Back to Class

Dang, has it already been two months? This poor thing got neglected! *blows off cobwebs*

So I think it's time for at least some kind of update, what do you think?

As the title suggest, I am going back to classes this semester. I am currently enrolled in Web Design (which is cool, as I'll be able to do more with the html of my blog over time probaby), Security+ (All about protecting data and such), Advanced C++ (Heck yeah!), and Fundamentals of Computer hardware. I have to admit, while I can learn things independently, it is nice to have the structure of a class to work around.

So yeah. I may add more later, but I just wanted to dust this off and say that as I think it will make me more inclined to come back to it and just not abandon it forever.

BIG Changes, Part Two

So more has happened around the house. We've actually pulled the bushes we were trimming out of the ground, and converted the satellite dish into a solar light post. Now we've just got to remove some trees from the back yard, although I guess we're getting in a professional tree service to take care of that.

BIG Changes Around The House

So some pretty big changes have been happening around my house this past week.

The first thing we've done is cut out a series of bushes from the front of our house. They've been there since we've moved in, and that's back in the summer before I was in 2nd grade! Among the needles of the fallen are various items, including broken roof shingles and old plastic bags that got caught up in the branches and needles. The only thing left to do is to remove the stumps.

The second thing that's happened is the removal of a VERY old satellite dish. This thing is quite large, unlike the satellite dishes of today. So far we've taken out the panels that compose the dish part and cut the antenna's cables out. Actually the Antenna is part of the reason we've stopped. It turns out that there's a huge wasp's nest in the housing of the antenna, and that once we removed it we really disturbed them. The other part of the reason that we've stopped is that my dad has to go to work today.

That's about it as far as updates go. My dad took a few pictures of the dish as we were working on it, and if he uploads them like I think he's going to, I'll make sure you guys get to see them.

So I might as well give a real update...

So I've left this blog without much for a little while.

Let's see. I visited my relatives in Torrington, Wyoming and the Scottsbluff/Gering area a few weeks ago. We stayed for an entire week. I was there for my cousin's graduation. I'd type more about it, but I'm tired.

Meh. I'm not in an updating mood, really. I'm still around, though.

Confessions of a Brony: Pony Stats - Screen Time

Confessions of a Brony: Pony Stats - Screen Time: Full image This is intended to be a rundown of the amount of screen time each of the main (mane?) characte..."

Finals are almost done.

The hardest part of finals are done, now it's simply time for our final English class to meet.

Whoo!

Conan's Show Needs To Be About 20% Cooler

The only solution to this is to have Lauren Faust appear as a guest.

No, seriously. I mean, ponies are popular enough, but imagine how awesome it would be if they discussed them on Conan, and aired one of the many epic clips for the audience!

I mean, there's so many, and the number is growing every week on Friday. I mean, there was the most recent episode, where Pinkie Pie snapped and had tons of "friends" in the form of imaginary objects, and was talking to herself...



Then of course, you have Rarity whining...

So many wonders...

Favorite Song/Clip From MLP

Now, despite the uncertainty of the title, these are two separate videos. Of course, it's really hard to choose a favorite moment from the series, but...


Rarity Whining: :D



Winter Wrap-Up:



Man, I wish I could play the guitar now.

Bonus: College Brony Story!

Read it!!!

Possibly one of the most hilarious comics I've ever read.

Edit: How the heck did this get saved in drafts? Ah well, the video embed code was stupidly off anyways.

My New Tablet, Pony Polka, and More!

Okay, fellow bronies (and the rest of you), I have to tell you some cool stuff.

Well, first of all, the end of the Spring semester is approaching here. Finals week starts in 2 weeks.

Secondly, I have a tablet that a friend gave me for free because it didn't work with his OS, meaning he got a new one that made this old one pointless. It even has some art he drew under the plastic screen thingy.

Third, the Pony Polka videos on YouTube (not sure if you've seen them or not, and I will probably post a link later, but it's like one hour before class) have caused me to either start loving polka, or have drawn out a long love of Polka that I'm not aware of. I think it might be the latter, because I like the Polka song in the movie Groundhog Day.

Just an update for you guys! Oh, and my post that's after this about my favorite MLP clip. I typed that a while back, but had forgotten to actually post it for some reason. The videos were too wide for the blog anyways, and I changed the embed code to fix it, so it's all good anyways. Also, it's up now, so...

>__>

My Little Pony: Friendship is Magical hits all the right notes.

Okay, so as some of you may or may not be aware, My Little Pony: Friendship is Magical has EXPLODED in popularity recently. Now, you may ask yourself "Pfft. Ponies? Isn't that aimed at little girls? What the hell is wrong with everyone?" Allow me to answer.

My Little Pony:Friendship is Magical is a genuinely awesome show. Let's list the merits:

• Great voice acting
• Great character personalities
• Character consistency
• Genuine morals at the end
• Funny
• Great animation
• Colorful and vibrant

Really, this series hits all the right notes The characters have realistic, enjoyable personalities. The facial expressions are animated masterfully and express emotion amazingly. The voice acting is terrific. I'm always impressed by truly talented voice acting, which The Simpsons does well, too.

Really, it's just a wonderful show. It's well made; it practically sucks you in and never lets go! I could go on describing the merits all day, but...

I'll just leave you with pictures of the 6 main characters...

Applejack



Fluttershy



Pinkie Pie



Rainbow Dash



Rarity



Twilight Sparkle

Dungeons and Dragons: Pathfinder

So I just got done with a session of Dungeons and Dragons Pathfinder. I also am the first in our group to hit level 2. I could go on in detail about what playing entails, but that might be a lot of text, especially if I try to explain to the uninitiated. So all I'm going to say is that I had awesome fun. My friend, let's call him M, ran the game, and my friends J & R were D&D virgins, getting their first taste of the game.

I was a cavalier, J was a cleric, and R was a monk. :3

Spring: Bike Time!

So, now that it's spring and the weather is (for most) lovely, I decided to start riding my bicycle. I need to get a new battery for my odometer, as it won't display real-time speed or trip distance, but based on the time and average speed, I wager I rode ~15.25 miles (I didn't reset the timer right away and didn't take a look at the lifetime odometer right away, both which were still fully readable.).

It was a good time, and I'm planning to start using my bike to ride out to my college. It not only saves gas money, but provides exercise, too.

Prism, You've Spoiled Me

So recently, much of my web experience has been with apps I've created with Prism, a simple XULRunner based web app creator. It's quite handy. One thing that I didn't know about it before I looked it up to link to a page about it is that it's a part of Mozilla (creators of Firefox web browser and Thunderbird e-mail client). :O

It's pretty awesome, and gives focus and order to some of my more important online activity. In fact, I'm creating this blog post in a web app I created with Prism, and my Google search to find the link was also done with a Prism created app.

I can't say it completely replaces a web browser, as your navigation is a little limited, as is your context menu upon right click. For those specialized tasks, though, it is incredibly convenient.

Edit: Ooh. Apparently you can put add-ons to Prism. I might have to toy with that and get back to you.

An Invention Idea - The Future of Biology?

I should preface this by saying that if I had the technical knowledge or testing budget...I'd be using them before posting this...

I was climbing into the shower this morning, and I noticed a spider on the side of the bathtub wall (The spider died because the condensation made it lose it's grip. >.<). This make me think "You know, it would really be neat if they made a real life PokéDex. All you would do is have to point it at the animal, and voilá! Information is displayed in the palm of your hand about the species. It could even go so far as to keep a record of a species that's not found in the database, and then sync up to a server, sending where and when you were when you saw the species, as well as a picture of what you saw. I think there could be some serious science done at a very grassroots level with this baby. What would be even more impressive is combining this device with a long range life scanner, much like a tricorder from Star Trek. There could be versions of the tricorder that send out signals themselves, and those that send information to and receive information from an orbiting satellite network (sort of like GPS).

Heck, maybe they could even develop this technology for a new Mars mission (or wherever they plan to travel) and use it to analyze the rocks right where they land, saving a need to return to Earth!

The Magic of Pixlr

So I've been working with a web-app called Pixlr, since it's a standard webapp with my OS (people without peppermint can find it online).  I launch it like a regular application, and get to it.  In fact, I think I might show some of the work I've done...

becomes

And...

becomes

I think the hardest image editing task I've come across is creating a transparency. I would say the fuzzy select tool makes things easy, but it can still miss a decent amount. Also, there are images with so many different colors because of the desired lighting that you're simply not able to select a huge patch of image. It's gets a bit laborious at times, but the end result is often satisfying.

Quick note: That text you see below Maggie's foot? That's a reference to Zimagez, the site I'm currently using to host images. I have an account there and everything. (I actually started using Zimagez back with my first...well, second Linux OS. I had Mythbuntu first, but changed to Xubuntu after I had to essentially reload everything due to creating insufficient "Persistent File" space the first time. The thing is, I'm not too mad at myself for screwing up the first time, as it forced me to start using Google docs, which I have grown quite accustomed to.)

The Rising Cost of College - Solutions?

Okay, as some may know, college costs are greatly expensive and rising every year (at 8%, I think the figure was).

Often, college is so expensive that students must take out loans from the government.  Now, I don't want to infringe on the sovereignty of schools or their programs.  Yet I hear that schools are squandering money on crap like rock climbing walls?

Now, I'm not wondering if there's not some way to introduce a bill in congress that will regulate schools in some manner, possibly by forcing them to have their budget approved by a third party.

Now, there are issues that may rise with this, including special interest groups trying to limit what can be taught on college campuses, or companies that don't know much about the educational value of a class or the attendance demanding that the college drop the program.  Hell, there are probably other consequences I'm not seeing.  Oh, here's one:  Additional costs due to overhead/employing the services of the company, whether such costs are government subsidized or paid by the college.

Solutions to the costs of college aren't simple.  There needs to be some way to keep college costs under control (maybe pressuring the colleges by an organized boycott of the campuses and courses, demanding that the change and only use funds for what's necessary plus maybe minor additions for leisure?)  Money speaks to many colleges, I think (especially the for profit ones).  If they have to cater to an organized decline in the number of students going to their campuses, maybe they'll be forced to rethink their fiscal policy.

Hell, maybe the approval process can be grassroots, where projects won't be built unless they're improved by students who get to see the costs and projected tuition, fees, room, board, and other cost increases.

There's no clear or definite solution, as nobody has really tried anything.  I think that something needs to be done, though.  College costs have a serious need to come under control.  It doesn't just affect the students.  It also affects the taxpayer, as all too often, thousands to tens of thousands of dollars seem to be spent taking out student loans, a fair amount of which either go into default or forbearance.

Having a greatly educated population is great, but when the costs are as high as they are, it may drive away brilliant minds who are two scared or reluctant to attend because of the massive debt that they'll be responsible for upon graduation.

The Blog Begins!

Alright.  Here it is.  My blog.  This is a nice central place for me to post my thoughts and whatnot.  Instead of being lost with time, they'll be immortalized with text, pictures, links, and whatever else I need to convey what's on my mind.  I hope you all enjoy it.  I know I will. ^.^