Ce weekend

This weekend went pretty well. Friday was the dance, which wasn't as fun as the WestMUNC one, but still enjoyable. Saturday was the Young Entrepreneurial Media Club Car Wash, which I went to between driving my dad and mark to and from Dobbs for a baseball game. Today was pretty much just studying. I slept late both days, and rested up for a crazy week, filled with APs and other general HW on top of that. It's times like these that I wish that it was summer. It can't come soon enough.

Until Later...

A couple of videos

I found a couple of videos online that I found interesting to watch. The first one is about Net Neutrality, a scenario that is being debated hotly in Congress. I think it is an important issue that should be discussed.

Net Neutrality Video:


The second video is a clip from Hannity & Colmes about this woman and her religion which is bashing the dead troops and basically all dead people and funerals. I found it quite outrageous, and made me want to punch her or something. Stop in-breeding already! It's people like this that make me really crazy.

Funeral Bashing with God as the excuse:

Fun weekend so far

I didn't post yesterday, I was too tired, so here's a quick recap of my Friday:
School was ok, I didn't do that well on the French test, but whatever. Hung out with Maddie, Serafina, and Stacy before the dance, (my boys didn't pull through...) The dance was good, although not as good as the WestMUNC dance. I had a lot of fun, and went to bed at like 2.

Today was a good day too. I woke up at 10, did the morning thing, breakfast etc. Drove Mark and Dad over to Dobbs for a baseball game at 11, then drove to the carwash at the HS. I stayed there until ~1:30, and then drove them home. I went to a mini-tucker study session at 6, and then went to a family friends house. Drove home, and finished watching WarGames, a movie from '83 with a teenage Matthew Broderick as the star. It was about hacking into NORAD and starting World War 3 with the Russians. I liked it because it was a good hacking movie, and also it was funny, being from the early 80s. That's about all the news I have to report tonight.

On another note though, I have a random thought. I love spy/espionage shows, eg Alias/24, and I realized recently that all of the communication (comm) units are all the same. EVERYONE touches their ear to talk on their radios to people back at some home base. For example,if terrorists are looking for people after them, all they have to look for is people with their fingers in their ears. It just seems like a dead giveaway that you are working for some secret organization. Oh well, they are both good tv. Just food for thought.

Until later...

Social Reform

In history today we learned about social reform. After reading my uncle's email back to my mom, I realized that I am also pushing for social reform, just in a different area. I think that the United States and other countries are in the middle of a huge transformation regarding technology. I believe that Big Business is going to loose out on this one. The people, and the Open Source revolution, as well as wiki-based sources are on the rise, and I think (and hope) that they are here to stay. Geez, I guess this is a topic that I feel strongly about. My mom was a little concerned with the email reply, but my dad was surprisingly understanding about it. (Must have something to do with growing up in the 60s, hehe.)

Until Later...

They just don't get it... (This is a long one)

To my 2 blog readers: this is quite a technology rant, feel free to skip to the last paragraph.
It all started when my uncle sent an email to my mom asking if I still download music for free... She had no idea, so she asked me. Yes I do, but I use something called Peer Guardian which blocks people/companies who might be trying to see what/that I am downloading. My dad asked me to explain what it is/how it works, and I did. But that I explained to him and am about to for you (WARNING: RANTING ON THE WAY) that the Recording Industry Association of America better known as the RIAA (and the Motion Picture Association of America aka the MPAA) are really in a jam, because they are having to reestablish themselves in this new model of music and video distribution. They don't get a lot of this new technology, because its the 60 yr old baby boomers that are writing stupid legislature, and wondering why people think they are loopy. They just don't get it...

The reason why the RIAA came into existence was so that artists could get widespread publicity and exposure. They took a huge chunk of the artist's profits for themselves because of their huge part of making the artist big. With the internet and its ability to skyrocket your neighbors garage band to the band that everyone is talking about, they are not needed anymore. Bands such as Hawthorne Heights, as well as Hastings' own "The Locals" and other bands have taken advantage of Myspace, Facebook, and other social networking sites and the internet in general to gain fame. This is great for them, no need to have the RIAA and their labels take a huge chunk of their profits/money upfront. The RIAA however is saying "HEY! What about me? Where do I fit in?" The bottom line is that in today's society, as far as I can tell, the RIAA isn't needed anymore. They are being cut out of the distribution model, and are pissed about this. The artist can produce songs, and then just go to a online music vendor such as iTunes and take all or most of the profits themselves. What I see happening is the RIAA is worrying about where it fits in this new model, and suing people frantically (even those who don't own a computer) for downloading music illegally. Here is where I see the second phase of my rant.

My generation/people younger than me, were born around the time of the internet, and have always downloaded music. (I do remember there being no internet at home, but having it at school, and getting a new mac, and buying something from amazon.com, and loving it :) ) I have rarely bought CDs. It's no secret that concerts support the artists better. Millions of people download music illegally daily. The (grim for the RIAA) reality is the fact that paying for music is for the most part foreign to people like me and younger. You wanted a song, you hopped onto the old Napster or Kazaa or LimeWire and downloaded it. Done. It was a simple and efficient process. End of story. The RIAA doesn't make any money out of someone downloading music illegally. People are not suddenly going to start pay for music unless it provides for an experience BETTER than that with p2p filesharing apps. The iTunes Music Store is a great step in the right direction, because of the digital art/other extras, but it's still not quite there. What pisses me off further is that there are 60 year olds in congress dictating how I use technology. My parents are younger than that, and my mom (love you, but) still has general computer trouble. I cannot believe that people who are working in congress that have a complete grasp of how the laws they are making are going to stifle/promote technology in this country. These people will not even accept iPods as gifts to learn get a chance to learn/play around with technology. It just really bothers me that they don't get it. They just don't understand what they are doing with laws such as the DMCA, and its recently proposed amendment. I completely believe in having rights to things that you make, as well as Fair Use, but some restrictions out there are just too absurd. Don't get me started on the restrictions on digital/sometimes Hi-Def TV.

I guess I'm just mainly frustrated at the predicament that we find ourselves in today. I feel like congress is blindly making laws about technology, and the RIAA is picking numbers out of the phone book and calling them, and saying that they have downloaded music illegally. It's just frustrating to me to see all of this technological promise being slowed to a crawl or halt with bureaucracy, or good technology being crapped up with tons of restrictions. The RIAA and the MPAA have to face reality, and realize that their niche is gone. The world has moved on. I'll be the first one to admit that I'm not all that political, but this fuckin' government really is screwing stuff up, in more ways than one. I'm sorry this post was so long winded, I just really had to vent my frustration. If you stuck it out, good for you.

If you care at all about technology and your technology rights, I suggest that you join these groups:
IPAC (Information Political Action Committee) - http://www.ipaction.org/
EFF (The Electronic Frontier Foundation) - http://www.eff.org/

Until later...

Wobbly/Oh well

Today was Tuesday. It was pretty uneventful. It was not a bad day, nor especially good. I forgot to go to CyberSeniors after school, so I'm sure that I lost Merchant points because of that, but oh well. I came home, finished up the French video, did the special features/bloopers, and burned the DVD. I did some SAT II Math prep, and secured arrangements to walk to school tomorrow. I also had Tennis lessons, which went wobbly. It was like my body was all over the place. I was in a weird groove, and so played sub par. Phhbt, another oh well. That was a little disappointing, but that's life. I was facebooking and came across my name in "The Cult" which reminded me of We Didn't Start The Fire, which I am listening to now. Who knows, it may help on the AP US History Test. haha, not. Not much HW to report, although I have general AP review that I should have done, and will do tomorrow for Thursday. I'm going to try and get some shut eye, so:
Until later..

Monday, wooho

It's another monday. It wasnt that bad actually. I walked to school with Serafina, saw Maddie on the way, and got our bracelets! YAY! Went to computer science, no news to report there. Went to media arts, and learned how to use iMovie. For the second class in a row. It wasnt like I spend 8 hours yesterday in iMovie editing my freakin' French video. Oh well, so it was boring, not the end of the world. Lunch was interesting, got my SAT scores. 590 on reading and writing and a 570 on math for a total of 1750. Richard informed me that that is above, but he also commented that he thought I'd do better. I then explained that I hadnt taken any practice tests, and my allergies had kicked in that day, so my mind wasnt completely there anyway. Sleepy Hollow HS was practically a greenhouse that day. So biggest thing for me now is study to do better, maybe like 100 pts on each section. Yeah, I think that's reasonable.

Had people over for 24 tonight. It was fun, like last week. However I heard that Noelle and Talia are having a competing 24 party, so we're going to try and combine forces for next week's episode. It should be fun.

Tomorrow is an everything day, blech. Off to bed...

Another day gone by..

Well, I woke up at 11:30 again, which should have been a good thing, yet I had wanted to wake up earlier so I could have more of the day to do stuff. (Stuff being things or nothing, depending on my mood.) So I got off to a late start, read the morning tech news (and non tech news) and went downstairs for breakfast. Had al bagel and locks (mmm!) and headed downstairs to start editing the french film. I spent the whole afternoon editing. The movie turned pretty out well, consitering we filmed the whole thing in such a short time. I'm bringing a DVD of it to school tomorrow to have everyone in my class review it, and take any input on changes.

On a different note: SAT SCORES TOMORROW!!! Ok heres the thing: I have no expectations for what I am going to get. I have a feeling they are going to be lukewarm scores. But what I really want, is just to see where I stand offically. I hope I have enough time tomorrow for everything, with tuesday an everything day, the impending APs/SAT IIs, the final cut of the french video (with the yet uncut bloopers/special features,) and just general school stress. I also REALLY hope I get into PL and NHS. This time of year is really hectic for me, with everything drawing to a close. Tomorrow is also the second weekly 24 Party. I look forward to that.

Tomorrow should be interesting :)

Until later...

It's been 6 months...

Hey guys,
It's been 6 months since I've blogged last. That's such a long time. I've been recently inspired to come back to it. Ok, to business...

What's going on in my head now:
1) French Video - I need to edit it for Monday or Wednesday (I'm not sure, lol)
2) AP/SAT II Studying - This needs to be done.
3) Computer Work - (This seems like it never goes away.) This time on my iBook.
4) Other school work
5) Social life

Hahaha, that's actually really funny to me. Look where social life is...Last. I guess that says something, oh well. I'm not opposed to socializing at all, just, I have other things to do that (I guess) take higher priority.

Today was overall a good day, I slept late, and did tech for about one-two hours. I went into town and picked up Thomas' for a late lunch. I wished Theresa a happy earth day, and she thought it was my birthday. (that wasn't embarrassing) At least there wasn't anyone from school there, just Nina Germain's mom (who ordered pea soups, anyone know if they are worth trying?) Warning: Techie talk coming:
I came home, and tried to fix the partition table on my external hard drive. I had tried all of these commercial programs that didn't work, and then found a free open source gem which worked amazingly. I was soooooo happy. I then proceeded to email the creator of the program thanking him for his great work. End techie talk.
I procrastinated the video editing for the most part, but I did work on trimming the video into nice clips which I plan on weaving into the French video masterpiece tomorrow.

Music I am liking recently is Pink's new CD: I'm Not Dead. Stupid Girls sends a great message, and Dear Mr. President is such a good song too. But the whole CD is really good too though, don't think it's a cd with only one or two good songs.

Um, that's about it for now...
Until later...

I'm back...

I'm back...(again, after another hiatus.)