Still Can't Get Something for Nothing

This TV appeared out of nowhere through ordinary circumstances at my house, and sat in my garage for the better part of six months. No one could figure out who it actually belonged to, but my brother wanted it out of the garage, because he wanted to pretend to do some work out there, without the cumbersome girth of the 25 inch screen monster in his way. Nowadays that doesn't seem so big, except it is a slightly older model, (maybe 10 years old) so it had a large backside, even though it was front-heavy.

Long story short it ended up in my room, we had tested it out it looked fine, but no more than 24 hours later and the screen starts moving and flipping on its own, and then filling with static. The thing sucks and it is broken, and now a day after it was moved into my room it becomes entirely obvious why it was in the garage. So I carried it back downstairs, (it's raining out so outside will have to wait until tomorrow) but I'm disappointed. Let it not be said that 19 inches is too small, as long as the color stays true, and the image sharp.

Worried About Nothing

I was actually concerned that my other website of the same name would grow stagnant after the election, and I would have nothing to write about after the political angle dried up. Now, however, I see I had nothing to worry about, since I have found a new cause to advocate, and that is the free distribution of open-source software.

In many cases just as good as the software corporations these free programs are often designed and structured around college programs and earnest groups of volunteers as apposed to the 'fly-by-nighters' and malware proponents some would have you believe. These open-source groups are dedicated to the ideal of providing a real alternative to the failed software industry, and are willing to allow free distribution of their creation, whether seen as a sevice or product, often times they also provide downloaders the access to become a part of their efforts as contributors.

This is an acceptable future for the computer as a tool, not a way of life. Software dictated by the needs of people, without the constraintsof an industrial complex founded on the basis of charging fees for maintainence, fees for upgrades, fees for repairs, etc.

My Computer Changes

The computer is looking much better, thanks to freebies. I thought this years ago and it still stands true. I am never upgrading past Windows 98. There is no point. You are basically just throwing money at a continuing problem, that refuses to fix itself, because it isn't profitable. Instead they keep offering fixes and patches, and upgrades, which never fully repair the problems.

changes to the PC software;

 -- browser --

was      : MS IE 6 with service pack 1

then was : Mozilla firefox

now      : MS IE 5 

(for windows) and firefox (for browsing); no evil updates

 -- desktop --

was      : standard desktop Win98 SE

then was : shell    desktop talisman 2

now      : standard desktop Win98 SE

(but looking for a good [and unlimited] desktop shell just like talisman2

also looking into; Linux or some Linux variant, for an Operating System.

Programs and Plans

This one was also sent in via E.mail. It also messed up boundaries by it's own html. I basically bitched about Malicious advertisement programs embedded in many downloads today and their effect on one's sanity. I ended up reformatting the harddrive. So, that obviously didn't go well.

Let me sum up;
anything that rewrites your registry in order to take over your computer and change it into a digital billboard is evil. Anyone who does this for a living is a whore.

Is This Thing On?

Just tried out the Posting via E.mail. It didn't go so well. I erased the message, and the format is all messed up on here. Damn narrow boundaries.

Annoyances In Life:

Job searches, Unemployment rates, Politics, Main-stream media, JackAsses, Bad coffee, Running out of cream, People who made Starbuck's thrive, Younger brothers, Older brother's need to talk almost constantly. Incessant comes to mind.
CEOs; all of them, people in charge and their inability to remember what it was to be unappreciated and under-compensated, the Internet, PC-viruses, hackers, stackers, and packers. Spellcheckers that never work, Checking my spelling using a dictionary, Pages with errors on them.
Pagers, Cellphones, Telemarketers, Telemarketers that call Cellphones. Technology based society, ineptitude, discourtesy, and the unskilled ignorant people with jobs treating others like they're better than them, rather than just better off.

A Fool's Errand

The old man walked the road every morning with his dog to get a newspaper and a coffee from the local farm-store.

The younger man drove by every day, and waved. This was the extent of their friendship.

Every morning that the young man worked, each going in the opposite direction, they would cross each other's path, and smile. Content that each other was well.

Then the man's dog was hit by a car. The old man grew sick, he no longer had a purpose to walk to the store every morning. He drove instead.

The younger man drove by every day, and wondered. This was the extent of his knowledge.

Every morning through that winter the old man missed his pet, and the younger man watched the icy road. Neither saw hope.

Then in the Spring after the snow had melted, the younger man found a lost puppy on the side of the road. He carried the dog in his lap, as he drove to work.

He saw the old man at the store, and stopped, he delivered to him a new reason to walk to the store every morning. Now he sees him walking everyday. They wave and smile that each other is well.

This is the extent of their friendship.

Back for Another Round

I am currently taking digital photographs, and making a master-invenotry list for my friend's website. It should be up and running shortly, even if only as a store catalogue for now. I also learned that a mutual friend, who shared the same sentence in high-school with me, works with webpages professionally. It was nice being able to discuss some of the issues of language code.

It also felt good to get out and get some work done, with the photography. When the site is finally posted, I'll make a link here. As always I am making modifications to the sibling website, as it has been a learning model for me.

A beautiful thing has been happening again. I have dreamed in terms of architecture. It probably sounds weird to non-architects, and also to some architects. But I am seeing forms and construction methods that translate well into actual buildings again. It felt for awhile that that portion of my brain had nearly turned itself off. Not as bad as losing my vision, more like if I had gone color blind. Or maybe as if I felt I had lost my sense of smell, and I could almost taste the ideas, but only in terms of sour, bitter, salty, or sweet.

Now both awake and asleep I am seeing my ideas in their full spectrum again, it is good, and I feel like designing again. This is something we used to say in our architectural program at school.

[ I Am An Architectural God ]
[ Ich Bein Ein Architektonisch Gott ]

An Endless Sea of Morons

What is happening to everybody involved in developing the internet. People went and got selfish. What happened to the lots of free stuff just waiting to be accessed? It all vanished, replaced by its retarded cousin; free-sample-you-must-buy-something.

Everything, and I mean EVERYTHING is being deemed a 'service', in the aftermath of the P2P crackdowns, disallusionment has really taken a foothold. No longer a world or sharing, unless you've signed up for about a million almost free memberships. For the same garbage you could surf absolutely free a decade ago.

Now if people think there is money to be had, there's a price tag, and it usually dangling in front of the images. Made some stupid buttons using Photoshop? List a couple of examples and hang a shingle as a graphic designer. Got a stupid cartoon that looks like a third-grader eeked it out holding the pen between his thumbs? You too can market your crap on a coffee mug and be signed up with pay-pal. Got nice boobs? Pay for college with them.

You get the point, this is getting more and more ridiculous by, well at least by the month. Everytime I make a search it seems things have gotten more restrictive. Now I added my name to an add-your-url-to-search-engine service months ago. It was supposed to add my own garbage little site to the likes of Yahoo! and Google ages ago. I just did a web search using my URL and nada came up.

To top it off, now when I look for search engine promotion 'services' I'm finding VERY little for free. WTF, I just want to put my site up so my friends can look at my dumb little site. I'm not making any money you 'tards, so I'm not paying for anything. Anything. I'm sure if I keep looking, I'll find what I'm looking for, but it took almost no time at all to find a free little javascript chat to add to my site. It should all be that easy.

Brain Lint:
Google found it first try in 0.33 seconds.

More Brain Lint:
Shortly after this post, Angelfire added yet another irritant called the lycos-sidebar to all free pages.

I am now in the process of moving my entire site to a new server.

It's Been a Busy Week.

I've been spending a couple of days working on a business related website for a friend of mine. It looks like it is turning out well for someone who doesn't get paid for this sort of thing. Also it was put together only using code I understand myself. I just need to spend a little time working out the code for things like order-forms, and maybe a few more sharp looking graphics.

This morning I went along with my Dad to look at the alternative tile product that has been advertised at LOWE'S; Edge & Precizion Tile.

We watched a demonstration video outlining the whole process. It is garbage. The backing-board is made out of particle board which can't get wet; you're not supposed to let standing water occur, but it is safe for bathroom application, the special grout is intolerant to alcohol-based cleansers; I imagine that means the stuff will dissolve in it, so basically the tile backing will eventually rot and break underneath the tile, the grout lines will split, and you'll be left with a worse mess than when you started. And it isn't cheap either, It can run up to $4.18 SF ($8.36 per panel) as apposed to $2.24 for regular porcelain 12x12 tiles.

So installation, application, and maintainence all add up to;

a.) not as durable
b.) just as difficult
c.) more likely to fail

Law of Averages

It takes the average intern architect about 3 years of working in the profession to learn enough to take the ARE.

The average advertisement for intern architect jobs asks for 5-7 years experience.

More and more I also see licensure preferred...FUCK YOU.

To those individuals who are solidly ingrained in the industry:

Stop treating young architects who've put in their time, like garbage. Stop withholding the ability to get in the field from those of us who haven't gotten the chance yet. Stop outsourcing jobs to foriegn countries, or at least stop screwing those guys by paying licensed architects in other countries a tenth of what their owed.

Stop being the spoiled stupid little assholes you are, or you will kill the field of architecture.

Authoring Webpages

Working more on both my political humor-based Webpage, and my new resume Webpage. Both free servers have their ups and downs, but today, while I was free to adjust files in the 'manager', I wasn't allowed to view any of them, because 741 was down for maintenance until 12 PM MST. I assume that means tomorrow, because by almost 4 PM EST they were still down. It happens.

Angelfire fared better today. Having no means of viewing my Webpage, I imported it into the Lycos Interface I viewed it as a Webpage there. It looked much as I expected.

So tonight I am finishing my online effort by writing an innocuous paragraph or two here. One website I've been particularly thankful for is the W3 Schools Website. I've been viewing a lot of their free excercises and using them as a reference for my own html and css documents.

That's all for now. I'll think of more tomorrow.

The Useless Tree

There is a tree, so full of knots at its base.
Full of twisted branches, so irregular,
that it will never serve a carpenter's purpose.

The tree sits idle, in its wasteland surroundings.
Its purpose is its life's duration, alone in its beauty.
It will forever sit undisturbed.

Its permanance provides comfort.
Its shadey branches provide relief.
It claims no innate value to others.

How can I measure up to its ignoble importance.
How can I find my life's purpose, when I too,
sit useless and undisturbed in my wasteland.

---

-interpreted from the way of chuang tzu-