focus

So, I know most of you may have completely forgotten about this blog, but I am going to use it anyways.

Lately, in school I just can’t focus.  I have been this way actually all quarter long.  I can’t seem to motivate myself or care about any of my classes because I hate them all.  They just don’t get me interested at all and the professors present the material in the most dry way possible.  Well except for one professor that just goes on completely random tangents and makes the rest of us wondering how we got this far off topic.  But honestly he is probably the most interesting one I have this quarter just for that reason.  I have another professor who just yells at us and then confuses us more during all of his lectures.  I can read the book and learn more on my own than by going to class.

And then theres the fact that all my professors feel like they need to unload all the work that is required of us into the same week.

Uggh, ok so I really just wanted to get that off my chest and ramble for awhile.  So yea… I just need to get some motivation and learn how to focus better this quarter so that I can actually just move on with this quarter and get it done and over already.  I need to figure out what it is that can motivate me.  I just wanna go back to work.  I don’t care if I have to stand next to 400 degree reactors for hours at a time, I just want my day to stop and not have to constantly worry about the next test or assignment.  Welp, on to more studying….  If anyone has any ideas that could help me, I’d appreciate it.

Six Random Facts

Randy tagged me to post six random facts about myself. Most of you probably already know these facts, but I’ll post them anyway.

1. If I were super rich, besides giving money to Africa and other places/organizations, I would travel the world. I LOVE to travel. I want to see and experience numerous places on this Earth. My top favorites would be Paris, Venice( before it sinks), basically anywhere in Italy, Tokyo, Africa, Australia, New Zealand, Ireland. I would also like to visit Auschwitz camp to see what thats like.

2. I am so fascinated with space. I would major in Astronomy, but its too much math and I’m terrible at math/hate math. My dream job would be to become an astronaut. But again, too much math. But I am fascinated with galaxies, light years, life/death of stars, planets, orbits, black holes, anything and everything to do with space. I can honestly say that the coolest place I’ve ever been to was the Kennedy Space Center. I check their website everyday. I’m a total space geek. I hope to see a rocket launch some day in my lifetime.

3.I’m also fascinated with World War II history and the Holocaust. If you have never been to the Holocaust Museum in Washington D.C., its an experience you’ll never forget. I wish I lived in the 1940’s. I also love marine biology and my favorite animal is dolphin. Gosh, I’m a total nerd.

4. I hate hate hate flies. They are the bane of my existence. God should have never created them. They have no purpose. They are disgusting. They scare me.

5. I was born with a birthmark of a cross on my head. You can’t see it because of my hair, obviously. I also had a hernia right after birth because I was so stressed and tried too hard to get out of my mother. The doctors thought I wouldn’t live.

6. I have encountered a series of bad head injuries throughout my life. I accidentally cracked my cousin’s head open with a golf club when i was eleven. I almost drilled right through a girl’s head during sculpture class. I fell off my bike when i was 8 and landed head first onto a manhole cover and knocked some of my teeth out. My dad threw a softball at me when i was 12 and it hit right onto my forehead. Luckily no serious damage occurred in any of these events.

Feel free to post six random facts about yourself!

The number 4 and why I hate it

So many of you are probably wondering why am I talking about this.  Believe it or not, I have had several people request this post after my post on random facts about me on my blog.  Well, ok maybe just Darren and Mike, but I am doing it anyways.  And besides it is my turn for an “Andy Rooney moment” anyways.

First of all, the symbol of the number four does not in my opinion match the overall scheme of numeral system we use.  And it seems to be the ugliest symbol in our system as well.

It also seems to stand out for some reason, like look at me I’m different.  But it is not any better than the rest.

Also, there are too many ways to draw a number 4.  For instance you can have the top with a triangle or as an open box.  It can also be drawn with a tail on the right side and in the middle.  

It seems to look top-heavy.  Structurally it just can’t sit up right in any way, either on its side (because of the tail) or standing up.  

It takes to many strokes/sides to complete a 4.  Yes I know that 5 has many twists but at least you don’t have to raise your pen to write it.  This is one of the major issues I have with 4.

It is ridiculously asymmetrical.  There are many numbers which are assymetrical, but 4 is to me the most unappealing asymmetrical design of all of the numbers.  

So far most of these reasons have been with the design of 4, but rightly so, since this is the major reason I do not like it.  I have hated the number 4 since I was a kid mainly because I never liked to write it.  

Anyways… on to the concept issues

Let me just say one thing before I begin on to the “concept” section.  I have no problem with the idea of 4 existing.  In arabic and roman numeral systems and all numeral systems, 4 has to exist somewhere.  And I have no problem with that.  I don’t have a problem that there are 4 wheels on my car or sitting in a group of 4 people.  The concept is useful since it is an even number and as Mike says, “The world is set up for groups of 4 people.”  I am okay with this and am not frustrated because of that.

Four is a homonym for “for” and “fore”.  Now you are saying, “Well ‘2’ is a homonym for ‘to’ and ‘too’.”  Yes I realize that but that is the only issue I have with the number 2 and I have always liked the number  2 because it is also a pair.  There also other reasons I like 2, one is because it always seems safer to 2 than just 1 and it is so small that it seems efficient anyways.  

It is too close to the number 5 that it always seems incomplete.  In tally marks and roman numeral systems it is always easier to have 5 being complete.  Also, 5 is half of ten which makes it very easy to count.  And 4 is dreadfully close to being very efficient as a 5 but not quite there.  Having $4 is annoying because you could just have a $5 for one more single.  The number 9 is close to 10, but I don’t have an issue with this because it is the last single digit number.  Therefore it can’t be compared to 10.  When counting $9, the $4 is really the pain, and I am biased towards hating $4 anyways because of the other issues I have with it.

Anyways, that is about it.  Oh and Mike about your question if I hated any of the letters of the alphabet; I have always thought “C” was a waste.  Since you can make the same sound either with an “S” or a “K”.  But I do agree that “N” is annoying to draw, and “B”.  

So there you go.  There are my issues with “4”. This is a peek into the very complex and puzzling nature of my mind.

 

authenticity

So this post started while I was in Chicago last month. I figured I would finish it and post it.

While I was in Chicago, I noticed something about people. I was in a store and they greeted us like this,

“Hello, welcome. How are you guys doing today?”

“Hi, I am doing great, thanks. How are you today?” I replied

“Oh well I’m good.” she murmured in a fading tone

It was obvious to me at least that she really wasn’t having a good day and just felt like saying that she was good. Why is this? Is it because it has become the norm to automatically reply in this fashion. It seems like society has made it too awkward to be original with people. To actually let people know that you are just doing okay or bad is not popular. At first, I thought this was just maybe because she was at work, but I have since noticed this all around and even with my friends and family at times. If you know me well, you know that I can usually tell when somebody is not doing well, even when they try to hide it. This seems to be one of my very few gifts I have but still.

Anyways, why is it that our reaction to this sort of question is always to try and look like we have everything together. We all know that we don’t so why do we hide this? Anyways, these are just some random thoughts from a pathological procrastinator. (I should be studying right now)

Summer.

I can absolutely not wait for summer. I need a much needed break. 24 days. 18 hours. 18 minutes. 24 seconds.

A helpful idea…

I have recently been a very busy man, in this time of constant work and school it has been hard for me to stay focused on what it is tat really matters in this world, following Christ and trying let him live through me. This is has been an issue for me for quite a long time, though I have always had the will, I could never find the time.

Within the past two weeks I have found a very good radio station, the station is 93.3. This is the only Christian station i know of in the Cincinnati area. Anyways i have been listening to it where ever I am going in my car. This helps me keep my mind on my faith and remind me to make my day centered around Christ. I didn’t think this would really help but i have really been in much better moods about everything and my days just seem to go much much better. So the next time you are tired of the CD in at the time or can’t find anything on the radio try out this station.

If anyone else has helpful ideas please comment or if you are an author post it.

Lifehacker moment: Time Management

From a man who only has 6 months to live due to cancer, a 1.5 hour long presentation on how to properly manage your time. I’ll leave you with 2 pieces of advice for this:

1. Start at 12 minutes in if you want to skip the intro.

2. Watch the whole thing, and don’t watch it passively. If you’re going to watch it, don’t do anything else. If you have to do something else, pause it and come back.

Enjoy!

Late Night Rambling of a Third Shift Worker Number 2.

Well I have been working third shift for almost an entire month and I have come to realize some of the good things and some of the bad things and I thought that I would share them with you.   I will start with the good things because I like to start positive.

Good Things

1. Lots of alone time- Not sure if this is true about all third shift jobs but the one I have it is I spend every shift alone minus about two hours some at the start of the night  and some at the end and every once and a while an individual who can’t sleep.   What is nice about this is that I like that I have time to sit and think about things that I am doing things I need to do and things that I need to not do any longer.

2.  Interesting People- Again not sure how across the board this is but the people I do meet or get to deal with all have very interesting stories to tell (and if you know Randy and my self at all you know that random people all ways share there stories with us) me and they are just excited to have people to talk to and will carry the weight of the conversation for you.  I have had to deal with what I believe to be a prostitute that was coming to the hotel to lets say provide her services to some one.  I had an opportunity this past weekend to deal with a couple of high school students trying to rent a room so that they could provide services to each other, and tell them that I can’t rent them a room because they were under 21 and that they need to think about why they are doing what they are doing and that if it is not for a good reason then maybe they need to rethink threr plan.  I don’t know if I stop them form making a mistake or not but I got to have a conversation at least.

Bad Things

1. Days Off- The hardest adjustment I have had to make is not sleeping during the day that is actually pretty easy when your tired you sleep a lot easier than you would think.  It has been coming up with things to do on my nights off when I am done hanging out with my friends around midnight or 1am and 7:30am or so when I am ready to sleep.  What do I do I don’t know yet I have been just sitting at home watching TV which is hard do to the new puppy in my life that wakes up easily.

2. Eating- This has been the second hardest adjustment my eating schedule, I wake up everyday about 2pm and I for some reason have never been hungry when I wake up so I will usually be hungry around 3pm or 4pm which is so close to dinner i just wait.  By dinner I am so hungry that I eat a huge meal and am not hungry again until about 6 am which is when I get my bagel from our wonderful breakfast bar in the hotel.  Then I go to sleep and wake up and do it all again. This stinks because I only eat one meal a day which I am told is not healthy.

Anyway I just thought I would give you guys an incite in to what I have been think while you all sleep and I work.

Top 5 Songs/Artists/Genres To Write Code To

The geekdom series continues with the top 5 things to listen to while coding. I know this seems like an obscure post, but there’s actually a lot of theory around it. You see, geeks (read “coders”) like me need time to “get in the zone.” In other words, we need time to drown out the outside world and get focused on what we have to do. I’m not trying to say we need special attention or job is particular hard (it isn’t)… it’s just the way it is with writing code… very similar to writing an essay or doing a very hard math problem. Sorry, I always digress. Back to the point. Here’s the list.

5. The Rockband Soundtrack (No link, search for them on The Pirate Bay)

Caught some of you off guard with this one. Yeah, it’s number 5. It’s good for the casual day of coding at work, when you’re just not quite sure what to put on iTunes/Rythmbox, but you need something. The nice variety of upbeat tones can get you to lunch, at least.

4. Norah Jones (Samples Link)

With a deadline quickly approaching (or in my usual situation, already passed), nothing can calm you down and keep you from over-stressing quite like Norah Jones. It’s also fairly ambient. You don’t feel compelled to listen to the lyrics and lose your focus like you would some other artists. Her soothing voice is just enough to get you through the hectic times. I won’t list examples — they’re all good.

3. Coldplay (Samples Link)

Hmmm, how do I classify this one? I think it could be best described as “power-coding” music. You don’t want something ambient, but you also don’t want something that’s going to make you rock out of your chair. Coldplay seems to strike a nice balance between the two. And of course, their music is weird, so it probably fits your personality pretty well. Check out “Clocks” (of course), “The Scientist,” and “Square One.”

2. Death Cab for Cutie (Samples Link)

My girlfriend will probably get very excited when she reads this one. But the truth is, it’s really good music to write code to. I’ve found on more than one occasion it gets me into the all-praised super-focused mode, when the best code is written. Just an all around great band and good music to type in the geekbox to. Check out “Passenger Seat” (so beautiful), “Translantacism,” and “Brothers on a Hotel Bed.”

1. Digitally Imported — Chillout Station (Website, Stream Link)

Number one by a long shot. Why? This station only augments the effects of the aforementioned super-focused mode. Get in the zone, turn this station on, and watch your fingers steamroll through a project. This particular music seems to be best accompanied by coffee, lava lamps, and complete darkness (minus the lava lamp glow of course). If you’re feeling rich, spring for the Premium subscription. The quality difference is noticeable even for casual listeners.

Of course, it depends entirely on your personal tastes and preferences. But if you’re lost or just looking for something different, these 5 are a good place to start.

That concludes this geekdom post. I’m going to run out of these eventually. But until then… I’m open for suggestions on other good music to code by.

Suck Up’s We all Know Them

How to Change the World: The Art of Sucking Up

Check out this article about the best way to be a suck up. It gives you some perspective on how we suck up with out even knowing and how we can totally blow the efforts of our sucking up.

Think to yourself, who is the worst suck up you have ever met, then read this article.

I would love it if you leave a comment on other names for suck ups. Please keep it pg-13 🙂