Biggs' Zone

A Geek's Cogitations, Conjectures and other Cortical Experiences

Category: General Cogitation Page 29 of 40

Getting Back to Work

By

On November 7, 2012

In General Cogitation

I had this post ready in my head regardless of the outcome of the election. Both Barack Obama and Mitt Romney fought a very valiant campaign. In fact I’d say they were more cordial about their taunts at each other then most of the people on social media. Crass name calling and belligerent comments will only make enemies and will not rally others for your cause. We, as Americans, need to grow the hell up.

Never, since I became eligible to vote, have I been so focused on an election. I was watching multiple websites as polls started closing. I literally could not sleep and when I did sleep I had dreams of my candidate both winning and losing. I think what both candidates were successful in doing was bringing the country together to passionately and peacefully fight for what they believed. I’m glad it was a close race and I applaud both candidates for a great campaign (despite the fact that we were inundated with relentless television, radio and Internet ads).

As I said four years ago, its time to put aside our differences and work together to improve this great country we live in and we have a lot of work ahead of us. President Obama gave a pretty riveting acceptance speech and I hope his promise to bring us back to a United States of America wasn’t just empty rhetoric. I also hope that the leaders of both parties are ready to work rationally. We will never please everyone but we should do our best to accommodate the majority.

God Bless America!

Fragile

By

On October 17, 2012

In General Cogitation

It’s scary how fragile life is. It’s equally as amazing how the passing of someone you barely knew could have such a profound impact on your day. A really good friend of mine lost a really good friend of his this week at a very young age. I didn’t know the him very well, though I was friends with him on Facebook. I know he and I lived completely opposite lives. We never would have gotten along politically but we both had a great friend in common.

So I sit here, four hours away, feeling completely helpless. I deeply mourn his passing because I know how much it’s impacting my friend. I think I am mourning more for my friend but I know the world has lost a great guy and music in South Bend will never be the same. Is it strange for me to feel so awful for someone that I didn’t know that well? Perhaps its because I know that my friend is going through a very rough time right now and perhaps I’m experiencing that vicariously.

Thank God for my friends wife! I’m glad that he has her to be there for him during this awful time. It shouldn’t take tragedy to be thankful for all the blessings the Lord has given us but it is often the time when I think about it the most. We should take comfort in knowing that there will be good music waiting for us in heaven when we get there because we know now that heaven has a new DJ.

Rest in Peace Reverend Ryno.

SoapBox: I Can’t Wait Until November

By

On October 9, 2012

In General Cogitation, Soapbox

I am so frakking tried of all the political commercials and the party bashing. I don’t care what side of the fence you sit on, what is the damn point of the merciless verbal bashing of the other party or supporters of the other party. I’m glad that I have DVR because every other commercial is a political slander ad. I don’t even turn live TV on anymore and I won’t until November 7th when I know that I will be free of all the frakking ads.

The hypocrisy is disgusting, the media just perpetuates it and the Internet throws gasoline on the flames. If someone like Natalie Portman or Tom Hanks expresses who they support, they are worshiped; but when Clint Eastwood exercises his right to free speech, or Stacey Dash tweets her support for the opposition, then everyone is quick to demonize and chastise. Show me where it is written that if you are a celebrity you must always support the same candidate the rest of Hollywood supports. Why are celebrities treated so much differently then everyone else??

This is why I admire some celebrities, like Mila Kunis (who, btw, shares an opposite political viewpoint then myself) who treats the social networks like they should be treated, to socialize. She doesn’t flaunt her personal philosophies in an attempt to sway others to vote like she does. She just likes to reach out to her millions of fans. It breaks down that barrier between celebrity and average citizen. Celebrities are people too and have the same rights to free speech as everyone else.

People will vote for who they feel is the right person for the job. Verbally berating them and making blanket derogatory remarks about their political affiliation isn’t going to change their mind. In fact it may have a greater probability of further enforcing who they are voting for; viciously attacking the other party only makes your own party look bad. It’s time to grow up and act like adults, folks!

On the same note, don’t let others (celebrities, on Facebook, on Google+, on Twitter, etc) dictate to you who you should vote for. Learn about the issues, learn where each candidate stands on that issue, and vote for the one you think best represents how you feel about the issue. Have a mind of your own for frak’s sake!

/endsoapbox

We Will NEVER Forget!

By

On September 11, 2012

In General Cogitation

Eleven years ago today I was at Purdue. When the first tower was hit, I was asleep but the alarm had gone off and the radio station was reporting the events. I was very confused in my half-awake state. I walked out and turned the TV on just in time to see the second plane hit the second tower. I couldn’t believe what I was watching. It was so surreal I tried to make myself believe that I was watching an excerpt from a movie. I remember wishing that it wasn’t real.

The tone on campus all day was somber. I had four classes back-to-back that day and in 3 of them I had professors nearly in tears. Only one class actually went the full length, the rest the professor finished early.

Several years later I visited New York City and Ground Zero. I remember feeling choked up thinking about all of those that lost their lives when they were simply going about their work day. I remember looking around at the other faces of the people visiting the site and, as corny as this might sound, I felt inclined to hug them all.

Its unfortunate that tragedy has to strike to unite the country. Here we are, less then 60 days until the 2012 Presidential Election and still both parties are spending more time trying to tear the other guy down. Instead they should be telling the American people what they are going to do to continue to make our country great and how to keep us all safe so this kind of thing doesn’t happen again. The American people should choose based on what the candidate stands for, not how much they insulted their opponent.

Despite the political differences I may have between my friends, I consider myself extremely fortunate to still call you all my friends and to still have you here to debate our beliefs. I may not always agree with you but I will never let our disagreements break us apart. My blessings to you and your families on this somber anniversary.

I will never forget that day, where I was, what I was feeling. I leave you with the words of Alan Jackson, “Where were you when the world stopped turning?”

To SSD or Not To SSD

By

On September 10, 2012

In General Cogitation, Technology

Since I received a laptop at work with an SSD (Solid State Drive), I have been considering the investment to install one in my home PC. I know that SSDs do not come cheaply so my conundrum is whether the investment is worth the return. I would be installing the SSD on my Quad-Core Windows 7 computer with 8 gig of RAM which I primarily use for gaming. I think the most noticeable improvement will be my boot time, currently it takes my computer nearly 5 minutes to boot (from clicking OK to logout, to fully logged in and loaded). It’s extremely annoying especially considering the tumultuous behavior of every version of Windows (ever!).

I have been talking to friends and co-workers to solicit their feedback as to their experiences and opinions of installing and using an SSD. I’ve heard that its pretty straight forward (i.e. if you can install a regular hard drive, then you can install an SSD). My current hard drive is 1 TB in size and I’m pretty sure I haven’t even used half the space yet but I would probably keep it in the system as non-SSD storage. I’ve had recommendations that I should install all my main programs on the SSD and perhaps use the non-SSD for cache and other temporary files to reduce the amount of space used up on the SSD.

Granted a 1 TB drive for temporary files seems to be a bit too much. My naiveté of SSDs had me thinking that it was only used for improving the speed that it takes for the OS to boot. I didn’t realize that its literally just another hard drive but has no moving parts. So part of the conundrum is what would I do with the 1 TB hard drive because it seems wasteful to use it for non-SSD storage. If I don’t use the 1 TB drive, then should I get something smaller to accompany the SSD (and give my Linux box a bit more space).

I have seen prices of solid state drives for $1+ per GB so you don’t see to many (if any) above 512 GB. If I end up having to spend that kind of cash I want to know that it was a good investment. I don’t want it to suddenly die on me three months later, I would expect it to last 2-3 years (assuming I don’t need more space). I want to be more then satisfied with the performance boost of how long it takes to boot and the overall performance of other programs (ex: WoW, SWTOR, OpenOffice, PaintShop Pro, etc). I don’t want to do it because “it’s what all the other geeks are doing”.

It really all comes down to the price and the ROI.

This Is The Test

By

On August 29, 2012

In General Cogitation

This is the post that I alluded to previously. I am going to test the solidarity of my friendships and associations. I am going to tell you my personal stance on some of the hottest topics that people seem most inclined to post comments, cartoons and articles about. I’m not going to try to sway anyone to agree with me, this is merely a leap of faith.

These are the topics I plan on addressing: Gay Rights, Abortion, Health Care & Welfare, Illegal Aliens

So here goes (by the way, this is going to be a long post, probably my first multi-pager)… 

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