Moving My blog

So I decided to follow Jake and move my blog to word press. Here is the link to my new blog. I am going to leave this blog up for about a week or so and then i will be shutting it down. Remember to change your links if you have them. (wick)

Come read my stuff at the new blog....

A Line in the sand

OK so i have had it with all of the crap that is going on with comcast and the RIAA. I would hope that comcast would read this and realize that they are making a huge mistake getting in bed with the Riaa. In an article on the riaa website you can clearly see that comcast is pulling back the cover
and is ready to sell out its customers to the Evil that is the RIAA.

It is not that i have a problem with them punishing people for questionable acts it is that they are filing law suits against their own customers. I think what they should do is setup plan similar that states that all downloads before x date are ok but after x date we will start the law suits. If this has happened already I just haven't caught.

Either way i say if comcast is going to be stupid and go with the monster that is the riaa everyone should boycott their service. Then they won't have to worry about network efficiency issues due to people downloading things.

PDA

So i was having lunch today with a friend and he was talking about how great it was to have a job where he didn't need a pda or firm schedule and it got me thinking about how i am so dependent on mine. Even while at lunch i couldn't stop looking at it every so often making sure i didn't miss the little chime it makes when it gets an email. It made me realize that I have become so dependent on
that device that i have started to let it run my life. I think i need AA's version for PDA addicts.... Wish me luck in breaking my addiction.....

By the way i wrote this on my pda so i am not doing to well so far....

Trying to rebuild an old PC with linux

     So I was at my grandma's house on Saturday clean and get everything ready to move to her new house when we came across her old PC. It is an older PC but not ancient by any means. It exceeds the minimum requirements for xp but i think i am going to try out Linux. It is not that i have given up on Windows as an operating system i am just curious to see what the other one has to offer. So wish me luck and offer me advice as i try to go into a world with out my trusty start button. (or is there a start bar add in for Linux??? I should ask Jake)

Lost in Lost

     Recently I decided I wanted to watch lost and see what all the hype was about. I must have set some sort of record because I watched all 3 seasons in a week. A lot of people have asked why and I just say that it was addicting. TV shows are a lot different when you don’t have to wait week to week for new episodes. For anyone who hasn’t tried to watch a TV show in this matter I recommend trying it. (Especially for someone who gave up movies for lent which would technically not count as a movie)

      After seeing 3 seasons and a couple of episodes from the fourth I understand a couple of things. I realize that it is a new beginning for the main characters that previously had screwed up lives and now are able to recreate themselves in a positive way. I realize the original group that settled on the island was named dharma which in some religions is seen as the correct of nature or the way things are. Which is what we are led to believe the previous group was trying to gain a great understanding of. It is a stretch but I can also see that the group is not supposed to leave and even though they foreshadow 6 people leaving I don’t think it will happen. I think that whole story line is there to show us what these people would be without the island and that each of their lives depends on them being on the island.

       As much as I understand some concepts lost has made itself a hit giving you as little information as possible. This means I don’t understand for more than I do understand. I don’t understand where Jacob fits into all of it more because there hasn’t been a lot done to develop him as a character. I also don’t get the time difference thing between the island and the rest of the world. I also don’t get the mechanical cloud of black smoke which kills everyone. There are really too many things to mention in this category. You would figure after 3 seasons we would have some type of insight in to why they crashed where they were or what is the reason for it but we are left with nothing.

         Watching 3 seasons of lost in a week does have it side effects. To start you are mostly guaranteed to have dreams about being stranded on an island and being chased by wild bores. You also go through this withdraw period in where this is no more lost and you don’t know what to do because you are now stuck waiting for a week for a new episode.

       All of this makes me think of how I would react in there situation. If I were stranded on an island how would I recreate myself? Would I be able to rise to the occasion and become a leader like jack or would I be a stupid extra who doesn’t really do much and just fades into the background. I feel like I would want to be important and fell like I contribute. I think about this mainly because I wish that is something I could experience in my real life. I mean I am happy with my relationship with Ashley and my group of friends but there are many things I wish I could change in the blink of an eye. However, there are many life decisions I would change if I had the chance. I really wish I would have gone to school earlier and would have had more of an idea of what I want to do. I’m happy with my job that I have now but I want so much more for myself and saw myself as being more than I am now. It is hard coming from a family like mine and not feeling like you are constantly being compared to everyone else in the family all of which do great things. It is hard to feel good about yourself when you are constantly compared to the lead engineer over iphone, a government software designer, a fraud investigator with the FBI, and published writer. I really wish in my mind I could crash on an island away from that so I could be happy with what I have accomplished and feel like it is good. Instead of being in a place where I feel like it does not matter what I do because it is never going to be as great as the rest of my family.

                 So I guess to end this entry I will simply state that I am not only lost in lost but I am also lost in myself. I am lost in not only trying to figure out this show but lost trying to figure out how to feel like I have accomplished anything. I guess I need to try and separate myself and my family in some ways so I can be OK with who I am and who I am becoming and not try to compare myself to my family. I do have to say that when I started this entry I just meant for it to be about the show but I guess it is what it is now. It is hard for me to be open with any of my feelings but I hope as I try to put myself on my own island of recreation that is something I get better at.

1 year at work

I figured it was time to blog about the place that I work seeing that as of Feb. 5th I will have been there one year. I know one year at a job is not a huge accomplishment but it is a marker for me. In all of the jobs that I have had I have never reached this mark. I would be at a place for 6-8 months then I would go some where else. I guess this one year mark is a sigh that I am growing up and becoming a little more mature. However, it is very hard to feel grown up and mature in the place that I work. Yes, I do have a nice job and am involved in a lot of things but I feel like some of the people I work with still look at me like a little kid. I have many reasons for this but here are just a few. 1.) It is weird to work at a place where one of your co-workers has been at your baby shower 2.)It is hard to get taken seriously by people when I grew up playing with there kids. 3.) It is embarrassing for me to work with someone who has changed my diaper. That is just the tip of the iceberg. I mean I work with my mom and she is a talker so all of the little embarrassing stories you share at family reunions she has told to a lot of my co workers. Either way I love the place that I work even if all of my co workers know that until I was 6 I could say the name Doug so I call my uncle Doug uncle duck.

Politics

I never really saw myself as being into politics and now that I am in a position to vote I want to be. I know that a lot of people go to the polls uneducated about the issues and I don’t want to be like that. I want to be a person who really knows what I want and who I want to vote for but as I get into it I am becoming unsure about everything. I know where the front runners say they stand on a lot of the major issues and how they say they plan to fix the nations problems. The problem is that I really don’t agree with just one. I like certain parts of one candidate’s take on the issues we face but I like another candidate for their take on other issues. I wish I could really just split all of the candidates and make one super one that was exactly what I wanted. Seeing as how that will never happen I am stuck trying to figure out which on I like. I think I have it pinned down but I am not going to let that out at this time. You can ask me and I will tell you but as far as opening myself up to online hate mail for supporting one candidate over another I don’t think I am into that. The other thing I have learned from this is that I really sway in-between what parties I get behind. I used to think of myself as a republican because that is what my parents are and that is what I was raised with. Now, I find myself liking some points on both sides of the line. I guess what I am saying is in my journey to educate myself I have only made myself more confused. At least on Election Day I will know why I chose my candidate and I urge all people who have not educated themselves to do so. Even if you don’t agree with my candidate at least you will know why you like yours.

Google Analytics (Continued)

I got the legacy code to work for google analytics and I am going to try to replace it with the new code today. I talked with one of my friends and he said i should wait a day or so for google to catch up and then i should start seeing results. So visit my blog so i can make sure it works....

Google Analytics

So I tried using the Google analytics utility to track how many people came to my blog and i am having problems. I am using a template and i put it in right before the end body tag but i don't think it is counting people. I first tried using the new tag and now i am using the legacy tag hoping there is a bug with the new one. I guess only time will tell...

4 years

So today Ashley and I had our 4 year anniversary. It has been an interesting 4 years filled with its share of ups and downs. Here are some of the memories I want to share with all of you. Enjoy

My Dog

Ok, so someone (Ashley) is going to argue that she really isn’t my dog because she doesn’t live with me but she is. I think she is really cool. I know I don’t admit it sometimes but it always makes me happy when she picks me rather than anyone else in the room to cuddle up with. It is really cool to see how unconditionally she loves us. No matter how much I pick on her she still is so excited to see me when I walk in the door. I love being greeted by her when I get home from a long hard day from work. She runs to the door and wags her tail so hard she shakes all over until you pet her and she can give you kisses. I think that she takes after my girlfriend when it comes to her eating habits. Normally you think of dogs as willing to eat anything but maddie is the exception. She is a very picky eater. She doesn’t like steak, milk bones, cookies, most kinds of crackers, and sour skittles. She likes chicken, green beans, radishes, teriyaki beef jerky, and eggs. The jerky is probably her favorite which she goes crazy for. To sum it all up I think she is the best dog in the world.

Number 1

Ok, So I caved into peer pressure and finally got a blog. I feel a pressure in making my first blog post because if it is bad then it seems like my entire blog will suck. I decided with my first entry I would introduce myself. I am a 21 year old guy from the great city of Decatur, IL. Ok, so it is not really that great but we are mentioned in Ferris Bueller’s Day Off which came out in 1986 which is the year I was born so it all works out. I am dating Ashley and have been for 4 years now. She is great… She is a scrap booking, dog loving, all around great person. I work at the hospital here in town (not as a doctor or anything cool) in there IS department. I play a little bit of guitar and bass. Oh and I am also a huge computer geek. So there’s my first post. I know it is not grammatically correct and that I probably spelled some words wrong but I am sure you can deal with it. I hope you look foreword to reading some more about after reading this….