trying to chill

Reading an off-topic thread about how kids born in ’90-95 act/are got me thinking and wanting to respond. I figured hey, I have a blog, I suppose it’s a good opportunity. Life and outlook change a LOT after you graduate high school for most people. Hindsight is 20/20, etc. With that said…

What really IS up with kids these days?

Well, bad children are a product of their bad parents (intentional or not), this is nothing new. What I personally see is an issue with current generation parents being really flat-out awful. We’ve become a society of I want this now and blame everyone else for everything, and their kids are a product of this society. There are plenty of kids without this problem obviously, but when a teacher is in fact afraid of teaching (get fired, don’t get proper ‘results’, too much focus on standardized testing) or simply tells the parents their kid has ADD/ADHD because they don’t want to take the time to teach them, it’s a problem.

Also, discipline. Parents are afraid of disciplining their children for fear of any sort or reciprocation, be it getting in trouble with the law or hurting their kids little feelings. In addition, parents have just gotten completely lazy and expect everyone but them to parent their kids—teachers, TV, the internet, ANYTHING TO KEEP THE KIDS BUSY. I’m going to also add that a rising lack of common sense in parents is affecting things as well, but maybe that’s not something new. Parents now commonly don’t seem to want to give up their “youth” in order to have their child grow up properly. Obviously you can have a life, but you can’t keep acting like a kid when you have a kid. Maybe the last bit is just more of a personal opinion of mine.

Everyone believes their children is and always should be unique, when the fact is no one strives to be any better when they think they’re good enough.

Why don’t you navigate yourself to the back of the line with your feet and stand there with your shirt?!

We’re a bit beyond Valentine’s Day which I hope you all, yes you, all 4 and haife of you who read this enjoyed. But whether it’s Valentine’s Day, Mom or Grandma’s birthday, a special day for the wife or girlfriend, you think about getting flowers delivered, right? RIGHT?! Good. Well, there’s only a few things to consider when buying flowers. 1.) Will it be delivered the day I request? 2.) Will it look pretty? 3.) Will it not break my wallet? Seems pretty damn simple, well, you’d think so anyway. Previous to this last year I had always used 1800flowers.com, who I’m pretty sure uses local florists for delivery. This is pretty common and a well accepted method of flower delivery. That is until they delivered flowers on the wrong day (way to blow that). I began to shop elsewhere. In December I decided to try out ProFlowers.com due to the overwhelming marketing they’d been doing. How bad can they be? 1800flowers.com failed on the first check but the second and third conditions were always met, so it’s not too much to expect ProFlowers to get them right. They had the calendar to select the day I needed, the pictures looked great (durr I guess), and the price was nice. Mom got her flowers, thanked me, thought they were pretty though she told me some weren’t open. Okay, I guess that’s not too bad, right?

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Hi. I’m back. Well, still here, rather.

Okay. Wow. Where do I start? I guess about a year ago, when I first told myself it’s time to start reading, I was scouring my favorite forums for off-topic ‘favorite book’ threads. Granted, I stick to tech/geek related forums, however, each forum’s book threads had the same thing in common, a single series: A Song of Ice and Fire by George R.R. Martin. I really had no clue what it was about, and had only a few books in my arsenal that I’d read—Ender’s Game, The Ruins, Jurassic Park, and Foundation—a little bit of everything. I was ready for anything. When I first opened A Game of Thrones it was a little difficult to get through the prologue and the first few chapters. It was fairly overwhelming for a book amateur like myself. GRRM continually spilled out one new character after another, and with him, often times it’s hard to determine whether this character would be really important later down the road. Regardless, they kept coming, as did the locations, as did the the different levels of power, the kingdoms, and so on…

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Rant incoming! We’ve heard it all before, everyone’s got their own story. Well, here’s mine. Had to fly up to Allentown, PA this past weekend for my cousin Laith’s wedding (congratulations!). It was beautiful up there, a beautiful wedding as well. Anyhow, the airport — Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International (FLL). The usual get in, get passed security and find your gate so you can sit down and analyze all the people around you. You know, look out for the fat people, the babies, the people who look like hobos, etc. and keep your fingers crossed.

Moving right along to the security checkpoint — I toss my keys, belt, shoes in a bucket and put my carry-on through the conveyor and walk through the metal detector. Guy has this super serious look, “What’s that bulge in your pocket??” “It’s my sunglasses.” “Put them in a bucket.” “Okay, but they’re plastic..” (obviously) “Put them in the bucket.” I comply since I don’t want to be gunned down by some fool who has a superiority complex. I decide to toss my wallet in the bucket with my glasses since I don’t need another comment about a bulge in my pants (giggity). So I grab my stuff and get a lecture afterwords on how I should have put my wallet in my bag and not left it sitting out there, whatever, just let me get to my damn gate already.

Keep in mind my keys and wallet were the only thing in a bucket/container. The next morning I wake up and think, weird, I don’t remember taking my pocket-knife off my keychain. Crap! Lo and behold I see my serrated blade pocket-knife on my keys. Okay, all the fuss about seeing if I can keep my Mach3 in my carry-on bag, all the fuss about buying bottles for stupid liquids, all the fuss at security over nonsense. And a knife goes through unquestioned even though it was practically by itself. A knife more dangerous than what they used on 9/11. I guess as long as I can’t kill more than one person in one shot it’s not important enough. You know, between the administration and this stupid government we have in power, the fear mongering, taking our rights and freedoms for false security. I’m really almost not surprised. Almost. All I can do is sigh… TSA: go fuck yourselves. You’re a god damn joke.

Chill capacity is at a low-point, my apologies. Coming up soon reviews of Apple’s new iPhone 3G and A Game of Thrones by George R. R. Martin.

Forewarning—this is a rant, proceed cautiously. Now, I normally didn’t want to post any rants on TTC, but I figured in this case and maybe future cases it’s absolutely justified. HostGator came recommended from some hosting-talk forums, not to mention ‘sponsored’ as well. My conclusion is that they probably wasted a ton of money on ads and fake reviews judging from their service.

Let’s start with initial sign-up (this is for HydroBarn). The process went smooth, however, their internal billing system is shoddy. It runs off of a “billing” user account on their server and it doesn’t tie in to your original user account. Did I mention it’s slow as balls? Whatever. Up-time has been acceptable. So I need an SSL certificate for my shopping cart. I need a static IP. Additional $2 a month? Okay, I guess. I purchase an SSL certificate from GoDaddy and I’m greeted with a link to SSL configuration on their web page by a live chat support rep, no problem. Generate CSR, get my certificate. “Now what Mr. HostGator support?” Yet another link to their site. They want to charge $10 to install the certificate. What? WHY?!

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Or is it Eastern? Well in any case, I haven’t made any posts lately (for my huge following of half a dozen readers, maybe). Preparing for the girlfriend to move in, helping my friend move, working on my store, following the primaries and reading. There’s a bit of excitement when you’re moving but it’s important to make sure you prepare for your move so you don’t end up stressing yourself out after the fact—this applies even more so when you’re moving to a different state. Speaking of moving, I’m going to have to say it’s the complete opposite of trying to chill, there are countless things you have to remember to do! The fiasco of preparing and getting organized, packing, renting a truck, finding an amazing friend to help you with all the lifting, etc. I think I’ll hire a mover when I’m ready.

Knowing what to have prepared when you move is critical. If you’re going to be driving to your new destination you want to do your best to avoid any issues along the way—no one wants to get screwed while they’re far away from home. Be sure your car is prepared for a long journey, be sure you have everything you need on you in case you get pulled over—cops don’t seem to like people out of state causing them problems. On that note, it’s always a good idea to keep certain things on you at all times, and make sure you don’t carry other things that may become a problem should you lose them. Remember, being stressed out is the complete opposite of trying to chill, so we must do everything in our power to (sanely) avoid it. With that said, I’m going to leave you with a video of what NOT to do when your chill level goes down and you’re feeling stressed, after the break.

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This one is probably a fairly old one, but I laughed reading it today, enjoy.

There once was a 5 year-old boy. His name was Little Timmy. At his age it is time for him to attend kindergarten school. But young Timmy didn’t want to go to school, and refused to his mother. In reply, little Timmy’s mom said, “I’ll tell you what. If you get straight A’s in your classes each marking period, I will give you whatever you want. Little Timmy, loving his bargain, went straight to school that morning.

That marking period, Little Timmy’s mother checked his grades. To her enjoyment, she found he had gotten all A’s. She then said to Little Timmy, “What do you want as your gift?” Now, Little Timmy thought a moment. He then said to his mother, “I want a Ping Pong ball.” Puzzled, Little Timmy’s mother agreed, and bought him a Ping Pong ball. The next marking period, Little Timmy had gotten A’s again. His mother asked him again, “What do you want as your gift?” Now, Little Timmy thought a moment. He then said to his mother, “I want 2 Ping Pong balls.” Puzzled still, Little Timmy’s mother agreed, and bought him 2 Ping Pong balls.

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Foundation by Isaac Asimov. Of the books I’ve read thus far, I think this was the most difficult to get through. Not to say that it was bad, but I’m not used to a certain writing style and certain method of progressing through the story. In addition, Foundation was published in 1951, so there are key differences in style and vocabulary. That being said, it was a great book. Asimov’s Foundation series (and in general), as I said, has been and still is the inspiration for many writers.

The Galactic Empire had lasted for 12,000 years and ruled over a million planets. But now it was dying. Hari Seldon, creator of the science of psychohistory, knew that it’s death would be followed by 30,000 years of brutal barbarism and savage warfare. To preserve knowledge and shorten the dark period to a mere thousand years, Hari Seldon set up the Encyclopedia Foundation and staffed it with the best scholars and scientists of the Empire. Then he placed it upon Terminus, a bleak world at the edge of the galaxy. But now the Empire was retreating, leaving the Foundation isolated and unprotected. Around it, little barbarian kingdoms were already beginning their wars in search of dominance. The Foundation knew itself as the only hope of mankind. But what could it do, alone and helpless, against the greed of the warlords who were reaching out to conquer and destroy it.

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