class dismissed

I am finding it harder to read today. but I forged on a head. and I almost forgot to write about it. Here is the only thing I read today and only because I force myself to read it to write somethin here today.. enjoy or not... I know are actually reading this. it's interesting though. It turns out they are integrating cellphones in the classroom. If you can't beat'em join'em mentality I guess.

http://radar.oreilly.com/2010/03/cell-phones-in-classrooms.html

seriously how much was i yelled at about having my cellphone in class and now they are handing them out. Am I the only one who sees that the old way of learning is not a good way doing things?

google italia

here is an interesting article about some controversy that is going down in Italy Involving one of my favorite companies in the world!

http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2010/02/serious-threat-to-web-in-italy.html

in summary: students at a school in Turin, Italy filmed and then uploaded a video to Google Video that showed them bullying an autistic schoolmate...[and then ].. a public prosecutor in Milan decided to indict four Google employees —David Drummond, Arvind Desikan, Peter Fleischer and George Reyes (who left the company in 2008). The charges brought against them were criminal defamation and a failure to comply with the Italian privacy code

but Google did comply with the privacy code so everybody is scratching their head about it. and there is slippery slope talk being thrown around. All in all this is a sad turn of events in internet history.

Writing about Fruit

Since I have been talking about this company a lot recently I might as well write about what I read about them. Of course I am talking about apple which recently announced a new product iPad. Immature jokes aside I have a feeling this product is going to sell really well. If iPod touch sales are any sign of how much people really like paper weights then this is going to sell like hot cakes!

http://radar.oreilly.com/2010/01/the-chess-grandmaster-apples-i.html

The writer talks about Google in the article's title but only mentions the company a hand full of times.

on a side note my laptop is finally in the US!... Alaska! yes After spending a day to travel through china it makes it way into the states by way of Alaska. It's not even one of the continental United States! Oh well it is estimated to be delivered at 10:30 am tomorrow and has some 4K miles to go! if it was being driven than it would have to go 200+ MPH to get to me by then so I have a feeling it's in the sky now thinking of me as fondly as I am thinking of it.

I hope Laptop's don't get jet lag!

I am not illiterate, I swear!

One of the greatest critiques that I have of myself is that I don't read enough. I used to read all of the time but something clicked in my head a few years before High school and now I can't pick up a book without dreading the concept of having to actually flip through pages to learn information. I feel stupid looking at my wife's almost filled library where I only have one shelf filled mostly with Comic books. I know she has read most of those books and the last novel that I read all the way through was Harry Potter and I didn't really enjoy it. Don't get me wrong I enjoyed the escape of reading the book, it took me three days to finish which is quite a feat if you know how big some of the Harry Potter books are. I just thought the plot was awful and the characters were too whinny and afterwards it left the same bad taste in my mouth that stopped me from reading years ago.

But as I mentioned in the title I am not illiterate. I can write! ...badly in every sense of the word write ... and I can read! ... I just choose not to...

I am going to prove that I am not illiterate by forcing my self to read and I am going to share what I read here. No I am not going to read novels. I hate reading novels. things like plot and setting bore me to tears. I realized that I read articles on the internet all the time and while I don't have a library like my Love to show off my novel prowess I do read as much as she does. I just don't have any way to prove it. This is not me me proving to you that I can read more than my wife. This is me proving to myself that I am not illiterate, I swear!

First up is an article from the red tape chronicles. say what you want to about MSNBC this article is educated and well written. Bob Sullivan puts into plain English a very upsetting new trend in computer viruses. Although it is a scary subject the article is not about fear mongering and offers some nice tips on how to avoid the viruses and what do to if you get infected.

http://redtape.msnbc.com/2010/01/turning-hijacked-computers-into-cash-is-still-hard-work-for-most-computer-criminals-theyve-got-to-trick-the-infected-pc-into.html

The Red Tape is one the newer blogs that I have started to follow I will probably read.

My Apple Experience - Part 0.5

My Laptop has been shipped yay! and it only has to make it's way to me from... Shanghai...China... No wonder my Laptop is taking forever to get here! Really Apple? China?! Could you have picked a farther away sounding country? Nothing is more upsetting to an impatient American waiting for something to arrive then to hear it is in China. I shudder at the thought of how long would have it taken to get to me if I hadn't paid extra and how much of what I am buying was made in China? Is the only benefit to the US of me buying this product go to Apple Stockholders and FedEx for shipping my product?

My Apple Experience - Part 0

I have decided an Apple product and not an iPod. I purchased a Macbook Pro and I decided to write about my entire experience the good and the bad.

I have not yet received my Mac but since I had such a good experience, I am going to go over the purchasing of the product.

I walked into the Mac store just to check the product out and it was nice. The sales man did his job well and it is obvious they don't get paid commission. I wanted something that was only offered online and he pointed me straight to the website. I walked out buying nothing and feeling no pressure.

Purchasing online was a breeze and I even got some pretty nice financing options. I thought since I was getting something I might as well get something top of the line. I even spent $18 for speedier shipping. I am excited!

Pro's:

• Quick. easy, and relatively pain free. I was even able to change the shipping address in less then 10 minutes (before the item shipped of course).
• I have the feeling that what I am getting something top of the line and I will no longer have any of the woes that I have had with other computer purchases.

Con's:

• Price tag: I know I am getting something top of the line but still it hurts to think about how much I actually spent on this. I was able to use a $700 laptop for 5+ years my new laptop had better last! spending an extra $250 ish for better support later on almost added insult to injury but I still have the feeling this money not wasted.
• I walked out the apple store with nothing! Come on guys what is the use of having a brick and mortar store if I am going to walk out of there with nothing? I am not saying pressure me into buying something i don't want but have what I want at the store. now I have to wait for shipping which brings me to my next point
• even paying the extra for faster shipping I still have to wait close to a week to have my product and I am willing to pay more to have it shipped faster. I don't want to be patient I want my laptop NOW! *throws tantrum*

Side note: I am very concerned about being upset in a couple of months because they will come out with a better product and if I had only waited I could have bought it. Seriously I had a dream last night that could only be described as Steve Jobs dangling a I7 chip in front of me on a stick and having me chase after it.

Honestly?

It is 2.5 in the morning and I cannot sleep. I feel I have hurt my wife and let her down. I have always tried to do the right thing and now I have no idea what to do. Let's start at the beginning; that has and always will be a very good place to start…

In the beginning of spring before Breanne graduation we go apartment shopping in Cincinnati. The process is difficult and long. We find ourselves getting discouraged as our options are running out. We accept an offer to sub lease Breanne's cousins condo. The Home Owners Association does not approve of this but the condo is really nice, big, and is really close to Breanne's place of work. Everybody involved understands the risk. There will be a fine involved and we will have to be kicked out if the HOA ever finds out that my wife and I have taken residence over. We have been living here since the beginning of summer 2008.

After we get married at the end of summer 2009 we start looking for a house. When Breanne and I first discuss whether or not to talk with her Cousins about us looking into moving out we decide not to right away. There is some work that needs to be done on the Condo and Breanne's Cousin is over here on a daily basis. Feeling bad about just leaving them in the dark I bring up the subject again with my wife about our decision to not discuss our plans with her Cousins. We decide that we are going to mention it sooner than later but don't actually mark a day to on the calendar to do so. The next day they decide to bring the topic up with us and we are truthful with our response. We tell her Cousins that we expect to be in the condo for one to six months. Two weeks later they accept someone's offer to buy the condo and tell us that we have to out of the condo by the middle of December. Did I mention that we hadn't bought a house yet?!

There is no one person truly to blame here. But I feel guilty. I have always felt that it is best to be honest with everybody because I would hope that everybody would want to be honest with me. I always push my wife to be honest and because I know her I can often tell when she is not being honest and I find myself pushing a lot. I know my wife is upset at me for pressing us into telling the truth to her cousins and now we are going to kicked out of our really nice and big condo long before we have anything resembling a house.

Am I wrong or self righteous to think that we should be telling the truth especially when asked point blank? I feel like my world is coming apart, up is down, black is white; that kind of thing. I cannot understand how making the decision to do the right thing can totally come back and bite me in the ass like this. My selfish want to be the good guy has caused me to hurt my family. So what? I am supposed to be the bad guy now? The one lies and cheats and doesn't care. That is totally not me! Is it wrong that I want to surround myself with good people and to want my wife to be more honest? Is it wrong for me to call her out when she isn't being truthful and to want her to be more truthful because the consequences of her being truthful will backfire? What has this world been coming to when we can't even be honest to family? Honestly!