As some of you may notice that line from and Anti-Flag song, you might guess that this post will be something about the nature of my political thought, or my interest in punk rock music.
If you guessed the latter of the two, you are right.
I am a guy who enjoys his punk music, and it can almost be attributed to the Anti-Flag song that I referenced in my title. For those of you who dont know the song, it is called "911 for peace". When I first heard the song, I was probably in 7th or 8th grade, I heard it on a mix cd I got from one of my friends. It didnt really do much for me until I bought the cd that the song was on. Mobilize is a great album for someone new to Anti-Flag. First, it shows off the nature of the band and what they are all about in terms of wanting peace, and political freedom. Secondly, it is able to showcase some of their other songs from earlier albums in the form of a live section at the end of it.
This was the album that got me into punk rock. Of course, I was also plagued with what many people would find as an abomination to music, I listened to mainstream pop-punk bands such as Blink-182, Good Charlotte, and Simple Plan. This was part of a phase I went through while growing up, it happens to the best of us (at least thats what i tell myself).
But back to my first "real" punk rock experience. The other things that stuck out to me was what the band had written on the last page of the booklet that came with the album. They wrote about how the record came into being. How they had originally intended to write a full album with fresh material, but then came the defining moment, 9/11. They explained their reaction, which was very different from the rest of the nation at the time. Instead of buying into the bullshit the media and the government was selling us, and which my young mind easily grasped on to, they took a different approach. They wrote the song 911 for peace, and quickly got it out there, they played live shows, they did all they could to get people to see what was really going on, and that it was a bad thing to make rash decisions on a whim.
By seeing this, and how they handled the situation, and hearing the music, Justin Sane's intense singing and wonderful lyrics, Chris Head's great guitar playing, keeping the song together, Pat Thetic's amazing drumming, giving it a great beat, and most importantly, hearing Chris #2's amazing bass playing, to me, was a great experience. It allowed me to look into a part of music that i had never really experienced before. It gave me something to strive for musically (being a terrible bass player at the time, Chris #2 really helped me push myself). I really owe a lot to the band.
I have since changed a lot of my musical interests, although the majority of what i listen to is punk, I still tend to mix it up at times. But the band that i will still go back to, time and time again, will always be anti-flag.
Tuesday, October 23, 2007
Sunday, October 14, 2007
You know you're a computer nerd when...
...you spend your weekend helping your friend install Linux.
Yea, thats right, that would make me a computer nerd. Does this worry me? No, that's who i am.
But i do feel it is necessary that people understand how to use computers. Maybe it is the nerd within me that is saying this, or maybe it is the truth.
I have been working in jobs in one form of tech support or another. I had my job at my high school where my responsibility was to fix just about any sort of problem with people's computers. The thing about this job was that it was quite easy now that i look back on it. The reason for this is because i always had something to fall back on, I could always just re-image a computer and that would be the magic solution, but, the problem with that was that more people were saving their personal stuff on the local drive of the computer. This caused me to have to look for different ways to fix problems. This is where i learned the most. At least, until my job at RCC.
My job at RCC is just wonderful, I get to go and fix people's computers, and they love me for it. It does have its downside thought. There are the times where people have such a bad problem that they need to have Windows reinstalled, or a hard drive crashes and they lose some big important project that they didnt back up. I really do hate when i have to tell people that they just lost everything due to the imperfect nature of some computers.
But this brings me to my main point. The fact that i think that more poeple should at least try to learn more than they know about computers.
Computers have been around for the past 30 years or so, and since then, they have rapidly advanced to the point where they can simplify a large majority of people's lives, but only if they knew how to do it.
This is how I use computers to my advantage.
I no longer need any form of newspaper thanks to both my rss reader and digg.com. These are the two ways I can get the news that I am interested in, and filter out what i dont care about.
In order to keep in touch with people, i of course have an aim screen name, who doesn't? But who uses AOL's shitty aim program to use their aim? Thanks to the world of open-source development, i am able to enjoy the social benefits of aim, but i am also able to stay away from all the shit that is packaged with the AOL software. This is the beauty of Pidgin (and Adium on my mac). If i am making plans for the future, such as a possible party, or something i need to do, i use the power of the almighty Google to keep track of my daily events including my work schedule, and my classes as well. This gives me a visual representation of what i am doing during the day, and it can even send me a text message to remind me to go do something.
Now that i am on the subject of text messaging, I wonder how many people know how amazing and powerful Google SMS is. Check it out, it has saved me in times of hunger.
How why do people not actively look for these types of technological time savers? I havent figured that out yet. It could possibly be from the lack of motivation, or just the ability to be able to make due with what you have without a computer. But, what i see living on a college campus, (just about) everyone has a computer and all those services are out there for the discovering.
I dont know, it just seems strange to me when i go on appointments and people tell me that all they use their computer for is aim, facebook, word, and the internet. There is so much more to discover.
So i shall try to make a good list of links of stuff that i use to help use technology to make life more productive.
Yea, thats right, that would make me a computer nerd. Does this worry me? No, that's who i am.
But i do feel it is necessary that people understand how to use computers. Maybe it is the nerd within me that is saying this, or maybe it is the truth.
I have been working in jobs in one form of tech support or another. I had my job at my high school where my responsibility was to fix just about any sort of problem with people's computers. The thing about this job was that it was quite easy now that i look back on it. The reason for this is because i always had something to fall back on, I could always just re-image a computer and that would be the magic solution, but, the problem with that was that more people were saving their personal stuff on the local drive of the computer. This caused me to have to look for different ways to fix problems. This is where i learned the most. At least, until my job at RCC.
My job at RCC is just wonderful, I get to go and fix people's computers, and they love me for it. It does have its downside thought. There are the times where people have such a bad problem that they need to have Windows reinstalled, or a hard drive crashes and they lose some big important project that they didnt back up. I really do hate when i have to tell people that they just lost everything due to the imperfect nature of some computers.
But this brings me to my main point. The fact that i think that more poeple should at least try to learn more than they know about computers.
Computers have been around for the past 30 years or so, and since then, they have rapidly advanced to the point where they can simplify a large majority of people's lives, but only if they knew how to do it.
This is how I use computers to my advantage.
I no longer need any form of newspaper thanks to both my rss reader and digg.com. These are the two ways I can get the news that I am interested in, and filter out what i dont care about.
In order to keep in touch with people, i of course have an aim screen name, who doesn't? But who uses AOL's shitty aim program to use their aim? Thanks to the world of open-source development, i am able to enjoy the social benefits of aim, but i am also able to stay away from all the shit that is packaged with the AOL software. This is the beauty of Pidgin (and Adium on my mac). If i am making plans for the future, such as a possible party, or something i need to do, i use the power of the almighty Google to keep track of my daily events including my work schedule, and my classes as well. This gives me a visual representation of what i am doing during the day, and it can even send me a text message to remind me to go do something.
Now that i am on the subject of text messaging, I wonder how many people know how amazing and powerful Google SMS is. Check it out, it has saved me in times of hunger.
How why do people not actively look for these types of technological time savers? I havent figured that out yet. It could possibly be from the lack of motivation, or just the ability to be able to make due with what you have without a computer. But, what i see living on a college campus, (just about) everyone has a computer and all those services are out there for the discovering.
I dont know, it just seems strange to me when i go on appointments and people tell me that all they use their computer for is aim, facebook, word, and the internet. There is so much more to discover.
So i shall try to make a good list of links of stuff that i use to help use technology to make life more productive.
- Digg - a great social news site, by making an account, you can vote on news stories that you like and possibly make them popular
- Last.fm - a wonderful music networking site, think of it as a mix of facebook with music, you use their software to keep track of the music you listen to, and then you can make friends online based on your musical compatibility (which is calculated for you). And dont forget to add me as a friend!!
- Google Calendar - the online calendar program i use, very nice clean interface, some alternatives to this are Sunbird, the Mozilla Calendar Project, and iCal for those mac users
- Google SMS - I covered this earlier, its great to get quick results when you arent by a computer
- Google Reader - subscribe to online feeds with this, you can stay up to date on blogs (like mine!) and other news sites.
- Lifehacker - a great site that has a slew of great tricks and techniques to use technology to make your life more productive
Saturday, October 6, 2007
Ladies??
"So hey, how them ladies treating you lately???"
Oh, a question i hear far too often, and every single time i have the same exact answer for it. So now, if i am in any sort of online conversation with someone and they ask me that, i can now direct them to this blog post.
So how are the ladies treating me lately?? Well, they haven't really been treating me very much at all. And, to tell you the truth, i really dont mind anymore. Does this mean that i am no longer interested in girls? No, it is far from that, hell, there even might be some special someone whom i have my eye one, but would you like to fucking know.
I have looked back on my (two) past relationships, and have had the chance to talk openly about them, and i have come to terms with the fact that they were learning experiences for me. I have not been in a relationship for almost two years now, and i have seen many ups and many downs in terms of relatinoships.
This is a prime example of how these "ups" go to "lows", it is a very interesting process, but i just cant seem to figure out why it happens time after time. First, i meet a girl somehow, i dont know, from somewhere, sometimes they magically appear, i find her to be interesting so i try to strike conversation with her somehow. This kind of conversation usually consists of pointless small talk and mindless flirting. Next, after sort of getting to know this girl, i try to show her a little bit about who i am, and mind you, if you dont know already, i am quite an interesting personality. It usually rarely makes it to this point because said girl will somehow be turned off by something i may say that might be misunderstood in translation, or something about who i am and how i act. This "Cycle of Infatuation" has been going on for over two years as i have tried to create meaning relationships with the lady-folk. I have always been met with disappointment.
So now im sure someone is saying "Oh woes is you who cant have any luck with the ladies." I am not one to ask for sympathy, and if you think i am, then you have greatly misunderstood me. I am writing this as a way for me to attempt to catalog the events in my life as well as try to understand why things happen to me the way that they do. The day that i do write a blog that is whiny and over-dramatic, i ask you to write me a comment calling my a hypocrite, please, for my sake.
So now that i have taken a look into my past, i shall wonder about the future. What types of things does it hold. What kinds of awkward circumstances will i find myself in. Will i really find true love, or is it just a myth. I really dont know. I feel that if i continue to live out my life the way that i am, that i will maybe, hopefully find someone who has the capacity to understand me, and to whom i will fill some sort of possible void in their life as well.
Ok, that was kind of strange, but i dont know, that is kind of how i think, there might be someone out there who might be somewhat similar to me, and also have the feminine parts downstairs, its a possibility. And a possibility at that, one i hope that will become a reality.
Oh, a question i hear far too often, and every single time i have the same exact answer for it. So now, if i am in any sort of online conversation with someone and they ask me that, i can now direct them to this blog post.
So how are the ladies treating me lately?? Well, they haven't really been treating me very much at all. And, to tell you the truth, i really dont mind anymore. Does this mean that i am no longer interested in girls? No, it is far from that, hell, there even might be some special someone whom i have my eye one, but would you like to fucking know.
I have looked back on my (two) past relationships, and have had the chance to talk openly about them, and i have come to terms with the fact that they were learning experiences for me. I have not been in a relationship for almost two years now, and i have seen many ups and many downs in terms of relatinoships.
This is a prime example of how these "ups" go to "lows", it is a very interesting process, but i just cant seem to figure out why it happens time after time. First, i meet a girl somehow, i dont know, from somewhere, sometimes they magically appear, i find her to be interesting so i try to strike conversation with her somehow. This kind of conversation usually consists of pointless small talk and mindless flirting. Next, after sort of getting to know this girl, i try to show her a little bit about who i am, and mind you, if you dont know already, i am quite an interesting personality. It usually rarely makes it to this point because said girl will somehow be turned off by something i may say that might be misunderstood in translation, or something about who i am and how i act. This "Cycle of Infatuation" has been going on for over two years as i have tried to create meaning relationships with the lady-folk. I have always been met with disappointment.
So now im sure someone is saying "Oh woes is you who cant have any luck with the ladies." I am not one to ask for sympathy, and if you think i am, then you have greatly misunderstood me. I am writing this as a way for me to attempt to catalog the events in my life as well as try to understand why things happen to me the way that they do. The day that i do write a blog that is whiny and over-dramatic, i ask you to write me a comment calling my a hypocrite, please, for my sake.
So now that i have taken a look into my past, i shall wonder about the future. What types of things does it hold. What kinds of awkward circumstances will i find myself in. Will i really find true love, or is it just a myth. I really dont know. I feel that if i continue to live out my life the way that i am, that i will maybe, hopefully find someone who has the capacity to understand me, and to whom i will fill some sort of possible void in their life as well.
Ok, that was kind of strange, but i dont know, that is kind of how i think, there might be someone out there who might be somewhat similar to me, and also have the feminine parts downstairs, its a possibility. And a possibility at that, one i hope that will become a reality.
Tuesday, October 2, 2007
great weekend or the greatest weekend??
so this past weekend was quite possibly one of my favorite so far this school year
it starts off just like most fridays for me, the typical friday meeting for my job at rcc, even though we are trying to have these meetings every other weekend, i have always seen them as being sort of a begining point for the weekend, after that, im free for the next 72 (or so) hours to basically do whatever i want. so like the typical computer nerd that i am, i start it off by playing a computer game, more specifically, starcraft. now, what makes this even more interesting is the fact that i have finally figured our how to get starcraft up and running on my linux computer (a major feat for me at least) so after a few hours of playing that, i get an instant message asking about going to someone's room to see a movie. i think the first movie they were watching was something that i wasn't interested in so i passed on that and went back to my game. a few hours later though, i got another instant message saying that they were going to watch "Lucky Number Slevin" (i think thats how you spell it) so i decided to go see that, ive never seen it before and i have always wanted to. and talk about an amazing movie, this was the type of movie that did not stop until the very end, i was sucked into it from the first 2 minutes where someone gets shot, its one of those movies where you can try and figure out what is going on, but you never will be able to, it was great.
so before i went up to watch the movie, i figured i would bring one of my own to share and see if they wanted to watch it afterward. the movie i brought, "SLC Punk" one of my favorite movies. unfortunately, after Lucky Number Slevin, everyone was pretty tired and everyone went to bed, so no SLC Punk for me that night.
saturday started off typically, i woke up at about 12, i showered, sat in my room playing on the interweb for a while, and then katy asks if i wanted to go to breakfast with her and her roommate and some other people, i figure that i havent had breakfast and i was quite hungry and also contimplating on going anyways, i figured id go and enjoy a nice sundial breakfast. the only problem though was that the sundial stops serving breakfast at 2 now, instead of 3 from what i remembered, so i was quite upset about that.
so when i got back to my room after my lunch which was supposed to be breakfast, i went once again into a battle for survival in another mission in starcraft. i was doing quite well also, but i got to the point where my eyes were glazed over so i had to stop. and what more to relieve myself the eyestrain of a game like that?? web design!!
from trying to first figure out virtual hosts in apache (which i was able to do) to then trying to get my design to fit my css layout, and then realizing that it would not work, it was quite a fun experience . so after a few hours fiddling with that, i find out that kelly is watching blades of glory, so i went up there and watched the end of it (i missed my favorite part tho)
so after that, i come back to my room and play around with some stuff, watch tv, check out digg, and then check my facebook, i find that roseann wrote on my wall, and it was a quote from SLC Punk (the movie i was wanting to watch the night before) so i got all excited and replied back. then when i see she was online, i make plans and go off to her apartment to watch the movie
as always, it was a great time with a great movie and great company. after that, me and her pretty much talked for nearly 2 hours, about everything from grade school to friends to relationships, it was really nice, i never really have many friends whom i can talk to like that, and its always nice for someone like me to be able to have decent conversation with someone, and to know who i am talking to actually cares about what i have to say. ive realized that we have been through so much already, and its all been for the best because we are such good friends now and that is a good thing.
so after the kinda scary walk home at 2 o'clock at night, i came back to my room where my roommate was asleep, i really wish i didnt wake him up, i always get paranoid like that when i come back late and hes asleep. but i got on my computer and talked to roseann even more over instant messenger. and when she decided to go to bed, i got an invitation to go upstairs and see queen of the damned. so i went and watched that until like 4 when i got way too tired to do anything more
so i went back and went to bed, once again hoping to not wake up my roommate. i didnt get up till like 12:30 maybe and i got up and showered. when i was getting dressed, i got an instant message from chris saying that we were prolly gonna be leaving at about 3 to go to columbus to see strike anywhere. the reason for this was because dustin had some stuff to do on the way and we had some other people to pick up
so after a few hours of running around the columbus area and picking up people and eating food, we finally got to the venue and let me tell you, it was a quaint little joint, i dont know, thats the only way i can think to explain it. it was kinda small but it was big enough. it reminded me of a mix between the HiFi in cleveland and Howards in BG except a lot nicer than the both. thats the thing i noticed about columbus, everything is just nicer than cleveland, it made me kinda jealous in a way. but thats beside the point cause strike anywhere was amazing!
the show was seriously wonderful. everyone in the band was just really cool, thomas, their lead singer was walking around talking to everyone before and after they played
there were three songs that they played that stuck out to me
the first one was Chalkline: the song is sort of a womens issues type of song, more or less being about how women today are expected to be and act a specific way. i dont know, it was really nice the way thom introduced the song, it struck me how amazing the song is.
the second song that stuck out to me was Allies: this song is about matthew shepard, didnt even know that. upon listening to the chorus of words that was being screamed at the top of everyones lungs, the true meaning came out to me. i also figured that it might be starting to become a sort of cliche to write and sing songs like this (gay rights) because the gay community has started to get just a little bit of much deservered acceptacnce, but nothing near what they should have, and thats what songs like this try to achieve, they remind people of the tragic things that have happened out of the ignorance of others, and they keep reminding people of that so that they are forced to learn from it. i find nothing wrong with that, being forced to learn from other people's ignorance.
the third song which stuck out to me was Sunset on 32nd: of course i would say this, its just an amazing song, i have already written why i love it, so i will not try to repeat myself. it was just nice to be there singing along with everyone and enjoying myself during that song and all the rest
well, after the show we stuck around and talked to the band a bit as they were breaking down their own stuff (no roadies, very noble) and then we enjoyed a 2 and a half hour drive back to BG.
so there it is, a great weekend. first for me in a long time, i just wish that the next few will be just as great, but that will be almost like asking too much, so i will still be satisfied with what i have coming my way.
so for one of my longest blog posts on any of my previous blogs, i will leave you all with that, hope you had as much fun reading it as i had writing it
it starts off just like most fridays for me, the typical friday meeting for my job at rcc, even though we are trying to have these meetings every other weekend, i have always seen them as being sort of a begining point for the weekend, after that, im free for the next 72 (or so) hours to basically do whatever i want. so like the typical computer nerd that i am, i start it off by playing a computer game, more specifically, starcraft. now, what makes this even more interesting is the fact that i have finally figured our how to get starcraft up and running on my linux computer (a major feat for me at least) so after a few hours of playing that, i get an instant message asking about going to someone's room to see a movie. i think the first movie they were watching was something that i wasn't interested in so i passed on that and went back to my game. a few hours later though, i got another instant message saying that they were going to watch "Lucky Number Slevin" (i think thats how you spell it) so i decided to go see that, ive never seen it before and i have always wanted to. and talk about an amazing movie, this was the type of movie that did not stop until the very end, i was sucked into it from the first 2 minutes where someone gets shot, its one of those movies where you can try and figure out what is going on, but you never will be able to, it was great.
so before i went up to watch the movie, i figured i would bring one of my own to share and see if they wanted to watch it afterward. the movie i brought, "SLC Punk" one of my favorite movies. unfortunately, after Lucky Number Slevin, everyone was pretty tired and everyone went to bed, so no SLC Punk for me that night.
saturday started off typically, i woke up at about 12, i showered, sat in my room playing on the interweb for a while, and then katy asks if i wanted to go to breakfast with her and her roommate and some other people, i figure that i havent had breakfast and i was quite hungry and also contimplating on going anyways, i figured id go and enjoy a nice sundial breakfast. the only problem though was that the sundial stops serving breakfast at 2 now, instead of 3 from what i remembered, so i was quite upset about that.
so when i got back to my room after my lunch which was supposed to be breakfast, i went once again into a battle for survival in another mission in starcraft. i was doing quite well also, but i got to the point where my eyes were glazed over so i had to stop. and what more to relieve myself the eyestrain of a game like that?? web design!!
from trying to first figure out virtual hosts in apache (which i was able to do) to then trying to get my design to fit my css layout, and then realizing that it would not work, it was quite a fun experience . so after a few hours fiddling with that, i find out that kelly is watching blades of glory, so i went up there and watched the end of it (i missed my favorite part tho)
so after that, i come back to my room and play around with some stuff, watch tv, check out digg, and then check my facebook, i find that roseann wrote on my wall, and it was a quote from SLC Punk (the movie i was wanting to watch the night before) so i got all excited and replied back. then when i see she was online, i make plans and go off to her apartment to watch the movie
as always, it was a great time with a great movie and great company. after that, me and her pretty much talked for nearly 2 hours, about everything from grade school to friends to relationships, it was really nice, i never really have many friends whom i can talk to like that, and its always nice for someone like me to be able to have decent conversation with someone, and to know who i am talking to actually cares about what i have to say. ive realized that we have been through so much already, and its all been for the best because we are such good friends now and that is a good thing.
so after the kinda scary walk home at 2 o'clock at night, i came back to my room where my roommate was asleep, i really wish i didnt wake him up, i always get paranoid like that when i come back late and hes asleep. but i got on my computer and talked to roseann even more over instant messenger. and when she decided to go to bed, i got an invitation to go upstairs and see queen of the damned. so i went and watched that until like 4 when i got way too tired to do anything more
so i went back and went to bed, once again hoping to not wake up my roommate. i didnt get up till like 12:30 maybe and i got up and showered. when i was getting dressed, i got an instant message from chris saying that we were prolly gonna be leaving at about 3 to go to columbus to see strike anywhere. the reason for this was because dustin had some stuff to do on the way and we had some other people to pick up
so after a few hours of running around the columbus area and picking up people and eating food, we finally got to the venue and let me tell you, it was a quaint little joint, i dont know, thats the only way i can think to explain it. it was kinda small but it was big enough. it reminded me of a mix between the HiFi in cleveland and Howards in BG except a lot nicer than the both. thats the thing i noticed about columbus, everything is just nicer than cleveland, it made me kinda jealous in a way. but thats beside the point cause strike anywhere was amazing!
the show was seriously wonderful. everyone in the band was just really cool, thomas, their lead singer was walking around talking to everyone before and after they played
there were three songs that they played that stuck out to me
the first one was Chalkline: the song is sort of a womens issues type of song, more or less being about how women today are expected to be and act a specific way. i dont know, it was really nice the way thom introduced the song, it struck me how amazing the song is.
the second song that stuck out to me was Allies: this song is about matthew shepard, didnt even know that. upon listening to the chorus of words that was being screamed at the top of everyones lungs, the true meaning came out to me. i also figured that it might be starting to become a sort of cliche to write and sing songs like this (gay rights) because the gay community has started to get just a little bit of much deservered acceptacnce, but nothing near what they should have, and thats what songs like this try to achieve, they remind people of the tragic things that have happened out of the ignorance of others, and they keep reminding people of that so that they are forced to learn from it. i find nothing wrong with that, being forced to learn from other people's ignorance.
the third song which stuck out to me was Sunset on 32nd: of course i would say this, its just an amazing song, i have already written why i love it, so i will not try to repeat myself. it was just nice to be there singing along with everyone and enjoying myself during that song and all the rest
well, after the show we stuck around and talked to the band a bit as they were breaking down their own stuff (no roadies, very noble) and then we enjoyed a 2 and a half hour drive back to BG.
so there it is, a great weekend. first for me in a long time, i just wish that the next few will be just as great, but that will be almost like asking too much, so i will still be satisfied with what i have coming my way.
so for one of my longest blog posts on any of my previous blogs, i will leave you all with that, hope you had as much fun reading it as i had writing it
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