Dell Continues to Fail

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This post is over 15 years old and may contain information that is incorrect, outdated, or no longer relevant.
My views and opinions can change, and those that are expressed in this post may not necessarily reflect the ones I hold today.
 

Remember a while back how I had issues with my Dell laptop and I had to request service multiple times to get it in working condition?

My laptop is not functioning once again; this time, even watching a YouTube video makes my laptop overheat and shut itself down. I’ve already tried vacuuming my laptop, and the technician already cleaned out dust from my fan for me when he came to repair other parts of my laptop.

I don’t like making generalizations about a company’s entire line of products just based off of one product because it’s possible that I just got a defective product, but I know for sure that I’m not going to get another Dell Inspiron, seeing as multiple repair attempts haven’t fully resolved the problem, and even more problems are constantly popping up.

 

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Topic #95: What rare talent do you have that most people don’t know? If you don’t have a rare talent, what talent do you wish you had? Why? What’s stopping you from trying to get it?

I don’t think I have many talents that I would consider rare, but there are some skills that I have that a lot of people don’t expect me to have. For example, because I am generally quiet in real life, most people who do not know me from the Internet do not expect me to be a martial artist or a musical performer.

A skill that a lot of people have that I particularly excel at is typing. I have met a lot of typists who type relatively quickly – 100 to 120 words per minute at their record speed. However, my overall average in general is about 134 words per minute, and my average when typing only basic English text can go upwards of 150 words per minute. When I’m instant messaging, I’m using words that I use extremely frequently and am used to typing often, so I can type about 170 words per minute. Most people generally don’t believe me when I say I can type this quickly; when they see me typing, they usually don’t believe it’s something a human can do, and say that the sound of my typing sounds like hail.

A rare talent that I wish I had was extreme agility. I already have a decent amount of agility, being able to run relatively quickly and being flexible enough to accomplish things many other people cannot. However, I would like to be even more agile – agile enough that I would be able to do stunts that only experienced martial artists are able to do, such as jump off of building walls projecting upwards to climb the building and doing flips to avoid obstacles. I think the only thing stopping me from achieving this is my involvement in other activities that require my time. People who are able to do these stunts do this as a profession and are training nearly all day. Because I am currently a university student and have a job, I don’t have to time to exercise and train all day.

 

So Far in 2011…

Number of Taco Bell tacos eaten: 24

Number of times I did my own laundry: 3

 

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School Suspensions and Antisociality

by   •   Academics
 

This post is over 15 years old and may contain information that is incorrect, outdated, or no longer relevant.
My views and opinions can change, and those that are expressed in this post may not necessarily reflect the ones I hold today.
 

I spent a large chunk of today writing a paper for my educational psychology course, so I decided to throw it in here in case anyone was interested in reading it. It’s about the effects of school suspensions on antisocial behavior. I titled this paper “The Toxic Medication.” As you’re reading it, keep in mind that I had to follow a very specific rubric, so the paper might not be as fulfilling as a standard analysis paper might be.

“It’s for your own good.” Adolescents hear it all the time, and sure, the motive might be there, but do the results really reflect our intentions? For example, what if a nurturing mother somehow found medication for her terminally ill daughter and fed her a pill every day, but didn’t realize that this medication was actually toxic and was only making her daughter’s situation worse? As described by Hemphill, Toumbourou, Herrenkohl, McMorris, and Catalano in “The Effect of School Suspensions and Arrests on Subsequent Adolescent Antisocial Behavior in Australia and the United States,” this exact problem is being reflected onto the American system for discipline. Academic administrators are handing out out-of-school suspensions thinking this will stop deviant behavior, but seemingly have not yet realized that these suspensions are only making the situation worse.

The study conducted in “The Effects of School Suspensions…” focused on two different cultures – the American culture from Washington, USA and the Victorian culture from Australia – and how each region’s style of punishment affected future antisocial behavior. The differences were clear: Washington state took a “zero tolerance approach … toward preventing school violence,” while Victorian schools put emphasis on “ensuring that disciplinary actions do not negatively affect students’ studies” (737). In this longitudinal study, researchers documented how students experiencing each form of punishment ended up in the future when it came to antisocial behavior.

When gauging students’ antisocial behavior, the researchers listed specific actions that they consider antisocial behavior, such as if the students had “carried a weapon, stolen something worth more than $5 (U.S.) or $10 (Australia), attacked someone with the idea of seriously hurting them, sold illegal drugs, stole or tried to steal a motor vehicle….” I found this to be a strength of the experiment, both as a method of allowing the participants to fully understand about what the survey was inquiring, and as a method of keeping responses consistent throughout the span of the longitudinal study.

As a conclusion of the study, the researchers determined by comparing American and Australian students that out of all the potential risk factors and preventive factors (which are things that may either increase or decrease the amount of engagement in antisocial behavior, respectively), out-of-school suspensions led to the most subsequent antisocial behavior. Hypotheses for this conclusion include a possibility of “students who experience suspension rebel[ling] by engaging in further antisocial behavior,” “disconnect[ing] them from a positive social environment and increase[ing] their exposure to other risk factors,” and “promoting interaction between like-minded deviant young people” (741). I believe all these hypotheses are valid and all point to the same conclusion that acts as the root of the problem: out-of-school suspensions are essentially broken.

How exactly can something like a method of punishment be broken? Clearly, if something is broken, it does not properly serve its purpose, so we have to take a look at the goals of punishment. In universal criminal law, the three main goals of punishment are deterrence, retribution, and rehabilitation.

Deterrence is the act of preventing the actor or those around him/her from partaking in the activity that caused the punishment. To be deterrent, a punishment must be something undesirable. Is out-of-school suspension undesirable? In reality, for most people who receive out-of-school suspensions, it is probably the polar opposite. Those engaging in antisocial behavior in school are most likely unfocused on academics and do not even wish to be at school in the first place. “Forcing” them to leave school for a defined amount of time is better stated as giving them permission to avoid something they dislike. If anything, out-of-school suspensions have a negatively reinforcing effect (removing something one does not like) rather than a deterring effect. The only people out-of-school suspensions are deterring are the academically sound observers who have a stronger sense of order and would not engage in antisocial behavior in the first place.

Retribution is the act of giving back to the victim what (s)he has lost, or compensating him/her for his/her suffering. For the victim, is watching the offender leave school for a few days really an effective form of retribution? Of course, minimizing exposure to the offender would bring comfort to the victim, but that peace of mind is short-lived because suspensions don’t last forever.

Finally, rehabilitation is the act of restoring an offender to a crime-free lifestyle. As already previously stated, out-of-school suspensions ultimately only create more opportunities for these offenders to engage in more antisocial behavior, rather than changing their ways. Instead of helping offenders and guiding them towards better behavior, we are abandoning them and letting them continue down the wrong path. In summary, out-of-school suspensions fail to meet all three goals of punishment.

Another way in which we may be damaging American high schoolers by using out-of-school suspensions is the fact that academic administrators rarely look in to (and generally don’t have the time to analyze) each individual offender’s personality. As stated by Laurence Steinberg in Adolescence, Ninth Edition, according to a 2006 publication by psychologist Terrie Moffitt, we can distinguish between two different types of offenders: life-course-persistent and adolescence-limited. Life-course-persistent offenders show antisocial behavior starting from before adolescence and have a high chance of continuing antisocial behavior into adulthood, while adolescence-limited offenders both start and end antisocial behavior during adolescence. Without determining what style of offender a delinquent is, we may essentially be worsening the circumstances surrounding adolescence-limited offenders. Imposing excessive punishment on adolescent-limited offenders may give them the false impression that they are destined to be criminals, even though “the offenses committed by these youngsters do not develop into serious criminality, and these individuals do not commit serious violations of the law after adolescence” (Steinberg 424).

The implications of the findings of this study are clear. Academic administrators in the United States should alter their model of punishment to be more similar to those in other nations – Australia, for example. There are an abundant number of alternatives to out-of-school suspension that have minimal disadvantages. For example, closely related to out-of-school suspensions are in-school suspensions. Keeping the offender in school will not only deter him/her from engaging in additional antisocial behavior while out of school during suspension, it will also keep him/her engaged in the academic community by requiring attendance at school. Even detentions or community service would be more effective, as it orders offenders to spend more free time studying or serving the community. Overall, all effective forms of punishment make sure that the students are spending more time doing moral, ethical, or future-beneficial things rather than cutting them off from the school – something that out-of-school suspensions do not do. It’s time to stop poisoning our adolescents.

 

So Far in 2011…

Number of Taco Bell tacos eaten: 24

Number of times I did my own laundry: 3

 

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Broken Alarm Clocks

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Tip of the Day: If the hour button on your alarm clock isn’t working very well, shaking the alarm clock probably isn’t a good idea. Or else it might stop working completely and you’ll only be able to wake up between 8:00 AM and 8:59 AM.

Yes, I realize that I have an iPod Touch that I can set an alarm on, but the alarm app on here is so unreliable that I prefer to have a regular alarm clock that was built for the sole purpose of waking people up.

If you don’t know what I’m talking about, then I’m referring to the random bugs that have been popping up in the alarm app. On January 1 of this year, the alarm randomly stopped working, then randomly started working perfectly fine again a few days later. A few days after the switch to daylight saving time, the alarm started randomly going off an hour early.

 

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Topic #94: When was the last time you were scared? What happened? What did you learn? Are you still afraid of that situation?

Depending on what this prompt is defining as scared, I have a different responses.

If “scared” means “shocked” or “frightened,” then the last time I got scared was when someone attempted to shock or frighten me and actually did it successfully. Normally, when I’m in a standard social situation, I don’t get frightened because I’m usually expecting the unexpected. However, when I am alone for a long period of time and I don’t expect interference from other people, I usually get surprised easily because I’m in an extremely relaxed state and a small disruption may catch me off guard.

If “scared” means “afraid,” then in the most generic sense, I am afraid of the unknown. Specifically, I am afraid of things that have a high risk of negative consequences and a high risk of failure – things where I do not know what the outcome will be. The best example of this that is most applicable to me is getting lost. I have a horrible sense of direction and get lost very easily, so whenever I do not have some sort of easy-to-read map or a navigation system, I get concerned about not being able to find my way to my destination. And in case you were wondering, no, I am not afraid of any tangible objects like spiders or snakes.

 

So Far in 2011…

Number of Taco Bell tacos eaten: 24

Number of times I did my own laundry: 3

 

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Friday (Friday)

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This post is over 15 years old and may contain information that is incorrect, outdated, or no longer relevant.
My views and opinions can change, and those that are expressed in this post may not necessarily reflect the ones I hold today.
 

Happy Good Friday.

Yesterday was Thursday. Tomorrow is Saturday. And Sunday comes afterward.

Typing that just reminded me of a horrible parody of Rebecca Black’s Friday music video called Sunday. It was about this girl who was humiliating herself and singing about how she can’t wait for Easter Sunday.

If you haven’t seen Rebecca Black’s Friday yet, you should go on YouTube and search for it. (Also, where have you been, it went viral about two months ago.) I’m telling you to watch it not because it’s worth your time, but because it’s something that everyone should watch at least once just to know what it is.

 

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Topic #93: What would your profession be if you didn’t need money?

If I didn’t need money, my profession would probably be an online entertainer, similar to what I’m doing now. The only difference would be that I would have much more content and would be able to produce better content because I would have more time to work on my content before releasing it.

Another change you would see is that there would be no more paid advertisements on my website (either that or I would activate them only long enough to make enough money to pay for all hosting fees so my website can be run completely independently, then turn them off). There would still probably be some advertisements on my website, but those advertisements would only be for supporting friends who would like more publicity rather than huge companies that pay me like Google and Amazon.

 

So Far in 2011…

Number of Taco Bell tacos eaten: 24

Number of times I did my own laundry: 3

 

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Hot Dogs and Chapstick

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This post is over 15 years old and may contain information that is incorrect, outdated, or no longer relevant.
My views and opinions can change, and those that are expressed in this post may not necessarily reflect the ones I hold today.
 

The water from my shower this morning smelled like hot dogs and Chapstick.

Just sharing.

 

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Topic #92: An out of control train is about to run over a pile of happy puppies. You are standing at the control switch and can pull the lever to direct the train onto a different track, saving their lives. But that other track has a smaller pile of equally happy puppies on it. What do you do and why?

I think this is a lame remake of the original philosophical question of the value of lives and self involvement.

There are two original scenarios, both involving different degrees of self involvement. The first places you in front of a lever of a trolley that is headed straight towards three people. If you pull the lever, the trolley will switch to a different track and start heading straight towards two people. If you do nothing, the trolley will kill three people, but if you get involved, the trolley will kill two people. Most people would say that they would pull the lever because saving two lives is better than saving three.

The second original scenario is that you’re on top of a bridge next to a fat man when you see a trolley heading straight towards two people. If you push the fat man off the bridge onto the tracks, he will block the way and stop the trolley so the two people will survive. In this scenario, most people would choose to let the two people die because they would feel like a murderer for pushing a man off a bridge to save two other people.

Finally, a variation of the first scenario is if the three people the train is heading towards are three homeless people, and the two people are the president and his wife. After this change, people start pondering about the value of an individual life, and if everyone really is equal (which, in my opinion, is obviously not true).

However, this answer may surprise many people, but if I was the person at the lever, I would not flip it to save three people and sacrifice two rather than save two people and let three die. I think that the fact that these people are standing on train or trolley tracks is dumb in the first place, but I don’t want to interfere with the randomness and dynamics of life. It just happened to be that on that day, there are three people who are unlucky rather than two, and the two people who got lucky that day should not be sacrificed to reverse the misfortune of three people. However, in the case of the president, if the president was standing in the group of three people, I would switch the lever because the president has enough status and power for others to be sacrificed for his survival.

In the case of the puppies, I would do the same thing; I would not pull the lever because based on the randomness of the world (or, if you’re religious, then because of the choice of your god), the larger pile of puppies were, for whatever reason, destined to die.

 

So Far in 2011…

Number of Taco Bell tacos eaten: 24

Number of times I did my own laundry: 3

 

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Thanks for the (Unneeded) Reminders

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This post is over 15 years old and may contain information that is incorrect, outdated, or no longer relevant.
My views and opinions can change, and those that are expressed in this post may not necessarily reflect the ones I hold today.
 

First of all, thank you to all the people who read my blog post from the 17th and reminded me to pay my tuition today anyway, even though it was clear from the blog post from the 17th that I had already paid my tuition. It’s nice waking up in the morning and opening up your email to see a handful of emails reminding you pay an already-paid tuition.

… Not really. But thanks anyway.

In other news, I forgot to say Happy Passover yesterday to everyone who celebrate Passover. One of my classes was actually canceled yesterday because of Passover; apparently the instructor didn’t want people who observe that religious holiday to miss out on any course material, so she canceled class for everyone.

 

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Topic #91: Describe a debt you have yet to repay. (Hint: it does not have to be a financial debt. Did someone do you a favor? Give you great advice? Help you out of a bind?)

A debt I still have to pay are my student loans. They’re not going to be paid off for a long time, seeing as I’m still in my first year of university. I also have an outstanding credit card balance, but it isn’t very high because I already made a payment recently.

… This was a lame topic.

 

So Far in 2011…

Number of Taco Bell tacos eaten: 24

Number of times I did my own laundry: 3

 

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