Oh yea!

By the way, Merry Christmas everyone! And I sincerely hope that everyone is having a memorable and smashing Holiday!

We put the "fun" in dysfunctional!

Those are the famous words that my uncle always utters (or yells depending on the average BAC level of the room) at family get-togethers. I just love the holidays. Whether it's everyone getting drunk (except me since I'm pretty much a teetotaler) or everyone getting drunk, the holidays are just a warm time for us all. Unless you're sober. Nothing is worse then being sober in a room full of drunks. Not only are they loud, but they're red-faced and in your face. Rude and crude. Resplendent in their praises and despondent in their rationality.

To be fair, I love my family. I'm a family man and I think that there is nothing more important than family. However, being the only sober person at family gatherings can be a little alienating and even humiliating. Alienating because you don't find the jokes that Uncle Walter told about the RV trip to Intercourse, PA to be all that funny --hehe. Humiliating because your parents always have to sing your exploits. Like how you managed to hook up the speakers for them or buy something from iTunes.

It's good to be home. It always makes me feel good and warms my heart to see family and friends again after a long time. Yes, I ACTUALLY have a heart although you wont see it again for another 365 days so enjoy it. But I digress. Being home is fun but it is also sad and, for me, a little disheartening. Sad because you realize that after being away from home you never really can go back. People change, places change and most importantly, you change. It doesn't feel the same anymore. I feel like sometimes I'm an impostor living in my past when I return home.

But hey, today it was 61 degrees and clear and tomorrow it's going to be the same. So there is something nice. Although it's a full day with the extended family and my girlfriend's family/friends. Oh god get me back to DC.

3/5 of the way

Ok, so, here is my first "unofficial" post! Yay! I like to think of myself as a somewhat tech-savvy guy. I know what the iPhone is and I know what Facebook is. Hell, I even know what the Internet does. But what the hell are people talking about when they say, "So and So is only 5 days?" I see this crap in the status bar on Facebook all the time. Can someone please tell me what this means?! I'm partially hoping that it's simply horrifically bad grammar?

Well whatever. I don't really care what little Mary-Ann and Lexus and Mercedes are up to. I just wish people could use proper grammar. I understand that English is a living language but I will be damned if I my younger cousins start emailing me saying things like LOL and BRB and all that texting crap.

On a brighter note, I finished 60% of my finals. I now have another seven days until my last exam. Normally I would be pretty pissed but I have got to clean up my apartment so this gives me the excuse that I have been looking for. On an even brighter note, I'm going home in eight days. I can't wait to have In-N-Out, Mandarin Gourmet, Su-Hong's, Ming's, Cicero's and Kikusushi again. Oh yea, and I can't wait to see my family too... Honest.

I cried when Will & Grace ended... not... maybe...

You know, for once in my life, I'm actually sad to see a class end. Usually I can't wait for it to end. Mainly because I do this when I'm done with a semester, or a life. Usually, I wake up in the morning dreading going to classes but whenever I woke up on a day when I had this class, I would actually feel good about going (and I didn't even need my uppers!). Our class was very informative and fun and I learned more in this class then I have in any other class at American. Now, isn't that sad? $40,000 a year and I can clearly remember only one class... Did I ever mention that I hate academia?

I have to apologize to people at this time. I have to become a little retrospective. Social Networking is an amazing concept. Regardless of my previous rant about it having its limits; I think that it is the new wave of the future. Whether or not that is good is not up for me to decide. I just use and abuse, I don't think or decide. God I love being an American.

Since this is the last "official" post for our class, I found myself at a fork in the road. I wish I could add a "yellow wood" but I'm not that skilled. To post further or nor post further that is the questions which does not preoccupy my mind right now. I've already decided to continue posting my rants and ravings for the time being although I can't speak for anytime later than a week. I'm so deep.

Well, what do you know, I made a decision and I thought about it... I was wondering why my head is spinning... I wanna go to Wal-Mart!

What can social networking do for you?

I love technology. There, I said it. I'm like Wired. I think that technology and science are the one and only way to go. So naturally, you would think (or at least I would think) that this article that espouses how social networking and Web 2.0 can make life bit-rate perfect would be right down my alley. WRONG! I think that social networking is really cool and I think that it has its uses. But who the hell is going to transfer money from their bank account to a supermarket to help a homeless person?

Call me heartless (I actually am heartless but that shouldn't surprise you by now) but the author of that article is full of sh*t. You see, the publisher of the article, CNET, is headquartered in San Francisco. Now, San Francisco is the mecca for the counter-culture and GLBT community but it's also a mecca for something else. You wonder where Guliani sent all the homeless in New York? Well, just train your eyes on the city by the bay.

San Francisco is very tolerant of the homeless. Unfortunately, the same can't be said about them. Anyway, basically what I'm saying is that the CNET article is trying to appeal to the Snob Hill (reference to Nob Hill) techie elitists. So I guess that I would fall more in line with this guy's views of social networkings' potential. But only to an extent. I'm sorry but anyone who disses Wikipedia (praise be to it!) is a heretic. Oh... I guess I'm in the other camp now...

UGC, BRB, LMAO, TNT, TBS, Blah blah blah

UGC, MGC, LOL, OMG... Ugh! What is up with all these stupid acronyms? Why can't people just say it? User Generated Content, American Broadcasting Company, Turner Network Television, Secure Socket Layer, etc.

Anyway, that was my "three week to the end of the semester" rant. Kinda short but oh well. Where was I? Oh right, UGC (grrr....), to me, is icing on the cake for a lot of programs. Some of the best examples of user generated content can be seen in computer games like The Sims and The Sims 2, Half-Life and Half-Life 2 (mainly through the online battle simulation Team Fortress) and even some MMORPGs like Star Wars Galaxies. DISCLAIMER: I haven't played computer games in a long time so forgive me for my out of date examples. In fact, companies like Maxis (developers of the Sims series) and its parent company Electronic Arts, have an entire site devoted to user generated content for some of their games.

This content really provides a great way for some people to be discovered (similarly to SecondLife only not as lame) and it adds a personal touch to the game. Games like The Sims and The Sims 2 (these games are simulation games that focus on living out a virtual life) work best when a ton of new content (like clothes, furniture, cars, building materials, etc.) is created to expand the game. Sure, official expansion packs like Sims 2: Pets, "": Vacation, "": Hot Date all provide a lot of fun new content and animations but there is still something quaint about using (forgive me) UGC.

Web is to Polarizing as ...?

The Web has polarized politics? I find that somewhat amusing considering that politics (which has been around a lot longer than the Web) was already one of the most polarized aspects of human society. Politics, like religion, does a marvelous job at mixing and stirring irrational beliefs to the point where the only outlet is through emotional outbursts. I have to laugh silently to myself whenever I see people "heatedly" talking about some political issue. Whether it be about the massacres in Darfur or the current administrations draconian (you didn't honestly think I would hold back, did you?) view's about stem cell research, it never fails to give me a little amusement to see people turn red faced and start raising their voices. To be fair, I'm not that passionate of a person so to an extent, I have to admire people like that. They believe in a cause and are willing to fight for it; or, at least, speak a convincing lie.

But, I can't understand why some people think that the Internet has polarized politics. Politics was already polarized to the point where you can't sway people anymore. Just like polarized sunglasses reflecting the glare of sunlight, political beliefs reflect the light of truth from reaching so many people. What the Web has done, in my opinion, is actually filter some of that political glare. It is the new 100% polarization lenses that allow us to look past the talk and show -- in essence, the glare of politics. We can now see these great icons of American "beliefs" for what they really are: people.

Saying the Web has polarized politics is the exact same thing as saying that the gun created murders.