New Post: Cat v Dog

The subject today is pets. Cats v Dogs more specifically. I personally have been a dog guy for the majority of my life, but the little time spent with the family cat at my real dad’s house is the only convincing evidence in my life to date, til now. On my trip to New York I have been greeted with the age old decision of man’s best friend or our feline friends [I realize how biased this sounds]. My hostess is a giant house and family on winter break in a small city called Saratoga Springs, New York. This family includes both aforementioned pets in their purest form, a protective 6-year old medium-sized dog, Buddy, and an endearing and sensitive house-explorer, Gauss, which is an amazing name. They both have been raised from the age of around 8 weeks and have fallen into their classic niches in an active and loving family.

Buddy - This big friend of  sleeping while we’re around is a big cozy floor ornament of the pretty house. Willing to come and greet any new faces with a slowly sniffing nuzzle, he almost seems like he has the security of the situation in check while he accepts pats scratches on his head while he make his way around the room. Whether in a group or one-on-one this dog tends to stay in the room with you and lounge lazily after his rounds have been walked, much unlike a cat. The small price we pay is letting him out to roam the yard every hour and a half to 3 hours. Oh, and don’t forget to let him back in. He will bark every 30 seconds or so until you let him in. No snooze button on this dog when it snows outside.

Bottom line: Unwavering friendship you can rely on, but pay a perpetual price for until night falls. Also, don’t feed him from the table. Just don’t.

Gauss - This purring love machine tends to favor one-on-one. Choosing to remain seen but not felt, I sometimes feel like I’m playing Where’s Waldo while lounging in the living room. He has also made his own little fort behind christmas presents under the tree [his lair is furnished with collected balls of paper]. I tend to forget Gauss is in existence sometimes when chatting with new friends. When the scene dies down hes willing to grace us with his presence in the form of an incredibly endearing cuddling. The downside is that here, if you move he will leave you in a heart beat. You can sometimes beckon him back with promises of a massage, but it’s almost as if he’s offended on the spot, not willing to come back until you’ve learned your lesson again.

Bottom line: Gauss’s special bond is sometimes love or hate, but most of that is due to a cat’s sophistication as a result of their higher intelligence OR their loner mentality.

Winner: Both. I hate to give an answer like this but I honestly can’t decide between the two. If you can manage the costs of each of them, both monetary and time. The love of both is a pretty good dynamic to have if your house has enough room to support these two animals.

Read This: Just an idea….

If Earth ever turned into a single-government planet, I think to help maintain a free and uncorrupt system, our government policies and courses of action should be decided by all of the population willing to participate. Ideas could be submitted anonymously to be voted upon by the rest of the population that chooses to access this supposed website. By keeping submissions anonymous every idea carries no bias or grudge and can be based upon its content alone, much like how anonymous imageboard communities function. The surplus of ideas would give us a very large pool of thought to draw plans or policies from. Since these ideas are voted on by anyone who wishes to participate it is a very fair means of determining the global consensus on a topic or required law/policy.

Extending upon this theory, we could also have juries made up of anyone wishing to pass judgement given the full scope of the evidence available for any given case. This global jury could not be anonymous, because certain profiles could never be allowed to participate in certain trials due to bias or any other factors that might infringe upon the fairness of the trial.

Read This: TinEYE

Just found an incredible online tool. This webapp, TinEYE, is a reverse image search engine. What that means is you can upload or link an image and the search engine brings up a list of all the domains where that image is hosted. Effectively, it’s a great tool for finding an image’s origin, but for me, I find myself using it to find higher resolution versions of something cool I find on the internet. Sometimes I make the image into a wallpaper, or I need a higher resolution for that web project I told you about.

EDIT: Forgot to mention that it’s much more convenient if you’re using Firefox, because there’s a add-on here.

Read This: Yoshi, the Pet Gecko

In order to satisfy my want for a dog, I decided to get a little desktop pet. Originally I was thinking about something cuddly like a hamster, but once I read that reptiles were naturally cleaner and required less attention [I'm a busy engineer, get off my back], I opted for a Gecko. They don’t get quite as big as some other reptiles like chameleons and bearded-dragons, but that just means I won’t have to spend crazy money down the line to upgrade the tank and equipment. Initially I spent about 130 dollars full the full get-up; That includes tank, lamp, UV bulb, a water dish, a place for him to hide, and a place for him to bask in the heat.

I ended up changing his hide to a halved coconut.

For awhile he was really boring. He only ever really left his ‘hide’ except to eat live crickets, which was a treat to watch. He was very skiddish and didn’t take much of a liking to me trying to hold him. When he was big enough, I replaced the green reptile-mat to a calcium sand. This is about the same time he started being interesting and leaving his hide. I would walk in my room and catch him laying out over his realistic tree mold,  or hanging by his tail [although I think that was by accident].

I even caught him testing gravity like a true engineer's pet.

If it’s possible to build fond memories with a gecko, my first one was just a few nights ago. I was sitting at my desk doing homework when I glanced at him and saw he was looking right at me. His mouth was half-agape and his head followed my movements as I got closer to the tank. I’d like to believe he was thinking something along the lines of “What is this big thing and why hasn’t it killed me yet? Wait… Doesn’t this guy bring me food? Maybe I’m safe.” I slowly opened the tank and reached my hand down next to him. He looked at my hand and then back at me. He nudged my hand with his nose and then went back to staring at me. I cried. Kidding.

All-in-all, Geckos are good pets.

Read This: Individualism Pt. 2

It’s been over three months since the beginning of this article. I’m here to possibly finish it as my mind is currently swarming with thoughts about the state of the internet in terms of how people interact with others. Please don’t start reading this without taking a long gander at it’s predecessor which can be found here.

Unrelated

Now that the internet has become more user friendly, the general public has gathered online to create profile pages that usually ask you to sum up your entire life or ideologies on a single page. These sites also make communication much easier than calling people, which helped send awkward teens in droves to these sites. It required no effort and had a relatively low learning curve encouraging more and more users to venture online. The internet became less and less ‘nerdy’ and more and more enticing to the average person.

The difference between these new social-networking sites and other forms of online communication, such as forums and instant messaging, is anonymity. Users of forums and instant messaging programs had usernames, or “net-handles”, but rarely posted their name or location; That is until embedded chat-rooms came about [a/s/l anyone?]. The person didn’t matter as much as what they had to say. Almost all social-networking sites work on the basis of open information, or what I’d like to call a glass-house policy. Actual names became usernames, and cartoony 128×128 representations became full blown actual photographs of the person behind the name.

ParteeVanPilot becomes PeeWee Herman

The big difference in interaction I would like to point out is that people are replacing IRL interactions with real rewards or consequences with computerized interactions that holds the same rewards or consequences. [If and only if these interactions are with people in your immediate surroundings, or friends, family. Let's just say people you see.] People are much more likely to say something hurtful or deceitful if they get to hide behind their keyboard and think of just the perfect retort to have the biggest impact when read by the recipient. This affects the good interactions just as much as the bad. It’s much easier to type sweet nothings to a computer messenger than to whisper them in real life with the full realization of what you may be implying or the hopes you might be getting up. I think virtual interaction lowers inhibitions.

The split. Over the past several years social-networking has blossomed, but interest in forums have not faltered as much as you might think. However, the introduction of social-networking sparked the creation of communication based on the absolute opposite ideal, complete anonymity.

Meet Mr. Anon

Just about the same time social-networking emerged,  username-free sites boasting absolutely no registration or records were born. These sites originated in Japan, but the idea was quickly adapted stateside as 4chan, paying homage to the original site, 2ch, or 2chan. Users post text and images in a manner reminiscent of writing on a bathroom stall. I personally believe most of these users have and maintain a social-networking profile, but from time-to-time prefer carefree banter and social/political commentary without consequence. If you haven’t heard of these sites, sometimes referred to as imageboards or chans, there’s a good chance you’ve come across a byproduct of such anonymous interactions, and just hadn’t realized it. Chans are where internet comedy fads, also called ‘memes’, are born. The internet sensation “LOLcats” originated from 4chan and was previously known as ‘Caturday’, an event taking place once a week where users would upload pictures of cats with funny captions.

Well, this post is over. I haven’t gotten to where I want to just yet, but it’s important to get a summary of the progression of the internet before I get to the future and philosophy of social interactions and how they’re affected by the internet. Cheers.

Read This: Post That Never Was

A while back I mentioned a guest spot I was going to be writing on a friend’s site, the Depository of Thought, but it never happened. Like so many people that make a site in their free time, we’ve been neglecting our brainchildren. ['Brainchildren' is a real word?] It doesn’t look like it will ever be posted there so I’m going to include it below, but first a little bit of explanation. I don’t write much about myself or my worldview [as if you could call the following a 'worldview'], but I hope you like my attempt at expressing something deeper than fact; My attempt at…. explaining a curious types’ perspective.

“My mind is so mechanical…

The further you go into engineering the harder it is to relax. A tv isn’t a tv anymore. With electrical engineering, it’s a a series of 2,073,600 pixels blinking in rapid succession 60 times a second. The things I do for fun are no longer taken at face value. A leisurely stroll is hard to enjoy with a background of mechanical engineering. Walking up steps means converting internal energy to potential energy. Walking around campus used to be carefree, but now I find myself wondering the specific heat constant of the smoothie I’m sipping on; The insulative properties of the Styrofoam wrapped around it. At constant weather conditions, how long will it take to become a liquid? — Thanks Thermodynamics. Even browsing the internet loses meaning, with Computer Engineering. You know how many computers Google dedicates to every search made on its site? Eight. Everytime you go to watch a video on YouTube, a server somewhere moves that movie to it’s RAM, and streams it byte by byte to your computer screen, and that’s not even the half of it. It’s enough to drive me insane.

What do I enjoy? People. I love people as much as any introvert ever could.To me, people are the only activity left that relies on instinct over knowledge, proper etiquette aside. There’s not much thought going through my head when I’m talking; It’s all natural. When I lean over to kiss the forehead of the girl whose head is leaned on my shoulder there’s not a known equation in the world that can describe such a feeling. Love, distress, joy, pain, attraction, anxiety — These are the things I enjoy. I find relief in the inexplicable and yet, in you I confide, I hope I never stop learning.”

I wrote this several months ago and there are a few things I would like to change, but it does take a nice camera-phone sized snapshot of my life at that time. What’s done is done, so why cover it up or change it? Put the whiteout away and turn the page.

Read This: Back in the Swing

I’m here. Really I am. I had to have some thought time for a week or two. Here I am, catapulted back into complete mental consciousness. I want to pick up where I had just left off before my posting died. I need to find something new to write about to help maintain my interest in writing. I’m back at school and I’ve finally made a homey den out of my personal space [aka, wiring up my desk to make my cluttered wires look minimalistic.] Home cooked meals from the resident-chef roommate. Free 65″ TV from my Uncle. I’m a very happy, yet modest, kid.

So I was considering archiving my web browsing habits for an extended period of time, such as 5 or 10 years. I kind of think that’s a weird ‘Future 2.0′ way of keeping a personal journal. When I couple  a blog of sorts (?) with this ‘internet album’ I would hope to get a pretty decent log of nostalgic wonder for when I’m older. While writing a personal journal might leave a pretty nice time capsule, archiving my browsing habits would be a little less intrusive or time consuming. I’m an engineer and that just seems kind of bothersome. Less work, less heat. I’m thinking thermodynamics already…

Read This: My Whereabouts

I didn’t want it to happen, but it did. I slipped. Well, here I am to try to and justify it. You probably first noticed I was missing, if at all, when a Monday went by with no Threadless post, and that’s kind of a story in itself. I recently had a little scuffle with Threadless and I no longer feel satisfaction when I give them free publicity. My old posts will remain because the content is good, but I’m currently brainstorming some new weekly post themes to keep me posting consistently. I’m open for ideas.

So the summer is coming to an end and for me that end is a bang, not a whimper. I’m sitting here in a condo on the boardwalk of Ocean City, Maryland in the middle of my vacation. This is the beach I went to as a little kid and it’s really nice to see that not much has changed. I like the beach a lot, but I get a bigger kick out of walking the boardwalk, watching people, and playing Skee-Ball. It’s a very authentic place to have a vacation; Not much has changed. There are still dime claw-machines in some of the arcades with little 2 cent plastic finger puppets and vampire teeth. Also, the same Cannoli and Lemonade shops have adorned this boardwalk for at least 25 years. To be honest, it’s really not anything too super special, and no one outside the state of Maryland is going to plan a vacation here, but for most of us here this is where we had our first beach outing and going back is sometimes like traveling back to a better time. It’s very family friendly, with the exception of some mouthy teens/drunks. Plus, there’s a ferris wheel on the pier; That just screams classic beachfront activity. After dark there are many street performers [mostly musicians] that come out and play for tips. In the same night I saw two college types playing Sublime covers, a man playing everything from a trumpet to alto sax, and a man in a spongebob squarepants suit playing a banjo.

Traditional Maryland cuisine: Steamed Blue Crabs and Old Bay

Other than vacation stuff, I’ve been putting a lot of time into my side project, tripontheinter.net. At first I was going to do a full release and add features later, but now I’d like to hold on to it in private until the member registrations and submission features are complete. I’ve also been adding content regularly and am currently sitting at 11-12 posts of mind-blowing thought-candy. I’ve been asking a couple friends if they want to help contribute, but I haven’t found any that are interested. Well, I guess this ends this post. Oh! Also, I move into my new apartment this weekend and start school next Wednesday. I’m not sure how it will affect my posting, but expect a little rundown on how to make a nice minimalistic room. Less clutter = more good.

Watch This: The Collector

I love horror movies. There just haven’t been too many good ones lately. Most movies that pass for horror these days are a remake of either a very old movie, or an Americanized version of a horror movie from another country. I went and saw ‘The Collector’ last night after reading this article and I must say I was incredibly pleased. The movie feels like an old-school slasher movie, but also has a new-age Saw and Hostel feel to it so it pleases everybody. This movie is good and I wouldn’t mind seeing a sequel. This post is really just to keep two Threadless articles from touching, but I still think the movie is worth watching.

[Apple Movie Trailers]

Buy This: Threadless Week #22

I like how sometimes my regular Monday posts include site and life news, such as today’s. Remember awhile back I mentioned a joint-venture between me and a pen-pal? No? Well here’s a refresher and some new information about it. Pen-Pal Paige and I love finding things on the internet that just completely blow our mind. Sometimes it’s a video, picture, article, or even an mp3 that we come across that leaves a crater on our brain. Usually we’re instant messaging as we make our trippy discoveries and have some pretty ingenious commentary on them. This is where our site comes in. At first, our website will just be a blog similar to this one right here, except with minimal commentary. Eventually, our site will have member registrations and member uploads. These uploads will be queued and either approved or denied by us, the administrators. This project has a home and that home is http://tripontheinter.net [Don't expect anything to show up just yet.]. Clever name, eh? We now return you to your regularly scheduled broadcast.

If this shirt is cleverer than it's face value, I don't see it.

This shirt was designed by an 88 year old woman; Cool huh? This shirt is called “Bison” and was designed by 88-year-old Vo Maria. I don’t like the color of the shirt because it contrasts pretty harshly with the design, but it’s still a fantastic design. I love that the designer has embraced technology so well at such an old age. She has a flickr page, threadless profile, and her own website [under construction].

If you have any questions or ideas for the new site, just ask in the comments.