Makey

Educational Leadership Project: A Christmas Play.

2012-02-23T01:55:00.000+01:00

Educational Leadership Project: A Christmas Play.: I said I would be in charge of the games on Christmas day when we joined a couple of friends. A trip to the 2 dollar shop saw me armed with ...

Seven great tips for making your baby fall asleep easily!

2012-02-21T01:50:00.000+01:00

Sleep is all about feeling safe and comfortable, the warm feeling of having nothing to worry about.

You probably know it from yourself, when you have something troubling your mind, it will be harder to fall asleep. Here are seven great tips on how to make both your child and yourself fall asleep more easily.

1. You must realise that there are no single solutions to a child’s sleep problems - if there were, it would not be such a disputable topic.

2. You must consider the individual child’s age, development and the types of sleep issues as a whole before you can help your child the right way. A toddler just 10 months old, who has just learned to crawl, will naturally sleep a bit uneasy at night, processing all of the new motor-skills they have acquired. A three year old who has just started kindergarten will have other reasons for their uneasy nights.

3. Keep a stable and consistent daily routine. A child who sleeps at approximately the same time every day, eats well, and is challenged as well as played with at an age-appropriate level, will naturally sleep better.

4. If a child is having trouble sleeping, you must let them know that you are there. Depending on the age and intensity of the crying, you must evaluate whether to pick up and comfort the child or sit next to it and hold hands. Sometimes reading a book or singing, letting the child hear your voice, is all it takes.

5. Learn to differentiate between when your child is crying out of fear or dissatisfaction. You will know when to pick up the child, and when it is enough to simply be present. As the child grows older, the crying will develop into protest rather than fear, and then it is ok to be a little more stringent. You must express that it has to sleep now, because he/she needs it.

6. Stay in contact with your Early Childhood Centre or parents. It is important for you as a parent or educator to stay in contact with the whānau surrounding the child. Staying informed about the child’s every day life will make it much easier for you to deal with the issues that arise. For busy parents, looking for Early Childhood Centres with E-portfolio solutions such as Educa, where parents and educators can communicate.

7. Trust yourself and don’t blindly follow others’ advice. Follow your heart and intuition. If what you are doing does not feel right, it may be an indication that it is not.

With that as my last comment, I’d like to ask you all how you make your children fall asleep? Comment below!

Anders Gerlev Hansen, 2012, all rights reserved.

Mega Man X for iPhone Guide - All Achievements and Upgrades

2011-12-24T06:25:00.004+01:00

Get all Mega Man X Achievements on the iPhone including Hadoken.
Viewing this on an iPhone? Visit the mobile version of this guide!

Mega Man X for iPhone

Less bullshit, more guide! Wondering how to complete all the challenges? Well, just read here. This guide is specifically made for Mega Man X for iPhone, for guides to other versions of Mega Man and Mega Man X, I recommend using Google!

One thing to keep in mind when working on gathering up achievements is, that when you got it, you got it. Same goes for collecting items. So when you have gotten what you came for in a specific stage, you can safely exit to the stage select and save the game.

A very short review of the game
I loved this game for SNES and had to get it. I still love it. The controls are so-so, decent for a touch-based interface. The game is easier to make up for this (e.g. monsters don't respawn). Some things have changed however, mechanic-wise, which is not good (the route of the Boomerang Cutter is different). All in all a good game with terrible controls.
Worth it? I think so. If you like 2D-sidescrolling pew-pew madness this is something for you.

Clearing the Stages

Achievements: Intro Stage Reclaimed, Snowy Fields Reclaimed, Power Plant Reclaimed, Energy Mine Reclaimed, Oceanic Base Reclaimed, Fortress Tower Reclaimed, Forest Base Reclaimed, New-Type Airport Reclaimed, Weapons Plant Reclaimed, Sigma's Palace Pt. 1, Sigma's Palace Pt. 2, Sigma's Palace Pt. 3, Sigma's Palace Pt. 4

These achievements are fairly easy to get and also award the least points. Don't worry about these as you will get them as you progress throughout the game. In the bottom of this guide you will find a short strategy guide to each boss, to help you defeat these.
Clearing all stages (including the last Sigma Stage) and saving will not prevent you from going back and using that same profile to complete achievements.

Collecting the Parts
Achievements: 100-yard Dash!, Tough Guy, Hard-Headed, Unstoppable Firepower

Gathering these achievements, must to some degree be done in a specific order. The optimal order is to do take the dash first (Chill Penguin Stage), then go for the helmet (Storm Eagle Stage), now you can take the X-Buster (Flame Mammoth Stage) and the Armor Upgrade (Sting Chameleon Stage). This is because it is impossible to get the X-Buster upgrade with Helmet and Boots, and the Armor does not matter that much (reduces damage taken by 50%).
Once you get an upgrade, you got it (on that save), so after claiming each upgrade you can safely exit the stage and do another if you wish to collect all the upgrades before you complete the stages.

Boots
Easiest to get upgrade, go to the Chill Penguin Stage and complete it as you would normally, once you enter the cave and climb past the spinning wheels and bats, you meet a capsule, take it and voila.
If you do not wish to get the shoes, you have to first talk to the man, and then jump over the capsule.

Helmet
In the Storm Eagle Stage, after the part with the floating platforms you must jump across, you will meet a tall metal pole, jump to the top of it, and slide down the other side. Jump off the platform at the bottom and reach the one to the right, go in and collect your price. You can now destroy rocks with a nice head-butt. This ability, together with dash, is required to collect the X-Buster upgrade.

Weapon

Weapon Upgrade location

Go to Flame Mammoth Stage, the first time you encounter the yellow platform with flames shooting up from underneath, you want to turn around and dash-jump off the yellow platform to the left as far as possible. Then with your helmet, head-butt the blocks and jump up till you see the capsule, collect your prize! Don't worry if you accidentally fall off after destroying a few blocks, it's still possible to get up there, even after destroying them all (this was not true for the original version of Mega Man X).

Armor
In the Sting Chameleon Stage, you will after a few black-outs see a huge chunk of rocks on the right, here, jump up and go right. Eventually you will fight a miniboss. The easiest way to defeat him is to simply shoot him in the head with the X-Buster, and when he jumps, dash all the way to the other side, jump and shoot again, when he jumps, dash back to the spawning point, jump and shoot and so on. Repeat until he dies. When the miniboss is dead, a capsule will appear, claim your prize and move on.

Getting Insured
Achievements: Insurance Plan A, Insurance Plan B, Insurance Plan C, Insurance Plan D

It does not matter in which order you collect these, however, one requires an upgrade, the other a weapon.

The first one I collect is in the Storm Eagle stage. When you meet the rotating turret on a platform that moves up, shoot it, and take the platform up, shoot the glass and go right, kill the robot, go right, collect the Subtank.

The second one is found in the Flame Mammoth stage and require you to have the boots upgrade. The first area with flames shooting from the ground and miners throwing their pickaxes at you, jump to the top left platform. From here, dash and jump to the left. You will see a wall of breakable bricks. Jump on them till they break and collect the Subtank.

The third one is found in the Armored Armadillo stage, first time you drop down in a whole and a bulldozer chases you, run until it dies, go back to where it came from and collect the Subtank. Alternately, slide down the wall until the bulldozer starts moving, then jump up and wait until it has passed, then you can drop down and kill it or just go and collect your prize and wait for it to die.

The last one is in the Spark Mandrill stage and requires the Boomerang Cutter. In the beginning of the level, move down and right as much as you can, and then when standing closest to the last wall you reach, jump and fire the Boomerang Cutter. This should collect the Subtank.

Acing the Hearts
Achivements: Ace of Hearts, 2 of Hearts, 3 of Hearts, 4 of Hearts, 5 of Hearts, 6 of Hearts, 7 of Hearts, 8 of Hearts

Each of the Maverick stages contains a Health Boost heart. In the order that I normally collect them:

Flame Mammoth Stage
In the area with the flame from the bottom and the miners throwing pickaxes, on the bottom level, move all the way to the right, collect your heart.

Chill Penguin Stage - Requires Fire Wave Weapon Upgrade
On top of the platform you meet after finding the first robot, destroy the bunkers using the Fire Wave weapon. You can get there either by jumping in the robot and then exiting it and jump up onto the "roof" of the cave, or walk through the cave and jump up there normally.

Spark Mandrill Stage - Requires Boots Upgrade or Boomerang Cutter
The first ladder you meet that leads to the remaining part of the level, jump up on the right side wall, dash jump away from the wall and up onto the platform and collect the heart. Alternately you can jump and use the Boomerang Cutter.

Storm Eagle Stage - Requires Boots Upgrade
In the first map, on the highest left-most point of the elevator, dash-jump to the left. Collect your heart.

Launch Octopus Stage
When you find the second whirlpool that leads up to a submarine, jump up and onto it. Shoot the glass "eye" until it falls down, let yourself fall down with it. Walk right, defeat the worm, go to the right and collect the heart.

Armored Armadillo Stage
The second time you jump down and face a bulldozer, kill it (with auto-fire cheat this goes fast), move right until you meet a platform, jump up there and collect the heart. You can easily see it.

Sting Chameleon Stage - Requires Boots Upgrade
Before the cave, where the miniboss entrance is right above you, slide down the wall instead. Here you will see a wall of breakable bricks. Break it, go as far right as you can, then dash-jump to the right onto a platform and collect the heart.

Boomer Kuwanger Stage - Requires Boomerang Cutter or Shotgun Ice+Boots Upgrade+Weapon Upgrade
You can't miss the location of this heart when walk through the stage, and you need to complete it before you can collect the heart. Use the Boomerang Cutter to collect it.
On the SNES, this could also be collected using a fully charged Shotgun Ice shot with the weapon upgraded, to make a skateboard, and from that, dash jump out and up onto the platform. However, it's not that easy with the touch controls so I haven't gotten around doing it on my own iPhone sadly.

Boss Weaknesses
Achievements: Emperor of Ice, Tsar of Electricity, General Steel, Captain of the Seas, Demon of Dimensions, Master of the Forest, Prince of the Skies, Oligarch of Oil, Wall of Terror, Carnivorous Tank, Loyal Wolf, End of an Era, Dawn of Destiny.
Use the below listed weapons of choice to defeat the bosses and obtain the achievements.
NOTE: It is only the LAST shot that counts, so beating the bosses with a different weapon and then finishing them off with their weakness will still grant you the achievement.
NOTE: You do not have to gather these achievements during your first run through of the Maverick bosses, you will face them all again during the Sigma parts and can kill them here (so you don't have to go back and redo bosses).

Boss	Weakness
Flame Mammoth	Storm Tornado
Chill Penguin	Fire Wave
Spark Mandrill	Shotgun Ice
Armored Armadillo	Electric Spark
Launch Octopus	Rolling Shield
Boomer Kuwanger	Homing Torpedo
Sting Chameleon	Boomerang Cutter
Storm Eagle	Chameleon Sting
Vile	Rolling Shield
Maverick Spider	Shotgun Ice
Rangda Bangda	Chameleon Sting
Maverick Tank	Boomerang Cutter
Velgauder	Shotgun Ice
Sigma	Electric Spark
Sigma's Final Form	Rolling Shield

Obtaining and using the Hadoken (Hadouken)
Achievement: Hadoken!

Getting your hands on the most powerful weapon in the game is quite simple, in comparison to the original: Gather all 8 Health Boosts, all 4 Subtanks, all 4 body upgrades and kill all 8 Maverick bosses. Basically, complete everything up until Sigma.

Then go to Armored Armadillo stage, and on the last wagon (the 3rd one), charge up for a super shot, release it while you in the middle of the screen, shoot some small shots to kill the birds ahead of you, and once the wagon is in free air and reaches its highest point, dash jump off to the right, jump up and take the Hadoken upgrade.

To use Hadoken, Press Down -> Left or Right -> Fire

NOTE: To be able to use Hadoken you MUST have full life.

HINT: An easy way to fire Hadoken is by sliding your finger the down button towards the middle of the screen really quick and then click fire. Remember that the down button dashes towards your target, so don't stand too close when trying to fire this weapon.

Other Achievements
Achievements: Bubbly Bat, Flashy Firefly, Whirlpool Stopper, Oil Well Sealer, Daring Collector, Merciful Hunter, Heartless Hunter, Nimble-Footed, Will to Live, Nerves of Steel, Item Hater, Unlimited Potential, Maverick Hunter, Speed Demon, S-A Class Hunter.

While most of these are self-explanatory from the list of achievements in the Game Center, some of them are not.

Bubbly Bat
In the Armored Armadillo Stage, instead of taking the mining carts (one-wheeled thing with spikes in the ends), walk. You will meet a big black bat, kill it, and you will receive your reward for killing the Batton M-501.

Flashy Firefly
In the Spark Mandrill Stage, in the area where the light flashes and those flies cross the screen illuminating a path behind them, that's a Hotarion. Kill one of these to get the achievement. Walk through this area a second time once you have learned when and where they spawn (always the same places).

Whirlpool Stopper - Requires Boomerang Cutter
Shoot at Launch Ocotopus with the Boomerang Cutter until his trunk falls off.

Oil Well Sealer - Requires Boomerang Cutter
Shoot at Flame Mammoth with the Boomerang Cutter until his trunk falls off.

Daring Collector - Requires Weapon Upgrade+Chameleon Sting
In Sigma's Palace, Pt. 3, when you get to a long row of spikes with items on top, charge up for an upgraded shot of Chameleon Ice, this will allow you to take no damage when you walk across the spikes and collect the items.

Merciful Hunter
Choose whichever stage you find the easiest and walk through it. Remember, you can lose life, just not fire any shots. Remember, Launch Octopus Stage is impossible to do this achievement in.

Heartless Hunter
This achievement is easiest to do on either Spark Mandrill or Boomer Kuwanger. Use Shotgun Ice to kill Spark Mandrill or Homing Torpedo on Boomer Kuwanger and you should get this in the first try. It might not be impossible for definitely very hard on bosses like Chill Penguin, Armored Armadillo, Launch Octopus, Sting Chameleon and Storm Eagle since they all have a way of avoiding your attacks.

Nimble-Footed
Pick your favorite stage and go slow, kill stuff instead of running into it. Abuse abilities like Chameleon Sting and Rolling Shield (fully charged) to protect yourself from harm.

Will to Live
Practice, don't die more than twice during any stage.

Nerves of Steel
Avoid taking damage, getting the Armor Upgrade helps a lot, reduces damage by 50%.

Item Hater
Not killing things in the first place helps you a lot on this one. Note: It says items, not upgrades, so get those!

Unlimited Potential
This one is harder, and almost requires that you use the strongest weapon against many bosses. Remember to charge your X-Buster!

Maverick Hunter
The X-Buster is really strong, and for this Achievement you can even collect the upgrade, which will make the fully charged shot as potent as the boss' weakness.

Speed Demon
Dash and dash-jumps are your friends. Using the strongest weapon against bosses helps too. Practice running fast!

S-A Class Hunter
Practice in avoiding the bosses skills. This one is definitely the hardest of all the 60 Achievements.

The Intro Stage

The Intro stage does not exactly contain any achievements, however, there are 20 bonus challenges to do for the completionist! Completing the challenges will make Doctor Thomas Light appear for you and tell you how awesome you are and invite you to complete the rest of the achievements above. In addition you will notice that as you complete the challenges, you obtain little pieces of a picture, once finished, you can tap the upper left corner of the screen to see the picture of the Mavericks in full screen.

I suggest running through the Intro Stage several times (at least 10 :p), and every time you complete it, pick a few of the challenges you haven't done yet and try to do those (I don't know about you but I failed a few times).

The hardest challenge for me was to die to Vile. What you do is that you make sure to have only 1 life left when you face him, then as he shoots and attacks you, wait until the light spark is close, then jump into him and die.

The other one that could be hard is the speed one. A tip is to stand behind the 'copters when killing them (just run through them). Then you can continue onwards more quickly.

The item collection consists of 2 items, just after the first giant bee, slide into the hole and you will find them. Pick them up and you are good to go.

Thanks for reading
Please leave a comment below,+1 it, like it on Facebook, tweet it or whatever. Any feedback is welcome and will definitely motivate me to do more of this!
Also, if you want to, add me on Game Center, my nick is Makeybussines!

Change

2011-05-17T00:32:00.001+02:00

Everything evolves around changes. This is true in connection with the other three keywords, as it is the one that binds them all together. None of them would be interesting if the teams, the culture, ethics and society was always the same. It is human nature# to be curious to explore, challenge the existing and search for better.

The most important changes are those around a unit#. The ones that are agreed on internally are just as important as those stemming from an external source, as these need to be accepted in the same way that change from an external source needs to be accepted. The difference between the two is simply that changes from external sources usually surprise the unit in focus.

Changes affect the environment that we practice in, whether this is our work environment where we practice our job, or it is a school environment where we practice our learning. Human nature which was mentioned earlier, comes into play once more. We seek the new and exciting, and yet we still want the comfort of everything being the way it usually is. This way we can build habits, work out routines, set a culture, agree on standards, ethics and work together in units. We do this to optimize the outcome of our practice. This statement ironically leads to the next one, that stem from human nature: This is also why we apply changes.

As highlighted already in this paper; “everything evolves around changes”. This is true for the models that are commonly used to describe units. This is including how they team up, what their culture and ethics are and how they innovate.
The models origin from a series of scientists throughout the ages, with focus on both individuals and units as a whole:
Freud and Mazlow describing basic human requirements to their surroundings. Mintzberg, who took a practical approach with a company in focus and described the different types of units or organizations within an organization. Kotler, Hofstede and Gesteland who all focus on cultures in a more broad perspective, mostly relevant in relation to the culture of a country#, but applicable elsewhere.

Changes are interesting because they affect us, directly and indirectly. This is true whether they are foreseen or unforeseen, or from internal or external sources. The main difference between the sources being that we can influence internal sources directly, while external sources are more ‘out of reach’.
Influences from changes can be ‘put in boxes’, like below, to easily get an overview of where a change originates, and take appropriate action according to possibilities at available.

Unforeseen changes matrix

Unforeseen	Direct change	Indirect change
External source	Example: Tax increase.	Example: A lot of rain during harvest leads to low outcome increasing prices of wheat in supermarkets.
Internal source	Example: Your husband ate the pie you made.	Example: Your guests will be disappointed that they did not get any pie because someone ate it.

Foreseen changes matrix

Foreseen	Direct change	Indirect change
External source	Example: Removal of product	Example: Lack of interest from customers
Internal source	Example: Too expensive to produce	Example: Lack of product = lack of customers because their only interest was that one produce

As we can see from the examples above, changes appear in many different shapes, and the reaction are even more diverse, as no one reaction is the same. Both unforeseen and foreseen changes are relevant in a business environment. We can prepare for foreseen changes, just as well as the unforeseen. The ability to adapt to changes is what in marketing is referred to as agility, a term that fits very well in this connection. Another approach to better describe this is Geert Hofstede’s Uncertainty Avoidance Index, which describes how exactly how easily we adapt to changes.

How change affects us

And why is the text in the right side of the post all of the sudden? Read on.

The two lines above will most likely have made you stop for a moment, and wonder why the text was in the right, and not the left side. The change was unexpected as we, as students and teachers have a culture that dictates certain formalities when writing assignments to be handed in. Reactions to changes, or as in this case, incorrect formatting, vary depending on the agility of the reader. No matter what however, there is always a reaction to an action#. As opposed to the law of physics settled by Newton, the reaction is not always equal the to the action.

The same is true for changes in an environment, there is always a reaction.

The Hawthorne studies pioneered this in a corporate environment, where the simple change was that they told the employees they were looking for areas to improve. Without any further actions, knowing that they were being watched, employees increased productivity. The main change here was that the otherwise unnoticed factory workers were suddenly in focus, the increased attention for their labor caused a change in their culture.
The culture before they were being watched, was similar to that of the students at the IBC today. There is a set of rules regarding adequate operation of computers. However, when not monitored, these rules are broken by the students using the school computers and Internet connection to play games and visit websites that are not school related. Just like the students, workers at Western Electric’s factories in Hawthorne close to Chicago, USA, back in 1927-32 did not follow the company guidelines completely until they were aware that they were being watched. Here we return to human nature once more: We tend to seek the new and exciting, which does not lie within the perimeters of routines, habits, culture and ethics.

A way to better understand the mechanics of changes is to use The Change Circle#. It describes change from when a unit is first exposed to a change in its environment or practice, to the point where the change is accepted and everything, aside from the change, is working as usual. All changes go through this circle that is split into 6 (7 with the danger zone) phases, each describing a phase that a unit must go through before the change is fully implemented in its practice.
This is where it starts to get interesting when talking about change, because this is where we get a better idea of what to do, or not to do, when changes occur. It is also where the management of a company can prepare for how changes will influence its employees.

How this should done depends heavily on the change to implemented, the environment surrounding the unit and the culture. This requires knowledge of and about the change, the the environment in which it is to be implemented, the units affected and the culture and ethics of these parts.

Here we can return to the beginning of the post and continue reading.

Relationship #024

2010-12-16T00:59:00.000+01:00

I meant to post this on Tumblr but I think I'm going to ditch that site since it's been so unstable recently that, forget it, not worth it.

See what I meant to be posting about was one of those little things in a relationship that can turn everything upside down if not managed correctly. It's: "Forget it" (nono, don't stop reading yet, this IS the topic!).

When you're told to forget something, can you? Not really. Thoughts pass through our mind all the time, at the speed of light, maybe even faster, what makes them stick, is repeating them. So if I tell you something you will think this thought through once, unless I return there, you'll forget about it. But if I tell you to forget it, you will not only think of the thought again, but start thinking about it, creating connections between that thought and other thoughts. You will start wondering: "Why does he want me to forget? What could possible be the reason that something that doesn't matter has to be forgotten? That means it means something, right?" Once you connect a thought to your other thoughts it's no longer just a thought (that's a lot of thoughts, I know), thus creating a memory. Memories are hard to get rid of, they can stick for months, years or a lifetime. If it's a worry, it will stick until resolved and be added to the pile of resolved issues that you no longer worry about.

Worries, are essentially bad memories, created by thoughts that should have been forgotten but the human brain wants to solve problems, or challenges if you want.

In a relationship this all sums up to: If you don't want problems, don't make them. Either let it slip, or solve the problem right away, or you will get all the negative effects you most likely already know comes from worrying. Sad, but true.

Students invented the wheel

2010-11-08T09:30:00.000+01:00

After reading this blog post you will be aware of how to efficiently evaluate your own communication. The example used here is the student <-> teacher relationship, but it applies everywhere. These findings are based on extensive research over several years as a student, noticing what works, and what does not. As usual I will do my best to concise with my text here. I do not need to write things over and over again, I will leave it to you to read it, over and over again.

Teachers have this perception that when students do not listen, it is because they are communicating in the wrong way. Did it not occur to them that it does not have to be how, but what you communicate, that is wrong. I am not talking about your indirect communication such as body language etc. I will leave that to another day, because for now we will focus on what you are telling your listeners.

Is it something they already know? If yes, do not tell them again. Most common mistake from teachers is to tell what the students have already read. By doing so, you directly motivate the students not to read, I will show you the math:
Teacher gives student homework -> Student reads homework -> Teacher tells student what he just read for homework -> Student is bored -> Student stops reading homework, because:

Students will be bored during classes since they already know what the teacher is telling them. There is no point doing something twice (read and have the lecturer read aloud), and students see this connection. In addition they stop listening because they also know that should they need this knowledge, they can just read the book later.

What a teacher needs to do is simple:
Take what you expect the students to learn from the books (theory, models etc.) and give them assignments that require this knowledge. If a student does not do his homework it is no longer your responsibility that this student is behind in class.

Please comment and share if you like, I'll be happy to respond to any inquiries.

The Pareto Principle

2010-10-30T22:07:00.000+02:00

What is it?

The principle that 80% of effects come from 20% of causes.

How to use it?

We can use this to find the most effective causes and raise or lower the percentage.

How does it work?

Business example: Delivering the same service to all costumers is a waste since 80% of the costumers only give us 20% of the profits. Thus we should analyze our product range using this matrix:

High	(1) Seek cost reduction	(2) Provide high availability
Low	(3) Review	(4) Centralized inventory
Volume/Profit	Low	High

Seek cost reduction either in production or logistics.
Provide high availability by making sure customers can easily get their hands on your product.
Review: Consider whether the product is even worth keeping as part of your product range and/or what can be done to increase volume/profit.
Keep your products in one place to lower fixed costs and ship to costumers from this location.

Where does it apply?

EVERYWHERE! Look around you and try to find things where the Pareto Principle can be applied. The percentages does not have to be exactly 20 and 80, 30/70 or 10/90 is fine too. It's the principle that a majority of effects comes from a minority of causes. It applies in relationships; 80% of arguments are based on 20% of the problems, and power consumption; 80% of the electricity used in your apartment comes from 20% of your little gadgets, bits and bobs (Usually computer/TV).

Feel free to copy these notes for personal usage, but don't leave without making comment

PlayStation 3 Media Server on Mac OS X Snow Leopard

2010-08-30T13:05:00.002+02:00

I was looking for a guide on how to install PMS (PlayStation Media Server) on my Macbook Pro, but after hours of searching I found nothing. The reason for this is that it turned out to be so simple that no guide should be needed. However, if you're in the same situation as me, here are some tips, or rather a short HowTo on installing and running PMS on Mac OS X (proved to work with Snow Leopard at least).

1. Download the latest beta of PMS here.
2. Turn on both your Mac and your PS3.
3. Connect to the same network, wired or wireless.
4. On your PS3, go to "Settings" -> "Network Settings" -> "Media Server Connection" and make sure this option is "Enabled".
5. Run PS3 Media Server on your Mac and wait for it to connect to your PS3.

I'll keep the list short and simple, if you need further help or encounter any issues I suggest browsing the PMS forums :D This is where you should look for help on how to use PMS as well.

At land, sea or air? – You can work anywhere!

2010-05-26T14:14:00.002+02:00

Telecommuting and flexible work practices are becoming more and more popular in today’s modern information and technology based society. Production has been outsourced to eastern countries and the need of the employee to be physically ‘at work’ has diminished.

Is telecommuting for you?

When everything you need from your employer comes via an email or a call on the phone, and the job you do is on the computer or phone, there should be no need, to be ‘at work’ physically. Many modern companies have learned this and have introduced flexible work practices to cater the needs of their employees. There are many pros and cons to be taken in consideration when determining if your company is fit for flexible work practices. Below you can read more about the different aspects of flexible work practices and decide if your company could benefit from telecommuting.

Telecommuting – a lifestyle

Flexible work practices can be used in several ways to cater a worker’s needs. Meeting late, or early, is for some the ideal plan. But ‘flexibility’ extends way beyond just working hours; why not use the phone and internet now that they are there? With today’s technology, it is possible to work almost anywhere, especially in large cities, where WiFi-hotspots are increasingly available.

Depending on the specific situation, telecommuting can quickly become a very important part of an employee’s, manager’s or employer’s life, and private and work-lives will merge to become one. Given the chance to work at home, and nothing more than deadlines and specific goals, you can do many of the things you wish you had better time to do on a daily basis. Parents will have more time for their kids, take them to school and help them with their homework. They can be picked up right after school, whether they are off at 11 am or 4 pm should no longer matter, you can go straight back to work once you get home.

Flexible working practices are as mentioned not limited by the home. Some people merely require a phone, their computer and an internet connection. With laptops, cellphones and WiFi-hotspots available in many major cities, airports, trains and buses, the world has practically everyone’s working place, as long as they are willing to take the plunge.

The good

Happy employees work faster, are more thorough with their work and combined with flexibility, employees can work when they feel their motivation is peaking, which in the end gives every a better result for everyone. Employees will no longer have to leave work to get their favorite cup of coffee from the local Starbucks, they can sit there all day if they like to. They can go visit friends and drive early to a meeting with a customer and work in the car, using a mobile modem or their iPhone as an internet connection. Employers will see that they can call their employees almost any time of the day and have work-related issues solved within minutes, as the employee will have everything he or she needs right by his or her side, and not be limited by time and space.

The requirements for all these positive effects will be discussed in detail in the section below.

The not-so-good and must-be-taken-care-offs

When working out, there is no water cooler, no oasis to go to and catch a random friendly conversation with your co-workers at. This must be made up for by encouraging employees to keep in contact with each other as well as the manager. To make sure that this is done effectively, IBM did some studies within their company and found that that contact should be made at least every third day, or else people will lose contact with one another, and social life will suffer. Hence they created the 3-day rule, requiring teams to set up meeting every 3 days, not necessarily to talk about work, but to make sure they keep contact. Another vital issue is the contact between the employee and the employer, setting up meetings to make sure everything is working out fine is important. Keeping track of everything is important, though the manager must avoid making it seem, as if he or she is keeping a constant eye on the employee.

With telecommuting, trust is very important.

Delegating responsibility and assignments will help the manager work more efficiently, while the employee will feel that his or her work is increasingly important to the company. This will help employees to feel more motivated. How important the previous statements may be, the following is even more so.

Clarity

Above all, clear goals and ambitions for the employee and company are of utmost importance. For a company to experience success with telecommuting, clarity is the word to remember. When delegating assignments and setting new goals for an employee, you must make sure that the message will get through as you want it to be. When face-to-face talks are out, and conference calls and emails are in, you need to make sure that your employee fully comprehends the messages given. Urge employees to ask questions, if any, before making mistakes, the manager should be no more than an email, text or phone call away.

To be or not to be – at work or home?

Telecommuting is not for everyone, it requires adaptive employees as well as employers. However, if the requirements are met, it provides a very good opportunity for the company to keep their employees satisfied with their work, as they are practically shaping it themselves. Telecommuting requires the company to set up clear policies and procedures, as well as maintain a strong management.

With telecommuting, work is more about the goal, than how you get there… can you manage?

This text was originally written as part of my English exam at IBC, and has not been edited.

Corporate Social Responsibility

2010-04-19T23:26:00.000+02:00

Western Products

Many things come to one’s mind when reading the headline of this essay, one aspect being the clothes we wear, be it fashion or just a pair of jeans. Behind all the fashion brands a story of cruelty is often hiding. The truth is, that when you go shopping, you will only see half of what you are actually paying for, the rest of the ‘product’ can be found in Asia’s many sweatshops where women and children are working up to 19 hours a day to sew your clothing for merely a few dollars a day.

Globalization in your drawers

When talking about globalization, often, the focus is on the impact it has on consumers. While this may be oh-so interesting, let us not forget the impact consumers have on the globalization. Making products from all over the world available to everyone, gives the consumers that much more power. Garments are often produced in sweatshops in Asia, be it China, India or other countries where the poor are way below poverty limits. Labor here is cheap and as mentioned, it is not uncommon to be working 19 hours a day. You don’t think of that when you drag on your new pair of ONLY jeans, because no one told you. The companies do their best to hide the fact that by buying their products one sponsors the use of sweatshops, and thereby torture-like production methods in East Asia. Before you go burn all your clothes and decide to grow your own hemp so you can sew 100% ecological and socially responsible clothes, consider the alternative. If the sweatshops had to close because western people stopped buying their products, where would these people go to make money? That’s right, they would have nowhere to go and would eventually starve to death.

Corporate Social Responsibility

Is a term used by the companies and media to highlight all the good things that companies does do. It consists of many things, widely explained as something beyond making money, thereby satisfying shareholders, employees and so forth. Human rights organizations want companies to ban the use of child labor as a part of their CSR. They argue that being socially responsibly all the way down to the end of the production chain, where the kids are cutting of loose threads from finished garments, can be used positively in marketing as well. Not only that, should the media find out that companies are using child labor, it would be bad PR, so it can also prevent public humiliation.

When pictures do reach the public and cause humiliation for the companies they are good at saying how they did not know anything about it and that they will take immediate action. A typical reaction would be that company X has fired supplier Z, burned all their clothes, given the kids and families money for food and schooling, and changed to supplier Y. What really happened is that supplier Z changed name to supplier Y and everything continuous just as before, now with a new sign on the door.

Do they really suffer?

While the pictures of women and children in sweatshops may be horrifying, what would the consequences of moving the production to more ‘acceptable’ accommodations be? As mentioned earlier, if these already poor people were to lose their only income, would they be in a better position than before? They may be having a hard time now, but imagine what sudden changes would do. Companies should be working towards slowly improving the quality of life at factories where they have their garments produced. The real issue however lies with government and the way international laws and regulations are implemented, or ignored, in the individual country. For all these changes to really work out, it is more important than ever, to appeal to the countries rather than the manufacturers. If the fashion brands or manufacturers start slacking and increase their prices, while the products remain the same, competitors will take over their share and kick them out of business, for good. That is how the situation looks right now at least, where CSR is only starting to become a noticeable factor for the consumers. However…

In the future

Bad working conditions are as described not only to be blamed on the companies, rather also the consumers always aiming to get clothes cheaper, not that one could blame them. There will be no changes in the near future, but as CSR becomes more important for the consumers, fashion brands will have to work towards fighting child labor, bad working conditions etcetera. To change all these bad things, the human rights organizations must reach out to the consumers, you… If you want to change these things, stop asking companies to change the things…

Be the change.

Combining school and fun?

2010-04-14T19:38:00.003+02:00

Sounds wrong right? Just like: "Normally I wouldn't..." but then why did you do it anyways? A question to which many probably does not have an answer, or don't want to answer, but...

Normally I wouldn't do this, but...
It happens to be so that apparently the Danish school system is introducing blog writing as a part of the English exam, and I'm like: "If I'm gonna do this shit anyways, I might as well throw it on my own blog!"... so here it is! The assignment is to first read a sample blog post (for all those that don't even know what it is, pfft!), and watch two video clips, then have your own say at said topic. This time, it's Starbucks! The two video clips are Are you in? and the Starbuck (red) Ad. And here is my attempt on the assignment:

What if I'm not in?
I have one major problem with Starbucks, before revealing it though, I'd like to share some of my thoughts on this company with you.

I think it's really nice that there are people out there who wants to help. I am not talking about the costumers, but somewhere inside the company Starbucks there must be some people that wants to help not only their local communities, as seen in their Are you in? ad, but also on a more large perspective with their (red) ad

To me it's obvious that all this charity coming from not only Starbucks, but also many other companies (e.g. Ronald McDonald foundation), must be seen as just another marketing trick, trying to boost sales. With coffee as expensive as Starbucks' is, they better be doing something sensisble with all my money.

My first (and only) experience with Starbucks was in The Lion Yard Shopping Centre in Cambridge, UK. Amazing place by the way, they even have the Dyson Airblade handdryer on their toilets there, I'll write more about why this handdryer is so amazing another day, back to the Starbucks coffee shop that is placed on the 1st floor right next to the exit of the escalator.

I went in there with my classmates who were all getting different drinks, not being a huge coffee fan myself, I ordered a large chocolala dé something. With some uncertainty due to the IKEA-effect* playing with my senses, I can say that this was indeed the second best cup of chocolate drink I have ever had, it was, amazing, so good that I still remember it today. Let us all take a moment to lean back, close our eyes and think at the last time we had a cup of our favourite drink...

... felt good right?

That memory is probably what makes Starbucks worth it, too bad that, except in the airports, there are none in Denmark...

*When you have walked around IKEA for long enough, ANY chair is a GOOD chair, so you end up sitting down in a random leather sofa to find yourself buying it 15 minutes later.

---
And that concludes our broadcast day, at least for the Starbucks part. What is your thought on Starbucks by the way? And is this a good way to do assignments in a school? Can you even consider a blog 'schoolwork', any thoughts folks?

Pre- paring for release!

2010-04-06T11:45:00.000+02:00

Preparing
With the upcoming release of Magic: The Gathering: Rise of the Eldrazi I thought it would be time to introduce this not-so-hidden side of my personality; my great passion for Magic: The Gathering, or in short, just Magic. I have been outside the Magic-scene for quite some time and I've neve been a bigshot but that does not hinder me from sharing my words of wisdom on these little events, that serves many different types of excited Magic players.

There are guides out there on the internet, some good ones too, that will help you on how to create the perfect deck for a prerelease.

At a prerelease you will face many different competitors, which especially at this expansion will play a major role. The introduction of the hard-hitting and very expensive Eldrazi Creatures will surely tempt many young minds to put one or two of these in their decks, should they get their hands on one as they open their booster packs. But one should keep in mind that Rise of the Eldrazi is a slow ekspansion, which means that being able to play spells early and fast will give you a big advantage. The spoilers show this too and with all this evil big bad stuff on the playing field, here is what I will aim for when making my deck at the prerelease.

What to do

Make sure your deck is 40 cards exactly (minimum), to ensure you will draw all your good cards as often as possible.
Stick to as few colors as possible, 2 or 3, to avoid having to manafix too much, and not getting the right colors of mana when you need them
Keep a low and even mana-curve, to make sure you will be able to play even bigger and more evil spells throughout the game.
Focus on creatures with evasion. Evasion can be flying, shadow or unblockable. Things that make them deal damage without getting in trouble for it.

In addition, avoid all the big and fancy rares. If you can make a fast deck that can end the game before your opponents get one on the battlefield, you have ensured your way to the victory. A solid deck of decent commons and uncommons will serve you very well.

This is only a short guide, for more information I recommend following some of the links I've given or simply Google it!

No more gay marriages!

2010-03-11T09:35:00.001+01:00

Let me make this clear: I have nothing against homosexuals (I still find queer people, well, queer).

It's that simple!
Gay/Homosexual relationships have never before been acknowledged by any of the great religions in the world, and it is my belief that if they do, they are weak. To me, there is no doubt, gay people have no right at all to get married in the church. The church (whichever sub-religion you may be included in) is on its own and free to decide on what terms you're able to join or not. Religion is older than the clearly defined Human Rights, but...

Ohw it's not so simple...
The Human Rights are pretty clear, sexual preferences should not matter or prevent you from joining any group, religious or not. This basically means that you will now have to choose between:

Religion or Human Rights?
What is more important? Do we want to pay our respect to a religion that found its roots more than 2000 years ago and is foundation of many societies and nations today (eg. my own home country Denmark), or some only partially recognized (referring to countries like China) Human Rights that have not been in effect for a 100 years yet. Is the acceptance of gay marriages the beginning of a new era and will it help us put even more pressure on China to actually enforce and recognize Human Rights?

There is no definite answer...
My opinion is clear, even though I do not believe in any specific religion myself, I will till the end defend your right to have one. And when I see that people start infringing age-old religions by, by law, forcing the church (this debate is very current in Denmark) to accept gay marriages, someone have to rise and tell them a thing or two. At least I hope that you are now able to ask some more relevant questions, before taking a decision of your own, though it may seem like a small thing, it is important to see these kind of issues in a large scale.

Have a nice day!

Stop sending money to Africa!

2010-03-10T21:02:00.001+01:00

Imagine that you could just sit down, close your eyes and lean back in the shadow of a palm tree outside your house and enjoy the 30°C (86°F), knowing that around noon you can go to the local development aid center and pick up a free lunch. The food may be simple and the variety low, but at least it is free and you did not have to do anything for it because it is all provided by developed western countries.

A Problematic Situation
African countries today suffer from many issues, the single largest problem being: development aid. You must remember that even though many of the charity organisations, even the ones helping out in Haiti right now, say they are doing something good, people are employed within these organisations and make money on other people's disasters. How awful this may be, that is no big deal, think of doctors, they make money on your well being, or rather, your not-so-well being.
These organisations are in many ways actively working against improving life quality for not just Africa, but anywhere they go. Think of it like this: If the Africans could overcome their current situation and things started to go for the better, charity/help organisations would have to find new areas where people were suffering. Money has never done anything good.

But... They still Suffer in Africa! What can we do?
The answer could be a quick: "Stop giving them money, stop sending them food.". But to better understand the situation and find out how we can help, we need to look at Africa in a large perspective. Africa suffer from several, let's go through them quickly...

Fertility Rates
A lot of people die and do not live very long, which leads to a lot of kids being born (look at the map). Kids are in their first years unable to provide any kind of support, rather, they require it. A lot of people needs a lot of food and without anyone to support them, you can easily guess where famines come from. A doctor and a missionary would do wonders in Africa, any sort of religious belief is believed to lower mortality rates.

Lack of Education
Illiteracy in Africa is huge problem, many African countries lack schools, teachers and other important educational facilities. Education leads to specialised and more effective production which ultimately will lead to the extinction of monoexport, which has been a recognized issue since 1940 (or before)! Look at your own country today, probably a developed western world country, I bet it exports within a wide array of different product categories. Africa basically only exports in one or two product groups, usually raw materials (feedstock). Drying out the country of the raw material they themselves could be processing to employ even more people and start building the foundation for an actual economy.

Civil Wars
During the de-colonization of Africa starting around 1947 after WWII, the African nations were pretty much put together by a few western politicians drawing some lines on a map, disregarding internal affairs all over Africa (just look at the country borders today). Compare to any other place in the world (except Australia), and note that you will find the borders of the countries to sorta sway around like a drunk bum on the loose. This is natural since clans, kings, churches, nations and others have been fighting to establish these borders for centuries. This is not the case in Africa and this is the main reason for the civil wars in Africa, people want their countries back as they used to be (not hard to understand right?).

Myths - Motivating the Africans
It has been suggested, ever since the white man came to Africa, that negroes (the general term for an African and/or black person at that time) are lazy and monkey-like by nature. I do not believe this is true, but as I started out by explaining, if you could sit under the palm and relax all day long because some random white guy was feeding you for free, would you start working?

What to do then?
If you want to help, the best possible solution is to go there and do something for the Africans that you do good. If you are a carpenter, go help them build some houses. If you are a teacher, go teach! Do not join an organisation that will place you somewhere to do a job for them, remember, as I mentioned earlier, if you actually make a difference down there, and improve the life in an African village, this organisation will have to find a new village in trouble. A carpenter was sent to an African village but instead of helping them build houses, he was told to teach in the local school, something that he obviously was not so good at.

If you want something done properly, do it yourself! Alternately, If you want to help Africa, buy things that are "Made in Africa", for example this 1888 Mills Luxury Cotton Made in Africa Towelfrom Amazon.com that has received very good feedback.

The Fall of The 3 Great Beliefs

2010-03-08T21:05:00.000+01:00

Introduction
Just for good measure, a bit about my background: I'm a Dane, I live in Denmark which is a country in Northern Europe, which we like to call Scandinavia (Sweden, Finland, Norway and Denmark). When WWII had begun and Germany came to invade us (we're neighbours) it took no more than two hours before we had officially surrendered to Hitler's power. Living in 'The West' is a good and developed life with a lot of luxuries, one of them being freedom, almost too much of it. I will talk more about that, after a brief introduction on how we came to be where we are today. Starting out with...

Communism
Until 1989 the Berlin Wall and the Iron Curtain were separating West and Eastern Europe, but with the fall of the wall, the end of communism was getting closer. This process had been going on for years with communism suffering great losses, and how can one really call all people equal when there was a guy on top controlling everything. Yes I believe communism would be the ideal world, but the perfect world is and will always be utopia, it is not going to happen. Moving on, next up is nationalism...

National State
The foundation of the national state and its independance started to crumble already back in 1945 when Hitler lost his war. All over Europe people agreed that we should not let anything like this happen ever again. Without getting too much into detail, many initiatives, including what today has become the European Union, were founded to make sure of this. So far they have been succesful, well at least WWIII have not yet been started. Cross-country cooperations like the EU, UN, NATO and many others have resultet in the individual states losing their identities now that we have all become part of something bigger. Whether we want to realise it or not, no country is any longer going to war "FOR KING AND COUNTRY!" like we used to back in the old days with silver-shining knights in armor on white horses. This brings me to our next topic, something quite an amount of wars and especially Hitler's was focused on...

Religion
This particular topic seems to play a great role in todays society, at least when you turn on the TV and watch another restaurant being swarmed by shia-muslims trying to save their relatives and help the ambulances pick up the dead and injured after another terrorist attack. But up here, in the developed world, where we know that it simply can't be that one man, excuse me, a god, suddenly decided to create the Heavens and the Earth, religion is starting to fall behind. From what I understand, the churches used to be places where entire villages gathered on Sundays to listen to the words of God, and today that is no longer the case. Not even my local priestess' sons go to church regularly as she believe it is their own choice. I do not know anyone who truly believe in God except a muslim guy and even he says that it is not as much about how God (he calls him Allah though) created the Earth, "that's bullshit!", but more the whole idea that lies behind there being a greater meaning to life than what we see. My thoughts on religion in general is a topic I will save for another blog post....

So where does all this lead?
Now we have established that we are today people without limitations regarding to education, belief and wealth. Add freedom. Freedom of speech, personal freedom and freedom of freedom. My parents have never had many expectations for me regarding religion, work, education or anything except maybe a few house chores. Many people I know at my age are the same and I bet you that the generations after us will have even more opportunities to do exactly what they want to do.
For the individual unable to choose what they want to do with their lives, they will find themselves in a position without any goals in their lives. Basically, the meaning of life. Since the meaning of life is no longer to kill all the the capitalists, and we are no longer fighting for King and Country and our parents did not teach us to believe in God, what is there left to do?
People start setting personal goals to fulfil, and when they reach those goals, they set new ones. Is this good or bad? Where do we see the consequences of this behavior? Am I right or wrong?

Oh by the way, if you want to taste the Commie Mints, you can get them here!

Sex Addict

2010-03-07T13:34:00.000+01:00

At least I'm not like that...
...was my first thought when I read the quoted text, first though, let me start out with an introduction:

Back in the days when I played a lot DotA I naturally came across a whole bunch of sites related to this topic, I've constributed (just one example) to the community in several ways on several forums, even been a ban-mod on the shortlived DotA-Client before 13lizzfall disappeared (apparently he had family related issues) and when my popularity topped, I got known as a destroyer of worlds and spell check programs.

Now for todays text, originally found on dxd.gamebend.com (forums have been moved/deleted) and now only preserved as a quote from my old blog, is about a poor guy and his issues with sex, as back then I will, without further ado let you get to it, enjoy!

Sex Addict

"I'm a bit gone righ tnow. Forgive me if this is written poorly.

I was gone for a month or two from this scene and some of you might have wondered where I went. I got stuck in shit.

I could easily just post this in my blog, but I know too many people personally that read that shit. I also don't want this seen by any women mentioned here since some of them are avid readers. I generally am doing this to avoid drama, but I still feel that this is something that I want to tell.

Here is what my story is:

I was in a moral crisis. I became addicted to sex and I started having intercourse with any girl I could get my hands on. Fat, tall, skinny, or short, ugly, beautiful, normal, or marginally acceptable, I didn't give a fuck about who I got it on with. I wanted to have sex all the time and I did. For the times I couldn't get a chick legit, I drove out and fucked a hooker. I even tried going to asian massage parlors to get my shit on. It was fucking pathetic and sick, but I still did it because I was addicted to it. I couldn't break away from it. Every second I fucking thought about it and the blood boiled in my veins for it.

The story behind that pretty much starts here..

Before high school, I was a kid pretty much stuck up on sex. I wanted to get laid so bad and I wanted to hit almost every girl at school and saw potential in every chick. The possibilities were LIMITLESS!!! I knew I had good looks since girls had always flirted with me since a young age so I started the mission that oh so many men are familiar with at the age of 10 in the 5th grade. I got several "girlfriends" throughout this time and I could never seem to accomplish my mission. This went on for a few years until finally 7th grade. I got a girl that was crazy about me and I was tolerant of her. She wasn't great looking; in fact, I would never show her face to anyone alive or associated with me in anyway for the fear of it being brought up at my wedding. She was a nice girl though. Bubbly personality, caring attitude, and a knack for humor. She was my first. I kind of just suggested it in a really indirect way one day at her house (I'm not going to say her parents weren't home like every other story because they fucking weren't and to this day I don't know whether or not they heard us. So fucking awkward whenever I happen to visit their house) by saying, "Man, I'm bored. I wish we had something to do..." And she responded with, "Well... What do you have in mind?" And then I leaned over and kissed her like I had always done in the past, but she interpreted it the way I had hoped. I won't go into detailed on underaged sex, but let me say, it was slow, it was awkward, but most of all, it was my first. I broke up with her about a month after and got with her more attractive friend about 3 days later (I hadn't learned the whole "being in other people's shoes" thing at that point in life yet). Me and her are still friends though. We talk every now and then though as time has progressed, our distance has grown. It isn't a bad thing though. She has her life and I have mine. Last time I spoke with her was about half a year ago. She had a boyfriend and he seemed like a nice guy. But yea, I fucked her best friend as well, but it took me a lot longer for her to put out. For the first, it was about 1 1/2 months, for the new one, it took over 5 months. By the time we had sex, the school year was already over and I was pissed off because I felt I had missed other opportunities during that interm. When we did it, it was nothing like the first time. I was pissed off at her and I kind of wanted her to suffer in a really fucking twisted sort of way. I knew she was a virgin and I knew the first time would hurt (Not saying I'm huge. I'm actually probably below average... Ha ha, stupid asian.. Yea I know, I've heard it over a thousand times...) Anyway, I started nailing her and she let out a small heave from the unexpected discomfort. She told me to slow down a little, but instead I just straight up jammed it in and started pumping her. She let out a sudden gasp of air from the shock and asked me to stop. I kept going for another 20 seconds until her pleas reached the level of high pitched screams. It was like I was raping her, and I felt great about it at the time. I somewhat bad about it later on that day, but for the wrong reasons. I was pissed that she might break up with me and I wouldn't get to hit it anymore with her. To my surprise, when I called her the next day to give her the recycled apology, she told me that she wasn't mad at what I did because I must have really wanted it and really liked her so I wasn't able to control myself. She was so fucking dumb.

I continued fucking her until her dumb-bitch personality drove me to the edge. I started ignoring her and not picking up the house phone because I knew she was calling. It was sad really, instead of breaking up with me, she decided that she needed me more than ever to comfort her from my abandonment (Ironic isn't it?). Needless to say, it didn't go well. She became really dependent on me and crying at school almost everyday for like a fucking week. She finally broke up with me and proceeded to take on the role as the last girl I would ever have sex with for the next 6 years. The next year, it was still the same school and the same girls, but I was a different guy.

And then puberty progressed and I calmed down a bit. I started thinking about issues I had with my family. Growing up my dad always called me worthless and beat the fuck out of me all the time. Everytime he got drunk at home with was like twice a week, he would start beating on my sisters and mom. I would always step in and have him start beating on me instead. At the time, I never fought back. I was too weak to fight back. My arms were so much smaller than his, my reflexes were so much slower and hesitant, and he was in such a drunk stupor, there was no way he would feel pain. As I grew up, he continued drinking and the whole process would repeat everytime. Every morning after the chaos, my dad would stir awake and get dressed for his shitty job where he had to more or less, symbolically suck cock for a living. He hated his job, but it was the only job he could do. Sucked for him and he wanted to make it suck for the rest of us. His drunk aftermath was never any different, he would kick my mom awake and tell her to make breakfast and my sisters would angrily force me out of bed despite the pain for us to go eat out of fear of him getting pissed of. He would sit at the table and chomp loudly while the rest of us sat there eating quietly. He would look around and see everyone. Stare at them. Study them. He would eventually fall onto me and see my face: The bruises, the cuts, and the intense hate burning in the eyes. He would pretend he saw nothing and move on. Get out of the house and drive to work.

Academically it was no different, he would let everyone know that other people were better and we were the absolute worst. The only way to get better was to be better. Work harder. If there isn't a 10/10 on the quiz, your life fucking sucks. If it doesn't I'll make sure it does.

Maturing brought all that back into my life. I started feeling incredibly inadequate and soon became a recluse afraid of people. Especially women. In my early life, women had never been there for me, they only caused me pain and troubles, and I was always the one having to take all the blame and pain. I began having fantasies and wishes. They wouldn't be anything sick and stuff. They'd be with girls that I hardly knew in school. We would be together and happy. She would love me and I would love her and we would just spend the days laying in bed together and staring out the window. I suppose my desire at the time wasn't to have sex anymore, but to find a soulmate. Someone who was meant for me. Someone that was a perfect match. Someone that I could get along with. The problem was that it would always be girls I didn't know that took the roles of my fantasies and they would eventually drive me to make contact with them. Meet them. Know them. Pow. Leave. I always found a flaw, something wrong with the picture that didn't make it perfect in my eyes and caused me to throw it away. I would then move the role for the heroine of my dreams onto another stranger. I hated sex. I realized suddenly how empty I felt and I blamed it on the sex. I had lost my values and the empty feeling inside was my body's sudden hunger to have them back. I felt devoid of any emotion inside. It was so painful that I wanted to kill myself at times from the sadness it caused me, but that's not relevant to the story.

This went on for years and through those years I made several more girlfriends throughout 8th grade. They would be short little childish flings with hand holding and shy kissing but nothing serious like a blowjob. These relationships lasted for around 3 days to 2 weeks. I would always break up. There was something wrong with me now. It wasn't that the girls wouldn't put out, it was that I wasn't looking for them to. The fact that they made it so easy made me not want to do it. I hated how easily the girl just gave in. I wanted one that would put up a fight, would not be intimidated by me, would respect me as I would respect her. I was looking for a relationship. I began going after girls that had no interest in guys at the time. They would always put up a big fight due to their immaturity. I would always try my hardest to get them like I was obsessed with them. I would buy them things, do romantic shit, and the works. Eventually, whether it was an actual attraction to me as a guy, or whether they just liked being treated so fancy, they fell for me. I hated it and threw them away. I fucking wanted a girl that wouldn't fall for me. That wouldn't treat me nice. I wanted a girl that didn't exist and I wanted to search for her if it took the rest of my life.

This mentality went on for the rest of my junior high and through high school. I would grab girls and date them for a short period but always find something wrong in order to throw them away. They were not perfect, they were not meant for me, they were not my soulmate.

I graduated with everyone in my group thinking I was a virgin since I would always tell them I wasn't having sex with the girls I was dating. I didn't want them to know. I was ashamed of my past. How would I ever get a girl that had the same values as me on what they were looking for? If I wanted a pure girl, I had to be pure myself. Stupid, I know, but at the same time, so naive and innocent.

I went onto college, and that's where it ended. My search had finally found my treasure. This year (My sophmore year), I met the girl of my dreams and she seemed to have found the guy of hers. She was a smart, sweet, smalltown girl. She was everything I was looking for. We finally got together and we dated for over 2 months while I was in college. Once again, I did not introduce her to any of my friends. I was a completely different person with others: A cold-hearted, blunt, and rude guy with a sadistic sense of humor. Basically, "that guy that challenges an already drunk man to shot just so that he will puke in front of the girl he has a crush on." Yea... THAT guy.

With her, I opened up. I became myself. I showed her what I really was. A reliable, responsible, and caring guy that wanted to spend the rest of his life with her. I leaned on her and she leaned on me. We respected each other's space and privacy, and she was exactly what I wanted in a girl. We stopped dating and officially became a couple a little while after I told her that I thought we were meant for each other. We finally did end up having sex and it felt so great. Not physically, but emotionally, it felt great. I was so happy to be having sex with the woman I was in love with and I knew she was happy to be with me. Her joy caused my joy to heighten and my joy did the same for hers until finally we were above the clouds.

And then 2 more months passed by with this great feeling.

And then I found out she was cheating on me.

And we broke up.

She didn't consider it cheating though, she just felt I was too clingy and wanted to explore her options. I suppose I was clingy. I did love her though. I think I still do a little despite what she put me through.

I pretty much regressed to my previous state of depression. Before, I had been a heavy drug user ranging from weak substances like pot and cigarettes to more heavier things like meth, cocaine, and hard liquor. I had a serious substance abuse problem in high school and I managed to break away and quit down to only drinking beer and smoking cigarettes. The reason I did it was for the hopes of filling the empty void that had developed throughout the years. This void came back after she left. It was bigger and it at least a million times deeper. I felt terrible and I just wanted drugs to forget the feelings. I didn't want to feel good, I just wanted to stop feeling terrible. That's where meth is a great drug for and lucky me, Riverside was the location of the most meth labs and dealers. It didn't take me long to find someone that slanged and I began doing meth all the time. I did it when I woke up, when I went to school, and even while taking shits. I know what you guys are thinking, why the fuck would you go to school and do meth? I don't fucking know. I wanted to get caught. I wanted to get expelled and arrested. I fucking wanted my life to end. I had nothing left. I had invested everything on that girl. My hopes and dreams that humanity wasn't full of endless misery, my dad wasn't right about my life and I would be happy someday, and I had a soulmate out there that fate would guide me to.

Needless to say, I would go into empty school restrooms and sit in a stall and lit my shit. The smoke alarms must have fucking blown, cuz the smoke I made didn't fucking alert shit. I didn't even go to class, I would just walk aimlessly around campus doing nothing but being a fucking idiot. This went on for two quarters, and surprisingly enough, I still managed to pass both quarters with a 2.7 and a 3.1. I just got high, got drunk, spent some days walking around school, other days walking around the city, and spend the whole night up playing computer games and surfing the internet and watching porn. I began to obsess about sex again. I felt angry that I had been fooled by sex. I had come to believe that I was in love due to how great the sex felt for me emotionally. Sex tricked me and I let myself get tricked. I was angry and I felt pathetic for being fooled. I was pretty insane at the time so I came up with some crazy conspiracy theory that I won't go into because it makes no fucking sense, but it caused me to come to the conclusion that the only way everyone on earth could be happy was by having them all feel sad to share the same emotion so I wanted every girl to fall in love with me and I wanted to break their hearts and souls, but secretly, looking at it in retrospect, I just really wanted to have sex. I wanted to remember how happy I once felt. I was chasing the happiness I had felt only such a short time ago. I felt dead inside and I was searching for a way to feel alive again.

Around the last two months of school starting in April, I began my escapades and started going out to nightclubs and hitting up every chick I could get. The first few nights were cold but finally on the 4th consecutive night, I managed to bring a decent looking and fairly drunk chick back to my place. I fucking stripped her and fucked her as hard as I could. That was the 4th girl of my life that I had sex with: A half-conscious drunk korean girl with a cheap skirt/top and smeared make-up. The next morning I got out of bed and got dressed and headed to campus to follow my daily routine of aimless walking and occasional visits to lecture. She was still laying there when I left. When I got back, she was gone. Her clothes were nowhere to be seen, air was blowing in through the window that somebody had opened and it looked like my bathroom towel had been used by someone. I was able to put two and two together: A ninja broke into my room through the window and kidnapped her, but not before taking a shower first and using my towel as a show of disrespect. Yes. I seriously thought that first. This is why you don't smoke pot kids.

Anyway, later on that night, I was going to go to the club and she called me. Apparently, at some point during the night when I was asleep, she got up to use the bathroom and grabbed my cellphone and dialed her number to add me (Oh that's good. I was kind of afraid that she hadn't consented last night anyway...). She wanted to hang out and I thought that getting sex from her was better than blowing another 35 bucks to get into the club and trying my luck. She wasn't terrible looking. Marginally acceptable. Marginally acceptable.....

So I we met up at a restaurant and I paid for her meal. We talked about where we were from and our lives. She was a UC drop-out and she was living nearby the community college taking classes while trying to get back into university. She wasn't from around here and had a boyfriend back home (What a slut. I'd fucking stab her if I was him. She didn't tell me this at the time, but I eventually found out a while after that she had been seeing someone the same time we fucked).

So I ended up paying the bill and we both drove back to her house and fucked in the room with 1 mm thick walls while her 4 roommates shuddered in disgust.

I started talking to her friends and getting to know them. After a week, me and the club girl stopped fucking and talking alltogether and I started hanging with her friends instead. They were really open about sex and I fucked as many as I could get my hands on. After a while, they started getting busy with finals week approaching, but I still wanted to fuck. They said they were too busy to go out, and some were starting to avoid my calls out of how much I was itching to nail them I suppose. I started going to strip clubs and coxing the girls to suck me off for extra cash. I finally got the balls to ask a girl back home but she awkwardly turned me down. I think she thought I was a pig or something. I kept going and asking other girls and none of them said yes. I suppose the first stripper told her friends her suspicions about me because I know that those bitches are down for anything if an extra 100 and a handsome guy is involved. Superficial fucks.

The owner finally ended up asking me to stop coming because the girls were afraid of me. I got ticked off and tried my next endeavor: massage parlor. I always heard rumors about those asian slave girls being fuck dolls for you at a shady asian place so I decided to give it a try. I went to yellowbooks and looked up a closeby parlor and drove to it. I asked for a massage from a girl and I asked if I could pick the girl. They said no. Fuck it. I went into this stuffy and sweat smelling room (A good sign) and waited there for like 20 fucking god damn minutes. Finally a fucking hideous troll came in and told me to lay on the table with cushion on top. It wasn't even one of those massage tables where you put your head between a spot. It was like a ratty wooden table that was clearly cut with like a hardware saw and shitty spongy cushion with dark, dirty spots showing where other guys had laid their ass-cheeks to get their fuck on taped over it. I honestly felt a bit repulsed and I wanted to leave, but at the same time I told myself, "This could be it, You never know, You might feel happy this time around." Fuck it. I laid on that cushion and waited for that lady to do her stuff.

Do you know what she did?

Well do ya?

She fucking massaged me.

Just like I fucking paid her to do.

I was so fucking pissed off. I went and got my fucking whole mind ready for the giant induce vomiting battle I was about to have, and instead, it didn't even have to be fought.

I went back home feeling pretty shitty still despite the massage (By the way, I'd just like to say right now, that even though you might get decent sex at an asian massage parlor, you will NEVER get a decent massage. I say this based on experience). I immediately went online and read any guide I could find on the matter and tried again that same day but at a different place. I was actually successful this time around and I got to pick the girl. She was some sad fragile looking chick that looked like she had been promised freedom but granted lifetime in a cage instead. She didn't know a fucking word of english and just blabbered korean whenever I said something in english. I pretended I didn't understand even though I did and I kept saying shit like, "fucking whore, scream like a whore." and "say you want to suck my cock." generally retarded sadistic sexual slurs. I went to the same parlor and fucked the same girl for over a week. It cost me 80 bucks a go and I probably blew easily over a thousand that week usually visiting the place about 3-4 times a day. I wasn't only fucking her, I was grabbing street hookers in the red light district since the parlor closed at 9. She began saying different shit as I fucked her more often. She first said things like "Me Yan Hae Yo (Sorry)." and "Na ga young ah do mot ah da dul ya (I don't know no engrish)" (That's the last time I type pseudo korean. Fucking waste of my time) but after a bit she began opening up since she assumed I didn't understand shit. She asked me if I loved her with a chuckle and said she might be falling in love with me, she told me shit along the lines of: this isn't what I signed up for but I look forward to your visits, and said shit about missing her family and wondering where they were. Frankly, I got sick of it. I fucked her for the last time and I gave her a big hug and stuck my tongue down her throat. We had never kissed before that. It was just fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck. No foreplay, nothing. She seemed surprised and taken aback, but she didn't stop me. I gave her a big forced smile and told her in korean that I hoped she would find a way out of this life and told her I was never coming back. I walked through the doors of the parlor and back out to the world.

I continued fucking and blowing all of my scholarship/fafsa money on hookers. I just didn't want to see that girl anymore. I know I could have fucked a different bitch, but I just felt guilty about making her have feelings for me. I didn't know what to do. I mean, it was my original intention to make people feel the same abandonment that I felt, but now that I had achieved it, I felt even more empty inside. I called up old friends and started having talks. I started going over where my life had been and where it was now headed. They tried to show concern, but seemed in too much shock to comprehend everything. I knew I wasn't going to get anything useful from them. On the second to last day of the quarter, I fucked a hooker in my car and after she left, I started sobbing and breaking down. See, the last time I did that was when I was 14 and had a knife to my throat. I chickened out and started crying in frustration and promised myself I'd never cry again. I make shitty promises. I was too scared of killing myself and I was afraid of what others would think. Isn't that pathetic? Worried about what people say and think about you when you're fucking dead. Hahaha.

So I sat their sobbing for about 10 minutes. I wanted to just drive my car off of a fucking cliff. I finally fixed myself up and sat in my car chain smoking and staring at nothing for hours.

I made up my mind after a while. I decided to kill myself. I knew I would probably be too chicken shit to drive off a mountainside or something dramatic like that, so I decided to go out quietly. I wanted to get a hose and put it in my exhaust and put the other end through my window and turn on the engine, but I didn't have a garden hose. Seriously, why would I fucking have a garden hose in college? I knew no hardware stores were open at 3 fucking AM in the morning and I didn't want to wait so I decided to go back to my place and stick my head in the oven. After carefully studying my oven back at my apartment, I realized it was electric. Fail.

I eventually decided that getting really drunk and hanging myself was the best solution. I poured myself a full dixie cup of vodka and chugged the entire thing down (See, I always wanted to try it and I was always afraid of the consequences i.e. alcohol poisoning, brain damage, but hey, I'm going to die so FUCK IT!). I grabbed my longest belt and tied one end to my shower curtain rod (it's pretty thick and strong enough for me to do pull up's on so I was like hey, it should work for suicide as well!) and then I looped my belt in and fit it around my neck. I knew if the belt was too long I wouldn't hang over the ground, so I made it pretty short and accepted suffocating to death over just having my neck snap from the jump. I just walked off with about 2-4 inches and my feet hung about 2 inches off the ground. I proceeded to go unconscious after about 2 minutes of choking badly.

I should be dead.

I really should.

But I'm not.

I woke up the next day in bed. I was a bit dazed and my mouth tasted like I had puked. I suddenly realized it wasn't my bed. I looked around and I realized it wasn't my room. I was in a hospital.

Apparently about 3 minutes after I went unconscious, my roommate had awoken from my choking sounds and come inside my room to see if I was ok. He found me hanging and quickly lifted my body up so I could breath and called for my other roommate. During the wait, my body's gag reflex or breathing (I honestly have no clue) caused me to retch and cover his head with chicken sandwich chunks, vodka, and blood. He took it like a champ.

Anyway, they got me down and called the ambulance. They ended up having to pump my stomach for alcohol poisoning and put me on suicide watch. Over the next few days, people came to visit me non-stop and even more called. friends, family, and past relationships all came to see how I was doing and what caused me to try to kill myself. For the most part, I had told no one about my problems and the most I had opened up was probably to a hooker during sex and the one time I called my old friends and told them what was going on a few days before the event. The people I called dropped by and called me a moron for not telling them what bad shape I was in (Oh really, I didn't tell you eh? Faggots). In all honesty, the concerns of others didn't make me feel much better; in fact, the fact that their love wasn't reaching me made me feel even more empty and hurt. I wanted to die because I felt like I didn't belong on earth. After a while, (School had already gone out) I got let out of the hospital but I had court orders saying I had to join a suicide community or someshit like that. I still haven't gone to a single meeting... The stupid place is in Riverside, and I moved back to Los Angeles for the summer... Really, you expect me to drive 3 fucking hours everday for two weeks to attend a fucking 2 hour session? Jokes. You've got jokes judge.

Anyway, I know some of you might be thinking, how the fuck did you get better? Well, in all honesty, I still haven't gotten better. I'm still in bad shape emotionally, but I'm way better off than I was a month ago. I am still not clean, but I am working hard on it and attending groups to get help. I quit once and I can do it again, but that's irrelevant and just talk as far as the reader is concerned. The real push that put me back on the right track was the news. I really didn't believe in God up untli this point and faith, but what happened seemed to be beyond coincidence. During my second day at the hospital, I was feeling pretty morbid and thinking of how to discreetly kill myself when I heard the afternoon news playing in another room and something caught my attention and caused me to turn on my own TV and watch: During the intro summary, the anchor mentioned how Riverside PD had busted a series of illegal brothels in the area. I waited for 20 fucking minutes of watching bullshit local garbage and commercials, but they finally got down to it. They didn't mention any names so I didn't know which ones, but the story said that a lot of underground asian massage parlors had been busted for housing illegal immigrants and forcing them into prostitution. They had been busted open and shut down. I waited for the news to say what happened to the girls, but they never got down to it and went to the next commercial. Now, I would have checked online, except that I was like fucking tied down to a bed with people watching me 24/7 so I wasn't allowed near any sharp objects (Oh yea, mouse and keyboard sharpest object on planet ya know... Idiots....). I ended up asking one of the nurses if she knew what happened to the immigrants and she said they get shipped back to their original country unless they manage to obtain refugee status which rarely happens.

I more or less assumed that the massage girl I had fucked had been taken out of that terrible shit hole and sent back to Korea to be given a second chance. Was she north or south? I have no idea, I really feel bad for her if she is north, but he dialect didn't sound like it from the few words she occasionally muttered.

............................... Actually, fuck it....

School finally ended and I headed back home in terrible shape, but better off that I was before and back on the right track. The End."

Sometimes you stumble upon so messed up you simply have to read it and learn from other people's mistakes, in my humble opinion, this is one of them. He don't talk much about it in the text, but I'm a huge fan of safe sex! I personally approve of these condoms.

Long Distance Relationships - A whole new world of fun!

2010-03-06T22:56:00.000+01:00

Introduction
In this post I will summarize this whole LDR (Long Distance Relationship) business and talk a bit about why it is not as impossible as people might think at first glance. Do you wonder; "How do I find him/her?", "How do we manage our time?", "How can we stay in touch?", "What if...?" then read on. This is the first of many posts about this topic so stay tuned for more highly valuable information!

I have been in a few LDRs, so many that I now consider myself to know just about enough to share some of my wisdom with the interested readers. LDRs face many problems that at first glance may seem overwhelming, but it is my belief that the love you get in return is well worth it. According to science, the amount of girls that suit you out there is very limited. Though divorce seems very popular, getting things right in the first place is not just a wise choice, but also a lot less painful.

I found her! But...
...she lives a bajillion miles away? Fear not! It is not the end of the world, rather an opening to a new one (if this is your first shot). For every issue you will encounter there will be a solution. In a modern world like ours where internet is everywhere, the available means of communication are endless. Everything from simple e-mails to live video chatting is accessible anywhere, merely a matter of personal preferences.
From time to time you and your partner will want to see each other and maybe do more than just look. This is perfectly normal! You are not sick just because you want to have sex with a partner you have never met in person. Literally billions pay for getting the same kind of excitement you have found. Getting together has never been easier, well maybe before 9/11, but you will find that getting a plane ticket to whatever destination is probably a lot easier than expected. Considering you have already found a place to live and will get food for free, your vacation with your far-away love will be a lot cheaper. Your economic situation might not allow extravagant trips to the US, Europe or Asia right now, but in time there will be space for it. Keep an eye on my blog as I will post more about this later on!

Long Distance - a part of the fun!
To me the "Long Distance" part of an LDR is some of its main beauty. This will be a major topic in one of my later posts, that I can assure you. Getting tired of eachother is one of the main causes for couples to split or divorce. The relationship may simply get boring. Though my view is that if this happens, you were not 'meant to be' in the first place, LDRs rarely suffer from this as when you are together, you will enjoy that time so much more.

Can I join?
LDR's are for everyone. If you like to have everything planned by schedule you can find a partner that feels the same way and schedule when you will be talking together. If you treasure spontanious video chatting, longer periods of time alone, always being in touch or... Whatever your personal preferences are, there are people like you out there somewhere.

Come back for more as well as in-depth talks about specific topics. Please leave a comment and suggest topics if there is something specific you would like an opinion on.

Welcome!

2010-03-06T11:58:00.000+01:00

Greetings y'all!
After finding out that One.com does not support custom html in their blog service I decided that it was time for me to change system. Seeing that Blogger / Blogspot is part of the whole Google thing and they did indeed allow custom html in their blogs it was more than easy to create an account here, set it up with the edits I had and start posting.

So why custom html?
Freedom, I'd like to say, but actually this whole matter is pretty simple, I wanted a bar, a bar like that on Facebook. I'm currently using jixedbar which I in case you are a webmaster, think you should have a look on. It is very neat little thing to keep your users hanging around for a while longer, making navigation a lot easier. Most importantly the setup is extremely simple, upload a bunch of files, edit a bit of code in the bar making sure all src's are on your site and voila, you can see the result on the very bottom of this page.

What will I blog about?
Things that interest me, being a male, obviously women comes into mind, though most of that will go on my tumblr. Here it will probably be the rest of my life besides women which is mainly tech related stuff about my iPhone (of which I am an avid user).