Tag Archives: Personal

Personal, Site News

Happy Anniversary of ZeroXR 13mg! One Year of Evolution!

1 Comment

Ah… One year ago, I remember talking to Merinda about websites. She was fixing to launch hers and she said something along the lines of this quotation:

“Sometimes you have to make a name for yourself and a brand to showcase your own ideals to the world. Start something and watch it grow~!“

I weighed those words heavily and then took up her offer to refer me to Dreamhost. I am very glad I did take up her offer as I have branded myself online and the best part… I have watched my writing evolve tremendously. I started out feeble but quickly learned to revisit old works and build from those. However… I cannot give myself all the credit. I had many others help build me as a writer. My good friends from the Dallas Ubuntu Linux group, those helped me a ton. There was also my two lovely guest writers who flank me. The lovely Miss Wyno and the honored Miss Ivy, I thank them for aiding me on proofing and even revising. Then there was the greatest influence… My small grouping of fans.

Some of you were just fans of my site back when the older Vox hosted site was running. Some of you joined up when I decided to feed an RSS line into Facebook. Some of you became fans when I had just gotten my cheap business cards… Then some of you recently became fans from knowing me at school and being curious of the web address on my contact card. From that… I watched 1-5 hits a day become 20 – up to 60 a day on some days!

I would like to thank you all for 1 year of evolution. One year of change and embracing the principle: “Evolve or Die”. I know I have a few things I need to fix to grow even stronger as a writer. Some of you all have had the courage to help say “This needs to be better” or “That is good!” For those of you, I am glad you drop feedback! I look forward to even more good things later on!

Love,

Personal, Site News

Signing off until the Anniversary of ZeroXR 13mg

4 Comments

So… with exams starting tomorrow… I decided to hit “home” at Whitley hall early. Family was instigating a minor verbal scuffle, so naturally, I was fighting to escape ASAP and focus on a good mentality. In my demonic haste… I packed up all the stuff to stabilize my laptop’s life, but failed to pack up the power cord.

With the sad shape of my battery, I only have 3 hours of power over 3 days. From that, it nixes any gaming I may desire as well as randomly browsing 4chan/7chan/711chan/0chan for amusement. The only thing is… I am cut off from my loved ones who speak to me via instant message or e-mail. This probably depresses me the most of all things.

At the same time… It’s a sign from my divine beneficiaries that if I am to start off my week with the worst battle first, I will have to fight until the bitter end. There was apparently a blessing to any Chemistry 111 and 211 students from my professor that the grade from the final exam will also replace the lowest grade from the standard exams. So for me… I will fight onward to ensure a stable victory. I am not asking for an A in Chemistry as the last few things have diminished that very quickly… But to manage a C is the objective and a B to be a “bonus” objective.

History and Math I am not too worried about… I have done my work so I am alright there.

For my family, friends, and fans… If you wish to give me kind words: Send me a text message. If you need me to talk to you for encouragement, give me a call. My phone is now my life line until Wednesday, December 10th, 2008 at 1pm.

Also, December 10th is the first year of ZeroXR13mg and zeroxr.com’s existence. Any celebration should be reserved until 12/10/2008 after 1pm.

Thanks for the support for either my academic life or the life of this site… From here on out… I will lock down Suzaku and sign off from my laptop. I look forward to coming back live on Wednesday. For those of you taking exams with me… Good luck to you!

Personal, Technology

Zero needs your help! Help me pick a new phone!

12 Comments

The Zero Corporate Communicator is due for an upgrade… My AT&T Tilt has taken quite the beating from me. For 7 months of loyal service, being subject to my drunken rages every now and then, but also being hacked to fit my needs… I am amazed it has last me 7 months. I mean with respect to things… Check out my phone chronology! (Disclaimer: Times are approximate…)

10/2004 – 10/2005: Nokia 3120 (1 Year)
10/2005 – 1/2006: Motorola RAZR V3 (3 Months)
1/2006 – 3/2006: Motorola SLVR L6 (2 Months)
3/2006 – 5/2006: Motorola MPx 220 (2 Months)
5/2006 – 7/2006: Sony Ericsson T637 (2 Months)
7/2006 – 10/2006: Motorola SLVR L7 Unbranded without iTunes (3 Months)
10/2006 – 1/2007: HTC Wizard as a T-mobile USA MDA (3 Months)
1/2007 – 5/2007: Nokia E62 (4 Months)
5/2007 – 10/2007: Palm Treo 680 (4 Months)
10/2007 – 4/2008: DUAL PHONES – Sony Ericsson P990i AND Sony Ericsson w300i (6 Months)
4/2008 – Present [12/2/2008] – HTC Kaiser as an AT&T Tilt 8925 (7 months onward…)

Lately, my phone is going through issues… The slider mechanism is getting loose, unless I lock it in the angular position if I somewhat slack with the screen angle. I am going through a RAM leak issue that my phones go through… So something like the phone’s alarm or an event reminder will lock up or even crash my phone. I have to reboot the phone every other day now rather than every 4 days to keep the phone functional. The worst part… I have tried almost EVERY cooked and stock OEM HTC TyTN II ROM possible to flash into my phone in hopes of having a functional phone that was stable since the maladies happened… But alas… even a bare stripped out BASE ROM that is on the original HTC TyTN II without the garbage still has my phone crashing and locking up.

So yeah… I have been looking at new phones. At the moment, I am eligible through T-Mobile to enjoy the same deals as new users from being eligible for an upgrade as long as I do the 2 year hitch. However, should I choose to hop back to the Death Star and be subject to their funny taxes, rollover minutes and etc… I’d have to wait until around until June of 2009. Time is not of the essence, yet… Unless my phone just purely becomes dysfunctional that it is unstable. I do need a smartphone, as the ability to see my calendar of events and keep my contacts at ready access. Messaging is highly important to me as I do a lot of mobile contact when voice is not an option. Internet plans are being considered, as e-mail and instant messages are my alternative lifelines other than texting and voice calls.

Here’s the line-up… so far that is:

BlackBerry Bold (To be unlocked…)
BlackBerry Javelin (aka 8900 Curve) [Unfortunately no official link yet, link from Boy Genius Report]
Nokia XpressMusic 5800 (The wicked touch screen music phone)
Palm Centro (Unlocked from Palm)
HTC/T-Mobile G1 by Google

My common themes seem to be phones with physical keyboards that are exposed, the only exceptions being the G1 and the Nokia Xpress Music 5800. The G1 has a slider keyboard like my Tilt, while the Nokia has a soft keyboard and it does support written input via stylus.

The issue of billing is not too bad… cause at the moment, I pay $70 for my current plan after taxes and such. However should I go with any device with the optional net plan (for the G1, the net plan is MANDATORY), the price totals out at $80. So it’s about 1 take out meal a month less. Not a big deal, cause I don’t have much time for that anyways. The only pressing issue would really be the $35 activation fee and the device prices.

The BlackBerry devices may be fun, but the Bold, for example is only available in the US as a locked AT&T phone and I would have to spend a little extra coin to get it unlocked for use. The Javelin is not known if it’s coming to T-Mobile USA, but there is already an AT&T unit under testing. For either the Bold or Javelin, this is probably the most expensive route ranging from sniping one off of craiglist at $450+ before any unlocking services.

The Palm is a rather nice and pint sized little smartphone and at roughly $300 unlocked from Palm is a great deal. The sad selection of white only is a little sobering… Though the final issue is compatibility with the T-Mobile mobile web… I am highly considering mobile web, so it puts the Centro on a very thin edge. The Nokia XpressMusic 5800 ($500+) is also on that same thin edge with the mobile web compatibility… Though the XpressMusic is more media centric rather than a corporate looking communicator.

The T-Mobile G1 is probably the underdog of them all… Priced at $180 with a 2 year renewal, fully Linux and open source, and quickly becoming versatile. It’s made by HTC, so I am not too afraid of build issues. Sure, it looks a little caddish and far from corporate professional… But to know that it can basically give me near remote control over my own site is damn near staggering, especially when there are times I’d kill to blog something but only to find that I have to pay for a wireless LAN at Starbucks for an hour I may not use entirely.

I digress…

If anyone has an opinion, feel free to comment and let me know! If you have a recommendation, tell me your reasoning why! Any reasonable insight is welcome and encouraged!

Personal, Site News

Week of the Dead and Flavour of the Weak

Leave a comment

So my campus is doing Dead Week, but oddly… it’s not a typical Dead Week. Some of my courses, it’s true to the traditional meaning with a dead chase to reviewing as much material as possible. Other courses, it’s back to back orgy of new materials, testing, and beatings of reviews… so my brain feels burned, cremated, and possibly fried. To think it’s just Monday! Ugh…

However… This is also the time that people succumb to weakness of slacking. That is weakness from the eternal warmth of the soul. For those of you who are in academic venues like me… Don’t give up ghost yet! Fight on and power forth!

Sadly… this may kill my active postings for a while as I will be either studying or playing World of WarCraft to burn off the hazardous amounts of stress that may render injury and death of my books.

I will throw a post up that will require the help of you readers… Please keep a watch on that.

For now, I need to recharge my fuel cells with complex chains of carbs, proteins, sugars, and water. Best of luck to anyone out there fighting in school! Power to the students!

Personal, Technology

Waking the Demon, Walking in Shadows

Leave a comment

So let me say that when computers break… it can be aggravating to me. I am a nice guy with machines… until they anger me. Windows XP has been that thorn in my side that I had to do something…

Click for a link to the bigger image!
Hmm... Eye Sea Wut Joo Did Thar!

I did it… I thought I never could return to Linux but somehow… I did. So with toiling and help from by GREAT friend Maczimus… I am back. To my Ubuntu buddies out in the DFW Area, I am back home again. Home to one of the kindest operating systems ever to have graced its presence to me. I just have to test and make sure if my VPN settings play nice with my school. They’d better, damn it!

Personal, Technology

Ugh… Winter Blues~!

1 Comment

So I am sick… augh!!! It blows… but to compound more bullcrap… Early this morning, Windows decided that my mouse was not to move away from the bottom corner. On trying to fight and beat the OS to the power of my will… well… let’s just keep it at the fact that things got worse. So once again… my laptop is well… toast with Windows. However… in usual fashion, Linux is like the cute geeky girlfriend who’s like the supportive best friend that saves my bacon again.

Which brings me to a comparison that I talked about with a good friend of mine…

Windows is like the crazy girl who can do all the freaky sexual crap. Stuff that would interest all the wrong sorts of people. At the same time, when you make the threaten to leave… it does crazy dramatic bullshit with empty promises of steak and fellatio.

Linux is like the one cute girl that either you’ve known forever or she’s the one lotus in a myriad of flowers. She’s the one who’s smart, can go to the bars with you, and even play a multi-player role playing game online while being a dork. She’s the one that you’d like to be with, but the real world somehow nags you to go back to the crazy whore called Windows.

Anyhow… My brain is exhausted… damn installations… DAMN IT ALL!!!

Personal

Blessing of the Battle Maiden

Leave a comment

So here I am… in Chemistry lecture. What the heck am I doing? Well… I found out even though I attempted to go to bed at 8pm only to get up at 11pm from an odd panic that disturbed my sleep to only play World of Warcraft to chill my nerves…

There was no Chemistry test today.

To think I fighting to the point of almost succumbing to my own mortal frailties to the tune of a funeral march celebrating the possession of a demon overtaking my mortal body. All to find that my test is not delayed until Wednesday… IT’S FORKIN’ DELAYED UNTIL FRIDAY!!!

I mean cool that it was delayed until then, but to think I had my hands up high, ready to put a bullet into the test… and the test ends up using a “ninja vanish” with flash powder.

My classmates said to take this “boon” as a blessing. To a sense, it is… I know my own “guardian angel”, the Stone Maiden, has been arising a lot from something akin to personal crisis. However… Her visage graced me last night and she took me on a relaxing and spirited drive. She couldn’t speak, but her drive was more relaxed. She was in the Angel Zero version of a BMW //M5 and doing the standard fare of aggressive driving moves, but it didn’t feel like battling a demon. Her driving was like listening to a beautiful concerto by one of the great composers of the past. To a sense, maybe it was her way of telling me “Relax… There’s no need to bleed to death anymore.” Whatever her conveyed message may be… I appreciate her love and grace for giving me her blessing.

Personal, Reviews, Site News, Technology

Week’s Agenda… I think?

Leave a comment

This week will probably be rather crunchy… or fall to mush… I have not a clue. I know my brain has been crunching chemistry to exhaustion. I think I am going to have to submit to my weak mortal whims to procure food. Damn mortality… well, sometimes anyhow. Chemistry will battle wits with me in nearly 17 hours so I have to crunch hard and make sure I completely absorb the materials like it is infused in the blood.

Depending on how finances look… I may or may not be getting World of WarCraft: Wrath of the Lich King. I have been through some pretty rough financial times, but I should be no stranger to them anyhow. I would love to get it mainly so I can evaluate it and post a review right away! Although, Miss Wyno said it may not be any good to me anyways as I won’t be able to utilize most of the content in Northrend until I have a character at Level 80. So maybe it is for the best..?

In good news..! I may have found a niche as a male fashion blogger! Alfred from Barney’s New York out in Northpark Center is sending me some sample goods which I should be recieving sometime this week! Many thanks goes to him and I definitely look forward to writing another enthusiastic review over everything I recieve. Hopefully I can get some pictures and provide another good review for any guys who want another perspective on male grooming and care.

I hope to get another good piece written this week… maybe I can get the long overdue “Day in the Life of Zero” post up and online? LOL! 😀 We’ll see as that’s semi dependent on how my mind can take a mental beating of savage proportions with chemistry. Ough…

Ugh… my stomach is now uncontrollably asking me to feed it. I think that’s my cue to vamoose and feed me before the low glucose levels make me cranky as hell. Keep watching here! It should get especially fun especially ’round Thanksgiving holiday!

PS – Ivy had a bit of a hard transition happen as well as the fact that she sorta hurt her knee! Please wish her well and hopefully she’ll get an article on there soon!

Much love,

Personal, Rant

“n0 P0litiks P1z, kthx”

3 Comments

So today… I was subject to a racial slur. I found it humorous, as the slur was chased with a foolish statement which negated the ire in his words. So I will paraphrase the exchange before I go into my rant…

Wacky Headcase (WH): “omgz! This country’s going to Hell! America’s lost it’s tradition!!!”
Student Instructor (SI): “Settle down… This is a MATH class, not government!”
WH: “Fucking Obama’s the Anti-Christ!”
SI: “There will be no political discussion on Friday… if you all even make the slightest thought, I will kick you out!”
WH: “This is bullshit! You’re obstructing my right to the first amendment!”
Zero: “School’s a fascist system, DEAL WITH IT!”
WH: “It’s people like you that are dragging our country to hell, you Chink! Go back to your own country!”
Zero: “I’m sorry, I was born in DALLAS! This is my country! If you think our country is going to hell… Live in another country and maybe you’ll understand what they go through!”

I mean, I will stand up and fight for a person’s right to say anything they want in the proper forum. I am a believer of Voltaire’s most beautiful quote: “I do not agree with what you have to say, but I’ll defend to the death your right to say it.” The only condition is… I will do it in the right forum and right place. I also feel using racial slurs, name calling, or generally lacking an open mind is down right childish. Personally I feel that school is not the place, save a government or debate class… School is a home of learning and fortitude.

Anyhow, with trying to use philosophical points with this coddy applejohn… It reminds me why I HATE talking politics with people. It leads to childish arguments and well it generally upsets a lot of people. The fact I had to use my brain with philosophy so early gave me a migraine and reminds me why RX-7 and RX-8 drivers warm up their engines before really ragging on them. So… If I see you online. No political discussions please… If I see you on World of WarCraft, put your McCain hate at your terminal and don’t bring it to Azeroth. If I see you in Guild Wars, you bet your ass that I want you to leave your Obama hate far away from Tyria, Cantha, and Elona. Hell, if I see you face-to-face… I want none of it.

Just for the record before anyone tries to con me out with “You fucking hate democracy!” I will state that I loved Ron Paul ’cause he actively campaigned about privacy, so there. I am getting the fuck out of this discussion with a vengeance. I just want to chill, mellow the fuck out, and say “Thank God the media circus and peanut gallery is over.”

Much love,

Personal

Greetings!

Leave a comment

Where the name Ivy for some brings to mind the delicate vines adding décor to trellises, or the Ivy League, or the language.. I just so happen to be none of these things. On the other hand if you pictured a girl with a laptop yelling at perfect strangers on Ventrilo, that would be closer to accurate.

“Ivy” is actually short for “Iveya,” a nickname that originated in World of Warcraft and various other roleplay settings because no one could pronounce the name properly unless shortened. Eventually I gave in and it stuck. By this, you might have already guessed that I’m a gamer. Hooray for you, you smart people! Powers of deduction are great, don’t you think? I do in fact play WoW still, on the Shadow Council US server. In a sense, however, Ivy is separate from me because she is an online persona. But hey, we all have our masks…

On the more realistic and serious side of things, I am a dual major college student of English and Philosophy trying to better understand myself and the world through philosophy and all forms of written works. To me words are as much an art form as oil paints and charcoals. I often find myself thinking on things like what makes others truly happy, or staring up at the vast starry skies above and wondering what lies beyond. Everyone thinks on these things at some point, even if in passing, and I hope to inspire people someday to think past the everyday mundane and think for themselves.

I love intelligent debate and creative minds. I watch cartoons and am not afraid to laugh at ‘kids’ jokes. I take showers at three in the morning and climb into the spa at noon sometimes on weekends just to be doing something. I love everyone until they give me reason not to. I am neither democrat nor republican, but some abomination of both that supports all human rights and still wants to see everyone working for their own living. I own a chihuahua but dislike small dogs. I know the lyrics to every song I’ve ever heard but often can’t remember how to get to the grocer. I believe people should do what they want, when they want, but I understand why we can’t. I am scared easily, and I love watching horror movies alone at three in the morning. I enjoy contradiction, in ideologies and life.

Zero has been my friend for several years now and I am honored to be of help in any way I can. He holds a special place in my heart and always will because, if I have learned nothing else from him, he taught me that people can turn their lives around when they really try. He gave me proof that people can transcend their circumstances and become what they wish to be. As much as I like contradiction, I like seeing people happy and successful even more.

Chaos never died.

Ivy out.