Archive for August, 2011

Proud to be an Introvert

Introverts are greatly misunderstood. I have simply commented on the fact that I am an introvert and been rebuked as if being an introvert was a bad thing. I am one those people who always look at the ground whenever I am walking, and I decided today to google it, to see if I could find out if there were any psychological reason why I like to do so. However, the results were less than appealing to me. A whole bunch of forums showed up and the consensus on almost all of them was that the people who always stare at the ground when walking have self-esteem issues. Seriously? They didn’t mention the fact that it is very soothing to look at the brick pattern on the pathway. They didn’t mention the fact that whatever is going on in my head right at thatmoment in time is probably more interesting than the people who are passing me by. And they didn’t mention the fact that making eye contact with someone accidentally is extremely unnerving and creepy. Nope! I apparently have self-esteem issues.

In actuality, I am just an introvert. Making contact with a lot of people drains me of energy and makes me tired. I can sit in front of my computer for 10 hours without getting jumpy. I can sit down in a comfy chair with a 1000 page book and read it all the way through without taking a break. I can stay in my house for 3 days at a time without any human contact and I come out refreshed. That doesn’t mean that I am anti-social or that I can’t talk to people. On the contrary, I really like to have conversations with someone one on one  (or with a small group of friends). I am usually considered to be funny (although most of the time people laugh AT me as opposed to laughing WITH me). It takes me quite a bit of time to make new friends because I am not comfortable with starting conversations with people, but once I actually make friends with them it is for life.

Check out this post about 10 Myths about Introverts over on the Owl City Blog. I got this post via my Google Reader and I immediately hit the favorite button.

2011
08/23
CATEGORY
Uncategorized
5 comments

The Muffin Joke

For the past week or so, my brother has been turning out tons of comics on his blog/webcomic ExclusiveBlend. I decided to challenge him to draw “The Muffin Joke”, which is a sort of family joke. It isn’t actually THAT funny, but my mother finds it extremely hilarious. I actually still chuckle when I hear the joke because I picture my mother laughing her head off. Here is the joke as my brother would tell it:

JAMES: “So there’s these two muffins in the oven. One muffin says to the other muffin, ‘Boy it’s hot in here’. The other muffin says, ‘WOAH! A talking muffin.'”

MOM: *laughing so hard she almost cries*

My brother took my advice, and the comic he turned out is quite something. The artwork and coloring job look amazing. Check it out here!

He also challenged me to try and draw it myself. This is what I came up with:

I decided to use GIMP (open-source alternative to Photoshop) to color it. It turned out rather brown/gray, but there isn’t much color about two muffins sitting in an oven. Hope you enjoy it!

2011
08/10
CATEGORY
Comic
TAGS




3 comments

The Technology that changed my Life

I have been studying Computer Science for the past year or so, and I have, of course, learned quite a lot of new things to do on a computer. I learned to program with Java/Java SWING, C, Assember, and Scala. I learned how to use Eclipse and Subversion. Recently I’ve experimented with different text editors: Gedit, Nano, Vim, Emacs (which is my favorite so far), and Notepad++ (for Windows). But not one of these things actually changed how I use computers. But then a couple of months ago, I got my first smartphone. I got a beautiful Samsung Galaxy S II with Android 2.3 and a beautiful screen that cost me a small fortune (at least from my budget). Then I was an idiot and lost it. I literally felt like I lost an arm or a leg because somehow in the two weeks or so that I had my phone, I got extremely attached to it.

I was actually quite late getting on the smartphone train. My brother and sister have been rocking awesome android phones for much longer than I have and they are considerably less geeky than I am (at least my sister is. My brother is an engineer and likes discussing calculus in his free time, so he also qualifies as being a huge geek). My mother even got an iPad last year. But once I made the plunge, I couldn’t go back. My replacement phone is the LG Optimus One with Android 2.2 Froyo:


It is a pretty sweet phone. It was not extremely expensive and it has all of the features that you would expect and require from an Android phone. I am not a photo geek (I don’t like taking pictures at all) and I don’t like talking on the phone either (unless I am in the mood), so the apps that I use are mainly for accessing the web from wherever I am. But I thought I would use this post to give a shout out to my favorite apps:

1. Social Networking Apps:

For Facebook, I use the generic pre-installed facebook app. I don’t actually care for it that much, but then again, I don’t really care for facebook all that much either. Google+ is the new social networking site that was released by google about a couple of months ago. The google+ app is quite nice. My favorite social networking site is still Twitter. There seem to be thousands of different twitter apps, and up until recently, I was using Seesmic for my twitter needs, but the links in the tweets stopped working, so now I switched back to the official Twitter app. I won’t really go into detail here about the differences between all of these sites because it would take too long. I am seriously considering doing a blog on that topic though.

2. Google Reader

One of the major changes that Android has made to my life was introducing me to Google Reader. I used to look up all of my favorite blogs by hand and never really thought twice about it. But once I got android, I found that reading blogs with the provided browser is not the best experience. So I went ahead and installed Google Reader on my phone and I LOVE IT!!! Whenever anybody in my Google Reader list posts anything, my phone syncs the info automatically and the little folder on my home screen shows the number of posts that I haven’t read yet. I can just open up Google Reader and read my favorite blogs in the tram, bus, or really boring calculus lecture. One of the disadvantages is that I am no longer able to comment as easily, so I don’t seem to be using the internet as much, when in actuality, I am using it much more.

3. Amazon Kindle

I have had a Kindle ebook reader for a year now, and I absolutely love that thing. I have raved about my Kindle before, and I consider it to be one of my necessary tools in order to survive long trips (I wrote earlier this week complaining about the 17+ hour bus trip I was on. I didn’t have my Kindle. Otherwise 17 hours would have flown by). The Kindle app for Android is also quite nice. When I was flying back from Venice, my real Kindle ran out of batteries, and being able to finish my novel on my Kindle was a lifesaver! It is surprisingly easy to read a book on a 3.2 inch screen.

4. Dropbox

I wouldn’t be me if I didn’t rave about Dropbox at any given time of the day. And it is the truth. If you do have a smartphone, check out Dropbox. There is absolutely no reason not to, and you will not regret it. Even if you only have to sync one file between your computer and smartphone ONCE, you will benefit from it. It is absolutely free to get 2 GB of space! You can sync one file between any number of computers/smartphones. Click here to try Dropbox out and get 250 MB of free space!

5. Email

I managed to find the app “Hot Email” which allows me to check my Hotmail email on my phone. It is alright, although I am definitely open for suggestions. Not that I am that hopeful. I have had my msn address since 2004, and up until I got my phone, I found the email service perfectly adequate. I was just too lazy to actually switch to my gmail account permanently, even though I got that one when Gmail came out (yeah…back in the day when you needed an invite to join Gmail). But now that I have an android phone, I actually use my gmail account more! Why? Because my phone messages me whenever I get an email in my Gmail account and the gmail app is really nice for reading emails and sending them as well. It is awesome! Gmail makes emailing feel like texting.

6. Simple Notepad

I have tried out TONS of different todo applications, but they always annoyed me. I hate it when I have any alarms. I also hate it when I have to make multiple entries and edit a ton. I found that I was missing my mirror (because I always write what I have to do on my mirror). But then I found Simple Notepad. It does have a check-list option, but I always just make a text document and edit it. The nice thing about Simple Notepad is that you can use the widget option to post your todo list on one of your desktop screens like I have done above.

7. WhatsApp

WhatsApp is an app that allows you to text people who also have WhatsApp for free!

8. MyFitnessPal

MyFitnessPal is an excellent app for keeping track of your exercise, calorie intake, and current weight. I just started using it this week because I just started my no sugar thing, but I find it to be a very nice app. I was most surprised with the support it has for the foods in Germany. I found almost everything that I was looking for. It also allows you to record your weight in kilograms which is quite nice.

9. WikipediaMobile

Wikipedia is my search engine of choice, and WikipediaMobile lets me look up whatever I want, whenever I want. It’s pretty sweet.

10. Angry Birds

A very fun and very addicting game!!!

 

This post was inspired because Lifehacker just released their new Pack for Android, so be sure to check that out as well! And if you have your own favorite mobile apps, please comment and let me know about them!

2011
08/06
CATEGORY
Geeky
TAGS


















10 comments

Summer

Well…I finally have summer break. Actually, it is more like “summer break”. I got done with my Calculus final a week from last Wednesday. And I actually passed! Woot! Woot! Got really excited about that one.

Then I went to a Christian camp for young people in Male Ciche, Poland. It was really quite good. We learned about how Egypt in Exodus actually is a symbol for the world today. We need to cry out to the Lord so that he can bring us out of Egypt!

And now I officially hate buses. We took a bus from Düsseldorf, Germany, to Male Ciche, Poland. It is a 17 hour trip. Then on the way back, there was an accident and the back window of our bus somehow fell out. So we had to chill at a Polish rest area for 5 hours! And there wasn’t any toilet paper or soap. My definition of a horrible time!

Sorry for my bad grammar. I just really wanted to post something because it has been so long since I posted anything. I have decided to cut sugar out of my diet for two weeks (because I am a MAJOR addict). But now I can’t really think clearly because I am having a pretty bad headache from sugar withdrawl.

So Summer is here! But I still have to work around 30 hours and work on my final project for Computer Science. So I don’t think I am going to be getting much free time. Although I am going swimming right now which should be fun.

2011
08/01
CATEGORY
Uncategorized
5 comments

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