Sickliness

I am and have been for a couple days now, most definitely sick. While this continues I'll be abstaining from blog posts since I have to work enough as it is with both jobs still - I need blogging time to rest. Thanks for hanging in there for me guys!

-- The only constant is change --

Industrious Times I Live In

Have I ever mentioned I'm a Gemini?





One of the traits associated with us is that we have split personalities. Usually I'm not too bad for mood swings, but I definitely have separate persona's for work and home life. At work, I'm one of the best people you could've ever hired - I'm driven, focused, energetic, etc. But damn if I can't get myself to do half as much when I'm sitting around the house.

Wanted: New Laptop; Current Laptop & Wallet Both Broke

I've had my laptop since 2008. I purchased it in August then, it was a refurb I found on sale on Buy.com I think. At $500 it was pretty sweet - my wife just needed something for the road since she was going to be doing some travelling work. We of course needed to upgrade the memory, and before long Vista crashed so hard that nothing I did would work. It then ran XP for a long time until I personally ****ed that installation up hardcore. Now it runs Windows 7, which I'm very happy with actually.

Anyway, this has all been somewhat off-topic. I need a new laptop.

Local Post: Volunteer Work!

Before today, I've never done any volunteer work. When I was growing up, I just wasn't the community-helper extracurricular type. I played Dungeons & Dragons or Magic: The Gathering instead. Well a bunch of people I knew were doing this a volunteer gig today.

Travel Town Museum & Park

From Random Apple-a-Day

Verizon iPhone, 4G Networks, and more...

Hey everybody! There's been a lot going on in the technology sector lately! First, a quick poll:

Do you own an iPhone?

"Smooth as a baby's bottom." - Steve Jobs

Minipost: Commentators!

Everyone that drops by, I encourage you, leave comments! I'm always happy to see that people are listening and engaging in discussion! If your comment doesn't show up right away, don't worry it's most likely that I just haven't had time to sit down and look over all the new comments yet. So again, please, feel free to leave feedback! Thanks for reading everyone!

-- The only constant is change --

Amazon - Free music downloads, Prime faces new competition

Hey everyone, sorry I haven't had much to talk about the past couple days, work has been pretty busy!

Hey guys, everyone likes free stuff, right? In most circumstances at least. Did you know that Amazon.com offers tons of free music to download? They've got a lot of stuff really cheap too. Go here to see the landing page for their mp3 deals, you won't be disappointed!

Do you know anything about Amazon's Prime service? It's $79 a year to get free 2-day shipping on pretty much anything! It's pretty amazing, which is why I assume some of the other large retailers on the web must feel so threatened. Several dozen companies have put aside their differences to create a new service called ShopRunner. Among the participating companies are Petsmart,GNC, and Toys 'R Us, to mention just a couple.

It's like Prime, $79 for a year, but it's available on all the participating retailers websites AND, the kicker, if you need to return something they pay for the return shipping for you! Even more amazing than Prime, I'd say. I'd recommend checking both these services out though since the holidays are fast approaching because both will save you a lot of money on shipping, especially if you continue shopping with the sites throughout the rest of the year!

-- The only constant is change --

Starbucks on my mind

Check out the Squidoo lens I published today on Starbucks Via!

I've been working a bit on the lot side lately, so I really haven't taken the time to think about much besides Starbucks! We rolled out a new product today, Instant Flavored Coffee, which rocks. I'm genuinely excited about it, and if you go in sometime during the next few days all Starbucks should be doing sampling events where you can get a free tall drink when you buy a pack of Via, and a bunch of other stuff like that!

What's your favorite Starbucks drink? I drink a heavily modified version of Passion Tea Lemonade usually, but when I need caffeine I do a Venti Iced Caramel Macchiato (2 shots instead of 3) with extra caramel. It's very tasty, sugary - more like sweetened caffeinated milk really.

How about pastries? I didn't really eat pastries before I started working at Starbucks, but I've got my preferences nowadays. I love cheese danishes and very berry coffee cake, but damn I can't stand scones. They're like chewing on the desert they're so dry! The breads aren't too bad either.

Lunch items? They're expensive but occasionally I'll partake in a Chicken Santa Fe, these are the most amazing panini's ever!

Enough rambling about Starbucks for the day, maybe I'll post something more interesting later tonight when I'm not so tired and I've had some time to think.

-- The only constant is change --

Minipost: Twitter

Twitter and followers and tweets, oh my!

Are you on Twitter?
I am, if you hadn't noticed the giant widget thing over there on the right. If you haven't already, follow me! I network with other bloggers and if I see a tweet of yours regarding your blog, I'll retweet it to my followers. Never know who will take notice and fall in love with your content!

-- The only constant is change --

Minipost: Do you... Squidoo?

If you don't you should! It's kinda like another form of microblogging! You can use it to make money for yourself too, or donate the royalties to charity. It's super easy to do. You can check out my first lens ever here! Or if you're interested in signing up, use this referral link and help a brother out as you help yourself! Thanks for everyone's continued support as I expand my little internet empire!

-- The only constant is change --

Minipost: Sleep Tech

I wanted to mention this but it didn't feel like it warranted a full post. Skullcap, hops and valerian, a combo that's a potent sleep aide. I can usually wake up from 2-4 hours sleep no problem, but I knocked a couple of these back one day to, "get more restful sleep" I thought and ended up waking up four hours after my body was up and going. They might not have the same effect on everyone, but damn they blew me away when I needed it. Check em over at Puritan's Pride.



-- The only constant is change --

Sleep Tech Part Two: Lucid Dreaming

Have any of you ever experienced lucid dreaming? A dream where you know it's a dream?

I've always been fascinated by this concept, ever since I first learned about it a few years back. I can't say I've had much success in performing it, since I've followed some ideas on how to do it but have had little luck.

Off on a tangent here, did you guys see Inception? I did, a couple times. It really rocked my world. It actually wasn't until I saw this movie that I experienced my first - and so far only - lucid dream.

I was lying face down in my bed. I had just woken up, it was sometime in the morning and my mouth felt numb. I looked down and saw that my teeth were falling out of my skull! I quickly thought, when was the last time I went to the dentist, how did my teeth get this bad; plainly, what the **** is going on here?! This doesn't happen. Your teeth can't just up and fall out like this. It's too ridiculous. This has to be a dream.

That thought woke me up. It was still dark out. I went back to sleep. But the dream is almost as vivid today as the night I had it. I haven't experienced such dreaming again, but I'm always trying new tactics out.

If you've had any experience with lucid dreaming, please do tell. If you know any tactics that help, pass them on. Maybe I'm crazy, but the idea of being able to control your dreams and to utilize that time spent unconscious occasionally seems awesome.


-- The only constant is change --

Here's a bunch of resources on the matter since I don't have much first hand experience:
Wikipedia Article
DreamViews Dreaming Community
Lucidity.com
Wiki-how

Minipost: StartKiller

Do you use the start button? I don't - I always hit the win key. I have Windows 7 so it's much easier for me to press Win and start typing what I need. Therefor the Start button just gets in my way, I like lots of room for program buttons on my task bar. If you feel the same way or just want to try out a nifty little program, StartKiller takes the Start button off your taskbar. It works in pretty much all Windows versions.


-- The only constant is change --

Sleep Tech Part One: Polyphasic Sleeping

Everyone's talking about it.

My polyphasic sleep schedule.

Hey everyone. It seems nowadays everybody is talking about polyphasic sleep. If you haven't heard of it, here's a quick rundown: a monophasic sleeper has one rest time, the big chunk of the day they spent producing z's where a biphasic or polyphasic sleeper sleeps less at a stretch, twice or several times a day, respectively.

I don't know quite where I fit into all of this. If you didn't know, I work two jobs and spend a lot of time writing and researching otherwise. Most days I sleep 2-4 hours at night and maybe another 2-3 hours in the middle of the day; I get about 18-20 waking hours per day in usually.

It was really hard to get used to. When I first got my second job I was downright exhausted constantly. Now, having done this for going on seven months I really like it. I get a lot done (or not done sometimes) every day, I've also become talented at sleeping. That might sound strange but I'm serious; it used to take me a while to fall asleep at any given time but now I can put down my head and be out within minutes.

Some people have asked if my health seems to have deteriorated and the answer is: I don't think so. I have a rather stout immune system to start and I'm very in tune with what's going on inside. If I run a couple days in a row with only an hour or two sleep at most I can feel illness sneaking up on me. With a day's rest I can be back to normal, no problem.

On a side note it really slays me nowadays when the girls I work with complain about being tired when they woke up three hours ago and spend, at most, 10 hours per day conscious. I'm not exaggerating those numbers either -_-

Maybe over time I'll have more thoughts on the subject. For now, what do you guys think? What sort of schedule rules your life?

-- The only constant is change --

Resources and other stuff:
Wikipedia
Steve Pavlina's Site
A blog about polyphasic sleep"
More info at Supermemo

Minipost: BloggersBase

Hey everyone, if you have a blog of your own and you're looking to help spread your words check out Bloggersbase!

It's something like an online magazine where your blog posts can compete to gain readership. You can set it up so your RSS feed automatically generates blog posts there - very easy to repost the stuff you put on here.

I'm not an expert of the topic, heck I'm still learning about it myself. Why don't we learn together!? Do me the favor and follow my affiliate link too, they have cool prizes and rewards and there's nothing like a little brotherly love!



Hoping for the best here, good luck guys!

-- The only constant is change --

Finally! Laundry detergent, homemade edition.

I'm posting this today without photos because my editing rig is on the fritz. I'm going to edit the article to add the photos tomorrow. If you follow at twitter.com/KJManBlawg you can hear as soon as I've finished the edit tomorrow!

Hey everyone, I've been saying over the past couple days I was going to post my laundry detergent recipe, so here it is! I've been making this since 2006 and it has saved me hundreds, if not thousands of dollars to date. I've lived in a few states in the past four years so at times the ingredients for making this have been harder to come by. That said, here's what you'll need to make this awesome stuff.

• Fel's Naptha Bar Laundry Soap. This isn't sold in any stores local to me so I had to order it online and have it shipped to a local Ace Hardware.
• 20 Mule Team Borax. A general laundry booster, even if you don't like the end result of this detergent you can use borax to clean many surfaces and to help your regular detergent.
• Arm & Hammer Washing Soda. Again, a general laundry booster, you can use it pretty for most of the same things as Borax.
• 2 Gallons of water. I usually throw my gallon jugs away on accident so typically I buy new ones each time I make this. If you save your jugs you can save even more money with this.

You start out by put six cups of water into a very large pot and set it to medium heat. While this is warming up, cut 1/3 off the bar of Naptha and either grate it or chop it down into smaller bits and throw it in a food processor. I do the second method because it's so much easier. Grind it up until you've got a fine powder with a few larger chunks of soap left. Mix this into your heated water until it is completely dissolved.

Now that's all dissolved, measure out ½ cup each Borax and Washing Soda. Slowly, without increasing the heat, stir these in. If your water is simmering at all it is too hot and this stuff will foam up like mad. Take your time stirring it in as if you stir too violently it'll also foam up. Once foaming starts it's really hard to work with this mix.

Anyway, once you've got everything mixed in let it settle down for a couple minutes, then slowly increase the heat until the mix is boiling. Boil for 15 minutes. While it's boiling heat up another quart of water until it's somewhat hot. When the mix is almost done pour the hot water into a bucket (something 3-5 gallons will work) then add the mixture and stir. Then add enough cold water to bring it to two gallons. Mix it all until it's well blended then let it set for a full day. If done correctly the whole thing will gel!

That's pretty much it! You'll use ½ cup per load and it won't get all sudsy but it works really well. It will separate when it's sitting around since we don't add any stabilizers or anything to the mix so you'll need to shake it up before using. Like I said before if you don't like the end result you can still use the borax and washing soda to aide your regular detergent and you can rub the naptha onto stains to help remove them.

Thanks for dropping by everyone, sorry to keep you waiting on the topic for longer than expected!

tl;dr?

• 1/3 bar Fel's Naptha, ground to powder or grated
• 1/2 cup Borax
• 1/2 cup Arm & Hammer Washing Soda
• 2 gallons water

• Heat 6 cups water, mix in Naptha until dissolved
• Mix in Borax and Washing Soda until dissolved
• Bring to a boil for 15 minutes then remove from heat
• In a 3-5 gallon bucket put 1 quart hot water, add soap mixture and stir
• Add enough cold water to make two gallons, mix thoroughly and let sit 24 hours
• Enjoy!

-- The only constant is change --

Minipost: Prey Project

If you own a laptop or one of the smarter mobile devices available out there, you should really check out the Prey Project.

Prey is an advanced, open source application that could help you recover your portable device should it ever be lost or stolen. You can find out more about it on their website.

-- The only constant is change --

Roast Chicken!

So I wrote this post last night everyone, since I was roasting a chicken and felt I should share my tactics because a roasted chicken is delicious and something everyone should know how to cook.

Hey guys! So, I'm roasting a chicken for dinner tonight. Roasted chicken is one of my favorite foods and it's so cheap! It was on sale the other day for about 77 cents per pound, so I grabbed two, one of them being almost 7 pounds! A bird this size will feed me and my wife for a few days which is great because we are broke. Anyway, here's how I roast a chicken!



Firstly, thaw this baby out ahead of time. I had planned on making chicken for an early dinner but had to push that back by, mmm, three or four hours! I hadn't anticipated this, so just keep it in mind for the future. Anyway, after thawing it I scooped the giblets and neck out (they usually stuff these things inside the chest cavity) and threw them in a small pot of water and set it to a low heat to steep for the next couple hours.

Next you rinse the beast down under cold water, inside and out then dry the outside off really well with paper towels - and make sure you drain the cavity, don't want to accidentally pour salmonella water all over yourself.



I follow a real simple way of preparing the bird - I take a cooking oil, canola this time but sometimes I use olive oil - and rub down the bird like you're giving it a really weak massage. After coating it with oil you probably want to wash your hands before handling spices and such. Next I sprinkle it liberally with pepper, a bit of salt, then some garlic and onion powder. Being Italian I think I put garlic on everything. Anyway, you've done one side of the bird, then flip it over and do the other side. Make sure you don't rub it or move it too much right now or you'll mess up the distribution of spices.

Lastly, I cook my bird directly on the oven rack. Some people might be like, "ewww gross" but really, if you clean it first it's no different than anything else. Put it on the middle rack BREAST SIDE DOWN with an 8"x12" pan underneath to catch all the drippings. We do it breast side down so all the juices will settle into the meaty part of the bird. Roast that sucker at 350°F for 20 minutes per pound. I crank the heat up to 450°F for the last 15 minutes of the cook time to help brown the outside of the beast.



While we wait for the bird to cook scoop the giblets out of the water where you've had them simmering for a while. Save this water because once the bird is done you're going to take the drippings pan and mix these two liquids together. Then you take flour and add it, I do it one spoonful at a time, to the liquid and whisk them together until you've got gravy. This will be the best gravy ever. Use it generously.

At this point turn the heat off and let it set on the rack for about 20 minutes so the juices can settle. Prepare some side dishes if you haven't already and after your time is up, carve into it and enjoy! Also, here's a chart to help with cooking times.

Cooking time (unstuffed)

2½ - 3 pounds | 50-60 minutes

3½ - 4 pounds | 70-80 minutes

4½ - 5 pounds | 90-100 minutes

5½ - 6+ pounds | 110-120 minutes

tl;dr?

• Buy chicken
• Rinse chicken with water, put giblets in pan with water and simmer
• Coat in oil, pepper, light salt, garlic and onion powder
• Roast on oven rack, breast side down, middle rack with a pan under it to catch drippings
• Mix giblet infusion with drippings, whisk in flour until gravy has formed
• Eat!

-- The only constant is change --

Sleep talker in our midst.

I was going to make laundry detergent today, really! It didn't work out that way though. Yesterday my wife got sick quite suddenly and we spent last evening in the ER. I ended up staying up much later than I was supposed to and passed out for a very long night's sleep. When I woke up today, sometime late after 11am my wife had just woken up herself. She didn't go to sleep until 7am though so I'm not sure how she was able to do stuff all day and go teach dance lessons tonight without even taking a nap. Anyway, this post is on a bit of a tangent right now!

Baby steps back to where I was though. Have I mentioned I talk in my sleep? I don't do it every night, but I do it fairly frequently. Last night my wife actually wrote down the stuff I said, maybe you guys can help me decipher my mind? First,

"Don't fail windows 32 Australia"

Quickly followed by,

"Delete that or it will destroy your computer"

I'm beginning to think the forums and meme's I witness are infiltrating my subconcious. I'm not sure where the Australia part came from, maybe it's because I watched an Australian movie last night.

Next up,

I'm sorry... I can't think of the name of it now."

This was completely out of the blue and apparently a few hours after the first comment.

Lastly, the dog was laying on the sheet over me and I was trying to writhe around and move it or something so I told him in a very polite voice

"Buster, wake up."

At which point I shoved him off of me and rolled him with the sheet,

"Thank you."

Then went back to sleep.

...

It never ceases to amaze me the things I do and say in my sleep. Hopefully you find them entertaining because I haven't got much left for today! The rest of the day was spent cleaning the house and tending to my sickly wife until our friend came over and we watched the Stargate movie - awesome as usual! You should really check it out and actually, I'm gonna leave this right here. Thanks for dropping by guys, hope I'll have that laundry detergent for you tomorrow!


-- The only constant is change --

Part 3: Nobody told me we were doing a part three!

Saving money is definitely one of my passion's in life. I can't say very many things make me tingle quite like looking at my Ralph's receipt and seeing this line: "Total: $111.90 Saved: $99.00"

Patience is really the key for me. Everything goes on sale eventually, and most things can be preserved in some fashion or another. Recently Campbell's Chunky Soup was on sale at around half-off and this stuff lasts awhile - I bought 30 cans.

Hamburger Helper on sale, 10/$10? "30 boxes please, I've got my own bags."

Retailer weekly's are a critical element of my success. Pretty much any grocer that posts one of these also hosts it online and since I don't have a mailbox and I don't plan on waiting for my neighbor to pass his used ads onto me, I go surfing. Last week it was whole chickens on sale, roughly half-off again - two please.

I actually make my own laundry soap and I'm due to make another batch this week. It's super cheap at around 25 cents per gallon to make. I buy the ingredients in bulk online since nobody around here carries what I need. In fact, I have all of tomorrow off from my jobs so I will be making a batch or two and posting the recipe and pics for all!

I'm out for today everyone, I'm going to go see Bran Nue Dae tonight in about an hour so I need to get ready. G'night!

-- The only constant is change --

Bloggy Mcblog: Robot Unicorn Attack

Bloggy Mcblog: Robot Unicorn Attack: "Easily the best 2D flash game ever made. Give it a try below."

I haven't been this sidetracked in a long time. This game is truly epic.


-- The only constant is change --

Part 2: It's not a suggestion, it's an order.

Yesterday I started talking about saving money and today will continue with this discussion!

My big find this week (got my J senses tingling hardcore!) was on Amazon.com. I've noticed in the past they have a way you can subscribe to order items you use on a regular basis. For my house it's razor blades. I don't shave but my wife does and goes through a blade every week or so. In-case you didn't notice, these things are damn expensive - often times $2-$4 per cartridge in grocery stores! Well...


Check 'em

This doesn't look like how I wanted...
Anyway, I just bought these cartridges yesterday and by subscribing I saved 15% plus I got free shipping. It ended up pricing out around $1.40 per cartridge!!1! Everyone should check this subscription stuff out, you never know what you might find!

Edit: A side note is that the price I quoted above per cartridge was true at time of publishing, it seems the price of these blades has gone up now! Sorry for any unintended deception!

-- The only constant is change --

Part 1: Don't spend more than you have to...

As you may have noticed, I only transcribed a small amount of this post before I was so tired I had to sleep. Finishing it up now. If you didn't notice this change, ignore my warning! :D

Hey everyone! I’m writing this at work today. They put me in guest services where I have access to the computer all night. I tried rambling for a bit and discovered I wanted to talk about saving money today!




First of all, I recently bought tons of new clothes. Prior to this spending spree, I hadn't really bought much clothing wise in almost five years! Well my wife got a new job and needed to look for some new stuff so we went to the local Goodwill.





Not only does GWI employ those who might have trouble finding work otherwise, they benefit the community AND you can find amazing deals there! I ended up buying 5 pairs of pants, 4 ties, 2 vests, a new pair of shoes (with wooden soles!) all for less than $50. If you need anything you should really check your local Goodwill stores, you never know what you might find.

Keeping in theme, do you check out any sites for daily deals? A lot of sites have sales that are good for one day only and I have found some amazing purchases in the past. I'm a big fan of Woot.com and their sub-domains: Shirt.Woot and Wine.Woot mainly. I once found a vacuum for a family member that retailed for over $500 for only $249 ($5 shipping on everything except shirts, which have free shipping!) Shirt.Woot features a variety of unique shirts that range from artistic to humorous and change every week. Wine.Woot sells wines and wine accessories at awesome prices as well as all kinds of other stuff (I got wine filled chocolates around Valentine's day one year). They also have Kids.Woot and Deals.Woot, something more akin to a toy store and a deal aggregator, respectively.


Lengthy post this is turning into, eh? And quite the Woot.com testimonial. I've decided to split this post up and finish it off tomorrow, lest I hear cries of tl;dr and need to comfort myself. Thanks for tuning in everyone, talk to you again soon!

-- The only constant is change --

A meager day in the thoughtful realm.

Today was a long day, I worked a full shift and had a meeting outside in the blazing sun afterwards, so I was beat when I got home. To tell you the truth, I think I slept most of the evening! So with that said, I don't have much to talk about today, so this is gonna be a shorter and maybe more personal post than normal.

I went ahead and made a fractal which came out really nice! There's a heart in the middle you can bawww your eyes out over if you like. You can check it over here.



I watched Reservoir Dogs for the first time ever last night. It was good! I don't have much to say other than I'm a Tarantino fan and it definitely felt like a movie he made.



Also, I'm gonna leave this here. It's a game over at ArmorGames.com called Amorphous Plus. If you haven't played it, try it out! The goal is simple - swing your oversized sword to splat the wild glooples that swarm you. It has tons of achievements to try and unlock too. I've spent a LOT of time playing this in the past, so I hope you enjoy it as well.

Thanks for tuning in everyone, sorry I couldn't provide much more today. G'night!

-- The only constant is change --

I realize my goals as a blogger today.

The more I write, the more I realize I'm not a very good writer. At least not yet!

I've always dabbled with writing and I feel I have a decent grasp of the English language, but damn I overuse commas sometimes. I've grown to have a great affection for the works of The Oatmeal. I've been following his web comics for some time now and his comics about grammar always get me more than any other.





So, I take his lessons to heart (Check out the rest of his site too!) as I trundle on, using this blog as my playground and experimental lab. Hopefully my grammar and punctuation won't put you off as we continue this journey of exploration and literation.

Also, I hope to gain experience as a blog writer in particular. I have several subjects I'd love to write about in more detail, but I'm still testing the waters! It feels wrong to dedicate myself to writing about one topic when I still don't know how to format blog posts correctly and such. Maybe I'll end up writing a blog about blog writing? I'm sure it's been done over and over before, but why can't I throw my two cents in?

If you've got some feedback on my words please leave some feedback! If anyone ever thinks they've learned all they can then they truly have; for the rest of us the learning never ends.


-- The only constant is change --

Optical illusions and 3D photography (Facebook too)

Got to sleep in today, a nice change for once. I went ahead and started surfing the internet immediately of course. I was having difficulty finding things to chat about to start, but then this showed up! I've always loved optical illusions and finding this sent me stumbling in another direction, finding this website's article about 3D photography! I've seen it before but never quite with this level of presentation. There are also several links at the end of the article leading to other resources on how to create your own 3D images. If you are adept at all with photography and feel like trying the techniques out leave a comment and link to your image, I'd love to check it out!

On a side note I've got my Facebook page up now! Check it out here! I need friends so add me or I'll be forever alone. Thanks for reading everyone!

-- The only constant is change --

Off work, Twitter, lots to do.

Hey everybody, another beautiful day out there! At least where I am here in the Valley, north of Los Angeles. I went ahead and signed up with Twitter today, you guys can follow me here if you're looking for smaller outbursts of random energy throughout the day. I'm also considering setting up a Facebook today or tomorrow.

If you hadn't noticed I've put up a profile pic. It's a fractal! I simply adore them and their randomness seems to fit well with my personality and the theme of the blog. I'm considering rendering a new one everyday and posting them online to share their beauty.

As it is, I've got a busy day ahead of me. I had insomnia last night so I spent about ten minutes coming up with a list of things to do today, mainly cleaning house, yard and car. I'm trying to expand my online presence so I might be dipping into that as well. Stay tuned as I continue exploring this brave new world!

If you love fractals like I do, check out Apophysis, this freeware program for Windows you can use to generate your own fractals. Hopefully as time goes by I'll be posting more killer software you can use for fun or practical purposes. Have a great day!

-- The only constant is change --

A daily diary and a movie review.

So today I haven't had much time to go rambling around the internet, so I'll describe my day a bit. I was off work at 9am this morning so I thought, "I'll go home and take a nap!" Brilliant. Ended up waking up at 4pm and only because my wife was hungry and wanted me to make food. Fast forward a few hours later and I went out to see Takers.

Takers was, interesting to say the least. I didn't have high hopes for it, but I must say it exceeded my expectations. The characters were interesting but the plot was droll and a total rip-off from the Italian Job. The lighting and cinematography were kind of strange and I didn't like them. Of course, taste is a matter of opinion and nobody is right or wrong about this sort of thing. It was an enjoyable action/drama and not a terrible way to blow a couple hours of the night.

As it is, I'm relaxing now and getting ready for bed (those last 6 hours of consciousness have been grueling). Hopefully in the coming days I'll be expanding upon my ideas for the blog and I'll be writing longer, more interesting posts as time goes by. It's all uphill from here!


-- The only constant is change --

Chimpanzees and solar arrays, oh my!

Hello everyone!

So apparently a group of chimpanzees in Bossou, Guinea have learnt how to successfully identify and disarm snare traps set by human hunters. These traps aren't intended to ensnare chimps but snare-induced injuries to chimps occur all across Africa - the rate of these injuries is significantly lower in this group in Guinea! For more info you can read the whole article here.

In other news some researchers at MIT have discovered that certain molecules can assemble themselves into tiny solar arrays and disassemble again on a whim; apparently for as many cycles as are necessary. The whole article (and the complex terms I have no desire to research meanings to) is very interesting, you never know what scientists and engineers will come up with next!

I'll be back with more to share as I discover it!

-- The only constant is change --

The beginning of the end?

All things that begin must eventually end; so let this post signal the beginning of something awesome that will last until it cannot any longer.

If you were a fan of Pokemon growing up, or are still... here's a fun little infograph from the folks at Kotaku

I was always a fan of Pokemon. But then, a while back, I found this floating around on the intertubes

It's a rather lengthy and perhaps overanalytical look at the Pokemon TV series and plays with the idea that maybe Ash's reality isn't quite what we always thought it was.

Hope you enjoy this bit of randomness. See you around!

-- The only constant is change --