Picture of the Day

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I am never going to use AKA Buyback for my textbooks.

That is all.

So Far in 2011…

Number of Taco Bell tacos eaten: 10

Number of times I did my own laundry: 0

Quote of the Day

During computer science lecture today, we learned about pointers in C. Because pointers are present in other programming languages as well, and a lot of the people in the class already knew other programming languages, the instructor said:

“So if you already know this, you can amuse yourself in some other way for a while. … No, not in that way.”

Auto-Correct Fail of the Day

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Topic #25: What is your favorite sound? What is a sound you’ve never heard, that you hope to hear someday?

My favorite sound is the sound of a fast typer typing on a keyboard with tall keys. The newer reduced-sound keyboards and the flat keyboards that come on laptops don’t make as satisfying of a sound as the old, classic keyboards that came included with machines that have MS-DOS installed on them.

I can’t really think of a generic sound that I’ve never heard before that I hope to hear someday, so I took it a step further in analysis and thought of an event that I haven’t yet experienced but one day wish to, and thought about what it would sound like. After a little bit of thought, I decided that a sound I’ve never heard but want to hear someday is the sound of the workplace of a job in my future that I will be able to keep and depend on for the remainder of my life. That’s probably the biggest thing that I’m looking forward to.

So Far in 2011…

Number of Taco Bell tacos eaten: 10

Number of times I did my own laundry: 0

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Topic #22: Describe what your laugh sounds like. Who in your family is your laugh most similiar to, and most different from?

Before this, I don’t think I have ever particularly paid attention to the sound of my laugh and analyzed it.

From what I remember, I think my laugh can be described as hiccup-like and rare. When I laugh, the air comes out in semi-powerful and distinct bursts, making my laugh sound like soft hiccups occuring in very short intervals.

I would consider my laugh rare because I generally do not fake smiles or laughs like many other people do; I usually reserve my smiles or laughs for things that are truly pleasing or funny. A lot of people think this makes me seem more antisocial and disappointed all the time, but I think avoiding unnecessary smiling or laughing gives those around me an honest and accurate interpretation of my emotions. In addition, they will know when I truly am pleased or having a good time.

I’m not quite sure who in my family my laugh is most similar or most different from. I can remember circumstances when my family members have laughed and can more or less replay those instances in my head, but I can’t seem to be able to single out the sound of their laugh. I never had an interest in analyzing how people laughed, but instead, how often they laugh in what circumstances.

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Topic #23: Is it always better to know the truth, even when it hurts? Or is ignorance bliss? Or are they both true some of the time? How does your opinion on truth jive with your opinion of WikiLeaks?

I think it is always better to know the truth, regardless of if it hurts or not; I believe that neither lying about nor ignoring the problem will have any long-term positive effects. Considering short-tern consequences, learning the truth immediately after something bad happens will only cause temporary emotional pain, while ignoring the truth will not cause any pain. However, if an individual hears lies or hears nothing at all as a result of ignorance, it will most likely cause additional problems that will occur in addition to the emotional pain that will occur when the truth is revealed.

It’s difficult to compare this to my opinions about WikiLeaks because I have very little strong opinions about WikiLeaks. I have visited the site a few times before, but I never figured out how to actually use the website or how to access the contoversial information that has apparently been released on the website.

One may argue that WikiLeaks is an example of an instance where the government hiding particular information from their people is a good thing, because the public knowing about that information would result in unnecessary outrage. The government may justify this by saying that they are confident that the result will receive positive reactions, but during the process, it may seem like the plan will become a failure. However, I think it is important the public still keeps up with accurate and updated information in case the plan goes wrong and the expected success never comes. The earlier the public is informed, the better they are able to react accordingly.

So Far in 2011…

Number of Taco Bell tacos eaten: 10 (+2 today)

Number of times I did my own laundry: 0

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Topic #21: What’s the single most important thing you accomplished in 2010? And how do you plan to top it in 2011 (perhaps by completing your blogging challenge!)

I think that the single most important thing I accomplished in 2010, although its preparation spanned over many years, is getting into a sufficiently successful university. Although not as high-ranked of a university as I was hoping for, it is still of an acceptable level from my viewpoints.

Of course, getting into university did not just happen in 2010. All throughout my four years of high school, I have always had the thoughts of preparing for university in the back of my mind. Although I wasn’t exactly a top student grade-wise, I still got good-enough grades to get me into the university that I’m in now. I participated in enough extracurriculars and achieved high-enough positions in these activities to receive recognition for my work.

The main reason I thought this was still something that applied under an important thing I did in 2010 is because I did all of my application work in 2010. I looked through the Common Application used by many universities across the nation before 2010, but it was in 2010 that I actually started filling them out and writing the essays. And of course, it was in 2010 when I actually submitted them and got the responses from the universities I applied to.

I think this is the single most important thing I did in 2010 because of how important university will be to me in the future. It’s necessary to have a degree at a credible college or university to even get a job these days, let alone get one that pays well and will allow me to live a better life in the future. Not only that, in addition to a degree, hopefully I’ll get useful, applicable information that I can use later on in my life to be adept and capable at a wider range of tasks.

I don’t think I’ll be able to top the act of getting into university in 2011, seeing as these massive turning points of my life only come along once every handful of years. However, I can contribute to a future turning point in my life by performing well in my classes at university. I guess completing my blogging challenge will also be an important accomplishment, as it’ll help me develop writing skills (seeing as these prompts require more than just the comical writing I normally do) and get me used to following a daily schedule.

UPDATE: I got a handful of people asking me what university I go to, and I realized that I forgot to include it in my blog post, so I decided to edit this post and add it in. As of right now, I go to the University of Wisconsin-Madison and am studying to get a Bachelor of Science degree.

So Far in 2011…

Number of Taco Bell tacos eaten: 8

Number of times I did my own laundry: 0

I added a DailyPost badge on the blog index to show that I’m participating in the Post a Day 2011 Challenge. You should check it out if you haven’t seen it yet (both the badge and the challenge).

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Topic #18: What gives you hope? And what, if anything, makes you question hope? And what makes you question your questions of hope? And…

I usually don’t have any issues finding hope in life. The only thing I generally ever have to do to find hope is to think about what positive things could possibly happen in the future if I were to do the things that I was considering doing. Also, whenever I do something and I see the positive results right away, that also helps me a lot to gain hope in continuing the task at hand.

On the contrary, and obviously, if I were to fail at a particular task that I was depending on to either help or benefit me, that would lower my hope for continuing that task, or make me wonder if it really is worth it. However, when this happens, I start questioning my questions of hope by encouraging myself to get hope again, similar to how I initially get hope. This process of repeated questioning and hoping creates a negative feedback loop, which ultimately stabilizes my level of hope and keeps me at a stable motivation level to keep doing what I need to do.

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Topic #19: Describe a time when you witnessed bravery in your profession, with your own eyes, or in someone you admire.

There are numerous examples of bravery that I witness in my everyday life. I don’t exactly have a profession, but a majority of the jobs or things that I do relate to the Internet industry, so I’ll focus in on that as my profession – seeing as the internet has become such a powerful presence, a lot of people have taken advantage of it to spread the news about various problems across the world. For example, I can name two YouTube users off the top of my head that have used their connections with their viewers to spread the news about struggling nations – Kristina Horner to Guatemala and Shawna Howson to Zambia. To me, anyone who goes out of their country and to a different, foreign area to make sure others are aware of struggling nations around the world is exhibiting large amounts of bravery, as there are high possibilities of life-endangering situations in less modernized civilizations.

I also see acts of bravery with my own eyes on a daily basis. I see or hear police cars and fire engines with flashing lights and sirens go by almost everyday, and the people inside these vehicles are risking their lives to make sure that others are safe. Depending on the circumstance, these law enforcement officers could be easily killed while they work, but they still choose to risk their lives. There are very few things more brave than putting your life on the line to make sure the entire community is a safer place.

So Far in 2011…

Number of Taco Bell tacos eaten: 8 (+2 today)

Number of times I did my own laundry: 0

I’m slightly behind on Daily Post topics, so I’m going to do two today, and will probably do two tomorrow as well.

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Topic #16: Describe the wackiest but most useful advice you’ve ever received.

I can’t really think of any advice that falls under the category of both wacky and useful. I frequently get advice that is wacky, such as suggestions to do ridiculous and illogical things. This wacky advice is never useful, because it’s obvious that following said advice will bring negative results. I also frequently get advice that is useful, but usually it is very clear that this advice will be useful. For example, a useful piece of advice I receive frequently is to try my best in everything I do. It’s obvious that this is useful advice, but it’s definitely not wacky.

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Topic #17: Do you believe everything happens for a reason? Why or why not?

I assume that most people that answer this blog post prompt are going to do it based off their faiths and religions. Some people think that a single all-powerful god controls everything and that everything that happens is a result of his doing. I’m going to apply a similar approach to my response, but I’m going to use my theory of the Fourth Dimension as religion. If you are unfamiliar with my view of the Fourth Dimension as religion, this may or may not have any significance to you.

The concept of something happening for a reason can be taken two different ways. The first I’m going to analyze is if it is done for a reason that represents a purpose for the action. In this case, it’s possible that the Creator made a particular item designed to do a particular task and placed it into existence, but the Creator may or may not have had any particular plans for this object. For example, the Creator could have created an object to spin around in circles, but it doesn’t accomplish anything productive by doing so. In this sense, no, not everything happens for a reason.

The other way a particular item happening for a reason can be interpreted is if it happens outside the Creator’s control. My answer here is also the same, that no, not everything happens because of the Creator’s command. Using the Mario Bros. analogy that I use whenever I talk about the Fourth Dimension, it’s possible that the programmer of the Mario game implemented something into the game, but as a side effect, something else happened. That particular event didn’t happen with consent of the programmer, so it didn’t happen as a result of a reason intended by the Creator. The same applies to real life, as the Creator could have intended to do one thing in the third dimension but did multiple things at once without realizing it.

So Far in 2011…

Number of Taco Bell tacos eaten: 6 (+2 today)

Number of times I did my own laundry: 0