Tuesday, March 31, 2009

Back to the Basics

It's been a while since I just sat back wrote about life in general. Maybe I've been avoiding facing the truth, and through I've drifted away from what makes me crave the truth.

I once said, my goal in life is to better understand humanity; my humanity, my truth, who I am.

I've gotten somewhat shallow in my blogs recently. I've talked about things I've read, the macbook which I ordered, my projects and music; but very little about me.

So let's be honest, shall we?

I'm 1,500 away from the place I call home and the human being who I am closest to.
Everyday I feel like I'm in pain from depression.
My limp is getting worse because my knee seems to be getting worse.

But my Life is Good.
I have friends, who care and have very problems that, like mine, can't be ignored.
I have family, though it may not be blood or they may be very far, they still love me.
I'm intelligent and creative.
I have a knack for helping others, which I am grateful for.
I live a quiet life.
Something many people take for granted is the sound of silence, the light of the night, the feeling of the cool air. (Unless it's hot August and you live in southeast Misery)

The quiet life, although sometimes brain numbingly boring, suits me well.

I'm a geek, and a nerd, I enjoy blogging and technology which is why I now lay here on my bed at three in the morning pounding down the numerous letters and punctuation marks on the keyboard of my MacBook.
I love to read about others and their lives, hear their stories and examine the oddities of life that are ironically so common that they take us by surprise, simply because we don't notice them.
Sometimes I think God must have a sense of humour, others I think we're just hanging by a thread and that we're so monstrous that we don't deserve the reminded the standards we have set for ourselves.

But we're only human.
We live and we die.
We breath and we speak of the name God.
Words that can not be spoken as we understand it.

I was reminded by my Youth Leader just how important laughter is.
I often say I can't express my emotions but that's only half right.
For a long time I've struggled with depression, because I have lost the ability to unleash what I feel in anyway. Which is why everyday I hurt.
I've tried screaming, I've tried laughing. I can't cry anymore.
There is very little that makes it go away.
But I do express joy, that's something I still feel. When I'm happy the pain remains, but I still laugh.
Something I've taken from my father is a love of humour and laughter. If he heard something funny he laughed even if he was the one who told the joke, which was often very dry.
I laugh at my owns jokes, at stupid things sometimes because it makes sense in my head alone.
It was Red Skelton who said "If I tell a joke to an audience of a thousand people, why should I be the only one in the room not getting the joke?"
He also taught me to enjoy the little things in life. Because we only live once on this earth, so let's enjoy every detail of it. Beauty is everywhere, don't search for it, because if you do that your blind. Because it's right in front of you.

So why am I so "emotionally challenged"?

Sure life was pretty bad here and there, but it got better and will continue to.

I don't know.

But life is good.
I'm living the quiet life, trying to get my edumacation so I can be the success in life I've always dreamed of.
I have my gadget fix set for the time being and I absolutely love the time period I live in.
And my relationship is going strong, very strong.

I received my Macbook, built into the Anodized Aluminum Unibody and set it up with Adobe AIR and iTunes and I'm Happy. (And another software called Wallsaver which plays a Matrix Screensaver as my desktop)
And let me tell you this baby is beautiful! The design is perfect, although limited by the constraints of "top of the line" design. But beside the 2 USB ports it's an awesomely elite Personal Computer. (And I say that slap all Mac loving PC bashers in the metaphorical face!)
After rehacking my old modem I was able to hook up both the Mac and the Larry Box to the Modem and I have internet and full functionality! It's totally radsome!
Although I eagerly await the beta release of Google Chrome for Mac.

When all is said and done I may even turn my PC into a hackintosh.

I'm getting along well in church. Making friends and having fun.
Which leads me to not having fun..... Because I suck at math and I've had a year long educational hiatus I'm needing to study hard for the G.E.D. this year. So I may ask some one from youth to help me out, since they offered... hrmmmmm....

Also, what is this I hear about Russion spacejunk sending balls of fire over Hampton Roads? I live for that sort of thing!!! How come I'm always the last to know. sadface....
I mean that's so radically cool! A loud bang and flash in the sky that wont immediately disintigrate you to a carbon shadow?! THAT'S AWESOME!

I'm getting the itch to pull out the sewing machine after the years of gathering dust and do a project and do something that's eco friendly so I came to a conslusion:
Upcycle a bunch of drugstore plastic bags into a fused plastic Laptop case!
All of this I whille record and post on Youtube.

On the subject of my knee, it's been hurting like the devil recently. I'm been walking 75% of the time trying not to move it. I should probably go to the doctor about it, but I don't. Oh well.



I'm hurt, physically and emotionally, but that doesn't matter.
Life could be so much worse.
I'm happy, even in my sadness.
I'm fed.
I'm intrigued
I'm alive.
I'm loved, I am reminded of that everyday by at least one voice.
God put me here on this earth for a reason and even if that weren't reason enough I have another reason.
Until the day I can no longer speak the name of God, until the last breath I naturally take, I will live for that reason.

But life is really hard, and really good at the same time. No matter hard it gets, don't forget that you only live once and that you should find the beauty in every detail and enjoy it to the best of your ability.

Call it a load crap if you insist, but I believe that life is precious.
Every frakking second of it.

Brent / Saku

Thursday, March 26, 2009

My Blogs

I currently have four blogs under three accounts, with one on my website, via Atom feed.
This is four screen shots of all four:

Switching to Blogger

I've decided to switch over to Blogger at long last. It's easier and more professional.

Still awaiting my MacBook, should be here tomorrow I hope.

Now I must transfer my old blogs, if possible

Tuesday, March 24, 2009

DIY Speakers


Okay so while I was watching Leo Laporte (the tech guy) on Stickam I began grabbing off the shelf speakers and toying with my iPod.
As we all know, the iPod classic comes in a box that has pastic insert which holds the iPod itself inplace against the lid at the top of the box.
When unpacking it it is at the top, just like the life size image on the lid, you look at it, say "oooo-la-la", pull it out the plastic insert that fits snuggly like a shelf, and begin pulling out the four page manual, stickers, warrenty information, earphones, and U.S.B. cord. When it's all done and said your left with really good box. Let's face it, from electronics to the packaging they come in, Apple does not screw around!
So I saved the box.
Well about a while back, shortly before my last blog I think, I was reading Wired.com's Gadget blog and a number of other blogs and I came across this really cool thing device at GeekAlerts.com.
It was a speaker insert that was made the exact dimensions to fit in the clear plastic case that the iPod Shuffle comes in. (Shuffle 2nd and 3rd Gen & the iPod Nano 1st and 2nd Gen)
http://www.geekalerts.com/ipod-recycling-speaker-by-bird-electron/

Well I thought that was pretty cool. I wouldn't buy it, because:

A) I'm Broke
B) I have a Classic
C) I'm a DIY fanatic
Well this evening I was on Stickam, a live video broadcasting site, watching Leo Laporte, the Tech Guy (of course), and began thinking. I have some off the shelf speakers which I can easily repair, wires that are practically hanging the from the ceiling, three eighth inch stereo audio jacks, and how-many boxes in this room.
So I got to work with my off the shelf components, superglue and scotch tape.

Don't laugh, I'm cheap.



Okay, go ahead.

In the end it turned out like this:

It has really good audio quality, after I repaired the speaker. It can be pulled out fo the box and fits snuggly inside. The wire can be hidden so that the lid can be slid over the speaker, for safe transport.
Okay so that was my project!

In other news my MacBook is on the way and is due anyday now.

Thank you for reading!

Blogger

So now I'm posting on Blogger? Making the Transition from liveJOURNAL?
Maybe!
I really like Blogger, but I'm also attached to my old blog.
However, I really am a Fan of anything Google creates.
Maybe I'll keep up!

Saturday, March 21, 2009

Excellent!
It was the perfect ending. It can't be contradicted.
It was good and happy ending, while at the same time it was sad.
I have to say it is truly the best Television show ever created.
It was realistic, believable and logical.
It was Radical, Out of this world, and thought provoking.
It was Rich, Vivid, and easy to relate to.

And the best part is, it tied into our world perfectly without flaw!

Even thought I was hoping for another ending, after watching the journey, I think they deserved more. But that's life.

I can't find fault with the ending.

Ronald D. Moore is pure genius!

Monday, March 9, 2009

Hello Readers! =D

I'm back with another Blog.

So if you know me I Video Blog and Text Blog quite often. Because of this I'm a firm Believer in RSS or Atom, which are feed systems used to give/get live updates on....stuff. Just Wikipedia it @ http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/RSS & http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Atom_(standard). But anyway, I am a firm Believer in RSS, which is why I am happy to say that Video Blog now comes in Podcast and can be updated via RSS, from Blip.tv. This allows the little player on the Index Page of my Website to display my latest Video Blog, unless I'm just too lazy to update Blip.Tv, lol.

Also I've been reading different bogs and stuffs and I came across a really cool article about a project called Eyeborg on Wired.com gadget blog. Eyeborg is abotu a man who lost his eye and plans to replace it with a prosthetic that contains a wireless Camera that will record every waking moment of his life. A project I can admire, because it combines three things I love: Cameras, Tech, Cybernetics (not really)! Check out the Article at http://blog.wired.com/gadgets/2009/03/video-wireless.html and the Website www.EyeborgProject.com.

Another Blog by my "hero", Bre Pettis, tell about the greatest invention of all time, at last it has been created, I have no idea how the human race has made it with such a Robot! The Frostruder!! http://www.brepettis.com/blog/2009/3/9/frostruder-a-first-design-for-a-frosting-extruder.html! It's far superior to his Sudo Make Me A Sandwich Bot!

Also by Bre is one of the greatest Manifestos in Hackerdom! The Cult of Done.

My Life is going well, I'm looking into getting the G.E.D., at long last, and my Driver Permit, at long last, which means my chances of survival have officially doubled. My Survival rating is now .008 it was .00395! So, yeah~ I'm kind of kicking back right now, but studying as well.

The local U.M.C. is nice, Barbara wants to look into some other churches, but I really like the crowd at First United Methodist, it's very friendly. My only beef, well not even that, I find it funny, is that Larry calls me Keanu. But it's cool! =D

I played a hysterical game of Pool with....I forgot her name.....but I played a game of pool each with Emma and another one (who's name slips my mind) and it was funny. I kept frakking up one way or another.

My next Rant is of course a music rant. Okay I love screamo, but Dashboard Confessionalhas gotten on my last nerve...........be gone with Carrabba! Oy! And onto the good stuff:
The Christian Rock Band, Red. I know I'm a month late, but my Computer situation has been kind of strained. So I finally got around to listening to the Album Innocence & Instinct. Great Album, go buy it, listen to it, love it.
In a more 90s note I've been listening to Ra - Album: Duality - alot, check them out as well, if you want something new (or not so much) to listen to.
Finally, something a bit uplifting would be Chairlift, a Brooklyn based Electro-pop group consisting or Aaron Pfenning, Caroline Polachek, and Patrick Wimberly. Not too mainstream, still indie. I'm a hard time locating some of the songs from their album Does You Inspire You, the album off which the song Bruises came. Their song Bruises can be heard in the latest Apple iPod Nano (Chromatic) commercial.

So yeah. Since my Hard drive switch I've also repaired a lot of the errors and installed my need software, and wanted software. If your Windows or Mac user there is one thing I suggest looking into, that would be Adobe AIR, Adobe Integrated Runtime. A software that allows other applications to run off it and integrate into your computer's desktop and so on. It is what allows me to use my RSS ticker, at the bottom of my screen and Twhirl (my Twitter Application). It also allows tons and tons of different apps to be used, so I would definitely suggest looking into it. I'm currently looking around at several YouTube Apps. can't decide which one I like more.

Anyway, Thank you for reading my Blog! =D

May God Bless,

Brent

 

Saturday, March 7, 2009

Bob and Larry

Okay so first off and explaination:
1. Before Barbara moved Hard Drive 1, let's call it Larry, died, software error because it was cut from current in the middle of a diagnostic thingy.
2. I used my second, ready to go hard drive #2, let's call it Bob, for the next three months. It because 1337 (Elite) and I learned to live with and love it without sound.
3. Last night Bobert became unresponsive. A Hardware error that 5u..
3A Bob Died.
3B Bob was a good Hard Drive
3B subi Even he couldn't talk
3B subii so this sucks.....
3B subiii Because I had Adobe AIR apps and iTunes and pictures Google desktop and videos and.... and... yeah that's all.
4. I repaired the software in on Larry shove Larry into the big metal box and shut it so he'd be left alone in a dark machine.
5. Larry now plays sound and works at top proformance after cleaning up unwanted software and old documents that were also...unwanted.

So yeah I saved my music, podcasts, Tv shows, and movies from my iPod to my Archival (my version "My Documents") so I'm relatively happy. Irreplaceable things like photos are lost forever. Although, a good heapin' load of my pictures and photos are spread over the web. Like of Flickr, deviantART, and here.

So upsides:
1. Since this is the original Larry for this computer all the drivers for this computer are already installed properly.
2. Paint Shop Pro X is installed and Paid for here, so I CAN USE IT AGAIN! YAR!
3. YAR!I HAVE SOUND AGAIN!
4. After cleaning up Larry it works considerably better than before.

Downside:
It's still a little slow, from years of use I guess.

So now that the tech talk is out of the way let's move on to modern life.
Okay so life is good. Yeah right. Life sucks.
Anyway! Who wants cookies?
So I've been cool. Unpackign boxes, looking into getting my G.E.D. at last.
That's pretty much it....Yeah I have a boried life XD
Thanks for reading