the little things in life

Ok, this is going to be a little post. Mainly because it's an impulse post. I'm just sitting here bored really, but nothing substantial has come to mind for a good post. Just another thought, I still need to design a true layout; but my uncreative mind can't think of anything fantastic just yet. Yes, it needs to be fantastic - just like the owner. I kid! I kid.

Right then. On to what I originally meant to post about.

So today I received my microSD card in the mail. Fairly large package actually. A full sized envelope. Why do they need to do this anyway? The thing is huuuuge for something small and simple like a package for an SD card. I'm sure you know the size, it's about the size of your hand. In any case, it's fun to get big packages, because they make you feel important. When you come home and see a package on your front porch, it makes you all excited. It's like Christmas every time you receive a package. Looky! That might be for me! Unfortunately, it's also like Christmas in that not all the presents are for you. ... Well, you can't win them all.

So upon bringing it into the house - excited the entire way to my room - I greedily opened the package. Fun stuff, the opening process. I'm sure if you were calm when opening a package, things would go much faster. But that's never the case; you're always trying to tear it open even if you don't have the proper tools. I don't need no stinkin' knife; I shall rip it open! So that phase passes and you look inside to find the item you were eagerly awaiting. Then, you admire the packaging of the little bugger for a few minutes. You don't open it up yet because you want to savor the newness look of the item still in its manufacturer's package. Wait wait, scratch that. You don't open it up yet because the manufacturer's packaging for electronic accessories are always a major pain in the butt to open. They use that ungodly difficult plastic and seal it off on all sides. There's no where to pry open with your fingers. There's no possibly way to tear it apart with your hands. They even deceive you. You'd think that after one end has been cut off (through much toil with the scissors) that you could simply just peel one side of the package from the other.

No.

It always starts morphing and bending and you end up partially ripping it. Then the hard part comes in because you don't want to try harder for fear of cutting yourself on that newly created rift in the package. Instead you think to yourself: that should be enough of an opening for me to pull it item out. And so you do. You try and bend the package this way and that way so that the opening is large enough for you to pull off the item. And they even make this hard to do because the item is always embedded in the plastic somehow.

Back to the SD card. This thing is TINY (i guess putting tiny in all caps is a bit counter-intuitive). This thing is teeny. Not even the size of my finger! And what's more, this thing is 2GB! To put it in perspective, here are two more pictures:

Oh it looks like I need to cut my nails. Hmmm... Oh right, tiny. Yeah, look at that! It's so cuuute. It's as if two SD cards had a baby or something. That got me thinking, that microSD card is about a quarter of the size of a regular SD card. The microSD's capacity is 2GB. 2GBx4 = 8GB. That means 8GB SD cards should be pretty easy to make right? I even know there are 4GB microSD cards - meaning 16GB regular SD cards should be a cinch! Apparently I'm wrong, and there aren't that many 8GB and 16GB SD cards to choose from. And they're monster expensive too.

Oh well, time to cut my nails.

uber lulz

Facebook is cruel. If you read my complaint about Facebook, you already know I don't like it. What makes it worse is that if anyone contacts you using Facebook, there is no escaping touching the site. Sure sure, they'll send you an emailing telling you that someone PM'd you... or "wrote something on your wall". But it will not let you in on the secret unless you log in to the site. That's just stupid. They could just as easily send you the message posted or PM'd to your email. But no, instead, you have to log on to your Facebook account just to read a useless PM that says: Come to my birthday party! ....... in New York!.... No thank you. You waisted my precious time. Wait wait, backtrack a bit. What exactly is a "wall". Why do you want someone writing on your "wall". Isn't that called vandalism in some states? It's more like "someone has graffiti'd your wall". Because graffiti is sometimes good, but mostly useless. "Happy birthday!" I would never have known it was your birthday today, but oh well!
Authors note: Facebook is a source of lulz.

What do you spend the most time touching in a day? Aside from your bed. And get your mind out of the gutter, kthx. For me: computer keyboard. I was just thinking, I spend a big amount of time in front of the computer, and for most of that time, my hands are on a keyboard. So anyway, I'd like to discuss the four different types of keyboards (maybe even five) that exist in my mind. Ok, so my two favorite types of keyboards are the classic really really old ones. And the ones that are like the ones on laptops.

I. The Really Really Old IBM Keyboards
The picture I found from Google Image Search summed it up the best. The image name was: ibm-clicky_keyboard.jpg If you've ever had the enjoyment of using one of these keyboards, that filename about describes it perfectly. I love those keyboards so much that I wish I had one right now. It feels so good to type on it; not only is there tactile feedback because of the distance the keys have to travel to be pressed, but there's also auditory feedback. The satisfying *click*click*click* as the smooth plastic keys hit the board really says "I'm typing, and I'm cool". Maybe I'm just weird, but I love the feel of these keyboards.

II. Laptop keyboards and the like
These keyboards are fun to type on because they are speed demons. Not quite as satisfying as the old IBM keyboards because sometimes you're unsure of whether you really typed something or not. But the fact that they're soft is fun. Seems kind of counter-intuitive that my two favorite types of keyboards are on opposite sides of the spectrum in regards to button depth, but oh well.

III. Generic Keyboards
These are the kind you get for $5 at Wal-Mart or something. They don't look fancy, they don't have any fancy buttons, they just type. But you know what? They do the job, and I commend them for that. Despite being generic, at least they don't malfunction (that often). You know what? I bought a generic-keyboard to play o2jam. Do you want to know why? My old multimedia keyboard didn't have n-key support. Meaning, I couldn't press all 7 buttons at the same time. It would just say, "No, screw you, you're not really pressing 7 buttons, you just think you are. Therefore, I am better than you and will not send the computer those keystrokes." My generic keyboard, however, isn't that smart. It simply did as it was told. (Okay not really, but I like to make up things).

IV. Natural Keyboards
I like to think of them as very unnatural. For a true-to-the-definition touch typist, maybe the keyboard is natural; however, for me, someone who was influenced by computers since I was a wee little kid (I think I have a picture of toddler-me crawling around a 286 somewhere), I learned how to type by doing what felt right. It was only after I was comfortable with a keyboard that I used typing programs. But even then, it was only to see how fast I could type and not necessarily the "correct" hand position. So anyway, these natural keyboards annoy me as I attempt to push the letter 'b' with my right hand.

V. The Keyboard That Really Isn't There At All
I've never actually seen this one in person, nor do I know if it even exists. But I don't think I'd like this type of keyboard. I mean, have you ever tried to type without a keyboard in front of you? The physical feeling of the buttons is what aids you in moving from one letter to the next right? Try just typing on your desk in front of you. At first you think you're doing fine, but I don't think that it would be as easy if you were actually trying to type something. Who knows, this keyboard could be ultra-sweet! It sure does look like it. But looks are deceiving, because IBM keyboards look old, but despite this, they're really cool.

Speaking of imaginary things... how about them hand-brakes in a car. You know, those things you pull to keep your car from rolling downhill? Aren't they also called emergency brakes? e-brakes, hand-brakes, park-breaks, etc... Anyway, I think they are mislabeled. It's a cause-and-effect misnomer actually. You see, emergency gives rise to panic. I think these brakes should be called panic brakes. Why, you ask? Have you ever driven off with the parking brake on? There are only two possible reactions when you do this:
Hmm, my car is acting oddly today. It accelerates just a little slower than normal.
or
What's that smell?
There is never the realization that, Oh my word, my parking brake is on! Because you *don't notice its effect at all*. Maybe it can be labeled correctly as a parking brake since you do put it on when you park. HOWEVER. It should not be called an emergency brake. Emergency brake implies that you should use it in emergencies - you know, when your normal brakes fail. That would be all and dandy IF IT WORKED. But you see, it doesn't work. I don't know why, maybe I've ridden in only old beat up cars, but I'm sure you've had experiences similar to what I'm saying.
My ride and I were in the his car and his brakes have been acting up so he decided to test out the e-brake as we were parking in front of the house. Alright, let's do this. *pull* .............. "Dude I think I just sped up when I put that brake on."
This is why emergency brakes should be renamed to panic brakes. In the event of an emergency, you reach for your emergency brake. But you fail to remember that it is no longer an emergency brake. The moment you pull that "e-brake" you realize your mistake. You just pulled the panic brake. Time to panic: it didn't slow you down.

Here's to hoping your e-brake is truly a brake for emergencies. Enjoy life!

this is unfair

I don't know six people that well on blogger, not to mention, I don't even think six people read my blog. But oh well, this post will only be the game, I haven't come up with anything worth typing yet for a normal post:

Rules of the game:

Each player of this game starts off with ten weird things or habits or little known facts about yourself. People who get tagged must write in a blog of their own ten weird things or habits or little known facts, as well as state this rule clearly. At the end you must choose six people to be tagged and list their names. No tag backs!

1. I don't watch TV. I personally don't find this weird, but some others do apparently.
2. I have a weakness for speakers. In the past few months there have been amazing deals on tech stuff: plenty of low latency 2 x 1GB RAM for under $100, 400GB+ SATA HDDs for under $100, Nintendo DS for ~$100; but I said no, I will be strong and I will not waste money. But then these speakers came on sale... retail $100, after sales and rebates ~$30... so I bought them.
3. I look forward to school. (But then when school actually starts, most of my classes end up being not as cool as I had anticipated)
4. I haven't seen a movie at a theater in about 3 months.
5. I can't refuse someone asking for help (though I need to learn how).
6. I take a stance against drama. Therefore, my personality is set up to avoid conflict. I avoid being an enemy at all costs, it's the best solution to be free of drama.
7. I want a badass looking trench coat... and a mask... nevermind. I think it'd be cool to run around and dress up like this: Picture 1 / Picture 2
   I guess the weird thing is that I could probably pull it off if I wasn't such a lamer.
8. I get the urge to jump off of things a lot. Maybe I've seen too many free-running videos
9. Most dogs make me nervous. To me, they seem a little unpredictable. Also, you don't know when they're going to lick you. And that whole licking thing is a no no for me. I have no idea what else that dog has gotten in his mouth. I mean come on, they smell each other's butts - who knows what happens with their mouth.
10. Sometimes I shake uncontrollably. It's not a huge flail thing. But it's a constant shudder - I think it happens because I'm nervous, but sometimes there's nothing that I need to be nervous about. I also thing that being in an awkward physical position triggers it too. This one time I was at a restaurant and the table was a little high. And while eating I started shaking and it was annoying. So I had to sit back to eat to stop from shaking. I don't really know when it started, which bothers me as well.
    

That's what you get for making me post so soon. Crappy quirks. But, anyway, now that that's done... time to choose six... Why's it gotta be six people anyway? Is this some kind of remnant of the Pokemon days? You know, only getting 6 Pokeballs? I choose you.... six!

• Rainy
• Nienners
• Xian
• Polarpuff
• ... who else has read this blog
• I guess I will have to go into battle with only 4 pokemans.
  

good for the heart

I think this shall be another short entry as I'm running out of stuff to say... maybe. So for those of you who know me, you've heard the phrases, "monkeys!" and "Oh balls" quite a bit I'm sure. Used in the right situation, it can turn any disappointment into an instant smile don't you think? Don't monkeys make you smile? Doesn't the word 'balls' just have a funny ring to it? No I'm not a homosexual nor a homophobe, but balls is just a funny word. And Monkeys are just funny! So the next time you mess up something, instead of saying " Oh *@!#" , try "OH BALLS!" You'll instantly feel better because balls is a funny word. If balls aren't your thing, how about monkeys? Everyone loves monkeys, and they're just funny! So, instead of "!@#$", try "MONKEYS!" and that should alleviate some of the frustration. Expletives tend to throw off a bad aura, makes you feel more frustrated. You mess up, !@#!, and saying that only makes you more frustrated.
Don't look at me like that, I'm not that weird for my phrases am I? Ok ok, if neither monkeys nor balls floats your boat, think of a funny word. Something that rolls off the tongue easily and make it your own exclamatory phrase. Let's brainstorm some good words: puffbombs! cheesemonkeys! balls! oh wait... ok ok no more of those... muffins! I'm not good at this brainstorming thing; I keep returning to monkeys. Go to nien's blog, there's a monkey on there that will make you happy! Yay! They're good for the heart, those creatures are.
Also good for the heart is exercise. I personally enjoy bike riding. Well, I suppose I only like half of bike riding. The best part about riding a bike is going downhill. The wind through your hair (scratch that, safety first ladies and gentlemen, always wear a helmet), the thrill of keeping out for random people on the street, random cars. Oh and I love turning when going really fast, because then you can imitate those MotoGP racers that lean all the way down to the pavement on their turns. So hardcore. The feeling that your center of gravity changed positions is so awesome. Why am I talking about this? I don't really know. But now that leaves the other half of biking and that is going uphill.
See, riding a bike is all about looking cool right? ... right? So going uphill, you can't be caught doing the cheap way of standing up on the pedals and shifting your weight - plus that applies too much pressure on the pedals .. or something like that. You need to sit, pedal, and look like it's effortless too. But on the inside, you're just thinking, oh dear, when will this hill ever end. I don't know if i can make it to the top without looking tired. Hm.. maybe I'm unfit. No that's not it. I will blame it on the hills being ridiculously unrelenting.
Wouldn't it be cool to have a perpetual downhill ride? Like the infinite staircase you see in optical illusions - the ones that keep going and going. How sick would that be if there was an infinite downhill slope. Imagine the speeds you could pick up going down that thing.... zoom zoom.

Ok, while my imaginary self is cruising down that nfinite hill I shall impart upon you some final thoughts of mine. I was studying a bottle of whiteout today at work. I thought to myself, white-out is so paradoxical:
Item: White-out
Usage: Paint over mistakes
Purpose: Make errors disappear
Actual real-world effect of using white-out: Highlighting the fact that you screwed up
The way I see it, you use white-out for things written in pen. Usually things written in pen are important documents. What if you're turning in an application or something. White-out basically says to the person reading it: Hey, I can't properly fill out a form. Look, I'll make it even more apparent that I screwed up and was too lazy to fill out a new form.
White-out should hide the fact that you made an error, but in reality it only highlights it... and makes the paper bumpy. So from now on, I shall name white-out bottles "paradoxical eraser." Oh oh, and I love how sometimes it's called correction fluid. What's up with that? Putting it on my paper doesn't correct jack - all it does is ... well nothing. Imagine if it did correct things... I bet they'd be banned from test environments....

I'm done

your numlock is off

Made ya look!

I think this entry will be sort of short, since it's not so much a planned out post, but more of a "I just thought of something, I might as well jot it down since, a) I'm bored, and b) I might forget. I've always wondered about those age restrictions at websites. No not porn websites, get your mind out of the gutter. Let's say... a trailer for a movie that's rated R or something; or maybe a site for a game that's rated M. You know the ones where it asks for your birthday? It always amazes me when I see the default setting as:
| January |▼| | 01 |▼| | 2007 |▼|
Wait... 2007? I knew that as a species we should be getting smarter and all, but seriously, that's not even 1 year old yet! That's amazing. You know what I think? I think if someone enters an age under.. 2 or 3 years old, they should be let in the site or view the video, or whatever. Hell, why not just give the person a million dollars! That'd be the smartest baby the world may ever know! Is it really that hard to set the cutoff to say, 3 years? I honestly don't think any 3 year old is going to be browsing the internets - and even less so: be able to understand that you need to be 18 or older AND put in your birthday. If the 3 year old can handle that, I say, give him/her the content.
This leads me to my next point (well it doesn't really lead me, but I thought it'd be a good transition point as I was just repeating myself). I never understood what's to keep people from just putting in a random date. Yes, yes, formalities and law and all that jazz. But do you really think teens are going to abide by it? You might as well have a button that says:
"If you're under 18 GTFO. If not, press continue. Have a nice day!"
It would save both the designers and the users some time. Designers wouldn't need to code 3 stupid pull down boxes and a function that checks to see how old it would make the person. And the user wouldn't need to select their day, month, and year from those stupid dropdown menus. It sucks even worse when your day is in the middle of the month and you need to scroll down some distance. (and it gets worse when the dropdown boxes are in Flash and instead of just typing the number, you actually have to select it). A [Proceed] button would make both lives much easier - it's essentially the same thing. If the user wants in, all they need to do is turn themselves into a 107 year old. You know, bottom of the list kinda stuff. The internet is a wonderful place. I think, though, putting in an age older than the oldest person alive should raise a red flag. But,... nevermind, you know where that was going.
It just boggles me that someone could be so gullible.. or innocent. Speaking of which, I don't think any commercial for products (I'm excluding movies and games) has ever made me want to go buy it. It's interesting to think that there are people in the world who are influenced by cheesy commercials. If I'm talking about you, no hard feelings eh?

Ok I think I'm done. Time to make dinner. Have a nice day!

13teen

So I was walking through the hall of my workplace - an environment full of various computer and electrical engineers - and another employee is up the hallway, walking in my direction. It's interesting to note, that, unless we know each other, the moments leading up to and during passing each other in the hallway... are very awkward. What's running through my head is probably the same thing running through his; Oh crap, I hafta pass some one. This is going to be awkward. Where do I look? Down, yes, down at the ground. But what if s/he's looking at me. I'll take a peek upwards. ... Nope they're not. OK, look at the ground as we pass. Awkward... Awkward... Awkward, OK relax, I'm past them.
This is usually the order of events. Realization that you need to pass an employee that you don't really know. Trying to figure out whether or not to look occupied, look down, nod at the person, or even *gasp* say 'hello'. Usually its the first two. Nods get awkward if they don't nod back and then you feel stupid. Hello is pretty much out of the question since you might end up saying it too quietly and the other person can't hear - then you feel stupid. So both people pass, looking at the ground in front of them so as to avert eye contact as much as possible. The amusing thing, is that it happens with pretty much everyone in the halls. It's a wonder how certain professions attract certain types of people. I guess the saying form follows function applies to personalities and people as well... I wonder what it's like at say... an art firm... artists are pretty much the opposite of engineers right?
Well, at first I noticed this awkwardness at work; and so I went home, eager to watch the Microsoft E3 2007 press conference from the night before (it started at 11:30 EST, lame). And then I noticed... some of those speakers seem really awkward too! Them too! Or maybe it was because the audience wasn't included in the sound and therefore made the speakers sound like they were talking to nobody. Speaking of E3 (how is it that I always seem to return to the subject of games), what's up with all of these franchise continuation games? Now all people gotta do is flaunt a number in some fashion and you immediately know what's coming.
IV - GTA
3 - Halo
5 - Resident Evil
13 - Friday the
Hm... I think I've lost my train of thought for the night. That is all. Sorry it seems this post is uncharacteristically short, and very devoid of deep thoughts. I've been watching too many 2minute trailers from E3 I suppose. It's affecting the time span of my thoughts.

boom boom rockets!

So yesterday was US Independence Day, holiday in the middle of the work week, sleep-in day, fireworks day, however you want to name/describe it. Yesterday was July 4th! So I think I'm going to recap my July 4th holiday for you to enjoy - or not enjoy, it's your choice.

It was pretty sweet because having a national holiday right smack in the middle of the week meant I only had to go to work for two days then get to stay home. And now, I only have one more day of work left for the week! How sweet is that!? This should happen every week - that would be awesome. Screw hump day; it would turn into ... well, maybe it'd still be hump day for some, but in a different sense. Anyway, I digress.

The only problem I find about having an established sleep schedule is that no matter how much you tell yourself, "Sweet! I get to sleep in tomorrow!", you end up doing this:
The eyes open. The eyes drift towards the alarm clock. 7:46. Balls, I suppose I can go back to sleep. Sleep manages to successfully reoccur. The eyes open already staring at the alarm clock. 8:32. Lame. I still can't sleep in, might as well get up. So in spite of the fact that you could have slept in, you can't. And that makes you grumpy for that first 5 minutes that you're awake. At which point, I simply tell myself, "It's okay man, you still woke up after you normally would" ... and then I feel better.

So I after that, I did my normal morning routine of turning on the computer, checking mail, checking if there's anything new to download, checking if there's any sweet deals on geek toys, etc. This is when the boredom starts kicking in. *see post about boredom.

Anyway, time went on. The sun disappeared before it should have. Thunder started happening - wait, crap it's raining? Nooooo, the fireworks! Check news! The National Mall has been evacuated... monkeys! Tornado watch in effect for Fairfax, VA... well, that's really close by...
After weighing the odds and some more research, me and the housemate decided to go into DC anyway. I mean, the worse that could happen is that the storm gets worse and the fireworks are canceled right?

So to the metro we travel. At one point along the trip a middle eastern or Indian family boards the metro train and seats themselves behind us. Now, I'm not racist at all, but I suppose there's a reason stereotypes are what they are. The B.O. just a *ahem* tad strong coming from one of them, or maybe a few, I'm not sure. But, it would have been rude to get up and go to another seat the moment they sat down. So, being self-sacrificing, I sat there; my nose didn't quite get accustomed to it, but it's fine now. We did meet some *excuse the language* total fucktards on the train we had to switch over to in order to get to DC. These are the stereotypical wear-your-pants-lower-than-your-boxers, walk-and-hold-your-balls-as-if-they-were-going-to-fall-off-any-minute, taunt the people in the other train cart because they sure as hell won't be able to do anything serious to you through the doors, grab your balls and pelvic thrust because it amuses their little minds, swear and giggle in public. Ok I'm done with that. It just amazes me how useless some human lives really are.

Anyway, we really didn't know where we were going. We were hoping the crowd knew where it was going and we would just follow. Quite fun stuff trying to listen on people's conversations, hoping that you can pick up on some direction. Anyway, by using this method we reached the DC monument, wandered our way around the lawn there, and plopped ourselves down in anticipation of darkness.

Here's the album of pictures I've uploaded for your viewing pleasure of the fireworks show. Oh, and in that album, the last item is a video of the fireworks show. Me and the housemate both had our digital cameras so we did video recording of segments of the fireworks show. About 3/4 of the way through, I thought to myself. He's taking videos, so I'll just take continuous pictures of the fireworks. So I just pieced together my clips and the finale from his camera. Enjoy the fireworks!

July 4th, 2007

The fun didn't stop there! Oh no it didn't! With so many people at the Mall, you can imagine that there's going to be equally as many people trying to leave DC. The problem is, coming in, the people were spread out in time. But now that the fireworks are done, the rush to the Metro stations commenced! There were HUGE crowds/lines at the nearest Metro station. So my housemate and I decided it'd be more fun to walk to the next station - it'd probably take the same amount of time, and at least we wouldn't be standing still. Onward! Next station comes into view. Same issue. Huge crowd. Ok, let's walk to the next station! Wait... where's the next station? Oh well, we can just go with the flow! Anyway, that got us walking around in circles. And we ended up heading back to the DC monument. A nice complete walking circle we did. So by guy's intuition and guessing, we knew that there were more Metro stations in the other direction. We already knew ahead of time that the Smithsonian Metro stop (the one that was actually the closest to the fireworks) was closed for the 4th. But no worries, we would continue past it to another Metro Station. Anyway, we managed to walk for a good 30 minutes, maybe more. But it was amusing! and that's all that matters; I got bored and traced out our route that we walked on Google Maps.

I hope you enjoyed my recap of my July 4th. How was yours? I hope if was relaxing. Until next time, enjoy life!

monkeys!

HAHAHAH Monkeys

Video Link

I love monkeys hahahah!

Just thought I'd share the awesomeness - whaddya know, these monkeys are smarter than some of us will ever be! Take the camera-person for example. Just kidding!

a.d.d.

In my last post, I discussed how RPGs were like real life - or perhaps real life is like an RPG. In any case, I think they went wrong in one regard. Drops.

Scenario: Hunting for rare itenz
Location: Some high level map
Mobs: ..... uhm, let's say... spiders... yes high level spiders, ugly and nasty critters eh?

What did they deserve to get mercilessly killed? They're just protecting their home right? We're the ones picking fights here... they're not really [Lv150 Evil Spider]... they're just [Angry Protective Creature]. Anyway, I digress. Ok. You succeed in killing a couple thousand. And you're starting to get bored. And then it happens. *Holy light shines down upon the ground next to a freshly hewn mass of green blood and legs. The [Insert grandiose sounding adjective] Ultima Reaving Sanguinary Powerblade of Darkness and Destruction ©. The rare drop of the map. A sword whose splendour exudes from your hands. In town, it hovers upon your back, restless. The hilt within grasp at your head's side. The blade send sparks behind the ground you trod as it stretches and tapers to a victorious point behind your feet. Somebody asks you: "Zomgoamzog, where'd you get that?!"

Then you falter. A... spider. wtf, you'd think that something that big would rip the spider in half. How did the thing get that item anyway? Did it eat a giant? It's stomach must be in some other dimension as it surely would never fit in the belly of a spider. Your aura of reverie is shattered as your realize you're playing an unrealistic game. So anyway, all of that was just to say: drops are amazingly illogical. Oh, and... why didn't the spider just pull that thing out and start whacking you with it? That always confuses me too. When mobs who could very easily destroy you with the weapon they have stored in who-knows-where on their body (maybe in their back-pocket). But no, they choose to use their dinky generic sword that barely scratches your glorious armor. (Or in female character's cases, lack thereof).

Drop size also perturbs me sometimes. More so in first person shooters than in RPGs. I love how the gun models on the ground are smaller than your foot, yet it still manages to look big when you're holding it. Surely you're not that tall for items to start looking small in perspective. And isn't it also amusing that most FPS games have you wearing magic boots? What magic boots? Oh, you know, the one that allows you to strip the ammo from the gun, put it in your reserves, and send the physical weapon into another dimension - because you certainly don't just discard the gun. Those magic boots.

I'm not bashing games. I'm merely observing how such ridiculous concepts are in games and a lot of the times you just take it as it is.

Anyway, the main topic of my post this time is disorganization. Though, I think I'm gonna end up bashing Facebook - because it's the best example of what I'm about to type about. I think our generation is A.D.D. by design. Maybe by design isn't the right way to describe it, but here, let me explain.

We get so much information thrown at us in our everyday life and we are forced to digest it all. Whether we like it or not. We have developed manners of streamlining this process of digesting this information given to us. It works fairly well (more so than our elders [simply by being more accustomed to it]). We are able to ignore the unimportant, and grab multiple different pieces of information at once. Take a look at a news channel. Sometimes they'll be talking about news and they'll be running a streamer of text at the bottom. Couple this with maybe some stock quotes in the lower left. You've got yourself a pretty busy image thrown at you. Still, we manage to scarf down the information fairly successfully.

Here's Facebook bashing time. Take a look at my homepage:
I can't even remember what Facebook used to look like anymore. I know it wasn't this garbaged up. I never did use it much anyway. Still, once you manage to process all this mess of *USELESS* information into your brain. To me, it feels like my brain is getting fragmented, with no hope of ever being defragged for the next hour.

Now, here's why I say we're getting A.D.D. If you manage to find a way to consume all of this information quickly, your brain will be set up to expect this kind of display of information. I think our attention span is getting seriously stunted due to this effect. We expect information to be displayed curtly and for all of it to be thrown on us at once. I don't know if this is a good thing or not. We certainly are better at multi-tasking (nah, multi-threading is a better term) than our previous generation, but it is at the disadvantage of losing our concentration for long periods of time.

What ever happened to the simple and straightforward? Everything has to now be flashy, showy, and "look cool". But in my opinion, a lot of these new trends are awfully ill-conceived and ill-executed. Maybe that's why Google does so well. We have the desire for simplicity, but we see too much complexity these days.

I truly don't know whether or not this is a good thing or a bad thing - having the ability to process such amounts of information in one go. But I do think that it certainly does play a major role in our attention span. I wish I could stop to slow down my thinking process sometimes. I feel like I'm racing to get things done and get things into my brain. It can easily get overwhelming. This kind of frightens me, wanting to slow down, but not being able to.

I miss LEGO blocks. How many of you have played with LEGOs when you were a kid? I'd expect probably everyone. Such simple things, those pieces of plastic. So much could be done with such a simple building block. I was such a huge LEGO fanatic when I was a kid. Makes me nostalgic thinking about... maybe when I get back home where all my LEGO bricks are neatly arranged and packed away, I'll bust them out and have a session with my inner and previous self.

I kind of wish I had kept all the boxes to the LEGO sets I got when I was a kid. You know, as a collection kind of thing. Sadly, my kid self didn't think this far in the future and threw the boxes away and the instruction manuals are probably strewn across the house in various and unknown locations. Still, I did organize all my LEGOs into containers ... and I still remember too.

• Flat pieces (1/3 height) that are 1 dot wide
• Flat pieces that are 2 dot wide
• Flat pieces that were smooth at the top
• Flat pieces that were greater than 2dot wide
• Bricks that were 1dot wide but less than or equal to 6dots long
• Bricks that were 1dot wide and greater than 6dots long
• Bricks that were 2dot wide
• Bricks that were 2x2
• Forward slanting bricks - where the dots were located on the shorter plane
• Backward slanting bricks - where the dots are located on the plane
• Special small pieces - ropes, the (1)x(1)x(1/3) pieces, lights, guns, sticks, etc.
• Special large pieces - like boat bottoms, walls, etc
• Windows and doors
• Body parts
• Technic pieces (I wasn't too much into the Technic sets - but I did admire the expensive ones... like the red race car with pneumatic doors *drool*)

I also wish I had pictures of my creations. I suppose at the time, we only had those 35mm cameras (pre-digital camera) so taking pictures would have been costly. Still, I wish that I had some kind of memento from those days. I had so many cool things! Spaceships, houses with working defenses that shot LEGO bricks from invaders, forts with trap doors, ultrasonic speedboats, hovercrafts and hoverboards of all types, airplanes, jets, super-sleek cars... I miss LEGOs so much. I think my prized item is my Star Wars LEGO 7181 Ultimate Collector's Edition TIE interceptor. I begged so long to get this thing when I was a kid (I guess it'd be 7 years ago since the set was released in 2000). I finally got it for Christmas and at $100, it was insanely high for any single item I'd ever gotten for x-mas (that I can remember), and I was ecstatic. It's so sleeeeeeeeek. Call me a dork; I know it and embrace it. Here's the only picture I could find on my computer of the set.

It's a shame my Heavyarms Custom is taking a nap. 'cause he's hardcore too. Apparently, my TIE Interceptor is one of the more rare of the collector sets? I could be wrong and just boasting.

Makes me happy thinking about being when I kid. Anyway, I think I'm done for now. Until next time, enjoy life!