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Rise! Undead! Rise!

Published January 12 '10 Random Leave a Comment
Tags: Blog, Inactivity

Last post’s publish-date says “September 30th”. I remember at the time I thought it was funny, because I would have the oportunity to keep publishing at least one post per month (and have September, October, n… in my ‘archive’). Turns out, it is January already and there have been zero posts in between. Even though I wrote oh so fascinating material for this blog and others… I never published it. It was all boring stuff, just like this post.

This blog is not dead. It was merely sleeping: Since I am already beginning to work on a couple of MySpace layouts I need, helping mum with her website, and I just started working on what one day will be the site for a netlabel a friend and I created… I decided I might as well work on five other blogs I have been meaning to update.

That is: music reviews, tech reviews, music making (x2) and my personal blog.

Personal, right? I guess I shouldn’t stick to [extremely personal] and type something interesting every now and then for everyone to read.

Random Fact and Thought

Published September 30 '09 Random Leave a Comment

At some point in history, a system was designed to prevent any subway operator from crashing his or her railcar with the one in front.

I can almost see the BOOM

My mother told me she found out about this doing research for a high school project of hers (over 20 years ago), it had already been working for a while: Just in case “an operator went nuts all of the sudden”.

It makes me wonder. When was this implemented?

Thanks to Alexcaban for the picture.

Hatheim

Published August 31 '09 Ponderables Leave a Comment

Officially it has been little over a year since I finished High School. Like most people in this planet, I had some of the most incredible and amazingly fun experiences I have ever had there. I met many people, went to many places, heard all kinds of music and forged friendships that (according to every grown-up I knew at the time) will last for all eternity.

What I realized a few minutes ago was something I first noticed not long after the last year began, our school system used an area instead of a course-picking system, which is: students are to choose from one of four areas and take each and every course in the one they choose. In the end we had future engineers, doctors, people-people (interaction) and artists. As a student aiming for a SOEN degree I picked the former, and fun times I had. The first months, however, I noticed the way everyone changed their way of thinking: To make it simple, each area looked down on the others with pity and disgust. I guess everyone forgot we all need each other sooner or later.

High School came to an end, each area divided itself even more (remember, there is a universe of programs out there), and things could only get… worse. A SOEN student, I got along with Computer Science (related) people but since I am completely against all kinds of discrimination, I refused to make fun of people who didn’t get my jokes or the structure of my ideas. Unfortunately for me, most people who DID know something I did not had oceans of fun trying to make me look dumb (but I DO know how to use Google) and word came from others that the same had been done to them, or by them (which isn’t funny).

It wasn’t until a while ago that a mean comment, and a completely annoying person (never IM me again, Mr. SOMEAWE) that I noticed this had reached a whole new level of mean. I guess people forget how things work in a society sometimes.

To move a city, how many doctors do you need? How many traffic controllers? Which spent more money on his education? Does it matter?

Now, I am absolutely sure I would not like a traffic controller performing surgery on me… but that is beyond obvious (unless said person is secretly an M.D. and a Ph.D.). The point is, there is no need to demean another profession just because you think yours is better because if that were the case, I would certainly love to see you perform well at both (at the same time, for you smart people).

So next time you use hyper-specialized terms with people you know will know nothing about, remember you don’t know it all.

And you, who might read said word/phrase/whatever, show them how wikipedia is probably at a higher educational (and most certainly semantical) level.

Square Nine

Published July 31 '09 Square Nine 1 Comment
Tags: Square Nine

I have been hopping around blogs since 2003, I have seen many themed blogs take off and reach places I think they never ever imagined they would when they began, I have seen as well many of them die and eventually disappear (when their X years-long subscriptions were not paid anymore). As years go by, my list of favourites often needs to be checked and re-checked for all those who never reappeared and those who changed into something I was not fond of.

Truth be told, this is about my eighth (or maybe the eleventh) blog. Ever since I finished high school I decided I was going to write more and more and more, surprisingly I did. Problem is, in the end I was not exactly satisfied with my writing, and I ended up deleting almost everything.

I even started another blog (Somatoxin, check it out!) in which a friend and I review albums of our favourite artists. I think I have not posted there in two months now, sad story.

This week, however, another opportunity rose. They (yes, they!) call it Square Nine, and it picks up a focus and ideas I had not had the opportunity to explore or share in a long time. Guess what? Geek culture (I’m more of a nerd, actually). I am glad to be part of this team, there is much to learn and much to write in this new blog.

So far its first three days have been really successful; Fridays are known for being the worse days to write articles in the afternoon since there is almost no-one home to read them, or wanting to read at all. I was more than surprised at the amount of attention it received prior to its launch and on day zero.

Want reviews about videogames, gadgets, OS, websites and the like?

Then, check it out!

Square Nine Blog

Square Nine @Twitter

Still So Strange

Published May 26 '09 Daily Life Leave a Comment

Summer is almost here once again, hormones go crazy and everyone starts thinking and remembering things. Last year I was done with school and planning my country-moving-thing, high school was just over and while many partied others just dreaded what was to come. I just went ahead and lived things as they came, and dispatched them as they appeared before me. The first time my current problem rose was not long before the winter break. I wanted to switch degrees.

My two-year dream was to become a great programmer and then move to the videogame industry. Videogames, something I always have and always will love, that was my ultimate goal: Become an eminence in that world and do what apparently came very natural to me. The first time I ever doubted I wanted to study that was in winter, I was bored and started to see things from a different perspective. I then decided that I would go on to the end and then apply for medicine, go ahead and get a PhD.

And everything was just fine, perfect… until my past semester came to an end and I started thinking a little bit more than I should have once again. I realized even more truths than I did before. I do not want to spend my days programming like a rat, I like programming – I LOVE programming but it just is not something I find amusing anymore, not unless I really want (and not need) to do something. This lead me to think why the hell do I want to study medicine? And the answer was simple. I don’t!

There is a certain amount of knowledge one can get from studying something, and this applied knowledge should be used not for personal gain, but for everyone. This could be translated as: The more you know, the more useful you can prove to be! And that is an idea that has been wandering around my head for over a decade now. The comes in the process between X and Y, all that has to be done to make it to the end.

Then the FK came… watching all these awesome “famous” people behave like what they are, humans, was an incredible experience. Never before had I felt so happy about other people, never before had I wanted to do something completely similar to what they were.I love music more than anything in this world, if you check my last.fm account you can even see that I listen an unhealthy amount of music (+200 songs ~ 22-23 hours per day), and so I decided that I wanted to do something about it. A problem? I do not play any instrument at all! I own/ed several but never came to the point I excelled at any of them, never have.

I believe it is never too late to learn something new, or do something you want to do. So here I go.

A degree change I want, and music will have a part.