I have brought this topic up before to my wife and she has suggested it to be a good idea and I agree with her, but with this comes the task of coming up with some new titles for these new blogs, I will be separating these topics into three subsets: Computers/Technology/ Gaming, Religion/Politics, and lastly me... I will probably tend to always post to the blog you have come to read (Continual Conundrum) but these new blogs are topics that not everyone may be interested in reading, and that is the reason for the change.I hope that you ( my faithful reader) will still read all of the topics; however, I do not want you to have to muddle through posts that you may not have any interest in.
Chances are I will favor one blog more than the others but I want to see how this may influence my future writings. Separation of topics is a good thing and there will be many interesting topics I will try to cover. Not only for you , but more importantly to help nourish this outlet that I was not aware was in me until recently.
So now it is time to come up with some catchy blog names!
Monday, October 21, 2013
Sunday, October 20, 2013
Body cleansing
I feel that it is time for me once again to somehow motivate myself to continue on the journey I started several months ago. Initially I saw great strides and had excellent motivation, but lately I have fallen back into the same routine of eat whatever and not care about the consequence to my body. I want to be healthier, I want to not be in pain with my body, I want to be there for my wife and those that love me, but yet a sense of self loathing always seems to descend upon me and causes me to slip into these old habits. So how I ask can I make myself be more vigilante in my quest for longer life.....how.... any suggestions.
Saturday, October 19, 2013
Tech Junkie
I have two addictions in my life. First is my wife, and second would be technology. I gave up one addiction in 2003 for another and technology became my new addiction.Currently I am very passionate about learning whatever I can about computers and hopefully get paid from that passion. I build my own computers, I tend to favor building mid range gaming computers because it always works out to be cheaper than purchasing a pre-built. Building a computer for web browsing and email is not economical and I would always recommend just purchasing one from a retailer. Now I will state with extreme prejudice that if you were to ever purchase from retail locations please be aware that you will have to spend a few hours getting rid of the bloat ware they install ( like I did with my new laptop) not to mention customization to how you like it (backgrounds and music libraries). So since I have just gone through these steps myself I figured I would share some thoughts on what not to do with a new system when setting it up.
- Use Internet Explorer for only one thing and that is to download either Google chrome, or Mozilla Firefox. For the love of all that is good in the world avoid Internet Explorer like the plague.
- Install updates before you really even attempt to do anything on your system, sometimes you can be lucky and have very few updates to do (depending on the release of the OS and any service packs that are associated) but they are of utmost importance for the security of your system. Primarily security fixes for Windows and graphics driver updates.
- Install an Anti-virus and I personally will never recommend Mcafee or Norton because they are resource hogs (and yes I have heard that they have gotten better, but to little to late) I have my bias when it comes to the programs but everybody who cares about the stability and security of their systems will. So what would I recommend you may be asking, and I would have to say that AVG has always been a good security suite for me , it is highly customizable for scheduling of updates and scans, and catches and quarantines without many issues.The other program I have been using for a while is Microsoft Defender ( and their malicious software removal as well) it has pretty basic settings and is updated quite frequently and so far have not really had an issue.
- Passwords are of utmost importance. please do not be a slouch when it comes to creating passwords. The harder it is for you to remember a password then the harder it will be for your password to be discovered. One of the easiest things I can recommend is getting a little black book for addresses and right the passwords and associated websites down inside.
- Bloat ware! Get rid of it if you are not going to use it. A lot of the time manufactures put software on your system to help reduce the cost to you, and sometimes that software is complete crap (Wild Tangent games come to mind) particularly with HP they have a “software assistant” that I uninstall because it is of no use if you learn to set up a schedule of checking for updates yourself. Most of the times the drivers have a self detect utility that you can run and it will identify what your hardware is and what specifically you need to update (if any at all), but most of all updates should only come from trusted sources, and those happen to be the manufacturers websites and windows updates that are built into the control panel on your computer.
- Customization will be the last thing I will mention and because it is last it is also the least important of the items I have gone over. Customizing your computer is what will make your computer yours though, whether it is a background or even applying stickers to your laptop make the computer and extension of the things you like.
So I hope that the things I have learned over the years can be of some benefit to you and your computer. Do you have a question to ask about your computer by all means ask, and if I can help I surely will.
To Dos
We often say what it is we want to do in life and I am no different. I look forward to a time that I am able to not have to worry about wok and can spend leisure time with my wife doing whatever it is we want to do. Traveling is always at the top of the list of things to do and I would have to say in that regard we are no different. I can list three places off of the top of my head that I would like to take my wife to see and they are as follows.
#1 
Redwood Forest, Northern California. One of the most majestic and awe inspiring sights I have ever seen. I have not been there since I was a teenager, and the only thing that beat it was the Grand Canyon. To be honest this is the only place I can see myself camping ever again, and for me to say that it has to be a special place.
#2
Garden of the Gods, Colorado Springs, CO
Another destination I remember from my youth that I find that I just can’t think of a better place to see before it’s all over (I know that sounds morbid but couldn’t think of another way to put it) the views here are majestic and breath taking. I think the other alluring aspect of this destination is the proximity to 2 other locations nearby, Canon City, CO and Pikes Peak , these are two other places from my childhood that I remember vividly (specifically almost going down Pikes Peak the wrong way) and would love to share with her.
#3
This location is a bit more difficult to choose not because I can’t think of one , but because I think I have set the bar very high with my previous picks, and that I feel that anything I may choose would be considered inferior in scale and beauty. However, I believe that for this one the location would be across the ocean and would require so much time that I think a lifetime would not be long enough to explore and see all that we wanted. I speak of Europe and all of its many locations that are not only picturesque but also enchanting to the point that it hurts. whether it is Scotland, Ireland, Germany, France, England, Italy, or Spain each has destinations that we both want to see. Aside from the most obvious destinations I would also like to visit some of the more less publicized destinations like Prague, and even Romania just because I would really like to see some of the old world architecture.
Like I said at the beginning of this post travel is probably the most popular to do item on everyone's list.While there are other locations I would love to see in the world (Japan and Australia) these would for sure be at the top of my list of places to take my wife.
One day……..
Friday, October 18, 2013
Elephants and Kangaroos like bubble gum....now that I got your attention.
Don't let the title fool you it actually has nothing to do with what I am about to write, but I was thinking to myself why I usually post a title that is overtly relevant to the post I type afterwards. So I have decided to change it up. Whether or not I will stick with it remains to be seen.
So I guess I will hit the big news of the month/week/microsecond and that is how our government is even more lost with than at any other time in this country's short history. So yay we are going to pay our bills, my boss's wife gets to go back to work (and gets back pay for the time missed) and all is well. Until January when we have to go through all of this political bullshit again. What is the answer? I don't know, but I do know this, politicians are so disconnected from there constituents that the only time they are about the populous is when poll numbers start to shrink. When did it become about parties ideals and political money making machines? I think it has been more so over the past 20 years, I am not 100% certain but I think it could not have been this bad in the 60's or 70's even, and if it was why do you not hear of how bad the party political partisanship was then. Maybe it is because we have actually had the proverbial "jumping the shark" moment. I think America jumped the shark when we started to stray away from what what our founding fathers actually envisioned out of a country, and not what we interpreted they envisioned. My interpretation of everything I was ever taught about the constitution and bill of rights is simply this, as an American I get to be who I want, how I want, and where I want. whether it is Jewish, Catholic, Homosexual, tattooed, one legged, capitalistic, socialistic, communistic, or whatever my heart desires to be. America was the place where those things were considered a "god given" right because this was the land of the free after all, however it seems like nowadays it's better to be hypocritical while we live our daily lives.
I did say this post was going to be a whopper, and well I think by opening up with politics is either blogging suicide or just enough to keep you reading up to this point and further, and I do hope it is further.
So here's my ideas for steps to a better America.
So I guess I will hit the big news of the month/week/microsecond and that is how our government is even more lost with than at any other time in this country's short history. So yay we are going to pay our bills, my boss's wife gets to go back to work (and gets back pay for the time missed) and all is well. Until January when we have to go through all of this political bullshit again. What is the answer? I don't know, but I do know this, politicians are so disconnected from there constituents that the only time they are about the populous is when poll numbers start to shrink. When did it become about parties ideals and political money making machines? I think it has been more so over the past 20 years, I am not 100% certain but I think it could not have been this bad in the 60's or 70's even, and if it was why do you not hear of how bad the party political partisanship was then. Maybe it is because we have actually had the proverbial "jumping the shark" moment. I think America jumped the shark when we started to stray away from what what our founding fathers actually envisioned out of a country, and not what we interpreted they envisioned. My interpretation of everything I was ever taught about the constitution and bill of rights is simply this, as an American I get to be who I want, how I want, and where I want. whether it is Jewish, Catholic, Homosexual, tattooed, one legged, capitalistic, socialistic, communistic, or whatever my heart desires to be. America was the place where those things were considered a "god given" right because this was the land of the free after all, however it seems like nowadays it's better to be hypocritical while we live our daily lives.
I did say this post was going to be a whopper, and well I think by opening up with politics is either blogging suicide or just enough to keep you reading up to this point and further, and I do hope it is further.
So here's my ideas for steps to a better America.
- Term Limits - The president can only serve for a maximum of 8 years , so why is it that senators and congress members have no limits. Set term limits to match the president, or better yet how about half the amount. Elections every 2 years with a maximum of 4 years and after those 4 years you get a small pension (nothing like their current "retirement pension") and is you are in the senate you still have the ability to go upwards within the government.
- Law Books- Go through the laws and gut them. We have laws that probably counter other laws (don't quote me on that) and laws at city, state, and the federal level that need to be expunged. When these laws are redone do not base them off of religious doctrine, do not base them off of veiled corporate funding (lobbyists), and lastly word them with the wording of the people and not the wording of "lawyer speak" if the average person does not understand the law then what is the point of even writing it down for people to follow.
- Cut the fat, cut programs that have no reason of being aside to serve some paragraph of an obscure bill that is passed with the interests of a certain party members district benefiting from it, look at our methodology and streamline it, dammit this is fucking 2013 let's start acting like and put technology to use in the proper ways and formats, after all weren't computers supposed to lead us to a paperless world in regards to business and administration.
- Voting! Got a license, you vote. if you don't then suspend the license(this will greatly increase the turnout), I guarantee that will get people to the polls more. Don't have a license State issued ID works just the same. Don't want to get an ID tough shit you don't get to vote. Seems harsh don't it? tough shit! Enough coddling of our society, it is making us weak as a nation (and believe you me I am not no extremists but I do think we are turning into a nation of pussies.
- Legalize weed, yep I said it, legalize weed and tax the ever living shit out of it like we do to cigarettes. Must be 18 to purchase , just like cigarettes, and enforce it just like we do with DUI infractions. Chances are that if pot were legal then you would probably see a drop in usage. There would definitely be less felons in our prisons.
- Believe it or not we can have social programs while being a capitalist society, but we also need to learn that regulations are killing us and driving jobs elsewhere. Yes we are in a global job market now and things are really different than they were 1 even 2 decades ago. The days of leaving school (high school) and going out and getting a job are behind us, the need for a better preparedness for students is even more relevant now and will only get worse as the years go on. Schools should be a place of learning and not a place of telling, students should be engaged in what it is they are learning, just telling them history is not enough, to really have students learn they will have to be engaged. And god forbid we actually offer programs that encourage arts, music, and other creative outlets for students.
This is just a short list of things that I think about, and even though I know some of them may sound extreme but I have to say that if you have a better idea than don't hesitate to discuss it with me, who knows maybe one day we'll be ale to take our ideas all the way to the white house!
So religion.....ya about that....it's a sham...but I think that is a conversation that would be better on a one on one basis.
So I got a new laptop for schooling purposes and let me just say that while I can see a future for tablets being in higher use at schools in the future , we are not there yet. The "textbooks" that are often advertised are so obscure or still have so many issues do to improper formatting, programming, or whatever issues arise for newer technology. Like I said though..not yet but I can for sure see a future where textbooks will no longer be the racket that it is. And speaking of a racket, E-books costing the same as paperback and hardback books is fucking ridiculous. I am definitely in the wrong business, I really need to find out how to become a textbook publisher.
So back to the task at hand, and that is letting you in on my life, my thoughts, and my views on things. On a very personal level it seems that I am getting into my old habits of eating what I want when I want, I swear to you I would never wish the constant struggle with weight loss on my worst enemy. It is a struggle, the smallest inlet of stress seems to be the pebble that always breaks my fat back. Yes I am sick of being fat, yes I wish I could be like my friend Louie who could probably eating anything he wanted throughout the day and never put on a pound, and that in a roundabout way pisses me off and stresses me out; which, you guessed it makes me eat more. Yes being fat is a disease, it is mental as well as physical, but I would have to say the most that it is a mental disorder. Bot being a doctor I can't say it for sure , but I do think my 38 years of fat assness actually gives me some sort of insight.
last topic before I close out for the night, I got a beta invite to the new Blizzard game coming out, Hearthstone, and it is confirmed I suck at it, also it does have a lot of random aspects to it (that's what I am telling myself anyways) and after 5 losses in a row I finally got my hunter, and now I just have to start building up my cards for it, if I understand it correctly there will not be a reset after this section of testing. Even though I suck at it I am actually looking forward to playing it more because it does seem like it has some great potential.
Thursday, October 17, 2013
Sunday, September 22, 2013
Why I am a PC fan boy and I will not apologize for it.
There is going to be quite a tizzy happening in a couple months time when the new consoles are released here in America. There will be a new debate about what is better PC or console, this debate has been raging now for quite sometime. I can recall renting PC (yep you read that right) games back in 1996 when I lived in Roswell, New Mexico and being impressed by the graphics when compared to the console that I had at that time. Flash forward 17 years and the battle of gaming platforms still rages.
Current generation consoles seemed to be at a disadvantage when they were released due to the hardware choices their respective comapnies made for instance when the PS3 and Xbox360 were released( November 2006 and November 2005 respectively) they both had similar powered processing cores, a very minimal amount of RAM and graphics chips that at the time were a solid 2 generations behind current PC standards (and I dont mean top of the line PC components either). WhileMicr osoft chose to go with the now defunct format of HD-DVD as an add on to their system Sony chose to go with the now widely used Blu-Ray format. Both systems however were very light when compared to the hardware that was available to PC's at the time
Flame wars will undoubtedly increase between these two corporate behemoths fans but we must look at several of the key factors of why now is the time for them to release these systems and introduce a new ecosystem of hardware and software into an already saturated market. Currently video games are made for consoles, and then if it is released for the PC market it is usually a poorly done port, also when ported the game looks no better than the console version even if the PC running the game is more than capable of better results. This has brought on the resurgence of "indie" developers in the PC market, for some reason they are not using the more popular tools available to them because of licensing costs associated with the different game engines that are available. Indie developers tend to develop for the 8-bit and 16-bit look and mostly I believe this is due to cost issues with the game engines (unreal, source,unity) needed to create more graphically complex games. The one thing that these indie developers have shown is that there is still ingenuity in the industry even with all the different franchises and their many sequels that seem to clog the market. Very much like the music industry of yore, the more advertising and hype a game gets the better it does (with some exceptions, yes I am looking at you Duke Nukem reboot) and the more money it makes for a company (2K, EA, Activision) .
Publishers have many factors to consider when releasing a game. They have their own internal development studios, outside studios they have struck deals with, and also outsourced entities for not only "internal" operations, but also manufacturing and all the intricacies that go along with the final release of games. Poor management is what is bringing these companies into a unfavorable light with the average consumer, as companies continue to care more about their stockholders than their consumer they will end up paying a price that is even more costly than their bottom line. Companies are paying for services that produce discs, manuals, inserts (maps,dlc vouchers,and other promotional items) sometimes for pennies on the dollar, and in turn charging a extremely high premium for games (usually $60 a game) yet there is opportunity to make more money with a different model. Currently the new push is for a digital model which can be very profitable,if they rethink the pricing strategy that is currently in place.
Imagine if by going full digital in certain areas of the world (because worldwide the infrastructure is not currently in place to allow for full digital distribution),would allow for games to be priced at a lower starting price point (this is more than doable when less than one year after release PC games can be had at times for sometimes 75% of the original price) when taking out the equation of raw materials and associated labor it should in turn bring down the cost of games. The trend of 6 months after release games can be gotten for a fraction of their price at launch, why not settle for a lower price point to sell more copies of a game. The argument can be made that by going full digital the choice is taken out of the consumers hand of where they are able to purchase their games; however, the opportunity actually increases for more competition in the marketplace. Currently you can walk into a Gamestop, Best Buy, and even local supermarkets and pick up prepaid gift cards for everything from Red Lobster , Amazon, penguin club, and even Xbox Live. I know personally throughout the last year I have seen several instances of the Xbox Live cards being on sale on Amazon and this is how the marketplace will work, by offering cards and codes at a discounted rate. Relying on the consumer to spend more than what they originally intended stores (online and big box) can make money in this fashion. There is a term for this business model and had I been more attentive in business class I would tell ya what that term is, but I do not recall what the term is. This method of selling (and purchasing) has become the case because we are living in a time of change, and this change has impacted everything from the way we purchase items, plan our futures, and even something as small ( or as big as, depending on your point of view) as purchasing your gaming system that you are going play on for the foreseeable future.
Now if you are still reading at this point you have apparently had no issues with my grammatical errors and my very lopsided stance on the PC and console debate. If you got a take on this let me know I like healthy debate and I cherish the opportunity to be turned to another belief. I would very much like to see consoles become more open to pricing changes.
I would also like to see gaming publishers/developers be more open to user created content and not relying on DLC to be a continued cash income for games. I welcome the days of user created maps for games like Battlefield, Call Of Duty and others like it was not so many years ago.
I would like to also call for all of the gaming community to be of a higher echelon, gone are the days when we relied upon server admins to police the places we play, as more games offer multi player capabilities we are going to see less opportunity to host these games and mods on rented servers, even if that opportunity still exists, the modding of said servers tends to be unsanctioned by the game publisher/developers because they want a playing field to be more fair and balanced ( which we all want a game to be fair and hack free but yet we don't want choice taken away from the consumer) and allow for their own brand of sometimes justified policing of servers, and also sometimes unjustified.
Now I know I am sometimes all over the place but I have an excuse today, since I have been watching my favorite football team play today while I was typing this, and they got a win, so for awhile my mind was distracted and I blame them for any lack of cohesion in this post. Also I think I may be making a separate blog where I can talk about technology that I find interesting, and keep this blog to a more personal tone because I feel sometimes the tone should remain consistent with the topics that have been read prior.
One last thing before I go...I miss playing with my buds so if you see me on send me an invite and chances are I will play. This is the one thing I miss most about playing world of Warcraft, I miss the interactions with others so hit me up if you get the chance.
Current generation consoles seemed to be at a disadvantage when they were released due to the hardware choices their respective comapnies made for instance when the PS3 and Xbox360 were released( November 2006 and November 2005 respectively) they both had similar powered processing cores, a very minimal amount of RAM and graphics chips that at the time were a solid 2 generations behind current PC standards (and I dont mean top of the line PC components either). WhileMicr osoft chose to go with the now defunct format of HD-DVD as an add on to their system Sony chose to go with the now widely used Blu-Ray format. Both systems however were very light when compared to the hardware that was available to PC's at the time
Flame wars will undoubtedly increase between these two corporate behemoths fans but we must look at several of the key factors of why now is the time for them to release these systems and introduce a new ecosystem of hardware and software into an already saturated market. Currently video games are made for consoles, and then if it is released for the PC market it is usually a poorly done port, also when ported the game looks no better than the console version even if the PC running the game is more than capable of better results. This has brought on the resurgence of "indie" developers in the PC market, for some reason they are not using the more popular tools available to them because of licensing costs associated with the different game engines that are available. Indie developers tend to develop for the 8-bit and 16-bit look and mostly I believe this is due to cost issues with the game engines (unreal, source,unity) needed to create more graphically complex games. The one thing that these indie developers have shown is that there is still ingenuity in the industry even with all the different franchises and their many sequels that seem to clog the market. Very much like the music industry of yore, the more advertising and hype a game gets the better it does (with some exceptions, yes I am looking at you Duke Nukem reboot) and the more money it makes for a company (2K, EA, Activision) .
Publishers have many factors to consider when releasing a game. They have their own internal development studios, outside studios they have struck deals with, and also outsourced entities for not only "internal" operations, but also manufacturing and all the intricacies that go along with the final release of games. Poor management is what is bringing these companies into a unfavorable light with the average consumer, as companies continue to care more about their stockholders than their consumer they will end up paying a price that is even more costly than their bottom line. Companies are paying for services that produce discs, manuals, inserts (maps,dlc vouchers,and other promotional items) sometimes for pennies on the dollar, and in turn charging a extremely high premium for games (usually $60 a game) yet there is opportunity to make more money with a different model. Currently the new push is for a digital model which can be very profitable,if they rethink the pricing strategy that is currently in place.
Imagine if by going full digital in certain areas of the world (because worldwide the infrastructure is not currently in place to allow for full digital distribution),would allow for games to be priced at a lower starting price point (this is more than doable when less than one year after release PC games can be had at times for sometimes 75% of the original price) when taking out the equation of raw materials and associated labor it should in turn bring down the cost of games. The trend of 6 months after release games can be gotten for a fraction of their price at launch, why not settle for a lower price point to sell more copies of a game. The argument can be made that by going full digital the choice is taken out of the consumers hand of where they are able to purchase their games; however, the opportunity actually increases for more competition in the marketplace. Currently you can walk into a Gamestop, Best Buy, and even local supermarkets and pick up prepaid gift cards for everything from Red Lobster , Amazon, penguin club, and even Xbox Live. I know personally throughout the last year I have seen several instances of the Xbox Live cards being on sale on Amazon and this is how the marketplace will work, by offering cards and codes at a discounted rate. Relying on the consumer to spend more than what they originally intended stores (online and big box) can make money in this fashion. There is a term for this business model and had I been more attentive in business class I would tell ya what that term is, but I do not recall what the term is. This method of selling (and purchasing) has become the case because we are living in a time of change, and this change has impacted everything from the way we purchase items, plan our futures, and even something as small ( or as big as, depending on your point of view) as purchasing your gaming system that you are going play on for the foreseeable future.
Now if you are still reading at this point you have apparently had no issues with my grammatical errors and my very lopsided stance on the PC and console debate. If you got a take on this let me know I like healthy debate and I cherish the opportunity to be turned to another belief. I would very much like to see consoles become more open to pricing changes.
I would also like to see gaming publishers/developers be more open to user created content and not relying on DLC to be a continued cash income for games. I welcome the days of user created maps for games like Battlefield, Call Of Duty and others like it was not so many years ago.
I would like to also call for all of the gaming community to be of a higher echelon, gone are the days when we relied upon server admins to police the places we play, as more games offer multi player capabilities we are going to see less opportunity to host these games and mods on rented servers, even if that opportunity still exists, the modding of said servers tends to be unsanctioned by the game publisher/developers because they want a playing field to be more fair and balanced ( which we all want a game to be fair and hack free but yet we don't want choice taken away from the consumer) and allow for their own brand of sometimes justified policing of servers, and also sometimes unjustified.
Now I know I am sometimes all over the place but I have an excuse today, since I have been watching my favorite football team play today while I was typing this, and they got a win, so for awhile my mind was distracted and I blame them for any lack of cohesion in this post. Also I think I may be making a separate blog where I can talk about technology that I find interesting, and keep this blog to a more personal tone because I feel sometimes the tone should remain consistent with the topics that have been read prior.
One last thing before I go...I miss playing with my buds so if you see me on send me an invite and chances are I will play. This is the one thing I miss most about playing world of Warcraft, I miss the interactions with others so hit me up if you get the chance.
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