Tag Archives: problems

On the Dismissing of Events (Warning: Almost Political)

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Warning: Almost Political

I’ve been perusing the internet in the past few days. And of course around 9/11 there was a lot of talk about 9/11. I’m not a conspiracy theorist, nor am I a government patron. I’m not going to try to condemn or praise the United States government here. However in these talks about the past there have been many people dismissing those events. They dismiss them for various reasons, including: “it was a set-up, relatively few people were killed, it pales in comparison to later events, terrorist attacks happen all the time, or simple that it was twelve years ago and that makes it no longer relevant.”

But really it is relevant. I don’t care how you feel about it, it is still important. There are still lines in the sand being drawn over it, there are still policies directly associated with it. Government supporters and government critics, in many countries, not just the U.S. still make it a part of their agenda. It continues to shape politics in America. No matter how dismissive some people will be politicians will for better or for worse continue to use it as a tool, or a reminder. It will continue to be part of the justification or vilification of government programs. And to those who dismiss Americans as being pompous or over dramatic don’t realize the cultural ramifications. Despite what we think Americans rarely forget.

So, I urge people next year to not be dismissive of this date, or of the talk surrounding it. To dismiss it is to hand it to the dogs. If you wish to see it’s message changed or viewed in a new light speak, and speak with an argument, not a few words and a wave of a hand. It, as an event, must be seen, understood, and dealt with, as all events. There has been no closure. Simple stuttered gasps have been attempted, and the remembrance on this day is because of that. And if people continue to ignore or dismiss it there will never be closure, and that can be dangerous.

How To: Button a Shirt and Eat a Bagel Simultaneously

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So, you’re a busy guy, kinda like me (kinda, depends on the day). You get up early in the morning and you still don’t have time for breakfast, or you just don’t feel like eating. Still you put your pants on and a t-shirt. You go out into the kitchen and fix a bagel with cream cheese (high class, I know). Then you realize that you gotta get a button shirt for what ever you’re gonna do today (busy guy remember). But you don’t have time to eat a bagel and put your shirt on, you gotta do both at the same time. Well I’ve been in this scenario and am here to talk you through it.

First, select a shirt.  The bagel shouldn’t affect this, just be careful to not get crumbs in your closet. Then remove the shirt from the rack and stick your non-dominant arm (the one not holding the bagel) through the correct sleeve (make sure it is the correct sleeve). Swap your bagel to the other hand and do the same with the other sleeve. Now button your cuffs by ‘breaking’ your wrist down and then buttoning with your index finger and thumb (this is one of the trickier parts). Make sure your bagel is in your non-dominant hand before buttoning each of the shirt buttons after lining them up at the bottom (or not if you don’t mind crooked shirts). Button by using your index finger to grab the button and your thumb to guide it. You should have finished your bagel by now and so you can button the top button and put on a tie or whatever now. I just put a note book and a pen in my pocket and I’m good to go.

It’s that simple! I know some of you really need this guide. I know it would have helped me in this situation, although looking things up on the internet while eating a bagel is a completely different guide. I hope it helps some of you out there.

Soda and Productivity

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A lot of people drink soda, or coffee or tea, or some other caffeinated drink. The usual reasons are the same: they either need the energy boost or like the taste (which means they need the energy boost and want an excuse). I personally don’t drink coffee and rarely drink soda or tea. But this wasn’t always the case. I can remember a time not too long ago (a few months) where I was drinking several sodas every day. Most people are fine with this or even need it, I know someone who gets almost sick when he goes through soda withdrawal. I went through withdrawal when I “quit” soda and it is terrible, but I managed to do it and here’s why I did it.

Back even longer ago I wasn’t getting much done. I subsist on liquids mostly because I’m either to lazy or not hungry enough to make food (I haven’t eaten breakfast in months). I only got soda when we went out, I had none at home because my house is the type of house where you only get things if you write them down on the list or ask for them just before (which is a good thing). I decided one day that getting soda would be good, and might even improve my productivity.

When I got it for the first week or two I was fine, nothing really changed, I thought. But soon things started to change. I started wanting more and more soda every day, kinda like an addict. I would save my soda for when I was working, which ironically made me work less because I would just drink the soda and then stop working. I tried to compensate for this by working only at certain times when I wanted soda, which cut my work times even more because I wasn’t motivated. The worst thing though I didn’t even realize was happening. I was staying up later because of all the caffeine, (or just the sugar) which meant that I was getting up later. As I have discovered, getting up and being fresh and awake is one of the major components of working and enjoying that work. Soda was slowly but surely destroying my sleep schedule.

Most of you don’t know me so I’ll just tell you that when I don’t get things done I start to get mad. Not getting things done infuriates me. I didn’t fully realize that I was now a tired, angry, and lazy individual until I stopped soda all together. I had been “addicted” to soda before and quit several times, but that was when I was in school and didn’t care about what I was doing (it also served as a good distraction when I was quitting). I finally quit again by reducing the amount I drank a day slowly. I then had about a week of head and body aches where I was even less productive and really tempted to go back to soda. When that ended however I got ten times as much done per day, I was more focused and even more alert, provided I had gotten enough sleep the night before.

I know that I’ve been making soda drinking sound very serious. It really isn’t and I’m sure it doesn’t affect some people. I still do drink soda when I go out or on a trip. But just be warned that it can cause some serious problems, and I believe that my life is better now that I’ve gotten it out of my house. Think of some things you “can’t” get through the day without and see if you really need them, or if they really are helping you. The answer may surprise you.

A Youtube Problem

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I’m going to quickly take you through a scenario I went through last night. I watch a lot of videos, right, and I post a lot of videos on the internet. Youtube is one of the places I visit most. I was going to watch some videos from the people I subscribed to. I loaded up the homepage and clicked on the first video I saw that was interesting in my feed. At which point I was greeted with this:

So after that I did the perfectly logical thing of panicking. I immediately thought about all the places I could have visited that would have given me a virus. All of the ads I may have clicked on, all the pop-ups I would have gotten from clicking on said ads. Then I shut down my computer and restarted it. I booted Safari back up and was treated with the ability to watch videos… for five minutes. After that I was given the same screen as last time (though it does change everytime you reload). At this point I was near hyperventilation. I shut the system down again and even installed all the updates I have been neglecting. Do you know what that takes for me?

I went crazy, like I need Youtube or something? I then went to sleep because for some reason I was watching videos at midnight. The next morning I still couldn’t watch videos. so I frantically searched around the internet, even going so far as to copy paste some of the gibberish into Google (which found nothing). Until I eventually found a post on a forum that was about the same problem as mine. It turns out that it kind of worked itself out for some people and it appeared to be a problem with Youtube and not my computer. I could also watch videos right after looking at this post, almost as if by magic.

My reason for writing this really is to warn you about the internet. Think about a site that you would panic if it went down (it didn’t help that Tumblr was down at the same time). See if you could go a day without it. And then begin coordinating your panic procedure, because you can’t, you know you can’t, I know you can’t, and no one else has to get hurt because of your panicking.

The Internet will End us all

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By: Austin Smith

The internet will be our end. It will end us all. It’s a plot to destroy us.  Just now, I was trying to write an article, but the internet wouldn’t let me. It just kept sucking me in. It’s a plot to make us all waste time and have our grammar increasingly suck. Our ability to defend from verbal attacks by politicians or others will diminish exponentially. We already can’t defend against any attacks. We’re already completely incapable. And we hide the fact that we can’t defend against them by looking on the internet and cursing.

Our attention spans shorten, we can’t do anything without going on to something else. Anything important can just be avoided long enough for people to move on to something else. And in the same way anything minor can be blown out of proportion. Anything can be brought to national attention, no matter how stupid or ridiculous it is. It can capture the public interest. Schlock can capture the public interest. It doesn’t take anything but a few “likes”. It doesn’t even matter if it is possible, or even remotely sane to think about. Anything to keep you from having to think about something for more then a minute. It’s just a plot to get us to not think rationally. We will continue to distract ourselves and become worse at arguing, worse at fighting. Until they come and take us over. Take over our weak, distracted bodies.

But even if they fail then, even if they fail in the takeover, we’ll still turn into dribble. Our minds will be fried and we’ll end up like those aliens on the Star Trek episode with Chris Pike. We’ll all be to lazy to do anything except watch cat videos.

Even right now as I keep trying to write, my mind keeps wanting to tab over to wikipedia. Can’t you fill in the blanks yourself about how this will destroy us? It’s so easy to figure out. In my town people no longer go outside (partly because it’s flaming hot any day of the week ending in “y” but also) because they can get all the satisfaction they want from the internet, and that’s inside.

The internet can and always will be an amazing tool, but we must find a way to use its powers for good. We need to institute some internet safety laws. Some videos on internet safety would help with that too. We also need to have an internet rehab, but not like the new pansy rehabs, we need and old-school one, on where they just strap you to a bed with no internet for days. I’m sure that would do many people good in this world, including myself.

Those measures may seem extreme, but think about it, think about where we are going with this. If we don’t act now we’ll end up like we’re “in the year 2525”. We’ll be nothing, the only credit our race will ever have is an encyclopedic knowledge of cat videos.