Shards of Consciousness

Goldfish

noreply@blogger.com (NovaBlogger) — Fri, 28 Nov 2008 13:00:00 +0000

It's supposed to get near freezing tonight so I had to dump out the fish tank on the back porch and put the outside goldfish in with the rest of my tropical fish. They should be ok but the goldfish are such bullies. I bought them originally to balance the PH of the tank so I wouldn't lose any other fish. Goldfish are nearly impossible to kill. That turned out to be a bit of a problem because now I keep another tank for the goldfish which are still alive after a year. Now I don't really know what to do with them. I know they're feeder goldfish which normally don't live but I can't bring myself kill them or just let them die. They're too small to eat anyway. I don't want to let them loose in the nearby holding pond because there is every possibility they could get into the wild and procreate. It's tempting to let them loose in the lake at a nearby park where people might appreciate them, but then again people might really not appreciate that. What do you do with unwanted fish? I understand this is the same dilemma faced by alligator owners, and probably the reason it is said there are alligators in the New York sewers. So next time you're thinking of buying goldfish or baby alligators, make sure you know what you are going to do with them for the rest of their lives.

Falling Off the Treadmill of Life

noreply@blogger.com (NovaBlogger) — Fri, 21 Nov 2008 13:00:00 +0000

I got sick a week or so ago and had to take the whole week to rest and do nothing in order to recover. I have found that when I stop everything (usually when I'm sick) it is really hard to get moving again. I feel sluggish and have no energy, and can barely find the strength to just get through work. Last night I walked in the door and collapsed into bed. Next thing I knew, I woke up and it was around 9 PM and I was starving.

Today I decided I HAD to get to the gym to get some energy moving. When you work out your metabolism gets working again and you start making energy. Yes you have to burn energy to get more. I hopped on the exercise machine and started moving. I went at a very slow pace and it took a lot of effort to move the wheels. Each step was an arduous process but I made myself do it. Then I started moving faster and got up to a full sprint. As my speed got higher, the resistance actually got much easier. It was so easy to keep going once I was moving fast. It was the very first steps that were the toughest.

I have found it is the same way with life. I need to back off and rest sometimes or I will collapse or get really sick. But it's very hard to get moving from a standstill. I just have to power through it for a while before the momentum builds and I find myself running again.

Why I Don't Like Winter

noreply@blogger.com (NovaBlogger) — Fri, 14 Nov 2008 13:00:00 +0000

I was born in Florida for a very good reason: so I wouldn't have to put up with cold weather. I was just about ready to write to my congressman to complain when the weather got nice again last week. I was out jogging in swimming trunks in mid-November just to revel in the fact that I could. It was beautiful weather yesterday, and today it's getting near freezing.

I also love the sunlight. There is an innate need to get at least some sun in most people. Your body needs to have sunlight to make compounds that keep you happy. It's commonly reported that people who don't see the sun enough tend to get depressed. I realized last weekend that I hadn't seen the sun all week. I see it for a few seconds as I rush out the door to my car, then spend all day inside at a computer. My monitor probably gives me a bit of a tan, but it's not the good kind. By the time I leave work, it's already pitch black out. I hate driving home from work in the dark. It feels like I lost the whole day and don't get any time to myself at home. I can't wait for spring again. I miss the pool.

A Break From Blogging

noreply@blogger.com (NovaBlogger) — Fri, 07 Nov 2008 13:00:00 +0000

You may have noticed I took a bit of a break from blogging for a while. Sometimes life just gets too crazy and we need to stop for a while and rest. I feel like I have been juggling so many things with work, my personal life, and even myself. I can juggle a lot, but sometimes it just gets overwhelming. I have to drop a few balls or everything will come crashing down on me. Now that I have things a bit more under control, I am trying to pick the pieces back up again.

Growing up Alongside the Internet Part 2

noreply@blogger.com (NovaBlogger) — Fri, 31 Oct 2008 12:00:00 +0000

When I got to college, the internet was in full swing. I was amazed when I first sat down in the computer lab and was introduced to broadband internet browsing. I was amazed to not have to wait 30 seconds to a minute to load a basic webpage. All my classes had some form of email or web based resources needed for them. By that time you had to pass basic computer literacy classes just to make it through school. Nothing was turned in unless typed and printed on Microsoft Word. Florida State University had campus-wide wireless internet. I spent hours in the middle of a beautiful field out under the blue sky surfing the internet while I studied.

I spent a scholarship check on a very good laptop when I moved on campus. This is when I really started enjoying technology. I became less afraid of technology and began embracing it. I had a desire to learn and changed my minor to IT. My IT classes became my favorite classes in school. I worked night staff security in the dorms, staying up all night and sleeping all day. Chatrooms, online video games, blogs, and social networking sites became the substitute for my social life.

When I left college I immediately got a job where I used technology every single day to manage the distribution of over 2 million hunting and fishing regulations for the State of Florida. After that I got a job as a site administrator for a blog site. My very livelihood and sustenance hinges on the technology that grew up along with me. We are like brothers, who didn't get along well at first but learned to be best friends.

Growing up Alongside the Internet Part 1

noreply@blogger.com (NovaBlogger) — Wed, 29 Oct 2008 12:00:00 +0000

I grew up alongside technology. When I was born, personal computers were just starting to appear. As I started my education, some of the first affordable computers started being used. In my third grade classroom, my teacher had the wondrous and groundbreaking technology of the early internet. He would browse lists of text using text based commands, then start a download of a picture. After leaving it on all day long, we would end up with a very low quality photo which was probably about 50kb in size. We were all amazed.

As I went on through middle school, Windows started to become more and more prevalent. I finally got my dream computer with Windows 95 running towards the end of middle school. At that time the internet was up and running, but still very young. It was full of spam, and you couldn't search anything safely without wading through piles of garbage. Once you gave anyone your email, you might as well give up on the account because it would soon be full of spam. Hackers were rampant and viruses were devastating. Computers were glitchy and extremely difficult to manage. I started out thinking I must be terrible with computers, until I realized it was the computers that had the problems.

By the time I got to high school, the web was much more manageable. Most schools and libraries had a computer lab and you could accomplish much more online. The internet was still VERY slow, but it worked. I actually took a computer programming class in late high school and learned to make better use of the technology at my disposal.

To be continued...

Tallahassee, Florida

noreply@blogger.com (NovaBlogger) — Mon, 27 Oct 2008 12:00:00 +0000

In case you didn't already know, I live in Tallahassee, Florida. I know most people always dream of leaving home and can't wait to branch out into other places, but I love my home. It's a medium sized town. It has enough people and things to do to keep everyone busy and happy. It's not big enough to be a congested concrete jungle with too many people.

The climate here is mild and relatively warm year round. It can hit the high 90's in summer, but it's very rare to see a freeze. Just last week I was out swimming in late October. The world around me is green and beautiful. Much of Tallahassee is covered in, or at least lined with trees. Even the downtown area is decorated with plants. All year round you can see things blooming. Even in the dead of winter, you can see green all over. When spring comes, the streets are lined with blossoms and flowers of every color. Sometimes you can see entire forests or fields of white, pink, or purple.

Finally a Warm Day!

noreply@blogger.com (NovaBlogger) — Fri, 24 Oct 2008 12:00:00 +0000

I have been going to the pool nearly every day for the past couple of weeks. Each time I dip my foot in, I shudder at the thought of getting into such freezing water, and jump in the hot-tub instead. I realize it is late October, and most of the world never gets as warm as it is right now. Still, I miss the warmth of summer and I really have been missing the swimming.

Today was a refreshing break from the cool, rainy weather. It felt like spring again, and the skies were a perfect blue. After a nice, long bike ride, I finally got to get that cool swim I have been craving. Then the sun went behind the trees and I had to run back inside because it got so much colder. I hope this weather lasts.

Tropical Chicken and Rice

noreply@blogger.com (NovaBlogger) — Wed, 22 Oct 2008 12:00:00 +0000

Sunday I decided to make up a new recipe as I'm prone to do. I just kind of throw things together that look like they should taste good and they usually end up amazing. It didn't turn out perfect the first try, but it turned out pretty well.

The night before I prepped the marinade for the chicken. I mixed mango juice, pineapple juice, a whole fresh squeezed lemon, a splash of white cooking wine, and a variety of spices. It tasted great just by itself. Then I cleaned all the fat and tendons off the chicken and put it in the pot with the marinade. I let it sit there overnight to absorb the flavor.

The next day I started cooking some rice and spiced up the water before I started it. I cooked the chicken in the marinade while the rice was cooking. When the chicken was done, I pulled it out and cut it into small pieces. Then I poured out the rice water and replaced it with the marinade juice so it would absorb into the rice. Then I put in some sliced pineapple, coconut shavings, cheese, and the chicken. After adding a lot of spices to offset the sweetness of the other ingredients it was done.

It tastes delicious, but isn't quite as zesty as I'd like. I think next time I'll raise the concentration of the lemon juice and let it marinade for a couple days so it really gets a kick to that chicken.

Dog Attack

noreply@blogger.com (NovaBlogger) — Mon, 20 Oct 2008 12:00:00 +0000

The path I take for my bike ride takes me through a park near my house. It's one of the biggest parks in town and has some beautiful bike trails running through it. I have only been there once but I had a great time exploring parts of it. The path winds through deep woods and over quiet streams, and everything is still deep green, even in October.

As I rode by the dog run, I heard some yelling and ferocious barking. I saw a Doberman Pincer viciously attacking another dog. Both owners were pulling at them to separate them but to no avail. I immediately rode over to jump the fence and intervene. I spent enough time trying to catch and subdue an unruly 140lb chocolate lab that I knew I could handle this. I planned to run over, pick up the big dog and toss it over the fence. I know how to grab a dog so it can't reach me to bite me and didn't think it would be a problem. The owners were just going about it the wrong way. You can't hope to restrain a dog by holding them. You have to pick them up where their legs don't touch the ground. On their back in your arms they are helpless.

I found out there was another much bigger problem with my hopes of helping out. I hadn't been riding a bike for years and my legs were not used to the mile or so I had ridden already. They felt like jello by the time I got to the fence and wouldn't give me the usual thrust to jump a fence in a single hop like I usually can. I was looking for the entrance when the noise died down and the dogs calmed down. No one was hurt so I hopped back on my bike and went back on my way.

My First Bike Ride

noreply@blogger.com (NovaBlogger) — Fri, 17 Oct 2008 12:05:00 +0000

Today I took my first ride on my new bike. It turned out to be a good workout since I had to haul it across my house and down three flights of stairs. I haven't had a good bike ride in years and I really missed it. As soon as I hopped back on I just took off and flew about a mile before I started getting tired. I had never realized how beautiful the path around my apartment complex is. It's like a jungle in parts, and I even found a tiny banana tree growing off the side of the path. I tend to forget the beauty of the world around me when I spend all my days working inside an office. I sometimes miss the days when I was an innocent kid running around through the forests around my house.

Tasting the Texture

noreply@blogger.com (NovaBlogger) — Thu, 16 Oct 2008 00:25:00 +0000

This is a very random and probably useless observation, but I reserve the right to make such points in my blog. After all, it's tiring when you have to be serious and profound all the time. Besides, this blog is all about the randomness of life and thoughts.

So today I was eating some celery with peanut butter on it, which is delicious. I also grabbed a banana with peanut butter on it, which is also delicious. So naturally all three should taste good together right?

IT WAS REALLY WEIRD

The flavors were great and actually tasted good, but I couldn't get over the texture. The banana was soft and mushy. The peanut butter was sticky and pasty. The celery was tough and crunchy. In the end, I felt like I was eating a hard, fibrous banana. Somehow my subconscious just couldn't justify what I was eating and I still don't know what to make of it.

A Free Bike

noreply@blogger.com (NovaBlogger) — Tue, 14 Oct 2008 02:52:00 +0000

Last weekend I was headed out the door to take my best friend to Olive Garden for dinner. On the way out, my neighbor caught me and asked if I could take a look at her computer. It was a brand new computer and the keyboard wasn't working. I figured out pretty quickly that one of the pins had been bent and was now crushed at the bottom of the plug. I grabbed my pliers and bent the pin back in and got the keyboard working. My neighbor was so happy about it she offered to let me use her bike since she recently got a new one. I was thrilled. I used to love riding my bike all the time and it's so much nicer riding around the neighborhood than it is in the gym. I'm going to have a lot of fun with it. It really pays to extend acts of kindness to strangers. Sometimes you even get repaid with things.

Addicted to Blogging

noreply@blogger.com (NovaBlogger) — Sat, 11 Oct 2008 02:39:00 +0000

I knew once I started I just wouldn't stop. I now have 5 blogs and I'm posting like a madman in all of them. Strangely enough I am really enjoying it. It's actually a lot of fun to sort of revisit the parts of learning that I actually liked. I spent so much of my life cramming knowledge down my throat that I didn't stop to chew and realize I actually liked it when taken in reasonable portions. Now I'm re-discovering these joys all over again.

Stagnant

noreply@blogger.com (NovaBlogger) — Wed, 08 Oct 2008 08:00:00 +0000

The other night I unplugged the filter in the fish tank in my room because it was making strange noises. Without the constantly flowing filtration, the water quickly grew stagnant. This morning as I walked by, it was actually starting to smell bad. I had to drop everything and change the water, then get the filter going again. It was a lot of work but I knew the fish would all die if I didn't do it.

It really reminded me how quickly life in general can go downhill if you don't constantly stay on top of it. I spent almost all weekend cleaning the house and taking care of little things that just needed to be done. I never realized how much work has to be done just to keep up with life. But if you fall behind, your whole life starts to stagnate and slip into a rut. I have to keep reminding myself of this each time I go to work out when I feel too tired to move. I know if I let myself slip, I won't ever have the energy to do anything. My work is draining enough as it is, so I have to do everything I can to keep the momentum.

Overwhelmed

noreply@blogger.com (NovaBlogger) — Tue, 07 Oct 2008 03:35:00 +0000

Have you ever had just too much on your plate? It seems like in my life everything tends to gang up on me at once, until it just gets overwhelming. I can juggle so much at once, but sometimes it just takes one last thing to throw into the mix and it just becomes too much. I know everything will be ok and I'm not losing it. I'm just spent. I just don't have energy for anything else. I'm just shutting down for the day and shutting everyone and everything out. I'm rebooting, and tomorrow everything will be back to normal. I'll pick everything back up and keep going as if nothing ever happened.

Blog Hit Stats

noreply@blogger.com (NovaBlogger) — Fri, 03 Oct 2008 16:23:00 +0000

About 10 days ago I installed some hit tracking applications on all my main blogs. These little apps can be seen at the bottom of the sidebar on every blog I own. They keep track of how many people visit my site, and how many pages they read each day. The totals have somewhat blown me away. These stats have been active almost exactly 10 days. Just 10 days. Here's the totals so far:

Ripples in the tide: Visits: 1171, Page Views: 1533

Aqua Marine Discovery: Visits: 597, Page Views: 857

Shards of Consciousness: Visits: 306, Page Views: 317

Naruto Anime Episodes: Visits: 324, Page Views: 365

The really exciting thing about all this is I haven't even started with optimizing these blogs. I haven't been actively promoting them online and didn't plan to until I got about 100 pages written for each. I can't wait to see what the next month holds.

Dents in a Car

noreply@blogger.com (NovaBlogger) — Thu, 02 Oct 2008 03:43:00 +0000

Yesterday was a heck of a day. One of the things that just really set it off right was when I was pulling out of the office driveway to go to lunch. There were lots of guys doing construction next door and they all parked in our parking lot, until there was barely room for us. In all the congestion, the lawn maintenance guys backed their trailer right into my car. It left a dent a few inches long in the back door. It's not the worst in the world, but it's still there.

I was really surprised to see how honest the yard guy was. I was on my way out and would not have even looked at that side until it was too late. I wouldn't have even known there was a dent in my car or where it came from. But he waved me down and stopped me to tell me about it. When I looked at it, he offered me his business card and told me to call him about taking care of it. Now I just need to figure out what to do with it. I want to reward him for his honesty but I don't really like having a huge dent in my car. I also don't like the idea of paying for someone else's mistake. I guess I'll keep thinking about it and figure it out in time.

Perception Test

noreply@blogger.com (NovaBlogger) — Mon, 29 Sep 2008 20:11:00 +0000

This is a test of how perceptive you are. Pay close attention and you might pass the test.

Watch the video before reading further.

This is a great example of how we often miss things in life when we're so busy focusing on the details. Often we look so closely at the little stresses and worries of our life and miss the big picture. We get so distracted with the menial tasks of our daily routine that we don't look to what really matters.

So I want you to ask yourself, is it more important to make good money and impress the boss, or should I be worrying more about taking care of my family and friends? What really matters at the end of the day?

Stream Of Consciousness

noreply@blogger.com (NovaBlogger) — Sat, 27 Sep 2008 03:51:00 +0000

Some "great literary masters" like to write in stream of consciousness form. In essence, they simply write their thoughts out as they flow from their heads. There is no thought involved. It's almost like taking a picture of someone's dream. It's as base and raw as the mind gets. There is no refinery, there is no editing, there is no thought at all. Just a literary vomiting of thoughts onto a page. It's messy, but it's sometimes very revealing. It's also often very difficult to read. I had to analyze too much of it in literature classes for my major in college. It left a pretty bad taste in my mouth. I almost wanted to try it myself and just see what came out. But I don't think I want to subject anyone else to what I had to go through.

Rock Band 2

noreply@blogger.com (NovaBlogger) — Thu, 25 Sep 2008 03:48:00 +0000

Rock Band 2 finally came out. It's funny because I just heard they were making one a couple weeks ago. I never heard a definite release date either. So I called up Gamestop and asked when it came out. They said oh, it came out yesterday. Good timing. After some quick searching around I found a copy that wasn't sold out already and ran across town on my lunch break to pick it up. I LOVE the new game. It's got so many more songs I love and so many new features. I'll have to tell more about them later.

The First Chill of Fall

noreply@blogger.com (NovaBlogger) — Mon, 22 Sep 2008 00:47:00 +0000

This weekend there was a shift in the atmosphere. I felt a change in the air over a month ago that told me Summer was ending and Fall was very near. It's strange to think I can feel that, just like the animals around me always do, but I always can just sense these changes. Today it was almost too cold to swim and there was a chill in the air. Autumn has arrived.

I feel so strange right now. The whole atmosphere of the world is changing. I want to think it's the natural balance of things, and this is just a change in seasons. But I feel deeper changes in the atmosphere. It stirs up my heart and makes me uneasy. I always feel somewhat sad when summer ends and Fall begins. Autumn is the twilight season when life begins to store up and hide away. The warmth and life of summer fades like the drifting shadows of dusk.

I like the warmth, I love the sun. I don't want to see the cold return. In so many ways I feel my life changing. I don't know how or why just yet, but I feel change in the works. It's exciting but also hard. I'm so tired as it is, worn down in every way. I don't want to think about picking up and starting over again. Life is an adventure, but sometimes it makes me wish I had a warm, peaceful rest. I don't want to wander forever. I want a home.

New Blogs

noreply@blogger.com (NovaBlogger) — Fri, 19 Sep 2008 03:39:00 +0000

I think it's safe to say I'm a blogging addict. I started a blog and just couldn't stop. I ended up with a total of 7 blogs and I may not stop there. Naturally I don't have time to put a huge amount of attention into each one, but I like having each blog specified to its own subject. I used to be a blogging machine back in college. I posted every single day in my blogs, and had lots of activity. But now I want to actually get something out there and my old LiveJournal just isn't right for it. So here I am blogging away at blogger... blogging about blogging.

The Vicious Coffee Cycle

noreply@blogger.com (NovaBlogger) — Tue, 16 Sep 2008 21:10:00 +0000

I was extra tired today so I broke down and drank coffee... for about the third day in a row. I did it because I couldn't sleep last night until really late... way past my bedtime... way past any time I could function well at work with. But I just couldn't sleep. When I really thought about why I would be so wired, I realized it was probably because I drank coffee earlier that day. Coffee really affects me and keeps me up sometimes most of the night after I drink just one cup. More like one fifth of a cup.

So when I was exhausted from not sleeping from the coffee, what did I do to wake me up? Drink more coffee. Tonight if I can't sleep I will know I'm caught up in the vicious cycle of coffee. I wonder if others get into this and just don't realize it. I can't imagine our bodies are built to handle so much adrenaline and so much caffeine. Yet we still subject ourselves to it because we need it to function. What ever would our world do without coffee?

Wireless Mouse

noreply@blogger.com (NovaBlogger) — Mon, 15 Sep 2008 18:14:00 +0000

I have a wireless mouse that I absolutely love. I used to have a very good one that I was used to but one of my friends dropped it and the thing died on me. It was originally a $50 mouse before the discounts I got a year or two ago.

So I went to get a new mouse. I ended up finding a new wireless Logitech mouse that was the updated model of my old one. The only real difference is it's more sensitive, more comfortable, much better looking, takes half the batteries, and is half the price. It also fits perfectly with the look of my laptop. So now I'm glad my friend dropped my mouse.