Getting To Bed Early/On-Time

I think the last time I got to bed between 9:30 and 10:00 PM was in eighth grade. Yeah, I know - that's sad. Once freshmen year hit, it started to hit 10:00 to 10:30 PM. Then sophomore year, I was lucky if I got to bed by 10:30 PM, and it was usually either because of math or because I had some big project to work on. I actually longed to get to bed early some of those nights when I didn't get how to do something, the clock ticking late at night, can't think beyond belief, but I know I don't have any time to work on it the next day during school. -_- God, I sure hope that isn't the case this year. I hope I can be in bed no later than 10:30 this year. Since I have a parking pass for school, I want to use it to my advantage and get the same parking spot every single day.

Blogging about this specific topic makes me think back to my earlier days of life. I remember one night when I was in either seventh or eighth grade, my dad and I were watching "Deal or No Deal" up in my parents' bedroom, and it just kept going on and on, taking forever for the contestant to pick a briefcase to open up. My dad eventually got so pissed off by it, he made me go to bed without letting brush my teeth or anything. Of course, as soon as he went downstairs I brushed my teeth and then went back to bed. It was probably 10 PM that night when I went to bed. I would even be happy with getting to bed at 10 this year for school. But yeah, it was my elementary through middle school years when I was able to get to bed the earliest and not have to worry about some big-ass project that was due the next day or in the next two days because of major procrastination. I'll make damn sure none of that bullshit happens this year.

I would say this year - sophomore year - I actually struggled with getting to bed before midnight. And only 6 hours of sleep before an AP Gov. test isn't very fun. Boy did I hate AP Gov. But that's besides the point. At least 1/4 of the school year, heck, maybe even 1/2 of the school year consisted of me not getting to bed until midnight, sometimes a half hour after midnight. I would be so pissed off when I finally got ready for bed, had all of my homework done and felt accomplished that night, and then I would look at the clock next to my night stand and it would say 12:15 AM. "Son of a bitch." I'd say to myself and groan. Although, nothing was worse than having to get up in the morning after so little sleep. Halfway through the day I'd be fighting to stay awake in English or Math. I remember when I was still on that online game I played, there was one night I will remember forever that was the reason I am permanently banned from it to this day. I was all ready for bed and (I even still had my nice glasses, now that I remember!) for some reason I decided to go on the computer for just a bit... but that turned into a half hour of madness.

I shouldn've just gone right to bed. I'd probably still be able to go on the game and I'd be so far in it, but because of what I did, I wrecked it for myself. I was on the game's "GangWars" server because the main one was down, and I remember very clearly that at around 12:30 AM I thought I could hear someone upstairs coming down, and I started freaking out. I quickly logged out, turned the computer off and bolted up to the stairs. Fortunately, they were just going to the bathroom, so I raced into my room. That moment was where I made my mistake. I was a little too loud getting to my room that my parents heard me, and my mom knew all too well what I'd been doing. The first thing she said was "James, tomorrow you are going to be deleting all of that gaming shit and I'm going to watch you do it." The first thing my dad said was "We, we don't even know who you are anymore, and it really scares us, it really does.". I knew right then and there that my chances of ever getting back on were burned up in that moment. I knew myself and that I was getting out of control, and my mom kept telling me "You're like an alcoholic, and every chance you get you keep drinking more and more beer.". I kept denying it, just like an alcoholic would do, and I didn't listen to her like I should have.

So, there you have my story of why I've had trouble getting to bed early and on-time in the past. I hope to fix that this coming school year and to never have an incident like the one I had last summer.

Random Websites

So, I'm sitting here in my sister's "new" apartment for college, along with her boyfriend Dan, and being bored, I decided to type in random website names, not knowing if they actually existed. I mean, come on - who doesn't like finding random websites when they're extremely bored, and maybe coming upon something really interesting or cool? You never know what you might "stumble upon", pun intended. So, as I tell you about some of these random websites that I found out about, hopefully you'll get a laugh or two out of some of them, and if you're one who hates computers like no other, then one of these websites is for you. Without further adu, let's get started!

www.iamawesome.com
The first site I decided to look up was "imawesome.com", thinking someone could easily have this domain name and say they are simply awesome. Sure enough, the site loaded in less than half a second, and all it said was "its true.". Whoever owns that site, you are very awesome. I'm sure it gets lots of traffic from boredom and other people searching about awesomeness. I can't seem to stretch out this paragraph much more, so I'll just stop it here before you get bored and go to that site.

www.yomamma.com
Alright, come on. You know this website is real. Anyone who has some humor and goes on the Internet often enough would know to type this in sometime. And yes, it does come loaded with many "Yo' Mamma" jokes, just like you'd expect. Not only that, but I just read some more on top of the site, and it even comes packed with insults! What more could you possible ask from a site like this?! Lol, anyway, I simply laughed when I came upon this site, not a bit surprised at its content. Yo' Mamma's so poor, she waves an ice cube around and calls it air conditioning! Onward!

www.computerssuck.com
Even though I am very very very computer-saavy, I laughed at everyone that posted on this site about how much they hate working with computers, and just the computer world in general. One person said that the computers at what ever library they went to were so slow that it took two hours to load one website. That isn't a reason to hate the computer; that's just really shitty Internet service. But, I mean, who the hell would sit there anyway for two whole hours waiting for one fucking site to load up. Seriously. Anyway, I found the site very funny, and I tried finding a way to post about how much I love computers and that they are the best creation in the world, but I was unable to. So yeah, that was fun.

Those are the three websites I found to be the best for just typing in random shit into the address bar, and I don't know if I'll find anymore like them. If I do, I'll be sure to add them to this post, whether that be in 1 minute, 1 day or several weeks. But for now, I will continue to surf the net until my parents come back and we go for lunch, unless my sister's recital still needs to take place, then we will wait 'till that is over.

If I Could Go Back In Time

If I were able to go back to a certain time in my life, it would be my eighth grade year of school, and more specifically, the summer before my freshmen year of high school. The reason being it was a very fun summer. I was on YouTube a lot, making videos for "The iPhone App Show", other random videos I had attempted to make, and so on. Unfortunately, due to time going on, being busy and all, I don't make YouTube videos right now. I haven't made one since I started high school, which is sad. I really wish I could get back on and continue the app show. :(

Currently, I am a junior in high school. Man has the time flown by. Just yesterday it feels like I was entering my first day of middle school as a fifth grader. Another big reason why I would go back to my eight grade year is because I remember very specifically, when school was winding down and summer was upon me, I was just walking around at school in the hall and in different classrooms, and I decided to go into the math room and sit there for a while. I looked around and thought "Wow, I'm almost done with my time here.". I was actually kind of sad, because I'm one of those people who really liked their childhood, unless you don't consider up to eighth grade your childhood, but I do. Anyway, I also remember that summer being the time when I got into the world of jailbreaking and tweaking my iPhone like no other. The very first time I had ever jailbroken my iPhone was when had first found out about the Spirit jailbreak, and how simple it was. I downloaded the software, connected my iPhone to my trusty Netbook and started the process. It didn't take long at all, but I remember being so nervous that it wouldn't work or something. 

That jailbreak was the first of many jailbreaks I had performed that summer. I used RedSn0w at least 5 times. I would jailbreak, then unjailbreak, jailbreak, etc. I don't know why, but that's what I did. Once I realized I could my iPhone's screen to show on my Netbook, I began working with my shitty webcam on my computer and figured out a way to start up "The iPhone App Show". I didn't think to do it all on my own, Lane Fournerat, better known as "LaneVids", had been doing it for a while, and I recall my older sister showing me a video and it was of him reviewing the "Talking Carl" app. He used a program called CamTwist, and it was a more-than-perfect setup. I unfortunately couldn't use the same program, as it was only for Mac computers. I eventually lived with using my webcam and the screen recording software I had found off the Internet that was free. I got through 17 episodes before I had to quit because of school. I was really bummed when I had to stop, because it was fun recording the video and then editing it. 

Then, in the winter of I believe 2011, I was hoping to get back on with making videos, and I attempted to notify what very small viewer base I had created over the summer (because I haven't been making videos in so long, it has stayed at the same number, which confuses me, because I'd think subscribers would unsubscribe from me because I don't produce anymore content) that I was going to try making more videos, but it never happened. I then decided to wait until school was over and start again in the summer, but it still never happened. The reason for that was because (1) I had failed my second semester math exam, putting me at a D+ for the year, and (2) my control/addiction with technology was worsening. I had wasted literally half of my summer on a game that was getting me nowhere in the real world. I would stay up until 2 AM playing on the computer, go to bed, and then get up at lunch time, eat and then play until sometimes 3 AM. It was sad, and I wish I had thought for myself during that time and listened to my parents when they told me to get off. To this day, I'm banned from the game and even the websites that go along with the game. 

So, as I sit here typing up this blog post on this very hot August summer day, I think back to what I could've done better with my past, and how now I can only look to the future and how I can choose to utilize it. But, I guess people could be saying "Life's too short to dawn on the past; live it up like there's no tomorrow." or something like that. 

Internet Speeds

If you haven't noticed, or are just starting to read my blog, you will have found out that I'm quite fond of computers and the technological world. One thing that really keens my interest is the Internet, and how fast I'm able to load webpages and YouTube videos. Back in like 2004 or 2005, my family got dial-up, which was the only available Internet service for us at the time, and it wasn't very convenient. Every time someone was connected to the web, you couldn't talk on the phone, and vice versa. Especially when "dialing up" to the Internet wasn't working well, then it was total shit. Speeds weren't great to begin with, but it was better than having nothing. It was very normal for any member of the family to start downloading a five-minute video and come back a half hour, even an hour later to see it barely halfway finished downloading. I'm not even quite sure of what speeds for download and upload we were supposed to be getting, but they obviously weren't the greatest. 

About 5 years ago (I'm not even entirely sure when all of this happened, just complete guesses.), we were fed up with dial-up and looked for any possible wireless high-speed services available in our area. Our neighbors across the road had been with Bertram Wireless for quite some time, so we decided to ask them about it, and see how they liked it. We ended up going with Bertram, and immediately after they set everything up, loading speeds for everything were ridiculously fast. Everyone would start freaking out when even just a two-minute video would instantly start loading, with zero buffering. But somehow, as time, weeks and months went on, the speeds seemed to gradually diminish, but none of us were really sure why. We had virus protection on, so it wasn't like thousands of viruses were slowing down our computer. Soon enough we  just upped the plan we had for Internet and it went back to the lighting-fast speeds (well, not "lightning-fast, but whatever). 

Now, having been with Bertram for some time, about two months ago we were even getting fed up with their speeds and how often the Internet would sometimes act up, not connecting to anything at all. We decided to try out Verizon Mobile Broadband, as another neighbor of ours had it and they had never had any trouble with it. When we picked out our plan, which was 6 GB/month (realizing later on it was a terrrrible choice), we tried it out. The speeds got worse. The reason being the plan used 3G, and our area doesn't pick up 3G well, even though the Verizon assistant guy told us we were under 100% coverage from their nearest tower to us. Not even 5 hours after we set up their service did we return the plan and go right back to Bertram, which we still have today. Trying out this Verizon service made us also realize that we use a shit-load of data each month. I think in June we used just over 90 gigs of data. O.O I was actually stunned, totally not expecting that high of a number. So, we realized we were MUCH better off with Bertram than we would've been with Verizon, since we probably would've used up our 6 gigs within 2 days. 

Unfortunately, because of our location, we wouldn't ever be able to get Cable or Charter, or any other high-speed service like those. At least Bertram meets most of our standards, despite them sometimes really pissing us off. :\

My Beliefs In Ghosts

I have always been in the very middle of this topic; I don't fully believe in them, but I do think they may exist somewhere. My main reason for not actually believing in ghosts is because I've never had a personal encounter with one, or just any object moving all on its own. I've never been sitting in a room when suddenly the door slams shut or slides wide open. If it ever had happened to me, I'd flip shit and probably piss my pants. Nor have I ever seen an odd white mist in the air of a certain shape in family pictures, since that seems the most common place to see proof of a ghost. Of course, I've gone on YouTube and seen videos that claim to have actual footage of a ghost in the hallway, doors shutting on their own and lights flickering on and off. Most, of not all, of those videos are just people trying to grab attention for their channels, since I'm sure it's very easy to make it look like a house is haunted. The door shutting one is so easy it's not even funny; just tie a string to the other side (the person pulling hiding, obviously), and then they slowly pull it to add some effect.

Along side the videos, there are numerous stories on the Internet that tell how a family encountered many sightings of ghosts, usually of people that may have died in that house or hang around there because of old memories. They'll usually say that they heard footsteps in the hallway all night or they may see imprints of feet in a room or something, claiming that no one had ever stepped foot in there. When I read that stuff, I am pretty convinced ghosts are real, but then again, you never know if the author is simply lying to get attention. The only thing I don't like about researching ghost proof and all those stories is when I do it 10 minutes before I head off to bed, because then that's on my mind all night, and I'm worried I'll see weird shapes in my room. I haven't seen anything mysterious for 17 years of my life, and I'm not too suspicious of any place in my house.

Of course, if I think about it hard enough, my mind will make me think I'm seeing a face looking at me through my bedroom window, and then I'll scare myself. I'm even getting a little scared right now as I type this post. It's kind of hard to get through this one, actually. I may not really believe in ghosts, but thinking about them scares the shit out of me. Alright, I can't take it anymore. Bye bye!

My (Terrible) Hackintosh Experience

Before I start the story, this did NOT happen recently; it was in the middle of my freshmen year of high school - I am now a junior. Alright, now that that's cleared up, let's begin. 

So, I've always been curious about hackintoshing my Netbook and wondered if I'd be able to someday do it. Off and on the motivation would hit me and I would start Googling "how to hackintosh HP mini 110 Netbook" as that was the make/model of my Netbook (and yes, I know a Netbook is not the ideal laptop or PC to hackintosh, but it was my only choice). Eventually, and actually rather quickly, I would lose the motivation after realizing that the easiest way to go about doing the hacking would be to have an actual Mac OS X install disc, which I knew more than well that I wasn't gonna do that. After countless Google searches of it, I finally decided that the easiest way to actually get anywhere close to making it happen would be to torrent Mac OS X Leopard, download a virtual disc image software and do the hacking that way. 

I didn't have a portable CD drive, but luckily a friend of mine had one, and he was kind enough to let me borrow it for however long the damn process would take on my very first attempt with this risky business. So, after I had finally downloaded the torrent and put it onto the disc, I was ready to boot up from the CD and start installing Mac OS X (of course, way before all this I had made sure I backed up whatever I wanted to save). Everything was going smoothly at first, selecting the partitioned drive to install the OS onto, choosing whatever other small features I needed, blah blah blah. The actual installation probably took the longest, as it was roughly a half hour. This very next part was the most nerve-racking. After I rebooted my Netbook, I wanted to have it be so that I could dual-boot Windows 7 AND Mac OS X... which I obviously didn't do enough researching on, because it's where I fucked up. Once I rebooted, a bunch of confusing text rolled through the screen, and I didn't know what the hell to do. After that was done, nothing happened. I was slowly starting to panic, knowing this was probably going to happen. 

My next move was to try restarting the system. That only made it worse. It immediately showed an error message on the screen, so I couldn't boot up into anything. About 5 minutes after this, I was literally sobbing, thinking I had somehow overwritten Windows and had destroyed my Netbook (I can get extremely nervous when things start to go wrong for me tech-wise). I started frantically texting my friend who had borrowed me his portable CD drive, and he tried helping me through it, since he's a tech guy. He told me that Windows was still there, I had just confused the boot loader and it didn't know what to do, since I hadn't set it correctly for Mac (which is why I knew I should never have attempted this thing). I ended up giving him my Netbook for a while so he could fix it and get Windows back up and running. It took about 3 or 4 days, and then it was back to its good-ole' self. 

To this day, I don't even dream of or consider hackintoshing my Netbook, as I always remember what happened when I tried it on my own (like an idiot) the first time. But hey, I was a stupid freshmen. And so, there you have it. My first and worst experience with the world of hackintosh and how it definitely is not for me. I wouldn't even have a professional do it for me. I love Windows 7, and I see no need to mash Mac OS X along side it. 

It's August!

I'm 17 now, so... yeah. Not too big of a deal. The USA is in first place with the most medals so far, and the rowing event is going on right now. The US is actually in first place! We kick ass. We're almost a whole boat length ahead of everyone. Yeah, biches. That's how we do it.