn stuff only because it is required for your degree is a bit of a pain sometimes. Really, sometimes more than others. Like when you have other stuff you want to do, but you know you have to get this done. It makes it even harder to focus on the required class stuff. What really sucks is that if you don’t do it and study for the stuff you could care less about, you will be stuck with it again. If it’s required for your major you have to have it. Cleps and other college test out things have saved me some pain, but sometimes you just have to bite the bullet and deal with the agony of college class requirement induced boredom.
Normally, I find myself getting over it about the last day of the semester when I can dump all the crap I had to learn that I will never use again, but still some stuffy fellow or lady somewhere decided it was good stuff for the program, people needed to know it to be successful. Yay, right. Most of the times it is only in their dreams and in their pasts where what they are requiring to be a part of a given degree path is really relevant. Seriously drives me nuts. And yes, you guessed it by sitting here typing to you about how annoying it is I am procrastinating, putting it off and basically trying to ignore it as long as I can. I know that is a pain when I am rushing at the last minute to finish things, but, heck, I still do it. Only for so long though, cause I really don’t want to be stuck doing it again next semester. Speaking of which I am kind of down to the wire here, so time to go put something together fairly quick.
Tags: boredom, required classes, school, study
Filed under: General
Football is getting ready to begin. American football. I enjoy watching it, but not really pre-season football. Pre-season football tends to be fairly boring to watch. I never really get into it as all it is, is the announcers running their mouths, kind of like me with my keyboard at the moment. They talk about whatever really strikes their fancy, although they do tend to keep the talk generally around the idea of football, it just seems like one monologue most of the time. Since I am not really a diehard fan of American football it just tends to bore the heck out of me, puts me to sleep. Plus the games tend to be a bit boring as well, so I normally don’t bother with pre-season games. I find the regular season games great fun to watch, though! They are really enjoyable to plan a small party around.
The regular season is great fun to watch, even though I do not have a favorite team. I do have some teams I prefer over others, but nobody I am following day to day. I have thought of the fantasy football league things, as I know a few people who do that but I think it probably would be a waste of my time to set up as I really doubt that I would pay attention to it every week. Watching the games, though is easy and fun because all I have to do is turn them on and sit back and enjoy. They make great white noise as well, when I am working on things I can just turn them on and half way watch the games. That, of course, only works when the game is not very exciting or it is not one of the teams that I do enjoy watching. I used to like Green Bay mainly because of Brett Favre but he has been such a disappointment in his actions and attitude recently that I don’t think he is worth the effort to watch anymore. Although, he will do fine as white noise.
Tags: american, football, green bay, pre-season
Filed under: General
Writing can sometimes be challenging. Trying to decide what to write, can take up large amounts of time if you let it. I think a lot of it has to do with your current state of mind. I find that many times when I am stressed, kind of like now, it is hard to hold focus to write about any particular thing. Problem being I need to write, it is great practice and it keeps me in food, so it is kind of an important thing. Many times I try to stare at the screen but it is almost like it sometimes has some sort of deflective field around it. You try and focus but your mind is gently shunted off on one or two of a million other pathways. You find yourself wandering down different thought lanes and something seems interesting so you take a minute to bring up explorer or firefox or chrome or whatever you use and then you do a search and see what you can find about whatever has caught your fancy. Then before you realize it you look at the time and an hour or so has already passed. So, you think a few swear words and bring the blank page back up. But, of course, it has that deflective field working still. You find yourself another hour later swearing one again, with perhaps a sigh of resignation as you realize that whatever field that blank page has, you must get through it.
I have heard many people say that the blank page is often a scary thing, but in all honesty it is not scary it is tricky. The blank page is extremely sneaky and a master of redirection. The only way to get past it’s initial defenses is to relax into it. Regardless of whether that means with a deep breath or a sludge hammer, it is just a matter of breaching that initial redirection and moving down the road of thought on screen.
Tags: blocks, pages, write, writers block, writing
Filed under: General
Hot again today, but to be honest with a few fans I can put up with the heat. However, my pets are really not fond of it. I can completely understand that, because it would really suck to have to wear a fur coat every day, even in really hot weather. People tend to forget about the coat their pets are wearing all the time. You see on the news a lot, about pets dying because they were left in hot cars or hot houses. I guess you can’t really be too surprised about it, though. Some people are just stupid, and when you hear regularly about children dying after being left in a hot car it makes it so much easier to understand how people can forget about their pets.
On really hot days and during the really hot summer times, what do you do with your pet. I can think of a couple of things, depending on what kind of pet you have. The first thing I can think of is something you should do for yourself as well. Air conditioning. That will make a huge difference in their comfort and in yours. It doesn’t help much if you don’t have it, though. Guess what. Yep, I don’t have it. Normally I wake up early and open the windows to air the place out and let some of the cooler morning air in to replace the stale air from the evening. I usually open things up in the evening as well when the temperature drops. Then close the windows before I go to sleep, although sometimes I leave them open during the night, just depends how hot it is inside. Besides trying to keep the place cool you can also use frozen water bottles for your pets. Maybe wrap it in a towel and set it someplace where they can lay beside it, of course that only works if you have small pets. Strategically placed fans are another good thing to do. I like to put cold water in front or behind the fans, that helps cool things down inside a bit. Speaking of which, think I will go do that before I melt away.
Tags: hot, Pet, summer and pets
Filed under: General
I know it is summer and we need to expect a bit of heat, but it has been seriously ridiculous here! We have had several days of around 41 Celsius. It has been really hot! I was thinking that it is a bit funny, cause I remember complaining about the cold just a little while ago, and now we are getting ridiculously hot days, I often feel like I will melt if I stay outside too much.
On really hot days you just don’t feel like doing much, the heat seems to drain you. Well, it drains me anyway. I thought most people were that way, but I met a guy the other day who was saying that the heat invigorates him. He said he loves working out on a hot day, prefers warm days to cold. I thought he was a bit crazy. I don’t know if he truly was or not, but probably not. People truly are just different in what they find enjoyable. Although really hot days I think the majority of people aren’t all that big on them. I personally have decided after a very, very cold winter that broke records and a summer that is shattering all sorts of records that I am ready for a place that is just in between those two extremes. I used to live in a place like that but moved because I honestly missed the seasons. Well, I did miss them but I don’t need these extremes to enjoy the weather.
It is just too hot to really enjoy any activity that has to do with the outdoors right now. Even swimming in a lake, pond or ocean would be unpleasant at the moment, mainly because of the sunburn you would end up with. The heat is ridiculous, and with not a cloud in the sky it is very unpleasant. I don’t want to complain too much here but maybe a cloud or two would be nice.
Tags: hot, hot summer, summer days, too hot
Filed under: General
Boy, real life really can take a toll on us, can’t it? Keeps us busy, even when we would just love a short break, maybe a holiday or two, or three. I have been trying to get to writing more but it seems to fall by the way side, but I am writing now. As you can see by the words I have written so far. And you are pretty much right, this post is mostly about not much. I am just letting my thoughts meander, almost like talking to myself, trying to bring forth that wisdom, those wonderful words that move me, from within. I apologize if I spoiled it for you, if you were wanting things to unfold in a slow but mysterious way. I will try that at a later time, I promise. Although I will not promise when, meaning could be next week or could be next year. I am sometimes like that. You get used to it, I did anyway.
Well, the words seem to be flowing now, more or less. I am currently burning a cd for a trip, I mean a physical movement of myself to another place not a mental trip. Just thought I should clarify as there were a couple of meaning there. At least there were a couple that I could see right after I wrote it. It’s alright though, if you were thinking the same thing, remember great minds think alike! Speaking of trips, don’t know about you but I am ready to stay home for a bit. I have been out almost everyday for a week or so and gone most every weekend. I think it is almost time for a nice relaxing, what do they call them? Oh, yes, a staycation. That really sounds funny, but I think I could certainly go for one right now.
Tags: meander, nothing, stay home
Filed under: General
It is good to be back writing, was taking care of some real life issues but those are done now. Time to get back into writing and start sharing all my wonderful thoughts and ideas again. I have come across quite a few interesting things recently but just haven’t had the chance to sit down and actually go over them so that I could share with you all. It is summer now, least it is here and that means fun in the sun when you can and relaxing evening when you can grab them. Finding that it hasn’t really been like that for a bit, just too much to do. Like the rest of you. Lots of things on the plate, but that is fine. I think we would all be very unhappy if the plate were empty. I don’t really know of anybody that like an empty plate. Seriously, who would? To strangle a metaphor, even if the food is getting all mixed together on the plate it is still so much nicer to have it on the plate than to be staring at a plate sadly devoid of anything.
Alright, then figure I should get on with things. Wonder what everyone has been up to? I have spent most of the time learning things and putting out fires here and there. It is somewhat exhausting; don’t think I had much sleep for a couple of weeks there. But, seem to be over the hump and ready for the next set of challenges, only this time I think I want them to be a bit more fun. I would get more specific but I really don’t want to bore everyone. I would like you to come back and see what is going on and some of the stuff I wanted to share my opinion on. Yeah. Who am I kidding, I want to share my opinion on everything. Probably wouldn’t be here otherwise.
Tags: busy, silence, travel, writing
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