Wieners and TV

What a sausage fest! Did you hear about all the Wieners just rolling around Cincinnati’s I-471 yesterday (9/26) morning? I mean really... just take a look:



Apparently some truck tipped over and spilled all these rotten hot dogs, sausages, along with some other processed meat. How fun would it have been to see that!

Anyway... on to other important matters, let's talk about a new TV show... Chuck.

So I noticed this show that was on before Heroes on Monday evening, and it looked a little intriguing. I set my tape to start recording an hour earlier so I could catch not only Heroes but also Chuck. Two nights ago I finally got to watch it. I give it 3 out of 5 stars... or 3 of 5 thumbs up... or 3 of 5 priceless imaginable gold trophies... whatever floats their boat the most.

Basically the show to me appears to me as if some geeky guy was sitting in his office one day and thought: "Man... How sweet would it be to work for the government and know all their secrets..." and then he went back to soldering some logic board together.

The show can be summed up as the ultimate geek fantasy. I have always thought it would be pretty darn sweet to work for the government. Basically any job where I learn things that I'm not allowed to tell the 'general public' would be a pretty sweet job... hah.

So Chuck gets an email that holds all the government’s secrets without realizing it and opens it. It puts him in a trance and his brain is now the central computer that holds all the government secrets. AND... Somehow the government hadn't backed up this computer... a little far fetched... but intriguing.

I'm not really sure how this show is going to pan out, but I plan on watching when I can. They throw a cute blonde into the madness along with guns, explosions, computer viruses and the Nerd Herd (the show's poor play off of the Geek Squad...) to pull together a rather awkward package. But still... it intrigues me for now.

Tonight is the 4th season premiere of The Office though... and for that I am super excited! Smallville also starts tonight.

Personal Investment

Quick... you were just promoted manager and now standing in front of a team of brand new employees in an overly fluorescent-bright conference room. The last manager was 'reassigned' due to the lack of performance by his employees. What is the main thing you do to make a difference? ...

Everyone probably knows the answer to this question in some form or another whether you were able to quickly vocalize it or not. The best way to get anyone to do anything more than the bare bones minimum is to give them a reason to. Make it so they have a personal investment. This works in more than just a business setting as well... it actually works in all aspects of life. If you take any scenario, and think the selfish thought... what am I getting out of this? Or rather, what can I possibly get out of this?

What am I trying to say? Well these thoughts were brought up last night when watching the second season premiere of Heroes on NBC. I really enjoy the show. I think the concept is amazing and the tangled web of plots is so complex that it drives my interest. But right there is also in my eyes a key problem... the plot and the desire for the web to unravel is the only thing that keeps me watching. What I am saying is... where is my personal investment to this show? Do I enjoy the plot? Of course I do! Do I enjoy the characters? Of course I do! But... Do I feel personally invested in any one character? That I don't.

Pardon my extremely strange comparison, but where is Ross? I love the show Friends. This is definitely not because it is like real life... cause let's face it... no one's life is like the six of theirs. If it were... you would be disease infested, poor beyond belief, and even though you have some pretty sweet friends, you wouldn't be all too happy I don't think. The show takes the extremes of events... as it should, because it is a TV show that provides entertainment to an extremely broad audience. Anyway, I digress... I hold some sort of personal investment emotionally in each of the characters on Friends. If during its 10 years of broadcasting, any one of the 6 friends was killed off, I (among so many others) wouldn't have taken it lightly.

When watching Heroes, it might have something to do with the extreme size of the cast and minimal time spent on each character, but nearly any of the characters could be killed off and I wouldn't do much more than give a... harumph.

So how can we relate the lack of personal investment in any character in Heroes to real-life? Well let me tell you...

You know how people say, don't take it personal? Well I'm going to go out on a limb and ask, why? Why can't something be personal? A certain movie quote from You've Got Mail comes to mind. Joe Fox has just put Kathleen Kelly's bookstore out of business...

Joe Fox: It wasn't... personal.
Kathleen Kelly: What is that supposed to mean? I am so sick of that. All that means is that it wasn't personal to you. But it was personal to me. It's *personal* to a lot of people. And what's so wrong with being personal, anyway?
Joe Fox: Uh, nothing.
Kathleen Kelly: Whatever else anything is, it ought to begin by being personal.

If everyone took things a little more personal, I bet the place would be a little bit of a better place. Would you rather have a teacher that stands at the board and regurgitates information... or would you rather have a teacher that takes your personal interest in mind and works to make it his/her own personal goal to help you learn. If you were the manager of a team, would you rather have an employee who does their job just as asked or a person who desires personal success and makes the success of your product personal?

We live in a time right now where everything is being pushed towards automation. If you call a company's support line, I can almost guarantee they'll do everything in their power to answer your question through prompts so that you don't have to talk to a single person. I am not saying that is wrong at all. It is a good business move, saves on operating costs. But if we are losing the personal in areas like that, shouldn't we be adding personal into other areas.

Walk into the Apple store. I rest my case.

Who's going to be this Billionaire?

You know what is going to be a great invention someday? A non-addictive, non-harmful, sleep inducing apparatus of some sort.

As you can tell from not only the timestamp but possibly also my quality of writing.. it is going on 4am on a Sunday night / Monday morning. It is true, I do have a 9am class tomorrow. In fact I have class from 9am to 2pm with rehearsal from 830pm to 1030pm... It won't be a very fun day.

Anyway... someday there will be a switch that we just flip that makes us go in the most peaceful and restful sleep we have ever had.

Here are some of the advantages:
- No more tossing and turning in bed waiting for sleep to overcome us
- No more time wasted while being awake when you could/should be sleeping
- Sleep time would decrease significantly because of the quality of sleep we would experience

As for the negatives... I can't come up with any right now... other than the fact that there wouldn't be blog entries like this one for you all to read when you wake up at your normal hour tomorrow... well... later today.

My guess is that the sleeping aparatus will have something to do with our breath. Maybe it will be a little clip that you put on your nose and within one minute of enabling the device you are asleep. Maybe there are pressure points in our ears that we don't know about yet, and a certain clip-on ear ring could be attached for instant shuteye. Maybe there is specific eye wear that you put over your eyes, and you find yourself quickly drifting off into the land of make believe.

This would become part of our daily routine. When it is time for bed, clip it on and off you go. There might even be a way to set the amount of sleep you get. Just a power nap in the afternoon? Set the device to let you sleep for 25 minutes. A full nights sleep so you will be completely awake for a busy day of work, set it to 8 hours. Home late from the airport only to realize that you must get up for work in 5 hours. Well just set it to 5 hours and hit the sack.

Depending on the type of sleep that you are put into... this device might need to have some added features. One feature might be for young parents who have a baby in another room. When the baby starts crying, the device will either wake you or bring you out of the complete deep sleep. It might also be attached to your house alarm or fire/carbon monoxide detectors.

In any perspective... the guy (or gal) who invents this device will have more fame and fortune that anyone else (too tired to think of a specific person)

My guess is that there is some pressure point on our body that when touched a certain way will put you to sleep. Maybe I could just lay back down in bed and pick my nose hoping to find the right spot. Actually I don't think the nose would have the pressure point... probably the ears. If the apparatus was made for the nose, I would think that it would be putting out some vapor.

But I think I confused my Guinea Pigs... I came over here to the recliner, turned on the light and started typing. They immediately woke up and are now moving around the cage in normal morning routine. Aren't they going to be confused when I turn the lights back off here in a minute. I'm sure they'll be fine.

I should stop writing before the rambling becomes unbearable and I really start to lose readers ;-) Have a good one, happy dreams!

PS... I am thinking about changing the location of this blog from http://www.blarged.com/blog to just http://www.blarged.com. I have recently purchased pawlak.ws which I am going to be turning into my 'homepage'. Just an FYI, if and when this happens I'll give you a heads up so you can update your bookmarks and reader links.

Identity Crisis!

It has been so long! For that I am sorry :-( I am sure you have missed me greatly.

First off let me say that my trip to Boston was amazing and I absolutely love that city. It was great to see my brother Dan and sister in law Katie, and I hope they know how appreciative Sean (my roommate) and I are to them for playing host for our stay.

As many of you know who read this blog (due to a few posts back) I now have an iPhone. I was ecstatic about it when it first came into my life. It has been a few weeks now. I have hacked it with new programs and crashed it with the hack. I have found a few flaws and found some very nifty features. I have used it for nearly all its features. it made an extremely useful mapping system when wondering the streets of Boston attempting to find different touristy places. To sum it up... I LOVE IT! I can't wait to see what all sorts of features and upgrades apple will be putting out for the OS. I love having the mp3 player with me at all times and love watching the technology work nearly seemlessly with the switch between mp3 player and phone. It is quite ashame the lack of the GPS features though. I will survive.

So this brings me to the real topic of this post. I am going through an identity crisis. Listen carefully, for those that have known me a while may be surprised to hear this next sentence... I want a Mac. I have always admired Apple for their attention to not only to the usage of software, but their cosmetics. I think Vista made a valiant attempt, but there is not a single inch of me that wants to upgrade to Vista. I am a person of change, don't get me wrong, I love the new. I get tired of habits and love changes in scenery. I have mentioned this many times before. And I think it might be about time to make a change in the computer world. I love my iPhone and it was a success in making a big push at turning me to an Apple fanboy.

The only dilemma I have is my major. I am a Computer Science major as you probably well know, and when you think computer programming or computer science you generally don't think of Apple computers. You mostly think Linux and Windows. I do know many companies that swear by the Apple label as their computer of choice and really that's where their main business success is. While in some ways being an Apple guy could hinder progress in my field, in many other ways it could be a blessing and a success. Being in the minority in the technology field isn't necessarily a bad thing (in my opinion). Instead it could be an opportunity.

I am always looking for start up ideas. Is it possible that my next great idea and the break-through that leads to my millions of dollars of wealth and fame is hidden behind the unexplored doors of Apple computers? There is potential and opportunity that I think I would like to explore. The downfall of this is really the switch. I am not talking about the transferring of files or the compatibility of certain softwares... but yes, the price tag. Apple is great, but man are they expensive.

Someday... someday... For now its the first weekend of school and I have lots of homework to do. Cheers all! Its good talking to you again!

Hello from Boston

I have been in Boston since last Thursday night and have been loving it. This is such a great city and has been great to visit. If someday I find myself living around here, it definitely wouldn't be a bad thing.

I was parusing the realms of YouTube and in celebration of The Office coming back soon... enjoy :-)

A bit of bathroom talk...

There are a few items in regards to the bathroom that I think should be discussed.

So you get into the bathroom in the morning and what is the one thing that everyone (well probably almost everyone) does before hopping in the shower? ... they go to the bathroom. After doing your thing, you can't really flush the toilet for the reason of it doing one of two things. It will either kill the pressure in your shower... or worse... make it blazing hot (or frigidly cold)! 15 or so minutes later, you hop out of the shower dry off, do whatever else you do in there (shave... brush your teeth... comb your hair… put on deodorant... blah blah blah...) and head back to the bedroom to get ready the rest of the way for the day.

HALT! ... wait a second ... didn't you forget something?

That's right, everyone all together now... “flush the toilet!”

Your honor... I am guilty as charged (along with every other person who ever took a shower...) I have forgotten to flush the toilet after the shower and before leaving the bathroom. For a while I would flush the toilet, wash my hands, then brush my teeth in order to let the shower water settle back down... but that didn't last... I like brushing my teeth to be one of the last things I do when in the bathroom. That way my mouth feels like a festival and parade of mints with me as the Grand Marshal!

Seriously though... don't you hate it when you get back from work in the afternoon, go to use the restroom only to find yourself questioning your bladder... wait a second, did I already go? It really isn't all that bad when it is yellow... you're just letting it mellow. On the bad day when you forget to flush and its brown, by golly I bet you find yourself wishing you had flushed it down!

It is really rather disgusting walking into a bathroom that has had a toilet sitting there full and unflushed for an extended period of time. This is especially true when the bathroom is located in an area of the house that stays pretty toasty at all hours of the day.

So what do you do to help remind yourself to flush before leaving the bathroom in the morning? Most of the time I just leave the lid up as a reminder staring me right in the face to push that shiny little silver lever that we would all hate to live without.

On a side note for all you guys out there... don't you just hate it when you are standing up over the toilet, hanging freely and doing your thing when all of a sudden the urge hits you? You then think, "darnit, now I gotta sit down!" If you're lucky you'll be close to being finished and you can just wait a few seconds until you're drained and do the great 180... just not too fast ;-) What is terrible is when you get the urge and you aren't even close to being drained. "Man, I knew I should have just taken a seat...” The process to follow isn't much fun. Once I'm flowing I prefer to just finish instead of somehow kinking the hose. But hey, it happens.

That's about all the bathroom talk for now. I did have one more topic I wanted to discuss but I think I might save that for a post unto itself!

This will probably be my last real post for a little bit (bout a week). I will be traveling to Boston tomorrow with my roommate to visit my brother Dan and his wife Katie. We'll be out there until late next Tuesday night. Classes start up Wednesday morning. We'll be traveling Sky Bus (rountrip ticket from Columbus to Boston for just over 50 bucks!) I'll most likely give a few shorter posts talking about what's going on in Bean Town... but maybe I won't. I'll be on vacation so I'll do whatever I please :-)

Take it easy!

I hate non-anonymous evaluations

As the summer quarter draws near to a close, it is time to fill out evaluations. I have an evaluation and my employer has an evaluation. I have to fill my evaluation out first so my manager can view if before she fills out her evaluation... how stupid is that?

I just finished answering all the questions in my evaluation, both questions on myself as well as my employer. As anyone who follows this blog knows, I am not exactly happy with my current team. I want to be a developer and I was falsely led into this team to be a developer where they then stuck me as and analyst. Much of my lack of satisfaction I wanted to put into my evaluation... but my manager will read it before she writes hers. I am already kicking myself for telling her I am looking into transferring to a different team before she wrote her evaluation. She isn't the type of person that would really sway her answers just cause I won't be around anymore... but its all in the mindset you have while filling out the evaluation.

I have questions like... were you well supervised? How am I going to answer that other than yes... when I know my supervisor is the one that is going to read it? GRRRR....

Boys and their toys :-)

Big news from the geeky side of my life this weekend… I bought an iPhone!

Last Friday, I went to the Apple store after work with the mindset of buying an iPod. I have never had an mp3 player before and with my extensive music selection and love for a great tune, it was about time. I went into the store and played around with all the different iPods and iPhones for nearly an hour. I finally decided on getting the new iPod Classic, 80-gig for $250. I checked out and took it to the car. I sat in the car for a moment with the box still airtight in its plastic wrap. I'll leave it in the box for now I decided. I then drove the rest of the way home. When I got back to the house, I just couldn't shake the gnawing thoughts of having just spent so much money on something that just plays music and videos... it just didn't feel right. After being home for about 10 minutes I decided that I had made the wrong choice and wanted something a little different.

Back at the Apple store 30 minutes later (and rejoicing for the just recent $200 drop in the iPhone prices) I exchanged my 80-gig iPod Classic for an 8-gig iPhone. First I was going to get the 4-gig, but after a quick discussion, decided that for me, the 8-gig would probably be best. Sure it cost a bit more, but it is amazing. I am thinking of it as a much better investment. After spending the entire weekend playing with it... I have not been disappointed.

So enough personal narration... let me give my little initial review.

I have now had the iPhone for two full days, and am loving it! Here are a few things I would like to mention.

Sleek All-metal design:
To say this thing is pretty is an insult. To say this thing is sexy doesn't even come close. I need a new word to combine, sleek/pretty/sexy/dazzling! The design is seamless and fits perfectly into my hands and pocket. The all-metal design helps ease my fears of scratching and the sorts

Quick response:
I was using a Cingular 8125 before, and was crying every time I wanted to do anything. It was slower than molasses in the winter time. Sometimes the touch screen wouldn't respond right away and I would just want to throw it on the ground. Not a daily attitude that should be kept. I love the iPhone's quick response to my touch. The quality of the touch is very nice as well. I barely have to touch the screen for it to register. I don't know if it is pressure sensitive or how it is working, but kudos to Apple.

UI and applications:
Everything apple is always so pretty. The user interface isn't an exception. The screens are sleek with rounded icons and friendly colors. Initially the iPhone comes with the following applications:
- Text (SMS)
- Caldendar
- Photos
- Camera
- YouTube
- Stocks
- Maps
- Weather
- Clock
- Calculator
- Notes
- Settings
- Phone
- Mail
- Safari
- iPod
I have played with all of these features extensively and am very impressed. They all run smoothly and seem to be personally catered to my methods of use.

The 2 mega-pixel camera is amazing and the display is even better.

I only have one moan and groan so far... there is no LED status... When I have the screen turned off and just lying on my desk, it looks like the phone is completely turned off. I would really like a green/red LED on one of the surfaces to let me know if I have a new message. If I leave the room and come back, I have to turn the screen completely on just to see if I have any notifications. But that's really all I have found wrong so far.

I was able to apply the install.app hack to the iPhone allowing me to install lots of other fun applications. Of the applications available, only the games have really proven worthwhile so far in my book, but there is potential.

My overall thoughts?
I love it. It is a sleek and fast phone that has won my heart. This phone is definitely meant for pleasure though. If I were using my phone for business a lot I would probably have stuck with the Windows CE platform with a keyboard. One application that I would like to see on the iPhone is the option of a home screen that displays information. I want to be able to go to one screen that shows me upcoming events on my calendar and any notifications that I have. Currently all these applications are separate and to check them all I have to open them all. But in the overall quality of things, it isn't that big of a deal.

The iPhone is officially my first Apple product ever owned. I am not disappointed and look forward to further purchases.

The birds are organizing!

Have you ever seen Alfred Hitchcock's The Birds? I have. I watched it back sometime during my sophomore year of high school. It was on some lazy, late Friday afternoon when I had nothing else to do in an empty house. I watched intensely as the birds revolted against our civil society... and then I drove to a friend’s house. It was quite the drive. Now I know movies are just movies... and I know that birds don't usually attack people... but I would have sworn staring you straight in the eyes that there were a few robins that gave me some sketchy looks....

The reason I bring this up is recently, I've been noticing the birds. Sure they are always around, but you don't usually notice them. A bird flies up into a tree, he hops across the driveway, or he's on the grass pecking for worms... these things you don't notice. But lately... there's been something mysterious, the birds are organizing!

Just yesterday I was driving in front of an auto-repair shop that had nice grass out in front of it's doors, and there were hundreds of birds! I'm not talking scattered about, but so many birds you couldn't see the grass. They were jumping around, swooping in to land along with taking off up to power lines.

Driving to work this morning on the highway, I look up at one certain power line and I noticed the birds …none were moving... They were just sitting there, watching the cars go by. Probably contemplating who would be the first victim.

Have you ever seen birds fly in a flock... or rather... a swarm...? They fly like a swarm of bees do in cartoons... as one entity. How do they communicate? Is there just one bird up front that decides which hairpin turn to take next? Can they just read each other’s thoughts? Can they read our thoughts?

It is already a proven fact that birds have it in for us. Just think about how many times you've been driving down some back road at an easy 30 mph when a bird shoots out from no where flying just inches above the ground, across the street. You tap or slam on your breaks (all depending on how daring the bird really is) and hold your breath in hopes that you didn't hurt the innocent woodland creature. All the while, all the other birds are off the side of the road hootin' and hollerin' about watching you jolt forward in your seat. They have a contract agreement with the squirrels on those terms as well.

Back in high school again, I was on a trip up to Cedar Point Amusement Park up in Sandusky, Ohio. We were just walking in to the park, hadn't even given our tickets yet... when something plops on the top of my head. Yes... a stupid Sea Gull had decided it’d be fun to poop on the silly human! What are the chances of your head being used for target practice??? For that topic I will leave it to one of my favorite bloggers, Scott Adams, who discussed this topic just three days ago in his 'Dilbert Blog'.

I am sure of it though... the birds are organizing. If you haven't noticed yet, you will soon. Don't be surprised, it won’t be long until we start hearing countless freak accident stories on the News about birds flying into the back of people's heads. You have been warned...

I'll teach you to toot!

I started a new side job yesterday, teaching high school trumpet lessons!

I have two students from a smaller high school in Cincinnati that I will be teaching weekly from now until who knows. I was pleasantly surprised when I heard them play. Both are good players with (of course) areas that need attention.

I won't narrate the lessons to you, because really... who would want to read that. But instead I would like to take this post and talk about teaching.

These are my first students and I quickly learned a few things through the course of the hour with two very different aspiring musicians. First off, they are eager, and that eagerness needs to be met with a confidence of what's going on. When done with an exercise I need to be prepared to immediately start talking about what went well and what needs improvement. There isn't anything much worse in a private music lesson than silence.

Another item I noticed (going along with always needing to have something to say) I must first analyze how I play the trumpet in order to teach them. We were working on the original attack of a note and the steps you take preceding the sound.

Step one, bring the trumpet to your lips
Step two, take controlled breath through the corners of your mouth
Step three, set your embouchure
Step four, release an intense stream of air to play the note

I always wondered how my past teachers always seemed to have methods that they followed religiously and knew forward and back. Well I believe this is how, just a simply teaching lessons. In my brain I know what to do, but to vocalize it to a student I need a complete thought and coherent sentences. Build up enough of these crazy methods and then you write a book!

Right now I have mixed emotions about how much playing I do during the lessons. One half of me sways toward my own learning curve where I learn best from modeling others. The other half of me thinks that vocal explanations from experience might be best. The best solution is probably a mix of the two. I will most likely play a bit during lessons though. The kids are young and imitation is much of the time the best course to learn a proper method.

That's all for now, have a good Thursday!
- Jason

Concentrate on your lips and tongue!

Have you ever just heard a word, and thought it was a strange sounding word? Or maybe it didn't really sound like a strange word until you put some thought into it. Here's a fun activity, pick out just normal words, look around your cube and pick out random objects, and just say those words out loud but rather slow.

Here's a few examples of what I thought sounded quirky... When saying these words, concentrate about 30% on the sound, but 70% on the way your mouth forms each syllable. Notice every tongue movement and lip contortion…
- strange
- sand
- music
- ticket

The words are completely normal, but the sounds it takes to compile these words makes each of them sound just that, strange.

I think with the word 'strange', it has to do with the harsh 'a' sound along with the 'ng'. Sand is just a funny word... just ask my friend Mandy. You can come up with all sorts of words that are weird.

Sometimes I like to think about what people who don't understand English would hear me say. If I were to hear some Chinese guys talking about what they did for the weekend, it would sound like complete gibberish to me, but it would make complete sense to them. It is all in the mindset of the conversation participants. Many of our English sentences don't sound all too strange to us, but that is because we know what they mean. What if you were from China and didn't know any English. You listen to a conversation about going to a ballgame, hanging out with buddies, and going to the bar afterwards completely different. What words would stand out to you as being completely strange?

Its fun to just take a normal scenario such as a conversation between two people and take it into an abnormal situation. How about you? What do you think the strangest sentence said in English would be to someone who doesn't understand English?

The next greatest thing...

I like to come up with ideas; ideas that haven't been thought of before; ideas that are variations on present products/services; I just like to come up with ideas. Lately as my knowledge in the computer realm increases, I have been able to start chasing these ideas/concepts by developing them to various levels.

While driving down the highway today in my normal squint along with all the other hundreds of drivers sitting awkwardly in their seats tying to get it just right so the intensely bright sun is blocked behind their rear view mirror, I came up with a new idea. You know during some evenings, you look up into the sky and see the sun... but it doesn't really look like the sun because it doesn't seem bright enough to be the sun. Why is that? Is it because some gasses in the atmosphere are blocking some of the 'brightness'? Or is it something else. This isn't really my expertise subject area, but I think I’m onto something. Why can't we harness whatever is making is possible for us to look at the sun and inject that into our windshields (or sunglasses)? If you notice on those evenings, it is nowhere near dark outside by any means, but you are able to stare directly at the sun without even the least bit of a squint. Many times I have to take a double take to make sure it was actually the sun and not an early moon.

I have a few other ideas brewing...

A few that I have already put into play have been:
FlyingPage.com (with Tyler of course)
Represent

I'm also working on developing an insert your own caption sort of deal. This would be a community driven website that people would submit pictures while others could put their own captions on the pictures for other people to give the thumbs up or thumbs down on. Firstly I'd like to see if I could develop this concept into a Facebook Application. I'm just on the beginning stages of my PHP development though.

Another great idea my friends and I have been working on is a Starring Arnold website (with help of video hosting through YouTube) We would take various movies and turn them into flash animations with Arnold Swarchenegger playing the lead. I won't release too much of this idea though ;-)

For now... the brain keeps brewing. One of these days someone will discover my genius!