R.I.P. Memorial Day

What does Memorial Day mean to you?

From Wikipedia
"Memorial Day is a United States Federal holiday observed on the last Monday of May (in 2008 on May 26). Formerly known as Decoration Day, it commemorates U.S. men and women who perished while in military service to their country. First enacted to honor Union soldiers of the American Civil War, it was expanded after World War I to include casualties of any war or military action."

How many people even understand what I just posted from wikipedia? Well to answer that in a logical manor the only way you can truly understand something is if you experience it for yourself. In my opinion the lack of consideration for others is growing exponentially over the years. Less and less people actually care about others and you can experience that for yourself when you interact with others out in public. How many times have you been cut off just yesterday?

I think the reasoning for the decline in decency in society is the lack of time. We have no time... our jobs require us to work more and more every year, a lot of people have more then 2 kids, people watch more and more TV. In our race to consume products in this capitalistic environment we have no time to be considerate to others, no time to stop and think about these many holidays that we have, only time to think about how we are gonna spend our day off watching tv, drinking beer, or getting on our private plane to Europe for our three day weekend. Well I'm not a saint either these are just my observations of how society has become but I will tell you this I have experienced enough death for more then one lifetime. So memorial day does bring me to thinking about the past, thinking about the friends and people that I knew that are gone all in one year in Iraq. One year that I will never forget but try so hard to hide away deep in my mind. One year that will forever come back when I think about that holiday Memorial Day.

Out of all the holidays this country has Memorial Day should be the biggest!! So many of our countrymen have died, died for something they belived in, died because of all the people above them sending them to danger, died because of carelessness, died by their own hate for themselves. Regardless of how they died death is eternal!! They will not be coming back to families, they will not be coming back to jobs, they will not be coming back to watch the next American Idol!! So I hope everyone has enjoyed Memorial Day and I do hope that at least when you look up and see your family around you you take the time to think about those soldiers because they would love to know their country is at least thinking about them.

Thank Goodness For Goblin Jumper Cables!!

I'm back from the online graveyard!! No rez sickness for me!! LOL. I don't think anyone reading this got that. Or did they...hmmm.

I have been gone for a long time as you can see.. scroll down. Well a few days ago I was looking for a video(this one) that I posted online about a certain game I play and found my blog that I last posted on when I was still in Iraq. LOL I was going over the posts and I realized that when I was blogging for the short time that I did, there was a feeling of release of my sadness, anger, and uncertainty. So I have decided to try it out again see where it goes maybe I will become really popular LOL. But anyway just in case u you guys wanted to know what was going on with me ...I have been back now from Iraq for over 2 years and my real life in the Tech World is going strong. I got a new job which out of all the jobs I have had so far this one is the best. Maybe I will say who the employer is later on. So on to the real reason I'm here.

Technology today allows for so many kinds of stimulation to our brains that one was never able to experience in the past. One of those technologies that I would like to briefly talk about is Online gaming. The name of this post comes from a statement a lot of people use in the Online Game called World Of Warcraft. Goblin Jumper Cables can be used to revive someone after they have been killed in battle. The game itself is so vast and complicated technologically I'm still amazed every time I play it. The lines and lines of code in the database must be in the billions I would think. The game really does give you the ability to kinda live in a alternate reality a lot of people call a meta verse..... to explain would have to be another post. There are quests you can do, big groups you can get into with live players to take down Bosses, and also the ability to take on other players like yourself. If that kinda stuff sounds amazing to you check it out. Let me know If you play and your idea's about how the game is good or bad when it comes to Gaming in general.I rank it in the top 10 video games of all time. Where do you rank it?

Well I guess you could say thats my first video game stint. As you might have concluded I do love the game World Of Warcraft. LOL Look me up on the server Eldre'Thalas Matrixrepr, or Johnrulz. For my other fans out there who don't really care about video games more content to come I swear!!

My Technological Dependency

Oh Technology what would I do without you? Being so far away from my family and most of all from my wife is so much more bearable with my good friend technology on my side.

• Cellphone Technology lets me call my wife as long as I keep buying phone cards.
• IM Technology over the internet allows me to keep in touch as long as my internet connection stays up. We can only us satellite here in Iraq.
• Webcam Technology allowed me to see my wife open her Anniversary presents (7 years baby) and I got too see her beautiful smile.

Course my dependency doesn't stop at communication Technology. There are some new ones that are slowly becoming an addiction.

• Podcasts. Without these broadcasts on the internet I wouldn't be able to stay in touch with a lot of the new technologies that are coming out all the time.
• iTunes. This technology has been around for awhile. But this year Apple came out with its new video Ipod (which my wife got for her anniversary) that added more features to iTunes. I can now purchase music videos which I can't watch cuz we don't get MTV. I can also watch TV shows. How cool is that. I though I was gonna miss out on all those cool shows. The ability to buy almost any cd has been almost like heaven to me cuz I luv music. At the PX here though I can't find the music I like so I get it on iTunes. Its become my new media player.

Last but not least My laptop. These have been around for a while too but I still had to give it props. Cuz with out my laptop I wouldn't be able to do all the other cool stuff I listed above. I will have to do a end of the year tech round up. A lot of cool stuff has come out this year.

Podcasts & My Nerd Anthology

I just want to get this out of the way. You ready....... Ok yes I'm a NERD. So what!!! Heheheeheh. I luv tech stuff!!! Mostly computers. I luv building them, tearing them apart, trying to overclock them (just like trying to get more horsepower out of your car), and upgrading them to make them even better. It pretty much takes up most of my life. I read about computers and other tech stuff everyday and yes I'm on my computer all the time. I'm in a whole category of my own though. Even though I luv Nerd type things and I'm pretty much a nerd I don't have their stereotypical social problems (see I can't even spell). I don't have to hang around just nerds I'm cool with anyone. You can kind of think of me as Blade ..... but in the nerd realm. I can go out in the sun and not get burnt to dust......hehehehehe. Ha and I have a wife eheheheheh...... stereotypical nerds don't even have girlfriends......heheheehe.

Now that that is out of the way here is another Tech snippet. Podcasts. If u are reading this and your like uhhhhhhhhhhhhhh. Well you are missing out on some good stuff. Podcasts are like radio for the internet. They are free and you can get them through iTunes. Course you can also get them through their own websites for each podcast but then you can't browse a menu like itunes. There are so many of them out there now on a whole slew of topics.

The Podcast that I listen to every week is called TWIT which stands for This Week In Tech. If you love tech stuff or are just getting into it this is a good podcast to learn a lot about what's going on in the tech world. I have the link to the TWIT website on the side panel. Any questions just leave my a comment. L8ter.

Sardine Sympathy

I live in a freaking sardine can!!! I have a few weeks of this crazy way of life left. Can you imagine 4 people in a room the size of a one car garage. Its not the worst thing that has ever happen to me but it sure as hell ain't fun. The laptop that I'm writing this from is literally right next to one of my roommates. We share a desk meant for one person. If I try and stretch well sitting here I would hit him in the head.

Why oh why would you be in that kind of situation you ask. Well I'm currently deployed in Iraq. We have been here a long time and are finally on our way out of here. So to make room for the new arrivals that are relieving us we had to cram two more people into our room. Fun stuff huh? Part of being a soldier which no matter what I have to go through I wouln't give this up for anything. The experience that I have had in my career in the military I won't be able to find anywhere else. I have had plenty of jobs in my prior civilian life and none of them compare to what I am currently doing. I really do feel I am a part of something, regardless If I fully agree with the things the military does or is directed by someone higher then them to do!

To everyone waiting for me at home (yes that means you too my beautiful wife) I really miss you and one day I will wake up and I will see all the people that I love. L8ter everyone!!!

One of My Favorite Bands** System Of A Down**!!

TENTATIVE
Superstition taking all of us for a ride Mimes overtaken by the signs of
the Right The bombs are falling overhead with no sight While you are
talking all detached, so tell us

Where you going
To the bottom
Do you hear us
We are rotting

We're going down in a spiral to the ground No one, no one's gonna save
us now

Ceremonies have killed religions for they provide The masked comforts to
delusionals, they're all in fright The true believer's head was bathed
in sunlight While you are walking all detached, so tell us

Where you going
To the bottom
Do you hear us
We are rotting

We're going down in a spiral to the ground No one, no one's gonna save
us now Not even God, no one saved us No one's gonna save us

Where do you expect us to go when the bombs fall?
Where do you expect us to go when the bombs fall?
Where do you expect them to go when the bombs fall?
Where do you expect us to go when the bombs fall?

Superstition taking all of us for a ride Mimes overtaken by the signs of
the Right The bombs are falling overhead with no sight While you are
talking all detached, detached, detached, detached, detached

Going down, in a spiral to the ground
No one, no one's gonna save us now
Not even God, no one saved us, no one saved us No one saved us, no one's
gonna save us now

Where do you expect us to go when the bombs fall?


I'm currently listening to this song while I write this. It's track 6 on Sytem Of A Down's new album Hypnotize. I'm so in awe of how well Serj and Daron sing. There is so much emotion in this song. Definalty a song worth listening to if you have ever heard of them or like Hard Rock (which I'm into). The political undertones are definalty there.... which our open to interpretation. Never really give much thought to trying to analyze what the message could be a song cuz its just a song. You never know what the artist is trying to say unless you ask them. But hey if you want to leave a comment I'm always open to a conversation. L8ter.

My first Tech snippet!! FLOCK

Flock is a free, open source web browser.

What's the idea behind Flock?

We believe that it should be easy for everyone to contribute to and participate on the web. To that end, we've started with integrating tools that make it easier to blog, publish your photos and share and discover things that are interesting to you.

Flock

I just started using this browser. I love it!! Even though its not a full release it works great. It only crashed on me once. I first heard about this browser from a podcast called Inside The Net which you can subscribe and listen to on Itunes. This might work great for my fellow bloggers out there. The browser has intergrated tools for blogging and sharing pictures in your blog. I'm actually writing this entry from within the broswer right now. The above text is directly from the homepage of flock. There is a tool called the shelf within the broswer that lets you highlight text and drag it to the shelf which you can then drag into your blog (you can do the same thing with pictures). Well if you want to check this new browser out for yourself go to www.flock.com then click on the developer tab. L8ter

Wow look at this my own blog!!!

Guess we will find out how long this lasts. How long can people really stand to hear from me?? Hehe....Hey I got a lot of things to say. I love to have conversations with people. Most of what I want to use this blog for is to talk about my thoughts on what's happening in the world and to keep in touch with my family and friends.

Pardon the resemblance to the For Dummies books. I thought it would be pretty funny to have that as my blog name since on the internet I have used ospro78 for the longest time. No I will never tell what it means either hahahahaa. I defiantly look forward to having good conversations with anyone about anything. So who ever reads this feel free to comment and say anything you want. Just don't swear cuz my family could be reading this. Well that's all for this post....see that wasn't that bad. L8ter