My Life

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This has got to be the coolest Linux wallpaper I've ever seen.

I really love Google and I really love Firefox. I was looking for how to do a javascript function that would activate on a mouseclick, so I start typing "javascript on..." into my google search bar in Firefox, and it comes up with the autocompletion "onclick" automatically. I didn't even have to click the button and enter the search query, I had the answer right there in my pop-down menu. If that's not efficient, I don't know what is. Of course, I could also download that extension that sticks every known javascript function and its documentation on your sidebar, and maybe I will. Anyway, happy surfing the net.

So, I'm trying to decide where I want to go to graduate school. I'm going to get my BS this April and I'd like to go get a PhD somewhere, but I don't know where any good programs are. I've talked to several professors and they all tell me different things--as one would expect--so, I'm not too much better off, other than the fact that I now have several different ways of deciding where to go rather than no idea at all.

Ok, so I just upgraded from Fedora Core 5 to Fedora Core 6 this morning. When I started the upgrade, the "Remaining time" was 125 minutes. By the time the thermometer was 1/4 the way full and it told me to insert disk 2 it said that there were 195 minutes remaining. I'm not sure, but the last time I checked 125 was less than 195. I'm not sure exactly what algorithm they're using to calculate the thermometer and the time remaining, but I don't believe it's 100% accurate. Now, if you think that's funny, my cousin is now upgrading his system as well, and we have exactly the same package configuration. Well, when he inserted disk 2 the thermometer was roughly 1/3 full and it said that he had 1350 minutes remaining. We asked Google and it said that that's about 0.9375 days. I really hope it doesn't take that long. Of course, it's only been about 5 minutes and now it's saying 1175 remaining. But 1350-1175 = 175 (according to Google)...

I love Google. I hope they do take over the world, like everyone says they're going to. I don't know how long this has been out—I can never keep up with all of Google's new services—but Google docs is really cool. I knew they had a spreadsheets thing before, which wasn't all that exciting because excel was a lot easier for editing spreadsheets, but it was nice that it let you keep them online. Anyway, I guess Google docs is just an expansion of their spreadsheets thing. Now you can have html documents online, but the really cool thing is that you can have "collaborators." That means, you can invite the people you want to edit, or just view, any document you have on your Google docs account. You gotta love Google.

Today and last night have been really crazy. I'm a TA for a math class, so I was holding office hours yesterday and the professor called up and said that he had twisted his ankle and wanted me to teach his class today. I happily accepted—my goal in life is to be a math professor. I was thrilled at the chance to teach. I went home and prepared a lesson. It tooks hours of trying to pore over the information there and pull out the important stuff and try to decifer what the book was saying, but after a while I thought I had done a sufficient job. When I was IMing my mom last night she asked if I was nervous and, honestly, I wasn't at the time, so I told her no. However, this morning as I was sitting in my math class anticipating teaching this morning, I grew more and more nervous. As I walked from that classroom to the other, I felt so nervous I was about to explode. I really don't know what it was—I should have been able to explain everything just fine, because I und...

Yesterday was insane. I didn't do enough homework over the weekend, so I was trying to squeeze it in before and between classes. Then I had to go straight to work after school, without even seeing my wife for more than a minute. Needless to say, when I got home I was ready for bed. I really don't know why, but these last couple days it's been really hard for me to focus. My mind just keeps wandering more than it usually does. It's weird.

I didn't think I'd ever put my journal online, but I figure there's not really much I can't say to the world. I doubt anyone will ever read this stuff anyway. I just need to write a journal and I always lose the ones I write by hand. I could just save it on my own computer, but I figure this is easier. Anyway, I don't like football. I never have and I doubt I ever will. I don't want to disrespect the vast majority of America that does like the sport, but to me it's just a bunch of brutes running at each other and jumping on each other with a poorly-shaped ball somehow involved. I'm sure there's strategy involved, and I'm also sure that there's teamwork involved and all that garbage, but personally I don't see it when I watch the sport—in person or on TV. It's a complete bore. That having been said, I come to my current issue of disrest. My wife and I are attending college and her family came down this weekend to go to the foot...

This has got to be the funniest FF music video I've seen. Here's the description given at Google Video: This is a fan video of Final Fantasy VII to X. The music is a performance of Stephen Lynch. This is primarily a video for irony, since [spoiler] Cloud is infused with mako (drug-free boy) and Tidus is an outsider to Spira (immigration dude). Not to mention Zidane the bandit as (Justice guy). [end spoiler]. Anyway, hope you enjoy. Please email me at paulblewitt7 at hotmail.com if you liked it. Thanx. (Just so you know, that email address is not mine, it's the guy's who made the video.)

The first reason Google stuck out to me, years ago when I first used it, was that their homepage was uncluttered. It didn't have ads and flashy links and images all over it. It was simple and clean. I still like how they have kept it fairly free of content, adding only a few links at the top or bottom. What I really like, though, is their personalized home page. I've got my Gmail summary, my search history, word of the day, quote of the day, my online bookmarks, and there are tons of other modules that I could add and have played around with. It's really neat because you can move the modules around to how you like them. I remain convinced that Google is one of the best companies that has ever been established. I also have a homepage on googplepages.com. Read more at www.google.com/ig?hl=en

The glorious day at last has come! Ever since my cousin sent me an invite to Gmail and I found out how Google's lightyears ahead of every other company in every product they offer, and it's all free, I've been looking for Google web hosting. It's finally been announced. Of course, it appears I'm not the only one who's been looking forward to it. They've got so many people signing up they're backlogged. That's okay with me. I can wait. I'm just happy to know that the day has come. Read more at pages.google.com/-/abou...

I've known about and used Wikipedia for a long time now, but these last couple of weeks I've become a regular Wikiholic . It's really a lot of fun. I'd recommend it to anyone who likes correcting grammar, knows something about something, or just likes learning about stuff. They have a list of pages that need to be proofread and stuff like that. I like going through and proofreading them randomly because I learn something new and I have a sense of satisfaction by contributing to the community. You don't have to have an account or be logged in to edit articles, only if you want to create articles. However, it's nice to create an account because then people can leave you messages and stuff like that. The most commonly discussed issue about Wikipedia is probably, "How reliable is it?" Well, think of it this way--how many people write a normal encyclopedia, like Britannica? Maybe a few thousand, a...

Firefox has got to be the coolest web browser out there. I know what you're thinking--"How can one browser be different from another--all they do is surf the web." That's what I thought too, before I started using Firefox. Just in case you ddin't know, Firefox won PC World's #1 product of the year for 2005. It's a really streamlined browser, all customizable with only minimal wasted space. You can even go to full-screen mode to maximize the internet experience. Probably the coolest thing about Firefox, though, is the fact that anyone can make plug-ins for them. There are literally hundred of plug-ins for Firefox, with everything from spell checkers to search toolbars. My favorite is one called Tab Mix Plus. It's really cool because it remembers what windows and tabs are open when you quit Firefox, so when you open it back up you go right back to where you were before, without having to bookmark everything and remember which bookmarks...

Google's amazing. What's funny is there are people who actually complain about Google. "They are Big Brother. They watch everything we search, everything we say to everyone else." Well, in case you didn't know you can turn off all the personalized stuff. You don't have to be logged in to use Google's search function. You don't have to use Gmail to communicate with people. Google's new innovation of imbedding GoogleTalk into their webmail interface is only beneficial. Honestly, it can't be any more prying than before, when GoogleTalk was a separate application. It's only more convenient for those who like the client. You don't have to use it if you don't want to. And, just like with personalized search, you can turn off the chat logging any time you want. I personally think that Google's gotta be the smartest company out there. I mean--they don't have annoying popup ads and big banners ...

This is a really interesting tool. It will convert any text you type in to Unicode--of course, roman characters will remain unchanged, but all the crazy stuff like Chinese and Japanese will change into their HTML-Unicode sequence. This may not mean anything to most people, but to old-fashioned write-your-own-webpage people, it's really cool. Read more at www.pinyin.info/tools/c...

I really enjoy my English classes. This semester we're supposed to write a 10-page research paper, and I've decided to do mine on war, in particular the controversial nature of war, especially the current Iraq War. See my War on Terror blog.