.

Its been forever

2008-02-28T14:06:00.000-05:00

Well it has been forever since I posted on here. I thought I would revive it a little bit.

Digital Ruckus is live!!

2007-02-07T13:03:00.000-05:00

The New Year

2006-12-31T15:39:00.000-05:00

So a couple hours until the New Year. Well more than just a couple but needless to say less than 12 hours. So much to reflect on with the passing of this year. The major advancement of my life happened in the last half of the year. I finished college, got a real career shaping kind of job, and made the woman I love my fiancee. My life has moved forward in leaps and bounds. As I said in previous posts I have also noticed that the things that I focus on have also changed. From concerns about trivial things, I now concern myself with bathroom remodeling and kitchen redesign. Its comforting though. Its a surreal thought to think of all that has and will continue to change in my life. Finances and priorities will all adjust to my new life with my soon-to-be wife and with my home. What is eerie is my lack of fear. I am not worried at all about the coming changes. I am excited for it. I am in fact in some ways wanting to rush into it headlong. Its not that I wanna rush into marriage (that takes time and planning). But I am thoroughly excited about the future and about what other things I will have to make decisions.

Well I have to get some food in me but I want to write more so I will shortly.

Life

2006-12-30T18:05:00.000-05:00

So my life is in a huge shift. I am getting busier and busier. I remember when I was little I used to think that I would get a job and come home relax. Its interesting though to see how that is not the case and how in reality things are just getting busier. I mean its not like my fairy tale life is being destroyed but its one of those things that become more relevant.

I mean now I think of ways to improve the kitchen and bathroom of my house. The craziest part... I don't even live in that house yet. Today I was cleaning up my parents garage and arranging old photos and papers. When I look at them I see a fresh faced young boy who's only joy at the time is the 1:64 scale model of Jamestown that was painstakingly assembled from Popsicle sticks and clay. I then fast forward to now and see how my concern now is of mortgages, marble countertops, and closet space. Its just crazy how life advances in such ways. From Star Wars movies and camouflage to more pressing concerns like Wedding registries and wall colors. Wow. Thats how life is. The words from scripture come to mind:

1 Corinthians 13:11 ~ When I was a child, I spoke as a child, I understood as a child, I thought as a child; but when I became a man, I put away childish things.

Christmas Eve

2006-12-24T16:21:00.000-05:00

Well the sad part of our first Christmas together as fiances is the fact that I unfortunately is that I have to spend it with my family in Georgia. I honestly love spending time with my family but it is difficult to be away from my love. I feel bad to be constantly sending text messages and such while my family is just around. The nice thing though is that they all understand because after all they know that I am engaged.

Seriously though all we have done today (aside from church) was an extreme movie marathon induced by my parents. The Devil Wears Prada, Step Up, and now another is in discussion. Either way its really fun hanging out with my cousins and with my aunt and uncle but truly the fact of the matter is that there is always going to be an open spot in my heart from now on for Anna. Always be a place that will be missing her. She is spending time with her family right now going and seeing the Christmas lights in Richmond. I so wish that I could be there and see the lights too. I also need ot teach her more on how to do the pictures and how to make the settings on the camera to make the most optimal picture.

Well let me just get going and spend more time with my family. I also have an unction to start a little bonfire. Off to find a hatchet and some dry wood.

P.F. Changs

2006-12-21T13:34:00.001-05:00

Beef a la Sichuan. I am going to try it for the first time. I realized now that I haven't utilized the capabilities of my phone for full mobile blogging. Unfortunately the goofy thing doesn't support image attachment. Now of course with my moblog over at textamerica getting shut down I gotta finish up. Well stuffs coming to the table. I will post later.

werk

2006-12-20T12:11:00.000-05:00

werk right before christmas... always fun where 13 bajillion things need to get finished before then...

to add to it i wont be able to spend time with my fiancee on christmas and will be with my family instead in GA which i dont mind so much but its tough being away from my fiancee...

ugh...

Testing

2006-12-18T17:15:00.000-05:00

Testing the image attachment capabilities of gmail

The Office

2006-12-18T14:24:00.001-05:00

Ok so I have blogged alot today, but alot has gone on. This morning I moved offices out of the Central Office and into one of my Elementary schools. I have to be honest that I can't go into the details of what caused the move but its my first encounter with office politics.

I know this is one of the things that makes working in the real world interesting. What gets confusing is that I have never done anything to the people involved but they get these attitudes about me. Its ok I still have the favor of my bosses wich is more important than the lower level people.

Moblog

2006-12-18T09:31:00.000-05:00

OK... so for a REALLY long time I have had a Textamerica moblog. I had it all the way back when they were free and allowed lots of full customization... well they have grown and grown and now apparently they are closing down the "free" side of the house... so all users that are not paid subscribers will have their photo pages killed... its really not cool. i have actually gone thru 4 different phones with their service. Alot of the images I post up here on my blog are linked over from there. Well they wanna be punks like that its fine with me... I'm moving over to Picostation. They even have blogger support so even better.

Talaiver Online

2006-12-18T08:59:00.000-05:00

so though my family has been active with computers and such for literally decades now we have yet to make a long permanent online presence... we have had domain names and websites before but never the full blown: talaiver.com or whatever... either way it will happen soon.. just felt like posting

Further craziness

2006-12-15T06:11:00.000-05:00

Today at 8AM I have my graduation commencement practice then I have work then I goto Williamsburg to pick up my Fiancee then I proceed to come home. Tomorrow the actual graduation takes place and then finally ends up with the obligatory party. MAN!! I am just too busy for my own good. I feel like I am all over the place but this craziness has only really hit full sweing these last few weeks. Now I suddenly have the urge to blog and I dont know why but my cool Blog widget isnt working any more. Not that I ever really used the widget before but I do want to now. I mean I am engaged. Which I do need to expand on in the blog. But yea I have made a commitment to a beautiful girl that I will marry her. Its so exciting.

While at the same time I am truly stepping into my own as far as financial independence and the ever growing need for time. Its amazing to see how my life will unfold in the future. I was at dinner with some friends from work last night and just had kind of an epiphany of what would be coming in the near future for me. All the things that I will need to get ready to do. The things that I dont see but can see the paths leading to them. I have a very very crazy future and even crazier things to do. I cant wait for it all to start coming into exsistence.

I am engaged....

2006-12-11T11:28:00.001-05:00

Its amazing...

Rain

2006-11-12T08:19:00.000-05:00

So its raining today. Its been quite awile since I last posted. I bought a guitar yesterday. Its a Martin Dreadnought. I am happy with it and very excited to learn. Yes its true that I don't know how to play yet I bought a Martin. I find that for me if I invest money seriously in a hobby then I will "guilt" myself into learning. I just want to be able to strum some tunes and have a skill that lots ofpeople envy. Not that I am saying I want to be Dave Matthews. I just want to be one of those cool people who walk in find a guitar and pick it up and can strum some chords. Its always when you show that ability that someone else will say "I have always wanted to learn that"

I can't wait for my life to move forward and be complete. I am so ready for the next big stage in life, whatever it may be. I just know that awesome things ill happen soon and that I need to be prepared. It is a sullen thought to think of so many other people who wsate their lives on frivolous activities or none at all. So many people waste their energy on sitting around. Instead of being assertive and moving forward they remain apathetic and lifeless almost. I pray that my ambition continues to push me to do better and greater things. Truly though sometimes I find that I catch myself being apathetic because I wish to move to that next level. I have been at a level that I don't really know how long I will be at. I then want to move to the next but don't have the ways means or opportunity to find the next step. I am proud though to say that I can see already that I a doing better than some of my friends and where they are in their lives right now. In fact some people who are older than me and been working longer aren't as far along as I am. Yet something in me wishes for more. All in God's timing.

I can't complain about life. I'm out.

Geocaching

2006-11-02T10:45:00.000-05:00

Well I found my first Geocache the other day in Williamsburg. It is always great to find a new hobby. It really is a neat way to get some exercise in while having a fun incentive at the end. I found out about this from my post-Grad class on GIS. I really love GIS now and find its ambiguity really interesting.

So what is it that you do here

2006-10-17T15:31:00.000-05:00

Well today I have to get a efficiency review interview done. Some csultants are going to figure out how to make us more efficient and productive. I am not really sure what to do cause I am just now coming up on my first pay period.

New Job

2006-10-02T13:23:00.000-05:00

Well I've been busy with my new job. I am the Intructional Technology Coordinator for Petersburg City School. I basically get to make sure that little kiddos get all the technology they need. Its fun getting to do work like this and come up with creative ways of doing it. Well wish I could post more but gotta go again. Post more later.

My Love...

2006-09-28T15:54:00.000-05:00

Joe

Jun 1, 2006 - 18 Photos

Stuck in Erie

2006-09-25T11:40:00.000-05:00

So my parents wanted to goto Toronto this weekend and visit some friends. Either way we were just out side Erie and then the temperature shot through the roof and we pulled over and realized something was wrong with the radiator cause it was cool to the touch and after thousand some miles of driving I should have been hot enough to cook on. Well we called a friend and he decided we probably had a sticky thermostat which would explain the fluid not getting in the block and therefore not cooling in the radiator which would in turn make the radiator hot. Sigh... So no we are stuck at a AAA workshop trying to get this radiator thermostat installed.

PODCAST!!

2006-09-06T09:19:00.000-05:00

So Bill and I have started our Podcast!! Its official and online over at TechTalkGuys.com

This is my setup in my room of my Samson C01U mic and stand with pop filter. Its amazing the quality of this mic and only for 80 dollars. Its just like the XLR condenser mic of the same name, but this one just feeds power from the USB

Untitled

2006-09-03T20:19:00.000-05:00

I just felt like punching out amessage on my phone. I have always liked just pressing buttons and what better way than to try and make a blog entry on my phone.

Today has been one of those lazy sort of sundays. I got back from church had a leisurely eaten lunch. And the proceeded to veg out on the internet prowling for articles of interest. Now with that I have my del.icio.us page and my digg account feeds all streaming down, I have dozens if not hundreds of articles at the ready. Its interesting, but now that one line 30 character blurb makes or break whther the article is read.

In the new Web 2.0 world information flows constantly and is in a fully customized interface. Now I know most of us think that the scrolling ticker on CNN or Fox is annoying but I think we just want it so we can hover over and get the ticker to stop and scroll back and forth. I feel that current... I will have to finish this later...

First Mobile Post

2006-09-02T22:48:00.000-05:00

Thought I would try this out. This is a mobile post from my phone lets see how it came out

Luddites & Technophobia

2006-08-28T18:42:00.000-05:00

The interesting thing about most of the world is some of its provincial thinking and fear of technology. One must wonder why there is such fear of something that so far brings good.

Cost Benefit Trade Off...

2006-07-11T07:15:00.000-05:00

Life is always full of surprises and often times I find myself just waiting for the next one. The problem is that the surprises are good and bad. Last week at this time my dog was alive and sitting in my backyard. Little did I know that by the end of the night my boy would be without life and lying in a ditch. It is difficult to know what to do in those type of situations. We often wonder why in the world did it have to happen that way. Things come up and we just are like "Why God? Why did you let this happen?"

Early humans believed that when they were goin thru a difficult time then the God that they worshipped must have been angry and needed to be appeased. The truth of the matter is that God applied his laws at the beginning of time and then let us get into what ever we wish. He is a benevolent God but he is an infinite God so that

Cheating Students & New Features

2006-07-06T07:41:00.000-05:00

I don't mean to have a big head about myself but I tend to do fairly well in class. I pay attention and comprehend what is going on and therefore I am able to do well on tests and quizzes. It bothers me then that so many other classmates cheat on the assignments or worse yet go off and try to copy from mine. I work hard and try to do well and then these punks just try to wheez off of mine. Grr... <*/ end rant*>

If you haven't noticed in the bottom left hand corner I have a new feature from my Moblog. Now as I post images up there from my phone or whereever they will show up in the corner just so you can see what I am up to. I will probably use this more often for when I go on trips and stuff so I can easily share my locations with ya. To be honest, I don't know who reads this aside from my friend Luke, my friend Court, and of course my lovely girlfriend. Either way, its up here, so thought I would share.

My Dog Died...

2006-07-05T08:22:00.000-05:00

enough said... I just... it sucks...

Finland

2006-06-30T07:12:00.000-05:00

A good portion of my friends from church left yesterday for Finland and should be arriving sometime later today. I really really wish I could be there with them, but unfortunately school stuff is keeping me from going. I wish I could like blast some cash and just zip up there for the weekend but I am not some millionaire to spend the 2000 bucks to make the trip. Sigh... I love to travel and I really had wished to travel with the youth on this trip. Oh well... I will have to deal with it and move on.

Poor Israeli Soldier

2006-06-27T08:06:00.000-05:00

His name is Gila Shalit. He is 19. He is the bargaining chip that the Hama led Palestinians are tryin to use to get political prisoners freed from the Israeli jails. This Cpl. in the Israeli army was a tank gunner when militants attacked his checkpoint and took him captive. Israel does not take it lightly when one of its own gets captured in such a way. They ran their tanks all along the Gaza Strip and are now tensely waiting the return of their boy. If he returns in any worse shape than how he was picked up then war will tear thru the middle east.

The interesting thing about the middle east is how the conflicts there haven't changed since Ishmael walked away from Abraham. Israel is right in the middle over the Holy Land that they claim as their own. The Islamic religion unfortunately has many holy sites within the walls of the Jewish held territory. The Israeli state doesn't exsist in the eyes of the Palestinians and the Palestinians dont exsist in the eyes of the Israelis. What is most disturbing is the willingness of surrounding Arab nations to jump in and back up Palestine in its efforts to wipe out Israel. Israel on the other hand has an insane track record for being able to fight. Anyone remember the 7 day war?

a soldier's hands, a father's love

2006-06-18T04:37:00.001-05:00

a soldier's hands, a father's love
Originally uploaded by -Angela.

This is just an awesome image I found on flickr... Happy Father's Day

Canon love

2006-06-12T18:04:00.000-05:00

So today I received an early Graduation/Birthday/Christmas present from my dad... a Canon 30d. And boy I am in love with Canon all over again. The camera is beautiful. Its a bit beefier than its lil' brother the 20d. In addition to its added heft the camera also has a gorgeous 2.5" LCD in comparison to the LCD that my XT had to offer (1.8"). It feels really solid in my hand though. I am so happy with the metal body of this beauty. Compared to the plastic structure of my XT this cold metal feel of the 30d just feels so nice. I really though my XT was a spacious camera that was big and let me move freely about it but now picking up my 30d its amazing how much room I was missing out on. It is really amazing. In addition to the camera my dad also got a 85mm f1.8 lens. Its so clean and fast. The bokeh that it produces is also amazing.

2 Years ago

2006-06-05T06:40:00.000-05:00

2 Years ago a comet fell into the world of my life like a bolt out of no where. I knew of its exsistence, this heavenly body orbitting around my world making brief appearances. It never really entered my life directly. It only just came in passing. Then two years ago our orbits intersected. A cosmic confluence of two entities led to the creation of a better world. That comet was Anna. The love of my life.

Ever since she and I started dating my world has been changed. I know have a beautiful person that will always support me and back me up in whatever I do. Sometimes she may not support me or question what I do, usually though she is right and I am wrong so its to my benefit if I listen.

God you have blessed me with the most beautiful women alive. She is so amazing. Beyond the physical aspects of her, her intellect is astounding. She parries with me in intellectual and philosophical debates constantly. Proverbs 27:17 says it all "As iron sharpens iron, so one man sharpens another." In my case though its Anna sharpening me or in some cases dulls me. I know in most cases I can be brutally blunt. She can sense what I am about to and will immediately be the angel on my shoulder that will make me rethink what I might say or do. Even that. So many times she just knows what I am thinking or about to say and will interrupt my thoughts with a concise "Don't even think about it..." She is such a godsend... I wish I could write more but I would rather spend time with her instead of being behind this machine.

New life at home

2006-05-04T07:05:00.000-05:00

Yes... it has been quite some time since my last entry. School is wrapping up for me so its been crazy. Not only do I mean that its the end of semester but I am reaching the end of my time in college. Its kinda crazy. For so long I have just had an educational system around me and no "real" life situations. Now I am suddenly supposed to be equipped for life and ready to enter the work force and supply my input for the economic fabric of society.

Well to give myself a little bit of a challenge I did something that most wouldn't do... I adopted two puppies. A friend of ours dog had puppies so we came and took a look. Well we walked out with a little girl and a little guy. There was a time where they were not named cause I wasn't home and I always want to have an important role in naming my dogs. Well the little girl's name is Tirzah. Its a Hebrew name that I pulled from the movie Ben Hur and the Bible. Tirzah is actually a City of Kings in the Bible and it means beauty. And I mean look at that face. She's such a sweetie.

Then I got my boy Titus. He is so full of himself its hilarious. I already have two other dogs that are full grown. Buddy and Leeloo. Buddy is pushing around 120-130lbs and Leeloo is around 40lbs. Either way Titus treats these two as if they are puppies. He is so sure of himself and he knows he will be big. And he will be. Even at ten weeks old he has paws that are nearly the size of Buddy's. I mean just look at him. So pompous and sure of himself.

I love having the little dogs around. They remind me of life. They are just bundles of energy constantly running and needing and getting into stuff. I can't wait for them to grow up and see how much they have matured and gained knowledge of the world. Right now they are so curious and intrigued by even the simplest grasshopper or toad. For example, the other day Tirzah was walking by the trash cans and saw motion and locked onto it. Sure enough she had found a toad and she started jumping at it and sniffing it. Titus saw her jumping around and came over to check on it. Then the two of them like nuzzled each other as if to say "Hey lets play with it" and then they continued to pounce on it till the poor toad died. Now that may seem cruel but I wanted them to see what happened. They then realized that there's no nutritional value in a toad, now they know what one is and that its no good killing it.

Its just so interesting to see how a mind develops and lets face it... Puppies are cute.

Long Shot...

2006-04-18T06:35:00.000-05:00

I have so many things on my plate right now I feel like I am at a buffet in Las Vegas. I have to decide on Grad School, on a job, and where I will be living. Best of all, I have no idea which is the best choice for me. I mean I could end up in Norfolk, with a job and no school. I could be in Norfolk with no job and school. Or I could be in Norfolk with a job with school. Now loop go back and replace Norfolk with Richmond. End Loop. I mean thats what I got going on. An infinite loop that has no break condition. Ahh I am such a geek... All I do know is that I want to make sure I hit my mark and that I dont screw something up. Its all a long shot.

@home Lasik

2006-04-05T15:45:00.000-05:00

This is insane... How in the world could anyone perform at home lasik surgery on themselves? Simple, with the at home Lasik system... a simple 4 step process is all that is needed...

Click over on at http://www.lasikathome.com/ to learn about Dr. Khadim and how wants to bring Lasik surgery to your door. Now you wont have to worry about the drive or any recurring recessions into near-sightedness... cause you will have the Lasik at home system in your cupboard or drawer ready to go next time you need to zap away the blurry vision... just remember "Don't Blink!"... hehe

Do you have CPA?

2006-04-05T06:30:00.000-05:00

I am not talking about a Certified Public Accountant. I am talking about Continuous Partial Attention. I read an article the other day in Newsweek about this. The person being intereviewed was Linda Stone former VP of Microsoft. She recently gave a keynote address at the O'Reilly Emerging Technology Conference with a title called "The *Real* Aphrodisiac".

The dramatic increase in handheld devices has led to this ability to constantly have access to the internet to messaging and to overall communication. The prevalence of Blackberries, Sidekicks, and SMS devices has made the sight of a full grown adult hunched over a little piece of plastic common place. In years past only young children and teenagers would give Gameboys and handheld game devices that much attention.

Japanese Shirt folding

2006-03-27T07:49:00.000-05:00

The Japanese folks have to be some of the most efficient people on the face of the planet. I remember goin over there back in 2003 and was just amazed at the level of minimalism and efficiency in their design and form. From the hotel rooms to the train cars, everything was designed to utilize the least space to allow for more things. Giving you a smaller feel but at the same time giving you so much more in much less space than would be required here in the United States.

The fancy little piece of carbon...

2006-03-17T08:07:00.000-05:00

At the beginning of time when God called the Earth into being it was first in a time of upheaval. God was there over the surface of the void and wanted to create something. Well He began to speak plants and animals into being but some slipped under the surface of the Earth as He walked around. That organic debris was consumed by the Earth’s crust and was then exposed to immense pressure and heat from the every changing mantle and magma. That bit of sludge then began to change. Under those forces that little piece of carbon goop turned into a solidified organized chunk of molecules.

Ages passed, empires arose and fell; and deep underground that piece of carbon was now harder than any element on Earth and was fast cutting its way to the surface. Then it was found. Human hands touched it for the first time since God created it under foot. A skilled artisan was called in and then slowly but surely formed it into a precious stone. A ring of precious metal was molded and the stone was set in place…

Now I gotta shell out $3500 little pieces of paper to get the honor of keeping that little piece of carbon…

Yea so I am now in the market and shopping. Not that I will be proposing within the next couple of months, but I usually research a toy I buy for a few months before I buy. This little gem (quite literally) will be shaping the rest of my adult life, so of course I will be shopping around for QUITE some time. So I am trying to learn as much as possible. So here’s what I am trying to memorize… fun stuff

Thanks to www.diamondgrading.com for the info

Color

Fancy

Scale

Colorless

Near
Colorless

Faint
Yellow

Very
Light Yellow

<------Light
Yellow------>

Color

MySpace Hidden Beta Page Found Reveals Future of MySpace

2006-03-14T06:32:00.000-05:00

I got the below article from Digg.com again. Interesting module they plan on using now. See a screenshot here. Looks like they are goin for a more modular type of setup. I think the inclusion of this instead of the old school CSS type of modifying could be cool. Heres the screenshot included so you can just see it from my blog.

I simply went to http://myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=profile.names
http://myspace.com/Modules/ProfileEdit/Pages/Design.aspx
MySpace will switch everything around like they have been doing the past few weeks and change EVERYTHING to asp, watch.

read more | digg story

Barcode creator

2006-03-06T11:21:00.000-05:00

The internet has so many goofy little tools. I found this barcode generator and just started pluggin in stuff just to see its barcode representation. Its a fully legit barcode generator so another chap decided he would use that and change his keychain tags. By re-creating all of the barcodes that are given on those little discount cards and then reprinting it out onto a single card, you can have one card in your wallet that can be used to scan at all the stores with the correct bar code for each. I don't know thought it was a neat little do-dad, then again I am a huge geek and would be entertained by something like this. The above barcode is the representation of the day I started dating Anna.

2006-03-02T14:25:00.000-05:00

Ever had those random days where you just feel like being nostalgic? I broke out the iPod and listened to Marcy's Playground ~ Sex and Candy, Fastball ~ The Way, and Harvey Danger ~ Flagpole Sitta. Haha... now I am in between classes and threw Bubble Boy into my laptop. It's funny how everyonce in awhile its nice to just go back like that. Anyway yea I'm tired... I will leave you with this "Do you want five hundred dolla!?!"

2006-02-27T16:12:00.000-05:00

Prayer...

2006-02-27T15:59:00.000-05:00

My new lens is here... I love it... its huge... 'nuff said

Class action suit against Apple...

2006-02-15T07:41:00.000-05:00

This new development could prove very interesting for the MP3 Powerhouse known as iTunes. Basically we all know how heavily marketed the iPod and its proprietary software iTunes are in the portable entertainment market.

~From eHomeUpgrade
With all the hoopla of the video iPod and speculation that Apple was going to release a media center-style PC and switch to Intel chips, it seems that the media last September inadvertently – or knowingly – forgot to post the news (via Tera Patricks) that Judge James Ware, of the U.S. District Court of Northern California, has found the plaintiff, Thomas Slattery, as having "met all requirements for asserting [Apple's iTunes + iPod] tying claim... noting that the complaint alleges Apple has an 80 percent share of the market for legal digital music files and more than 90 percent of the market for portable hard-drive digital music players." Moreover, Judge Ware has given the green light to Slattery to proceed with his monopolization claim under the federal Sherman Antitrust Act.

As some of you know we've been having some thoughtful discussions on Apple, iPod, and its DRM in the forums (here and here), but I don't think any of us knew that the numbers were as high as the judge found the evidence to be. Also of interest was that Judge Ware specifically rejected Apple's argument that tying doesn't apply since consumers can buy iTunes music for playback on their computers without having to own an iPod. I'm sure some will say that this is not a monopoly, but ask yourself: What other online music services, other than the iTunes Music Store, offers Apple's Fairplay DRM wrapped music for you to purchase for your iPod? That's right, exactly zero. So unless you own a physical CD and have ripped the tracks to MP3 or AAC, there's no other way to add music to the device other than by way of iTunes. (OK, there are two non-traditional exceptions: 1) Services like eMusic that sell DRM-free MP3s, and 2) Real's Harmony software that can convert their copy protected music to a compatible format for the iPod – Note that Apple threatened Real with a lawsuit for providing this feature.)

On the flipside, if you've purchase DRM wrapped music from services like Napster or Yahoo! Music, you will be denied access to those files since Apple doesn't feel compelled to license Windows Media DRM (not that Microsoft hasn't offered). So you see, being the leader of "closed system," even if you're a small company, can get you into trouble when you have the majority of the market locked down and are unwilling to loosen your restrictions on allowing your player to work with other services and codecs.

Final Inking...

2006-02-08T06:33:00.000-05:00

Finally finished with my paint job. I really can't do much more. I had the nice tribal flames but honestly with the Kanji it just didnt feel right. It was like having import graphics plastered all over a classic muscle car. Just a conflict of cultures and design. So I wiped the flames off... (long story how that came about) and decided to go for something a bit more Manga/Anime. Ass you can see the result came out quite nice. I really did like the flames but honestly I dont think they would have looked right unless I were to maybe reflect the flames and have them go towards each other. I got the Samurai from the Animatrix episode, Program. Out of the nine Animatrix episodes, Program is the closest to resembling typical anime. Not to downplay the other works though because they were all great pieces of work. I just like the style of anime that takes on the fuedal period of Japan, with Shoguns and Samurai. In the same way that the medieval Europe is iconified through stories like King Authur and the Knights of the Roundtable, I like the contemporary depictions of pre-Tokugawa Japan with conflicting Shogunates and clans. One of my favorite animes is Ninja Scroll. Extremely graphic in its content and beautifully drawn and inked, it is a moving painting with such detail and fluidity. Anway, I went with the depiction of Duo from Program because it was a very stark image with alot of color and is very bold.

You and Me...

2006-02-07T05:42:00.000-05:00

I heard that Lifehouse song the other day. I know that the rest of the planet has already heard it, but I haven't listened to the radio in a long time or watched any "music" channels. I dunno... I really liked that song...

What day is it
And in what month
This clock never seemed so alive
I can't keep up and I can't back down
I've been losing so much time

Cause it's you and me and all of the people
With nothing to do, nothing to lose
And it's you and me and all of the people and
I don't know why I can't keep my eyes off of you

All of the things that I want to say
Just aren't coming out right
I'm tripping on words, you got my head spinning
I don't know where to go from here

Cause it's you and me and all of the people
With nothing to do, nothing to prove
And it's you and me and all of the people and
I don't know why I can't keep my eyes off you

Something about you now
I can't quite figure out
Everything she does is beautiful
Everything she does is right

Cause it's you and me and all of the people
With nothing to do, nothing to lose
And it's you and me and all of the people and
I don't know why I can't keep my eyes off of

You and me and all of the people
With nothing to do, nothing to prove and
It's you and me and all of the people and
I don't know why I can't keep my eyes off of you

What day is it
And in what month
This clock never seemed so alive

Inking is interesting

2006-02-06T07:28:00.000-05:00

Well as some of the previous posts from January show I had done some artistic work to my laptop to try and make it stand out. I had the Japanese Kanji characters for Love & Anna on one side of my laptop lid and then on the opposite side I had some sweet looking tribal flames. Minor problem with this was a conflict of style. The Japanese calligraphy heralded back to the Meiji period of Japan whilst the tribal flames were a reference to the pin striping and hot rod days of the late 40s and 50s. I decided I would instead get rid of the flames and in their place put in a piece of Japanese artwork. So I searched around the web to try and figure out if I could find a woodblock print of a Samurai or maybe a carp or coi fish in the Japanese style with the fish intertwined or something. I finally did decide on a pattern but one that was a bit more contemporary. I will post a picture when it is finished but not until then. I will say that it’s not more than a couple years old. And it goes with the theme of my blog. If you know me you should be able to figure out what the new image will be. Later.

Final Inking...

2006-02-03T10:31:00.000-05:00

This is the final product of my sudden burst of creative energy on my laptop's body. I originally did both in Sharpie then went back over with a paint pen. The result came out much much better than I thought it would. I also get lots of compliments on it and the inevitable question of what it stands for. The big character is Japanese for Love and the characters under stand for Anna. I got the characters for Anna's name from Phillip Roran's site. I did my name too but in a Manga style. I think I wanna do it on the body to the left of my touchpad. That way I have Anna on my right and my name to left. Well I thought maybe not and instead decided to try and put a biohazard logo on there. Yea... bad idea. It totally looks haggard so I am goin to take it off tonight. What I really want to do is on the outside put in a red symbol like they do on the paintings. Usually its like the artist way of signing his work. I think its more of a Chinese thing to do, so putting that with Japanese characters might be culturally ignorant, but hey it looks cool and thats what matters most. I might try to do the Manga style Joseph after all. At the same time I don't wanna over do it and make my laptop look stupid. Ah well... it is just acrylic paint and some sharpie, that can be taken off with alcohol easily. Well, I'm out.

Sickness grips me..

2006-02-01T07:26:00.000-05:00

Sickness grips me puts me in a cage
A cage of illness of which its depth I cannot gauge
Sickness is a weakness that leechs at a person's soul
Not dooming them to hell, but to a shallow hole
When one is sick they cannot do much but wait
And cause of the sickness within them grows hate
Hate not towards people but upon oneself
Cause it brings our mortality in contrast unlike an elf
When one is sick they are buried within blankets
Blankets that force a person to sleep submit
For when one sleeps they are caught within the throes
Of an epic battle that goes on within them from toes to nose
The infection that taints the body invades and destroys
It blocks the person from enjoying life
Just reducing them into strife
But I will get bettter it just takes time
I know that eventually I will be fine

Lightning

2006-01-30T14:52:00.000-05:00

Lightning
Pronunciation: 'lIt-ni[ng]
Function: noun
Etymology: Middle English, from gerund of lightenen to lighten
1 : the flashing of light produced by a discharge of atmospheric electricity; also : the discharge itself
2 : a sudden stroke of fortune

Ok last summer I went thru a weird "stormchaser" phase where I would listen to the weather report and as soon as a lightning storm was announced I would grap my camera, tripod, and keys and go hauling off to it to try and find an open field to set up and shoot in. My usual go of things was to set up my tripod in the bed of my truck with my canon strapped in then shoot continuous frames of extended shutters by taping down the button. Well the lure of it all was that with every 200 frames I would get like 2 maybe 3 really gorgeous shots. Usually I would be aimed at the wrong part of the sky and then when I would move the lightning would bolt in the part of the sky I was aiming at before. I always have interesting stories to my photos. What would have been even more interesting would be if I got struck by lightning. After all I am standing in the bed of a HUGE truck, with a electric camera, on a tripod, in a storm... Yea I am always asking for it.

Computer Ink...

2006-01-30T13:37:00.000-05:00

Well I got insanely bored today in "Current Issue in Information Technology". Its not my fault that I read every tech-related website and blog, which therefore puts me ahead of the class because I am... LITERATE!! I mean come on some of these people don't know where CDMA or GSM come from. Plus new things like Wi-MAX and such are just too much to handle. Anyways... So I was bored cause the "phenomenon" of 802.11 a, b, and g was blowing my fellow classmates minds. In turn what did I do? I went online to figure out how to translate English words to Kanji Japanese Characters. I mean wouldn't you? So I thought of figuring out "Samurai" or something like that just for fun. Then I had the genius idea of redrawing the character onto the lid of my laptop. Ok so now I know what I want to do... question is what do I write? Well as most who have been in a relationship know the thought that consumes your mind the most is that special someone. So I went on a quest to translate Anna into Kanji and then find the word Love. Easily done on both. I went to an import car website to find the sticker that matched the word "Love". The difficult thing with Japanese is that it can be written in many different styles: Calligraphy, traditional, Manga, and many others. So I picked traditional and lo and behold I got a design. I got Anna's name and just popped it there underneath. Problem was I had no tracing paper, no way to print, and no desire to leave my chair. Problem solved, up my screen to its brightest setting, put a paper over my screen, and redraw by hand with pencil. Ok so all of you tech heads can take a breather, I KNOW THAT WAS STUPID. Hehe... its always in hindsight that stupidity is realized. I could have easily scratched my screen or even popped it. Luck & my angels were with me so they kept my screen safe. I then took the paper with the pencil rendition of the characters and placed them on my laptop lid. Securely holding it place with my hand (which also was a bad idea seeing as how the whole thing could move and mess up the drawing) I retraced again except this time via Sharpie. 35 min later, my computer is inked. I actually REALLY liked it. I will probably do it all over again except using like a Paint Pen or something so that it will have a more lasting color and actual depth. So now right under my right hand will always be Anna, then on the outside declaring to the world my laptop will say "Love Anna" But yea see for yourself... I'm OUT

Shave & a haircut

2006-01-23T12:23:00.001-05:00

I did something the other day that I wasnt too sure about. I shaved my moustache off. Yea, its really weird doing it cause it makes me look significantly younger. To the point in fact that some people werent sure if they liked it. Honestly, I am not sure if I like it. God blessed me with a very smooth complexion so the lack of facial hair almost makes me look pubescent. The response I got from it was very mixed so I am not sure which way to go. I think I might consider just growing out a nice thin beard. I really do look alot younger so its wierd. I do however have to say that I am happy that my skin did not react badly to having so much hair removed. I will have to see here in the next few days what I want to do.

I have to try and make sure I get it figured out by Wedensday though. I have to preach at Gen Now that night. I will be preaching about Spending Vs. Investing time. I feel so wierd each time I do it because its such a big responsibility to speak the word of God. I am doing my best each time though. I also am anticipatory about what my future holds. I have had multiple words spoken over my life talking about how much I will be involved in ministry even to the point that I have apparent crusades to lead. I know often people take no stock in prophets or prophecies, but I know so many times when the words spoken over me have come true that I can't deny it. The one thing that you cannot take away from someone is their personal experience. My testimony and my experiences are mine and mine alone. There is no way that someone can argue with what has happened to me. Ok well I have to get back to work on my resume and also on my resignation letter. It has come time to move out of PGHS and find something better so I am putting in my letter of resignation. Later

Flickr Fun

2006-01-21T15:35:00.000-05:00

Check this sight out to try one of your own..

State of the Joe Address and WiMAX

2006-01-20T10:14:00.000-05:00

Samurai Joe here has been busy as all get out. I have started classes again at VSU and in my final semester you would think I coulk take it easy but instead I am pulling a nice & easy 18 credit hours. In fact, if I had the choice I wish I could take maybe another 3 more online. Basically I am trying to do all that I can to get out with my B.S. in I.S. before the summer is thru. I have that vision locked in and thats the fuel that is driving me. I luckily didnt slack off when I first started and so instead of the usual 12-13 credits that freshman take I took at least 15-17 the first 2 years. This is what allowed me to catch up with nearly all of my class eventhough I lost an entire semester back in Fall of '04. Gotta give it up for my self-destructive pace of study. Now I am gunning for a good graduate program. Sigh... will this ever end? Well beyond my B.S. degree my next vision is that beautiful day when an even more beautiful woman joins me in life forever. And if you know me then you know who I am refering to. ;o) Love you exponent.

Aside from the usual hub-bub I am still doing my utmost to make sure that I stay on the cutting edge of technology. The newest one that has piqued my interest is WiMAX. I thought you would be interested in this article that shows how influential it will be in future technology. Basically the US government is making moves to try and compete with Asian and European development in Nationwide broadband. Purportedly the government will sell off special frequencies in an auction. Also in 2008 "the long awaited 700MHz band" will also be auctioned off. This is critical because it is currently held by the analog TV stations. In 2009 all those TV stations will switch over to a purely digital signal and allow WiMAX to take over their frequency band. If that is the case then all of the infrastructure and backbone that allowed the analog TV signals to broadcast all over the country will simple switch and then be used to broadcast broadband. The only real hardware development will be the end-user modem/reciever. I think that this technology and its versatility will become extremely and exceedingly vital to the continuation of the United States technological muscle.

Aside from that I still am a nut for my photography. For anyone that wants to give dontations of equipment here are some of the lenses I really like:

1) Tokina 28-70mm f/2.8---------------219.95
2) Tokina 24-200mm f/3.5-5.6---------269.95
3) Sigma 28mm f/1.8-------------------249.00
4) Tamron 18-200mm f/3.5------------379.00
5) Sigma 18-200mm f/3.5--------------369.00
*All prices from BHPhoto.com so if you find a site that gives better prices AND backs thier stuff with a good warranty then feel free to let me know. Of course, if you are a very generous person and would like to just hook me up with some of these lenses then feel free to contact me at b166er@gmail.com. Now if someone wants to be TRULY generous and fund my Africa Safari Photo shoot I need the following: the 800mm Sigma MSRP (see for yourself) the 600mm Canon with IS (check price for yourself on this one too). I think that would def. make the trip awesome oh and since you have so much cash to throw around how about a nice 1DS Mark II. Sigh... one day... Maybe later than sooner, but one day... :o)

Shooting like a maniac

2006-01-10T09:02:00.000-05:00

_MG_1183
Originally uploaded by jtalaiver.

Well Christmas was by far one of the best ones ever. I went to India with my family and Anna. We had an awesome time travelling all over the south and the north. We went to the city where my parents came from and had a memorial service for my grandmother. The travel itenary was non-stop. There was not a single day that we were not moving or trying to complete something or travel somewhere. The only day where we actually chilled out in the hotel room (not counting sleeping at night) was the last day when Anna and I packed up to come home.

Year older...

2005-12-13T21:25:00.000-05:00

I am 22 now. Turned 22 back on the 9th and had a decent birthday. I didnt do much just went and finished my last final exam, worked out some chores round the house, got a haircut, and then shot out to W&M to spend the rest of the day with Anna. When I got there I was a bit upset since she never said Happy Birthday to me but it was cause she had a surprise planned for when I finally got there. So when I got there she met me outside to go straight out and get the tickets for Narnia that night (which by the way was an awesome movie). I was hungry so I wanted to get something to eat but she was set upon getting dressed up and so we needed to go back to the dorm. At first I was a bit put off cause that was just more driving that I would have to do. When I got out of the car though I looked up to the window to her place and realized what was goin on. She had emblazoned across the archway in the kitchen a big sign that said "Happy Birtday Joe". That is not a typo... What happened was that she htought I would come alot later than I did. So when I called to update her of where I was she rushed to finish the banner and before she knew what she was doing she had dropped the "h" in Birthday. It was adorable. Then to get it taken care of further, she had her roomie color them in while we were out gettin the tickets. Anna is by far the best thing to happen to me since I started to breathe. She just adds such quality to my life. I cant wait for the day when I never have to leave her...

Now onto Narnia. That was by far the BEST adaptation of that movie to film. Given, the 1986 TV versions were cool for their day and age and were extremely accurate, they just didnt have the magical feel that reading would give since the characters were created so cheaply. In fact in some scenes the mythical characters were 2D cartoon drawings superimposed on the rest of the film. Now Im not a purest saying that all creatures and characters should be tangible, but there should be some degree of realism. And when the characters look like Prismacolor pictures that have come to life, you know there is a problem. In the new version though, ILM (Industrial Light and Magic) pulled out all the stops. I have to admit that George Lucas must have been putting some serious cash into the renderfarms over there cause the characters CG or not reacted wonderfully and totally believably with all others around it. Aside from that the story is of course one of the most wonderful epics of the 20th century. Just like the Greeks have Homer's epic stories, we have C.S. Lewis' Chronicles of Narnia and J.R.R. Tolkien's World of Middle-earth. Ok its getting late and I have more junk to do. I have to get ready for this trip to India so I got clothes that need washing and clothes to be broken out of storage since after all I havent had any summer wear out since September. I'm out, later...

The Stillness of Winter

2005-12-06T09:07:00.000-05:00

Snow falls down around
Covering the whole of ground
Stillness captures all....

Yea... That was my feeble attempt at Haiku for the recent snowfall. I have just been so zoned out and zonked out with all that is going on I just realized that it has been forever since I have written poetry. I will have to do my best to get some done while I am in India. After all I will be at some of the most romantic locales on the entire planet WITH my lovely girlfriend. It will def. be awesome enviroment for some creative prose. Ok I gotta get back to the papers and junk that I have been bogged down with. I will write some LONG entries this next week after I finish all the exams that I have coming up. Oh... yea and crucial bit... I will be 22 this Friday... AHHH... I gotta go see Narnia... I gotta do alot of stuff... Now just to get to it...

Hey Indie....

2005-12-05T18:53:00.000-05:00

Yea I'm starting to rock this leather fedora that dad got awhile back. I dunno why I really like it, but I do... now this is goin to be my travelling hat. So I am goin to make sure to take pictures of myself with it on in all the places I go. Well I have school work to do so I will get to that for now.

Closer & closer...

2005-12-01T07:24:00.000-05:00

With each passing day I get closer to my departure for India. I had hoped that I might start a podcast about it where I could log my journey from over there. Unfortunately, I can't find any easy way to do so due to limited access to solid broadband. I will be taking so many pictures anyway that it will be a hinderance to try and do sound-seeing tours or to even try to whip out a laptop and blog. I am traveling with my family and my sweetheart, so I will have enough to wrap up my attention let alone the task of blogging or podcasting. What I might do is start a blog for my India trip and as I find the opportunity post there or put up a picture. I doubt I will do anything really serious bloggin wise till I get home. I do plan on journalling my trip by hand into a paper journal. I did that last year when I went and it was really awesome to have later. In fact, I might try to use that same journal cause I know I didnt fill it up all the way.

I am so busy. I know that seems to be the catch phrase of the past 5 years, but especially now because I am trying to wrap up my finals and such while at the same time trying to teach the stuff I have to for this semester at PGHS. So many things going on. In fact I think that the world in general is just getting busier and busier. I think at some point we are going to hit critical mass. There is only but so much the planet can take from all this constant running around we do as humans. We as a species are the only ones on the planet that are so entropically busy. I know ants and creatures of that kind are even busier than we are but honestly they all are that busy as a unit with one set hive kind of goal. Now I am not trying to say we need communism and all of the world should be under one control. What I do mean is that we need to take considerations for all others around us to at least slightly help the species as a whole all gain our own individual goals. So many people are self-centered and only seeking to extend their own little plot of territory and wealth on this planet. If we all instead tried to make sure everyone else was able to move up then we would all gain.

Something happened @ PGHS

2005-11-30T15:45:00.000-05:00

I am not sure what happened... but I think something went down cause I got an email asking that I excuse any students for not having their bags or books... Sounds like the building got evac-ed or something... I will probably hear about it tomorrow morning... If any of my students happen to read this before then, hit me up at my email or post a comment... Thanks!!

Happy Thanksgiving!!

2005-11-24T16:11:00.000-05:00

Today we are thankful for all the things that we have. Honestly this is something we should do everyday. Too often we become complacent and don't realize the blessings we are endowed with. This country is what it is today by the toil and sweat of those past. We cannot forget the blood and tears that our ancestors sacrificed to give us the freedom and liberty we have today. Slow down your busy schedule today and in between the turkey and gravy think of all those other people on the planet who starve to death everyday. Today we are so blessed that often times we will even push back a plate of food because we think its too much. Now I am not saying to gorge yourself to the point of sickness just so you won't waste food. I just want all of us to make sure that in times like that we realize the many things we need to be thankful for.

I went to lunch with my mom and brother down to the Blue Talon Bistro in Williamsburg, VA. It was a very nice lunch but that wasn't the end of the food that I was thankful for today. When I came home I was blessed to be able to go over to my girlfriend's house and have dinner there at her house. Needless to say I have definitely filled my stomach up today. To the point in fact that my belt needed to be removed so that I could sit comfortably. Well enough about that I am going to get goin and be social with everyone that is here. Laters

What is wrong with me?

2005-11-23T07:32:00.000-05:00

I dont know what happened... this morning on my way to work I just zoned out.... I nearly drove clean to Durham, NC. I dunno... with the upcoming holiday weekend and loads of papers to do, I guess my brain is just in overdrive trying to get myself straightened out. I don't know... I gotta go now though, lots of work to do and other things... I'm out

Interesting day at work...

2005-11-22T10:53:00.000-05:00

Well my class at PGHS uses blogger.com to maintain the notes that we take. I figured that with a computer class it would be a good idea to let them use the computer to go ahead and take notes on the computer. WELL... apparently the use of the blog is questionable in the public school system and so the SBO blocked it and I had a load of things to prove that the Blog is a good tool. GRRR.... I will have to write more later...

Long time since I posted

2005-11-21T07:28:00.000-05:00

It has been quite a long time since I have posted and ALOT has happened since. Lets see where did I leave off... My last "real" post was about Kerri. Then I had a short post about a link I posted on Digg. Digg is "a social news network" that allows users to submit their own type of news articles and people can dig what their friends post. Anyways... biggest thing so far is my new laptop!! SAWEET!! Its a Toshiba 17" Widescreen with a Centrino 1.78 Ghz processor. The RAM can go up to 2Gb but the kicker for me was the internal 100Gb HD. AWESOMENESS!! I love AND use lots of memory and laptops tend to always be lacking in that category with 40 - 80 gig drives usually installed. So having the 100 Gigs makes this very nice. Aside from that I am also shopping around for a BG-E3 for my Canon XT. I gotta get ready for this India trip that is coming up this Christmas. I am so excited about it since I get to take my lovely girlfriend, Anna, with me. She has never been to India before, let alone traveled with my family which is its own adventure. I have so much I want to show her and share with her. It's going to be great!! (Extra points to me for sounding like Tony the Tiger)

On a lighter note, I got an Amish Cinnamon Loaf from a grandparent of one of my students. It is now the second thing that I have received from a student. The other was one of those little plaster and paint statuette that resembles an apple sitting on top of two books. The bread was phenominal.

I am currently in my Systems Analysis & Design class. This class is such a waste of my time. I have done Systems design on my own for years now but I have to sit now and listen to this guy go over the same material that is basic knowledge for any IT person. Stupid stuff like "Technology drives innovation..." WHAT THE HECK!?! Thats like a given for any situation. I mean look at the Romans with the Phalanx. The Roman legions developed the long spears and shields and the legions could literally just march over any opposing force. The the proffessor has to go over the whole process of explaining what outsourcing and in-house production is. If the morons in this class can't figure that out from the word itself, then they shouldnt even be in college. Often times I hate the utter lack of drive and intelligence that are in some peers. I mean can these people truly believe that they will succeed in the world? They really need to get a different view and realize that it is because of their apathetic view that all the money in the United States is leaving it and being invested overseas. We are such fat lazy pigs here in the US we dont even want to sweat to do even simple office work. So all the work goes off-shore. Ok, enough of my rant, I am done

News report from the beginning of the internet

2005-11-08T15:10:00.000-05:00

The newest craze... something called the internet. Old school MUD and "not alot of cursing and swearing"... funny to watch little signs called "emoticons" tilt your headside ways and you have a smiley face

read more | digg story

K-Dawg

2005-10-24T13:18:00.000-05:00

One thing I don't regret about Anna being so far away at W&M is the huge number of close friends we both have now. They are all hilarious and great to hang out with. I have to say though that out of all of them one in particular sticks out. That's my good friend K-Dawg.

Her real name is Kerri but I will leave out her last name so you creeps out there wont stalk her. Anyway last night Anna and I decided we needed to see each other cause lets face it we can barely go a week without seeing each other. She had studying to do and so did I so we guessed we could do it together. Well I came over to the girl's apartment and we hung out there for a little while before we shot out to Swem library to study more there. Now take into account that Anna and Kerri were both tired, but honestly the three of us were dying laughin' at EVERYTHING. From me "clearing the table" to the proper etiquette about guy's facial hair (don't ask, but 'you need to shave') we were laughin so hard we cried. Then we decided we would head over to the library cause the girls decided to skip dinner. That soon ended after about an hour when the decision was made to send me out for grub. So I shot over to the nearby Food Lion to get some chicken tenders, potato wedges, and something to drink. I got everything and shot back. I gotta get the pictures off my camera but hilarity insued. We just had a good time hanging out and eating and trying to hack to soda machines. Best part of all was the fact that throughout the night K-Dawg sported my BIG Megadalon shark tooth necklace. It was funny the reactions that people were giving her when they saw petite Kerri with this HUGE tooth. Good times... Ok well back to work, just wanted to post this entry before I forgot about it. Later

New Headphones

2005-10-23T15:08:00.000-05:00

I love when things break. It creates an opportunity for new things to arrive. Case in point, my iPod headphones. The ones that came with my iPod gave up the ghost prematurely. Apparently with all the jostling around and squeezing against my text books it finally decided to come apart. I should have seen the end coming when I noticed the metal screen was dinked and dented. That caused the overall integrity of the headphone to come apart. Well they finally gave way and popped out and yea it sucked. I had my HUGE Sony MDR-V700DJ phones but yea... they are massive. I also had some cheapo Sony back-of-head-wrap-arounds but my brother had taken them to school with him. I finally headed over to the local Best Buy to try and find a set that I liked and was a good performer. Well I saw the Shure E2C which are the dream of all audiophiles, though the E5C is even better. Either way I was looking for something that could go in ear for the sound isolation but I also wanted some good deep bass which is often lacking in earbud design (unless you shell out some serious change for something like the Shures). I spotted a 40 dollar set of headphones from Sony that seemed nice had a good design and touted deep bass reproduction, but I wasn't convinced. I spotted some KOSS buds but they looked like they would fall apart as easily as the iPod ones did. Then I saw this catchy looking Phillips ones. They had "virtual surround sound" at this point I was just tired of standing there (the time that elasped was nearly 1.5 hours) so I just bought them and walked out. I have to say... I like them. I didnt wanna seem all trendy getting white ones sinces these were "designed for the iPod"(meaning they are white). They actually do have really good sound reproduction and a very decent bottom end. The buds have these grated openings in the back of them that intially look like they are just stylish, but if you where them and have music going and cover those holes the bass drops out completely. I guess whatever they are using for the bass relies on the air delivered through that hole. So thats my little review on my Phillips headphones. Sorry I couldnt find a link for them but trust me they are at the Best Buy nearest you. Later.

Stranded

2005-10-18T14:18:00.000-05:00

Had a nice lunch with my dad and mom and went to Costco to buy some DVDs. On the way home dad spotted a lady stuck on the side of the road so we decided to stop and help. She had run out of gas. Apparently she just thought she could make it with the fumes that she was running on but no. Anyway we drove her to the nearby Texaco and she got a small tank and filled it. Now we are on our way home and hopefully our help will be a good witness to this lady.

Sidenote, the DVDs i got were the Chronicles of Narnia that the BBC produced a couple years back and also The Kingdom of Heaven. I remember watching the Lion the Witch and the Wardrobe a long time ago and thinking how awesome it would be if they used Hensonesque puppets and computers for the creation of the fantasy characters in the story. Now of course Narnia is coming out this Christmas and looks phenominal because of just that. The filmmakers are using a seamless integration of make-up and puppetry with CG characters to create a brilliant story. Well I just got home so I am throwing Kingdom of Heaven in so I am going to chill.

Unfinished Work

2005-10-18T11:01:00.000-05:00

Have you ever had that project that was a big one or a complex one that somehow you kept overlooking so that you could do other simpler more pleasing things? Then after some time that big project raises its ugly head and you end up in a stint. That my friends is what happened today. This was supposed to be my day off from school and such but a project I have been putting off caught up with me. I had to do some filming back in June of this past summer and I was supposed to convert those DV tapes to DVD. Now that usually doesn't seem like too big of a deal. But this was 9 hours of footage. Luckily no editing or anything was required but it was time consuming one way or the other. Now I have to babysit a machine as it goes file by file. I think the biggest thing is that the work is so tedious it drives a person insane. Actually I think I am goin to go now. I got a movie I wanna watch so I am going to check that out instead. Laters.

Fall Break Day Two

2005-10-18T07:21:00.000-05:00

Spent some quality time with my girlfriend yesterday. I love just being able to leave after work and go straight to see her. Ok. Back to that stuff I wanted to write last time.

Luke and I are in discussion about tryin to maintain a blog or tech site that just keeps the pulse of the newest in Podcasting, Vcasting, and general technology. We both get excited about hearing about new technology that comes out. I def. would love to author a site that would answer all types of questions about new technology and of course get influential enough that the companies that I review start to sponsor me and give me free schwag. I can't believe people like Kevin Rose just started doing that kind of stuf and now he's established Rev3.

Sam and I are still in talks about how to setup BBQ Chutney. Mainly its trying to figure out how to record it best. I think that it might involve me and him to have our own recording devices and then talk to each other over the cell phone. After we finish our little 'cast we would send the audio files to each other and do a mix down. I am tryin to figure out if there's a simpler way that could record both right away because synching up the audio might be a bit tricky since there's some delay using cell phones. The big thing is of course that it would be one less step in the process. Any music interludes or other random junk would have to be added later, unless we used just our own stereos in our cars for music.

Fall Break

2005-10-17T18:19:00.000-05:00

Today is the first day of my fall break and I decided to spend it with my wonderful girlfriend. As soon as I finished working I packed up my gear and headed down 64 on a drive that is so familiar to me now. I just zone out as I see exit by exit slide by. I decided to get a haircut since I had time before Anna got out of her class. I finished up a bit early and parked my car at Common Glory. Then I walked down to Tucker Hall so I could be waiting for her when she got out of class. As soon as she got out she and I walked down to the Cheese Shop to have some nice lunches. Unfortunately there was a serious set back, my idiotic tail decided to leave my wallet in the van. For those of you not familiar with the William & Mary campus, Common Glory is on the ENTIRE OTHER SIDE of the campus in comparison to the Cheese Shop. So yea, I was a moron for that one. Then after that she and I decided to go shopping so we went to the nearby outlet stores and just wandered through all that they had to offer. Anna had a great time when we got to the Gap Outlet store.

I love her so much. Over the past year and 4 months I have learned so much about her and her little mannerisms. I love that she LOVES sales. I mean when she sees those big red signs with 30-40% or banners that declare clearance sale, she just runs to them. I do not mean to poke fun at her. She just is such a thrifty shopper. She can spend hours hunting for just the right sweater to go with those pants or the perfect cut on a certain pair of jeans so she can look her best. I on the other hand never cared for how I looked. I always just wore what I wanted. If wearing socks with flip-flops was taboo, I was all over it sporting the socks proudly. Then I started dating Anna and she changed all of that. I dressed for Anna. And I started to realize, she began to dress for me. I love her for that. I know how big a thing it is for girls to change styles and such. Anna totally has for me. I mean she went from liking only silver to loving gold. I just cant believe all that she does for me. Ok well I gotta get back to Anna cause I am here with her now. I still got lots to write about though. I still havent talked about what I actually wanted to. I will in the morning.

Resonate: Leaders Meeting 1

2005-10-15T08:40:00.000-05:00

This weekend is the Resonate Conference here in Williamsburg at CLC (Annas church while she's here @ Will & Mary). I have had an awesome time so far and have been freed of some things that made me have a hard time being a leader. Now I am sitting in a leadership meeting that is being led by Doug Lasit. He's an excellent pastor who had come to my Youth Retreat a few years back and he still remembers me. Either way this is a phenomenal conference that has a serious impact on anyone that attends. Ok anyway onto the notes.

SATAN IS A NERD!!
The World Trade Centers were attacked on 9-11. These great buildings fell down and were turned to nothing but rubble. Some people say nothing was left, but in reality the foundation still was intact. "If your foundation is strong, you are a comeback waiting to happen"

Doug Lasit ~

Understand the responsibility that you have as a youth shepherd

Luke 14:28-30 ~ building
John 10 - hireling (agenda and an office or title & kids suffer cause they aren't truly fed) vs. Actual shepherd (when enemy attacks they will run in with whatever they have)

Family and ministry are together, one does not steal from the other. Live in the calling so your family is there together with it.

For which of you intending to build a tower, does not first site down and count the cost and whether he has enough to finish it. lest after he has laid the foundation and is not able to finish all who see it begin to mock him saying 'This man began to build and was not able to finish'

Great intentions wont pay the cost (Time pays the cost)
The cost will be paid by someone, it should not be the youth
One mans entire vision is another mans foundation
You should not be the one that causes a student to mock the church
People are watching you build
God decides when you are finished. Your responsibility is to finish everything that you begin

Develop a plan that you cannot possibly build in the time that you think you have

Never allow young people to suffer cause of your vision for your life

Understand the vision of your senior pastor
You are there to serve the vision of church and the vision of the senior pastor.
What is your vision for your youth?
What is my role in this church?

Commit to growing in your youth ministry gifting and skill
Learning stage - initial beginning where people don't know what they are doing <10% style="font-weight: bold;">Vision stage - finally grab ahold of what you wanna do with the kids
Equipping stage - parents suddenly come to you to ask what to do with their kids Keep your youth ministries resolve intact

Resolve= in action, value or direction that you are commited to regardless of the cost or difficulty to have resolve is to continue beyound what your mind can accept

The resolve of NEVER forsaking my family for the sake of the ministry - if you do you will lose both family and minsitry
The resolve to give up on any young person
The resolve to serve my senior pastor and his vision
The resolve to maintain my personal prayer life - Dont get so busy you cant pray
The resolve to never place my ministry over the welfare of the church
CHURCH
Pastor
church is a boat and you must stay within the wake dont try to swing out or you will lose momentum and you will
The resolve to serve and love the families of the church
The resolve to never forsake the preaching of the word for fads or trends
Bible gives a frame for you to preach on
AND
its the frame work or skeleton
The resolve to value the ministry of the __ in my ministry
The resolve to have a __ even when it is difficult
The resolve to never take credit for the things that God has done

What are the whats that will lead to our purpose with philosophy behind purpose. Philosophy of the church must match up. Strategy needs to be brought in to explain the "How". Then "Implementation" needs to be done.

Carry a GUN ~ Doug Lasit said so (Especially if you have a daughter)

Embracing Helsinki & BBQ Chutney

2005-10-14T15:31:00.000-05:00

Well Luke will be on his way to Finland very soon. He has received his Visa from the Finnish Government for yet another year so he is departing tomorrow for his current home in Helsinki. I def will miss his presence here but we hope to do better at keeping it touch. After some new developments we have decided to do a better job at keeping in touch as well as tryin to work out some kind of tech new site or something. The both of us are so into new tech and want to keep on the pulse of things so we decided to do some sort of collaborative project to maintain that pulse.

Now onto the second part of that strange strange title. BBQ Chutney... yes that reads as Barbeque Chutney. Ok we dont really have a website up for it yet. Basically Sam and I have decided that we want to start a podcast that is all about the Indian-American view on America the world and such. I acutally will start podcasting sooner than our expected start time because I am headed to India this Christmas to spend some time with family friends and to show my girlfriend all of the cool places I have seen and that I want her to see. Actually speaking of which I am with her now so I better get off of my compie and head out with her. Later.

(Btw I totally am not liking my G4 Powerbook right now, the screen has glitched out and all the colors look inverted as if I am looking through a film negative... grr need Apple Care Service now)

Where's the sunrise?

2005-10-12T06:38:00.000-05:00

I used to see a beautiful sunrise every single morning on my way to work. As the earth slowly slips around in the inky expanse known as space it tilts this way and that so the climate changes. And with the tilting it moves the earth into different angles from the sun causing different times before the sun shines its glory down on this humble piece of rock. So instead of seeing a beautiful sight like the one to the right. I drive into the darkness... Ok anyway that is the intro to the rest of this entry.

Ok first off... read the comment for the "Ceaseless Journey" post. Actually here it is...

Devthedevastator said...

Well if you want my honest opinion I believe your doing an excellent job. You do go out of your way with the teaching thing compared to even the most experienced teachers. They throw a book at us and tell us to read but you actually go through and tell us what we NEED to know and make sure we get it all down. And we get to tear open sloppy drives with pliers, bwhahaha. I have made a mental note to myself to NEVER EVER try to steal your attendance cards. O.O Fo real though, been my favorite class so far and learned more in this one than I will ever learn in one of those other fools classes. And don't worry about the time thing, once you're out of college your gonna be able to see your girl and have the time to do everything you been wanting to do. Why else would you have been spared in all those close calls ;) surely not to waste away under all the stress

Dev I know you arent a brown noser but thanks for that comment it helped out. Ok moving along to what I want to talk about.

I have started to listen to podcasts again after a couple months away. All I gotta say is that Adam has been crazy busy with Ron Bloom and is doing alot of things. I see that some of the podcasts have moved over to Sirius Satellite Radio. Thats awesome!! I want to find out more about this "Unlabel Record Company" that will be starting up through the Podsafe Music Network. In fact I have just a deluge of podcasts on my pod right now. What's a boy to do with a pod that has 60 gigs with only 20 gigs of music... download tons of next gen radio content!! Here's a current list of some of the podcasts I got: DSC, Dawn and Drew, MK show, Fly With Me, Tips from the Top Floor, Diggnation, and a few others. Needless to say I have lots of 'casts to listen to. Well after gettin re-interested in the podcasting I have been listening like crazy and dont have anytime for anything else. Actually I dont have time now cause I have to goto class but will write more later..

The ceaseless journey

2005-10-08T09:15:00.000-05:00

I have just been so weary from work and from school. Its so hard to do both. I know I prolly have nothing on some people who work all night and goto school during the day or vice versa. I gotta say though that teaching is hard on a person. For so long I gave a hard time to teachers, saying that they had no concept of time and that they never worked hard enough. Truth of it is, I work part-time and I can barely keep up with it. Honestly I do goto college full-time as well and that def. takes alot of time and energy. But this teaching thing takes alot out of a guy. The downtime I do have is split between lots of different wants. I want to spend time with my beautiful and loving girlfriend. I want to spend time doing some photography. I want to spend time just relaxing and doing more reading. But even the free time away from college and work is split again between housework and church stuff. Sigh... days slip by and already its getting close to Christmas. It seems like time takes on an accelerated speed the older I get. I remember when I was younger in elementary and middle school vacation seemed so much longer. I thought that Spring Break was a month or even longer. Now I look and it was only a week long. Somehow everyday was so much longer. I think it just is a wierd phenomina that happens where perspective makes things look different. Example, when you walk through a maze it might seem like forever to cover the distance, but once you get a larger perspective the distance doesnt seem so far. I dunno... See now I am not even sure why I am making a post. I basically found that cool ASCII guy and want to create a post about it. I wanted to talk about the endless journey that we all go on. We constantly tredge on. For what goal? For what reason? That is what I hope to find one day. I will let you know when I do....

In My Bag

2005-10-04T21:43:00.000-05:00

In My Bag
Originally uploaded by jtalaiver.

I decided to join the "Whats in your bag?" group on flickr. Just random...

@ William and Mary

2005-09-30T15:08:00.000-05:00

I just got here to W&M to see my girlfriend, Anna. I love her so much. I skipped out early on class just so I could surprise but lo and behold when I got here she wasnt to be found. I forgot that she had a Geology Test to make up for. So I called around to try and figure out where the Geology building was but none of her roomies would answer. Of course like an idiot I forgot that I had a campus full of students and anyone of them could have pointed me in the right direction. Finally I was able to get Anna on the phone and we found each other ironically near her old dorm. Later today we are heading to Busch Gardens to go ride some rides and eat some food and just do the general amusement park thing. I actually won't be riding so many rides cause of the whole broken neck thing but I will def. enjoy myself with all the excellent food and shows. Well we are headed to the park now so I will have to finish this later when I get back. I might take pictures there but I haven't really decided yet. Laters.
*****************************************************************************

Ok got back from Busch Gardens and am thoroughly beat. I had a good time just walking around and seeing the sights or is it sites... hmm... well I had fun either way. I obviously didn't ride any of the coasters but I went to all the "scary" haunted stuff. I liked the Sleepless Hollow Manor and the Sea Dog Cemetary.

Grappa - White

2005-09-30T10:53:00.000-05:00

Jtalaiver Logo

Found a cool little toy at eigelb.at which is a website for just neat java apps. I went under the effects and found the Grappa tool. I will just let the result speak for itself. WARNING!! Do not use if you need to be productive cause that joker is so flippin addictive you will just sit there and mess with it to make your own random things. By the way you cant make anything that looks bad on that little bugger, cause it always seems to come out as some kinda sweet modern art. Well I gotta finish some work myself cause I was playing with the Grappa tool myself. Laters...

Nano against iSabelle

2005-09-30T05:10:00.000-05:00

Joes Pix 004
Originally uploaded by jtalaiver.

One of the kids in my class had a nano today. It was very very tiny. It might be that I have a 60gig and so I have the largest iPod in comparison to the tiniest. Truely though it is quite a sweet little device. I have to say I might almost want one if it werent for its limited capacity. But no one else keeps as many songs as I do or have tons of software backed up on their iPod. Hehehe... just check it out

I heard that there is alot of issues with the front face getting scratches and all. I think most people just are attaching too much fashionista attributes to it. I mean of course when it comes out the box it looks gorgeous and in the commercials the Nano looks immaculate. The truth of it is, this is a device that will be at the bottom of your pocket sliding around with all that grit that collects over the course of the day. I mean you can expect it to be perfect for the rest of your life. I think that if you hope to maintain it such a fabulous face on your iPod wrap it up in a cover or case. I know that a similar rule of thumb is applied to my camera lenses. When I go in to purchase a lens I immediately buy a UV filter for that specific lens size and screw it on before I even leave the store, just a rule I live by. The same goes for my iPod and any other digital device. So for all you people out there who are whining about your iPod Nano gettin all scratched up, just keep quiet. After all you are lucky enough to have one of the hottest new gadgets so just be happy with that. I mean if you wanna get rid of it, then feel free to shoot it my way.

Im 0u7

Podcasts...

2005-09-29T09:27:00.000-05:00

I decided to start listening to podcasts again. I forgot how entertaining and how broad the topics can get. Currently I am listening to "Fly With Me" which is a podcast by Joe Dion. It has an interesting viewpoint since Mr. Dion is an employee of a major U.S. airline. He gets to interview pilots, attendants, and even passengers. He had an interesting take on the emergency landing of Jet Blue Flight 292. He has the actual recording of the pilot, Scott Burke, and tower control dicussing their options when the error showed up on the pilot's monitors. Its very surreal how to hear how calm and collected the pilots are even under such a severe emergency situation. Well I gotta take a test here in a bit so I will finish this post later...
**********************************************************************************************
Ok the test was easy as pie... basically a C++ one... no biggie... anyways... back to the podcasts. I was also listening to Tips from the Top Floor and learnt some really neat tricks to play with DOF. In all my years of photog, it was never really explained properly to me how it worked out properly, but the show gave a really good little experiment to learn. Basically, first set your camera to the widest apeture (lowest number) and focus on something about 3 feet away, also have the camera really stationary. Take a shot then adjust the f stop up a notch or two and take another picture. Continue in this pattern till you run out of stops... so from 1.8-22 or so, whichever your camera will let you... When you look at the pictures you will get neat results. Like below:

Courtesy of Wikipedia

Well I am goin to get back to my iSabelle and listen to more podcasts. I downloaded something from FOXCAST about the Simpsons... not sure what it is, but we shall see.

PPC 6700!!

2005-09-21T22:59:00.000-05:00

YAY!!! I found my new PDA/Cell!! I had been looking at the PPC 6600 but the new 6700 has just been released!!

The 6700 has the side slide out qwerty keyboard and the screen goes to landscape when its extended. Dood I just cate wait!! It has so many features I can't list them all but I will list the main ones that make it better than the 6600.

The top picture is the 6600 and the bottom is the 6700... isnt it just so cool!! I cant wait... Now I just gotta pull the cash together for it... well time to call it a night

Bloggin on the WarFront

2005-09-20T20:07:00.000-05:00

I was just flipping through the Sept. 26, 2005 Edition of the Times (yes I still recieve print publication for ol' times sake) and it had an interesting article about how soldiers are using the blogs to journal their lives and give views that would otherwise be unheard or unseen. I decided to check out a couple and it is really moving to read some of them. One in particular that I liked was Ma Deuce Gunner. The soldier posting there is a M2 heavy machine gunner on a HMMWV. His commentaries on the situation over there and his personal view of the war are hopeful to me. I am glad to see such a forward thinking soldier... Well I got things to do but I found a funny editorial to express my feelings about the war and its outcome...

TrueMobile

2005-09-20T00:06:00.000-05:00

Mobile bloggin has taken a new turn for me. I finally updated my iPaq with a Dell TrueMobile card and then also installed Pocket Blogger. So this post is from my iPaq whilst sittig on my couch. Of course one might ask, why all of that when you have a laptop or a desktop somewhere nearby... You got me!! hehe... This is for the utter Geek in me, just wait till I find the parts to my stowable foldable keyboard and I'm punching away on it...

Im 0u7

Transport CD

2005-09-19T22:51:00.000-05:00

CD put out by my friend Daniel and Luke did the graphics...

Shooting w/Luke

2005-09-16T21:13:00.000-05:00

Today Luke and I decided to head out and just shoot for the fun of it. We just lingered through the woods behind my church and took our time. In the end though, I had better results practicing my portrait taking. I find that fellow photographers make really good subjects mainly cause I see myself in them. And Luke... Well Luke is Luke and he's just cool like that. We just hung out and talked about anything. Give us a week though, cause next Friday we hope to head down into the city and just take account of the Friday night life in Richmond. I know a lot of people say that Richmond is a boring and that its just old. Well I feel that the oldness adds its own "charm" and that there are a lot of places that gain from its vintage like feel. So next week I am hoping to have a pretty good series of shots that can boast that characteristic of Richmond. Time to go for me now, I have to drive to Williamsburg and then Norfolk to pick up Anna and my brother accordingly. I hope you like the pictures.

Im ou7

3 Guys in Woodlake 23:15

2005-09-15T15:27:00.000-05:00

Luke & boys fixed

I don't know why I didn't post this sooner. Probably cause I have put it up on my moblog and the Canon Digital Forums. But to adhere to my new policy of posting a picture often here is a shot of (L-R) Luke, Dave, & Vesa. I think its one of the best captures I have ever done in my photo career as of yet. I hope you like it too. Feel free to comment on this one...

The New Look

2005-09-15T09:56:00.000-05:00

I def. like the new look of Fractured View. I have completely embraced my new handle Samurai Joe... I will toy with some more graphics so I can get more creative on some of the side stuff. For the most part I have maintained this blog just cause... but I will get more serious with it now... I have already made some changes to the template and will make little tweaks to other things... in fact I will continue with that now... Be back soon...
=================================================================
Ok I worked on it some... I would do more but I have studying to do. Some of the things I changed are the way posts are made. Now instead of saying "posted by" it says "conveyed by"... just a little thing I liked... I have to admit im copying some things from Luke's page cause he's just cool like that. I will also try to make sure to put more pictures up. After all whats the point of having flickr and all that jazz if I dont use. BTW... anyone out there know how to change the way images get put up so that i can change the border color around the photos? J/W....

5amura1 Jo3

21st Century Samurai

2005-09-14T21:44:00.000-05:00

My good friend Luke took this shot of me one day and I guess he saw something in my oddity that I didnt... either way tonight he rolls up on me wearing a shirt with my face on it... talk about a mind trip... yea this is what he printed on it... I lost it and immediately had to have my own... hehe... so sweet...

Cloud Shots

2005-09-12T21:54:00.000-05:00

Shot this just to capture all the levels of clouds... then shot it later with harsher contrast... see what you think

Posted by Picasa

Cloud Shot #2

2005-09-12T21:53:00.000-05:00

Just a very cool view of the sky the other day... shot at a higher than normal contrast so the effect is really deep texturing almost....

Posted by Picasa

A poem for Anna

2005-09-12T21:43:00.000-05:00

Papillon catcher: where is my love
Papillon catcher: my sweet precious dove
Papillon catcher: shes away from me now
Papillon catcher: and no matter how
Papillon catcher: hard i try to wish her here
Papillon catcher: she cant be near
Papillon catcher: she makes my heart go aflight
Papillon catcher: adn that is just by her sight
Papillon catcher: voice begins to hush
Papillon catcher: face begins to blush
Papillon catcher: beautiful dreamgirl
Papillon catcher: entered my dark world
Papillon catcher: eyes begin to flutter
Papillon catcher: tongues starts to stutter
Papillon catcher: her grace adn countenance
Papillon catcher: no one could be better 'fore or since
Papillon catcher: i thank god everyday
Papillon catcher: for sendign an angel my way
Papillon catcher: a creature so delicate and pure
Papillon catcher: to this boy's sick heart she is the cure
Papillon catcher: forever now joy springs from my chest
Papillon catcher: adn everyday i get closer to her is the best
Papillon catcher: love explodes from my like independance pyrotechnics
Papillon catcher: her beauty is what causes my poetic mechanics
Papillon catcher: one day i hope that she will be my wife
Papillon catcher: adn for the rest of our days be one in life
Papillon catcher: my heart is fused to hers from teh core
Papillon catcher: and i wish i could see her all the more
Papillon catcher: one day my love, one day my sweet
Papillon catcher: we wont ever have to wait again to meet
Papillon catcher: cause we will be together....
Papillon catcher: The End
Papillon catcher: I love you

A Repost:

2005-09-12T13:36:00.000-05:00

In past decades communication was an artform of articulation and diverse vocabulary. A correspondence with some one that was well worded and grammatically correct showed the writer to be a particularily learned person. That eloquence was held in respect and regarded with more gravity than a short provincial note. Use of few words showed lack of intelligence and inability to express oneself. In previous ages, when snail mail and written forms of communication were the standard, individuals had to be very descriptive and articulate because it took time to recieve and send letters. There, however, has been a shift in the current age that is inverse to what you would expected.Currently though communication has never been simpler. With email, instant messaging, and SMS on cell phones; communication has become a continuous stream of information for people to stay connected. With all this simplicity the English language itself has been simplified as well. A VAST array of phrases, words, and even random letters can now express feelings and emotion; instead of large expressive words. Some of the best examples are used so constantly in the instant messaging world that it becomes reflex like to respond with them. Some one tells you something humorous on AIM, IRC, or a chatroom... immediately "lol" or "hehe" shows the person that u share in their appreciation of the humor. Another slight thing that I just did was to type "u" instead of "you" and u the reader probably didnt even realize it because ur used to reading it that way. (Notice the "ur" instead of "your") Another addition to communication is the emoticon. Derived from the word "emotion", and emoticon uses a combination of colons, semicolons, paranthesis, and other characters to give people a face in this digital age where people are just avatars surfing the net.Currently as I can remember: haha, hehe, lol, rofl, lmao, btw, g2g, brb, cuz, no (know)

http://fracturedview.blogspot.com/2005/04/communication-in-21st-century.html

C++ Programming

2005-09-08T11:48:00.000-05:00

int sum(int x,int y);
int main(){
int a=3;
int b=4;
int c;
c=sum(a,b);
cout<<"sum(a,b)="<<<>

int sum(int a, int b){
int sum
sum=a+b
a=4;
b=5;
return sum;
}

#include
#include
using namespace std;
int diff(int e,int f);
int main(){
int e;
int f;
cout<<"Enter first number: ";
cin>>e;
cout<<"Enter second number: ";
cin>>f;
int g;
g=diff(e,f);
cout<<"The product is "<<>
cout<<>
system("PAUSE");
return 0;
}
int diff(int e, int f)
{
int dif;
dif=e*f;
return dif;
}

http://two.flash-gear.com/draw/drw.php?id=131795&a=139524404&c=820879855

Canon XT

2005-09-06T20:57:00.000-05:00

Such a wonderful camera... I have to admit this is by far the best camera I have ever purchased... I wish I could say this is my last camera ever... but I got a pretty good feeling that I will buy another one at some point... but the XT will always be my first D-SLR

C++ Programming

2005-09-06T11:38:00.000-05:00

char a = 'G'; this is if you want to store only one character

char name[20]; this will store an array that has 20 spaces in it so you can save something like 'Richmond' so maybe call the array

char city[10]='Richmond' since there is a blank space in the array cause richmond doesnt take all 10 then the last space will have a null character. So really in an array of 20 there is only space for 19 cause the last place will be occupied by a null character.

int a;
a = 10;
a = 40;

thats how you declare and assign and update wiht a simple variable
for a string to be assigned there needs to be an array declared first...

char name[20];
name='Richmond'; you cant just put after...

char name[20]='Richmond'; this si the correct way of assigning a string to a array

OR you can use a cin to complet the assign

char city[20];
cout<<"type your city";
cin>>city;

cout<

/* sets off multiple lines off as a comment */

// will set just a single line off as a comment...

2^64-1 is the current limit of the integer and if you need to go beyond that use a different data type

Escape character - a character that the compiler has set for a special purpose

\n - New line
\t - Horizontal tab
\b - Backspace
\r - Carriage Return
\a - makes a beep noise out of the machine...

Mobloggin...

2005-09-01T14:28:00.000-05:00

I just signed up for mobile blogging so this is a test later i will get my picture mail working and i can do that as well...

C++ Day two

2005-09-01T12:43:00.000-05:00

Learned about cin>> today.... came late so I will have to just go off of the code i wrote...

1) integer computation = variables go in are integers out put will be integers
2) assign a value to a variable X=Y means Y will be set to the X place works left to right
3) CIN

2005-08-31T22:46:00.000-05:00

Shari's HUGE bass... hehe

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2005-08-30T21:01:00.001-05:00

Me & my boo right before she left for college for his fall...

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2005-08-30T21:01:00.000-05:00

Anna doesnt think shes a good photographer... I just think that her model (me) is the one that messes the pictures up...

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2005-08-30T21:00:00.001-05:00

This wierdo is blocking the sunrise... oh thats me... hehe

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