Grudges are Worthless

For some odd reason, there is a certain percentage of the public that loves to hold grudges against those who they believe had done some kind of wrong upon them.  Holding angst against the opposing party for a week or so is fine, but anything more than a month is simply a farce. If the reason behind the grudge relates to a certain death or even a life-changing event directly related to the person, then those grudges are justifiable.  The grudge-bearer can hold these ill feelings for all they want, but they should also understand that these feelings are unhealthy for the body and mind.  Sooner or later, these unwanted feelings will cause the individual more grief and a decreased quality of life, which could lead to other unwanted events like injury and death.

The only way for the grudge-bearer to gain any satisfaction is when the opposing party comes back to “apologize” for the perceived wrongdoing or suffers a devastating blow in  one’s life.  If the grudge-bearer percieves this apology as of goodwill, then he or she might be able to forgive the other party. However, one can simply overlook this apology as a faux means to an end, and still carry these ill feelings to the grave.  By doing so, both members may clash against each other until the matter is resolved, either through compromise and mutual understanding or the permanent separation of the two parties. Separation can be done voluntarily, court martial, or by taking one’s life.

On the opposite side of the coin, the grudge could be so trivial that the supposed afflicted member could move on with life by casting away all connections with this individual and still bear minimal losses.  If the opposing member offered a helping hand to the grudge-bearer with good intent and recieves retribution, then there is no reason why he or she should risk his well-being and sanity for an ungrateful person.  This is espeically true when the ungrateful person happens to have little to no influence over the other person’s life.  If he or she does have an integral role in one’s life, then he or she should reconsider new avenues for living one’s life or amend the current dismal issue.

In the event that the grudge-bearer has little or no impact on anybody’s life, only the one holding the grudge suffers while everyone else is enjoying the rest of their lives.  The only saving grace for this individual is to learn how to forgive people and to recognize that these grudges might be a form of denial or have a relation to one’s past, traumatic or not.

All in all, these grudges must be dealt with swiftly to protect the wellbeing of oneself and surrounding public.  If people want to hate without any concrete evidence, then let them  be and move on with life.  Nothing could be more frustrating and depressing than convincing a person who refuses to understand the current situation and watch them walk down the path of suffering.

Quest for Better Entertainment

As one begins the exploration into a new field of entertainment, one would be advised to look find the gurus of that genre and/or taste the latest hot topics and classics of the respective subculture.  As one grows accostumed to the new genre, one will realize that some of these touted experts know as much as the person itself.  Therefore, it is critical to develop one’s ability to accurately appraise an items worth in order to find the gems in the rough. This will take time to build up the experience just like how a wine taster must taste hundreds of different wines to know the good from the bad from his or her point of view.

Due to the accessibility of the internet, one must learn how to quickly and reliably find trusted sources, regardless of the topic at hand.  Fortunately, there are several online articles that demonstrate how to use “Google” and produce the desired results.

Once one has acquired enough experience to figure out his or her preferences, he or she no longer needs to rely on other sources or opinions for those respective fields. Instead, these sources would be used as a soundboard and material for discussion.  These are the true gurus who can stand on their own two feet and make an honest statement within these specialized/niche areas.

Death of Google Reader and Plans for the Future

Google Reader has been my #1 source for news aggregation in an easy and quick way to peruse through the news. Sure, RSS is old and simple, but it is a very powerful tool in finding the required information without actually visiting the site. It even triumphs over the socially saturated media by allowing the user to customize what he or she wants to view.

Upon speculation, one of the reasons could be that Google Reader has very few opportunities for a company to harvest user information and sell it for money such as Facebook, Twitter, or Google Plus. Another possibility is that the majority of users can already be found on these social networks. With the increasing popularity of Google Plus, one would be less inclined to maintain a lesser popular items with less corporate benefits. Thankfully there are a few alternatives available as online readers.

As of now, I am currently investigating Feedly and “The Old Reader”. Feedly is good for the trendy peeps out there that like streamlined interfaces. Unfortunately, Feedly requires the user to install their add-on for any pc Web browser. It is also highly doubtful that Linux Web browser variants are supported such as uzbl, luakit, jumanji, etc. The Old Reader is shaping up to be a great alternative since it strives to emulate the old Google Reader with additional enhancements. The user has grown large enough that the developer has announced plans for an android app in the future.

Between the two, The Old Reader looks to be more transparent and considerate of the users such that it does not intrude one’s news feed with its own recommendations. Plus, this reader allows the option for the user to quickly skim through the articles by titles. In short, I’ll be using Feedly on the tablet until The Old Reader comes out with their own app. On pc, I would recommend the latter since Feedly requires additional installation.

[IMPRESSION] WordPress App Test

Apparently, WordPress has an app for blogging to their website and I am testing the capabilities of this app to see if it does live up to the ratings. From current usage as of now, this app was clearly intended for tablets with a good keyboard app such as SwiftKey and a screen size of at least 7″.

Upon inspection, it is not possible to edit current hyperlinks without inserting a new one at the cursor mark. Pictures do not have this problem and are easily removable from the post. One can easily set the position and size of the picture. However, copy and pasting pictures is a hard endeavor, even with a good keyboard app. Therefore, pictures should be inserted last unless one is 100% sure that he or she has no intention of moving that picture. Photos must be stored locally, or anything stored in the Google Android Gallery app.

All in all, this is a pretty solid application for general usage as long as one has all the pictures or videos stored locally or in the gallery app. Of course, there is always room for improvement such as more detailed interface (ie. Bullet or numbered lists). One could try syncing a keyboard and mouse, but that would defeat the purpose of traveling light with a tablet. For now, it has lived up to my most common needs of a blogging app, which might encourage me to post more often to the net.

2012 Reflection and 2013 Goals

Looking back onto 2012, I was able to accomplish some goals and scratching others off the list due to change of interest or more serious priorities emerging from within the family.

Linux is no longer on my list due to lack of interest and multiple unfortunate encounters with jaded elitists.  My quest for finding the right Linux environment has ended after I wrote some simple Debian post net-install scripts. If my needs ever come unmet, I shall embark on my journey for more information.

On another note, I have not found the need to proclaim the word of Linux for only those who need Linux will find Linux.  In other words, one will look for new solutions when the current solution has more consequences far outweigh the benefits (such as laziness). For those who are truly looking for an alternative to Windows and new to Linux, I would recommend Crunchbang Linux.

For the truly ambitious, I would recommend LinuxBBQ. The distribution comes in several flavors and will undoubtedly provide a comprehensive understanding of Debian, especially if one decides to use the base install as their starting point and persevere into “roasting” their own individualized environment. The learning curve might be steep and almost frightening, but it is definitely worth the effort. Robert Frost once said that the path less traveled has made all the difference.

Unsurprisingly, the majority of my 2012 year went straight to work and enriching my nursing career. So much time went into this that I only had time for food and sleep.  If people do not understand why others do not have time for their requests, it is because everyone else is working hard for the money to make ends meet every month.  Hopefully my life would settle down this year, but nobody can predict the future.

Goals for 2013:

1. Continue the nursing profession
2. Learn gardening
3. Simplify my life
4. Post more often on this blog.

Windows 8 Woes

If only fixes were that simple.

 

During my 3 month stay on Windows 8 for my Home Theater PC (HTPC), I was pleasantly happy with the system managing my home theater needs (Music, movies, tv shows, emulators, games), until today when I ran out of space on my main system partition.  In an effort to migrate and free up space on the system partition (C:), I have decided to follow a tutorial that would migrate the Users folder to a different partition. Folders were moved and symbolic links were made to the system. Upon reboot, I was greeted by Windows prompting me with an error

“user profile service Service failed the log on. User profile can not be loaded.”

On top of this problem, I couldn’t even log into Windows 8 nor boot into safe mode post bios boot.  As much as I enjoyed Windows 8 and want to keep it as my Operating System (OS) of choice for my HTPC, I cannot fathom the time lost if I decide to backup and repartition my hard drive to accommodate Windows 8 gluttonous demands.  Frankly, I think Windows 7 might be the easier and lighter option in maintaining a Windows oriented HTPC.  I have considered Linux as an option, but finding a way to harmoniously merge all of my emulators, music, games, videos into XBMC/Openelec is a tough deal to accomplish by today’s means.  Heck, has anyone even found a way to make emulators (retroarch, pcsx2, dolphin, etc) work within XBMC on the Linux side?

For now, I will most likely install Windows 7 over 8, despite it being a step (or possibly 10 steps) back, but that will have to wait another time when I actually have free time again.

Recovering From Tragedies

Within the past week, I have been plagued with misfortune. A friendship was lost, a console and its save data broken and corrupted, a relative died, and a car crash in the family. As we all know it, the world moves on with disregard to the woes of the individual. Sympathy can sometimes help ease the pain, but it can also aggravate the victim. Empathy is more useful in this case, since both parties can relate to each other. As much as I want to blame myself and carry these pains to the grave, I ask the victims I have done wrong to forgive me as I would for those who have done me wrong. As I see it now, I must move forward into world and learn to prevent past mistakes and misfortunes to repeat itself from here on out. I bear no grudges against anyone, for they benefit nobody except for petty self-satisfaction.

Mid-Year Progress

It is almost fall and plenty of things have changed.

1. Linux Project scratched
2. Forums purged from life
3. Almost all video games and other forms of entertainment purged from life.
4. Work and money became first priority

I have been busy with work and balancing it with my personal life, hence the lack of activity.  The new healthcare laws has made so many impacts on the hospitals in America that I begin to think that there is no such thing as job security.

Fixing Broken Ends

New friendships are easy to make and easy to break. People mingle and find out that they like a lot of the same topics. As time progresses, disagreements and arguments arise. Every dispute arises new information about each person.  One can choose to accept the other for what he or she is or  completely disagree and break the friendship.  The former decision requires patience, empathy, and willpower even if the other party lacks these qualities.  Over time, the other party will gradually develop the qualities necessary to build a healthy and strong relationship.  However, if there are numerous consecutive disagreements and failure to respect each other’s opinions, then the relationship will erode and the bridge of friendship will crumble.  There are other circumstances where the friendship could immediately implode itself from just one argument.

The next most difficult task is repairing the bridge of friendship.  If the bridge is still intact, there is hope in recovering the rest via compliments and empowerment.  However, if the bridge is completely blown apart, then it might be too late to make any amends to the respective person.  Both parties are severly hurt by one another’s actions and prefer to shut out any information from the other party.  It is only by luck if one is able to have the other person hear him or her out and agree to give the relationship another chance.  With persistence and acts of kindness, one might be able to make some progress.  In the case of workplace situations, this will have to be done sooner than later if anyone wants to bring the misery to an end.

The worst situation is when both parties know that the relationship cannot be salvaged and irrecoverable. As much as one wants to be friends with the other, it is simply not possible.  These scars can last forever, but they are more devastating in the workplace.  For example, the termination of one’s employment from the company can scar any participating member for life, but moreso for the terminated employee.  In addition to receiving the last blow to one’s ego and occupational security, He or she will face even more hardships trying to find a new job.

The Implications of Fanboyism and their Impact on the Community

There are two fanboys: Ignorant ones and enlightened ones. Both support their idol/item/deity wholeheartedly.  They proudly advertise their beloved product to everyone and consistently back it up with subjective evidence about how it has improved their life.  The only difference between the ignorant ones and the enlightened ones is that the enlightened one acknowledges the drawbacks of the item in question.  The ignorant fanboys merely aggravate the more educated ones and tend to drain morale, progress, and creativity.

Example: Enlightened Nintendo fanboy acknowledges the fact that the majority of their games are mediocre and child-oriented whereas an ignorant one would dodge the question by supporting his or her standpoint with nearly irrelevant facts, simply because he or she does not have the in-depth background information. In other words, the ignorant fanboy has limited knowledge and understanding to even provide an adequate argument or debate against the debater.

Please be aware that the example above may or may not be particularly true to the nature of Nintendo fanboys in real life.

As far as life goes, a very small minority of the human population reside in the educated section of fanboys, especially on the internet.  In order to enlighten the less-informed individuals, one must go back into the cave as Socrates has foretold in the story of “Allegory of the Cave” and convince them that what they believe in was simply just a shadow of a puppet show and that there are far better things in life.  Unfortunately, this ordeal is highly trifling and time consuming, where one wonders if the ends would justify the means.

For the truly stubborn and unenlightened, leave them behind because they are rigid in their ways.  They refuse to change, because they fear of change and possibly lack the mental strength to handle the shock.  Also, it is not worth fighting the stubbornly ignorant fanboys who rage against the obvious facts, because they tend to think that they are inherently right. Make one attempt to show them that they are wrong and present concrete objective evidence and let them come to their own conclusions. If they still refuse to change their ways, then so be it.

Therefore, we are left with these options:

1. Press forward and keep trying to educate them
2. Ignore and leave them behind.
3. Fuel the fire by retaliating like a boss (such as ostracizing or making a laughingstock out of the person)

Of course, watching this music video can immensely ease the suffering.