This is in response to the question asked in my forums by Queue:

If everyone on the planet stopped existing but you, but the world, in it’s current state, was left exactly the same, what would you do?

Well, the logical part of my brain has to look at this multiple ways:

• Electricity and running water would only be around for a couple of days, if that, as no one would be running the power plants. So generators would be the only option for electricity. Bottled water would be the only option for drinking water.
• The world’s wealth would be at my disposal, however I don’t know how to fly a plane or sail a boat. So I’d be landlocked and stuck in the American continents.
• I have no outdoor survival skills, so I’d also have to make do in the cities. But since that is the only source of easily gotten food, that’s perfectly okay¹.
• With no other computers having electricity, all communications would be gone. No Internet². No phone. But of course, no people, so I guess that doesn’t matter.
• And another problem: I would have no idea that the world is empty. Can’t communicate to find it out.

But that’s my logical mind. My logical mind pales in comparison to my emotional one. I am human after all. So I’ll answer that part with a narrative:

I wake up to an empty bed. However, this is a normal occurrence, as my wife always gets up before I do. That’s how we get our time to ourselves. She goes to bed before I do and wakes up before I do. So we always have about two hours on our own. I pick up my phone to check my e-mail, a normal part of my routine, but there’s no signal.

I smile at that thought and then pull the trigger.

Is that exactly how it will happen? I don’t know. Will I go crazy and kill myself? I don’t know. But it is a possibility. Lack of human companionship is deadly, no matter what material goods you have at your disposal.

1. I’m talking about canned goods and other foods that would last a long time without a refrigerator [«]
2. Means all those used cisco routers and millions of dollars worth of servers are useless [«]

Posted by Saphrym | 3 Comments »

I know many of you have probably already heard of Pandora, but I just have to give my own opinion here. Paying for XM radio is basically silly if you’re only looking for music. Sure, they have some great talk radio, but if you’re only there for commercial free playing of songs, you can’t really do much better than Pandora.¹

Ok. I admit. It’s not advertisement free unless you pay $36 a year. Oh, wait, did I say $36. Must be a typo, right? XM Radio costs $7.00 a month. I’ll let you do the math. But it is commercial free. And it has tons to offer. See, you pick your own favorite music and artists and it uses the Music Genome Project to determine what other music you would like and plays it for you. Now, like a radio station, it won’t let you rewind, but you can skip songs you don’t like (up to about 3 to 5 times). And you can quickly thumb up or down a song so it knows to play more like it or less like it. For example, I like John Mayer and have a channel just for his music and others like it. Wanna listen to it? Here’s a link: John Mayer Radio

“Ok. Sounds good. I can listen to music on my computer. But what about in my car?”

Got AT&T or Sprint? Then go here: http://pandora.com/on-the-go

That’s right. They have a mobile version. And with all of the neat wires and such that are around nowadays, well, it would be easy to play your phone music through your car’s radio. Oh, and if you have an iPhone, they just released an iPhone app specifically for Pandora. And the mobile versions seem to work without a subscription. At least the iPhone version does. I haven’t tried the other ones yet.

So why pay for commercial free radio? If you’re into music as much as I am, you’ll find Pandora to not only be a great service, but it’ll open your ears to music you never knew you would like.

(And no, Pandora is not paying me for this post. I just love their service tremendously. Been using it for a while and still meet people who have never heard of it. So I felt it was definitely time to share.)

Do you have favorite channels that you listen to on Pandora? Share them on the forums.

1. It’s kind of like paying for luxury vacations when a walk down the road or a drive to a local city you’ve never been to could be just as entertaining, if not more entertaining. [«]

Posted by Saphrym | No Comments »

Every time my birthday comes around I start reflecting on philosophies. Don’t ask me why. Must be one of those silly “growing older” things. Well, it happened again today. But I’m going to use this post to tell you all about it and at the same time answer a meme.

So, here’s seven things you need to know about me before I start:

1. I’m Caucasian.
2. I was raised Baptist.
3. I’m male.
4. I was born in the United States.
5. I live in the United States.
6. I’m a Southerner.
7. I’m right handed.

Ok. So some of those might be a little obvious. But it’s important for you to know them. Or is it?

First, let me say, “Everyone’s a Little Bit Racist.” Avenue Q. Love ‘em. Here’s the song if you haven’t heard it:

Now. Back to my philosophy. Let’s take that phrase just another step:

Everyone’s a little bit biased.

It is absolutely human nature to be biased towards some group they belong to. Humans like to belong to something and they normally protect that group fiercely. Religious wars are based on a bias towards a certain religion. Fights break out in the streets over a bias towards a certain race. People get beat up in back alleys because of a bias towards a sexual orientation.

Bias is natural. Bias is not a bad thing. It’s ok to be proud of your background or proud of a group you belong to. The problem with bias is when it becomes so forceful that anger and hate come into the picture. And that normally happens when people feel they are being treated differently than those in another group.

“What’s your point?”

My point is this: When you get into a debate about some topic such as racism or sexism and you’re claiming someone is being one of those¹, you really need to carefully consider the level of bias within the situation. When a bias is so strong that hatred rears it’s ugly head, then there are problems.

For instance, if a group of people who are in a guild together while playing World of Warcraft decide to all meet in Vegas to hang out, is it too biased of them not to invite others to do so too? However, if a group of people decide to go kill someone who is not the same religion as they are, are they being too biased? Has hatred entered the equation at this point?²

So, before claiming racism, sexism, or some other bias, think logically about the situation. Did the other party/group truly mean to be hateful when they treated you differently than others in their group? If the answer is “no,” there is no argument needed. If the answer is “yes,” it’s time for something to be done.

• DO embrace your differences.
• DO realize that everyone holds different things to be dear to them.
• DO tolerate those differences and learn from them.
• DO understand that people will treat those who are within their groups differently than those who are not.
• However, DO NOT ever accept hatred as a treatment.

Oh. Here’s another part of this post where I completely break the rules of that meme, as I’m going to tell you an 8th thing about me:

I’m human. So are you³.

1. or any other group bias [«]
2. Both of these are extreme situations in either degree. But you should get the point. I hope. If not, I blame it on the water. [«]
3. Unless you’re a software powered robot. But then you wouldn’t understand this post anyway. [«]

Posted by Saphrym | 16 Comments »

Some people have too much money. So I’ve decided to compile a list of some items that I think are just right for those kinds of people. I know I couldn’t afford them. Might be nice if I could for a few of the items. But here it goes:

• Ironkey Thumb Drive - Ok. I understand military applications. I also understand corporate applications. But if someone in the real world (meaning those of uss in the middle income bracket and lower) have that valuable and secret of data that they ened to spend the extra bucks on the extra security, then I’m guessing that the data should be sold so you can afford the darn drive.
• Wendy Culpepper’s handcrafted jewelry - A lot of famous people wear this stuff. I mean some of it’s nice, and if she does custom work and I had tons of cash, I’d look into getting a fairy pendant designed for my wife. Or maybe I’d work on world peace. Hmmm.
• 14 MPH Cooler - That’s right. It’s a cooler and scooter all in one. Doesn’t look very comfortable to sit on. And it costs around 500 bucks. Sheesh!
• Remote Controlled Caddy - Speaking of weird things that move. 2000 dollars for a remote controlled golf caddy. Wow. I think I’d rather just pay some guy a few bucks to do it instead. Or maybe, just maybe, carry them myself? While riding around in my solar powered golf cart?

I can’t look for more. Some items in some of these places actually catch my attention and bring out the consumer in me that wants to spend money on an animatronic roommate for my daughter (cause I would have loved one when I was a kid). So feel free to look around the Internet and show me your own ideas for items that would fit this list.

Posted by Saphrym | 6 Comments »

I was just doing a car insurance comparison because ours comes due in about a month. It got me to thinking though. What if there were web sites to compare everything in your life? So you always got the best deal? Ok. I know. I’m losing you here. But here’s a few examples:

Bride/Groom Comparison Web Sites - “Hmmm. Green eyes. Brown hair. I’ll sort by yearly income. And sure, maybe I’ll do a secondary sort based on love of pets. Yeah. That works.”

Child Comparison Sites - “Huge vocabulary but hardly ever uses it. Perfect. She should also be friendly to others. Hmmm. Sort by number of childhood illnesses expected.” (The lack of talking thing with the vocabulary was inspired by my own daughter’s recent fascination with the English language and the number of ways to attach the word “why” to questions that somehow manage to be asked before the last ones were answered.)

Or… what about before we’re born:

Life Comparison Web Sites (because they have the Internet in the same place they stash the souls of course) - “I want to be rich. Handsome. Physically built. Incredibly smart. That’s enough. So which lives fulfill that? Sort by least amount of responsibility.”

There’s a good reason why we shouldn’t be able to do this of course. Our differences are what make us humans. But I’m still allowed to dream, right?

(Excuse me as I duck from the slap my wife will give me for the first one.)

Posted by Saphrym | 3 Comments »

Forgive the rehashed content. This is advice given to me a long time ago and I still feel it’s true. See, I was looking at our savings accounts and it occurred to me that some of you may not have ever heard this particular advice. My grandfather is the one who gave it to me. It goes like this:

Pay yourself first.

I know. I know. Quite a short piece of advice. But there is a lot of meaning in those three words. Here’s a couple of those meanings:

• When you pay your bills, make sure one of them is an account you use for entertainment. This kind of goes with the whole “all work and no play makes Joe a dull boy” type of advice. But it’s true. What good is making money if you can’t enjoy it some? If you don’t enjoy it, then you’ll resent your job, you won’t do your best work, and you’ll never get further with your career. The most successful people have expensive toys for a reason. Of course, that goes against my consumerism post from a couple of days ago. But that was about money that was given to us by the government for the specific reason of faking a good economy. This is different.
• When you make a schedule for your week, give yourself time to enjoy yourself. Schedule in some time with your favorite gaming console, book, television show, etc. Make sure it’s something you enjoy doing. Again, what good is time if you waste it on serious stuff? Are we truly meant to work, sleep and repeat? No. We’re meant to live.

What are your ideas? Are there other ways to “pay yourself first?”

Posted by Saphrym | 5 Comments »

I live in the United States of America. I’m quite proud to live here. I love the place. Truly, I do. But we’ve lost our focus, and I don’t know how long it has been lost.

Recently our government gave us a stimulus package. Basically, anyone who did their taxes and made less than a certain amount got $300 per person in the household. That’s not a perfect description, but a quick one. What did we do with the money? Well, most of the people I’ve seen spend it have spent it on big screen televisions, gaming systems, etc. They haven’t used it for bills or clothing or other such necessities. This tells me we are the consumer country people believe us to be. We don’t focus on the right things. We have taken the handout and done exactly what the government wanted us to do with it. We’ve spent it on consumer products. This makes the country look like it’s doing better economically than it actually has.

There is a major election coming up in November. But we vote everyday.

“What? How do we vote everyday?”

The things you buy tell commercial companies what else you want to buy. The shows you watch tell the television executives what television shows you want to watch. So if America is buying silly “toys” and watching reality television, guess what will be provided for us? That’s right. More “toys” and more reality television.

Instead of researching the best anti wrinkle cream, the best television, or even the best mp3 player, what we should be doing is researching the best candidate for President. We should be voting on the best Senators and the best Representatives. We should be doing what’s best for our country.

Of course, if buying a plasma television or anti wrinkle cream, or watching Hell’s Kitchen or American Idol seems more important than education, the environment, or even the current war we’re going through, then again I say we’ve lost focus and I’m afraid for our future and the future of our children.

Feel free to disagree or yell at me for mentioning your favorite television show. I want your opinions on this topic. Just give yourself five minutes to think before responding.

Posted by Saphrym | 19 Comments »

Seriously. A full cycle of life took place about five yards from me for the last two weeks. There were some robins living in a nest on the side of the next door neighbors house. We watched the mom stay in the nest often. Then the mouths started peaking over the nest (They really do look like little Venus Fly Traps). And then the babies got bigger. Today, they left. This morning. I’m sad.

No. I’m not on drugs (Although going to Malibu for drug rehab might make it worth it). I’m just sad. Not in a bad way. But watching those birds was like watching my own daughter grow up. She’s 8 now. 8. She’s having sleepovers. She has her own cellphone and computer. My own baby is slowly leaving the nest. Only another 10 years and she’ll be off to college. I know. I know. “Only 10 years? That’s a long time, Mike.” Not to me. 8 years hasn’t been long enough. But let’s get back to the birds. I noticed a few things while watching them:

• The parents hunted for worms in our yard and nearby yards all throughout the day. And every time, they got one.
• Nests are temporary. Their nest slowly fell apart as they got older. They ended up going out on the little ledge the nest was on and spending most of their “teenage” time there. Then they flew away. We haven’t seen them since.
• Speaking of ledges, we got to see the first baby bird leave the nest this morning. He jumped off the ledge after a parent left. He fell about halfway to the ground before his little wings took over and he flew away.

That’s only three of the many things I noticed while watching the birds when I was outside. Notice I haven’t tagged any moral advice onto those observations. I thought of many ways to relate them to my life and life in general. Then I thought of ways to relate them to many other facets of daily living. But I want you to come up with your own insights. What could those observations mean to you? Feel free to share. You don’t have to if you don’t want to. But I ask that you think (”think” being the operative word here) about each of those observations and apply them to a situation in your own life. What could we learn from the birds?

Following is a picture I took with my phone. You can barely see them. I didn’t want to get closer because the parents kept watching me if I tried. And I also know that if the parent birds smell human smell on the babies or near the babies, they won’t take care of them anymore.

EDIT: Notice the portion that has been struck through? Well, Margaret has corrected me on that in the comments. Make sure to read them. She’s very knowledgeable about birds. But this leads me to one moral I will go ahead and include in this post:

Don’t always believe your parents when they tell you not to touch an animal because the animal’s parents may not take care of them anymore if you do. They might just be trying to keep you from touching the animals.

Posted by Saphrym | 4 Comments »

DIET DIARY

STARTING NUMBERS (Before I started the diet)
Blood Sugar: 287
Weight: 355.0
NUMBERS FROM TODAY
Blood Sugar: 77
Weight: 285.4
Fat Percentage: 48.6
Water Percentage: 29.9
Muscle Percentage: 34.6

I now know how floor mops feel. Especially that kind. Although I’m jealous. At least when that one has been used up it’s “head” can be replaced. I want to replace my head. But I can’t. However, for now, it’s all over.

“Tiii-iii-iii-iime is on my side… yes it is.”

My finals are done. My final homework is done. So the semester is over. I just need a new head. But that also means I will have more time for everything else I want to do. Yay!

But tonight, I’m about to pass out. So I’m keeping this short. Look for some cool stuff in the next week though. Oh, and I’d like some comments on this post, so I’m going to leave you with a question:

Should a kindergarten child be suspended for talking? (After a few comments I’ll explain why I’m asking your opinion.)

(For more information about my dieting and weight loss, click here. For more information about the specific foods I eat, click here. For the diet I follow, click here.)

Posted by Saphrym | 11 Comments »

DIET DIARY

STARTING NUMBERS (Before I started the diet)
Blood Sugar: 287
Weight: 355.0
NUMBERS FROM TODAY
Blood Sugar: 86
Weight: 281.8
Fat Percentage: 49.3
Water Percentage: 29.6
Muscle Percentage: 34.5

I figured it was too good to be true. The weight is still the same. But that’s ok. Today I was in spending mode after getting a little extra cash. I bought some extra ram for my PC and I paid fully on my pre-order of a Wii Fit. So in a few days my computer will be healthier. In a few weeks, my body will start getting healthier. I’ve been reading and researching the Wii Fit a lot. Looks really good and seems like it might really be the exercise option I’ve been looking for (i.e. something not boring).

As for the website, well, not much to say. I’ve been slacking in that department. But I have my last college final on Monday. Also, regular school ends at the end of this month. So I’ll have 2 months off with tons of time to spend on the website and a few other projects I really want to do.

Now I’ll leave you with this video, that although it attacks the very product I’m intending on buying, I still laughed my… well, you know:

(For more information about my dieting and weight loss, click here. For more information about the specific foods I eat, click here. For the diet I follow, click here.)

Posted by Saphrym | 3 Comments »