Returning to the Lyceum and a Work Out Log Entry!

So I am back in school Monday for my first day of FULL schooling in almost 3 years at a big school and it’s quite a change from the hell that is “thirteenth grade” community college. I must say that the experience has been fun and quite a blast! To meet kind people who know nothing of your past has been spectacular! The campus is bustling with activity and and there is a very vital energy that invigorates the place.

However, my return is not without difficulty… Sure, I do live in the “crappy” dorm alone, but I did not have luck on my side as my dorm does not have a mini-fridge and family feels I can forego needing a microwave. So I have had to be resourceful with my meal plan and make do with it or use my dining cash every now and then for minor snacks when I am burnt out on my stash.

I also restarted my workouts to try to account for the matter that I have been burning intense calories running up and down 9 flights of stairs and walking to classes. Obviously, my legs are strained out so I had to pick another muscle group… Yesterday it was abdominals.

  • 100 reps of crunches
  • 100 reps of cross crunches
  • Done in sets of 20 with a 5 second break in between sets

My abs are burning, however, today… I need to look into doing upper body work. Push-ups, triangle push-ups, and the exhausting decline push ups will probably be the fare of the day after my short sprint to Wal-Mart for calculator batteries.

Expect a post later today with a “furnished” tour of my dorm room… so far, my fans Kimi and Sol have noted that my single room is quite spacious compared to others.

Back to College Tips for Saving Some Coin.

On perusing my Lifehacker RSS stream, I found two great little things that could save returning students some cash…

With the cost of books rising, there’s no denying that students have to buy them as they are the lifeblood of their studies. Lifehacker linked a great article by Smart Money with their 4 tips to save money on books as well as a mention that Congress is stepping in to intervene with the skyrocketing cost of texts. The eBooks that some publishers are offering is pretty new as eReader devices such as Sony’s eInk book or Amazon’s Kindle have been wildly popular lately or even just reading via PDF on laptops. Caveat emptor, some of these publishers do have DRM (digital rights management) on their eBooks which may prove difficult should you have a mishap with your computer involving your digital copy. Price shopping and textbook rentals are still stable techniques that are “old world” but still work for today’s masses, while effective, it does rely on the live market especially with regard to used texts. Their last tip was rather interesting… Subsidized or open source textbooks.  Freeload Press offers their texts at free or low cost while allowing authors to advertise their works on their site as ad banners or ads on the footer/header of the eBook pages in addition to allowing users to buy printed editions at a very low price. I will say that their mention of Project Gutenberg was a very worthy one as I know in my early years I easily spend $100+ in extra texts I had to buy from Barnes & Noble, Half Price Books, et al before the project became what it is now. If you’re still on the fence about buying your books, check the article out.

Lastly… I remember about this time last year that my buddy Tyler had said that he was in a business computer class and that they made it a “requirement” to have Microsoft Office 2007 which had him in a bit of a rut as he was hard up for cash. Lucky for him though, he had a friend who did work for Microsoft and got him hooked up with a copy for free. Most students, however, are not quite this lucky. Some schools, like Texas A&M Commerce will deny any rendering of aid should your machine be found with any counterfeit/pirated software so “keeping legal” is terribly vital for some students. Microsoft has devised a solution to keep students within the legal standing of the law rather than to be an agent of software piracy with their deal called “The Ultimate Steal“. Right now, Microsoft only has Office Professional 2007 for about $60 which is “91% off ERP” for a digital download with the option to also by a physical disc. They do have some other deals that will be coming around September, like their upgrade copy of Windows Vista Ultimate for $65 (which can be used as a full install disc) for those that do need a legit copy of an operating system. I typically would say use Linux or Open Office, but sometimes when a school imposes on your freedoms with little recourse, it’s a tad frustrating to pay the price…

“This is not a test!”

So it’s a Saturday night before school starts… I just had gotten done playing a game online with some friends and I was about to hit the hay and suddenly at 1:30am I hear sirens blaring. I also see the annoying strobe to boot… Then I could hear the hall staff on the intercom system saying “This is NOT a test! Report to the safe areas! Do NOT use the elevators! Use the stairs as instructed!”.

Naturally… I dreaded the stairs… I had been using the elevators to stave off from tearing any more adipose tissue as move in tore more than its fair share. Unfortunately, I had to shut out the poor screams of my muscles and power through the suffering. I took another descent down 9 flights of stairs just to wait at the gravel parking lot. From there, I waited until my hall assistants cleared for us to return. It was about a 20 to 30 minute wait. They had the police and fire department down to investigate too. I could hear many of the other students panicking with lines of “Damn… I left my laptop, iPod, camera, etc in my room!” I am basically texting my closest friends saying “So yeah… I lost sleep from this…”

After they came to a silent resolution… We were cleared to return. The staff was silent as to what happened, but every door marker had a hang tag that had a check mark (as far as I knew) for floors that I assume were clear. I would return to my room, but from the increased blood flow to my torn up legs to being amped on having to “haul tail” down from the fire alarm… I can’t sleep… Let’s hope I can exhaust myself to go to sleep.

[Zeroism] The 13 Sins, Dissolution of the Self, and The Force of Will

In my road to perdition… I did many things that were not part of any good human philosophy. Lots of things I had done involved the pain and anguish of others. That, in turn, really backlogged the karmic pool with vile backlash points that were ready to explode out like a cannon when it was my due time to pay my price. That would happen at my “ripe” age of 19 and I would see what nearly 3 years of sin brought me. The power of my own vile sins just had turned my life to complete failure. I had built up my life on a philosophy that was destructive on myself and it cost me the friendships of many friends with the loss of many hours of progress.

Essentially, this was the dissolution of my mental and spiritual being. In my personal “philosophy” of ZeroXR, this is the “clearing of the slate” portion in “The Way of Perfection”. I can say that I was a shambling pile of flesh that could not properly function in a society governed by rational logic in this stage. I will not lie that I was in no way healthy enough to even carry on living with how much of a mess I was. There was one person though who helped me rebuild from the fallen ramparts of myself… That was probably the focal point of my rebuilding. They had served as almost like the meticulous builder of a complex engine of neural synapses and vividly delicate cranial matter to piece me back together as a human being. I will say that even today, I still talk to mentor and I sing their praises because I would not be around had they not helped me.

The only matter that was really pressing then became “How do I pursue perfection and never slip away once more?”

With slipping away, that would mean another fall away from the philosophy of ZeroXR. I didn’t want to become that human again who was a shambling mess… I wanted to be the hero I was again. The man who honored himself and also honored his friends and family. The big thing that mattered was that I needed to empower myself with the force of will. The innate power that we as humans have that reinforces our stand on things and issues that matter the most to us. I had to find the strength to grab hold of the reins of my life and follow through the work of my mentor had layed out so well. I did not want her work to have been in vain.

Finding my own force of will as a very sensitive matter as I had to come to rely on myself as a human, rather than hope and pray for a savior to continually infuse me via an IV line. I had to find strength within myself to realize that I am a great person. Sure, my past was a personal Hell, but even through that… I had to keep it as a lesson of the past. My reputation as a human had gone to the garbage, but I really couldn’t do much, as I shouldn’t need to. I had to realize I had long standing friends who had weathered out the storm with me. Ultimately, I had to realize that I was inately strong from the inside. I had to forgive myself to realize that everyone is not without sin, but at the same right, being human entitles us to a chance at forgiveness.

Forgiveness is one thing that makes the force of will possible, but when we wallow in our own mortal suffering… We essentially deny ourselves the power of our own will. This step is vital as we cannot begin the journey to personal perfection without forgiving ourselves. Be it if we have 13 sins or 1,000 sins, it doesn’t matter as all things can be forgiven if we can learn to accept ourselves. Even when we fall to broken ramparts, we still do have a chance for redemption.

Base of Operations Established…

So… Move-in was interesting..! It figured that it would rain on me, so I had to bide my time and wait until it was much more manageable to pack and drive. Once I had found a chance, I took it and ran! I crammed a bunch of stuff into Devil that it was ludicrous! I mean, I have played grocery Tetris before… but this was moving Tetris! The brunt of things was more realizing that after my break up, I didn’t have much to my name… After packing up my roadster, It was time to pick up a few essentials. Shampoo, conditioner, body wash, and hair spray. After picking those up, I’d proceed to drive out to Commerce in a torrential outpour of rain. Most of my driving was below posted speeds with good reason. however once some of the moisture dried from the roads… I wanted to reach my own personal state of divinity. There was one point where I had to back down my speeds and that landed me in first gear again… from there, I could begin my ascent to the 7th level of Heaven. I would shoot my gears to 7,000 RPM and just engage gear changes at that point until I hit 5th gear. When I finally hit 5th gear… I was at a nice 100mph. Though I quickly backed down when the roads began to get uneven.

On finally reaching my dorm, I noticed a torrent of people waiting on the elevators… My mind instantly thought “This is going to be EPIC failure, but maybe the stairs can’t be that bad…” So on the first round, I went fully encumbered up 9 flights of stairs. I could feel the sweet burn from my muscle tissue tearing all over. It was something that broke the ho-hum plateau that my workout has been stuck in. However, on the 5th repetition, I was about to pass out… Lucky for me, it was about due time for lunch as I was running on nothing for a full 12 hours.

My first meal of the day ended up being a grilled cheese sandwich, fries, a meatball sub, king chicken casserole, potato salad, a brownie, and Powerade. Take account that I have basically been walking to and from places and using my roadster on a seldom basis, I may have found a solution to burn off my excess!

For pictures of my excursion, check out my Flickr album! Zero’s Flicker [Click me!]

Pushing East to My Education!

What’s wrong with this… It’s 2:18am I am sitting at my sparse office of ZeroXR 13mg with a few trashbags of accumulated junk that need to be thrown out and parts of my “dormatory” prepared to be slopped together in Devil for the “first heat”. I haven’t even arranged things for the “second heat” that my family wanted to assist with. I have prayed for this day to come and it’s literally 6 hours away… Why? Why do I feel anxiety..? Why am I itching with horrid insomnia?

I should be happy and elated to finally begin a chapter of my life that has been derailed for 3 years… To be able to proceed to the next stage where I can achieve my dreams… Most of all, the ability to realize my full potential. I guess it’s because I have worked like a work-horse for the past 5 years and have known nothing but to work enough to survive. It was like the mantra of “Work to live” rather that “Live to work”. I know that there were also some foolish decisions that also lead me into the life of demise I had…

I guess I should bolster my strength to hit the hay so that I may make a safe journey to my dormatory. I should probably lighten up my car with throwing out any filth and garbage. I probably have a good few pounds worth of garbage and junk inside my car and in the trunk. Heh… Least some weight savings will ease my trip east with regards to messed up gas prices.

48 Hours until Academic Battle Phase is Initiated

So I got my financials taken care of at school and it was quite simple… Just a reminder that my interest is 6.00% both on unsubsidized and subsidized loans and not to “eff up” (for slang) my work or I will once again be chased by the feds again. It was my first bad encounter to and from school with rainy roads while fending off wacky drivers at 100+ miles per hour in my soft shelled drop top in a long while. It was a fun journey, but I will say that having great tires means I have great traction for gear transitions.

The last bit of financial junk I need to resolve is paying the school $536 that the loans didn’t pay out. I guess one could consider it as Uncle Sam’s “Are you serious about school?” fee. I should be able to muster out the cash with no issue… However… I also need to get my PSP and DS sets sold off to generate repayment capital for my boon of luck from my family.

I still can’t believe that in about 48 hours I pack my crap up and drive out to my dormatory. It’s daunting, but exciting at the same run. I will be packing modest, as with becoming mobile… I don’t have much crap for save a printer, laptop, phone, and bags. It’ll be interesting being type-cast into the category of “starving college student” with my life on campus and coming back to town to work at the office… but for me, that’s more than worth my time! It is much like my philosophy, sometimes legends are born from a blank slate. This semester is my carte blanche, I will make a new legend for myself!

As far as the new site relaunch… That may be delayed for a while… In the mean time, I will probably search for a temporary lay-out that announces who’s writing what articles at ZeroXR.com so that when Wyno’s writing bug bites her, no one will assume it’s me! However, the new “About Zero” revision is underway and I have to thank my friend Nikkie for going out of her way to do that with me. Expect a very light hearted interview as it’s going to share a side of me that few get to know.

With this, I bid you all adeau so that I may walk into the office.

My "signature"

Thanks from my Soiree – [Thank You Post]

Last night was a night of fun and casual elegance… We had a grand time of conversing and dining and the best part being that it was with a few of my friends that I cared the most for. My friend Devon showed up and I had not seen him since almost 2001! That in itself was surprising as we reflected on amusing memories.  My partner and her roommate also showed up for the event, so they were terrible amusing as well! With that being said… With Sol to the mix, we were just socializing and having a wicked fun time. We feasted on many items and relished in the taste of them as well as how much fun we’ve had in this life.

With back to school nigh, it was a final celebration of freedom before the educational grindstone. I am thankful for the few friends I have but even more thankful for the ones who could make it to my event. You all mean the most to me!

Google May Have Android eDrama – Editorial

A few days ago, I stumbled upon [H]ardOCP talking about a “front page” article saying that Google may have inadvertently pushed some Android developers to the iPhone SDK… This is rather an ironic tale of karmic shock as about a year ago, there were some whispers in the grapevine that Google was proposing to OpenMoko prospective programmers with a rather gutsy move to say “Come to our project, cause we are Google after all! We have tons of capital and our project is more financially stable.” So naturally, most programmers do want a buck for their efforts and most basically said “bye” to the OpenMoko Project and hopped on the Google Android bandwagon. In the midst of all the hub-bub of Google vs. OpenMoko, the Apple iPhone crowd was rather disappointed that their shiny $500+ toy had no clean API layer to play with like Windows Mobile or PalmOS. They managed to juryrig their own method of installing applications onto “jailbroken” iPhones by apps like iPwn or WinPwn to free the phone’s certification of applications in a means of giving the device a gray zone to play in. Of course, the problem with that was Apple’s coders releasing new firmware builds for the iPhone would render these “jailbroken” iPhones into paperweights unless the unofficial teams such as the “iPhone Dev Team” found ways to circumvent Apple’s check-sums. That somewhat changed with the iPhone 2.0 software release and the offical push of the iPhone Software Development Kit (or SDK for short).

Let’s delve into the background of the 2 “major” projects…

The Android project (in my observation) almost is a deceptive concept of “open source” as depending on how you rank with Google, you get certain layers of access with Android. What do I mean? Like if you’re an amateur coder who wants to make an application for fun, you would have basic access to the API. Now… let’s say you did something like won the “Google Summer of Code” competition or you are dumping millions of dollars to Google’s Android venture, naturally, you get premium access to the newest SDK builds and even API access to even control device functions. That could get some users who have slaved hours on Google’s Android project pissed! This is really the pressing concern from the article highlighted by AppleInsider, actually. Imagine that you and a few friends of yours make a killer app that just requires you to know the exact pressure sensitivity readings of the touch screen for an Android phone, but the caveat is none of your “staff” are big name commercial people or Summer of Code winners… This could be the one failing crux to your masterpiece to ever find completion. However, someone who won the Summer of Code competition may have an all access pass to all functions of the phone and could create a killer app that could rival yours. End result: Your team loses out on a chance to monetize on your killer app, yet your competitor gets a chance to dominate the market. Could you imagine the frustration to know your competitor’s app would be up for sale in Google’s Android App Shop for $2.99 a download while you’re going “If only Google let us access code on touch screen sensitivity…” with your friends?

Apple’s iPhone SDK is much in the same spirit like Google, an illusion of open source, but I feel they have mitigated drama by allowing all users certain levels of access. There’s the “Free” SDK which is just basic tools to build and test apps for personal use. But to get your name out there… Apple wants you to pony up $99 for a Basic Developer license which gives you the right to distribute your app to other iPhones via WiFi and also sell/give your app away at the iTunes App store. Should you sell your app, you do get 70% of the revenue. Then there’s the “Enterprise” license for $299 which allows you the power to make in-house corporate apps for the iPhone, like a trippy app that monitors and plays with your custom ECU for a tuner shop or other endless things your corporation wants to use the iPhone for. This license in particular is recommended for firms employing 500 people or more.

In my opinion, Apple’s rules are a little more concrete than the undefined access rules that Google has imposed on it’s users… We’ll have to sit and see how things brew down. The fact that Google’s been dawdling with producing a real and hard phone is making their time slip, while Apple and even OpenMoko have live phones to play with! Sure, Google has a deal with HTC to have a phone created as well as make it so that users with HTC phones can do a firmware update to have Android operational on their phones… Add to this that they are trying to fight between T-Mobile USA and Sprint|Nextel as official providers… You have a concept that may simply have trouble breaking the market in a solid fashion. I guess in a sense I am saying… Google better give everyone an “eHug” and get their crap straight or come up with a better strategy quickly unless they want to let Apple take more limelight from them..

[Preview] Google’s iPhone Killer Project May Be Dying…

Apparently, even though Google’s Android project drama with weasling away OpenMoko devs and other Lin-phones has been good and well… Google may be in quite the tizzy internally.

Unfortunately, I have work soon, so I’ll have to dissect this argument later tonight.

I have quite the musing on it…

Life, Games, Logic, and Tech