Yahoo! sucks

Damn it YAHOO! What the hell are you thinking? Here again you’ve taken a simple service and perverted it. All I want if my fucking email. I don’t want you to track my search history and suggest custom advertisements. I don’t want you to give me the weather for every location that I’ve logged in from in the last 12 months. I don’t want an up to the micro-second status report on the people in my address book that I haven’t talked to since I joined the Marines. Why can’t you leave well enough alone? About 6 months ago, Yahoo changed the interface of it’s email portal yet again. Adding dozens of new features that nobody uses and rearranging everything. I’ve gotten used to it though. I’ve been using the same email address for going on 11 years. Like clockwork, as soon as I figure out the new spread, they go and change it up. This latest rendition though has got to be the worst. It’s almost gotten as annoying as those fucking Facebook quizzes. The new and improved spam blocker still lets through the porn, the penis enlargement ads, and all the Nigerian scams that it used to. The picture previewer is still ass achingly slow, and the size of the emails you can send hasn’t gotten any larger. Sure you now have enough room to keep all the lolcats and propaganda, but you still have to send the files one at a time. I’m out! Gmail, here I come. If you need to reach me, shoot your traffic over to aaronpleas@gmail.com. Better spam protection, virus software, and better yet, it’s brand new and I won’t plaguing everyone with whatever zombie emails I may be sending out. The interface is better, simpler really. If you want to write a novel, get some publishing software. If you want to keep up with your social networking, get on Facebook. If you want to send an email and just an email, Yahoo is no longer the answer. Besides, sooner or later, Google will own stock on everyone’s soul anyway so you may as well make it as smooth a transition as possible. Jokes aside, it’s a better service. You can tell that they took the complaints and mistakes and really focused on making a superior base as an email service provider. Rejoice! Email is simple again. Though I must say in advance, if you start sending me forwarded emails, you will receive some serious hate mail.

My Monster!

I figure a good way to dust off the old blog would be to introduce the newest member of the collection of electronic devices that one could easily mistake for a family member if you only heard of how excited I get when I talk about them.

Everyone, please meet (no, I don't seriously name my gadgets)

Lian Li PC-A70 Tower
EVGA Micro ATX Motherboard
Saphire Vapor X
Corsair 1000W Power Supply
Intel i7 2.66GHz CPU
Kingston 64Gb SSD
Seagate 7200 rpm 1.5Gb HD (x2)
OCZ 2Gb ddr2 1600 (x6)
LG Blu-ray RW

So here she is, I demand that anything that takes up this much time/money in my life be referred to as female. The build is going smoothly enough seeing as I've never done one. I'm going to be running Windows 7 straight off of the SSD. I literally salivate over how fast this thing should load up. I also purchased a fan/heat sink combo to replace the stock one that came with the CPU. However, for the life of me I couldn't figure out how to put the damn thing on. I spent about 30 minutes mounting the AMD bracket to the heat sink. The holes for the screws were just ever so slightly smaller than the screws themselves. I eventually, through a great deal of effort and some minor perspiration, managed to attach one to the other only to find that there wasn't any conceivable way to mount the fan to the processor. Hopefully I can get the AMD bracket off. Because, as you may have noticed, I don't have a AMD processor/motherboard. *Epic Facepalm* I guess I shouldn't just tear into my new toys and start putting them together next time. In any case, I bought all these things to do it myself to learn and to be able to upgrade parts later, so I'm fine with what I'm working with. I'm taking pictures throughout the build so maybe I'll have those up on here sooner or later. I'm off tomorrow and am already excited to get back to putting it together.

*Update*

After eight hours of anticipation I finally got off work and came back home to take another crack at finishing my build. After realizing that I had put the wrong mounting bracket on the heat sink, I decided to give that another try. I got the AMD one off and managed to put the correct one on without too much hassle. But it's on there now, I don't think it's going anywhere for a while. I had a couple of minor issues along the way. I still can't figure out how to hook up my 3-pin power indicator to the 2-pin spot for it, I don't seem to have enough SATA cables for all three of my hard drives, I don't have a corded mouse to use when I start up Windows, my motherboard manual says I have 6 fan ports and I clearly have only 4, and there is the fact that I can't turn it on... I don't know what the issue is. I have power according to this little blue light next to the 24-pin plug in and the 8-pin is also in. I also have reason to believe that there is power because the fans turn over for about a rotation before stopping. But other than that, there is no indication that the thing is getting juice or doing what it's supposed to be doing. I can't get to the BIOS, which I was kinda excited about because I've never messed with it, and my monitor (AWESOME) isn't getting a signal from the computer of any kind. I've got out resident techno geek coming over some time this week to have a crack at it, hopefully he can shed some light on the issue.

Racism

As you may or may not have known, on the 16th of July a police officer, Sgt James Crowley, in Cambridge responded to a 911 call which indicated a possible break in at the residence of Henry Gates a Harvard Professor.

Gates, "a top African-American scholar", and a friend were returning home from a trip to China. During the trip Gates lost the key to his residence and upon returning decided to break into his own house. Now I don't know that shoving my shoulder into the front door and destroying the frame would have been the way I would do it, but last I checked, it's perfectly legal to break your own stuff. As long as you aren't hurting anyone else in the process, you're good.

A concerned neighbor, Lucia Whalen, who I would love to have as my neighbor on account of her concern for the general safety of the neighborhood as a whole, called 911 when she observed the supposed break in "at a distance". She did mention that one of the individuals "looked Hispanic" but also that she "wasn't really sure".

Sgt Crowley responded to the call in uniform. When he arrived at the residence he called into the house asking for the individual he could see through the front door window to come out on to the porch. Gates, as he later learned, replied that he would not comply and demanded identification, which Crowley freely gave. Upon learning that there was an officer present Gates brought up the fact that he was "a Black man living in America" and that this was all a race issue. Sgt Crowley asked Gates to join him outside because he couldn't transmit back to his office due to the closed space and Gates' yelling. To this Gates replied, "ya, I'll speak to your mama outside". Gates also indicated on several occations that he was "not the type of person you mess" with and that Officer Crowley didn't, "know who he was"

There was some more back and forth between the officer and Gates but due to the excessive loud arguing and disturbance, Gates was arrested for "Disorderly Conduct".

I'd like to leave it there, I really would. But before I go on, it should be known that all Gates had to do was prove , professionally and with respect for a uniformed officer, that he was rightfully in the house and that would have been the end of it. Certainly one would have appreciated such a speedy response if someone had actually been breaking into your home, why not take it in the same fashion?

As easy as it would have been to leave the whole thing alone as a, shall we say agrevated misunderstanding, it turns out that Gates is a personal friend of our recently elected fearless leader. I don't know about you, but as an older brother, when my little brother calls me up and asks me to beat up the school bully, I'm going to tell him to take care of it on his own. I'm not using the term "big brother" lightly here either. What kind of society are we living in when you can make a personal call to The President of the United States and ask him to demand an appology from an officer that was rightly doing his job. And oh, by the way, Sgt Crowley has been called upon as a guest speaker several times to teach classes on racial tollerance and embracing the diverse culture in Cambridge.

I know this has been all over the news and Jay Leno is going to be telling jokes about it until the next guy takes office, but I've just got to say that it's this "reverse racism" that is keeping racism alive today. I've heard a lot of negitive feedback on the term reverse racism. Somehow people are bringing up old issues from a past that we only know about today through history books as new issues every single day. I'm not saying that racism doesn't exist. Sadly, it does. But why? When was the last time a white man actually owned a black man? When was the last Irish migration? The last Japanese internment camps closed 60 years ago. The most recently in the spotlight are those from the Middle East on account of some a relitive few individuals who are haild by their own people as being extremeists that pervert the teachings they say they are upholding.

The key to ridding the world from racism is education. Oh wait, Gates is "a top African-American scholar"... This guy is responsible for the teaching and shaping of the minds of our future leaders and if you ask him to step outside to talk he replies, "I'll speak with your mama outside" This is what I'm talking about, not just at the lower levels of our society but at all levels. We're all Americans, people. I don't tell anyone that I'm an Irish-American. I'm not Irish. Sure I'm proud of where my ancestors came from but I'm more proud of where I came from. If Ireland gets in a war, the only reason I'll ever be there is if America sends me to back them up. If Angola or Zimbabwe or The Congo gets in a war do you think our "African-American" populace is going to catch a flight down there and sign up to fight the bad guys? I don't think so. And just to make drive the point, several countries in Africa are in some sort of cival war...

So now Officer Crowley, Henery Gates, and our very own President Obama are going to meet at the White House to discuss the events and "have a couple of beers". This is where we're at folks. After your big brother beats up your enemy, be sure to invite him back to your place for some beers.

I suppose it's time to make what has become my monthly, ish, update.

What's going on, you might ask? Well for those playing at home we're running on 4 months that I've been waiting for my visa. I was supposed to be out of Riga on the tails of May. But some Syriain dude has gotten it in his mind that I'm better suited to stick it out in good 'ol Latvia for a while longer. Not a bad place to be stuck, really. The warm weather is great, the women are beautiful, and I'm putting in some serious time on my bike. The only part that sucks is the not knowing what's going to happen to me, or where I'm going. I'm slated to go to Syria, but if that takes too much longer, I'm getting pulled from that and sent somewhere else. If I go somewhere else, it could be another two months of not knowing where to or when it is that I'll be going. Now don't get me wrong, I love being spontainious and the excitement of knowing I'll be in some random part of the world in three months is great, but it's hard to make plans, ya know? I can't plan on staying here. I can't make plans for back home. I'm just trying to enjoy the time that I have left. So far, I think I'm doing a pretty good job of that. ;)

We just wrapped up another inspection. I rocked the house, again. *happy dance* Nothing like getting recognized for a job well done. Making up for 5 months of slacking off in two weeks is just as hard as it sounds. haha. But seriously, I can't believe how jacked up some of this stuff is. And at the highest levels of our command. It's rediculous. I've got tons of shit I don't need and not enough of the gear that I do need. Whatever, I'm going to get it all straightened out.

Still don't have my stuff. It's been a long time but if you remember my last post, I talked about the Latvian packing ninjas that came and lovingly wrapped my earthly possesions with paper and sent it to a warehouse pending orders to Syria. I gotta say that living on two weeks worth of clothes is one of those thing that nobody likes to do. I've gotten to the point where I think I'm just going to go buy some new clothes. Shoes for sure though, the ones I bought at payless May 08 are falling apart. lol

That's about it for now kiddies, be sure to check back in next month for the what I hope will be the end all be all answer to the unanserable question, "where is Aaron's visa?"

Pack Out (AKA TMO)

Before you ask, I'm not on the way out the door yet. I just don't want to have anyone else have to oversee the boxing up of my things. Partly because that's just one more thing that someone would have to do on their day off that they don't want to do and partly because I have a specific way that I like to pack my stuff.

You never realize how much stuff you've amassed until you start putting it into boxes. Before you know it you've filled all the boxes that you moved in with and there is still stuff laying about. That's exactly what happened this time. I really don't think that there are a whole lot of things that I've purchased since I've been here. But whatever those things were, they seem to take up a lot of space.

The movers came yesterday to pack up my things. I didn't know how exactly the whole thing was supposed to work, so I had already packed everything myself. It all came out to 12 or so managible boxes, neatly stacked and ready for transport. They showed up with their own, much larger boxes, and all the other packing materials they would need to pretty much pack my room from scratch. I'm still glad that I did the initial packing though or I would have been here all day watching them tenderly wrap my things in paper. So in go my small, managable boxes into their larger boxes. My boxes of clothes were unpacked and paper wrapped and then stuffed unbetween the boxes as padding. They incountered a problem with my computer and monitor. The boxes weren't big enough on their own to hold the computer box and the monitor, so they made a bigger box. They taped up the sides of the first box and then slid another box down on top of it. Genious!

I ended up having them pack up more of my stuff that I wasn't sure what to do with. Now my room is as barren as it was when I got here. Just two weeks of clothes and some uniforms. And my laptop of course. I'm still waiting on that visa though.

Facebook Quizes

Ah, the Facebook quiz, not to be out-classed but the arguably more evil MySpace quiz. But I'm going to stick with Facebook for this one. A friend of mine recently told me that he avoids those things like the plague; for three reasons. 1. they are a life sucking brain cell dump. 2. nobody cares. 3. Skynet. This is why I stuck with Facebook. Myspace has made it increasingly easy to forward the latest "tell me everything about you" quiz to the internet masses, but Facebook has taken it a step further with the application quizes. Now you don't have to bother with copying and pasting, all you have to do is allow the application to access any and all personal information you've chosen to disclose on your profile and away you go. And you never do just one. You have to do 4 at least. What type of gun are you? What musical starlett are you? How are you going to die? What type of woman do you like? Now you just took four bullshit quizes that, instead of getting lost in the bulletin eather like on MySpace, are being archived somewhere. Enter Skynet. All these seemingly innocent quizes could be getting compiled to form a profile on everyone that is taking them. Not to mention the fact that you have to allow them to access your profile info, to include your friends list. After you're done taking the quiz it gives you the option to forward it to either friends you choose or you can have the computer randomly choose for you. There is also a "skip to results" option that only recently was introduced because of complaints of spamming. If you're cool about it, if you can be cool when you're taking a FB quiz, you just skip to the results. This is where they trick you, your results get posted on your friends pages anyway! Sneaky bastards.

There are also a million quizes out there made by FB users like yourself about yourself! Check that out. Now you can volunteer even more information and have other people take it and paste it up all over their friends pages whether or not you even know them. How cool is that? Remember the game, 6 Degrees from Kevin Bacon? A recent study of the popular Instant Messaging service, MSN, found that all of the users on the service were actually less than 6 "degrees" from each other. Apply that concept to FB. Within a couple of jumps, everyone knows everyone. And everyone knows your shit. But how is that different than any of the other sites that we've been using for all this time. Now it's being archived and organized into a profile. I'm sure that when machines do start taking over the world, knowing what toppings I like on my pizza and what kind of kinky little bastard I may be are going to be a deciding factors in the outcome.

Good night Skynet.

Epic Mash Ups for 1000, Alex.

I don't know how I found this vid. I got on YouTube in the first place to check out the Animiniacs do the countries of the world bit. Somewhere after that I wound up watching a five year old playing DDR (he was really good). Anyway, then I found this little gem. It's good enough to watch twice. I lol'd