If our world was... just like a human, would we abuse it so?
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I finally managed to get my hair cut the other day.
I enjoy the less encumbered feel of having all that fuzz lopped off the top of my head, and even enjoy cooler body temperatures during the day as a result.
I just don’t quite feel right, though, since I practically look bald now, and have more hair growing along my jawline and over my chin than I have over the entire top of my head.
It’ll grow out, though, so I won’t complain.
Much.
If anyone actually reads this regularly, they might have noticed the utter lack of posting for the second half of August. It’s not normal, at least since last year, for me to do that. I decided today to sit down and just blog before work, since it might help.
Right now, I’m depressed about a lot of things. I have that feeling I used to have when I was living with my aunt, trying to figure out how I’m going to pay my bills month to month with her. I decided early this month that I was going to try to clear up my student loan from when I went to a school that doesn’t even deserve a mention, given the way they treated me.
To start paying off the loan, I had to pay an initial lump of $500, according to them, and then pay $50 a month after that. The tradeoff is, as long as I keep paying on time, I get my Title IV eligibility back during the payback period. That makes me eligible for federal grants again, which is wonderful. Problem was, $500 basically eats my savings, since I’ve had extra expenses this month.
I feel… violated, heh.
But, if it means that I can clean up my credit record, then great. I’ll get it done, period.
Right now, I am giving serious thought to continuing my education. I’m tired of being buggered out of potential jobs by not having a piece of paper that says, “Justin is now certified on paper as knowing this”. While I understand their wants, I also have to mention that this just drives me mad, because of the amount of money that I could have been earning, but can’t due to that exact lack of paper.
I spoke with a counselor from University of Phoenix today to see what I can do to enhance my chances.
I just need to find out about this defaulted student loan they say I have, so I can get my Title IV status back.
(I also need to see why WordPress keeps holding my entries instead of posting them…)
Hooray, I can see again!
Wal-Mart called me yesterday to tell me that my glasses came in. I did not get the voice mail, much less any notice by my phone, so I found out when I checked my own voice mail today.
I need to see if my FSA will reimburse me for the cost of the glasses, since I had to pay for them out of my pocket after insurance coverage.
So, just before our bus driver could take off to cross the street today, a car slams into another one, and comes to a stop in front of our bus.
This held us up at this corner for about 31 minutes or so, while we waited for crews to clear the scene, and for the driver to get permission to take off.
Of course, this cost me precious time in getting to work, since I usually arrive early enough to go get something to eat. That didn’t happen today, so I’m still hungry, but now I’m too angry to eat.
I recently caved in and signed up with another one of those social networking sites. This one would be Facebook.
For some reason, when I started using Facebook, toying with its features, and figuring out how to get it to work, I started to understand why people actually USE these social networks. It provides people with a convenient, easy way to reach someone, no matter how much their email address changes, and no matter how far they move. Phone number’s changed? Update your account so your friends will know!
The other networks I’ve tried — The now spam-riddled Orkut, and the utter mess that is MySpace — don’t really relate that kind of ideal to users very well. They just seem to emphasize the wrong parts of a social network, and basically have caved in on themselves. Orkut’s just a dead star, but MySpace is more like a black hole, sucking more and more people in to its nigh-inescapable depths.
When I signed up for Facebook with the sole intent of adding Robert Scoble, I was thinking, “Meh, something else to abandon and never visit again.”
I tried out the system there, searching for old classmates, checking out these Facebook Applications, and other things. I found that it was easy to use, and rather intuitive. I then found Facebook Mobile. Facebook Mobile lets me actually keep up with people via text messages. In fact, I’m keeping up with a former coworker via Facebook now because it’s easy to do — I get a text message letting me know he’s said something, and I can reply immediately to that text message.
Even better is that I can use Facebook Applications to add things to one spot. Since I use Flickr, Last.fm, and Twitter, I can use apps to integrate my data in the same spot, making my Facebook page a hub for activity.
One of these days, I’ll keep up with the lot of you all, with your social networks, and stuff. 
Do feel free to find me on Facebook as Justin Hobley. Tell me who you are, and I’ll add you.
[tags]Facebook, Social Networking, MySpace[/tags]
I have to leave for work in six hours. I can’t seem to sleep.
Instead, I’ve Rickrolled, Tayrolled, sought out lulz over the internet, Looked at my Nintendo DS, PLAYED my Nintendo DS, and still can’t get over sleep hill here.
I’m tempted to get up and go eat some spaghetti, since I never did eat my dinner when I came in, opting for a lighter bowl of cereal to try to get by on.
I’d like some barbecue ribs at the moment, though. I miss having mom and dad’s barbecue a lot right now. 
It’s just not the same going to a chain restaurant, where they ‘barbecue’ ribs and serve ‘em, after being used to putting the meat on the grill, watching it sizzle and burn.
Why do I like the taste of burnt flesh, anyway?
Maybe because it soothes something in me?
I’m an anti-vegetarian’s best friend — gimme a medium rare steak. 
I eat the weirdest things for breakfast sometimes.
While you all are eating eggs, sausage, and grits, I’m eating Yan Yan and drinking lychee juice, which is far more delicious than you. :9
Unfortunately, Yan Yan usually gives me heartburn, which is odd for a cookie which can be dipped in frosting. Speaking of the cookies, I’ve been buying Yan Yan latelyl just to see if I can get a specific cookie out of the bunch. Until then, be happy with the “Fox — Beware of Lies” cookie.
Things have been going slower than I expected them to go up here, and it’s mostly my fault.
Lately, I’ve spent far too much money on things that aren’t absolutely necessary, and I’ve had to swallow the temptation to do it yet again, and in a larger amount. Right now, I’m about a month behind on what I wanted to have saved up, because I’ve been taking Voluntary Time Off at work, plus, I’ve been buying my own food for the most part, trying to keep my weight under control (AND FAILING).
It looks like I’ll have to bump my estimate of six months up to around nine months, because I was living in the late 90’s in my head. So far off on pricing, it’s scary as hell, to be truthful.
Ah, well. By that new standard, I’m nearly on schedule again.
As I’m sure it’s been noticed, I don’t blog much lately.
It’s not that I don’t really want to, as much as it is that nothing interesting happens to me. I generally won’t blog if I can’t talk about something that DOES interest me. Given that my life has been one hundred percent dull and boring over the past few weeks, you can pretty much see that this entry alone is taking some kind of effort.
Very little is new in my life. I know that I need to lose weight, since I’m still hovering around the same spot. My insurance from work just kicked in, so I think I’ll see about getting my thyroid checked next week (as soon as I can find a doctor that’s close by), and probably check in with a nutritionist. I’d like to be under the 300 pound mark by the end of the year. Given that it’s only a goal of roughly 20 pounds, I do think I can reach that mark in the six months I am allotting myself.
I may want to consider prescription diet medicines, as well. Since my aunt could take a lot of weight off with her silly pills and no real exercise regime, I could do it too, with a far lower dosage pill, I’d wager. I just know that I weigh way too freakin’ much, and it bothers me.
We’ll see how it goes over the next few months, I guess.
Yesterday, while hanging out with some of my dorm mates who enjoy WWE Wrestling, I heard that Chris Benoit, his wife, and his child were found dead, but with no details.
Being that I had my laptop on me at the time, they all asked me if I can try to get them some more information about what happened. Unfortunately, despite drawing and summoning all of my resources, and even using the Wikipedia booster gave me almost nil, other than confirming that it was not another angle for the show like Vince McMahon’s ‘death’. That was one thing they wanted to know. The information about how it all went down wasn’t available to the public at that time, so unfortunately, they wouldn’t know.
Fast forward to today. I come in to work, and accept a couple of hours of VTO. I check TMZ.com to see if they had any information about Benoit’s death, and was surprised at the article they had published. Lately, at least to me, there’s been a lot of murder-suicide cases, with someone slaughtering the whole family that’s on hand, and then offing themselves so they don’t have to account directly to us as humans for their sins, their crimes, and their transgressions.
This is, perhaps, a bit too disturbing, how people just think like this.
I know what it’s like to want to die, but, I guess I don’t understand why someone feels they must also off family members that are dear to them at the same time. It makes little to no sense whatsoever. I’m just wondering if anyone, be they a star, or maybe sub-par, will ever logically say to themselves, “Oh man, I’m in too deep. Let me talk to someone before I drown myself in this problem.”
I was just wondering, is all.
[tags]Chris Benoit, WWE, Wrestling, Death, Murder, Suicide[/tags]
On Friday, while I was about to get ready to go to work, one of our shelter’s social workers comes into my dorm.
He’s walking down the row, knocking on the walls to see if anyone’s in their room, and if they respond, they are subject to an impromptu search of their posessions, to check for contraband.
I found a delightful amount of humor in part of the list that is considered contraband. Some of the items we are not allowed to have up here are pornography, alcohol, narcotics, weaponry, and (get this) ’adult toys’. In fact, someone was removed from the program earlier in the week, on an unrelated issue, and when they went to clean up what he left, they found several phallic adult toys up here. This, in turn, sparked the dorm by dorm content check to see if they can spot the objects.
There have been many males discharged from the program in the last few weeks, and honestly, I assume they deserved it for whatever reason they were discharged. After all, it was made clear to me that when I came up here, this was a religious organization, so I pretty much assumed that, of course, things like pornography and drugs, or even alcohol would not be allowed up here. I also assumed that for a program that has 42 men living together under the same roof would have no room for weapons.
I am, given my nature, of two minds about the adult toys. Some of them serve a specific purpose, and would be a more viable alternative than intercourse with an unknown person, so I’d side with the owner of the toys. However, I can see where those who follow the Holy Bible strictly would be offended by the presence of these things, and thus I can see where they are coming from as well, and would side with them just as evenly.
I think the rest of my humor about this comes from just how this social worker pronounces the plural form of ’dildo’. I think it sounds like a combination of ’dildo’ and ’Thor’ (link removed to keep you all sane, haha).
I’ll just sit back and wait for the next ’dildor search’. 
I was feeling festive or something yesterday, so I wore a Hawaiian print shirt to work.
Too bad I don’t look so festive in that picture — I was ready to go to lunch, I think. Stomach was probably growling or something.
Not to be confused with lions (Jesus Christ, Get in the Car), the hurricane season has roared into place today.
With that roar comes our second named storm of the year, Tropical Storm Barry (not to be confused with rumbly Barry White).
It looks like we’re going to have a rather active year this year at this rate, with this storm just hanging out in the Gulf of Mexico, deciding which way it wants to go.
Being homeless this year, I think I might be ever so slightly worried about how this will go. Will I actually need to evacuate? How’s my stuff doing over in that storage unit near Carrollwood?
We’ll see how this season goes…
Sometimes, I don’t want to see things, like people drinking beer on the bus, and no one else giving a rat’s ass about the idea.
Sometimes, I don’t want to say things, like a comment to some jackass who’s got the whole seat to himself and his bag, while the rest of the bus is sharing seats. I can stand until someone gets off, though it hurts my knee when the driver hits bumps.
Sometimes I don’t want to hear things, such as your top-of-your-lungs conversation on your MetroPCS phone about how “NO HE DI’INT”, or whatever it is you crazy black women keep talking about AT THE BACK OF THE BUS while I’m AT THE FRONT OF THE BUS, and easily able to keep track of your conversation through my isolating headphones.
I think this picture personifies my thoughs perfectly.
I seem to be dieting in a sense as of late.
I’m avoiding sodas most of the time, simply because of the high fructose corn syrup. It seems to leave some sort of awkward aftertaste in your mouth when you drink, and you end up drinking more of something to try to keep the aftertaste away.
When I did a little shopping on Sunday to have things to eat this week, between work and home, I was checking labels to see what all had high fructose corn syrup in it. I was annoyed to find that the bagels and most bread products that you see in the freezer section generally have HFCS in them.
(Before it starts, know now that I don’t care what they say at HFCSFacts, because I don’t believe them, frankly.)
I’d like to find more products that lack the high fructose corn syrup, simply because they taste much better (most of them lack that excessive sweetness that bothers me as of late), and are more fulfilling overall. I have slowly weaned myself off the massive amounts of soda I used to drink, in favor of teas sweetened with sugar or honey, sodas sweetened with things other than HFCS (eg: Ramune), or just drinking water. I’m also weaning myself off [tag]Gatorade[/tag] and [tag]Powerade[/tag], because the bottled versions contain [tag]HFCS[/tag], and the powder unfortunately hoses my stomach if I drink more than a quart of it per day at normal strength.
I hear that [tag]Jones Soda[/tag]’s gone with the [tag]Pure Cane Sugar[/tag] flow, so I should pick some up. In the meantime, I’m going over to the Oceanic Supermarket to get some Ramune (which I used to wean myself off the 64 ounce sodas).
Well, I’ve been playing with my phone too much lately.
I’ve found that the TV channels on Sprint aren’t too bad, but the [adult swim] channel was miserable, at best. That channel leaves much to be desired, because it’s not showing any shows, but instead is showing 30 second to 1 minute shorts of content that can be watched on a television. To spend $4 a month on this would be an insult to me, really. (However, the $5 I’ve spent on the ATAKU channel was soooo worth it. Evangelion, hoooo~)
The software is a mixed bag, though.
AOL Instant Messenger’s not worth paying for on this phone:
The menus for the application are inconsistent — too much hunting around to get things done. There’s not enough visual cues in the software — I have to keep looking around to see if I’m in the text box.
The settings for the program are non-existent. I can’t tell the bloody thing to turn off the vibrator when it’s receiving a message. This causes the battery to drain faster than any other application on this phone (it’s actually neck and neck with watching Sprint TV).
The paid games on Sprint are mediocre, really, but they could be worse.
I’ve also spent some time looking at other sites, such as Zedge, GameJump, and Cellufun.
I’m finding free games to play for my phone, which are ad supported, but the ads’re not too bad.
Ah, time to go to work.
I’m only a few blocks outside of downtown Tampa, and for the past few days, the sky’s been really, really smoky.
Unfortunately, that smoke is taking its toll on many people in the area, especially those of us with sinus problems.
It’s just about shut me down for the day. I actually called in to work for the day off, and also went to go get looked at for an unrelated issue.
Hooray, Carpal Tunnel!
A Tampa Police Department helicopter, preparing for take-off.
This helicopter was on the ground at the Islamic Charity Event at Riverfront Park here in Tampa, not too far from the Public Library.
As the helicopter geared up for take-off between my shots, I had this sudden urge tell me to walk behind a tree that was only a few feet away.
Surely enough, only a few moments later, that helicopter went to full power as it took off, causing a rather strong, sudden gust of wind, dirt, leaves, and grass clippings to shower those of us who hadn’t taken that moment to get behind a tree.
All over downtown Tampa, messages like this are scrawled all over the walls.
I’ve seen expressions such as “Respect for Respect”, “Love One Another”, and a few others here and there. They look like they were all done by the same person, though I’m not certain.
I chose this one, because it was the deepest of the group, with the message about being the most wanted for loving others.
The fence surrounding this building is to keep the homeless from
sleeping near the bus station here in Downtown Tampa, but something in my head tells me that it doesn’t matter.
A random topic for a random post, or so it would seem.
I’ve spent my days at work playing Nowhere Else and Beyond, simply because I’m waiting on phone calls to come in. All I do when I’m not bothering with quests, is farm for ingots of raw material. The ingots I farm for get sold to someone for large chunks of in-game gold, which makes me happy as a clam.
I use that gold to buy better equipment and spells so that I can go longer in my quest for thousands upon thousands of ingots. By thousands and thousands, I do mean that I farmed up 2050+ Iron ingots alone yesterday. I don’t even remember the gold or platinum count, and I know that I need to switch dungeons to farm up any mythril. It’ll happen eventually. I’m even playing the mini-game that deals with running a mining rig, and I’ve got 5th or 6th place for everything, on average.
What saddens me is that I’m basically being paid to play games while waiting for phone calls. I sort of feel like I’m one of those Chinese Gold Farmers we joke about in most MMORPGs. 
I actually hope for more phone calls today, and I hope they’re the short kind. A whole mess of 10 minute calls would do wonders for me. I mean, back to back to back to back 10 minute calls.
So, here I am, at the Public Library, wishing I had a cheap old laptop of my own and one of those wireless cards for it to use.
I’d like to be able to spend time talking with my friends online, but yeah, it’s annoying to do it from my phone (not to mention very difficult, thanks to T9), and also is impossible to multi-task on the phone. I’m used to talking to several people in one go, and on different services.
Some friends use AOL IM. Others use ICQ. Still others use Yahoo! Messenger or MSN, or Google Talk, or…
Then there are my friends on IRC.
I really just want to find a very cheap laptop, so I can actually have something to do on Sundays.
That has to come later, though. :-/
I remember when I first got an internet connection at home.
I paid for it almost in its entirety, from the phone line, to the dial-up package, and the computer itself. The family only helped me out in getting a monitor for that computer, and that was fairly cheap.
I discovered sites like Riffage.com, which would offer a free MP3 CD with much of their music on it to anyone who asked. The music was generally from independent artists, but I liked being able to try out all sorts of different music, to see what I liked.
Shortly after my dad died in 2000, and my aunt moved in, she brought the wonder that is called Cable television. With the cable line, we could also apply for high speed Cable internet. So I wheedled my way into talking her into that. Once I got that high speed connection (and a new computer, since the first one was dated), I started hearing about Napster (again).
I had heard of it while I was on dial-up, but it wasn’t really usable then. I tried getting songs, but it would take an hour or so for a single song to download. That was the beginning of my piracy days.
I gave up for a while in 2000, and in early 2001, when I got on high speed, I jumped on board the Napster train again. Shortly after I jumped on with the [tag]Napster[/tag] train again, it was being killed by the courts. [tag]OpenNap[/tag] was born, I was on board, and it was still going off and on.
I started discovering other ways to download music, to start absorbing more and more illegal music, such as [tag]Piolet[/tag], [tag]KaZaA[/tag], [tag]Morpheus[/tag], and numerous other programs and methods. I did it to feed my hunger for all sorts of new music at an ‘unbeatable price’. I hated the idea of buying a CD then, because I’d buy one, and only like two songs on a 15 song CD, but spend $15 or $20 to buy the disc.
I would fill my hard drive with pirated music, burn an MP3 CD for myself as a way to back it up, and delete that from the hard drive. Then I’d keep downloading. I’d end up with 15, 20, 40 copies of the same song with different tags (which became annoying to me when I switched over to Foobar2000 as a media player, and even more so when I started using [tag]AudioScrobbler[/tag] (now [tag]Last.FM[/tag]) at the end of ‘03, but I’m ahead of myself by a little here).
I didn’t care about the fact that the [tag]RIAA[/tag] wanted people like me to stop pirating then.
I was more upset that people couldn’t use proper tags on their music, and properly attribute their music to the original source.
This, as well as my shipping out to Job Corps at the end of 2002 began my downhill descent from my music piracy high.
When I got out of Job Corps, and got back onto a full connection, I was annoyed that a lot of my old haunts were either no more, or of low quality, or were infested with crap.
So, I started looking into legal ways to buy music.
iTunes was fresh on the block, and Pepsi was running a heavy promotion with them at the time, offering free downloads under most bottle caps.
I was [tag]downloading music[/tag], legally, and happily, and even buying the stuff when I was out of freebies…
And then I met [tag]Digital Rights Management[/tag] ([tag]DRM[/tag]).
I almost wanted to pirate again when I first ran into it, thinking that it’s wrong to be told just what I can listen to my music in or on. Then I found out about various methods to circumvent this ‘protection’ scheme on Windows, and well, I went back to buying my music, but without that layer of nagging permissions.
What annoyed me initially was the fact that though I paid for the music, I couldn’t listen to it in [tag]Foobar2000[/tag]. To listen to the music, I had to stay within the [tag]iTunes[/tag] app, even after paying money for music, just to listen to a few good songs.
What kind of sense did that make? I mean, gee, I paid for it. I wanted to listen to it, along with some of the legit free music I’d found, on an [tag]MP3 CD[/tag] while I was out and about. That wasn’t going to happen.
I eventually heard about AllOfMP3, and tried it out. For a while, I was fooling myself, saying “Well, gee, I’m paying for the music, though under another country’s laws, so I guess these artists are being paid like they’re supposed to.”
I bought much music with AllOfMP3, as well as having discovered worlds of music, sometimes remixed that was given away for free to anyone who came by to request the download.
Eventually, my credits on [tag]AllOfMP3[/tag] dried up as they started blocking payments from the USA, so I let that go with a wet flop.
Then, thanks to PayPerPost, I heard about a site called Amie Street, and fell in love with it.
The music’s got a great price tag on it (inexpensive, but legal, and from anyone trying to get their foot in the door, so to speak), and I’ve found a few pretty good artists there.
That, combined with my listening to [tag]Jamendo[/tag], [tag]Pandora[/tag], [tag]SomaFM[/tag], and [tag]OverClocked Remix[/tag]es, plus a few purchases from Sprint’s Music Store are what comprise my music listening points now.
Imagine my annoyance when I get an email that shows how our government, and how the music industry continues to squat on the faces of people who want to legally listen to music!
I spent two days composing my thoughts here, just to get you over to Save Net Radio. I’d appreciate it if you head over there, and help us save something that keeps me legal.
Thanks.
Just so you know, I have a room at the Salvation Army now. Here’s how it looks:
[video]http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=269143075376570007[/video]
My Room, if the above doesn’t show a video.
Enjoy.
I’m off to work now.
It’s being one of those nights at work. I also have a miserable headache that’s being a miserable nuisance. 3 hours left…
I almost want to go home early, but I need the money badly enough.
I just hope I can get my handle time back down to something reasonable. I’m just a little off from happiness at the end of the month, so I have to try harder.
Well, I’ve been with AOL since mid-March this year, and I’ve had to use the AOL services, software, etc. since I started there.
After using it for a bit, I’ve become acclimatized to it, and might even risk saying that “I like it”.
I’m liking the beta version of Webmail for AOL, since it actually seems to work, and makes sense. It’s got a bit of AJAX to it, but not enough to turn me off from it. It responds nicely to Firefox, and, well, it’s got a leg up on GMail at times, I must say.
If that 28/7 timer that we use could be changed, I’d be happier, but even then, that’s fine, and it makes sense: If you didn’t bother to save an email within a week after opening it, it’s not likely that you needed it for anything.
The AOL 9.0 software itself, I may never get used to, but I can try to, at least. I’m used to tabs, rather than a multiple document interface, but some people like their MDI more.
I’ve had to grow a tolerance for Internet Explorer as well, since I started, simply because most users are not aware of browsers other than IE.
I’ll never love it, but it can exist for now.
For those of you who are keeping track of my roadmap posted a little while back, you may have noticed one or two ‘complete’ flags listed.
I’ve gone and done a full update on that map to bring it up to speed here, so that you can see where I’ve gone, and where I’m going to go from there. Once I get the stability portion handled, then I can add other things that I feel that I need to get done to the list.
Right now, biggest priority is to get a vehicle, to make it easier to get to and from work.
I’m currently paying a coworker to get me back and forth on four days of the week, leaving me to my own devices on Mondays (usually a taxi).
When my schedule rotates next month, leaving me off on Sundays and Mondays, it may become easier with a bicycle, which I intend to purchase soon (unless I can find a car with what I *do* have saved).
I just need to see how this will pan out.
I think I should go see the doctor in the morning about the headaches I have at work, and see if he can recommend the replacement of my monitor, a CRT, with a flat screen display.
I can see this one refreshing like mad, and it makes my eyes want to bleed with the level of pain I’m subjected to at the moment. It’s pretty darned annoying, too.
Good thing I can type with my eyes closed, though. I’m pretty much blogging blind at the moment, in order to give my eyes some relief between calls.
I should also ask about the carpal tunnel and an ergo keyboard note, but right now, the headaches are more major.
Okay! Just to give you an idea of how I’m planning to handle the next six months, I’d like to present to you my mental roadmap. It is open for interpretation, suggestions, and the like.
I’m going to post this list for now, and show you where I’d like this to go.
Anything I’ve missed? Any suggestions?
(slight update: direct deposit is very go. car is current goal.)
i r ded
… or at least, that’s how I feel right now.
Struggling to figure out how I’m going to get a place to sleep tonight, since I work that funky 15:30 to 0:30 schedule.
I’m not sure what’s going on right now.
I am just hanging onto it for dear life, though.
Well, Today marks my fourth full day on the phones at work, and while I was in the middle of a call, one of the assistants stops by my cube, and says “Justin, sign this.”
Apparently, I have officially passed training, and am therefore officially accepted as an agent on the floor.
Now all I have to do is make sure of how I’m going to manage going to and from work next week, since I work an inverted schedule: 15:30 to 0:30.
I was reading my morning news on Yahoo!, and I saw this one article about Hyundai’s concept car, and the plastic skin she wears.
Looking at the pictures, I could seriously see myself driving one of those, if I were able to afford it. I love how she sits so high off the ground, and that smooth, wrapped-around look that she offers.
If not that one, then I could at least go for a Smart, which is a very, very compact car. Who needs a driveway for that thing? Park it in your closet! (Well, not quite, but close. :P)
[tags]Hyundai, QarmaQ, DaimlerChrysler, Smart[/tags]
Seems the Internet is full of jokes today.
Here’s just a couple.
Say this one out loud, at your own peril.
\
This one rather accurately sums up how the site is run.
I finallly decided on changing the name of this weblog, as my birthday nears (that’d be tomorrow for those of you in my time zone, or at least still on 31 March 2007), for a few good reasons.
It’s been an interesting half-decade here, with Eau Salée Lunaire as my blog’s name, but this is more of a “get back to the roots” movement for me.
The content’s not going much of anywhere, and hopefully, neither will I.
Happy Birthday to me, and welcome to my weblog.
Well, today is the last day of our training in the classroom.
On Monday, we will be moved out onto the phone system once and for proper, in our endeavor to assist the members of America Online^W^W AOL with their AOL Software issues.
I expect to get a lot of people who don’t quite understand that AOL isn’t responsible for things such as their cat being lost, or Windows managing to issue them a Blue Screen of Death™ because they moved their mouse, or their beloved World of Warcraft account having all of its stuff looted by a skr1pt k1dd13 (lolol!!!!!1!!1!1).
I expect to be able to direct these members to the appropriate forms of assistance (Local Animal Services, Local Computer Technician, Microsoft, Blizzard, whatever it may be).
As for the ones who have actual issues with AOL, I expect to be able to help them to the best of my ability.
I’m actually ever so slightly nervous about this.
For some odd reason, I decided to sign up for a Twitter account yesterday.
You may find me on Twitter as Xial.
I’m trying to find a working mobile client that I can actually run on my phone, and can actually log in to tweet from.
That would improve my perception of Twitter immensely.
I’ve tried TinyTwitter, and unfortunately, I can’t get the client to accept my credentials, no matter what I do.
The best part about Twitter is, it gives me an appropriate place to fire off my random, short content (140 characters or less — one text message).
Check it out.
Tomorrow begins week three at Stream, and I’m actually feeling eager to go in and work. Between that, and some stuff I’ve seen on CraigsList, as well as the bulletin board at work, I’m beginning to feel rather optimistic about getting back onto my feet.
I’m going to have to wait a little, to see my paycheck, because I would rather know what it will be, so I can make offers, but I know I also want to get into a place that gives me a smooth curve to work with.
$500 a month wouldn’t be bad to pay at all, if it includes utilities. I suspect that not only can I afford that once I start getting paid regularly, but I can also get myself back onto my feet fairly quickly.
Just wish me a little more luck, and let’s see what happens.
Just a short entry to let those of you reading me from anywhere on the internet about a few new features added either to this blog, or done around the entire domain.
I’ve been surprisingly productive on my own website, despite the fact that I don’t have a permanent connection to the internet. I guess it’s because I know I only get so much time (I’m racing a clock of two minutes right now, for example) to get things done, and get back to the Salvation Army in time, so I work harder and faster, to do things better, and it makes me stronger.
Anyhow, explore around, and feel free to email me if something happens to be wrong on this site. See the About the Author page for contact data.
I almost forgot that my birthday is almost upon me.
That is going to be one sorely depressing Sunday, man. April 1st just HAD to fall on a Sunday, right?
What makes that so bad is, on Sundays, we must take all of our stuff out of the Salvation Army, with us.
I just really need to get my butt into Transitional Housing as quickly as possible, right?
I survived my first week of work, though training has been a relatively harsh mistress to me.
Because I must be at my bus stop by 5:01 am each day, I’m up by 4 in the morning.
I get to work just before 6, eat breakfast, and sit through hours of training material, pretending to not be bored out of my mind by the constant reviewing of it, starting at 7 in the morning. Being a kinetic learner, I learn better by doing something after being shown a few times. This is a bit slower for me to pick up, as a result.
I also know that I must reel in what knowledge I already have, and try to adapt to using their tools, rather than suddenly blurting something like, “Download Spybot S&D, then run that. You need to do this, because you’re loaded with spyware.”
When we leave at about 3:55 pm or so, I have to get to the bus stop as quickly as possible, only to wait, since the 4:01 pm bus never seems to come on time.
So, if I skip the library and the store, I get to the Salvation Army lodging at about 5 pm. Else, I get in about 7 pm.
I just need to make it through the next three weeks.
Tomorrow, I guess I’ll go to the store, and get myself some of the imported Red Bull with my plasma money. I want to see if the import tastes any better, since I can’t get my hands on my Bawls.
I know I can do this job, but I just need to actually try to do it.
Finally, a public note to a specific reader:
Alvein, thanks.
More to come later.
I completely forgot that time changed last night. For those of you running Windows 2000, without a patch, your time probably did not change like it should. So, remember: Spring, forward (Fall, back).
I’ve always had this thing for crafts done by hand, beyond someone smearing colors on a piece of canvas, or someone else with an unbelievably expensive camera snapping images.
When I was very young, one of my older aunts (now deceased, sadly) had, instead of photos or paintings on her walls, wrought iron wall art. I would sit in a chair in her living room, just eying these pieces, letting my eyes follow the intricate shapes that the bent metal bore, because they were just interesting in their own right.
Wrought Iron goes very well on solid colored walls, to break up the monotony of that wall’s appearance. It also stands to be a conversation piece of its own right, as people — family, friends, and guests alike — might ask you where you found such beautiful craftsmanship.
I hope to have something like the Salinas Wrought Iron Candle Holder, once I get an apartment of my own. It would go great with my habit of using aromatic candles, thus bringing a little functionality into an otherwise purely artistic wall hanging.
[tags]Wrought Iron, Wall Art, Metal Crafting, Home Decoration[/tags]
Photo: Ashley Drive at Cass Street, as seen from the North-West corner, Tampa, FL.
Map: Provided by Google Maps
This intersection is the absolute bane of those of us who commute on foot here in Tampa, FL.
Ashley St. (left) is a two way street, with southbound traffic coming freshly off the Interstate only a block north of this crossing.
Cass St. (right) is a one way street, just entering downtown Tampa.
Ashley, going southbound, has four lanes going straight across, and a single turn lane. The northbound half of the street has two lanes going normally, and a turn lane that starts a block earlier.
Cass Street has four lanes, with one of them dedicated to turning left, and one other a split left-straight lane.
The issue with this is,
When you try to cross Ashley Street on foot, using the pedestrian signals, and you’re headed East, it’s nearly impossible to do, because of two things:
Heading West is only marginally better, as you get the chance to get across the street a little early, due to slower traffic headed North, combined with entering the crosswalk early, before the Walk signal is illuminated.
The entire street needs improvement with its walk signals, but this spot is most relevant to me since I cross here, or a block north, to go to the Public Library.
Argh, indeed.
Lately, thanks to numerous changes to the PayPerPost system, I’ve seen more opportunities that pay a hefty reward to the lucky user(s) that get to take the opportunities. There are fewer of the four dollar opportunities in the system as a result, and many more well-paying posts to go on many blogs now.
I was a little frustrated with the system just a couple of months ago, because there was such a heavy flood of payday loan and mortgage assistance opportunities, which I have no experience that applies to either one. They just wouldn’t fit in with this blog, and thus, I couldn’t take them.
Now that posties (that is, we, the bloggers of the PayPerPost system) are required to disclose their relationships (something they should’ve been doing a long time ago, like I have been doing ;)), and now that there are more businesses with opportunities that I (and perhaps many others) can feel comfortable with, there are more rewards in the system that we do not have to fight with our conscience over. I can feel clean in taking opportunities once more.
I just can’t seem to write about things I’m not happy with, or have no knowledge about, so why should I waste someone’s time in glossing over a possible entry?
[tags]PayPerPost, Big Money, Quality Posts[/tags]
This message is for Ted Murphy.
Your shirt is…
Too accurate, haha.
I looked fat this morning in that picture (accursed light getting in the way), and I was wearing one of my PayPerPost shirts.
Result: I feel self-conscious about my size.
[tags]PayPerPost, Spreadin’ Like Peanut Butter[/tags]
So, I’ve run Project Wonderful’s ad boxes for a couple of months now.
I went to look at my balance, and I see that I’ve earned fifty cents.
I’m not displeased whatsoever by this, simply because I have been host to some ads for products I would buy (if I had money), and to a couple of web comics that I’ve just about completely read from end to end (Spiky-Haired Dragon, Worthless Knight, and The Book of Biff, to be specific, and offer a free plug, at that).
What I am displeased by is the colossal lack of respect for web standards these ad blocks present on my ‘blog, and are almost singlehandedly responsible for my inability to validate my ‘blog with the [tag]W3C[/tag] Validator.
I think that in a week’s time, I’ll have to sadly part with the [tag]Project Wonderful[/tag] ad blocks on my blog, simply because it’s spring cleaning time, and I’m cleaning up the code house, so to speak.
There are other things that irk me, and they’ll be prodded upon, as well.
I haven’t blogged about lunch last week, simply because I forgot to take a picture.
Perhaps next time.
Apparently, someone managed to get their nose in where it doesn’t belong on the WordPress servers, and exploit the WordPress 2.1.1 download.
If you’ve downloaded WP 2.1.1 in the past few days FROM THE WEBSITE, you MUST upgrade, to avoid these exploits.
If you use Fantastico!, or any of those other installer packages, make sure you’re not using 2.1.1. If you are, upgrade to be safe.
Those of you using Subversion to upgrade and maintain your WordPress installs, you should be fine.
Feel free to read the article for more detail.
1: I am now employed by Stream, providing the function of America Online Technical Support, Entry Level.
2: Homeless Recovery is now footing the bill for me to stay at the Salvation Army, while I earn my first paycheck.
3: Homeless Recovery is offering me assistance with paying for my first month’s rent.
4: Homeless Recovery has set me up with health insurance, so I can finally go see a doctor about my throat, my knee, and my spine, at no cost to me. Medicines will cost me $1.
5: I’ve had my food stamps for a week now, so I don’t have to spend cash for most food.
6: I have a one month bus pass, so I do not have to keep paying $3.25 for the bus each morning.
Almost un-homeless now.
It’s nice, how one must rely on a supply of personal bottled water just to have a Reliable source of hydration…
There is no water fountain located in the facility that I have spotted. I’ve asked about water, and they tell me that they bring in this cooler of water.
They average 104 men in the shelter each night.
The result is, I have to spend what little money I have to procure water on days that no charitable organization has dropped by to give us food or water on, to actually be able to have water on hand, and not meet the usually empty when I need it cooler.
This, for a facility designed to help out those who are in need of a place to stay out of the elements, does not make the slightest bit of sense whatsoever.
Salvation Army Rules: Two Bags Per Person.
Bed numbers 23, 24, Dorm 4, Men’s side. From my observations, this stuff all belongs to one person.
Last night, many were rejected, or halted at the door with orders to break down what they have, for the amount of stuff they had.
One elderly gentleman, perhaps in his late fifties, or early sixties, has one very long bag with all his stuff in it, and a rather small handbag. He was rejected at the desk, being told that the long bag was too big.
This man had to go sleep somewhere outside last night, and I do not feel that this was an appropriate action for them to take, especially with the following:
1: He had been staying there for a month already, from the commentary I gathered.
2: There was no advance notice, whatsoever, that this was a rule that they were going to strictly enforce, to allow people time throughout the day to actually sort things, and get it disposed of, or put away, or what have you.
I was halted at the door, personally, because I have a rolling suitcase, a backpack, and a handbag. The suitcase holds my clothing. The backpack holds most of the food that was given to me, as well as a few books I’ve checked out from the library. The handbag holds the rest of the books I’ve checked out (I go through plenty of books, with the bus rides I take, as well as the time I have to sit in waiting rooms of some sort to get things done), as well as paperwork that I need to keep in good condition for various reasons.
The homeless look out for each other, though. One guy offered to take my smallest bag — the handbag — in for me, since he had nothing, in exchange for a couple of oranges and a pudding from my backpack, which was an offer I graciously accepted.
Another guy had to completely give up his suitcase, because they refused to let him in with it, a garbage bag, and his backpack. He had been staying there for a while, as well.
The question to you all is:
Is this appropriate, even, and fair treatment of Tampa’s homeless, by a group with such a name as “The Salvation Army”?
[tags]Salvation Army, Questionable Ethics[/tags]
When I went to donate blood plasma last Friday, they checked my weight. I’m actually gaining weight for some reason, and I’m not entirely sure just why I’m getting heavier.
I know that I’ve been eating more since I went to the Salvation Army, but they have a NASTY habit of feeding us mainly carbohydrates, and not enough protein to satisfy me. I like lots of meat and less bread when I’m eating meals, and I’m fine with carbs when I’m snacking. I would love more meat in my diet, but short of resorting to Burger King every time I go up somewhere, I don’t think I’m getting enough protein.
As a result, I’ve gone from 313 pounds to about 321 pounds, and this is leaving me slightly distressed. I don’t want to get any fatter than I am, and I’m getting far more exercise per day here than I was when I was at home.
I’m hoping that it’s my legs building up their mass again, rather than me growing a bigger, fatter American behind. :B
( p.s.: I miss cooking.
