Well I just recently had a couple computer viruses. That's what I get for going a month without a virus protector and a firewall. My previous subscription to ZoneAlarm had run out and I, being both lazy and poor, put it off. Paybacks a bitch I suppose. Luckily I was able to install the program once the virus had been on my computer. I know a lot of times once you have a virus it can be a pain to install protection on your computer. Thankfully in safe mode it wasn't much of an issue. After doing a full deep scan with ZoneAlarm's Anti-Virus/Anti-spyware I was able to quarantine the following viruses:
Backdoor.Win32.EggDrop.aag
Trojan.Win32.Genome.igtv
Trojan.Win32.Autorun.ago
I haven't been able to find much about these but I now have a fully working computer. Still doesn't work great but it didn't before I had the viruses.

If anyone reads this and has information on these viruses let me know. I'm pretty sure the EggDrop can make a system completely drag, that's about as much as I found out.

Virtual Baby or Real Baby?

Which one's more important?

Ok so I know I'm late on this but I never heard of this before. This is new to me. I was reading about a study on Internet and social media addiction on NY Times. Link: http://www.nytimes.com/reuters/2010/04/23/technology/tech-us-internet-addicts-life.html?src=busln

Apparently in South Korea a family neglected their 3 month old child and it died of malnutrition due to the fact that the mother and father were addicted to the internet and spending up to 12 hours a day taking care of.... A VIRTUAL BABY....

The First Week Back

Well just like I thought after that vacation going back to work was anything but easy or fun. Sunday night I laid down around midnight, knowing I wouldn't fall asleep any earlier than that even if I laid down early. I didn't fall asleep until around 2:30am, and waking up at 5 was not very easy.
Monday night, somehow I was still not tired after standing all day. I physically felt tired but my mind definitely was not tired or even slightly exhausted. I stayed up until around 11pm when I finally laid down. Was still up until 2am. Did not want to get out of bed. When my alarm clock was going off I thought it was all just a dream so I easily laid back down after hitting the snooze. Not until the clock said 5:45 did it register that this is real. Good thing my clock is 10 minutes fast, I knew there was a reason for this ;).
Tuesday night, wow, seriously not all that tired again. Body felt worn out it just wanted to relax, but my eyes and mind just didn't want anything to do with it. Watched Lost and V, both great shows. Laid down after that, which was around 11. Was up until around 1am. When the alarm went off I didn't want anything to do with it didn't fall back to sleep just laid there stressed out and annoyed. It was such a horrible feeling to drag myself out from underneath those warm covers. Dragging myself out of that comfortable bed, next to my beautiful girlfriend. I just had thoughts of calling work and saying I can't make it. I can't afford to use a sick day, what if I need for... when I'm sick? So I got up and off I was for another 10 hours of standing. After getting less sleep in 3 days than most people are getting in 1 night I was feeling it bad that day.
Wednesday night, so tired, still laid there awake for a bit but I don't even know what time I fell asleep. I probably got 6 hours and damn did it feel amazing. One of the best things ever. I was so refreshed and full of energy at work on Thursday, I'd actually say it was a good day. I love Thursdays though, we get 3 day weekends so Thursday meant I was done with work for 3 days.
Here it is Friday and I feel great, I hope I don't get myself too out of schedule by Sunday night.

The End Of Vacation

Well today is the end of my 10 day forced vacation. The company I work for was shutting down for a week so we had to use forced vacation. I'm not quite sure how I feel about being forced to take a vacation. It wasn't a horrible week just would have been better if I was able to plan the vacation or even if I had gotten paid the week before the vacation so I'd have some money during it.
I spent most of my vacation just lounging around the house enjoying the fact that I didn't have to wake up at 5am to go to work. The negative side of that is that I've been staying up until 5am and sleeping until anywhere from noon to 4pm. Not saying I hate sleeping but tonight is going to be a real slap in the face when I lay down at 10, or 11, or even 12 and try to sleep. I'll probably lay in bed until around 2am until I finally fall asleep for 3 hours only to be blasted out of sleep by the alarm clock at 5am.
Here's the part I'm really not looking forward to..... going back to work! I don't HATE my job but I really don't like it anymore. The only thing that is keeping me there are the people I work with, they're good people and good friends. Well it's not the only thing keeping me there, the fact that there are no other decent paying jobs around the area that are hiring is also keeping me there. That and I need money, I can't continue living my life if I don't have a steady income. I miss one pay check or one is $100 short and I'm pretty much screwed for the month. It's hard living on such a tight budget, I'm sure I'm spending money that doesn't need to be spent somewhere. Budgeting myself to a certain "allowance" a week is a lot harder than I had ever thought. I only get paid every other week so that makes it even worse, feels like I'm making even less. Within a week that pay-check is consumed by bills or other needs such as gas and food. The little bit I spend on myself feels just like that, a little bit, and not much to show for it. I don't seem to make enough to put away and save. I need to save, I have the hardest time doing it though. I feel like everything I work for is rent, bills, food and gas. I spend a little here and a little there on something small for myself to keep myself sane. Without sanity you have insanity and that's not good. I don't want that! haha.
Well I've been dreading this Sunday since we went on vacation, and now that it's here I'm wishing time would just stop and I didn't have to go back. I don't want to go back. I need to somehow find a way to work from home. Or a job involving computers. Assembling self checkout machines was fun when I started but assembly lines doing the same 15 minute job over and over again for 10 hours a day/40 hours a week is mind numbing, painful on my feet (standing in the same spot all day long), unrewarding, and completely unsatisfying. I feel incomplete at the end of a day. I know a lot of people after work atleast feel like they did something useful, me? I feel like I just wasted away a good portion of my day, added up over days and months it's a good portion of my life.

WE HAVE TO GO BACK!!!!! <---- Lost Reference
I don't want to go back though, I don't want to at all. I feel like a kid complaining about having to eat his vegetables or having to clear his plate, kicking and screaming and whining throwing things on the floor and stomping around. This is how I feel, I am not looking forward to going back. Especially now that I have NO vacation time for a while. It accrues in 3.5 hour increments every pay day (every two weeks). So I need atleast 3 pay days (over a month) to accrue 10 hours, which is one day. The worse part about it is that I only had 20 hours accrued so far and I had to borrow the other 20, so I first need to "pay back" that 20 I had to borrow for this vacation AND THEN I get to start collecting hours for time I can take off. Yes I am allowed to borrow time but I hate to do that, not saying I wont at some point this summer, but I don't want to. I have no other choice but to pay it back so it's not like I'll miss a payment or something. I just hate owing anyone anything. Kind of the reason I haven't gotten a credit card yet, although I really could use one, but I'm sure I'd screw myself over somehow if I did. ANYWAY by the end of summer I'll be able to take one day off if I'm lucky (if I wait to get caught up and don't just borrow anyway). YAY the END OF SUMMER. See that? I can't even enjoy a vacation during this summer, where I want to go fishing, hiking, swimming, camping. I want to enjoy the outdoors in the great Adirondacks of Northern NY. Sure I have 3 day weekends but it's just not the same as a full on week long vacation.

Well anyway, I needed to say all this and get it off my chest. I'll stop complaining about working now.

Photography and Guitar

Photo's of me taken by my wonderful girlfriend, edited by her to. Click the link at the bottom of the post to see her Facebook Fanpage where you can see tons of pictures she's taken.


Click the thumbnail to go to full size image





Rachael Alexandra Photography & Digital Artistry

I say, you think.

Well I came across this blog Lunanina.com about Unconscious Mutterings. This person provided words and I have to say what comes to mind. Not keeping it limited to one word if I don't want to, so here it goes. The goal is to verbalize before monitoring, so that you speak what immediately comes to your mind when you see the word. There are no right or wrong answers, this is what I love about not taking tests at school, I can't fail at this.

1. Habit :: Something I have a lot of


2. Relaunch :: Because the first one didn't work as well as I liked


3. Mondays :: Such a dreadful day


4. Bootstrap :: What exactly is a bootstrap


5. Funk :: George Clinton and the Parliament Funkadelics


6. Appreciate :: The small things in life


7. Yay! :: Awesome!


8. Life :: Has been good to me so far


9. Sheets :: Need to be cleaned


10. Date night :: never really had a date night, or really been on an actual date, kind of but not really

If you want to do the same thing but don't feel like typing it out copy and paste from below.

<ol><li>Habit ::  </li>

<li>Relaunch :: </li>

<li>Mondays ::  </li>

<li>Bootstrap ::  </li>

<li>Funk ::  </li>

<li>Appreciate ::  </li>

<li>Yay! ::  </li>

<li>Life ::  </li>

<li>Sheets :: </li>

<li>Date night ::  </li>

</ol>

Struggle

A song I've recently recorded. I don't like how youtube compresses videos. But anyway, here it is. It's called Struggle, written and recorded by me



Rhetoric Camel - Struggle

For my youtube page: http://www.youtube.com/user/RhetoricCamel

Doctors Overtreating Patients?

Well I just came across this article claiming doctors are over treating patients in America. I only have one thing to say, bullshit!

You can see that they don’t over treat and they don’t listen to there patients, just watch shows like “Monsters inside me” showing that people go to the doctors and don’t get properly examined or that they aren’t taken seriously with their concerns.

For example. About a year ago I went to the local health clinic because I have wrist pains. Not sure what is causing the pains myself, and apparently neither do the doctors. I went in the doctor asked what the problem was I said “Well when I bend my wrist in any direction or if I’m holding something heavy they hurt and sometimes it causes me to drop whatever I’m holding.” The doctor looked at my wrist and said “Well it’s not carpal tunnel” and made me feel his wrist of what carpal tunnel would feel like. So at that point I was like, alright that’s not what the issue is. Told him maybe arthritis and he said he doubted it at this point he says “Well quit smoking, and take 2 advil when the pain starts and that should take care of the problem.”

How am I supposed to take a doctor seriously when he says quitting smoking will make my wrist not hurt… anyway I don’t smoke anymore and I’ve tried advil and neither of these things have helped my issues.

I was also told to take medication to stop diarrhea when I was having some intestinal pain (which I still have even after taking the medication I was given), and I didn’t even have diarrhea and I told the doctor numerous times that wasn’t the issue, but nope not listening, and not over treating and not treating at all properly.

Doctors need to start listening to their patients and stop acting like just because they’re a doctor they can figure out anything without listening to you.

Makes me want to go to a vet. At least they can treat their patients properly and they can’t even talk!

This whole thing was started because of this article - http://health.yahoo.com/news/ap/us_med_unnecessary_tests.html

I'm sick of my computer, need an upgrade.

I have a Dell Dimension 9150, running Windows XP Service Pack 3. Intel Pentium 4 CPU 3.20GHz 3.25GB Ram. I’m getting really annoyed with it’s poor performance. I’ve defragged and it’s done absolutely nothing. I’ve cleaned off the c drive removed programs that aren’t needed, I’ve shut down programs running in the background that could slow the performance but my computer just can’t handle what I need to do. I can’t watch a dvd on my computer the video skips like a kid playing hopscotch, same goes for youtube videos, hulu videos, abc videos, anything. I have a Kodak Zi8 hd camera and trying to watch the videos becomes a hassle more than an enjoyable viewing of a nice quality video, same goes for editing, I can’t even edit the video. I also enjoy using Autodesk Maya for creating things in 3d, while the program works smoothly at first it gets worse as I work on a project.
Damn you technology quit advancing so I can enjoy it before it’s obsolete within an hour of purchasing.
Right now I'm running Ubuntu 9.04 because it's the only thing that will allow me to watch a video on youtube or edit videos from my Kodak Zi8 without giving me too much problems. I love ubuntu, but my only problem with it is that I'm not running 64-bit, if I were I'd be able to install Maya and not have to worry about logging into windows. Things seem to run so much smoother on Linux than they do in windows. Not much lag if any at all. I can open google earth, regnum online, gimp, and have firefox all going at once and not miss a beat. In windows if I have google earth, firefox, and winamp open there is bound to be a crash or a lot of lag which gets really annoying. I never saw a need for 64-bit before but now that I know Maya only runs on 64-bit linux and not 32-bit I now have a need for the increased bit. My only problem with this whole situation is trying to save money (that I don't have) to buy a computer that I need for what I want to do, which isn't something I NEED, but it's something I want BADLY!

Study: Pot Smoking Increases Risk of Psychosis

Mike Stultz a 17 year old breaks up with his first serious girlfriend and starts smoking pot. Smoking a joint in the morning and bumping up his high every so often with another hit or two. The kid now 24 years old was pulled out of college for a hallucinatory breakdown.

Stultz had become convinced his life was a reality tv show. Sounds like someone needs to back away from the television screen and get involved in REALITY! Stultz is blaming marijuana for his hallucination and breakdown.

New article here: http://www.aolnews.com/science/article/new-study-links-pot-smoking-to-increased-risk-of-psychosis/19375292

I have been smoking marijuana for atleast 10 years now. I have a job, a wonderful girlfriend, and a dog. I am responsible and do what needs to be done to have a good life. I don’t smoke pot and have mental breakdowns. I don’t smoke pot and lash out on people, I don’t smoke pot and want to kill myself or others. I smoke pot and it’s my wind down from a day of work.

Let me ask you something, how many American’s come home from work crack open a beer, or pour a glass of wine, or have a mix drink at night to wind down and relax? I can say EVERY person I know does this. I am not one to drink often. I don’t enjoy a beer every night, my relaxation is sitting down with a bowl of marijuana with a movie or a tv show and just relax. I’m not out harming the world with my marijuana smoking. I’m not out doing bad things. Anyone I know that smokes is also not doing any of these things. Have we not realized yet that “Reefer Madness” was not truthful at all. It was an overreaction to a drug that should not be criminalized anymore.

Sure marijuana might affect different people in different ways but I would have to say that people getting negative effects from it need to not smoke it. Period. It’s not affecting them negatively because it’s an evil drug. If that was the case then peanuts would be banned because many people are allergic to them. Red Dye number 4 would be banned because people are allergic to that. Everyone has different reactions to different things. Some people are even allergic to ALCOHOL which is perfectly legal if you’re 21 (in the US). We need to stop looking at marijuana as this horrible life threatening drug and start looking at it for it’s positive uses.

3d Cross Eye Stereogram

I have recently been experimenting with stereoscopic images. I use only one camera to take these pictures and I do what’s called the “Cha-cha method.” I do have two camera’s I could use but I’m still working on designing and creating a rig to allow me to use two digital camera’s on video mode at the same time so I can create 3d videos. The two camera’s I have aren’t the same but the video quality of the two are so close that you won’t notice a difference when viewing…. but that’s a different post at a later time.

Right now I use my Kodak EasyShare Z8612 IS for these images. These are the first few pictures I’ve taken so far while experimenting, more will come soon when it gets nicer outside and there is more fun stuff to take 3d stereo images of.

The cha-cha method I mentioned above works like this: Take a picture with all your weight on your right foot. Keep the image centered and shift your weight to your left foot and snap the other picture.

I use a program called stereophoto maker to put the images together, so I don’t have to align them in photoshop and get it right. Stereophoto Maker is a great tool for this and if you give stereo imaging a shot I highly recommend getting this program, download here: http://stereo.jpn.org/eng/stphmkr/

Now here is how you view the images

Make sure you’re a little ways away from your computer

Cross your eyes until you see a 3rd image form in the middle

Try to focus on the middle image

If you get it to focus you will see the picture pop out like you’re wearing 3d glasses.

If you have trouble getting it, keep trying. Crossing your eyes will not damage your eyes and you will not get stuck with your eyes crossed, those are just myths. Although crossing your eyes might give you a headache or an eye ache if done too much. I haven’t had any problems and I spent A LOT of time looking at these images before I started creating my own.

http://img121.imageshack.us/img121/259/tripodmusicbatteriesand.jpg

http://img193.imageshack.us/img193/6263/stumpandfence.jpg

http://img718.imageshack.us/img718/1382/snowmanlight.jpg

http://img24.imageshack.us/img24/2792/smalllivingroomlamp.jpg

http://img408.imageshack.us/img408/3948/reindeercandle.jpg

http://img242.imageshack.us/img242/3971/livingroomlamp.jpg

http://img229.imageshack.us/img229/3014/jasmine04.jpg

http://img299.imageshack.us/img299/4305/christmassetup.jpg

If you like these don’t be afraid to comment. If you want to ask questions click on the side where is says “if you feel compelled to ask a question click here”

I'm mad as hell and I'm not going to take this anymore!!!

Start off with a quote from a great movie, then a short little rant.

I don’t have to tell you things are bad. Everybody knows things are bad. It’s a depression. Everybody’s out of work or scared of losing their job. The dollar buys a nickel’s worth; banks are going bust; shopkeepers keep a gun under the counter; punks are running wild in the street, and there’s nobody anywhere who seems to know what to do, and there’s no end to it.

We know the air is unfit to breathe and our food is unfit to eat. And we sit watching our TVs while some local newscaster tells us that today we had fifteen homicides and sixty-three violent crimes, as if that’s the way it’s supposed to be!

We all know things are bad — worse than bad — they’re crazy.

It’s like everything everywhere is going crazy, so we don’t go out any more. We sit in the house, and slowly the world we’re living in is getting smaller, and all we say is, “Please, at least leave us alone in our living rooms. Let me have my toaster and my TV and my steel-belted radials, and I won’t say anything. Just leave us alone.”

Well, I’m not going to leave you alone.

I want you to get mad!

I don’t want you to protest. I don’t want you to riot. I don’t want you to write to your Congressman, because I wouldn’t know what to tell you to write. I don’t know what to do about the depression and the inflation and the Russians and the crime in the street.

All I know is that first, you’ve got to get mad.

You’ve gotta say, “I’m a human being, goddammit! My life has value!”

So, I want you to get up now. I want all of you to get up out of your chairs. I want you to get up right now and go to the window, open it, and stick your head out and yell,

“I’m as mad as hell,

and I’m not going to take this anymore!!

- Howard Beale - Network (1976)


As you can probably tell not much has changed since 1976, I feel this way now! This is such a great movie, I suggest checking it out, especially if you enjoyed that rant/speech/quote above. Now we need to just start taking action like this. News teams need to lash out, they need to raise their voices. They're the ones that everyone tunes to for the news. If they remain calm, America remains calm. If the newscaster is lashing out speaking their mind maybe it will lead more to do the same! Come on people lets get angry, lets get pissed, lets verbalize how we feel. Don't just say "oh I'm upset about it but what can I do" say I'm upset about it and say why! Speak your mind people, don't let the government trick you into thinking we're all fine and there is no need for you to say how you feel. They want you to keep it bottled up or to not feel this way at all. The truth is they're brainwashing us, not quite the way they do in A Clockwork Orange but pretty damn close.

Bootleg Heaven!

I just found the mother of all bootleg sites thanks to Tumblr. They have shows from Nirvana, Neil Young, Led Zeppelin, Lou Reed, Muse, Oasis, Paul Simon, Pearl Jam, Muddy Waters, Miles Davis, Jethro Tull, and many many many many other bands. I just got one bootleg of Nirvana’s first show under the name NIRVANA and it’s awesome. About to get Neil Young’s 1977 performance at Saratoga, NY. So glad I found this.

Thanks to the sweetest psychopath: http://thesweetestpsychopath.tumblr.com/

and his blogspot site located at: http://theultimatebootlegexperience3.blogspot.com/ with all the bootlegs available.

Hope this is helpful to people that love bootlegs!

Government Rant

Apparently if you’re black and you’re against Obama (or not against him but just don’t like his leadership in any way) then you are an “Uncle Tom” or a traitor. News article: http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20100406/ap_on_re_us/us_tea_party_blacks

Racism will never go away with views or opinions like that. Just because you’re black and you’re proud doesn’t mean you HAVE to like Obama. You’re political opinion should have nothing to do with your skin color.

“The republican party is viewed as mostly a white group and the democratic party is viewed as a black group.” Now we’re grouping and segregating by the color of the skin? We’ve been through this before, why the hell haven’t we learned? I thought the point of history was to learn from our mistakes? Maybe it’s the fact that schools aren’t teaching history properly, or maybe it’s because there are still too many narrow minded people out there having their opinions heard?

If you’re part of the tea party or you’re not and you’re just not in favor of Obama whether you’re black, white, yellow, brown, orange, green, or some kind of an orangish pink with an undertone of fuchsia, it’s not about you’re skin color it’s about what you believe in. If you believe you’re being taxed too much, stand up. If you believe you’re losing your rights STAND UP. If you believe that we are heading in a direction in which we’ll never return from STAND UP. If you feel we need a revolution or you feel we need to do something to stop this power hungry greedy lying corrupt government then you/me/we need to STAND UP and fight for what we believe in.

Black, white, yellow, orange, green and you orangish pink with an undertone of fuchsia people need to all band together as one, we are all humans. We are all created equal, and we all have rights in this country, slowly being taken away, but we still have them for now! We need to use what we have to MAKE the government listen. It’s “We the people” not “We the evil government” right? Or did I miss this change somewhere? We should have a say somewhere in what goes on with our country shouldn’t we? Am I being too optimistic?

Stop judging by race. Stop letting the government control you and make new laws that slowly take away your rights. We are FREE people in a FREE country. We are not slaves to this government and we never will be unless the people lose track of what’s important.

Everyone of all races must unite and be one in the fight against the power. Big brother is watching too closely for my comfort and it’s only getting easier and easier for them to do so with our rights being whittled down like some piece of wood. I seen new laws being passed that don’t seem to really make much sense other than to control us and baby us like some useless children.

Stop hate, and stop the government before it’s too late.