Category Archives: Personal

Personal posts

Personal

MMO’s are one hell of a drug…

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Where do I begin…

I remember living the alone life and watching my life depressively fall apart. I was the low man on the totem pole at the office. My course-work was a shining example of a guy who had too many things to worry about and school could hit the back-burner. I will admit that I had a bad problem with alcohol addiction and only because I lacked supportive and close friends to break me from the slump. I only found one outlet for my loneliness and that was through online gaming. Sure, I was drunk most of the time I played, but for the few hours of my evening… I could be a character who was kind and sympathetic to other travellers of a fantasy world with mythical beasts and denizens. However… with how much computer gaming has changed with the years, my gaming computer can’t even barely play Guild Wars anymore. My laptop had a shot with the game, but the graphics chips just couldn’t handle splitting processor power to display the game and processing the game data at the same time. I have had to take a forceful retirement of gaming all because of dated hardware.

With my status change to an “eligible bachelor in training” (quoted from my boss) and with my reputation in Dallas being a tad tarnished… It’s been a little hard to try to do damage control to re-establish myself as a reputable person. With friends in summer school and some of my distant friends unable to take vacations to Dallas, I have been at a rather odd loss to going to the bars and wine parlors to only drink alone or watch my attempts to strike conversation only go so far. Then there are days where misery makes me yearn to put my time into a game… but I have lost my gaming consoles save for my PSP and DS and I lack funding for the new generation systems as well as a TV. I lack a digital SLR camera to fuel my hobby of macro photography.

Sad to say… I almost want another gaming computer. I know that there’s college for me around the corner… Lots of laptops on the retail market at the entry prices of $600 have GeForce 8000M series or ATi Mobility Radeon cards with supple processing power and RAM to boot. Not that I have anything against my loyal Linux laptop Suzaku, but booting into Windows bogs down the poor 1.73gHz Centrino from doing its job and I am damn near close to scrapping that partition… In essence, I’d rather have a dedicated Windows machine for gaming, Windows Mobile phone back-ups/hacking/modification, and proprietary academic programs that do not play nice in Wine or Virtual Box. I almost want to fork out the cash for a modest machine to play an FPS game, Guild Wars or even, dare I say, World of WarCraft. I have hated the cabin fever of staying in with nothing to do and even more so that my machine is so limited and my old gaming tower is damn near useless.

I guess ultimately what I am saying is… LOL! When friends turn me down to go out on the town to enjoy the night life over a pleasant drink and maybe dinner… I’d like to have an alternate plan to bask in the greatness of MMO’s and maybe feed my gamer side when no one online feels the need to talk to me. (I can assure you that I would not be neglecting ZeroXR 13mg in any form of fashion.)

I think I know what my next purchases will be, should I be able to hobble up my expenses… a new Windows laptop for strict use that minimize it from being a full time machine and a Canon Digital Rebel XSi with a 4 or 8GB high speed SD card as items celebrating my liberation from debts. I have just a little more to go before I am free from the biggest financial bondage… To be free of personal debts is something that I am so very close to concluding. I cannot thank my family enough for giving my that one chance to prove my filial worth as as son and to start over as an upstanding man in society.

Personal, Rant

[Editorial] Empowering Debilitating Words

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A while back… My dear friend dare2dreamer had told me quite the interesting anecdote that involved the skill-toy folks. The tale was quite interesting and I thought the resolution that came to it was quite good!

One of my friends had posted a video of his demos online and some egotistical fellow out in New York basically slammed him for his demo. This person went as far as picking out “flaws” in my friend’s demo and even went as far as calling him “mediocre” and his skills “amateur”. Of course, this bothered my friend… however, the guy out in New York claimed he was doing skill-toy stuff on a professional level and made claims that the mediocre skills would not be taken seriously. I decided to pick apart the “professionals” use of the word “mediocre” and decided to re-spin it as a positive. We were joking around and going “I’m mediocre!” with enthusiasm. In essence, we turned the word mediocre from meaning “ordinary” to “awesome”. We may even go as far as making t-shirts just for kicks and have my friend do another demo video of his skills with the t-shirt. In all seriousness, it should have never gone this far.

With regard to this uplifting tale, I can see how we as humans can let debilitating testimony get us down. I know with personal experience that I have let too many trample on me just for the sake of their own glory to just simply gloat “I am better/faster/stronger/[insert misc adj. here] than you.” I have been spinning attacks made on me to a better light, because honestly… what’s the point of getting disturbed with pathetic and cheap-shot attacks? The next time you encounter someone taking a cheap shot at you by saying something that is derogatory… Turn it into something much better!

After all… We’re all mediocre! 😀

Edit: Get your “Mediocre” and “Am I Mediocre Yet” Apparel below!

“Am I Mediocre Yet?” Shop
“Mediocre” Shop

Personal

The Journey East: Unlocking Limits at A&M Commerce

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Well… It was a fun journey. Sol and I had arisen from our sleep at about 5:50am yesterday to go east. We both couldn’t really sleep from how we both have messed up our sleep cycles. The first stop of course was to 7-11 for early morning refreshment and food. I had my 710mL can of Monster Lo-Carb with a croissant while Sol got a English muffin with a can of Rockstar Light Vanilla. After we scarfed down our food and all… The GPS from my phone got a lock on the location and directional data… We proceeded onward!

I will admit that 380 from Mckinney through all the way up to Greenville is horrible boring. Lots of boring roads and a whole lot of nothing. There was the lake, but I quote Sol on this one:

“What the hell dude… It looks murky and with the branches sticking out of the waters… it looks almost like a marsh!” – Sol

We did however see lots of fireworks shops setting up their booths and trailers for the upcoming event of the Forth of July, sadly none were open… $3 artillery shells does sound awful tasty in retrospect. On jumping off of 380 to I30, we saw probably one of the greatest “1337” sights ever however the worst crime of it all was we were too damn far to take a damn picture. There was an Asian grill called………. Ninja Grill. For this infraction, I will post the address here for those who want to either pass by it, dine there, or phone them up:

Ninja Grill
1218 I 30
Greenville, TX 75402
903-454-0102

Running I30 to 50 was another boring stretch of road again… but then again… so was running 50 until I finally was reunited with the “Welcome to Commerce” sign and the sight of Whitley Hall (my dormatory). This time around, the campus was rather busy with summer students living off campus and attending classes for the summer time. I would seek out the Agricultural Technologies building for the Arts and Sciences advisor to unlock my holds and sign up for classes. The surprising thing to find was the fact that I am basically a little more than half way done with my education. Take into consideration that I had been side tracked for almost 4 years and even quit school for nearly 2 years, that’s really impressive. I was eligible for an astounding 19 hours, but I decided to take a modest 14 hours just to keep things tolerable and try to merge in work. I will definitely have to see how my employment will work… because I know for a fact that I will have to seek some employment to finish the last of my car note.

I also managed to talk to my housing committee about my meal arrangements and reduced my plan to a lower scale one factoring that I will be completely on campus 4 days out of 7 days a week as well as buying bulk snacks and supplies. On top of that, most of the construction has finished compared to when I was at Commerce in January so I was able to take a look at the mess hall and Mane Card Office. I ended up getting my ID made so I could have it then and there rather than wait in a line to get it.

Other than that… The dates are settled. August 20 I am extracted out to Whitley Hall to commence preparations and acquaint myself to my surroundings. August 25th is my official “Mission Start” date for school and classes. I definitely like how my classes are configured… Sure, I have to rise at the tip of dawn, but to be done by 11am (save for Monday and a lab course that lasts until 6pm) is a fair trade. That gives me time for school work and working out which is ideally what I want. I know working full time and then carrying an encumbering debt was the main issue that hindered my education, but to be free of the encumbering debt is quite liberating.

Logistically speaking… Dorm move-in for the university begins 8/20/2008. Classes begin 8/25/2008. My assumption is that I am to make my final move on Sunday 8/24/2008. We will see how things hold up. I know for one… I do hope to keep ZeroXR 13mg in good shape.

Personal

[Thank You] My thanks to Kwesta for vindicating me!

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Last night, I had met up Kwesta to talk about helping him launch his own personal domain and such. I actually failed to mention the highlight of the evening’s meet-up. For once, I actually spoke fashion with him as he had taken note that I was dressed to the times. This actually made me feel vindicated. I hang out with a good number of friends, but they aren’t typically up with the clothing styles and trends… (Disclaimer, I still love you all!) To hear his compliment made my day as I never got much verification if any that I was not dressing according to the times or if I was making actual fashion faux pas. I know that Kwesta himself is up to the times as he is affiliated with Global Fashion News and is always looking sharp himself… He can’t possibly be wrong!

There were a few people who seemed to hold their doubts about me ever possessing style… To them, I will leave this post with the best and most timeless phrase: “Told ya so.” 😉

Personal

A Ray of Hope and A Journey East

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Well… Today’s been interesting. Found a decent little car windshield mount for my phone for cheap and I rather like it. It has my phone oriented in a way that can present my GPS clearly, which is very important for when that need arises. It didn’t cost me much coin and that made my day a little brighter. I will be testing it out on the open roads tomorrow.

Work at the office was rather relaxing for once and not at a frantic pace. I did however wire myself up with a 700mL “can” of Monster Lo-Carb and the reaction of my boss looking at the monstrosity of a can was priceless!

“Really dude? Really? Thing looks like an oil filter.“

Then my subordinate eating ice cream with chopsticks took the cake for the day… Yeah… A sad day indeed.

Things picked up knowing that Sol would be awaiting me at my residence. He will be accompanying me to my journey to Commerce.

My colleague wanted to meet up on launching himself as a brand on the web, so I would meet him up for food and drink while bantering about things. I did manage to network with him so it may lead to a tangent here on ZeroXR 13mg for a potential set of fashion and men’s care segments to keep unique content rolling. Rest assured, I will be playing with Linux distributions, games, and other technologies as well still. I am looking into the male fashion and care tangent as some have rather liked my work on straight razor shaving and anything for geeks looking into being stylish is always a good thing!

In 6 hours… I will awaken to drive to Commerce, Texas to discuss with my school about what I need to do before I may register for my classes and such. I know for sure that I hope to be back in the burg of Dallas by mid day to talk to banks and financial establishments on procuring monies for school. Let’s hope that I can hit the tasks I need to complete before everything surges at me like a river. I may have Sol assist me in logging my adventures tomorrow, so don’t be surprised if you end up seeing a few quotables from him.

Personal, Rant

Damn Vehicular Envy and Lust, We Meet Again!

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Machinery and throttle have been in my blood since I was a wee lad… Most of my fans know that I had a very modest Acura Integra sedan as my “intro” car. I had observed and assisted my father with repairing his cars, so naturally my interest in cars is profound from watching the machinery evolve from a primitive rat’s nest to a very neat compacted power plant with wiring and hose work that almost looks beautiful. Sure, the bodies of cars have seen some bad days where you have designers butcher misshape metal into abominations… at the same time, you also have artisans trying to push the limits for new styles but embracing traditions.

I made the foolish mistake of thinking I could turn a project car into a daily driver… but it was one hell of a lesson. The majority of the foolishness was the fact that I was desiring too much for a return to my days of glory. Oh well, one day I will have my chance to revive Project Phoenix and relive my old days…

Continue reading Damn Vehicular Envy and Lust, We Meet Again! →

Personal, Rant

[Rant] Humanity, Thou Art Not as Sacred as Thy Claims…

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Proceed with Caution

Disclaimer: I am not a proponent of religion over science nor am I a part of a Buddhist sect. This is just a personal musing I happened to stumble on.

Last night, I got into a rather heated debate with a few friends of mine in regards to religion and how so many people are lacking in their faith in the modern day. Sure, we have science, but does it eliminate that there are forces beyond our own that we should revere and respect? It got my friends talking on how people almost have become egocentric with how society has advanced more and more in technology. Conversely, when the world turns topsy-turvey to these same people, they start spouting off something close to the following rhetoric:

Dear God, I am (in) [insert random expletive phrase here]. I pray to God that I am not [insert expletive here]. I never wanted it to become like that! Please God, help me!

Continue reading [Rant] Humanity, Thou Art Not as Sacred as Thy Claims… →

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Dropping the Loot and Honoring the Gods and Deities.

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My family decided to take their jade chariot to to the Buddhist temple and participate in festivities to delight the spirit. I figured that it was in Sol’s neighborhood, so why not join them in their journey and bring my prize and Suzaku with me.

At the temple, I was at least able to make peace with the gods and deities who have gotten me thus far. I would run into Sol and we’d hang together while partaking in lunch and prayer. To eat Vietnamese Buddhist cuisine was something I had not had in the last few years… It made me realize how far I have come with regards to humility. If anything I have been far too merciful on myself and have not given myself enough credit. After reciting my prayers to the statues representative of their gods… I would make my way to Sol’s home to deliver him the Jawbone.

On dropping by Sol’s house… When I would pull the loot from my bag to pass it to him, the following image was his reaction…

OMGZ~! I SEE WUT U HAZ THAR!!!!
Sol going "OMGZ!!!"

I close out by saying that a day of repentance and prayer with a dose of ZeroXR fun is always a good time!

Personal

Precision Time Keeping Revisited, Remixed.

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My father decided to upgrade my gear… He just stepped by the office of ZeroXR and just asked me: “Zero, your other watch break on you? You want to come with me and look at watches? I think you could use the upgrade.” Naturally, I won’t reject the kindness of my father. His reason was that I needed a chronograph with the ability to never need batteries. So we hit up a jewelry shop and perused around… Found this gem sitting in the case:

Citizen Calibre 8700 Eco Drive
Citizen Calibre 8700

Click here for more details and specs

I was rather shocked that he went out that far on a limb to get me an upgrade. It looks rather nice… I know that I just need to get the watch bracelet adjusted to fit. I am definitely looking forward to wearing it. The spiffy part… it also has an alarm on the watch! The watch is quite stylish and timeless in its looks. It will be a great pleasure to don it while in casual slack mode.

Personal, Site News

“Zero?! Why aren’t you as studious with your updates?!” – Anonymous

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Lately, I have had some of my fans a little upset that I haven’t been hammering away articles like a relentless machine… A lot of things have happened that I have had to “realign” myself and even balance out my mind. A good deal of people have been rather supportive of me which has helped expedite the process of rebalancing and realigning. My thanks this week goes to Sol, Rei, my Twitter fans, Yamcha, and my newest outspoken fan, Pistol. They all have kept me laughing, smiling, and most of all… having a great time!

Monday, everyone heard about me taking my aseptic training final. I was so sorely reminded of almost 3 years ago when I took the PTCB test… I took the 20 question test and finished it within 15 minutes. It scared me like my PTCB event… I walked alone but instead of waiting for the anticipation of my scores turning out in 3-4 weeks, I was able to get instant gratification knowing I passed. The night ended it a few rounds of celebration with Yamazaki.

Tuesday, I actually decided to go to extremes with my phone. I had grown rather fond of the _Alex_ ROM based in Windows Mobile 6.0 on my phone, but I couldn’t deal with the fact that sometimes the system was just awful slow at times. I wanted to have my phone as streamlined as possible but also have the cool “tricked out” features like the HTC Home screen, TouchFLO, and the HTC Cube. So I decided to do the most insane phone hacker thing in the history of my ownership of phones… I was going to build my phone completely from scratch. Naturally, I would have to get a “foundation” to build from… Thanks to the folks at XDA Developer’s Wiki on the Kaiser/Tilt, they had a link to the newest OEM ROM build for the HTC TyTN II using Windows Mobile 6.1. I would take that ROM and begin streaming the build into my phone… However, I had a snag that almost turned my phone into a paperweight… The ROM flasher utility had a hick-up and there was a warning that I needed to obey specific instructions to save my phone from being dead. I abided and given the blessing of whatever electronic deities were watching me. Eventually, the upgrade would finally finish and it would be grand. Everything from the unbranded HTC TyTN II was all there, but even though there was a tinge of the HTC TouchFLO control it was not quite my vision of the phone I had. I would have to add in the hacks and tweaks to give myself the HTC Cube, increased TouchFLO sensitivity, and even “steal” some elements from the wonderful HTC Touch. After finally getting that all set-up, it was time to restore use of my TomTom Navigator 6 to finally get a phone that is completely minimal of extra “features” for a device that simply works.

Most of the week was spent toiling about homework that I had to take care of at the office. I can assure you it was very boring and time consuming. I savored being able to put aside my homework to relax at the offices of ZeroXR, believe me.

Friday, Sol and I had quite a fun lunch. We hit up BJ’s Brewhouse in Dallas for some good Chicago style deep dish pizza and ice cold, hand made, draft root beer. We decided to do things proper with getting what I called the Death Pizza! I will say, it was quite savory and even meritted a laugh! The root beer was delicious and made the heat index of 95F feel like nothing.

Continue reading “Zero?! Why aren’t you as studious with your updates?!” – Anonymous →