Ess Dee Tek Tiv

Gas Prices and Commercials?

2007-05-16T16:25:00.000-07:00

I saw a strange thing, it was a commericial for gasoline! My beef with that is that you don't usually see ad campaigns for things you actually need. I don't see how ads for gas are going to make people buy more gas, so it might just be a waste of money to have said adverts. How can they afford a useless--Ohh... that's how...

Well, yesterday was supposed to be the gas boycott day. I wonder if anything happened. Hmm... It's a sad thing because gas is one of those things that you don't have much choice... you sorta have to buy it.

Because things can be spread out, they are. Because they are, you need a car. Most things are far. Hardy har har.

In other countries lots of people ride bikes (in Southeast Asian Countries), or walk (European Cities), because the way their towns are set up. Especially here on the West Coast of America, things are really sprawled out. We have wide open spaces.

So next time I go by a gas station I'll look and see if the prices are down. Soon, I'll be getting a car, and then really paying the money.

For now, I'm riding the bus home, and someone on the bus noted that regular gas prices are now more than diesel, and that diesel used to be more expensive than gas. Maybe the next step for me is to get a diesel motorcycle. If they don't exist... well that's why there are customs.

The Dubbing Game

2007-05-12T18:23:00.000-07:00

I've heard of people saying it is like a show that used to run called "Mystery Science Theater." Being that I've never seen the show, save for a few times I saw the last minute of it once, I can't say for sure if it is. Anyway, there's a game that my dad and I play where we watch TV with the volume all the way down and we talk for the characters.

There's a lot of times where it works out weird like my dad will talk for a character when the character's lips aren't moving, then my character's lips will move and I'll say:

"It's weird how I can I hear you and you're lips aren't moving."

"I'm honing my telepathy skills."

"Well, it's starting to scare me but look! I'm talking and my lips aren't moving either. This skill could come in handy."

What's funny is imagining how different our story is from what is actually going on in the TV show. In one show, which featured people from different jobs sitting at a desk talking about politics, the topic we dubbed over it seemed to be a mix of how long you have to work in order to be allowed to hold a fountain pen (each of the members of the show seemed to be holding a pen and yet none of them ever wrote) and the topic became the discussion of the question: "What is the topic?"

Funny things will happen where people on the screen will continue to talk longer than you expect. What I try to do is end what someone says with a question for the other to answer, but when the person keeps talking I might end up rambling what the question is for a few minutes.

The last time we did the dubbing game, we turned a press conference into a discussion about nothing, one time we made a speech at a library into a rap, and sitcoms are always fun because you are trying to make sense out of the whole thing.

We never tried dubbing an entire movie on DVD though, because that would be exhausting. We ended up trying that, and it worked out good. The criteria I had for the movie is that it couldn't be too dramatic, and for our purposes "Monsters, Inc" seemed like a good choice.

And it was. In our story, the one-eyed Monster, Mike, was on bad terms with Roz, the old paperwork lady, because he had entered a cake contest and won with a cake that was similar to a recipe of Roz's. The monsters were going into the doors to get cash donations, and clothing donations were completely unacceptable, which is why they freak out over a sock. The toddler was an Alien to the Monster's world who came in peace, disguised as the young form of their species to appear to be peaceful, but when the other monsters acted hostile toward her, it was fun making her say "I come in peace, but now my planet will annihilate you!" The scream-sucker that the Chameleon-like monster developed became a device that forced people to play a musical instrument. It was fun saying "You will now play the saxophone!"

"But I don't want to play the saxophone!"

"Don't make her play the saxophone!"

"Fine, put in Clarinet mode, muwahahahaha!"

This gives me an idea for a future blog post compiled of funny quotes that don't make sense out of context... that would be one of them.

Internet gets Annoying

2007-05-11T17:16:00.000-07:00

I'm getting tired of the internet. It's gets kinda tiring when you've read an email (surprisingly only one copy) about boycotting gas on May 15, and you just want to do a blog search for the subject line of that email because you're interested in what blogs might say about it so that you can do a blog post little link-fest to a bunch of them and then you click on one of them with a new angle on the thing, read it and leave a comment, and then you click on another one and it ends up being pornographic because even though you set your Google preferences to include SafeSearch by default and for no good reason it doesn't carry over to Google BlogSearch.

So basically, I'm tired of all that coming up. It used to be fun to just peruse around, but because of the chance of that scenario happening, it's not worth it. From now on, I'm pretty much just sticking to all the stuff in my feedreader, email, and friends' sites. Really, that's what most people stick to isn't it? But what about school projects? My school subscribes to these services so I'd go to online databases.

So you know what that means? Any comments that link to something like a Blogger profile that I don't know, get deleted. I'm not even going to check anymore, because of the chance that it will be something gross, it's not worth it.

But don't worry, my bloggings will be in a better mood later... that is if I think it's worth it.

Seriously, right now, I could be getting my writings out in the form of scholarship essay contests, and there's a chance that I'll get well-needed money for school out of that. The chance of this right here helping me? Zero.

Well, the help from this blog comes in the form of catharsis. Also, I can just be like BLAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH! randomly. I don't know if that would help in any essay contests.

Should I Start a New Blog?

2007-05-11T17:02:00.000-07:00

Something I'm considering is just starting a new blog. Starting... "afresh." You see, any chance I get, I love changing an adjective into a noun by adding an "a", and also I've become a lot better at blogging. Really, this blog right here was my very first blog, (well sort of) and it went bye-bye when I got into the Halo 2 community scene... after saying something and interacting in a community and getting replies, I pretty much got all I had to say "out", there was no need for a blog, but I still blogged a little about Halo 2 (http://sdtektivh2.blogspot.com)

Maybe it is time for an old blog to be an old blog.

Maybe I should just redo this one?

I don't know if I'm going to stick with the name "SDtektiv." "SDtektiv" is just a name I use online. The idea of it was so that I could be under the protection of being anonymous--I could be more "real" since it isn't my real name. If you're randomly stumbling across this you're probably like, "what's the big deal?"

I've gotten to the point that a good few people know of "SDtektiv", and I have to reluctantly admit that I care a little about the reputation of "SDtektiv". I think that I would benefit from shedding this name and all the stuff I said under this name and starting "a-pristine." (Okay, so you can't add "a" to just any adjective.)

If I ever became a rapper, I'm not sure if I'd want to use the name "SDtektiv." If I did that, then my real self would be associated with it and I'd have to account for all the stuff I've said in my blog from years ago. That stuff comes back to haunt you. I mean, my opinions are going to change, and what I said before I wouldn't neccessarily agree with or the way I said it. Okay, maybe that wouldn't be too bad, but what if I run for President after that? I am not planning on it, but there's always the chance.

If I ran for President, I'd have to account for everything short of how I stole someone's fruit cup in the third grade. I don't remember if I did, and that's the point!

I want to switch to something else. And if I do, then the new blog can't just be a reinvention of this one, because the URL of this blog has "SDtektiv" in it. And you simply cannot change the URL of a blog. You can, but it's a bad choice. There are links to this URL that I have put out there, in emails to friends and in forums... this URL would have some value and so evil spammers would take over the old URL if I ever changed this URL. And since those links are out there, people would think it was my blog.

I've heard that WordPress is really good, but I did try it once before and was confused by it, and I do like Blogger.

Back to the name thing. Something I was considering was using my real name. But soon we'd run into problems. If I used my real name in my blog, I'd still be using my old email address, and I'd still want to comment on the same peoples' blogs and have those comments link to the new blog. If I commented under my real name, the other people wouldn't know that it was me, because in that sense my moniker "SDtektiv" is almost more real than my real name, as all the shared experiences occured under this name.

Also there is the fact that some people might be more open to me if I type under a different name because then it wouldn't be hard for them to see through the opinions they have of SDtektiv, since I wouldn't be typing as SDtektiv.

I think I'm overcomplicating things.

Life is not a Competition.

2007-04-29T19:26:00.000-07:00

About a week ago or so--I can't recall exactly how long ago it was.

Anyway, an event happened that I believe I got a bit of wisdom out of that would benefit a lot of people, nonchristians and Christians alike.

A group of people I didn't know all that well--fairly well--were in the discussion of school dances. For some reason I ended up in the conversation and I ended up saying that I didn't plan on going to any school dances. I don't remember how I ended up saying it because it was in the natural way that things come up in conversation, either I got asked or that's how the talking drifted.

"Even your Senior Prom?"

"Yeah."

"Why?"

"I don't feel like paying money to go somewhere I'm going to end up walking right of in two seconds... because of the stuff they do that isn't actually 'dancing'. If "school dances" were actually "dances" without the bad stuff I'd go."

Then someone said something that was a bit mocking of me, I can't remember what it was. Perhaps I victimized myself or mistook what they said. But the important part is that I felt that I was being mocked... and then I'd see how I'd react to it. I could have responded by getting angry, but instead I revealed the truth that it hurt me by saying

"I don't get it. I'm not trying to force anything on anyone."

Their reaction was that they felt bad about it, and no one left feeling like they'd been made fun of. Okay, maybe just a little, but I noticed something. People, including me, fear being even a little bit vulnerable. But if we'd be our true selves, and realize that life is not a competition, we'd realize that we actually do care about each other.

And instead of tension between us, there is respect.

Sure, there's been one really stinging time I'm recalling right now in my memory where I didn't join into another person's "competition of existing" and they kept going with it and I was torn up inside by it, but maybe I made a positive impact on the other person... or at least the bystanders of it.

And about the whole School Dance thing, I find other places to dance at, and I probably dance more often than people who go to School Dances, so don't feel sorry for me!

Politically Correct

2007-04-23T20:46:00.000-07:00

I don't want to try to always be politically correct.

What I mean is more important than the words I use. Being sincere is more important than appearing to be sincere.

That being the case, I would never intentionally be politically incorrect just to be politically incorrect. Just as I would never intentionally try to offend someone. I'm just going to try my best not to but if it ends up happening, it probably wasn't on purpose.

The danger is going too far in thought about this. Just like how sometimes I think I should not go to a store at a certain time because I think I won't be able to find a parking spot... but then I think that other people will think that and then no one will be there so I should go... but then I think that people will think that too and it will be crowded... you see where I'm going with this?

I'm just going to blog, talk, and write and be myself.

Current Seattle Mariners or Former Mariners

2007-04-22T19:46:00.000-07:00

There is a statement that used to pass from my lips without any second thoughts, but at this very moment, it is causing me to ponder if it resembles a paradox.

"I am a Mariners fan."

Now, I still love the Mariners, but I started thinking about something. Since I love the Mariners, that means that I want them to win and the other team to lose, but here's where we come into a bit of a fix.

If the Mariners are playing a team that has more players from what used to be "the Mariners," who do I root for?

Watching baseball in recent seasons and seeing former Mariners on The Yankees' team had led me to mistakenly believe that the Yankees are currently comprised very much of the players that I cheered for when they were Mariners a few years ago. One example is John Olerud, but he isn't on the Yankees anymore.

So, the question becomes, "which is more important to me?" The players... or the name of the team they play under?

I don't recognize the players who are the Mariners now except for Ichiro, Raul Ibanez, and Jose Guillen, and it might be that I am recognizing some of them just from earlier this year.

Since other teams have many players who were former Mariners, I wonder if it is like a reunion when they play against each other, or like an Alumni game or something. The old Mariners versus the new Mariners.

So I want the Mariners to win, but which ones? I used to be completely anti-"teams that aren't the Mariners", and I never thought I would say this, so I'm going to say it in a roundabout way. Maybe I'd root for the ones that I first became a fan of.

Afterthought: If you randomly stumbled on this blog and were looking for a Mariners blog, here's one: http://marinerds.blogspot.com/

Ice Blocking, it's like sledding in the summer

2007-04-20T09:55:00.000-07:00

Yesterday I went with a group of guys from church do something called "ice blocking." I had never heard of it before. It was a lot of fun!

My small group leader didn't tell us what we were doing when he called to invite us, only that I needed four dollars and clothes that I wouldn't be afraid to get dirt on. My guess was paintball, but he said that I would never guess what it was, and I didn't! The four dollars paid for pizza and for the blocks of ice.

Now, ice blocking is lots of fun, it's like sledding in the summer. It's just dangerous enough without being too dangerous; it's safe enough that I would be okay with taking a girl on an ice-blocking date, depending on the girl.

When my small group leader told me what we were doing, I thought he was just making something up. What you do is buy a block of ice for each person, then you go to the top of a long and steep hill covered in short grass. Then you fold a towel and put it on top of the ice block. Then you sit on the towel which is on the ice block, grip the towel on the back of the ice block (or wherever), and you push forward with your feet and slide down the hill feet-first and try to keep your balance on the ice block.

It is really cheap fun, $1.50 cheap. And the ice block lasts a long time on grass.

There were five us all going at once, doing races, trying to go down different ways. The best way is just to sit on it. Other competitions we did involved seeing who could go the furthest without falling or slowing down, mostly it was just walking up the hill and sledding down continuously, and at the end we had a contest to see who could throw their ice block the furthest, and surprisingly I won!

Ice blocking, it rocks the mullet.

Halo 2 Maps: A Happy Change of Policy for Microsoft?

2007-04-19T16:16:00.000-07:00

I used to play Halo 2 on my Xbox 1 on LIVE. I find it really ironic that one of the reasons why I didn't renew my Xbox LIVE subscription turned out to not happen. It was announced some time ago that two new maps for Halo 2 would be Xbox 360-exclusive, which was "the straw that broke the camel's back" and turned me away from Microsoft gaming, because Bungie (the company that makes Halo) said that Microsoft was the one who made the decision. So don't blame Bungie!

This is the funny part: I found out that the Halo 2 maps are actually going to release for both consoles. This makes a whole lotta more sense since Halo 2 was not only made for, but runs better on, Xbox 1.

Well at least I don't have to deal with deciding whether to use to Xbox communicator headset today or not: (link to post about the unmoderated choice words that are prevalent on LIVE)

Even though I have left the online part of Xbox gaming, and don't foresee myself ever valuing a console at 400 dollars, I still care about all the folks I left behind on LIVE, so the news that Microsoft are showing in some way that they care about their customers enough did make me happy! Here's why:

I was glad to see this unexpected turnaround for Microsoft. Little things like how they did the "premium/core" packaging scam, the "let's release maps for an Xbox 1 game except only release it for the Xbox 360"... as good as money is, there were things that made it too obvious that they were out for MORE money.

Now, don't get me wrong here, I believe that money is a good thing. I'm fine with a company trying hard to get me to pay them money, because in order to do that, they'll have to impress me with a solid product and not have any motives to trick me out of more cash. If I am ever buying a refrigerator at a store and the seller tries to get me to buy a warranty on the fridge, I would say, "Oh, you're expecting it to break down? It must not be that good then, see you later!"

What is taking it too far is when a company makes it too blatantly obvious. Some friends that I knew were into Halo 2 may have said, "this thing with only releasing the maps for Xbox 360, it's a marketing scheme." Yes, but I never saw how something can become okay just because it'll make someone money.

This thing with the newest Halo 2 maps being released for both consoles, that made me happy and made me say, "this is a good thing they're doing. I am happy for all my friends who are fans of Microsoft games."

Recently, I found out, from a visit to one of my old favorite Halo 2 communities, that Microsoft is running advertisements on their Xbox 360 Dashboards! Even this is way below Microsoft's standard. The money for the console, game, and LIVE weren't enough? That's too bad.

Unfortunately, it seems that Microsoft is going to push their consumers to the limit. If this is a bandwagon, then I would try to stop its course, but I already jumped off a couple miles back and I'm waving at it through binoculars.

How to Attract More Visitors to your Blog

2007-04-18T18:23:00.000-07:00

Leave a comment on every story that you like by other bloggers. It makes everybody feel good and they may click on your name and view your website.
If a story fits, if the story is sort of journalistic and it is about a specific thing or on modern events, submit it to Digg
Link to other blogs
Respond to visitor comments (I don't know if this attracts more readers but actually do this just for fun!)
Post once a day if you can! And when you feel like blogging a LOT, then just save them as drafts and post them on other days. This very post that I'm posting I originally started on April 3rd, 2007, and today it is the 18th. If you have a few backup posts then you can publish on a regular basis more. I know that I don't do this much myself, I even call it a "monthly blog" in the description because of this!
Have a link to your blog in the signatures of forums and in your email address.
Write out the address of your blog on little pieces of paper and hand them out to your friends!
Blogger has an article about this very subject at this very long URL: http://help.blogger.com/bin/answer.py?answer=42377&query=attract%20visitors&topic=&type=f

Bored? here's Ten Internet Timewasters.

2007-04-17T20:30:00.000-07:00

Google Yourself
Wikipedia Article-hopping
See what websites used to look like.
See how many blogs you can leave a comment on in 15 minutes, go!
Read some books!
Dogpile Joke of the Day
Do some Digg-ing
Keep a Pixelated Tire in the air
If you have a blog, make sure you've responded to comments, if you've done that, fiddle with the design and sidebar content, if you've done that, read your archives, if you don't have a blog, then if you're reading this then you have time to spare, so start one! If you don't know what to blog about, you could link to this post as the one that convinced you start blogging!
Draw a Sledding Slope Note: If you want to play the game without a moving ad next to it (as I do), simply press the "Refresh" browser button and then the "Stop" browser button as soon as the actual game box loads. The order of the loading stuff on the site is: Left Ad, Game box, Right Ad. If you stop it before the right ad, you can scroll to the right and voila! no ad. You might wonder why I do all this work in order to play a game. Well, they got me hooked before the major Car and Travel ads came onto their site.

Cards and Gambling, where do you stand?

2007-04-14T13:04:00.000-07:00

Something I love and enjoy is playing the classic card game, Poker. I like all forms of it. I can play your classic 5-draw, and, if you can refresh me of the rules, I can play a game called "Omaha Hold'em." Now, some aficionados might be saying, "It's Texas Hold'em, silly g00se!", but they are two separate "Hold'ems" and I enjoy them both. I actually haven't played Omaha Hold'em that much, only once or twice. If there was only one kind of "Hold'em", would it be necessary to say "Texas... Hold'em"?

The beauty of Texas Hold'em is that you can play it with a lot more people than you can other forms of Poker. 52 cards, after a certain amount of people, you're gonna run outta cards. Fact of life.

In this, something that I never do is bet money. For me, it is morally wrong. You can draw your own conclusions. I wouldn't play at a Casino, because then that's just saying "Goodbye" to my money even if I didn't get attached/addicted to the danger and thrill of winning.

I want to someday go to some sort of Poker tournament though. My question is "would this be bad?" I want to, by the time I'm done writing this post, develop an idea of where I stand on this.

Here is something I considered and discussed with one of my friends; Let's say a race car driver enters a race and pays an entry fee. If he wins, then he gets a monetary reward that is made up of a part of all the race car drivers' entry fees. If he loses, then he goes home with the good memory of doing something he loves, and doesn't feel like he threw his money away with the entry fee.

Now, technically, could someone say that this is gambling? Most people, I believe, would not say that, because of the fact that he's just paying money to see how his skills line up with other competitors, and then as an afterthought there's the chance that he'll win more than what he paid if he does well.

If there was a Poker Tournament, where people paid a certain fee to enter and weren't able to buy more chips as they went, very similar to the race car scenario two paragraphs ago, then would it be bad to enter? If the only difference between the race car scenario and this here Poker Scenario (Poker makes me want to talk like I'm in the Wild West), is that the skill being tested is playing cards instead of racing.

(This next sentence is pushing it) arguably, because race car driving could be more dangerous than playing cards, wouldn't there be a little more at stake in that contest than in a Poker Tournament?

Again, if the contender leave the event without taking home a prize, neither the race car driver nor the Poker player feels that he has wasted money.

Imagine with me if you will, I have a line with a dot on each end. One of the dots represents what I know to be gambling, and the other one represents what I know to not be gambling... I just have to decide where I draw my line in the gray area.

For now, I'm content with holding poker parties with my friends and defeating my College age brother and his friends when they play poker. I see your bet and I raise you 10.

Stand up to Bullies

2007-04-13T20:44:00.000-07:00

Today at lunch I was sexually harassed. By a stranger. A fellow student, a relative of a friend, someone I never met.

But this wasn't one of those situations where I'd be a victim who ends up feeling less powerful. No, I've had that before, this time was going to be different. I pretty much got right back in the person's face (not literally, but with my words), and I basically said that this is wrong and I wasn't afraid to tell the principal about it and get him in trouble. I also referenced a previous time that I threatened to tell on someone and that this wasn't anything that I hadn't fought against before and I wasn't going to be intimidated or afraid.

I said those words, and I got mad and left the lunch room and went to my next class 15 minutes early.

Halfway through the class period, I realized that I was really mad, rightly so, and that if I didn't forgive the person in my heart that it would rob me of my joy and ruin my day, which could turn into a week, which could turn into a month, a year, and so on. What I did was I walked to the bathroom, (our art rooms have one-person bathrooms in the art studio buildings), and I prayed that I hated what he did to me. I want nothing to do with him. It's wrong. It hurt me, and I don't plan to say "I forgive you" to his face (I'll probably never see him again and he'll probably never ask for forgiveness). So I said, "I forgive him" and I prayed that God would bless him and that he wouldn't try to do that to anyone anymore.

At the same time, I had realized that I had been sexually harassed before in my life, about once every three years or so, and that doesn't just happen randomly. No. I don't think that other people get that kind of treatment. Understand that I believe in God and Satan and Angels and Demons and I believe that they have assignments on people. Call it superstitious if you want. Could it be possible that there was an assignment against me in which evil spirits attempted to get people to treat me that way?

Know that I don't blame God or Satan for everything, a lot of things are just life. But it just can't always be random and it can't always be just life. Based on what I believe to be true, and I don't accept things at face value... I can vouch for times when someone would pray for me and it would change how people treated me or my emotions in a positive way, and some of those positive changes have stuck with me ever since those instances of praying to this day.

This, I have finally come to realize, could not be one of those things that are "just life". Not logically likely. So I also broke off all evil spirits and any assignments against me. Yeah, I believe in curses. I broke those off too, and God did. I don't know how someone can go living on Earth without believing in those things, but then again not everyone has seen and experienced what I've seen, many have seen more and many have seen less.

I hope that anyone reading this realizes that that sort of thing is wrong and no one should ever do that. And if you ever get harassed--I pray that that would never happen to anyone reading this--, but if it does happen... just get really mad, quick. Clench your fists, speak to their consciences, get away quickly, threaten to tell the authorities. If they call you a tattletale, I would not care about a creep's opinion. Don't take it. You don't have to take it.

I also find it strange that this happened at a time when I was beginning to enjoy living again. I was really happy. Demons don't like that. Now they're writhing in pain.

I've felt closer to God lately than I have in a long time. I ended up enjoying the rest of the day. We win.

Idea: Class President Campaign (drift to) too-expensive Calculators

2007-04-12T16:05:00.000-07:00

I was thinking about thinking about running for class president next year at school. The thing is that right now we have a really solid class president which we've had for two years and I expect him to run again. I'm not sure what my campaign would be like. Maybe all I have to do is merely tell the truth about me?

I could talk about how in the lunch room last year no one could hear the lunch bell signaling the end of lunch. What happened was that every class that was after lunch had a lot of tardies, which makes sense because there was nothing to signal the end of lunch. I got a detention from those tardies, me! So, what I did was I wrote a letter to the principal about how no one could ever hear the bell at lunch, that it is good to punish people who went against the school rules, but we also needed the ability to follow them! So, I talked to the principal, and now we can hear the lunch bell and we know when the end of lunch is, a big problem solved.

Most people don't know that it was me who said something, but that's good because then I'll get a better reward for it someday, but now that I am publishing this in a blog, well I guess that I've lost the reward because I've announced the good deed like a trumpeting Pharisee.

I wonder how it works, because my real name isn't attached to this post or blog or anywhere on the Internet. Maybe I'll get half the reward. We'll find out someday, it will be fun.

So I could maybe run with a campaign that addresses issues that I'd like to see solved in our school. Like maybe let's have one of the dances be way different from the other dances. Like we could do a Swing Dance theme and (I don't know) actually play Swing Music, then maybe the school dance would be more like a (hmm...) dance! We would have to market and be clear that if you like how school dances have been, then you don't want to come this one because it will be way different. But that's not as a serious issue, though definitely important.

Another important issue is that students must do a certain amount of hours of community service in order to graduate, which I think is a great thing! (But) the problem is that students are not allowed to get started on the community service until their Junior year, and by this time, quite a number of students have jobs that take up their time. A student who is planning to work starting the Summer before his Junior Year may want to get the community service done before the end of the school year, but can't because of the rule. I believe that a rule that says "you can't start working on a graduate requirement until a certain time" is not motivating.

Maybe that doesn't seem so bad, but there are even worse results of this problem. In some other school districts, students can do their community service any time they want, as early as Ninth grade. Some students in those school districts do. Further, some of those students come to our school and discover that their community service does not count and they have to do it all over again! Some of my friends have to. My opinion is that they should at least allow students from these other school districts who've done their community service already to have it count.

Another thing I'd like to see in place is some way to ease the cost of those 100 dollar calculators. Maybe that's easy for you, but for me, I almost dropped the course because I did not want to waste money on something overpriced. I believe that the calculator makers are price-gouging. Don't believe me? Here's why. In the marked of graphing calculators, there are basically two ways to go: "Texas Instruments" and "Casio" brands. One costs more than the other. The one that the general public is most efficient in, the one that the books and teachers teach you how to use, is the one that costs most. Both calculators do the same things, just in different ways, and it can be tough to adjust if you have the one that no one else has. (Maybe) a far cry from being like Mac and PC.

Is it possible that this brand knows that it is endorsed and more needed and therefore can charge more? I suppose that my guess could be simply proven by someone who lives in an area where Casio's are endorsed and telling me which one costs more... maybe this is just me and my typical anti-high-price deal.

Anyway, back to the pointizzle. There might actually be a program in there to help to ease the cost of overpriced graphing calculators. I fortunately did not get to the point of checking that because, fortunately, a friend of mine who is a Senior did not need his calculator anymore so he gave it to me!

And that is the way our topics drift early in the evening!

Subscribe to your own Blog feed

2007-04-11T16:31:00.000-07:00

There is this cool thing where you can get all (most) of the websites that publish articles to have their content delivered to one spot where you can browse all of it from there. It's nifty and, as many blog readers know, it is called a feed reader. I currently use Google Reader, but there are lots of different ones.

For fun, I decided to subscribe to my own blog in my feed reader. Yes, it is silly, akin to someone carrying a camera around and constantly taking pictures of himself. The benefit of this silliness is that I got to see what feed subscribers might be seeing when they subscribe to my blog!

For some reason, in the feed reader, a post that I posted a long time ago entitled "Never Delete Your Blog" came up as the newest blog post. My first thought was that I had accidentally given it a new date or republished it, but on the blog it didn't appear under the new date, (of course the posts appear by the date you give them, which can be different than the day you actually published if you wish.). I believe that I may have edited that post and for sure I at least added a tag/label. This leads me to believe that maybe either feed readers or feeds change when an old story is relabeled.

I hope this isn't the case as I will be taking the advice of a good Blog tips website (with non-distracting ads by the way) and continuing to add updates to old posts and things that say "This is a link to a more current post I recently wrote." The site I'm talking about is Daily Blog Tips dot com.

The point of this post is to advise bloggers to rock the mullet, but more importantly to subscribe to your own blogs' feed if you use a feed reader. This way, if your feed is glitching, at least you'll know about it. For team blog owners, this is an easy way to check if a team member has put a new post on your blog---while you are feed reading. If this problem continues, I will consult the Blogger Help Group and maybe get a different type of feed. Until then, my blog readers who read via feed will occasionally get to enjoy some classics! (if that's what you call them)

Me, not another Anti Global Warming, Ecofriendly Extremist?

2007-04-09T18:58:00.000-07:00

I believe that the focus on how pollution might be causing a rise in worldwide temperatures can lead people to believe that the only effect of pollution could be Global Warming. Basically "if I don't believe in Global Warming, then why should I care about being friendly to the environment?" is a seemingly legitimate question nowadays.

My opinion is that whether or not humans are causing Global Warming and no matter if we can stop it or not, there are more reasons about supporting efforts to lower pollution and to be more beneficial to the world we live in. First off is that I don't want to have to pay so much for gas as supply, demand, and possibly price-gouging, are driving up the price. I am not sure if biofuel would cost less, especially at first, but if it doesn't, the existence of another method to fuel a car means more competetion which hopefully leads to better prices. This is a selfish reason, but nonetheless I am a big fan of people finding other ways to power cars.

A clearer argument: In some places the air gets so polluted that people have to stay in their house and not go outside because it would be hazardous to their health on certain days. I know that the population is growing. I don't know about you, but I don't want to grow to be an old man who can't go for a walk outside because of all the smog.

Call me what you want but I don't think that anyone likes the beauty of the Earth being destroyed, like ponds being polluted, etc.

Ultimately I feel I have to address my stance on Global Warming and Climate Change. Actually I probably don't need to, and I secretly want to, so it's not too hard to force myself, and I like the sound of the reading voice in my head so I want to create more for it to say. At the end of the post, one thing will be clear; I say "I" too much.

I want to first say that I am personally far from concrete in my views about it and I am not sure if I'm right. I didn't think much about Global Warming until I picked it as a topic for my English paper and I had to take a stance on it somehow in order to write the paper. Originally I was going to say that humans are causing there to be Global Warming; the problem was that the articles that I read that said this were all about the bad effects of it but did not focus chiefly on connecting human works on the environment to rising temperatures. The articles that I read that were against this claim, in contrast, focused on disconnecting human 'works' from it and connecting other things to it. I suppose it is a bit by chance that it ended up that way.

I found myself reading one piece that proved it one view and another piece that proved a different view and ended up going back and forth, piece after piece. I'm still lost!

My conclusion came to be that the world is warming, but the readings are exaggerated, and solar magnetism it what is causing it. I can't go into much detail here because I turned in my paper on it. Right now I'm in the clear, my paper is original and cites sources when paraphrased and quoted. There is nothing on the internet about Global Warming that contains my syntax. If I into detail, then that would change as I would blog myself into plagiarism. If the teacher checks for plagiarism and finds a lot of stuff being worded the same way on some website (http://sdtektiv.blogspot.com), I might be accused of plagiarism and would have to, I guess, prove my innocence by making a blog post saying "it's me!" But when I finally get my paper back seven weeks from now I will be sure to go into detail!

That is if I remember.

Third Round of Planet Earth was Awesome

2007-04-09T18:40:00.000-07:00

I'm talking about the TV show on Discovery Channel that has been airing on Sunday nights. In my last Monday post (link at bottom of this post) I talked about how the plentiful commercials ruined and distracted from the experience. It was to such a profound extent that I forgot about the show last night and only caught ten minutes of the first segment on "Shallow Seas", but I did get to see the whole second segment on "Great Plains." This time, this part of the miniseries was amazing and has regained a great status in my heart as one of the great shows on Television.

I enjoyed the herds of Caribou and the white birds nesting, and the conflict between the lions and Elephants. My favorite part of it was this brief second where a sort of bouncy, hoppy bird appeared above the tall grass, hovered for a split second, fell back down to the ground and disappeared into the grass, then bounced back up into view again. It was quite humorous!

I enjoyed it. Look forward to a future post on what exactly my stance is on being beneficial to the environment with a mention of Global Warming/Climate Change.

Link to the post about the previous time I watched Planet Earth

2007-04-08T17:41:00.000-07:00

I'll just say that last night I had a lot of breakthrough and it was amazing. The change of tone of my writing in the future will probably show this. I don't know if I am supposed to be real personal in a blog, but I feel amazing. This church that I am going to now is finally a place where I am accepted for who I am. My life in the past has been marked by a lot of rejection, whether it came up in my face or very subtly. There's a lot of wounds in old youth groups and old friends. I glad to forgive them in my heart and move on.

I must be a pretty big threat to Satan.

God has answered my prayers.

Sharing Christ as a way of Changing the World

2007-04-06T13:18:00.000-07:00

I find that a lot of people around me and the general Christian societal outlook on the state of America is that it is going downhill down a course that all societies of the past have gone at a certain point of success and that there is nothing anyone can do to stop it. (*takes a breath) I used to think that way too, it doesn't have to be this way.

Many of these people seem to have the idea that this is supposed to happen as if it has something to do with the end of the world. I however, see no connection. Every generation since Jesus ascended has claimed that Jesus would come back in their lifetime.

If everyone sits on their hands because they believe that it is inevitable that it will get worse, all the crap that is displayed everywhere, then perhaps it is not fate that is causing all the junk to be more accepted, maybe it is only because no one spoke up.

It is the passivity of, or maybe the disbelief (in their own influence and power) of, previous generations that has caused all the junk to be everywhere and for it all to gain momentum. The very least we could do for future generations is stop it where it is at so that the next generations can roll it back up the hill. I am sick of people just accepting the hell that America is turning into, because they think that the world will end soon. The end of the world could be a thousand years from now. The end of the world would mean massive torture and then eventually hell for all our unsaved friends and family members, therefore, the end of the world coming could never be an excuse to not evangelize.

All it depends on is if this generation and the next will become nearly entirely disciples of Christ. The generation that is running the media and all the junk will be gone, then we'll be old, and our children will be running the show. I don't know any other way to change society than for followers of Christ to uh... follow Christ, and when I say that, I mean actually spreading it.

I have not done enough to tell my friends about Christ, and only because I'm afraid of what they'll think of me. That isn't a good reason. There's an anvil about to fall on their heads and the least I can do is warn them. If I don't warn them, would it not be my fault?

At one time, the world was without morals as it is now, even more so. Then there was an age where morals were spread, and it was pretty bad for those trying to spread it, they'd be forced to fight lions as entertainment, but it couldn't be stopped. If so few under horrible circumstances were able to do it, so can we.

I was thinking about the children I will have when I am grown up; I don't know how I would feel about knowingly raising a child in a world where he or she would be treated as "less mature" for not being immature. I would hate seeing my children in a society where all the crap in the world is labeled as if it is something you're supposed to grow into. At one point I came to this idea that I would never have a child as I couldn't live with the guilt of bringing someone into a world so twisted, but this hope that I have that society will be changed gives me a reason to live.

Many people pray "God's will be done on Earth as it is in Heaven," but they don't believe it is possible. I say that when it comes down to it, the biggest way to change America would be for followers of Jesus to invite others to have God transform them as He has many people. If that happened, then wouldn't our society be better off?

UPDATE: April 9, 2007: Actually if we focus on society it would not be as
effective than if we focused on our own relationships with God and other people
and in the process left major marks on society; but of course we want to see God
save our friends, and that is a part of it.

Banished Words of 2007 Published

2007-04-05T10:47:00.000-07:00

I did not hear about it, so chances are that you did not, but you want to.

The Lake Superior State University yearly banished words list for 2007 has made its appearance (http://www.lssu.edu/banished/current.php)

I am not sure that I agree with a lot of the words being banished, such as they want to banish the use of the word "PWN" and "awesome", but the submitters do give their reasons and a lot of them are pretty funny and rationalized, and generally are on the side of rantingly outrageous.

I should mention that the list is compiled of peoples' submissions, so if a word came into your mind that you loathe, you can already submit words for the 2008 list. My advice is to be both rational and funny in your reason, because then you might get your quote with it.

C. S. Lewis Complete Signature Classics

2007-04-04T18:42:00.000-07:00

A few days ago at Costco I saw a book that interested me. It was blue, and the title was something to the effect of "The Complete Signature Classics of C. S. Lewis." I didn't know that much about C. S. Lewis and I thought it would be just another boring book but I picked it up and read through the first few pages and it wasn't what I expected, I liked it. In it is what appears to be many of the "not-novels" pieces by him all put into one book. The usual downside that you might notice, of a "Complete Works of Author" book is that they try to cram it all in and make the text so small you can barely read it, but this one had a really comfortable and good-sized font.

The style of it was as if he was talking... This is probably because the first book is compiled of transcripts of a radio show he did in college. He goes into a lot of logic but explains it in a way that you aren't overwhelmed. It makes you think, makes you want to. You might be thinking that you wouldn't like it, but I did not think I would like it at all because I don't expect those sort of books to appeal to me.

The cost was around 15 dollars and I suspect that it would cost a lot more buying each of the "signature classics" separately, and I wanted to read more, so I got it.

I am curious to see what the writer's style is when he is writing as writing and how it compares to what I'm reading through now.

TV Show "Planet Earth" Dissappoints in Second Round

2007-04-02T13:20:00.000-07:00

A week back from Sunday, I tuned into an awesome show about the wildlife around the world. It truly rocked my socks. I would recommend what I saw that time to anyone.

Unfortunately, yesterday's edition of Planet Earth was lacking. I liked all the filming of animals and all of that, but it is hard to get immersed in the environments when it is interrupted every ten minutes with the same Volvo commercial. To make matters worse, the new Volvos included features I'm not sure I am excited about existing.

One of the new safety features that were pushed was how if you aren't paying attention and are about to run into someone in front of you, a red light flashes and beeps to alert you. I wouldn't mind this because then people might tailgate less.

The other feature that was presented was that if someone was in your blind spot, a little red light on the side mirrors came on to let you know. But, the thing is that the last thing you are supposed to do before you change lanes is glance over your shoulder to look at the blind spot. Does this mean that people will stop checking because the car will do it for them? What if people become too needy or reliant on these features? I know that a year from now I don't want to be traveling down the road in the blind spot of someone who used to drive a Volvo. I am worried about people saying "it's not my fault, the car didn't tell me you were there!"

People who used to own cars that chime when you left your lights on, but now have a car that doesn't have this feature, have trouble remembering to turn the lights off on their own. All I'm saying is, "okay, I understand a car turning into a portable bounce house in the event of a crash, but this idea that a car is supposed to take care of you while driving, instead of vice-versa, really gets me off track when I'm trying to enjoy the Penguins!"

Yes! I brought it back! The show yesterday had battling Ibexes (ram-like animals) and Arctic birds, and locusts and it wasn't bad... just not as good as the first round of episodes that aired. The first round of episodes did not have as many commerical breaks too.

Now, viewers or makers of the show might think that I am against the show this time because it talked about Global Warming, but I haven't even mentioned the show's mention of Global Warming until this point. I can see how some people would be put off by it because anytime someone starts with something that appears to be completely non-challenging and segues (seg-ways) into something even a teensy bit challenging, you see reactions of people thinking "How dare you! I thought this was just your own thoughts, but you're one of them!"

Just like if I were to, say, randomly start talking about Christianity right here... I'm not going to, but look! I know that some readers may have started the thought process of, "Oh, another religious mouth, I thought this was just a plain long review of TV show with a seeming unrelated tangent on Volvos! That coniving little blogger!"

Even the challenge of the last paragraph may have been enough for someone to stop reading, but if you didn't leave and you are reading this, I commend you for it. That's some serious open-mindedness in this day and age. Then again, you may have left because what this post wasn't going where you thought it would go, because of off-topic-ness or something else, and it had nothing to do with the fact that it was a sort-of challenging statement. It is for a similar reason that I didn't like the second episode of Planet Earth (there's a method to my tangent-to-topic madness)

In conclusion, the first episodes of Planet Earth that I saw featured lots of landscapes, views of predator chasing prey from a bird's eye-view, (speaking of birds...) wild and kooky-looking rain forest birds, monkeys who live on rock walls, and I would recommend that to anyone. This week's show had too many commercials and just didn't really compare.

UPDATE: April 9, 2007: Third Round of 'Planet Earth' was very good and had less commercials, Link to blog post

Throw the Strudel at the can with the Red Dot and Win an Internet filled with annoying advertisments!

2007-04-01T15:06:00.000-07:00

Blogger, Google Reader, Gmail, now Google Homepage.

It seems that Google is taking over what I do on the internet more and more. I am surprised that it ended up this way, as I was never really a Google fan or a fan of monopolies. But these aren't services that I am paying for. To be honest, I don't understand it. I don't understand why Google Reader was made... for fun? All I know is that I like it. What I am not comprehending here is in this day and age of everything being about profits and money, is that there is not anything on Google Reader that leads me to believe that there is any profit for Google in it. There's no ads.

Sure, many other Google services have ads of some sort, like how Gmail has text ads way off to the side (of which I have found a way around, more on that later), and there is even a service of Google centered on supplying (right word?) ads.

However, the ads in Gmail did not bother me when they were there, and it is probably due to the existince of more annoying ads like those with animations, and "Throw the strudel at the can with the red dot to win an iPod", or worse, Pop-ups! I don't visit websites with Pop-ups and I don't support businesses that use Pop-ups to advertise themselves. Actually, I'm not sure which I detest more, Pop-ups or the mini-game ads... I'm torn. Of course now, whenever I visit a site that has lots of ads, I simply refresh the page and then click the stop function (the browser button that is a red X) as soon as the text loads and before the ads load.

Of course, that can be a bit of a challenge, some sites are more complicated than others. It can be a bit of a game, really, to try to click the stop button in that millisecond window where the text is loaded and the ads load. When a site has ads down the right margin, like on the stories of the Wiire, I simply click "Restore" in the upper-right of the browser, then I move the right edge of the browser window to the left so that I don't see the ads. If a site has ads down the left margin, I don't bother with the site.

What I used to do with annoying ad sites that I wanted to read a story from, was that I would subscribe to the site with Google Reader so that I could read without ads. Then, I started "sharing items" on REPriiSENT, and because I didn't want to mistakenly link REPriiSENT readers to a site with annoying ads, I stopped following those website's stories altogether.

It is a shame really, seeing as a lot of those sites with the annoying ads are "professional journalism sites" like New York Times or MSN. Nothing screams "professional journalism" to me or spurs me to read a story like being assaulted and distracted by shiny ads, even ones within the text of the story, "story continues below." Like reading a story turns into some sort of early Easter Egg hunt with lasers and blinding strobe lights.

I guess it is these things that make the Google Ads on Gmail seem so much more acceptable. Now, I don't even have to deal with Google Ads on Gmail. If you add a Gmail Inbox Preview "Gadget" to your personalized Google Homepage, you can see the latest 5 to 15 items, and if you click on the title of the Email, the email message will pop up with no ads on the side or nothin'. Yeah, that's beating the system.

Awhile ago, long before I started blogging, free Blogger blogs used to have required banner ads on the sites to support Blogger. Now, with the advent of Google purchasing Blogger, and those ads going bye-bye, (here it comes) some bloggers have chosen to pepper their blogs with text-based ads!

In a post I made some time ago, I talked about how I was glad that those people chose to put Google Ads on their blogs, because now, with all the revenue Google is getting from having people choose to put those ads on their blogs for a profit, I do not think they will ever go back to the old system!

I don't want there to be ads all over the internet, so I don't visit/support websites with annoying ads. I like shiny and flashy lights at concerts, but not while reading an article.

2007-03-28T18:48:00.000-07:00

blah.

School Creates Contract for School Dance

2007-03-28T18:11:00.000-07:00

A High School recently decided to have a contract for students to sign to say that they won't dance like they're having sex. Before that, the dance was canceled because the previous dance was really bad and the students refused to stop, their principal even stopped the dance an hour before it was supposed to end.

At least people actually do stuff about it at their school. At mine, I don't even bother going to school dances anymore. I'm sorry, I have better things to do with my time then pay money to go to school after school and then leave after 20 minutes because of all the kids humping each other. I don't think that it would be very beneficial for me to subject myself to something that makes me want to kick over the music speakers.

I don't know if their contract will work at their school... our school had a contract like that at the beginning of my sophomore year (the first year of High School where I'm from), and I still heard the same accounts of the dances told to me. If I went to their school, I would not get my hopes up. I would still not go, but I would ask my friends about it. If things improved on that dance and then the improvements carried over to a second one, I might consider going to the third one.

Fun with Translating

2007-03-27T18:20:00.000-07:00

It seems that about every other time I post in this blog I change the template. The template design I was going for now was trying to be really orange-blue-white Blogger-y. If there is none of these colors in the current design, it's probably because I changed it since I wrote this! As I'm writing I am thinking about adding more white and tan because there is a lot of tan in the Blogger look. Yes.

I'm not sure where I'm going with this post but well, I feel like writing.

Next week is Spring Break, I look forward to it. In my french class journal we are supposed to write about our plans. What I said was

Je ne sais pas que je vais faire. Peut-être, je vais faire un boum du jouer au cartes. Poker, exactement. Je joue avec strict régles, et ettiquette et je n'aime pas jouer quand l'ettiquette st n'est pas ici. Je ne joue pas avec argent, mais je joue avec chips et quelquefois il ya [someone] qui [bets] avec un autre person et le perdre[er] doi [shave] son tête, mais pas moi. J'aime Poker parçe que il y a beaucoup de skill et s'il vous savoir que vous êtes faisait, "chance", est moins un factor et "skill" est plutout importante.

Now I will let Babelfish (a text translator) tell you what that is in English and to show you what happens when you combine non-perfect French with non-perfect phrase/word web translating:

I do not know that I will make. Perhaps, I will make a boom of playing the charts. Poker, exactly. I play with strict régles, and ettiquette and I do not like to play when the ettiquette is not here. I do not play with money, but I play with chips andsometimes there is [ someone ] which [ bets ] with another person and to lose it[ er ] owe [ shave ] its head, but not me. I like Poker parçe that there is many skill and if it to know you that you are made, "chance", is less one Factor and "skill" is plutout important.

That is all!

North and South Are in the Same Direction

2007-03-27T17:52:00.000-07:00

It just depends on where you stand. There is one place, actually two places, on Earth in which North and South will be in the same direction, and that direction is down.

Isn't "Happy Birthday" an incomplete sentence? It's like saying "fluffy strudel" or "green grass" or "jak salad".

"jak salad" was a phrase that came up many times in keyboarding class back in junior high. You see, the program could only tell us to type letters that we had learned, and the letters of "jak salad" appear on home row. In fact, that is all the letters except "f".

Imagine what this post would be like without all the other letters.

"a sad lad fad jak salad"

Getting Philosophical

2007-03-02T17:12:00.000-08:00

Have you ever been in a position where doing something good would make it appear that you are doing something bad? Here's two examples in my life of what I'm talking about:

things like erasing pencil marks from a school textbook, where someone might think that you were erasing something you wrote yourself (not a big deal but look at the second example)

If you were walking down the road and saw sections of a newspaper strewn along both sides of the road and were to pick up some of it then continued on your way... a cop might drive by, see that half of the newspaper is all over the road behind you and then see you holding half of the newspaper ahead of the mess, you could get fined for littering. [but you probably wouldn't get fined because cops know the difference between picking up and littering and they would be able to tell if they asked you questions.]

I guess it comes down to the reason behind doing something right. We all have to ask ourselves if doing what is right is worth it even if it appears that you are doing wrong.

I remember an example of this in the comedian Brad Stine's book, Being a Christian Without Being an Idiot (I'm serious). In one of the chapters he talks about a man who actually went into a first Strip Club and converted all the women to Christianity who then changed their lives. Now, I wouldn't do this nor do I recommend this, because I can't even handle being in a video gaming forum with sexy image signatures appearing below posts without being tempted, so this would be beyond me, but that's not the point.

The point is that there times in everyone's lives where we are in a situation where we feel like God or the conscience is telling us to do something that makes us look as if we are doing something wrong and other people might not understand you. Maybe you're in a situation where someone is hurting someone who is weaker, and you go to pull the assaulter off and end up fighting him. Someone could walk by and think that you're the one at fault.

Sometimes it isn't whether someone knows you made a right choice, sometimes it's whether you know you made a right choice.

A Deal Too Good to Take?

2007-02-18T18:57:00.000-08:00

We all have friends and family members who specialize in certain businesses or work at stores in which we benefit from it in some way. My Aunt works at Microsoft (maybe I should pull that line out sometime in this last week of my Xbox LIVE gaming), so twice I recieved gifts of Xbox games for it. Our family benefits because my uncle is a mechanic.

One time, a friend of mine who worked at Burger King was giving me a ride home from youth group, and on our way home we stopped at Burger King so he could help them close shop.

After he was about done closing up, he asked if I wanted a Burger, I said yes. He said, "What would you like?", I looked up at the various elements of the burger above the grill--I was only used to picking how I want a sandwich built at Subway! I asked him if it was legal and his response was that it was a benefit that they should be getting, and it would count as waste anyway. That was good enough for me! I wasn't the one getting me a burger!

Now I'm facing a similar deal in which I can purchase a Nintendo Wii at a lower price and get some extras too, because of a friend working in an electronics video game store. I'm not sure if the deal is too good to take, but then again I could just paint it with some religious words such as "Maybe this is why I felt like God was telling me to wait to buy a Wii", or "This is a blessing," (it is peoples!) and that might be enough to alleviate my conscience.

Xbox LIVE is full of Racism

2007-02-01T16:53:00.000-08:00

Now listen. I've had Xbox LIVE for almost a year, so don't be thinking I haven't gone through the same motions as any other LIVE gamer. Yeah, I know the motions. First phase is "suh-weet I got LIVE, and I'm not as good as I thought! It's so cool, you can talk with the people and hear them with the headset, give strategies, learn what they call each part of the terrain on each of the multiplayer levels."

I've even read multiple news articles on this very subject.

Then on the first night of LIVE gaming in February of 2006, a year ago, I ran into some CORRUPT people who start saying, "look its a buncha [n-word]." "Looks like they run in packs."...

If that doesn't shock you, maybe it's because of your own negative experiences on LIVE. My conscience was violated! That was so wrong! In the postgame lobby, I said, "You shouldn't say things like that."

Their response? "Shut up [n-word]. (laughter)." second person from their team: "Get a job!"... third person from their team: "Get off welfare [n-word]!"(all laughter)...

I was shocked that someone would say such a thing anywhere, and on Xbox LIVE! Seriously! I left feedback and left the game.

For the next few days I pondered about what happened. I was surprised. Surely, these people would've been caught by the moderators of Xbox LIVE before they got to me! I looked at the refund policy and noticed that I had a couple weeks to decide if I wanted to return the 70-dollar LIVE starter kit, that I saved for months for, and get a refund. I thought about it some more and I decided to give Xbox LIVE a shot because I could get a refund later in the next week if I changed my mind. I thought that maybe this was just an anomaly.

I looked over the LIVE packaging again, I looked at the photos of happy people with their LIVE headsets on, large smiles, I thought, "This is the way it should be, why isn't it? Why would someone pay so much money to get onto a fun way to play video games with people all around the world and then yell and cuss and put me down?" They did this in ways I didn't think a human could really be capable of.

I leave feedback. I've left feedback nearly every time someone was a jerk. And guess what? Now it is a year later and last night I ran into more jerks. Not less. More. I don't understand what drives people to be mean. Well, I know because I've been mean, it's because they're hurting, but that's no excuse. I just wish that they would change or leave. Leave!

Yeah sure, this is probably a huge epidemic that Microsoft didn't envision happening and didn't prepare for. I know I didn't expect it. That's obvious as it turns out there is actually no moderators on LIVE. If it was only a few people being [jerk]s as I'm sure they only expect a few, feedback would work. But in this time, society has gone through the motions of decaying as have societies in the past (we're merely repeating history except we have technology), and the amount of jerks on LIVE is so large that feedback alone will not make the online gaming experience what it is meant to be.

I know the cool feelings. Where you walk down the road and see random strangers and think, "Hmm, I wonder if ever played against him on Xbox LIVE." I've even wrote multiple positive stories about Xbox LIVE and Halo 2 and strategies and how to have a good time on it on my Halo 2 blog (http://sdtektivh2.blogspot.com).

Xbox LIVE does not create fun that could not be experienced in some other way. The only time I've had good fun on it is when I'd call up a bunch of friends and agree to meet on LIVE at a certain time... But, if you're going do that, why not just have LAN parties? Halo 2 LAN parties are always fun. I once had a friend over who had Xbox LIVE but never went to a LAN party, and he made the comment that "Wow, in postgame lobbies at LAN parties no one is cussing each other out!"

That's how much it is ingrained.

Now, I could give some "call to action" right here, but all that people from the Xbox LIVE crowd or from Microsoft would say is either "leave feedback," or "there's nothing we can do about it. That's just how it is."

If you decide to get onto LIVE, I cannot let you without first giving you this warning: LIVE is not filled with friendly people who want to play a game with you. It is filled with people who want to cuss you out, put you down, say that they raped you, and all-in-all be a complete [jerk]. There are nice people occaisionally, and it is true that if you can have some solid friends to play it is possible to have a good time one out of ten LIVE sessions. But even then, whether they're your enemies, your friend's friend's friend, or a wanderer, there will always be jerks on LIVE. A lot of them.

That's just how it is.

The only way you can be sure to have a good time on LIVE is to schedule in advance, through a Halo 2 community that is right for you, an event. But by the time you've scheduled one of those events, you could've had three LAN parties. That being the case, it's no wonder why I am cancelling my LIVE account before it renews.

UPDATE:
I changed all the words that said [donkey] to [jerk] because I know that there are people out there who get hung up on specific words. I do feel that it was in context and I'm sure anyone else who has had Xbox LIVE felt the same way.

Book: Wild at Heart

2007-01-07T16:30:00.000-08:00

My discipleship leader recently gave me this book for Christmas. It is amazing. I don't think there is any book I liked better than this one. It's about how society and the church have repressed and taken way what men need... and how to get it back.

It's the sort of book that you only pay attention to a page number if you have to stop in the middle of the chapter and want to remember your place. Otherwise, you might forget that the numbers even exist. It's that enjoyable.

It worked just right for me because Christianity and life had grown to be boring for me. This book helped revitalize me.

Have you ever watched a movie where there was a bunch of things that happened in it and you didn't know why they happened or how they related to each other and all that was revealed near the end of the movie? That exhilarating feeling is a sensation I felt a few times throughout the book. Except it meant a lot more to me because it was events in my life!

I recommend this book for anyone, whether they are male or female, this is a great book.

UPDATE: April 16, 2007: A comment on my friends' reactions to the book.

One Family Friendly Checkout?

2007-01-06T14:26:00.000-08:00

Grocery stores have been notorious for putting strange, gross, and even unnecessary things at their checkouts. Strange? The "U-scans." Apparently a lot of research has been put into people having as little face to face contact with other humans. Also I've noticed some grocery stores with TVs at their checkouts.

I find it funny and kind of sad that they think we've come to the point that we need TV as we wait in line. With that extra time of waiting, much can be done, now that I think of it. You actually have time to reflect, think, pray. So much effort to throw out media messages out there. But here's what I absolutely hate about checkout stands, and I'm not exaggerating, I am choosing the word "hate" because it almost begins to express my strong feelings. Alright, here's what I hate, all the porn.

I said it, they are pushing these sexy images (porn, by definition is not a measure of how much skin is showing but is, by definition, any media in which the purpose is for sexual arousal) on the magazine covers in front of our faces.

I hate it. Why? Well, as a man, I have a built-in desire to fight for a beautiful woman, and this stuff they are trying (and succeeding to a lot of the time) to get me to look at distorts this inward desire to the point in which it becomes selfish, because it takes away all the work and fronts just the pleasure. But the problem is, the pleasure alone does not satisfy, and so they make it worse and worse in failing attempts.

Apparently, someone in charge of what gets put at the front of these grocery store checkouts grew a brain, or just realized something, and decided to make one of the checkouts a "Family Friendly" checkout.

This checkout was the one to the left that I was in, and it seemed to have all the same elements of our checkout except without the pictures of women in thongs, etc. There was a sign, akin to the "Express Checkout" sign, that said "Family Friendly." Now, I think this is a good thing, but I hope that they don't use this as an excuse to continue to put pornographic magazine covers at the checkout as we so often see.

To be honest, what I'd like to see is instead of having one "Family Friendly" checkout, I'd rather see all the checkouts remove the porn, and if they can't do that, just put all the crap onto one checkout stand that's out of the way, so that the people who actually want to be around that stuff can be, and the rest of the people who are tired of it can stay away.

If a grocery store chain did this, it would set itself apart from the others... everyone wins.

"Internet Wayback Machine"

2007-01-05T19:35:00.000-08:00

I found something really cool just browsing around. It's called the "Internet Wayback Machine" (Google it, I'm feeling lazy right now). What it does is that you can type in the address to a website and see what it looked like a long time ago. I had a lot of fun with it and I think that you will too. A trend I noticed was that at first, a lot of websites were only Texted based. Then it became really bold and blocky, and today the colors are milder and there's more rounded corners. I prefer today's look out of the three to be honest!

Keep in mind, it doesn't generate everything from back then. You might end up only getting to see text in Times New Roman even if it had a different font and images, but it is very cool.

So, if there's a website you visit a lot and you ever wondered what it would be like to see it a long time ago, now you can!

All those Google Ads

2007-01-03T16:20:00.000-08:00

At one time, before I came to Blogger and perhaps before I even knew exactly what a blog was supposed to be, Blogger offered you to have your own domain and just use Blogger as a platform. Of course, you'd have to find a service to give you a domain and you'd have to pay for it, but another option they had was for you to use a "blog*spot" address hosted for free. Wait? Isn't this the way it runs today? Yes, but the difference was that when you had it hosted for free on a blog*spot address, it came with something. Ads.

I found this out when I watched a "Learning Blogger" video discussing the pros and cons of having your own domain verses using a free blog*spot address. Blogger Article: Learning Blogger

Today, somehow, Blogger can give you the platform and the hosting for free, without ads. Today, there is no "premium" version to pay for--all of the services are built-in to one solid, free version of Blogger.

They even allow you access to your code; a service that I saw as something you had to pay for on a different blogging platform.

So, why am I even typing this post? Well, it seems that today, some bloggers are putting in ads on their blog, to make a little money I suppose. My question is, "Why do it?" Blogger is finally ad-free but now you can find that some bloggers choose to pepper their blogs with ads.

At least though, these are mostly calm, text-based "Ads by Google", and not the flashy, sound-and-light-show, "make billy the hamster pounce on three Q-tips and win an iPod", "You've won (must complete seventeen offers)", light-electric disco mania ads.

There is a bright side to this. Because Blogger is owned by Google, Blogger is likely getting some of the profit from the Google ads that some bloggers opt to use. I bet that there are actually more ads on blog*spot addresses now than when they were mandatory. My conclusion is that Google/Blogger won't need to put mandatory banner ads on blog*spot-address blogs because... us bloggers at large have done it for them.

What people do with their blogs is none of my business. Because of all the ad-filled blogs, I might not ever be forced to have ads on my blog. Your ads are probably paying partially for Blogger's servers; in a way, you're taking the ads so I don't have to, and I appreciate that. But as for me? When it comes to visiting one of two sites about the same thing--one has ads, the other doesn't--it's obvious which one I'll be more likely to visit. That's my take on it.

The New Years Partay

2007-01-01T20:37:00.000-08:00

Well they didn't use my game (see previous post), but the event was a lot of fun! There was hide-and-seek, a ping-pong tournament, and at the end, dancing. The dancing wasn't planned, it's just... put music on, youth group, it's gonna happen. I danced in it. Hip Hop style, it was a lot of fun and apparently I did really good! I was really tired afterward but that's the fun of it!

The Halo Partay

2006-12-30T11:48:00.000-08:00

The Halo Partay was awesome! At the peak of the most people, there were 15 people playing at once. This was really cool doing large-scale 2 team wars, and we did one game that was Free-For-All Shotgun Slayer on Warlock! That was pretty intense!

It was cool, because I think I was the third best player there, and at the end of the partay, someone asked if I played on LIVE, but I said that I did, except my XBOX stopped working this month! There were other people who said they had LIVE too. I just wish that my XBOX still worked now! But, maybe it is a blessing in disguise as I won't be as tempted to get an Xbox 360 if I haven't gotten cracked-out on Halo 2. Plus that's 50 more dollars a year I won't be spending on LIVE.

There was someone there who was really very good. He said he was a level 38 on LIVE. That's cool, but I felt bad for him because he appeared that he wasn't having a good time and just going through the motions. I don't want to become like that.

I brought my own controller (I still have everything I need for live, just that my XBOX doesn't work), and the people there did something I never saw someone do before. They brought their Xbox Communicator Headsets and were able to project their voice across the house via the other TV's speakers. Turns out that when you speak, there is a very very slight latency between you speaking and your voice being sent, so the people had a lot of fun with their echos, etc.

They liked making noises... a lot of it was hilarious and chaotic. It was such an awesome experience. I've had Halo 2 partays before, but it is awesome when someone else has one and you go to theirs. You can sometimes get nervous trying to make sure everyone has a good time at a Halo 2 Partay when you're the host (they always do), but when someone else hosts one, you can just come and be a guest and they have everything taken care of.

I had a blast, and even though my Xbox doesn't work, I might have a Halo 2 partay in the future. I believe that someone who doesn't have any equipment at all can have a Halo 2 partay, if they figure out who can bring what and then who is bringing what before the event.

It. Was. Awesome.

2006-12-30T11:20:00.000-08:00

And by the way, there's was lots of musical stuff going on with the mics at the LAN party. There was lots of beatboxing, noise-making, even Chinese Opera (like from Dynasty Warriors menu), I would imitate the Super Smash Brothers announcer when I wanted to do "free for-all!". It was lots of fun.

Going to a Halo 2 Partay Tonight!

2006-12-29T13:27:00.000-08:00

Oh. I'm so excited! I haven't played Halo 2 for about month because my Xbox stopped working, but now I'm glad because I get to play.

I'm looking forward to surprising people with the Carbine (don't forget the one behind the box in the lower shotty room)!

I used to play on LIVE, go to the halo wiki http://www.halowiki.net and read and post tips, develop strategies, mute and boot annoying people from my party, and hold events and present short raps over LIVE about the event. That was fun! I'll miss going to Bungie dot net to see who has gotten banned and is complaining about it. To see what the latest complaining about the playlists is, but mostly to visit a couple Bungie dot net groups I was a part of.

But tonight, all that was just training. Tonight is what Halo 2's multiplayer is the very best in. That's right I'm going to a Halo 2 Xbox LAN Partay! I'm really looking forward to this, getting my victory dance ready, stretching my fingers... Back in one of the first episodes of MLG (I stopped watching because of the Boost Mobile commercials), there was a player named "Fonzi" who would warm up by playing the piano.

Well! What a coincidence! Just before the Xbox LAN Partay I have a piano lesson!

Basically, I'm primed for this Halo 2 Partay. Here's why:

I'm fresh because I haven't played in a long time.
I will enjoy myself a lot, guaranteed.
I've gotten quite skilled at Halo 2, which means that if someone is better than me at a LAN I can try to one-up them.
I play for fun and if I die it doesn't demoralize me, so my morale can really only go up.
Piano lesson before! Of course!

When it comes to Halo 2 Partays, here's my slogan:
"without Halo 2, it's just a party." -SDtektiv

Blogger is Good

2006-12-28T13:10:00.000-08:00

Of course, this is coming from someone who came from trying to blog on Xanga. Not a good blogging tool! Let's look at some highlights of Blogger make it better than other competitors.

There is no "premium" version of Blogger. This means that the features you usually have to pay to get on other platforms, such as access to one's code, are integrated into the one solid version of Blogger.
It's free. It is a free service. What makes it better than other free services?
There are no ads. None. Unless the user puts them in there himself! (don't do that).
Lots of options.

Things that would make Blogger better:

Make it easier to have a picture for your header (though you can do this if you follow a tutorial!)
Be able to format your comments in "Peek-a-boo" format. Meaning if you click on the thing that says "comments" they just come out on the website and if you click it again they go back.

I just thought of something. In the past week I submitted a blog post to Digg, created a Technorati profile, and submitted a blog feed to Pingoat. I how someone in History would react if I said that?

"Christian" Rap

2006-12-28T11:56:00.000-08:00

An Essay (overly-long rambling) by SDtektiv. (enjoy in portions)

As a disclaimer, I hardly know what I'm talking about here, I'm just saying things as I percieve them. I'm probably percieving them a little wrong, it can change as I get more information, but here's what I got so far:

--Part One--

Today I'm blogging about this thing called "Christian Rap." Now, hopefully by the end of today's bloggings, you will understand that calling "Christian Rap" a genre doesn't make sense, as it is diverse and pretty much the same as any other rap, except that it isn't filled with the same repetitious cuss words and stuff that the rest of them put on TV. It's the same as regular rap in every aspect except for what I just said, meaning there are the same genres within it and there are good and bad rappers.

If it were up to me, I wouldn't even have the label "Christian Rap" existing because it is misleading in that if someone hears one rap song they'll think that all "Christian Rap" songs will be like that one...

But, because it is hard to find rap that isn't loaded with junk, the label is necessary. At one time, "Christian" music and "Mainstream" music were not separated from each other, but instead they were the same. People might think that good music has disappeared, it hasn't, it's just that the cable networks and media and whatever choose not to make it public, and it is evident that people draw a lot of what they decided to listen to from a TV channel.

So, it would make sense for a Christian TV channel to have a lot of cool music, right? Nope! Instead it's mostly the same boring, gaudy sets, overly-expressive preaching. There is a place for that, but not the whole entire day please! They used to have a Youth-orientated music video show that I would tell my friends about, but now it is long gone.

Something that bothers me is when people have an assumption with art that if a Christian is producing it, it won't be as good as someone in the mainstream producing it. I disagree, both Christians and Non-Christians have been successful and not-successful. In the past, the main music artists in America were Christians, and this hasn't changed, only who the TV channels choose to put up.

---Part two---

Basically, "Christian" rappers have a lot to put up with.

First, they have to put up with the reactions they get from having this label. For example, one time I was listening to some music, Deepspace 5 to be exact, and someone said to me, "What are you listening to?" Was I about to say "Christian" Rap? No! Not because I'm ashamed of God, but because I wanted him to give the music a chance.

So, instead what I did was I handed over the CD player with my humongous headphones, and he listened to it. Of course, he had large respect for it because he didn't know it was Christian rap. As he listened, he made statements about how he was surprised that a person who looks like me would into rap, statements of other artists that is similar to it. He asked "Are they white or black?" (both). And he made recommendations for other artists I might like. But, in the middle of the song, the smile disappeared from his face, he pulled the headphones off, and handed the CD player back to me without a word.

I put the headphones on to see where he left off, and it turns it out that it was right after the first reference of respect to God in that particular song!

I think he was embarrassed that he actually enjoyed a song that had a word of respect to God in it. Don't get me wrong, I don't like listening to rap CDs with every song being 100% about God, but I don't understand why people won't give a song a chance if it has respect for God and even other people in it. It's their opinion, and... (to quote what they often say when being challenged at their music), "it's just a song!"

I've found out that I cannot present some music that I like to someone and say it is "Christian Rap," unless the person has a lot of knowledge, more than I'll ever have, and respect for rap in general. I have a better chance of saying "here's some rap that I like because it doesn't have anything bad in it." Then, when they look like they're enjoying themselves, if they haven't figured it out already I'll tell them that it is "Christian", just to see their reaction.

Second, "Christian Rappers" have to fight negative feelings from both of what they are. What I mean is that they are two things, "Christians", and "Rappers." There are actually Christians who think that putting poetry on top of a beat is a sin, and so they don't get a whole lot of support from the major Christian media, since a lot of Christian media knows that some Christians may be offended by rapping, even if it doesn't have sinful lyrics. I don't know if the last statement I just made is true, but it is my best guess.

I actually don't think that "Christian Rappers" get put down by Rappers, they might even be respected on a person-to-person basis, they just get kept secret by the Hip Hop Media. In a way, "Christian Rappers" are forced to be underground, because even if they come out with the best song ever, if they're on a "Christian Rap Label"...well, good luck getting on TV.

"Christian Rappers" really shouldn't be grouped together on a music standpoint, or separated from as a unit from the mainstream. Again, this is from a music standpoint. From a content standpoint, they just don't have raps about materialism, sex, drugs, gangs, killing... and if they do, they usually present it in a less-glamorized, more-realistic, "the consequences in my life" fashion.

I don't know, it's just my personal musical preference when it comes to the fact that I'd rather listen to someone rap about how people don't respect them just because they don't cuss enough (see Not Enough Dope (in my rhymes) by This'l) than listen to men rap about how they have lots of shiny jewelry around their neck... that's just me, apparently a lot of people like that sort of thing, I respect them. I don't understand why people are interested in hearing people talk about all their chains and cars all day, but as far as I see there are only a limited number of possibilities:

a) they actually do,
b) they don't care about the lyrics, just the music (you have to admit that it is definitely cool musically)
c) they don't know what else there is.

Third, "Christian Rappers" don't get the same criticism as other rappers. What I mean by this is rappers without that label get judged on a person to person basis. People want to judge "Christian Rap" as a whole, and you can't do that, just like you can't judge "Mainstream" or "Underground" Rap as a whole. I'm sure that there are Mainstream rappers who rap about things that I might like and don't cuss, the trouble is that I can't find them because the TV networks aren't going to play someone with respect for himself and others.

I don't see cussing as a sin, but I suppose the Musical TV networks with rap might see not-cussing as a sin, and cussing bothers me, just a personal preference, everyone else can make up their mind on that issue (but not every issue).

----Part Three---

Alright, some of you may be wondering, "You're talking a whole lot about not judging groups of rappers as a whole, but yet you seem to be judging these TV networks as a whole!" I'll give you that, but look, recently, TV networks haven't, from what I've seen, in the past four to five years, been putting even a rapper on a Christian Rap Label on TV. Alright, Grits get to be the exception. (I like Grits. the band, I haven't tried the food yet).

It seems to be a sheer coincidence to me that the time when music that respects God gets separated from the rest of the music happens to be just as Rap gets into its prime. This is what's causing people to automatically associate rap with all the bad stuff. True, some rap ventures into bad stuff that hasn't been heard in music for centuries, actually a lot (of the stuff that gets put on TV,) but a lot of it doesn't do that. It is sad that Rap and this phenomena had to occur at the same time, because now people only get the small window and now have lots of bad feelings about rap.

I bet that people would be a lot more open to rap if it didn't always come packaged with ugly lyrics inside. (I'm talking content here, not musical skill).

I leave you with a short list of good rap songs if you're curious or to get you started:
"Song Title" Artist <- (this is just the example but that would be funny if this was a real song eh?)

"Rowdy" The Ambassador
"When I flow (it's Gospel)" The Cross Movement
"Talk Music" Deepspace 5
"Here We Go" Grits
"Not Enough Dope (in my rhymes)" This'l
"Raised in Harlem" Hero! the Rock Opera
"Blazin' Mics" T-Bone
"Jesus Musik" LeCrae featuring Tripp Lee

Fortunately, some Christian bookstores have a good rap section.

Cross Movement Records

2006-12-28T10:23:00.000-08:00

Cross Movement Records

The cool thing is that there is a music player at the top of the website, so you can listen to some of their rap and tell me that's not good. I'll let their website speak for them.

Beatmart Recordings

2006-12-28T10:06:00.000-08:00

is a record label. That being said,
Beatmart.com takes you to Soul P's eCard, which features more partay-style Hip Hop.

Beatmart Home will take you to the home page, which usually features an up-to-date video about a rapper on the website or just the website in general. The video up there today features Soul P making a little video with homeless people. It's very good light-hearted humor.

But my favorite part of the website is Beatmart Vote because that's where unsigned artists submit their songs, and people vote on it. The ones with the most votes make it onto a yearly mixtape produced by Beatmart recordings!

Game for Youth Group New Years Partay

2006-12-27T18:19:00.000-08:00

I'm going to a New Year's youth group party at a Church in Downtown Tacoma, in which someone was saying that they were going to have a really long game of hide-and-seek.

Now, I like sitting in a dark corner for 2 hours wondering if the game is over just as much as the next guy, but there's a game I used to play at my old Youth Group that works great in hide-and-seek-type environments. So, I've submitted it to the Youth leader in charge of the event, and I hope that he uses it because it's an awesome game.

Alright, I'll tell you about the game.

The name of the game is "Virus", formerly called Vampire.

Game takes place in nearly the entire Church. Somewhat combines elements of tag and Hide-and-Seek.

How to play:

All the Youth Leaders and players meet in one room at the beginning. They choose one person (student or leader) to be “the Virus” and another to be “the Cure”.
The players put their heads down and eyes closed and the Virus has 2 minutes to hide the Cure somewhere within the boundaries outside of the starting room.
After the 2 minutes are over, the remaining students’ job is to find the Cure and avoid getting tagged by the Virus.
Some of the remaining Youth Leaders will go to a room designated as the “Quarantine”, and some may play with the students. Whenever a student (or any other player) gets tagged by the Virus, he or she must go to the Quarantine.
At the Quarantine there should be two to four Youth Leaders. When someone goes to the Quarantine, they are stuck there until they complete a task given to them by one of the Youth Leaders. (The tasks can be anything like “20-push ups, teach me a hip-hop dance, do some impersonations, things of that nature.”)
The game is over when a student finds the Cure and brings him or to the Quarantine. He is safe from the Virus as he brings him or her to the Quarantine.

If you have any questions or comments about the game or happen to want a more full set of rules I can supply that.

Blogging is Established

2006-12-27T18:04:00.000-08:00

You know something in the media has been well established when there are things about it in its own format. There's rappers rapping about rapping, podcasters podcasting about podcasting, books about reading, okay you get the point. Now, blogging has gotten to the point that there are blogs about blogging.

Never Delete Your Blog

2006-12-27T17:49:00.001-08:00

I didn't know this piece of advice until I was browsing the Google Blogger Help Group (sounds like AA for Bloggers doesn't it?) I'm SDtektiv, and I'm a Blogger. Anyway the point is that someone learned the hard way that you shouldn't delete your blog. Why? Well it turns out that when he or she deleted the blog, the URL became available, and someone turned it into a SPAM blog. The word on the street is that because people visit blogs, they are valuable to spammers, they show up in Search engines which means that they can pick this up and use it to show whatever sort of filth they want to.

This is really bad, I once visited a blog because I saw a link to it from a site that I trusted, and it had porn in it. I felt betrayed, and I didn't understand what happened, but now I do. They deleted the blog and a Spammer claimed the URL.

In conclusion, if you are tempted to delete your blog or change the URL, or relocate, don't do it. You can just put a post up there that says "blog has been moved, link:", or you can delete all the posts you made and make a post like that. Just be sure to disable comments either way. Spammers like to use those too.

Sixth Months

2006-12-27T17:34:00.000-08:00

A lot has happened since I stopped posting in this blog. I thought about deleting it but then I learned that it's really a bad idea to delete your blog because spammers will take the URL and do who-knows-what with it. I don't want a bunch of crap on a website with my username in the URL, I know that!

So here's what's happened in the last six months majorly with the blogging.

-SDtektiv's Halo 2 started up, a whole lotta postin' going on there, but then a lot of things happened and now it's just basically about whatever, I guess I'm relocating to here in a way because I thought about revamping it to become a non-themed personal blog, but instead I'm revamping "ninjaesque observative" to be my personal blog so that I can leave the last one for memories.

-REPriiSENT! newly launched this month, is a team blog that I'm a part of about the Nintendo Wii, this is the one that I'm pushing forward and putting a lot of time into.

Say no to Adsense

2006-12-27T17:26:00.000-08:00

Look, the way I see it, Blogger gives you all these features up-front and it's free, and there's no ads. That, to me, is a profit in a way because other blogging services require you to pay money to have access to your HTML code. Sure, not everything is up-front and easy, like making a picture header for example. But by finding and following a tutorial you can add many things to your blog.

They've done a lot, I didn't even know that at one time Blogger had ads on it! It did, and now that they're gone, they're back. Why? It seems that a lot of people see ads as good for their website. I disagree. They look rather tacky and I don't know about everyone else, but I know that I don't go back to websites with a lot of Google Adbars everywhere.

I see blogging as something that should be just for fun, and that gets comprimised when there's ads. Instead of trying to attract viewers for the sake of comments, you start trying to attract viewers to make your ads worth more. All of a sudden, it turns into a job.

Why have ads when you don't have to have them?

Blog for gaming

2006-06-25T13:31:00.000-07:00

I made a blog about my gaming on Halo 2. It is http://sdtektivh2.blogspot.com. I am mainly posting this here because I told my friend that I had posted a summary of a match, but I gave him the address to this blog instead of the gaming one. So the place is the link above. And this particular friend I'm talking about needs to teach me how to make a liquified muffin.

The LAN Partay Set-up, a Paint document

2006-05-10T15:07:00.000-07:00

Halo 2 Xbox LIVE

2006-04-10T15:12:00.000-07:00

Wow. It has been forever since I last posted here. I've been doing lots of fun stuff like, for example, Xbox Live! I've had Xbox Live for a few months and I have had lots of fun with it. Every few games or so you'll run into an annoying or lewd person. I simply mute these people and leave feedback. It certainly is unfortunate for people who use Xbox Live that I joined it, because I leave feedback on them :)!

I find it quite hilariously incomprehensible when after the game, the people on the other team get mad at you. It doesn't happen so often but when it does it is laughable. It doesn't make much sense to me. Why are they mad? Are they mad that I played against them? I guess they've forgotten that the experience they had in the last game depended on me being there to play against.

And what is it with those people who have a vendetta against "n00bs" (new people). They must have flunked in economics and in number-crunching or they've simply forgotten that the very thing that is keeping Xbox LIVE. . . alive is the fact that new people are joining up. The more people join, the better it is for LIVE. Not to mention that the more people there are using the service, the less time it takes for the service to match you up with other players, and therefore the more games you get to play!

What is funny to me is when people make big deals out of using certain weapons. Apparently, using a plasma pistol (a weapon that you can entirely take out someone's shields with in one shot) with any weapon, not just Battle Rifle as I thought, can be considered a "n00b combo." Some players will call a technique "cheap" basically if it makes them lose. Such as using a sword, using a grenade, using a Battle Rifle---the list goes on. This list can be compressed with the phrase "doing what you can in order to win" which I thought was the ultimate goal, besides cheating (which is pointless because cheating at the game doesn't get you anything real anyway).

These characters are funny and I'm sure everyone on live has met them at least once. The "Griefer", the "Anti-n00b", the "datsCheap", the "Cheater."

I will now state why I am so happy with Xbox LIVE, with this character I have found. The "Friend".

I am happy with my experience with LIVE so far. And the secret is the tool called... the friends list. I have met people who are very fun to play with. They realize that it is just a game, but care enough to try their hardest, and are easygoing. Some of these people I met in real life. I met some of these people on a Bungie.net fanclub-type thing called "Ickthus." It's pretty cool because it is a Christian group. It is very nice having these nice people on your list because they play often which is nice and they are nice themselves, but not nice-sessarily from the city of Nice in Europe.

These people give a great gaming experience, it is awesome to get a group of them together and fight our way through matchmaking together. It builds great fellowship and comradery. And the game is fun to play anyway!

Dear Blogger,

2006-02-04T15:34:00.000-08:00

Feb 4, 2006

Dear Blogger,

I want you to know that I have really enjoyed using your service, but there is one thing I am concerned about.

Many people who use blogger know that if they are bored, they can simply log out and go to the main page to watch the names of blogs show up for a few seconds as they are displayed, and occaisionally click on one that looks interesting.

I think that it is cool how at the main page (www.blogger.com) it shows the names of blogs that have just been updated. Unfortunately for everyone who goes to blogger, people create blogs with unfathomably obscene titles. When these blogs get updated, just like the good blogs, the title shows up on the blogger main page right next to where every last person who uses blogger must go to sign in. I am very tired and disturbed by seeing obscene names of blogs over and over again when I go to sign in.

I encourage you to consider the innocence and loyalty of your patrons, because when those obscene things get displayed, both are damaged. Please consider whether or not we are worth enough to you to moderate what words get pushed in front of us, who only want to feel safe at least at the place where we all go for signing in.

Sincerely,

SDtektiv

I am also posting this on my blog:
http://SDtektiv.blogspot.com

Liquified Muffin

2006-02-01T15:32:00.000-08:00

I want to learn how to make "Liquified Muffin", and so I offered this guy some good money, but he still won't respond. Please help me humbly request him to teach me how to liquify a muffin, because I know him and I know that he is smart and could teach me. Here you go: How I make stuff: Filler

And if you, the guy who I'm trying to learn from, are reading this right now, I want you to know that my heart has been softened and that even though it was tough I have found it in my heart to forgive you for not sharing your wisdom. I give you the opportunity to now share your wisdom, and you are not obligated to withold your wisdom (see the "verse of the whenever" in the upper left on this page).

Too many Standardized Tests!

2006-02-01T14:52:00.000-08:00

The school system is out to WASL us out. They think we actually care about the WASL. By having us waste three weeks of our time every year they are motivating me to care less. Any ways, the original acronym for WASL is the: Washington Assessment of Student Learning.

Post an alternative for what the letters "WASL" should represent.

Here is a post about it on MilkmanJones's blog:
Wit, Wisdom, and Society: WASL-Palooza

Hacky Sacking

2006-01-29T12:23:00.000-08:00

When people talk about "the simple things in life" a hacky sack must be one of the things they are talking about. I now list hacky sack...ing as one of my interests. If you think about it, it is the ultimate thing. You can take it with you anywhere in your pocket, any number of people can play it at a time, people can join in in the middle of a game, and it could go on forever.

It came in handy friday. I went over to my mom's friend's house and my friend's mom's house, for a piano lesson. After the lesson, my mom talked with her friend for a long time and it ended up being around dinnertime. A friend of my friend came over to my mom's friend's house and we all went to TGI Friday for dinner. It was a long wait, and fortunately I had my hacky sack with me, so us three (me, my friend, and my friend's friend) hacky sacked out in front of Thank God It's Friday for a while. It was a lot of fun. If I wasn't hungry, I might've actually been reluctant to have our table become available.

What's cool is that on sunny days, a group of guys will be hacky sacking in the outside lunch area. One day I joined them, and I hack with them on those days. I first got interested in buying a hacky sack when a group of people I see on every Sunday and Thursday at church were hacksacking.

Self-Proclaimed Artists' Union

2006-01-28T09:52:00.000-08:00

A team blog was started by a group of me and my friends. My and, hopefully soon, art from my friends can be found there. So far, there is a drawing and a poem up. If you haven't yet, visit http://proclaimedartists.blogspot.com to view the new blog and watch it go from a few posts from one person to a lots of posts from many persons. Once a lot of people join, I am hoping to make it so that different members post in different fonts. With the drawings, for some reason, I can't get them to display in their real-world size. If I can figure that out, I'll be able to post some readable comics.

Nadia Van Rosendael

2006-01-26T17:09:00.000-08:00

I had dozed off after I had gotten on the bus. I noticed that the school bus wasn't moving anymore and I looked up at the seats in front of me. I was sitting in the very back, next to the heater. There were backpacks in the seats next to and in front of me, and jackets, but no people. I looked up towards the front of the bus and saw that all the people were in the front there. A short distance ahead, I saw flashing blue and red lights. I asked a girl on the bus who had a cell phone out, "What happened?"

An aquaintance of mine's life was ended a couple of days ago when she was hit by a small van while running across a busy street to catch a different bus to school. Although Nadia and I weren't very close, I had known her since the seventh grade. She was a girl who was not afraid to speak her mind. At times, she was angry, but mostly hyper, and never boring. My school days will feel incomplete without her happy, energetic prescence. Nadia and I had lots of good times, and the memory of her will be cherished by me and many others.

A day later I visited the crash site, the corner nearest where she was hit was covered with flowers, candles, stuffed animals, and balloons. Visiting the place has helped loved ones deal with it.

A news story about it can be read here: http://www.komotv.com/news/story.asp?ID=41489 .

Blogger Shirt, Team Blog in works, WA Quarter

2006-01-20T15:40:00.000-08:00

Yesterday, that Blogger t-shirt that I ordered came! Wow, that was quick, wasn't it? So today I wore my blogger shirt to school, where I am excited about an upcoming art show in which some of my art pieces will be displayed. It's going to be in the school library next Thursday and Friday during school hours, I believe. It's exciting knowing people will see work that you are proud of!

Speaking of art, I and some friends from school are going to start a blog about art soon. Having a place in which we post art together sounds really fun. The whole premise of this blog wasn't about art but just me observing, being way cooler than pirates, and commenting on stuff. That way I can focus on doing those things here and putting art there. Although, making art definitely involves those three things! I am really excited because I'll get to post art among my friends and it'll just be exciting to see my friends' art. Especially the friends I don't get to see very often.

They going to come out with the Washington State quarter! I read it in the article "The salmon or the whale? You pick" by Curt Woodward, in the News Tribune today. The three final possible designs they have to choose from are a fish jumping out of a body of water with Mount Rainer in the background, a fish with apples on top of an outline of Washington State, and a Native American whale spouting water. According to the article, people "will be able to lobby for their favorite in an online poll, and the commision will settle on a favorite." But, "The final decision rests with Gov. Christine Gregoire." View the three possible quarters and read the article here: http://www.thenewstribune.com/news/local/story/5470254p-4934688c.html!

Poking fun at Fashion

2006-01-17T16:55:00.000-08:00

Guess what? Yesterday I ordered the blogger shirt that is brown with the orange logo on it. And now... I guess I wait. Well, to ease the wait a little bit, I drew a picture of myself wearing that shirt. Now, you can imagine with me what it will be like to don that shirt...

I'm kidding! I did order the shirt and I did draw a picture (obviously), but just because I felt like drawing something.

Yes, I know wearing a shirt with the blogger logo on it is a bit nerdy but that never stopped me before. I mean, what is worse? Wearing a shirt with "Blogger" on it that is practical, or wearing pants that are already 80% worn out in order to be "fashionable." Can you imagine how hard it was to explain to the workers in foreign countries that the silly Americans wanted their pants to have unsightly rips, paint smeared all over, and kneaded and folded 20 times with an egg-beater into a froth? "Faded." That's what the look used to be, but now they've probably opened up massive complicated superstructures dedicated to enclose a space for pulverizing those poor pants.

...Well, if it creates more jobs.

Drawing for my Profile

2006-01-15T16:49:00.000-08:00

Today I decided to add a picture to my profile. It's a little something I drew, here it is. I think it's pretty rad, I drew so that hopefully when someone looks at my profile, it will look like the dude is reading the words of my profile. We'll see how it works.

Eloquent Hubub

2006-01-13T15:46:00.000-08:00

I thought it would be cool to make a post about words that just sound so much like their meaning. Some words just do and so well! Like for example: "eloquent." Isn't it amusing how the very word "eloquent" sounds "eloquent"? Also:

glitch
annoy
strudel
hooplah
hubub

Well that's all I got. Go ahead and comment a word that you think sounds like its meaning (fun for all ages).

Psychological Rambling

2006-01-13T15:27:00.000-08:00

I am glad that I made this blog because it has been really fun and good for me I think. I mean, I was able to get everything (well almost) that makes me mad out of my system. A good outlet. The only time when that can be bad is if you are actually in a good mood but then you get in a bad mood after typing something which is actually just supposed to be fun. I've only done that a few times.

What's in my heart defines what I say. You can't say something destructive if your heart wants growth it seems. I have to say though, that it is good to be thinking about things that don't make sense (see archives in the left column... thing...y), but you have to be careful not to get so into pondering about things that you become bitter about what you are thinking about and forget to feed your spirit. How bad is it when a person only feeds their mind but neglects their spirit? My experience has been that it is not a good experience and propels you into a state where your pride becomes how persuasive and eloquent you can be instead of the very reason why you wanted to try to persuade in the first place. And then, it becomes not about seeing the other person realize, but about who can win the competition of who will break the argument first. It devastates the people involved.

The Pen is Mighty :)

2006-01-12T16:15:00.000-08:00

Yesterday, January 12, 2006, was probably the best day I have had this school year. It was so rad. Let me explain. Actually, well howsabout I just paste this letter I wrote to the administration of my school and gave a copy to the school paper:

December 15, 2005

Dear [the name of the school] Administration,

Being on time to class is a great concern of mine and my fellow students, and I am glad there is always a signal to make it clearly known it is time to start moving toward the next class...
… Except from lunch. When I am finished eating, I am left sitting there trying to figure out when I should leave. It’s a big deal knowing when to leave lunch because from there I go to a language class which is quite far from the Commons. The result is that it is not uncommon to see 3, 4, or even 5 people coming from lunch tardy to my fourth and fifth period classes.
Being tardy to any class, including from lunch, five times results in a Monday school, I suspect more tardiness results in a punishment far worse. Having a punishment for disobeying school rules is necessary, but giving students the power to obey them is needed as well.
What I suggest is that there be something to signal the end of lunch that is exclusive to the lunchroom. It could be maybe someone getting on the microphone and saying “This is the end of [insert number here] lunch.” It doesn’t matter what the signal is, but there needs to be a clear signal at the end of lunch in the Commons because the time we are supposed to leave lunch is different each day. Otherwise, my friends and I will continue to have to guess and often be wrong about what time we should leave the lunchroom.

And then it had "Sincerely" and my full name which I don't want to share because then what if I say something stupid and then become famous? It'll come back to haunt me for sure. Anyways, yesterday I got called down in the middle of my math class (of which my journalistic endevours seem to get me out of often), and I got called to the Administrator's office and I was actually kind of scared because I didn't know what the reaction was.

The reaction was a smile and a compliment on my letter. I was told that they are working with their bell company to get something better and hearable in the lunchroom! I guess letters actually do make a difference! Hopefully soon, I'll be hearing it.

Blogger vs Xanga!

2006-01-03T16:49:00.000-08:00

I am really glad that I found Blogger. I used to be on Xanga, but there were a few things that were pretty dupid about it.

I am so glad that I have found the greatness that is Blogger. It is so great... Let us compare why Blogger is so much better than Xanga:

Reason number one:
No dumb ads that are like "Do this and get an iPod"... my response: "Why should iCare?"...
In fact, there are no ads on Blogger, except for when people choose to put them on. Xanga had ads

Reason number two:
Blogger allows direct access to your Template coding, and has help articles to help you put add-ons and hacks by putting stuff in the code. Did Xanga? no.

Resin number three:
Censorship. If I find a blog that is inappropriate I can "flag" it, and if a lot of people "flag" it, then it doesn't get deleted, it just becomes unlisted. Which means that it will still exist, but no one will find it unless they type in the address or look really hard for it. Xanga, didn't have it.

Season number four:
I have the option of making it so that people can comment, even people who aren't even signed up in Blogger. Xanga didn't have that

The only thing that Xanga had that Blogger didn't was a "Kudos" feature, but as you can see above the things that make Blogger better seriously outweigh this one feature.

I suspect that I could've made Xanga be like Blogger for me if I ordered Xanga Premium, but Blogger has all these features for free that you have to pay for on other services. It's just too cool.
It's pretty rad. Blogger hasn't made any attempt to try to get me to give them money... Maybe I'll be nerdy and buy the light-brown shirt with the blogger logo on it.

Some people might see it differently however. I saw on one blog that someone had posted that they were switching from Blogger to Xanga because they thought Xanga was better than Blogger! Pretty funny, eh?

Christmas List! (Updated Dec 28 05)

2005-12-23T14:38:00.000-08:00

Yeah! Christmas is in two days! I am excited. Here's what I remember that I asked for:

Xbox controller (for controlling the xbox)

25ft ethernet cable (for connecting multiple xboxes)

Router (for connecting multiple xboxes), in November, I had a Halo 2 partay and it was awesome! It was three teams of four people playing Halo 2 at the same time. I had lots of fun tracking down what equipment people could bring. What was the hardest piece of equipment to acquire for the partay? That's right, a router. And since I am going to be having lots of Halo 2 partays, it would make sense for me to ask for one.

Amped 2 Xbox video game (for playing on the xbox) Wow, these gifts seem to be xboxocentric eh?

A skate DVD (for me to watch and feel happy for the people who get to go outside and skateboard, but I can't, it's raining)

Some music CD's (for listening to)

And that's it, so Merry Christmas!

____________________________________________________________________

And now, it's after Christmas. And Christmas was a success. The two main things I got was a 25 ft ethernet cable and a Router! Which is rad because now I can host a Halo partay and not have to worry about tracking someone with a router down because the people I invited who had a router couldn't come or something.

I also get a second Christmas with my Dad in January, look for another update then.

Evolution

2005-12-22T11:47:00.000-08:00

I think they should be allowed to teach the theory of intelligent design in school, because then they could let us students make up our own minds instead of showing us only one view of the origin of humanity.

What I would want is for them to show both arguments, Intelligent Design and Evolution, and then only show actual real evidence. Not just made-up stuff like "Well look, these two separate species have this in common." Well yes! Of course they have something in common. Just like two types of cars made by the same manufacturer, they are going to have things in common, which signify that they were made by the manufacturer. The fact that there is something in common in two different species suggests a creator was involved, but does not prove that evolving was involved.

Look, if the theory of Evolution was true, then by now we would be discovering millions of fossils showing a gradual change from species to species. Where are they!? For me, I need some real evidence. I'm sorry, I guess I don't have enough faith.

So why not teach a nonfraudulent comparison of Evolution and Intelligent Design? Are they afraid that we will get confused because we apparently can't make up our own minds on it for ourselves?

Phat Hair

2005-12-21T16:22:00.000-08:00

Have you ever saw a friend somewhere and walked to up to them and said "Hi!" and then they turn to look at you and you get this feeling in your stomach when you realize that the person is someone you never met? I had that funny experience once when my mom, my older brother, and I went to the store. Me and my brother went away from my mom to get shampoo. I saw this shampoo that was yellow and had a funny name, "Phat Hair." I thought it was so funny that I took it off the shelf and I was going to show it to my mom.

I looked for my mom and saw her with her shopping cart and I walked up to her and said, "Look! It's Phat Hair." I made eye contact with the person I was speaking to and I realized that she wasn't my mom! Pretty funny huh?

And then, there are those times when you aren't sure if the person is the person you think it is so you try to get a good look at the person, but you don't want the person to know you are looking at her, so you act stealthy and if the person looks at you, pretend you weren't looking at them.

The funny thing is, is that if the person is the person you think she is, would it be possible that she is trying to get a good look at you to see if you are the person she recognizes? An ironic thought would be to think that maybe both of you are trying to recognize each other but you keep turning away from each other, making it impossible to do so. Generally, though, people will not be offended if you say something if you say, "Oh sorry, I thought you were a friend of mine."

French vs English Keyboards

2005-12-21T11:41:00.000-08:00

I was thinking, "I wonder if French keyboards are different than English keyboards." I bet they are, because there is no easy way to put accent marks around letters using the English keyboard, and the French language has lots of accent marks all over the place.

The only way I know of that someone can put an accent mark above or below a letter is if they open up the Microsoft Word, go to the "Insert" thingy at the top (next to "File" "Edit" "View" etc). And from the dropdown from the "Insert" menu, click on "Symbol." From there, one much search from a plethora of symbols to find the item that is the right letter with the right symbol, and click on it.

You could try typing in French on a normal keyboard, it's just that after about two or so words I know that an accent mark will be necessary, and well, as you can see above, it's a lot of work. Perhaps there is an easier way. I mean, let's say I wanted to say in French "your mom." That would be "votre me`re", except that the accent mark is supposed to be above the "E"! not next to it!

My conclusion is that they must have some extra keys on their keyboards. Being that French is the number 2 most often used language on the internet, they probably got real tired of doing all that work and demanded a new keyboard the first day that the internet boomed.

"tmas"

2005-12-19T20:35:00.000-08:00

Merry Christmas. I was thinking of a good way you could shorten "Christmas" without offending anyone but still shorten it. Think about it, no more people complaining to people advertising "Xmas Trees", when the advertiser is merely trying to save a tree by using a smaller sign. It's simple, instead of having "Xmas" they could have like "tmas", except the "t" would be more like a cross. This way, you can shorten "Christmas" and arguably use less tape or paint because a cross uses less tape or paint. An "X" is two long lines , where a cross, is one short line across one big line.

Everyone wins!

and, it's shorter than "Holiday" too

Freedom of Speech: A Poem

2005-12-19T19:49:00.000-08:00

"Freedom of Speech!" cries out the person who wants to put more swear words on TV.
"Freedom of Speech!" cries out the valedectorian who wants to include a prayer in his speech at his graduation.
"Why!" is it that swear words can be said on TV, yet an innocent prayer at school can be censored?

Lost in confusion... Does freedom of speech apply only to those who want to move away from what is good?

"That's what the forefathers really wanted." They say

If having the ten commandments on public property is unconstitutional, then why were they allowed to put them there in the first place?

Media & Manga Theory

2005-12-19T19:17:00.000-08:00

My theory about the media:

The media is dark and pretends that it has the answer to happiness and yet leaves you empty.
My theory about the media is that they are out to get people from a young age addicted to, well you know what. Think about it, everywhere, video games, movies, even cable TV. I used to watch AZN television but then they started showing very sexually explicit anime. Am I the only one who sees something wrong with that?

Manga. I love manga. In fact, I love to make it, and draw actual stories. I hate to buy it now. The manga industry lost my trust when they lied about what was in a particular graphic novel. To be safe, I purchased a manga that was rated "Youth: Ages 10 and up" all it said was for some violence. I really enjoyed the manga... until I got close to the end of it. I won't go into detail about it but let's just say that it was like AZN television. To show my legitimacy, the title of the Manga was "Etcetera Volume 1" published by TokyoPop.

I emailed TokyoPop about it, their slogan is something like "Leading the manga revolution." I suggested to them that they lead the manga revolution by publishing wholesome japanese manga (there's got to be some out there!) that appealed to mature aged people. To be honest, you'd have to be immature to enjoy a "mature"-rated manga. I love manga, but I can't pick one up again because I'll always have a fear of what might be lurking on the next page. I emailed them months ago, and never got a response.

Anyways, I believe that the media wants for everyone to be addicted to it's explicit material. It puts it out there, and acts like it isn't hurting anyone. It hurts me. It's targeting as young as "ages 10 and up."

Is Separation of Church and State real?

2005-12-19T19:05:00.000-08:00

In America, we have noticed that over the past 60 years or so, the Supreme Court has made many rulings to try to eliminate all religion from the government and also from public places. But what were these rulings based on is my question? The idea of there being a wall between Church and State is not found in the Constitution. But religion is found in the Constitution.

"unalienable rights endowed upon them by their Creator"

The constitution does say that the Government can't force people to follow a specific religion, but by having prayer in schools and saying "under God" in the pledge of allegiance, is that forcing people to follow a religion? It's not. The constitution says that all people have the freedom of expressing their religion, yet teachers are required in some places to even keep it entirely secret. By saying you are a Christian or even wearing a cross, you are not forcing anyone to follow a certain religion. I thought that freedom of speech applied to everyone.