I Know, They Gave Me A Blog?

#IceBucketChallenge Participants Pretend to Care Says VICE Columnist Arielle Pardes

2014-08-15T13:39:00.000-05:00

Recently Arielle Pardes of VICE posted this disparaging article about the Ice Bucket Challenge that has become a viral social media fundraising campaign for ALS over the last couple weeks with celebrities like Martha Stuart and tech moguls such as Mark Zuckerberg participating. Pardes reports in her article that the Ice Bucket Challenge is little more than "narcissism masked as altruism" and that this is the "crux of millennial 'hashtag activism'."

She goes on to attempt to back up these claims by comparing this campaign to those launched for Haiti in 2010, Livestrong bracelets, the Red Equal Sign created by the Human Rights Campaign, and more. Her point(s):

$8 million dollars in relief donations aren't enough, if we really cared about Haiti it's supposed to consume our lives until the problem completely goes away.
User's changing their social media profile pictures to the Red Equal Sign in opposition of the Defense of Mariage Act had nothing to do with the outcome.
People wearing a Livestrong bracelet were merely looking for a way to "obnoxiously flaunt a social cause that you have no real connection to."

What Pardes fails to realize is that awareness for a cause is just as powerful as raising money. When I support Breast Cancer Awareness in October, I'm not disguising my narcissism as altruism, I'm spreading the word about a cancer that affects millions of women and their families and leaves children without their mother which is wholly treatable when caught early. The same is true for prostate and testicular cancer in men and teens. Most guys don't know testicular cancer is a young man's disease, and don't know they should, or how to, examine themselves. Many men, woman, and teens are often too embarrassed to talk about these things with a doctor, and just don't understand how important it is to do so during your physical with your PCP. If we can get one young man or a woman to perform a self exam that leads to early discovery of cancer, we can save a life; a life saved is far more valuable than any amount of money you might be able to donate.

Pardes also takes a shot at the LGBTQ+ community, and their supporters, for proudly standing together in solidarity against a cause we all care so greatly for: Equality. Did displaying the Red Equal Sign on our Facebook, Google+, and Twitter profiles and pages directly cause the defeat of the DMA? Probably not. Did it cause people to ask questions? Yes. Did it help to create a dialogue? Absolutely. Did it help to show other LGBTQ+ youth that they're not alone, that there is an entire community out there that supports them? Hell. Yes. Did we show our legislators we won't stand by and let them continue to deny basic human rights to some Americans, but not others, based on something so silly as their sexual disposition? Absolutely.

She wrongly assumes because we're not still in a Twitter uproar about Haiti, we must have stopped caring. Unfortunately, yes, Haiti is still wracked with problems, and yes, donations have slowed to a trickle. Would it be great if we were still pulling in $8 million rounds of relief funding? Of course! Is it realistic to expect the world to focus on this one issue forever? No. There are an uncountable number of other causes that are all just as worthy of our attention as Haiti is. Do we ignore these issues while we all focus wholly on the problems in Haiti? No.

It is unrealistic to think people can continue to donate money to a cause again and again, not everyone can afford to give like this. Not everyone can afford to give at all, but don't let Arielle Pardes catch you doing what you can do to help like sharing articles and helping to spread awareness, lest she accuse you of participating in, what she likes to call, "narcissistic altruism."

I say: Tweet, Share, dump ice water on yourself, and donate money if and when you can. Not just for ALS, but any cause you care about, whether it affects you directly, a friend, or a family member, or maybe you've never been touched by the cause you support. Just support it. Do whatever you can, because if there is one thing Pardes was able to get right in her article it's this: We really can never do enough for those affected by devastating natural disasters, horrible diseases, and other social causes. At least we're doing something.

For what it's worth, the ALS Association had this to say in their Augest 12, 2014 news article about the Ice Bucket Challenge:

Between July 29 and today, August 12, The ALS Association and its 38 chapters have received an astonishing $4 million in donations compared to $1.12 million during the same time period last year. The ALS Association is incredibly grateful for the outpouring of support from those people who have been doused, made a donation, or both. Contributions further The Association’s mission to find a cure for ALS while funding the highest quality of care for people living with the disease.

Take that, Pardes.

I have reached out to Arielle Pardes on Twitter for comment, but at the time of this writing have not yet heard back.
I have reached out to the ALS Association Media Relations Dept. for comment, but at the time of this writing have not yet heard back.

Resume Looked at for 6 Seconds by Job Recruiters

2012-04-21T06:41:00.000-05:00

TheLadders.Com

A recent study by TheLadders provides some interesting revelations about what a recruiter looks at on your resume. When you receive hundreds, or thousands, of resumes on a daily basis, you don't have time to read them all verbatim.

Eye-tracking software was used to determine where the recruiters' eyes were looking, what was there, and how long. As it turns out recruiters were able to decide on call-backs in as little as six seconds in most cases. Reportedly, recruiters did "little more than scan for keywords to match the open position." This amounts to hardly more than cursory patter matching.

Recruiters spend most of their time looking over 6 main points: Name, Current Company & Job Title, Start and End dates at your current job, Prior Job Title and Company, Start and End dates at your last job, as well as your education. The details of your resume and cover letter became little more than filler.

Does this change the way we should be building our resumes? Putting the more relevant information near the top to be easily spotted by a recruiter, is there a such thing as Resume SEO, will there be? Soon I imagine that the paper resume will be obsolete and we'll be relying on electronic versions. With employers and recruiters already running resumes through a scanning machine to toss out the poor matches (based on keywords found by the program in your resume) before they even land on a recruiter or HR person's desk, it's beginning to look more and more like we'll be crafting our resumes even more. One thing is for sure, no matter what, keywords in your resume are a determinant in whether or not you even get a phone call, or an interview.

Less than 100 Days Until London 2012 Olympics

2012-04-20T06:30:00.000-05:00

London Wheel - London (Photo credit: @Doug88888)

The NGO (National Gymnastics Organization) has started blowing up Twitter for the commencement of the 100 Days Ceremonies. Soon the torch will begin it's journey to London where it will be greeted by the future King and Queen of England. I'm crazy excited for the Olympics, this being the only major sporting event I take time out for every four years, though I do try to keep tabs on the Gymnasts since they're my favorite event throughout.

Greece has offered to provide a replica ancient Greek war ship to bear the torch to London but committee organizers have declined the offer, and Greece has taken offence. The Greek has canceled a dinner event aboard the vesse

Ancient Greece (Photo credit: freeasinfreedom)

l to which English dignitaries were invited next month.

The IRA has seemingly decided to use this year's Olympic Games in London to build their platform, most people having forgotten about the small groups of rebels. They're expected to make bomb attempt during the Torch's procession through Ireland. Since the routes are mapped and planned well in advance this is expected to be a tactical fiasco for Irish police forces. This is reminiscent of the 2004 Greek Olympics when security was at an all-time-high after the September 11th hijackings in the USA and other political uncertainties of the time. Can't we have one Olympic cycle where everyone doesn't want to murder each other? The games are supposed to bring our nations together, even if they didn't start that way. Back when Ancient Greece was just Greece, the games were far less extensive and were held as a means to resolve disputes between Sparta and Greece.

I plan to attempt to cover the Olympic Games this year, mostly to show my support and cheer on Team USA, besides this is the most patriotism I can manage to eek out every 4 years.

14 Year Old Voice Actor Goes Viral

2012-04-18T11:30:00.000-05:00

This kid is absolutely brilliant, his only problem is he hasn't been discovered yet, but given time he could be. Fortunately he lives in a time where launching a career via YouTube is entirely possible.

YouTube has made creating a career in the performance industry possible, and more and more artists are forgoing working in the industry in the traditional sense, instead taking their career on a different, very successful path, and joined the ranks of hundreds of professional YouTubers who, for a living, work on YouTube, making videos (which often garner sponserships or freelance work or other exciting opportunities for these stars).

Mac Users Looking to Point Fingers Over Malware

2012-04-17T06:11:00.000-05:00

Apple marketed its operating system software as "Mac OS", beginning in 1997. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

There has long been this idea that Macs simply "Don't get viruses." It's long been the most popular argument that Mac users love to bust out when they're backed into a corner during a Mac Vs. PC debate. I've been warning my friends for years that this myth is just that, a myth, and they need antivirus software, some went out and picked up some good software, the rest didn't listen to me, and now they're complaining about their Flashback infection.

Not only are they complaining, but they need somewhere for the blame to go (because that's how humans work, nothing can be our fault). Fingers are flying in every direction and I'm afraid to pull out a cheese knife for fear of the repercussions. There are those that insist it's Java's (and therefore Sun Microsystems') fault, while Sun is very quick to point out that Apple has maintained their own Java distribution for years and was responsible for providing a patch (Sun had provided a Windows patch weeks before Flashback was discovered). Even if they would have wanted to, Sun could not have provided a fix for Mac users, and even if they had, Mac users couldn't have installed it.

At the very heart of the problem the blame can be pushed toward Apple. Their under-handed strategy of marketing the Mac as being "Problem Free," "More Secure," and "Virus Free" have lured users into this sense of security, where not enough actual security really exists. But there has to be truth to the statements, right, or they couldn't say it, could they?

Well, yes and no. Mac is essentially a BSD distribution with a fancy interface added, so like most *nix systems it has a native implementation of a firewall that Windows never really had. It's because of this that Apple has been touting the amazing security of their Macs. It helped, for a long time, that Macs weren't really all that popular and not worth targeting with viruses and other malware. Mac users account for at least 20% of the Desktop market and are now being seen as worthwhile targets.

Sun (Photo credit: ¯/¯ / /\/)

At the same time though you could say that Java shouldn't have left a vulnerability in their software, and you're right, they shouldn't have. Sun did, however, manage to push a patch live before Windows users were exploited, they also don't market Java as being perfectly secure. The blame again can fall back to Apple for waiting weeks, yes weeks, to provide a patch for the Java vulnerability.

At the same time though, the Mac users should have had Anti-virus software installed. It exists for a reason, and it's because Macs do get viruses. Any kind of AV would have made quick work of Flashback, if only it had been installed. But perhaps this will fix the misconceptions about Macs not getting viruses and being "problem free."

The truth is, we share the blame here. It's the job of your OS vendor to do everything they can to keep you safe, the job of the software vendors to deliver secure and safe software for us to use, but at the end of the day, you're the final line, the last person on Earth who has any chance of protecting your computer from the constantly growing and evolving pool of viruses and other "bad"-ware. After all, a few bucks for AV software is a tiny price to pay to protect that over-priced pile of hardware on your desk.

The Hunger Games Vs. Ender'sGame

2012-04-16T10:01:00.000-05:00

I'm not going to lie, I suck at reviews, whether it's because I devour books and don't take notes so I can touch on key points or something else, I do not know. I can sit and talk about it with you for hours though, if you want, but good luck on getting a decent review from me. But I continue to do them, it seems, maybe, in practice I'll find success.

There's a story though, and a giant happy accident that led me to writing about two books today, instead of one. Ender's Game has been continually recommended to me by Amazon for ages now. I had downloaded a sample, but never bothered. A friend at work had been telling me about The Hunger Games for some time, urging me to read. I have such a huge list of recommendations on back-log not to mention the series I'm invested, so I made a mental note of both books and adjusted their position on my brain-list appropriately and basically forgot about them (I never read the sample).

Cover of The Hunger Games

Later, I kept hearing about The Hunger Games from others, and the hype grew until eventually I decided I had to see the movie and I have a rule about books-as-feature-films: I have to read the book before I see the movie. So I commit myself to reading The Hunger Games. Only, when I sit down at night, with my Kindle in hand, I see the Ender's Game sample and through whatever folly of my own creation, I seem to end up buying Ender's Game instead of The Hunger Games, mistaking the former for the later.

This though, is one mistake that I will never regret as the result was my discovery of an amazing book. I read The Hunger Games shortly after finishing Ender's Game and understanding my mistake. However, where Ender left me on the brink of tears Katniss actually made me cry, and guys I didn't cry when I thought Harry died.

Both stories were woven remarkably well, and the most interesting thing about the whole situation is the similarity between the books, one takes place in space mostly while the other in a tightly controlled arena. Both are set in the future after some great catastrophe or war and both books have the taste of political satire all over them, they drip with it in fact and I'm not complaining because the parallels create highly compelling prose and stories so delicious you just can't help but eat the whole thing in a single sitting, no left-overs.

In Ender's Game you have a future world ruled by the Hedgemony where space warfare is reality and the warriors are the children who where monitoring devices for the first half of their childhood until they are either selected to go to the International Fleet training station in space or they have the monitor removed. Families are only permitted to be made up of four units, a mother, father, and their two children. "Thirds" are looked down upon, forbidden, except in Ender's circumstance. Ender is a "Third," his parents were permitted to have him because his sister was too nice and mellow while his brother Peter is far too cruel for the IF's purposes. Ender is protected his whole life from his awful brother by the monitor, and his sister. Just when Ender thinks he's been overlooked, General Graff, the principal of the IF station comes to recruit him to save Earth. Card's story unwinds perfectly, shocking revelations and all.

The Hunger Games also features children in a future unified North America, called Panem, where the government maintains control over the populace with the Hunger Games, an annual competition pitting 24 children, a boy and girl from each district, in a last-man-standing, every-child-for-himself death match. After Katniss Everdeen takes her baby sister Prim's place in the Reaping and leaves for the games Collins takes you on a roller-coaster ride from start to end. Does Peeta's love for Katniss extend beyond the play-acting for the Capitol crowd? Can Katniss win the Games, or will the Baker's Son, Peeta be the one going home? Collins weaves a compelling story that leaves you shocked, mortified, feeling a little sick, sad, scared, hurt, and angry; Collins is a master of her craft and The Hunger Games is one series you definitely need to add to your rainy-day book list.

I have not yet finished the entire Hunger Games series but I plan to, as soon as I have a free day worthy of devouring a book in a sitting, but if you need a book, look no further than either of these two magnificent offerings.

Related Books:

The Modern Business: We’re Not in Kansas Anymore

2012-04-15T08:29:00.000-05:00

This is Rogelio Rivas trying to learn his guitar lessons. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

I had a very interesting discussion with a friend of mine who, like me, works in the technology industry as an Electrical Engineer (I develop software). He told me a story about a music shop that does a bunch of stuff from selling instruments to giving instrumental and vocal lessons. This place has a Web site too, set up by the owner's son. It's a JPEG, or image. No text, keywords, nothing, just the graphic.
I'm only writing about this because I feel the guy who owns this shop should be a lesson all business owners can learn from: You need a Website for your business, and chances are your nephew shouldn't be designing it unless he actually has some HTML skills; honestly for a static page suitable for most businesses HTML is all you need.

I promise you though that if you make a picture like you would for a newspaper ad and put it up online like a Website, it will do nothing for your business except cost you money. You need text that can be indexed by search engines, you need keywords in meta tags, you need more than a picture on a page, or else the only people that see your site will be those that you tell about it. Let's face it, if the only people who use your site are those people who you tell about it, well then you might as well not have the site because it won't tell them anything they don't know or can't learn from you.

Your Website is a marketing tool. People don't pick up the phone book anymore to find music lessons, they open Google and search the Web, and if you don't have a Website that can be found, you've already lost the sale and you haven't even had a chance to give a pitch. You can't sit back anymore, and rely entirely on word of mouth and a few coupons or weekly paper ads to keep customers coming through your doors.
There are more and more music stores popping up all the time. Further, face it it has got to be hard as hell to stock a music shop with more than the high-school-band staple instruments, so why should they get their instrument from you instead of the guy down the street or the guy online?

Another thing my friend mentioned is that this guy has no YouTube videos for his store, which could be shared via his Web site. In fact, I'm told he has no such desire, but what he doesn't realize is that if I were to stumble across his site (and I would since they're now ranked #1 on Google thanks to Paul, my friend) looking for guitar lessons I could see that they offer guitar lessons, maybe even see some pricing. I'm a conscientious shopper, so I want to look around. Perhaps right below them I would find another site, which also lists guitar lessons as part of their services, but hey wait, they have a video of this guy who gives the lessons working on some awesome riffs and great chord progressions, clearly he knows his craft and art, I don't even give the other guy a thought because this guy is awesome and I know I'll get an education with him, because he's obviously brilliant.

The first guy though, he lost a sale, but he's also loosing revenue too that he doesn't even have to work for, keep inventory for, and has almost 0% overhead (other than the time you invest). The videos store owner #2 has been making of him playing the guitar and maybe even giving a few lessons (maybe with a student or maybe just a video lesson) will begin to generate revenue for him from the Ads he can opt-in to having played before the YouTube videos he makes for his store. The other guy, he's still loosing sales and missing out on untold revenue because he refuses to shell out some cold, hard, time and make a few videos to promote his store (but they should never sound like an info-mercial).

So, while you're figuring out which guy is making more money; I need coffee before I start working on that chapter that always needs written.

Does your Web-site need a make-over?

Un-named Template 1 (Photo credit: DavidScherer)

I'm always looking for new clients, and trust me, my quote won't send you into cardiac arrest, but it will guarantee better page-rank, SEO, and of course, style. If you like your look but hate your rank, or no matter how you spin it I can help. Check out my Flickr if you'd like to see my design portfolio.

The Location-Based Brain

2012-04-14T05:28:00.000-05:00

door 212 (Photo credit: Aunt Owwee)

Ever forget to grab your keys from the living room, but when you go to grab them you end up forgetting what you were forgetting in the first place, your car keys. As a waiter, and a human being, this interesting phenomenon happens to me all the time. Interestingly enough, there's a reason behind it, and it has to do with the door, well mostly just he location, but the door appears to be a trigger.

We store information in our brains not unlike the way computers store information in folders. For us though, each room is a folder and when you leave, or walk through the door your brain is wiped and you load up data about the new room.

This explains why often when I leave the dining room at work with a drink order and enter the pantry, I “blank” and make the walk of shame back to the table to get the order again. Writing the order down in the first place would be a de facto solution, but it makes me look amateur and I've been around the scene long enough for the comparison to be offensive.

Apparently there's little I can do other than saying what I need out loud as I walk through the door. This isn't a problem with my memory itself as you might think. I don't really mention it (mostly because nobody believes my scores), but I've taken IQ tests (real ones) and a big ticket item on many are wrote memorization (aka short-term memory) and I generally score over-high on those portions.

So, the next time you change rooms and can't remember what you've forgotten, go back to where you work, because you probably didn't forget, your brain just loaded a different chunk of data and unloaded the chunk with the important stuff you've forgotten but can't remember.

My Take on the Modern Relationship

2012-04-13T05:56:00.000-05:00

A young woman and man embracing while outdoors. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

I don't really write the "Sex and the City" style articles often, probably never, but I recently read this article about myths surrounding cheating. One of the myths that stick out is of those that cheat, only a handful reported it was because they had fallen out of love, or felt the relationship comming to a close. On the contrary they merely wanted to have sex with someone else, the "same old sex" can get kind of boring it would appear. Reportedly, trying to spice up the sex life can be self-detremental, leaving you feeling like the end of the relationship was your fault.

Chemical structure of oxytocin. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Before I go any further, there are a few things you should know, if you already don't. (Keep in mind that when I say "love" I mean the kind of love that exists between two non-related people who are a mated pair, and not the love associated with family members, while similar, they're distinctly sepparate "entities.") The feeling we all call "love" is really a complex mix of endorphins, along with dopamine (the chemical the brain releases when you use recreational drugs to get "high"), and another versatile chemical called Oxytocin. Oxytocin (OX-y-TOE-sin) is often called the "Love drug" because it helps with contractions during childbirth and ejaculation in males during intercourse. It's also found in heightened levels immediately following intercourse. Love is not some mystical, magical force. It's because we're conditioned from birth to find certain qualities in a mate desireable, not to mention the preferences we develop over time to certain characteristics and physical attributes, that our brains reacting to recognizing these desireable traits in others and releasing hundreds of chemicals that "Love at First Sight" is very, very real, and possible.

However, over time, these chemicals wear off, and just like any drug, the longer you use, or are in love, the worse it hurts when it's over. Interestingly enough just like an addict you're literally detoxing, going through withdrawl. What's worse? We're perfectly conditioned to generate this chemical, but not so well conditioned for maintaining the production. You might find it a suprise to know that we, as humans, are not designed to be mated for life. The idea of "Til' Death do us Part" was introduced almost entirely by eastern culture, tradition, and primarily religion. But it's grown from that first leather wedding band into the grand events they've become today. We spend hundreds, thousands, hundred-thousands of dollars for a wedding when our very nature demands that the marriage last for a few years. We're pair-bonders, meaning we mate for a while then find a new mate. Mexico recently made a very progressive move and introduced legislation to allow couples to put an expiration date on their marriage, though I haven't heard much about it recently and I assume it won't do well. We do not produce a pheramone that bonds us permanently together, like the mole, which incidentally is the only mamal that does such a thing.

So, knowing all this, it doesn't suprise me that we are very infidellious creatures. In fact, some studies suggest that open, or polyamorous, relationships often fare better. They offer the opportunity for us to explore. I've always been steadfast in my opinions, values, and stance on relationships and cheating, and now I've had to re-evaluate. I've always persisted in the belief that I wouldn't be content with a polyamorous relationship, but logically it makes sense. I've always felt that if you were going to cheat on someone, that you should end the relationship before you start tupping the neighbor, though given recent statistics showing most people remain in love when they cheat and were merely seeking variety. While I understand the need or desire for variety in sex partners, when you enter into a relationship you also enter into what is considered a "Social Contract" and you shold honor it. If you were expected to be monogomous then you should remain so, or adjust the conditions of your arrangement/relationship/social contract.

We need to learn to be more honest with ourselves and others. We're a very sexual species and we can do little to alter our evolutionary nature. So if you want variety in a relationship, find someone who is looking for the same thing. I think though, that my main idea here, is that we may be a society full of racey sex-addicts, but we should still respect each other enough to sit down and have a conversation with them. You might try discussing a more open arrangement before you cheat. If the relationship ends there, well it was going to happen anyway, in time. At least you didn't earn the reputation of being the "Cheater."

Disastrous Easter

2012-04-12T05:53:00.001-05:00

Easter eggs (Photo credit: StSaling)

Easter for me was crazy as hell and as usual way too much stress to celebrate a Pagan-turned-Christian holiday when I don't hold with either clan. My family are all still Christian and for them, the food, and the chance to spend time with those people I don't get to see often, I participate. Since my family is so large, shopping for each person is impossible so every year my sister and I put together a small, individual arrangement of homemade confections (yes, we do make them by hand). This Christmas it was truffles (over 150 were made) and chocolate peppermint bark.

For Easter Alissa (My very own, personal pain-in-the-ass, aka: sister.) and I had planned on making everyone their own chocolate egg with their favorite filling, fruit-nut, peanut butter, etc. They're basically the same egg you pay $15+ for out of the cataloge or in the Store around Easter (they're cheaper to make and taste better because you can control the quality of the chocolate you use). Suffice it to say that between work and writing the new book and all the work I've been doing on this blog (You've noticed all the changing, haven't you?). I honestly forgot Easter was yesterday and the Eggs take days to make, so I chose to throw a cake together last minute.

A layered pound cake, with alternating interstitial spaces filled with raspberry jam and lemon curd, finished with buttercream frosting. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

If you actually know me, you know I don't do anything simple. Most people would have ran to Walmart, got a box of Betty Crocker cake mix, and a matching canister of icing and voila, a cake. But not me, no, I can't do anything the easy way. I go to Walmart, buy the cake mix, then buy 23 bags of top-shelf chocolate (the stuff that has no paraffin or other stuff in it and contains at least 60% cocoa). I decide I'll make a 3 layer chocolate cake filled with chocolate ganache and iced with, you guessed it: more ganache.

A layer cake needs a minimum of 2 days to prepare, but I usually set out 3 days. The reason being that the cake needs to cool completely, be removed from the pan, then left to sit in the air for a full day (or most of one) to start to dry out so that when it's time, the top of the cake can be removed (you want a level layer) and the layer manipulated. Since I have a small oven, I bake my layers thick and cut them in half. So, 10 AM I set out to bake a cake that takes 3 days to make and Easter Dinner was scheduled for 3 PM. I had a rough (and by that I mean you can tell it's a cake but in no way does it look as decadent as it actually is) cake ready by 2:45 and we were out the door.

Around 100 feet onto the toll road my tire explodes. The jack handle/lug nut removal device that came with the car was cheap garbage (I hate your guts, Saturn) and so the bolts became stripped and stuck and the tire was not coming off. So it was call a tow truck or drive the just over 3 miles home (I used to run that stretch of road every day) or drive home on the bad tire. We drove home, my aunt came and picked us, and the giant 15+ pound cake, up and took us to grandmas.

My dad stopped out and got the spare on and I spent all of Monday afternoon before work running around trying to get new tires. Walmart has no tires, well their computer says they have one, but it's a liar. Good Year can order the tires, but I need them right then and there, so I move on. Firestone finally has the tires I need, and the way the guy was talking $68/tire is a steal, but then they charge you disposal and valve stems and labor and road hazard and eventually you owe $171 for 2 tires, after waiving everything the guy doesn't refuse to let you waive.

I now have brand new tires, and it only cost me one hell of a headache and $171 and change. All that said, I hope I didn't bore you with 700 words about my crazy life but I don't really blog about me that often, given I prefer to write about what I'm interested in at the time of the blog-writing and my life really isn't all that interesting, most of the time. I felt the last 2-3 days deserved a post for posterity at the least. Anyway, let me know how your holidays went, was it a disaster? Or was your family smart and left for the Bahamas days before Easter?

Better, Greener Coffee? (On the cheap!)

2012-04-08T10:54:00.000-05:00

For me there has always been only one way to make coffee, and it's the time-honored, tried-and-true French press. It's a simple contraption: a cylinder holds your coarse coffee and hot water and the lid consists of a plunger with a screen on it that pushes the grounds down to the bottom after they have been steeped.

You don't really need the Kzata...
(Photo credit: DavidScherer)

The result is always the same, perfect coffee. When you use a press, the coffee sits in the water fully infusing it with it's flavor giving it a unique richness and body that you simply cannot get from an auto-drip, percolator, or the ridiculously expensive Keurig one-cup brewer (which will cost you a fortune in K-cups over time).

Pictured is my French press (made from post-consumer recycled material) that I got from Starbucks for $19.95 and it requires no electricity to operate and if you microwave your water (I do) not only will you save time, and energy (a microwave uses less energy than a stove-top), but your coffee will probably be ready faster than the auto-drip maker.

The coffee I'm drinking right now is called Kzata Blue, it's a South-African blend and absolutely amazing pressed and served with a touch, only a touch, of cream. But it has to be cream, not half n' half or milk or you'll lose the effect. I normally drink my coffee black, but today I was making the Easter cake and poured the dregs from my carton of cream I bought for the ganache into my cup, only a few drips and my already amazing cup of Kzata was transformed into something so smooth and rich, I may just live on Kzata for the rest of eternity.

So, Wait, It's Not A Girly Drink?

2012-03-30T18:55:00.001-05:00

Cocktails: "Lecker." Included notes (left to right): Tequila Sunrise, Erdnüsse, sind hier Standard (in the bowl), Mai Tai, and a receipt for €4,50 und €4,75. (Mallorca, exs100, cocktails, canpicafort, Spain, spanien) (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

The Happy Hour blog over at GIZMODO has an interesting article, a rather well-developed approach that analyzes a few of those alcohol-related rumors. The one that interested me most pertained to mixed drinks, you know the ones that don't make you choke, gag, or barf. Coincidentally they're also the drinks that put on the receiving end of the jests from friends, joking that you can't handle the "rougher" stuff, or making you out to be the "bitch" or "pussy." Not all is as it seems.

This article points out that interestingly enough, a mixed drink will in fact get you drunker than shots or straight drinks alone. There is some scientific backing to this, and the general version is thus: because of it's larger mass and volume, the mixed drink spends more time in your digestive system, which is where it gets absorbed. So while a shot of vodka runs almost literally straight through you, the screwdriver I'm sipping across the table is mingling around a little longer and getting absorbed more completely into the bloodstream.

Who's the bitch now, I wonder?

Booze Legends: Debunking the Myths Every Drinker Believes:

'via Blog this'

Quitting Smoking: Day 2

2012-03-29T15:18:00.000-05:00

i quit! (Photo credit: stallio)

A few days ago I began to get an inkling of the idea to quit smoking, it would drastically help my daily run (I could actually, you know, breathe while I ran for once). Today is day 2 without a cigarette. The literature packaged with the Nicorette gum I bought says the first few days are the hardest. I seriously hope that's the truth because honestly it hasn't been that hard yet.

I've had a few rough moments but I take a few deep breaths, decide if it's a craving or me just wanting a cigarette and either chew some gum or try to occupy myself. This seems to be going well as of yet and if it gets easier after the first few days then this shouldn't be too hard.

I've never tried quitting before, and statistically people don't usually succeed their first time, but I'm hoping I can.

Tired of Spending Money on Diet Pills, Programs, and Gimmicks?

2012-03-25T09:29:00.001-05:00

Are Bananas Much Better Than Cookies? Foods That Keep You Full and Prevent an Energy Crash:

I came across this in my Google Reader and I thought I should share it. Every day I see a new commercial for a workout system, diet pill (drink, food, candy bar...), or diet plan. You know what I'm talking about, and if you've tried them, or those around you have, you're familiar with how they work out: Sometimes you loose some weight, but then you gain it back almost immediately; more often you simply don't bother to do the work. You end up "cheating" so much it's not even cheating anymore, you're just binge eating. We wonder why diets don't work, and the answer is there, swatting you in the face, but the commercial weight-loss industry has everyone believing they need a pill to loose a pound (or fifty).

You want the secret to loosing some weight, and then keeping it off? I'll tell you, I'll tell you 100% of it and I won't charge you a dime, I won't ask for your E-mail, and this post is certainly not a limited-time offer just for you and the first 23 others who get exclusive VIP access. No. Read on and I'll do my best to explain how to loose weight in a healthful way, that won't have long-term health implications that may yet be unknown because of the lack of any quality studies performed on the safety of diet pills and supplements.

Ritalin (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

There are also no guarantees, express, implied, or otherwise and I do not maintain the information fit for marketing, merchantability, or otherwise. I'm not a doctor or a nutritionist and of course you should ALWAYS consult your doctor before beginning any new diet regiment, or exercise plan if your body or health is in a compromised condition. I'm not selling anything, and you should know that according to the FDA (Food and Drug Administration) only a "Drug" can cure, prevent, or treat any disease, and Obesity is considered a disease.

Now that nobody can sue me, or arrest me, I'll get straight to the point. It's important to note that diet pills really aren't going to do much for you, at lease probably not much good. I'm not talking specifically about appetite suppressants, but the pills you see advertised that let you eat whatever you want, whenever you want, and you don't even have to exercise. Your stomach is really only as big as both your fists, well, it's supposed to be. However most of us have become so gluttonous our stomachs have been stretched by our over-stuffing.

The problem is, or body can only process so much food at one time and actually make use of the energy and nutrient effectively. It's fairly common-knowledge that excess energy is basically stored as fat if it's not used. So no matter how many pills you pop, you body only needs some of that food and the rest is passing through your body compacting in your colon, sitting as sludge in your stomach, doing everything but what you need, or want it to do, which is fill you up and keep you full and energized for a generous portion of the day.

"But I have to eat!" Yes, you do, but you don't have to fill your stomach to maximum compacity to feel full. You simply have to eat the right foods, know how to answer your food cravings (because they're not really what you think they are), and for the sake of your health it should not take you 5 minutes to finish a plate of food. There is something to be said for savoring your meal, take smaller bites, enjoy the flavors, actually taste it. When you wolf down your food, you didn't get a chance to enjoy it, you almost don't remember what you ate, or how much (which is really the important bit). When you slow down and enjoy your food, you give your body and brain time to actually process what you've eaten, and how much.

Your brain, on a sub-conscious level, knows what it gets from the various foods we consume, and it knows how it uses those things to maintain our body and health. There is a reason you crave your favorite candy bar, and it's not your brain saying it wants candy, but it is sending a message. Your brain is saying "Your body needs sugar." But not just any kind of sugar, it wants complex sugars the kind you find in apples and oranges and other fruits. Keep a fruit bowl on the counter or in the refrigerator, oranges and apples both have a high satiety factor as well as a low glycemic index (complex sugar in action!) meaning they actually make you feel full and sustain your energy longer. So next time you're craving a candy bar, or considering desert when you're out, grab an apple from the fruit bowl (or order a side of fruit instead of that slice of pie, you won't regret it). The idea is it satisfy your cravings for unhealthy things, with things that are actually good for you, and if you're unsure the answer is only a Google search away.

So, ready to "diet?" It's as simple following the link above (to a Lifehacker post that inspired my own) and taking a peak (don't just peak, study it, and print it out and hang it on your fridge, or cupboard, or pantry door, where you'll look it often) at the Satiety Chart. Eat foods closer to the upper right hand corner, you'll feel fuller faster (no appetite suppressor pills!), and you'll go longer before you're hungry again, and the chances of a sugar crash: Almost None.

Pandemic of Lifestyle Diseases (Photo credit: colros)

But this isn't as simple as eating better (though I promise you're not going to lose weight eating garbage), no matter what pill you take, not matter what you eat, you're not going to lose a single dress size if you don't actually do some work. You don't have to get a gym membership, in fact a gym membership is actually fairly useless for losing weight. Why? Studies have shown that walking, jogging, or running 17 miles or more a week burns more visceral body fat (AKA stomach fat, and it's linked to heart disease and other cardiovascular health issues) than lifting weights alone. But they have treadmills at the gym, don't they? Well, yes, but like it or not it's easier to run on a treadmill (it actually does a bit of the work for you) than on the road or a track. Find your favorite park or place with a nice circuit path. As a park ranger or manager how long it is around, or you can use a tool like MapMyRun to find the approximate distance, then make a commitment, start off with just a mile, maybe two, or more depending on your fitness level and work up to 17+ miles a week. You'll notice weight loss soon, perhaps even the first week. Keep in mind that there are at least 20 pouds (yeah you read that right, 20, t-w-e-n-t-y pounds) between each dress size, so don't go shopping for new skinny jeans tomorrow. Your goal should be to get healthy not to get thin, though getting thin will certainly be a pleasant side-effect of getting healthy.

One last thing, abs, everyone wants abs, there's just one, tiny little problem: Stomach Fat. You can do crunches until you just can't crunch anymore, and you're not going to have abs. The secret that the 20 minute ab workout commercial didn't tell you while they were pitching you a sales line last night is actually in the paragraph immediately preceding this one. A layer of belly fat over your abs, no matter how thin, can prevent your abs from showing. Relax your stomach, pinch, fat. Don't panic, or stick your finger down your throat or starve yourself though. Keep walking, keep eating right, and certainly keep doing some crunches (they're especially beneficial to women's health, for many more reasons than just developing washboard abs) eventually you'll start to notice some definition showing, usually starting with the upper abdominals and moving down as your body burns off that visceral body fat (the stuff that causes heart disease). Keep in mind also that a little body fat is actually good for you, and healthy, and necessary to keep you healthy. How much is too much, or too little? Ask your doctor.

Your body needs rest too, so sleep at least 8 hours a night and you should probably walk no more than 4-6 times a week, or less again depending on your fitness level and the condition of your health. Talk to your doctor about what is a healthy level of activity. Your body does need some time off, building muscle and increasing endurance means micro-tears in your muscle tissue, as the tissue is repaired it build more, and more, as time goes on. Your muscles don't heal themselves though, they need rest and fuel, healthy fuel.

There are no secret drugs to lose weight, no magic workouts, nothing that is going to magically make you drop 50 pounds and 3 dress sizes in under 60 days that you will actually keep off. You can eat healthy though, avoid junk like soda (drink water, lots of water, your body is 98% water, you always need water), or candy bars. Drink some juice if you must (Careful though, it's not as healthy as you think!), but keep the Coke in the bathroom, it'll make your toilet shine.

'via Blog this'

How Companies Like Apple are Destroying Our Economy

2012-01-24T00:18:00.000-05:00

Linked from Apple, Inc
Supplier Responsibility page.*

America has a deep rooted problem with our economy. Our Middle Class has almost entirely disappeared as our exports are now our imports. More and more we're becoming a provider of services, instead of goods. I recently read and article that used Apple, Inc. as an example to demonstrate what exactly has gone wrong. I rarely agree completely with something of this nature, but alas, I found myself compelled to read the whole thing and found myself agreeing on nearly every point.

The article reveals that manufacturing jobs have been shipped overseas not entirely because Chinese workers are much cheaper than American workers, in fact it pointed out that it would only cost ~$60 USD more per device to make iPads in the USA. The problem, however, is that Chinese factories have surpassed the capabilities of their American counterparts astronomically.

Apple says that we simply don't have the mid-skilled workforce that China has. By mid-skilled, they intend to mean people with more than a high-school diploma but less than a Bachelors degree. There simply are not enough laborers with Associates degrees in applied sciences or technical degrees/certificates.

The other underlying problem being in the Apple supply chain, any manufacturing supply chain even. If you're manufacturing in China and you need a glass screen, that factory is down the road. Need a screw? It's the factory next door. Need a screw in a different shape, size, or tolerance? It will take four hours. See what I mean? Top this off with the ability of Chinese factories' ability to scale up or down at a moment's notice, and you have the perfect conditions to pump out hundreds of thousands of iPhones everyday.

Reportedly Chinese factories can hire and fire tens of thousands of employees at any given time as needed. When all your employees live on-site in company dormitories, sleeping 6-12 (or more) each, you have a workforce ready at any hour of the day to fill an order. Steve Jobs is said to have called his high-ranking executives into his office one day to show them the scratched screen on his iPhone. He demanded scratch-free glass and he got it. The glass arrived at a Factory in China around midnight and the workers were reportedly given a biscuit and a cup of tee. Allegedly in less than four hours over 8,000 workers were fitting new scratch-free screens into iPhones only weeks before they were set to ship.

Good luck finding the American Worker who is willing to work 6-7 days a week, live on-site, and wake up at midnight to put new screens into iPhones whenever Apple decides to make a last minute change to the screens of their latest model.

In the end, the question remains how do we fix it? Reading the comments in the article you'll find plenty of ideas that are on the right track, but don't quite solve the problem. I did, however, manage to extrapolate a doable solution to bring jobs back to America. The answer then? It lies in taxation. If we raise the taxes on American companies to such a point as that they simply can barely cover their bottom line for as long as they manufacture more than a certain percentage of their goods in other countries they would be forced to make changes.

The increased taxes would then start help covering our country's bottom line (which has grown out of control), as well as enabling them to set up educational funds and programs to educate enough people to fill those mid-skilled positions in the manufacturing plants.

A good argument to this would be that the supply chain is still on the other side of the world, and you would be right. However, if factories started popping up that needed screws, then a new screw factory is going to pop up next door. Even if we did still make the screws in this country, it would take around 35 days to ship them overseas by freight and it would cost 10 times as much to ship them by air.

Steve Jobs told Obama that these manufacturing jobs aren't coming back to the USA, but they can. Even if Apple and Microsoft and other companies already have a strong lobbyist control in Washington, we the People are stronger. You only have to look at what DemandProgress.Org has done for SOPA and PIPA. When Americans rally behind a cause, Washington notices. Trust me, your senators and your congressmen like their overly-high salaries, pensions, 401ks and government healthcare benefits. If we send enough E-mails, raise enough noise, we can make reform happen. It all starts with a call or an E-mail to your senator or district representative. Simply let them know that you are their constituent and that they will lose your vote if something isn't done. You might think your solitary voice will go unheard, but trust me, you won't be alone. Hundreds of thousands of us can make a difference. Tell DemandProgress that you want them in on this campaign. We can make changes even when the high-powered and over-funded lobbyists seem to be running the show.

* I believe my usage of this photo to be within fair-use.

Master of Death, Master of Nothing

2011-12-25T00:50:00.002-05:00

It's been a while since I've written anything here, and I suppose there should be an explaination forthcomming. First, I am actively writing again. If I'm writing here, I'm not writing my book. It's exceedingly hard to write good literature during every second of spare time I have, and then to squeeze yet more time out to write a 500 word blog article. To blame it all on my book and my time restraints isn't entirely fair, or honest, for that matter.

I have been decidedly distracted lately, though I haven't really been forthcomming about it. The issue has been plaguing me since I was 12 or so. At that point in my life I experienced, for me, the most tramatic thing I could have then, Death. My grandmother died, and she and I had become increasingly close during the last year and months of her life. I'll never understand it but the death haunted me, in ways that I can never really explain.

I've tried to explain them, in thousands of poems and free writes and pieces of verse, I've tried. I've tried to understand death, and in this I lost myself I think. What I had thought was my grieving process was, I think, just an obsession with death. Or perhaps more apropriately at that time the pain that death inflicts in the fallout of it's merciless grasp.

In my poetry I saught to conquer this pain, to overcome it, so that I never had to hurt that badly again. But the scariest part I'm only realizing now, is that I succeeded. And in what then I would have seen as my greatest accomplisment, I now see as my greatest failure, my dramatic flaw.

A year later my great aunt died, and a year after that my great grandmother, then my grandfather. Each time it hurt less, and less, and less. The deaths kept getting closer and closer and the pain kept fading. I didn't take much notice then, I just kept writing, working. It was like every emotion that pained me, I could, I would, find the words to describe it on my pad, and in doing so lock them away forever.

It's only now that I understand exactly what I've done. It took the death of a great woman, someone I admired and respected deeply, to help me understand. When a friend's mother passed away and I felt nothing, not sadness, not regret, nothing, some part of me questioned it. Why doesn't this feel bad? And it bothered me. Shook me, really, shook me deeply and I began to wonder how well I really knew myself, how well I understood myself.

I've been kind of lost lately, spending more time trying to understand myself. I've spent a great deal of time analyzing my past, trying to discern the turning point, trying to find the way back. I don't know, I do know that I've gone numb in a sense and for some reason the pain in the painlessness hurts that much more.

I Saw Breaking Dawn Part 1

2011-11-23T10:34:00.001-05:00

I saw Breaking Dawn, part I on Saturday and while I enjoyed the opportunity to re-live the Twilight Saga, I found it laking. The actual story-line followed the actual plot rather closely, I believe, though it wasn't perfect but I'll concede on this point that movies based on books have limitations as per the inherent nature in the way books are written.

My complaints lie mainly in the acting. The first thing that really make me cringe was the shyness that seemed to permeate their relationship in this movie. It was weird and hard to explain, but it was almost as if they were uncomfortable. I know what they were going for, and the effect worked in the scene immediately before the sex scene (I'll get there.), who isn't nervous and jittery before that first time with someone? So I see using that flavor of acting there, but it seemed to stay with them the whole way through the movie. It was -- it was just weird.

The wedding was great and I loved it. The vowels always make me laugh, I just enjoy being "in" on their little secret. My absolute favorite quote from the movie was from Emmet, Kellon Lutz, “Bella, I hope you got enough sleep these last 18 years, ‘cause you’re not gonna be getting any, any time soon.” I laughed probably a little too loudly, mostly because again we're in on the secret and the wedding is not. Bella's Dad was great as well with his toast, he reminded me of my dad with his guns and hunting men gambit. This was probably my favorite scene from the whole movie.

My other quip is with the Jacob/Bella dance at the reception, where Jake was all over her. I seriously would not be surprised if Mrs. Cullen didn't have a hickey on her neck before it was over. Again, we know Jake has some misplaced affection for Bella because she is destined to have a daughter who Jake imprints on. I get it, really I do, but it was over-done just a tad too much.

The sex scene itself was done tastefully, and I don't have much to say here except that I would have really, really enjoyed actually watching some feathers flying, rather than snowing down lightly in the morning. I'd also imagined her bruises being a bit worse, but perhaps that stemmed from Edward always being a drama queen when it concerned Bella in the books.

Over all it wasn't awful, however I came away thinking there was some filler in places there didn't need to be, and full of nuances over smaller details, many acting and dialogue. I just feel like it could have been better and that Summit Entertainment dropped the ball on us this time around. Here's hoping for better direction in part II, or whatever it takes to make this series go out with a bang.

(emmafrost has a review of Breaking Dawn pt. 1 that reflects my feelings better than I can.)

The Heroes of Olympus: The Son of Neptune

2011-11-18T07:11:00.001-05:00

In the first part of this follow-up series to the New York Times Best Selling series "Percy Jackson and the Olympians" by Rick Riordan, The Lost Hero, Percy Jackson has gone missing and the mysterious Jason has been brought to Camp Halfblood by Grover and the gang. In part 2 of the series, The Son of Neptune, Percy makes his way to the other demigod camp, Rome.

Riordan is a master at making Greek and Roman mythology (and even Egyptian mythology as well), and perhaps even history in general, interesting. I've always been a mythology lover, be it Greek or Roman, so he didn't have to work hard here. However the result either way is a captivating masterpiece that makes you want to read and read and read, leaving you pining for more when you turn the last page (or click the last click on your Kindle).

The book is perfectly paced, he moves his characters around his playing board with precision. Never spending too long in one place. His fight scenes are balanced with just the right amount of battle, tactics, dialogue, action, and even the touch of humor making you spontaniously giggle like a school girl. Often though, I found myself belting in laughter at points and always the comedic relief is thrown in at just the right moment.

Often when I read, I find myself thinking "I would have done this differently." I know I'm not the author, and it's not my call, but I don't control my thoughts most of the time (if ever). But when I read Riordan, I don't think I've ever had one of those moments, it's perfect, everything about it is perfect.

My only complaint is that I have to wait until the fall of next year to read more. Riordan has another series, that Egyptian one I mentioned earlier, that is due for a new book so I have that to look forward to (I hope).

Review of Destined (House of Night)

2011-11-12T01:22:00.001-05:00

I recently finished reading the latest installment of the "House of Night" series by P.C. and Kristen Cast. Destined is packed full of sub-plots and many twists and turns keeping the reader guessing constantly.

I started reading the series back in May of '07 when I randomly saw the book on one of the new release shelves at Walmart. The Cast, mother-daughter, duo had me from the first page. I was intrigued by the idea of the vampire finishing school vamps go to when they're Marked. I fell in love with Neferet right along with Zoey and I think I began to hate her just as quickly.

These two are great story tellers, forcing me wonder at the ever-popular question "what happens next" at the end of each book. This time around Destined has not left me without wondering. We started the series fighting Neferet, who then took on Kalona as her consort after raising him from the Earth.

Now Kalona hates Neferet and Stevie Ray in equal parts, the only logical thing to have happen would be for the two sides to at least call a truce in favor of Stevie Ray's Consort, Kalona's son Rephaim, but what happens in the end will suprise you and leave your head spinning and thinking about possibilities you never would have thought possible.

If you need action, magick and vampires and a loving Goddess when you read, grab a "House of Night" book while you're out. They're perfect for the reluctant reader too! I love a fast, easy read to just relax into just as much as I love the deep and involved books.

My Thoughts on Joe Paterno (Child Sex Abuse Scandal)

2011-11-11T07:36:00.001-05:00

I've been hearing bits and pieces of this story break and unfold during my drives to work on the radio. Suffice it to say I don't know if you score goals or baskets in football (I'm only partially joking here, my sports knowledge is very limited), I can and will commit my opinion on recent events to the slew of news and blog posts popping up all over the Internet.

Since I'm not a fan at all, and could care less about Penn State University as I'm a Carnegie Mellon fan and future Alumnus, I feel my opion will be as ubiased as possible.

I've always disliked sports, mostly because I'm an academic, and my High School (Hempfield) was (and kinda still is) renound in the area for its academia. So when the district built a $15 million sports complex, installed ridiculously expensive turf other schools were replacing because of numerous injuries, bought a instant re-play scoreboard (with insurance money for the one damaged in a freak tornado) that I'm can't be used in WPIAL sports, and cut the foreign language program from primary schools' curriculums (which is the perfect age for learning a language), you can imagine I was, to be perfectly blunt: more than a little pissed off. School budgets should be focused on providing a top-notch academic environment for students, spending excess money on athletics. I understand many have differing opinions on this particular matter and I respect them, and also respectfully, and strongly, disagree. (During my time at the school, they also almost ruined a teens life.)

I can tell you I've been reading a lot of the articles that have been popping up, as well as some of the comments. Not to mention it's the topic of every conversation I hear. I'm getting a lot of mixed feelings about Paterno, who many will be glad to know was terminated on Wednesday following an emergency meeting of PSU's Board of Trustees.

Some say he should resign immediately, some say he should be fired (along with his superiors), some defend him citing that he did what he was supposed to and reported it to his superior, which he did. I can find sense in all of these arguments.

The comments I find most peculiar though, and I know people will read this and think a whole slew of terrible things about me, are the ones saying what they would have done if they were Paterno. These things range from beating the "living **** out of that mother ******" to calling the police to killing him to stopping him. I believe that %95 of these people are telling the truth. Of those people, I believe about %50 actually belive what they are saying. Of those people I think that %5 would have actually intervened physically, and the number is probably even lower.

Something like this is gruesome, there is no blood and gore, but it is terrible all the same. My thoughts above are backed by Paul Mones who is is a sexual abuse attorney as well as a children's rights advocate out of Oregon. He is quoted by USA Today as saying:

"I don't think it's in our cultural DNA to intervene in certain situations. I would also say in my almost 30 years of doing this kind of work, it is extremely unusual for someone to walk in at the time a sexual assault on a child is taking place. And so it's almost like the person who witnesses it can't integrate it into their understanding of things as they see the world."

Many are wondering why Paterno didn't follow up on the situation and I too, wonder that myself. His legal obligation was to report it to his superior, but I know with certainty that I would have at least followed up. We can't say with certainty he didn't. I think a lot of us forget that the people that run these universities aren't high school principals with a masters in education or administration, but often incredibly powerful people. I mean this in the sense of both money and connections to other people with lots of money and lots of connections. I really don't want to do the whole conspiracy theory thing here, but it is entirely possible (and perhaps not even all that unlikely) that Paterno was asked (forced) to keep quiet. Perhaps some very subtle, or not so subtle, threats were exchanged. No one but the people involved can be certain as to the exact details of what went on behind the closed doors of Penn State University.

I think that given this, it's unfair for any of us to pass judgement so harshly on Paterno. I hear lots of people and articles saying he was trying to protect his reputation, but until we know more about what went on, we're only poking blindly in the dark at the truth with short sticks. I think then, for now at least, Paterno should have been permitted to remain in his position. Perhaps suspended pending details of the investigation. He announced his retirement for the end of the year anyway so he was leaving either way. Some crisis specialists have said that the only way the university could save face was quick termination of Paterno (along with PSU's president who was indeed terminated as well).

I also want to make clear that, baring any circumstance in which Paterno would have been unable to go to the police, I'm on the side of the rest of the world in believing he should have been terminated immediately. If we were in France (and probably several other countries) he would be in jail right now for failing to report a crime.

Yeah, I Can do Web Design

2011-11-10T06:46:00.000-05:00

I recently designed this site for a friend of mine who needed a way to collect donations from the members of her Alliance in a Facebook game she plays.

The donations enable her to have more contests and give out more prizes which in turn cause her members to work harder to be better players and win the contests.

This is probably the nicest thing I've designed in a long time, as I'm not a Web designer by default, it's not something I do often. My primary function in the IT world is to design and develop software and backend systems for Web sites. A lot of what I do is high-volume, sensitive data management and analysis work.

What that means is I write some computer code that moves information around and looks at it and makes decisions based on it or derives stats about customers (Customer Relationship Management). I do a lot of Point of Sale (cash register systems) development as well. I hate trying to explain exactly what it is I do because I do a lot of things, and I always have to be careful because I can't really talk about a lot of my work.

Since this isn't nearly as sensitive as what I normally do, I thought I'd take the opportunity to share some of my work with you, even if it doesn't really showcase my programming skills. If you click on the image thumbnail, you can see the whole screenshot. The "latin" looking text is called "Lorem Ipsum" which is filler text we use in the Web Design industry to see how text looks on a Web page. It was originally used in typeset books by typesetters.

How to Kill a Character

2011-11-09T05:56:00.000-05:00

Killing my first ever character was one of the hardest things I've ever done as a writer. It didn't help that the character, and its death, was crucial to the book. By now I hope you've guessed guessed I'm talking about Maerik. He was Mattes' mentor and teacher and stand-in father. He was incredibly important to Mattes, if not to the story in many subtle ways, and I understood that and I felt awful taking him away from Mattes.

I spent a week writing that scene, and to this day I don't believe I've done it justice. It was, after all, the first time I'd ever offed a character in a story I'd written. Not in a short story in high school, not in any of what I've written in my past. I get mixed feelings about the scene when I talk to people about it too. Some have told me that the emotional connection for the reader should have been stronger with Maerik, others have said I left them feeling incredibly sorry for Mattes.

Part of the problem with killing a character is that the reader isn't actually seeing it happen, and it forces me to work harder to create the right emotions in the text, to pull at the heart-strings of the reader. To do that I have to open old wounds from my childhood. I have to relive the loss of my grandparents, feeling all the pain and sadness all over again. Then I project it onto paper.

I tend to gain a sense of attachment to the characters I write about. I'm not talking about Maud, even though her death was a crucial part of making Mattes understand that there was no doubt he would have to destroy Marqus, she was a minor character. The only difficulty she gave me was the manner of her death. In fact I created her only to kill her and wrote almost nothing about her. She existed to die and to break up the monotony of staying in Inns accross Kaetuernen.

When I speak of attachment I'm talking about the characters I've spent weeks developing before I even have them written anywhere. I know their fears, their desires, the story of their life. Sometimes I know who their parents are, I know their height, weight, eye color, hair color. I become so intimately familiar with them, that it sometimes feels like they're real, like I could call them and have a chat or something.

How then, do you make this whole process easier? I don't think you can. It's going to make you feel bad, if it doesn't something's wrong. I'm not sure I want it to be easier, I think if I stopped feeling the pain I'd stop writing it well, and I'd probably begin to question which part of me had to die so I couldn't feel anymore.

Something we also have to worry about, as a writer, is alienating our reader. Going back to what someone had said about there not being a strong enough emotional connection between the reader and Maerik, I did that on purpose. I built the connection to Maerik through Mattes, I wanted the reader to feel Mattes' pain, not the grief at having lost a good character. I was also acutely aware that if I made Maerik seem too important, and made my readers love in too much, I would run the risk of alienating someone. After all, it was the first couple chapters of the first book.

The best tip I can give to someone though, who is struggling with killing a character is to relive the saddest moments of your life and write it into the story, make it feel real. But steel yourself because it's going to be unpleasant.

The Perilous Comma

2011-11-08T06:30:00.000-05:00

If you've read much of what I write, or you've ever been my English teacher (or professor), you probably know that I have a problem. I hate admitting it, but the first step to recovery is admitting that one has a problem and well, here I am, on my way to recovery.

I tend to over use the comma. I'm a huge fan of run-on sentences. I've practically mastered the ability to write, what I've dubbed, the "paragraph-sentence." It is just as it sounds, a whole paragraph comprised of one sentence, or perhaps it's a sentence that should have been a paragraph (or could be). However you'd care to define it, you get the picture.

I don't know why I don't use periods more often, it's right beside the comma. Perhaps I tend to write like I speak, fast. Too fast sometimes with little sepparation between my sentences. So where I should actually be ending a sentence and starting a new one, it feels to me like it should be a natural pause in speech denoted with a comma. I guess I talk in paragraph-sentences. I'm working on it though.

If you visit this blog regularly, and re-read an article a day or two after it's been published you notice some minor changes. Usually it's me going back and re-reading what I've written and fixing the giant run-ons. This is another terrible habit of mine, I seem to treat proofreading like an after thought. Usually because I'm crazy tired when I get home and still have an article to write not to mention a chunk of my second novel and in delirium I click publish. Despite my constant effort to stay a few days ahead, (I've been trying to write several articles at once for some time now) I can't seem to manage it. This is another matter entirely but I'm working on this as well.

I'd intended this article to be more of a grammar lesson than anything else, however it has evolved into what it is mostly because a grammar lesson would bore you to death whereas this is, at least mostly, bearable (I hope).

Your Waitress Can't Read Minds, Go Figure

2011-11-07T06:19:00.002-05:00

I've worked in a restaurant and I have several friends who work in the industry as well and we've often exchanged horror stories about customers and managers in equal parts. As far as customers go though, there has always been one common recurring theme that repeats, over and over and over again, and I'm not talking about people who don't know how to tip.

There seems to be this terrible misconception by people that their waiter or waitress is a mind-reader, outside of the normal mind-reading we do each day, capable of gleaning all the little details you didn't mention about your entree that you should have while you were ordering. As much as we all wish it were true (I mean come on, how cool would that be?) it's simply not possible.

For instance, let's say you ordered a roast beef sandwich (which is pictured smothered in gravy and comes that way unless otherwise requested) and you order mashed potatoes to go with it. Your server asks you "Did you want brown gravy on the mashed potatoes?"

"No." You might say. Your server would note you wanted plain mashed potatoes, perhaps thinking in some remote part of their conscious that these instant potatoes almost require gravy to even begin to be palatable.

When the food arives you have on your plate plain mashed potatoes and a roast beef sandwich covered in gravy. "I said no gravy!" you start screaming, making a scene in front of everyone. You dinner guest is hopefully by now appalled at being seen with you because you did, in fact, say no gravy, but that was in reference to your mashed potatoes and not your sandwich. Believe it or not the two items are indeed two items existing sepparately of each other.

Another friend of mine once told me this gem after a fun day at work. They were taking care of this lady and her husband who both ordered drinks and started with an appetizer. The lady ordered a burger with the words mushroom and onion in its name. They enjoyed the appetizer thoroughly while waiting for their meals and when the burger was placed in front of her she lifts the top bun and says "I'm alergic to onions." She hadn't mentioned this at all while ordering. She's offered a new burger or another meal entirely if she'd like and her response is "No, I think I'm full." While this crazy lady was obviously lying about her onion allergy because she got full on the appetizer and didn't want to pay for the burger, it's still a good example showing that servers do not read minds. How was this server supposed to know she was allergic to onions if she never said anything?

Now, everyone makes mistakes, I make about 10 a day, and it's really no big deal. Most times if you make a mistake ordering and simply fess up to it, your food will be fixed, for free, because they want you to leave happy. Please though, don't make a scene and cause your server to take the fall for a simple mistake that you made. Besides, people will stare at you, employees will talk about you, and every time you come it after that they'll whisper in the back of the house "That's the crazy lady who claimed she was allergic to onions." If you're one of these people who expect your server to read your mind, please stop because you're single-handedly driving up the cost of my food and it's expensive enough to eat out as it is.

Yes, an Author Can Write Too Many Books

2011-11-06T07:21:00.003-05:00

I love a good series, in fact I read series over "one-offs" almost exclusively. I think it may be because I become attached to the characters and the story and constantly crave more. The end of Harry Potter was a devastating moment, I experienced a minor period of depression while I searched for a new series to cling to. So yeah, I guess that makes me a stage 5 clinger.

For these reasons, it strikes me odd that when I'm reading a series, I eventually get bored with it. I'm not talking eventually as in 8 books, or 10 books, but there are some whoppers out there. Laurell K. Hamilton writes the Anita Blake series which now spans some 20 volumes (as of June '11). I stopped reading a few years ago and just can't seem to want to start reading again. I loved the series, I was enthralled by it for some time. However it seems toward the end where I'd stopped reading the series began to dry up, the plot seems to get tired. You can only fill so many pages with sex before it starts to feel repetitive and like it's there to fill space. Another author, Christine Feehan, has done the same with the Dark series, which I really enjoyed at one point, before it grew past 20 books and started to bore me.

I love these authors, and their stories, but as much as I hate to admit, I think book series do need to have some clearly defined end point where some major event happens or a bad guy is defeated and the series stops. Perhaps leave room to spin another series (like Tamora Pierce did with the Circle of Magic series, and even that came to a close, though she continues to work in that world), but I'm of the opinion that series do need to end, preferably before they're 30 books long and counting.

I know I say this now, and I do mean it, but I know, too, that when I'm about to finish the next series I'm invested in I'll be longing for more, wishing it didn't have to end. I think though, that's the magical part of a series, that they do usually end. It will take you on an adventure to unknown, faraway places where you can battle mythical creatures with magic and crazy weapons. When it's over the story gets to lay fallow, allowing us to recommend it, allowing it to gain a certain following, allowing the fans a chance to re-read and learn all the little details we missed the first time.

I think that's what I miss most about those incredibly long series, the inability to re-read. At 20 books, at a book a week (I do a book in a day when I have a full day, but that rarely happens anymore), it could take almost 6 months to re-read something that large. Further, after so many installments details and facts and names and places start to jumble, I have a great memory and yet I have a rough time remembering some details after the 10th book.

Since I can't stop authors and publishers from over-writing, I guess I'll have to simply enjoy a series for as long as it keeps my interest. If nothing else, they're great clingers between Paolini's long spans of time between books.

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