tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-178665682024-02-27T23:58:24.299-08:00David's DeliberationsJust a spot to write whatever I like, whenever I like.David Hornehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01145317456512344273noreply@blogger.comBlogger23125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-17866568.post-29483823806125524052012-08-05T02:22:00.002-07:002012-08-05T02:22:38.439-07:00Character Foil Writing Excuses Prompt<br />
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<a href="http://www.writingexcuses.com/">Writing Excuses</a> episode <a href="http://www.writingexcuses.com/2011/12/18/writing-excuses-6-29-character-foils/">6.29</a> talks about writing <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Foil_(literature)">character foils.</a> A foil being a character that offers a contrasting role that casts the other characters attributes in a sharper light. Several examples are given in the podcast.</div>
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<ul>
<li>A straight man being the foil to a funny guy.</li>
<li>The sidekick to the superhero</li>
<li>The wise man and the apprentice/student</li>
<li>Sherlock Homes and Dr Watson.</li>
<li>A theologian versus a scientist</li>
<li>A human who can't relate to humanity versus a monster that can</li>
<li>A person who believes in visions versus someone who thinks they're crazy</li>
<li>And probably some others as well</li>
</ul>
I think this is a great thing to consider when writing. The two points that I think are good to keep in mind here are that the two characters can be very alike in other respects and that both characters should have something to give. In other words the foil should have a reason for being beyond just highlighting the other characters attributes.<div>
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The prompt for this episode was:<br /><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', Times, serif, Tahoma; font-size: 11px;">Generate a list of five character pairs. Pick the most interesting of the set, and write about them.</span></div>
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So here are five character pairs of my own design:</div>
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<ol>
<li>Absolutist versus relativistic</li>
<li>Gluttonous eater versus picky eater</li>
<li>Pessimist and optimist</li>
<li>Desiring success versus having success</li>
<li>A dandy versus a slob</li>
</ol>
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And here is what I wrote on the pair I picked:</div>
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Albert sighed as he rolled the pea around with his fork as his brother ate heartily, shoveling mouthfuls of mashed potatoes, peas, carrots and roast into his maw. "Mom knows that I hate peas, why does she keep giving them to me?" </blockquote>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
Swallowing his mouthful, Greg answered, "She probably hopes that you'll be like me." waving his fork around with chubby little fingers and dripping gravy on his shirt. </blockquote>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
"I'd rather think she'd want you to be more like me." Albert wiped his clean fingers on a napkin and stared at his plate wondering if he should make an attempt to eat more as his brother made his plate as clean as Albert's fingers, mopping everything up with a soft roll. "I'm probably a lot cheaper to take car of, not that it makes any difference in my allowance." he frowned. </blockquote>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
"Yeah, well at least you get some, I'm still paying for that broken window, you know." Greg said buttering another roll as Albert got up from the table and dropped his plate in the sink. "Since you've got the money and all, do you want to go and get some ice cream?"</blockquote>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
"Only if they have rocky road, I don't even know why they make other kinds of ice cream." </blockquote>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
"I do, because all the different flavors are awesome, you have your classics, chocolate and vanilla, butter pecan, mint chocolate chip, oreo cream, fudge ripple, each one delicious in it's own way." Greg said his mouth on his sleeve. </blockquote>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
Albert scraped the remains of the meal into the trash, setting his plate in the sink, "Ok then." he said washing his hands. "Let's go."</blockquote>
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If it isn't the character pair I was aiming at was number 2 a glutton versus a picky eater. I also tried rolling in some of the other ones, but really I didn't write enough to develop them. It feels like there should be more but I've run out of time.</div>
</div>David Hornehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01145317456512344273noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-17866568.post-77013797374927081122012-07-31T00:09:00.000-07:002012-07-31T00:10:22.108-07:00Steam Punk Alice in Wonderland Prompt<a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0486275434/ref=as_li_ss_il?ie=UTF8&tag=shar0bd-20&linkCode=as2&camp=1789&creative=390957&creativeASIN=0486275434"><img border="0" src="http://ws.assoc-amazon.com/widgets/q?_encoding=UTF8&Format=_SL160_&ASIN=0486275434&MarketPlace=US&ID=AsinImage&WS=1&tag=shar0bd-20&ServiceVersion=20070822" style="float: left; margin-right: 8px;" /></a><img alt="" border="0" height="1" src="http://www.assoc-amazon.com/e/ir?t=shar0bd-20&l=as2&o=1&a=0486275434" style="border: none !important; margin: 0px !important;" width="1" /><br />
I've listened to a few of the <a href="http://www.writingexcuses.com/">Writing Excuses</a> podcasts and decided to try writing the prompt from the episode <a href="http://www.writingexcuses.com/2011/11/06/writing-excuses-6-23-pigeon-holes/">Pigeon Holes</a>.<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', Times, serif, Tahoma; font-size: 11px;">Today his prompt for you is to write the opening scene of a steampunk version of Alice in Wonderland.</span></blockquote>
Which seemed like a fine prompt, but in all honesty, I've never read the book Alice in Wonderland, so I wasn't sure how it began. So I went ahead and read the whole book, which was actually quite short and then thought about it and wrote the following in 15 minutes.<br />
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Alice starred at the sky, watching the near silent airship float by on the breath of the wind as she listened to the ticker-tack of her sisters portable computation device. There were beeps and whirrs as her sister typed away at the keys producing a long ribbon of paper spilling out one side. She looked at that strip filled with numbers, letters and symbols but saw no pictures. She sighed, how boring, she'd much rather look at an automated picture book. She laid there and pondered if she could make a paper necklace as a white rabbit whizzed by. Nothing seemed particularly odd about a rabbit rushing by but this rabbit rode on a miniature steam bike, dressed in a fine vest. The thing that caught Alice's eye was the pocket watch he took out of his vest, looking worried about some appointment. </div>
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Alice was on her feet in a flash racing after, just in time to see the rabbit and contraption roll into a large pipe. She was forced on to her knees to follow after, and crawling along in the dark feeling her way along the cool metal tube, she didn't quite notice the ground give out under her until she was falling, turning and tumbling. She fell for to great deep depths, or perhaps she fell very slowly, giving her a chance to look around at the walls as she fell. They were covered in all manner of cupboards and gears, filled with springs and sprockets gleaming metal and brass. She picked up a particularly beautiful set of binoculars, hoping to look through them and see the bottom of the hole she was falling in to. But when she put them to her eyes she found the lens to be cracked. Sadly she set them on a slowly rotating propeller mindful of her fingers as she passed. </div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 12px;">After a good long while, she finally felt the ground beneath her feet and looking around she found herself in a great hall lined with doors of all shapes and sizes, some big, some small, some wood and others metal but all locked. She tried the handle of each going along until she found a beautiful glass door. She looked through the glass and could see the gears and mechanisms that worked the lock and just down the hallway past the door she saw a beautiful garden. She thought to herself, '"Oh what a lovely garden. If only I had the key." </span><br />
<br />
Feel free to comment, but please take things with a grain of salt since I really haven't read any steam punk either. In the end, I think it was a fair go, but the thing that makes steam punk fun from my perspective is the fantastical machines, but Alice in Wonderland is already such a fantastical story that it seems difficult to one-up what's already there, and to top it off there isn't a lot of plot to speak of, it's the peculiar situations and dream like world that give the book it's feel.<br />
<br />
Also if you feel like reading a hard copy you can buy it from <a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0486275434/ref=as_li_ss_tl?ie=UTF8&tag=shar0bd-a20&linkCode=as2&camp=1789&creative=390957&creativeASIN=0486275434">Amazon.com</a><img alt="" border="0" height="1" src="http://www.assoc-amazon.com/e/ir?t=shar0bd-20&l=as2&o=1&a=0486275434" style="border: none !important; margin: 0px !important;" width="1" /> or read get the text from <a href="http://www.gutenberg.org/files/11/11-h/11-h.htm">Project Gutenburg</a>.David Hornehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01145317456512344273noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-17866568.post-23312796017271783542010-02-14T22:38:00.000-08:002010-02-14T23:20:56.814-08:00Disney's The Princess and the FrogI went to see Disney's <a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0780521/">The Princess and the Frog</a> this weekend and it was quite enjoyable. I'd say it was somewhere in between <a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0114148/">Pocahontas</a> and <a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0118829/">Cats Don't Dance</a>. I say Pocahontas because to me it was the turning point for Disney's animated musicals and Cats Don't Dance it is my favorite animated musical and Princess and the Frog had moments that reminded me of it.<div><br /></div><div>I really enjoyed The Princess and the Frog. It was cute and touching and just a little bit scary. There were moments that definitely made me laugh. I was also surprised at how sinister the bad guy was, I mean he was sleazy too, but dealing with the "other side" and bargaining with other peoples souls? Bad. I also loved how the rich girl wasn't stuck up. She might have been oblivious but she "believed" and when it mattered most didn't hold back to do what she could.</div><div><br /></div><div>The animation of the film was also wonderful. There might have been a few moments when I thought, "Oh that was definitely CG." But overall it was beautiful, seamless and rich. And even a couple magical moments. </div><div><br /></div><div>Unfortunately, the film wasn't without a couple rough spots for me. From the initial setting I set my suspension of disbelief to low. Talking animals, ok; music playing animals, um ... ok; getting lost then having millions of fireflies with unblinking lights, who you were just thinking of eating singing and dancing to lead you all the way across the swamp and also fireflies that use walkers? Well let me dial that way back for you! There sure that works out fine. It certainly made for a pretty sequence.</div><div><br /></div><div>The thing that really let me down, were the musicals. Don't get me wrong, it's not that they sang and dance, I love that stuff, it just didn't quite make it for me. I feel like they fell into the trap that musicals can fall into, singing when you could have just said or done something to express it better. </div><div><br /></div><div>I think a great example of this is the difference between the scene in the original Lion King and the Special Edition version. In the original Zazu is making the morning report and is stopped by Simba's pounce. But in the Special Edition it turns into a song that doesn't add anything to the story. It's a cute song, but it overshadowed the important interaction between Simba and Mufasa.</div><div><br /></div><div>In most of my favorite Disney movies the songs serve to add depth to a character, to accentuate a point, to gloss over things that are hard to express or make a boring passage of time interesting. And Princess and the Frog does some of it that too. But some of the songs seem like they were put there just because they could. I'll have to watch it again to come up with a more concrete example.</div><div><br /></div><div>The other problem I had with the songs in Princess in the Frog was the fact that the lyrics weren't strong. That is to say I couldn't always tell what they were singing about. I like to sing, I like to sing Disney songs, I have a hard time thinking what the lyrics to any of the songs in Princess in the Frog were. </div><div><br /></div><div>Overall though, I think that The Princess and the Frog is an excellent return for Disney to some of its animation roots. Or at least some of my favorite Disney movies. I do feel that the songs felt a little bit talked on but they didn't detract from the magical visuals and cute love story.</div><div><br /></div><div>I will see this one again and hope to see more like it in the future.</div>David Hornehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01145317456512344273noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-17866568.post-74849806134629969322008-12-01T22:36:00.000-08:002008-12-01T22:52:54.650-08:00Bolt<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-weight: bold;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;">Homeward Bound meets The Truman Show and Inspector Gadget!</span></span><div><br />I saw <i>Bolt</i> over the weekend with my Brother and Father and it was awesome!<div><br /></div><div>I had my doubts and while there me be a few minor things that lack I would gladly see it again. Actually that's not quite true, I can't wait to see it again. Of course this is partially because I missed the first few minutes, but the characters were well-developed and the story entertaining and the animation was very impressive. <span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span></div></div>David Hornehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01145317456512344273noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-17866568.post-1170308965315364662007-01-31T21:47:00.000-08:002007-01-31T21:49:25.370-08:00First Post of the YearIt's amazing, I have so much that I could write about and yet I have written so very little. Here it is the last day of the month and I'm just barely getting around to posting something. But if I wished to I could write hundreds of pages about what has transpired since my last post.<br /><br />Of course that is part of the problem. There is just so much that I could write about. There is too much to actually write. So what should I write? Not everything is interesting enough to be passed on though. In any case I suppose it's what is interesting to me that is the most important.<br /><br /><h3>Howl's Moving Castle - Movie vs Book</h3><br />A few month's ago I watched Howl's Moving Castle, an animated film directed by Hayao Miyazaki. At which time I noticed that it was based on a book by Diana Wynne Jones. She is an author who I've read several books by and enjoyed greatly. In fact I would have to say that Dogsbody is one of my favorites. In any case since that time I've wanted to read the book as well. <br /><br />And just recently I purchased it from Amazon.com and got a chance to read it. I have to say that I enjoyed it greatly, but I was really surprised at how different the two different stories are. The premise are both the same and in summary they are remarkably similar, but the little differences add up to be quite a lot.<br /><br />So the question comes up, which one is better? I don't think that I can really say. Comparing the mediums of movies and books is a difficult proposition. But sometimes a story lends itself to one medium or the other. But in this case the stories are really quite different, each one has its good parts that accentuate the medium. The movie is a bit more exciting but the book is more understandable in some cases. In the end I would have to say that while it is a good book, it is an excellent movie.David Hornehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01145317456512344273noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-17866568.post-1166297847820514542006-12-16T11:36:00.000-08:002006-12-16T11:37:27.830-08:00The Final Final ExamYesterday marked the day of my last final exam. And I felt exhausted. I'm doing a bit better today though. Of course thats mainly due to about 11 hours of sleep. It's amazing how a little sleep can make the world seem not quite so daunting.<br /><br />Anyway, back to my lamentations about finals week. It actually wasn't that bad. I only had 3 finals to complete and only one per day. So I had my Operating Systems final on Monday at 9:30-11:30 PM. Followed by a two day break until my next final, Introduction to Physics on Thursday. What really made that one a pain was that it started at 8:00 am. Which meant that I had to get up an hour earlier than usual. And since I was already having trouble getting up at the appointed time for my 9:00 am classes that was a real chore. In fact I ended up being a little late anyway. But it was fine the test itself took less than an hour to finish and I had two hours allotted. And with only one day left my last final was on Friday and it started at 10:00 am. Which was especially nice because it gave me a chance to read the last chapter the final was on. The other chapter I finished the previous day. Despite the last minute studying I did well enough and got 17 out of 20 correct.<br /><br />All in all I've passed all my classes. Of course I could have told you that last week. Even if I had completely skipped out on my finals I would have passed. My passing grade wouldn't have been as nice but I would have passed.<br /><br />Anyway, I guess the point I was trying to eventually get to was that school is done for the semester. I have passed all my classes, but school isn't over. In another 3 weeks the cycle will start all over again. I have to figure out what classes to take. I need to take some classes but not too many that I overload myself. I've already picked out two, Graphics Programming and Dynamic Web Development. I should pick out a third but I don't want to pick from the ones I should take. At some point I have to take Biology and Advanced English and then I have to choose one of the Social Sciences. Blah. I'll probably end up taking one I just don't want to right now.David Hornehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01145317456512344273noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-17866568.post-1165891408886867272006-12-11T18:43:00.000-08:002006-12-11T19:27:05.366-08:00Flock<div xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml">I just found a rather interesting web browers called <a href="http://www.flock.com/">Flock</a>. It seems unique in that it has built in functions for several web services. Such as photobucket or flicker. Neither of which I have. But I do have blogger and supposedly I can use Flock to post to blogger. And it actually works pretty well. It seems pretty slick and I'll have to play around with it to see what other cool things it can do.<br />What really impressed me right away was the fact that it was very straight forward to import my bookmarks. In fact the first thing it did when I started it. Which it did quite well, it even seems to have imported my browsing history.<br />Overall the interface seems really quite smooth. And since it is based on firefox it looks like it can do pretty much anything firefox can too.<br /></div>David Hornehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01145317456512344273noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-17866568.post-1164303520207726432006-11-23T09:27:00.000-08:002006-11-23T09:38:40.216-08:00Happy Turkey DayGobble gobble gobble! All those poor turkeys fit to be stuffed. Frozen, bathed, brined, baked or fried. Whatever the fate, they'll all end up ate. But that's ok with me. I'm thankful that a turkey gave it's life so I could partake of it. I'm also thankful for the cranberries, potatoes, pumpkins, peas, onions, bananas, wheat, celery and such that have sacrificed themselves for the occasion. And of course the thousands of people who helped bring it all together: the farmers, the truck drivers, gas station attendants, quality assurance people, people working at the canneries and meat processing plants and so forth. Oh yes and the people who deliver our propane, because without them we'd have to eat everything raw and that's not Good Eats.<br /><br />With all that there is to be thankful for it seem's somewhat shameful to bring up the next topic, my <a href="http://www.geocities.com/dijit27/gifts.html">Christmas Wishlist</a>. Someone very dear to me requested that I update it for this holiday season and so it was my honor to do such. I must say though, it is always surprising how difficult this particular task is. It would seem easy. After all, there are many many things to be desired. I can walk into a store and see dozens of things that I would like. But, I don't necessarily get them. This is because they really aren't all that valueable to me. I desire a lot of things that I don't get. Even though I could get pretty much anything, I only get the things that I <b>really</b> want. So when it comes down to it I have to find things that I would buy for myself, that I haven't yet bought. And as I said before I can pretty much afford everything that I really want. Well everything that I want that is within the budget of anyone I know anyway. <br /><br />There is more to it than just having trouble finding items that I want that I haven't got. It also seem to fit the spirit of the holiday season. I mean here it is Thanksgiving. I'm supposed to be thinking of all the things I have to be thankful for. And there are many things. But in order to update my wishlist I have to look at all the stuff I haven't got. Try to think of things that I don't have. It just seems greedy. And this is the season of giving. I want to figure out what I can get for other people. The ironic part of this is that it I want to give really good gifts too. So I end up inflicting this task on everyone I care about. This is also why it makes it bearable. I can take heart in the fact that I am providing a service that I would appreciate myself. So I make my list knowing that by doing so I'll make life for my family and friends easier and happier.David Hornehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01145317456512344273noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-17866568.post-1159135066337373542006-09-24T13:53:00.000-07:002006-09-24T14:57:46.400-07:00New Hard Drive<img style="float:right; margin:0 0 10px 10px;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;" src="http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/3698/1733/200/laptop.jpg" border="0" alt="My Powerbook G4" /> Earlier this week I purchased a replacement 2.5 inch hard drive for my Powerbook G4 and it arrived this Friday. I'm very pleased to have it. Although I didn't have to wait long, <a href="http://www.newegg.com">newegg</a> really has excellent shipping in my experience.<br /><br />The original 40gb drive that came in the Powerbook started failing in the spring and I bought Diskwarrior to rebuild the directory structure and that fixed everything till about 2 weeks ago when it failed to book again. I let Diskwarrior do it's thing but the directory tree was so damaged that the system remained unbootable. I could have just reinstalled Mac OS X on it then but I knew the problem was with the hard drive so I decided it was a much better idea to replace it completely than risk having it crash at an inopportune time.<br /><br />In any case I got myself a brand new 100 GB 7200 RPM Hitachi Travelstar 2.5 inch hard drive. I could have just sent it in to be replaced but that would have been more expensive and less fun. I've always wanted to take apart my Powerbook. But a couple things have stopped me. One I didn't have the tool, a T8 Torx, I bought that at sears for $3. And second its a lot easier to damage a laptop, or loose a screw and much more expensive to replace than a desktop system. <br /><br />Anyway, since my Powerbook G4 isn't worth as much as it once was. It's an 800mhz with 512 mb of ram, originally 40 GB hard drive, airport card and 15 inch screen. And that should be about $600 but it's been dropped so the case is warped and the latch doesn't quite work and the paint is chipped. It's what you might call battle scarred. So I might not even get that much. So with that in mind I wasn't risking a whole lot and with the added benefit if I completely botched the job I could get a new MacBook!<br /><br /><a href="http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/3698/1733/1600/PowerBookBattery.jpg"><img style="float:right; margin:0 0 10px 10px;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;" src="http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/3698/1733/200/PowerBookBattery.jpg" border="0" alt="PowerBook G4 Battery" /></a>So it was with much nervous excitement I turned my Powerbook over and removed the battery from the case. (The next upgrade I'll get will probably be a better battery.) <br /><br />That step was simple enough to complete and with the battery out of the way I was ready to remove the screws.<a href="http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/3698/1733/1600/PowerBookBack.jpg"><img style="float:left; margin:10px 10px 0 0;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;" src="http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/3698/1733/200/PowerBookBack.jpg" border="0" alt="Bottom Side of Power Book G4" /></a>I weilded my brand new Torx T8 and took them all out one by one taping them to a sticky note and labeling them so I would remember where they went. I even made sure to lay them out on the sticky note so I could put them back in the exact same hole that I removed them from. As you can see there were 7 screws in all most of them towards the back where the screen is attached. Some of them had some of that blue goo that is used to keep them from wiggling out so they were a bit harder to get started.<br /><br /><a href="http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/3698/1733/1600/BackScrews.jpg"><img style="float:right; margin:0 0 10px 10px;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;" src="http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/3698/1733/200/BackScrews.jpg" border="0" alt="Screws from Bottom of PowerBook G4" /></a><br /><br />With the screws out of the way I was a bit worried about removing the case bottom itself. But it came off very easily. It doesn't come off straight up. There are little groves in the side so you have to slide it forward towards the battery compartment.<br />Ah finally, I'm actually inside the case. Look at all those chips and resistors a lot of green and there in the center the object of my quest the failing hard drive.<a href="http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/3698/1733/1600/PowerBookOpenBack.jpg"><img style="float:right; margin:0 0 10px 10px;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;" src="http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/3698/1733/200/PowerBookOpenBack.jpg" border="0" alt="" /></a><br /><br />The T8 Torx I have is a bit long so I wasn't sure how it would work on removing the 2 screws holding the harddrive in place that are accessible to through the battery bay. The angle wasn't a problem and I soon had them taped to there own sticky pad as well.<br /><br /><a href="http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/3698/1733/1600/PowerBookDrive.jpg"><img style="float:right; margin:0 0 10px 10px;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;" src="http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/3698/1733/200/PowerBookDrive.jpg" border="0" alt="Hard Drive inside Powerbook G4" /></a>Oh I guess I actually disconnected the little cable connecting the hard drive to the motherboard first. Otherwise I would not have been able to carefully lever out the old drive to make space for the new. The old drive had two rubber grommets on the left side, a plastic shield and the cable that all had to be removed so they could be attatched to the new drive. Which I did. Getting the new drive in the space for it was a little tricky just getting things to line up and slide in, but once it was in it was easy enough to replace the screws.<br /><br />The tricky part was getting the case bottom back on. It actually slid in place fairly easy and I got all the screws in. And when I turned it on everything looked great! So I reinstalled Mac OS X 10.4 and downloaded the updates but then I noticed that if I moved windows around it would leave little scattered pixels and other garbage all over the screen! This was very bad. I figured that I must not have the case bottom on quite right because there was a little crack along the back. So I opened it up again and the only thing that I could see was the case was a bit warped so it wasn't fitting quite right. So I tilted it up on it's side so I could put some lite pressure on the right hinge and screw it into place. And luckily for me it worked. The crack dissapeareda nd I've been using my laptop since friday with no more screen jitters!<br /><br />Well overall I'm very pleased. I haven't had much of a chance to test how much faster this drive is but it seems to work well enough. Although it seems to make more noise, but that might be because I'm not used to it's noises.David Hornehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01145317456512344273noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-17866568.post-1155016227495430252006-08-07T22:49:00.000-07:002006-08-07T22:50:27.510-07:00Phantom Clutch SyndromeIt has been a little less than a week since I returned from my excursion to the North East. I spent a little more than a week there and already it seems like it was so long ago. I left July 24, Pioneer Day here in Utah, and so I missed the fireworks but family is more important. Although family and fireworks together, that is even better. And I returned Aug 1st.<br /><br />I spent a good chunk of my time with my sister in Portland, ME and almost a whole day with my Grandmother who is visiting up in ME. I think I spent the most time with my younger brother. We drove to Laconia, NH on the 26h and returned on the 29th. On are way back to Lewiston we had dinner with my older sister and the Sebago Brewing Company which was quite nice. Then on my last full day in ME I spent the day with my Mom and younger sister, which was also good.<br /><br />Then on my last day I got to finally spend some real time with my older sister. I don't remember the name of the island, but we drove out to it and walked around the edge and spent at least an hour making fairy houses. Yes that's right, fairy houses. There were quite a few impressive ones already there and hundreds of other ones, but we added ours just the same. I would certainly have some pictures to post but I never got them from my sister.<br /><br />In any case, I did quite a lot of driving over the week I was in Maine. And because my Brother, Sister and Mother all have stick-shifts, I got to get some practice in. My truck is an automatic, my Dad's vehichle is also an automatic, but since most of the rest of my family drive manual it is nice that I can still do it and only stall a little tiny bit. <br /><br />Back to my main point, I spent probably at 10 hours behind the wheel of a manual and maybe closer to 12. I really didn't keep a precise log. I sampled three different vehichles, although mainly just my sister's and my brother's. I think I drove less than 30 minutes in my Mom's car. My brothers was the most interesting to drive as it had a clutch that you really had to push and manual steering so it was almost a work out. I'm sure if I drove it for any length of time the muscles in my left leg would start bulking up. And again my point in all of this is when I got back to Utah I discovered I had <b>Phantom Clutch Syndrome</b>!<br /><br />Yes, Phantom Clutch Syndrome, or PCS is much like Phantom Limb Syndrome. It feels like you still have a limb when it is actually gone, it has been amputated. I first experienced PCS when I got into my Dad's vehichle the MMV. I put my foot down to engage the clutch and nothing was there! It really isn't as exciting as my narrative suggests. When my foot reached for nothing my brain clicked and switched back over into automatic driving mode. <br /> <br />I guess what was surprising that I had gotten used to expecting a clutch. What was even more surprising was for the next few times I started driving my foot still looked for the clutch. I'm pretty much over it though. I've reverted to my lazy left leg ways but I'm sure the next time I visit my family I'll get to do it all over again.<br /><br />So some of you might be wondering, why if I spent a whole week visiting my family in ME that I spent the majority of it writing about PCS. I mean surely I had some great times with my siblings, relatives and Mom. And I did, but I wouldn't feel right just going into great depth about them and just giving a bare factual account doesn't seem quite right either. <br /><br />I mean yes, I went with my sister and my mom to Taber's golf course and after that we got ice cream at Dairy Joy. My sister and I both got black raspberry and vanilla chocolate dipped cones and my mom got a parfait and after that we went to see Monster House at flagship cinema's and then spent an hour at Good Will buying some clothes, a suitcase and a Twin Brownie camera before going to a movie liquidation store and buying some movies. Then of course we all met up at Margarita's, a mexican restaurant across from the Lewiston Mall and had dinner. And that isn't bad description but it isn't great either. It means something to me because I can remember all the things I haven't said but it seems to be pretty much empty facts to anyone who wasn't there.David Hornehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01145317456512344273noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-17866568.post-1154716112747681582006-08-04T11:08:00.000-07:002006-08-04T11:34:07.606-07:00Christmas in July... err August!<a href="http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/3698/1733/1600/ScreamSerpent.jpg"><img style="float:right; margin:10 10px 10px 0;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;" src="http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/3698/1733/320/ScreamSerpent.jpg" border="0" alt="Screamin Serpent, Calculator, Dragon Belt buckle" /></a>Yay, I just got Christmas presents! I'm not sure what is from who because they weren't really labeled. But I think they are both from my brother and sister and thats the best part of all knowing that they were thinking of me.<br /><br />I know the Screamin Serpent roller coaster is from Ezra and the ancient TI Business Analyst - II calculator.<br />There is a dragon belt buckle that was wrapped in at least 3 layers of wrapping paper, but no label.<br />I also got two glow in the dark horns. Which are cool because the glow in the dark.<br /><br /><a href="http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/3698/1733/1600/christmas%20toys.jpg"><img style="float:left; margin:0 10px 10 10;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;" src="http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/3698/1733/320/christmas%20toys.jpg" border="0" alt="Duckman, k'nex motor, two glow in the dark horns, devon & cornwall" /></a>Probably the most amusing thing is the rolling Devon and Cornwall from the movie <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quest_for_Camelot">Quest for Camelot</a>. As a way of explanation, there is stuffed animal that was passed back and forth several times that spouted out phrases, "My name is Devon his name is Cornwall" and "Let's Barbecue this buddy." <br />As for the Daffy Duck figurine in a duckman costume, I have no clue to its significance.<br />Anyway I'm really glad to finally have my Christmas presents and now I can look forward to what I might be getting next year! Or I can just build a super roller coaster, if I ever manage to find any time.David Hornehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01145317456512344273noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-17866568.post-1153089544176362382006-07-16T14:56:00.000-07:002006-07-16T16:33:29.993-07:00July PostSince this is my first post in July and it will most likely be my last post in July and I have a couple different topics to cover I thought I would call this my July post. And with this completely useless paragraph out of the way I'll continue with the interesting stuff.<br /><h2>A Surprise Visitor</h2><br />A very strange thing happened today. I went to church (no... That's not the unusual part) and there was someone there who doesn't normally come to our branch. Can you guess what who it was? Of course it might help if you were familiar with The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints (aka 'The Mormon Church').<br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br />Give Up?<br /><br /><br /><br /><br />Well it was the Prophet, Gordon B. Hinckley. This was a very surprising thing for me and I felt a little foolish for not knowing about it earlier till I found out that most everybody else didn't know about it until they arrived and only a few people had any advanced warning. I actually found out when a whole bunch of the young men from the other ward were milling about trying to get a glance inside the chapel. Some of you may be wondering what is the big deal, so to put it in perspective it would be akin to the Pope showing up or maybe the President of the USA sitting in and observing your town council. <br /><br />On the surface it really was just another day at church but then again it wasn't. He didn't speak at all. He just sat at listened to the people who were already assigned to give talks and listen to the singing. I do have to say I don't think I've ever heard such enthusiastic singing though.<br /><br />I know I couldn't help but think about it. I kept wondering why he was there and if he was going to speak. I've only seen him speak once before and that was before a huge audience in Portland, ME. Also I couldn't help but wonder if he was there because of me. I know that its somewhat vain and egotistical to think that, but I thought it just the same. Last week I was told that I was to be released as primary teacher because they've been getting rid of all male primary teachers and I couldn't help thinking that I might be the last, but no nothing special. I wasn't even released today despite being told that I would.<br /><br />When I first got to church I noticed that to parking spaces had been blocked with cones and a car had parked in between them and I thought to myself, "How Rude." I thought that some person had just snuck inbetween the cones to get a better spot, but after I realized Gordon B. Hinckley was there I knew it was his car and I felt really foolish for thinking that. It really is better not to judge, especially when you don't have the full story. Anyway it was definitely a surprise.<br /><h2>More Movies</h2><br />Other than spending most of my time working or in school I spend in front of the TV and most of the TV I watch isn't worth writing about. Or I'd rather not write about I figure I can write about some of the movies I have seen. After all for those you who know me and care, you can see these movies too and imagine you are spending time with me. I know its a shoddy substitute.<br /><br />Yesterday I went and saw Disney's <a href="http://imdb.com/title/tt0405469/">The Wild</a>, which is in many respects a copycat of the movie <a href="http://imdb.com/title/tt0351283/">Madagascar</a>. This really isn't surprising since Disney has done this before, but whatever the case it was actually a fairly amusing movie, although it was short. Much like Madagascar it is about some city zoo animals who escape from the zoo to stop a friend from going to/getting taken to the 'wild.' There is some action in the city, they get a boat and cross the ocean, they muck around with the dangers of the untamed jungle and unlike Madagascar they return home. In a way I actually liked this better, the animations were a little more realistic although they still seemed more like stuffed animals than living ones. Some of the jokes actually made me laugh. Like Madagascar the whole ridiculousness of the notion was a too much to suspend disbelief. For instance how did they survive the ocean voyage without food. At least the lion cub, Mason, who was trapped in a crate and not found at all should have been to weak to move after probably a week of no food or water.<br /><br />Moving on last week I saw <a href="http://imdb.com/title/tt0351283/">Howl's Moving Castle</a> by Director Hayao Miyazaki and based on Dianna Wynne Jones' book of the same name. I would thoroughly recommend this to anyone who enjoys movies that I like to see. In my opinion Dianna Wynne Jones is an excellent fantasy author and puts books like the Harry Potter series to shame. Her stories are clever and engaging and after seeing the movie I was aching to read more of her stories. I've read the first couple Harry Potter stories and while they are interesting they've never really made me want to read more. And while I saw the last movie to come out it never made me wish to read the book it was based on. To clarify <i>Howl's Moving Castle</i> is an awesome piece of work in its own right and doesn't need the book to fill in things. It just reminded me of how much I've enjoyed reading some of Dianna Wynne Jones work.<br /><br />I've Also see <a href="http://imdb.com/title/tt0348150/">Superman Returns</a>, which I really don't have much to say about. It was pretty good but it didn't exactly enthrall me. Of course I've never been a huge Superman fan to begin with. The one thing that really confused me though was why did he crash into the ground in a meteor when he returned? Was it so his mother could find him again like some warped present? I don't know. The only other comment is they had way too much money to spend on the opening credits. Way too much.<br /><br /><a href="http://oneredpaperclip.blogspot.com/"><img style="float:left; margin:0 10px 10px 0;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;" src="http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/3698/1733/200/redpaperclip.jpg" border="0" alt="" /><h2>One Red Paperclip</h2></a><br />I just found this site the other day and I think it is really cool. The concept itself is really quite amusing and the fact that it was actually pulled off is really quite cool. Basically Kyle MacDonald took one red paperclip and through a succession of several trades has obtained a house. A real house and a pretty decent one too. <br /><br />Now you might be thinking, well that's crazy, that isn't fair, I want to trade a house for a red paper clip. Well that's just ridiculous, you probably don't even have a red paperclip to trade. But that isn't the point at all, at least not for me.<br /><br />The really important thing to take away from this is that anything is possible. Kyle put forth his plan and he followed through with it. He worked at it and eventually succeeded. That doesn't mean that if you want something you should do what he did, but that if you put yourself into it you can succeed. Just looking at some of his blogs he has inspired a couple spin-off ideas already. The person who got the fishpen (one of the trades) wants to send it around the world and use it as an encouragement to have people give to charities. It's started the KISS Snowglobe Army because Corbin Bernsen wants to be the greatest Snowglobe collector in the world. <br /><br />It is just very inspiring. You can accomplish so much with so little if you are just willing to put the effort into it. I know I could do all sorts of awesome things if I ever actually cared to.<br /><br /><h2>Wisdom Teeth</h2><br />Well I went to the dentist a month or so ago to get my teeth checked and then I got some cavities filled and they convinced me that I should remove my wisdom teeth. So a couple weeks ago I had both of my wisdom teeth on my left side pulled.<br />Having them pulled was quite the unpleasant experience. Although I'm sure it was the right thing, after all my lower one was pretty much at a 45 degree angle pushing into the other teeth and the upper one just kept on coming down.<br /><br />The upper one came out pretty quick and while unpleasant wasn't particularly annoying or frustrating. The lower one, the one at an angle, that was the tricky one. He had to cut off part of it, take two extra X-rays and spend was seemed like hours tugging and pulling on it. By the time it actually start to come out the anesthesia was wearing off so it was painful too. Not to painful or I would have had them stop but a nice unpleasant feeling in my jaw. I still have them both and I might take a picture and try and post them.<br /><br />After it was over, they gave me instructions on what to do and a prescription for Tylenol-3 (which has codeine) which I never filled. So after the initial anesthesia I never took any pain killers. Hooray for me, although I never really felt the need to. It actually never hurt that much, except with I took to poking it. I didn't want to eat or talk at all for the first day and very little afterward for a while. The talking isn't too surprising I don't do too much of that anyway but I do like to eat.<br /><br />The reason I didn't want to talk or speak was because while I was at the dentist I was warned that I wasn't careful the blood clots forming in the cavities might fall out and I'd get what is called dry socket which is supposed to be incredibly painful. Other than I was perfectly fine, so for the most part I was perfectly miserable. I watched the two sequels to Anne of Green Gables and read the Mutineer's Moon trilogy by David Weber and watched way too much tv in general cause I didn't feel like doing much else.<br /><br />I'm doing much better now, I can eat pretty much anything without worrying and I can brush ok and I've started flossing again because I can open my mouth wide enough to do so. I feel much better about the thing in general but I still feel a bit betrayed.<br /><br />I know it is silly but, I sort of went in with the idea that they'd just go in and yank them out quick. But no I had oral surgery. I even got to sutures. They sewed together the bottom gums because the space where the angled tooth was so big. Why would the difference between having oral surgery and having two teeth pulled by so different? That is a hard question to answer, but basically it comes done to the fact that I'm not to fond of doctors and I its hard to explain. I'm not really sure I can, of course part of it is the loss. I've lost a part of my body that I'll never have again and that is sad, even if it is better this way. Just like cutting off a frostbitten toe so you don't get gangrene and lose your entire leg. Not quite as dramatic but it is there anyawy.David Hornehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01145317456512344273noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-17866568.post-1150762409326532012006-06-19T16:28:00.000-07:002006-06-19T17:14:12.376-07:005 Mini Movie ReviewsWell It's been a while so I thought I'd post some mini-reviews on some movies I've seen lately. So with out further preamble.<br /><br /><h2>The Man Who Fell to Earth</h2><br />I was really disappointed with this movie. The premise seems promising enough, alien falls to earth, gets stranded, uses advanced technology to create a huge company to fund a project to build a spaceship home. That has great potential. Unfortunately it doesn't really live up to it. It falls very short. It has one or two interesting moments but overall its hard to follow and blah. <br /><br />Anyway I think the whole movie is best summed up by <a href="http://www.moria.co.nz/sf/manwhofell.htm">Richard Scheib</a> who wrote, "The Man Who Fell to Earth could almost be a version of E.T. where instead of returning home E.T. just gives up, becomes disillusioned and turns into a wasted lush." And while that's pretty accurate it makes the movie sound a lot more entertaining that it really is. I wouldn't recommend it, with so many other movies I'm sure you can find something better.<br /><br /><a href="http://imdb.com/title/tt0486859/">The Man Who Fell to Earth on IMDB</a><br /><br /><h2>RENT</h2><br />Now this was an enjoyable movie. It is a bit strange and I'm probably a bit biased. I listened to the music some with my brother before I ever watched the movie. Some of the music is really awesome. The characters are interesting and it has a pretty decent message too. <br /><br />I'm really not sure how to sum it up very well. The movie is really more character based than plot based. But basically a independent film uh... person makes a documentary about his life for one year.<br />In any case, if you like musicals, RENT is an enjoyable movie, go ahead watch it or not.<br /><br /><a href="http://imdb.com/title/tt0294870/">Rent on the IMDB</a><br /><br /><h2>X-Men: The Last Stand</h2><br />This is a new movie and based on the last two you would expect it to be really good. And in a way it was, it confused me at first. I left having enjoyed it but feeling vaguely disappointed. I really had to read a couple different reviews to figure why it didn't seem like a good movie. The thing is its got lots of good elements, cool characters with various powers, impressive special effects, a decent premise. Of course part of the problem is too many characters, you barely have time enough to really care at all what happens to them and others just seem to disappear. Basically just to much going on so why it was interesting it wasn't terribly engaging. There are much better reviews that go into more depths around but my advice is go ahead and watch it for special effects just don't expect much in the way of character development.<br /><br /><a href="http://imdb.com/title/tt0376994/">X-Men: The Last Stand on the IMDB</a><br /><br /><h2>The Shaggy Dog (2006)</h2><br />It really is amusing that in some ways I liked this movie more than the X-Men one. Mainly this is because I went in expecting it to be fairly corny and stupid. So when it turned out to be so that was Ok. Also I was pleased that they seemed to be able to put a few new ideas, the changing was a genetic mutagen or something and he could turn back by meditating. But in retrospect the movie was pretty juvenile and as it is a rehash of something that his done before. So if your not expecting anything classy and are amused by someone running around and making an utter fool of himself by acting like a dog you might get a few laughs.<br /><br /><a href="http://imdb.com/title/tt0393735/">The Shaggy Dog on the IMDB</a><br /><br /><h2>Doctor Zhivago</h2><br />This movie is not really something I would normally watch. But just because of that doesn't mean I didn't enjoy it. Although enjoy is a rather strong word, more of entertained or intrigued. The tale itself is rather bleak at moments. And understandably so considering the material it covers. Some of the cinematography was really well done and the acting was very good. If X-Men had no character development this had more than enough to make up for it. It is a really long move and while it does go places and has a plot it left me wanting more resolution. Still I think if you have a few hours available instead of watching one of The <a href="http://www.lordoftherings.net/homevideo/homevideo_fotr.html">Extended Lord of the Rings</a> you could watch this and expand your horizons.<br /><br /><a href="http://imdb.com/title/tt0059113/">Doctor Zhivago on the IMDB</a><br /><br />In closing I would probably rank them in this order.<br />1 Rent<br />2 Doctor Zhivago<br />3 X-Men<br />4 The Shaggy Dog<br />7 The Man Who Fell to Earth<br /><br />Yes I did skip 5 and 6 but I'm sure I could easily find two more movies much much better. In any case have fun and such.David Hornehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01145317456512344273noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-17866568.post-1139986137757364102006-02-14T22:46:00.000-08:002006-02-14T22:48:57.766-08:00Valentine's DayIf I but had a sweet heart I probably would not be writing this post at all. Instead I'd probably be showering her with gifts of chocolate and flowers. No diamonds though, don't quite have that income yet.<br /><br />But alas and alack, I do not have a sweet heart and so cannot celebrate this somewhat commercialized holiday to it's fullest. <br /><br />Sorry to be a bit down but its a little bit hard when there is a holiday that you'd like to participate in but you don't qualify. In any case, maybe next year.David Hornehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01145317456512344273noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-17866568.post-1136271393557149912006-01-02T22:50:00.000-08:002006-01-02T22:56:33.566-08:00Oh No!I think that I really scared everybody off. Nobody will comment now for fear that i'll pick them apart. Oh it is very sad.<br /><br />Anyway, it's a new year, many people have made new year resolutions. I have not made any, I have too much to do to worry about silly resolutions. I'm constantly trying to make myself better. Often I fail but every now and then I succeed in some small way and eventually with all the cumulative effect I might eventually do something really interesting.David Hornehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01145317456512344273noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-17866568.post-1135584588620403612005-12-26T00:05:00.000-08:002005-12-26T00:09:48.630-08:00Merry ChristmasYay, It's Christmas and It's Sunday. But you know what is even better? Someone commented on my blog! And although I appreciate the comment and all. I do have to say I'm a bit confused by it. <br /><br />My anonymous friend said that they had almost given up on me and that they were surprised to have seen three posts since they last checked. Now on the surface this seems perfectly reasonable. But if you look at the facts closer you will see that the last three posts go back to Dec 1. and that the one before that was on Nov 30.<br /><br />Now we can deduce from this that this person, if there statement is true, last visited between Nov 30 at 10:32 PM and Dec 1 at 6:06 PM. We can safely say this because if they last visited before or after this date then they would have seen that I posted either four or two times since they last checked being earlier or later respectively. Of course this is all well and good until you take into account the first statement which says they almost had given up on me posting at all.<br /><br />Both of these statements cannot be true. For if my friend checked before they my last three posts they would have seen my Nov 30 post and had no reason to think I had stopped writing. But if they checked before it, which would give them reason to lose hope then it would be 4 posts ago.<br /><br />So it is easy to conclude that there is something incorrect about this comment. It's simple enough in my opinion they just looked at how many posts and miscounted saying three instead of 4 and I suppose in my good grace I can forgive them for that. Especially after they commented and all.<br /><br /><h3>Now for the good stuff</h3><br />I suppose you wanted me to write about Christmas though so I suppose I'll indulge your whims for the moment. I got up bright and 'early' this morning 8'ish so I could get to church on time. But of course I opened my stocking before hand and actually opened all my presents too. <br /><br />My stocking was most satisfactory with chocolate, peanuts and citrus for consumables. A toothbrush to save my teeth, a little flashing squishy green tentacle ball, a flexible wooden snake, large bills (fake :( ) and a cute stuffed puppy wearing safety glasses sticking out the top. No bubbles.<br /><br />The presents I received that morning included a remote control car, Star Wars Trilogy (4-6) and a emergency kit for my truck. All very awesome gifts, played with the car (8 hours later after the batteries had charged), watched A New Hope and will put the kit in my truck later.<br /><br />Of course after the merriement of gift giving we rushed off to church for sacrement meeting and singing and listening to the primary sing very uplifting and especially nice because I didn't have to teach primary, yay!<br /><br />Later we had lunch with Bonnie and played some games. 2 rounds of Chinese Checkers (Fast Mode, Bonnie Won, I won), Phase 10 (I won) and Zigity (Bonnie won).<br /><br />That's pretty much it other than talking to my awesome family some on the telephone (cellphone). Well goodnight must sleep now.David Hornehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01145317456512344273noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-17866568.post-1135365988802347032005-12-23T10:56:00.000-08:002005-12-23T11:26:28.826-08:00I want more Readers!Yes yes that's right I said it. I want legions of readers dropping by my blog, hanging off my every word. Writing insightful and interesting comments that will inspire me to write even more and better articles.<br /><br />In any case this outcome is entiriley improbably at this point. I would have to write much more interesting and engaging articles to begin with instead of just some rambling nonsense. And while I do write a little better than that, it isn't much better. <br /><br />I'm not really sure why I want more readers. Or maybe it's just that I want more comments. Either way it doesn't matter since I don't have either. I suppose it's because I want to make this worthwhile to think that lots of people care about what I write and think. The overwhelming power is part of it too I'm sure being able to control the thoughts of the masses and influence them for good or at the very least encourage them to think.<br /><br />But again to do any of that I would have to right interesting and thought provoking. I also would need to write it on a regular basis. And in addition to that I would need someone else to pick up my articles and link to them so I could have an influx of traffic to my blog. Otherwise no one, except for a very special and select few who mean much more to me than everyone else, would even know it was here.<br /><br />So yes I want more readers for both selfish and unselfish reasons. But the truth of the matter is I'm not likely to get many but I'll deal with it for now.David Hornehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01145317456512344273noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-17866568.post-1135147768948859792005-12-20T22:48:00.000-08:002005-12-20T22:49:28.956-08:00Narnia and StuffI thought I had something to write about but it seems that my muse has fled in fear of actually being used. Oh well. I'm not sure why but typing in this box is a bit sluggish. I'm going to switch to a real text editor, TextEdit to be specific. Yes that isn't very exciting but now you know and I've written an entire paragraph.<br /><br />Now for paragraph two! <br /><br />Well technically this is paragraph three but more to the point, I just saw "The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe" the movie. It was really quite good. There were some significant differences but nothing major. The story line was pretty much intact and most of the key points I remember from the book were there. <br /><br />It made me wish to read the books again, even though I've read them all at least twice and most at least thrice. It made me wonder why is it that these fantasy worlds are so fascinating? Not just Narnia, but books and movies and TV shows and plays and so forth. (Interestingly enough, Safari 1.0.3 takes %80 of my processor time when it's open. That's just weird and wrong, I really need to update that)<br /><br />Anyway, I'm not quite sure where I'm going with this but isn't the world we live in interesting and exciting enough that we don't have the continual desire to forget it? Or maybe that's just me. When I really get immersed into a movie or a book, I'm not really here at all and then it's kind of sad when it's over and I have to come back. <br /><br />This world should be just as good as anything that we can dream up. So why isn't it? Everyone wants a better world so why don't we just get together and do it? Make a better world that is.<br /><br />A better world? I say that as if something is wrong with this one. I mean it works we live, we breath, we sleep, we eat and so forth but... I don't know, It just seems that there wouldn't be such a desire to escape into fantasy if it was better here.David Hornehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01145317456512344273noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-17866568.post-1133489774374519252005-12-01T18:06:00.000-08:002005-12-01T18:16:14.383-08:00A *Real* PostI've got a question for all the bright minds out there: What do you do when you are too tired to work and too stressed out to sleep?<br /><br />The obvious answer is of course post to your blog! Actually thats about it, do lots of little things that aren't really that important by not sleeping and not taking care of the things that are stressing you out.<br /><br />For instance, I need to set up some subscription stuff and website stuff at work, did that get done? No. I also need to finish a website for both work and school. Did I do that either? No. I have a couple other large projects to take care of but did I start on any one of them? Do I really even need to say?<br /><br />I was just to tired to do anything that required thinking and so while I did get some stuff done I really didn't get anywhere and about a million things are due next week and I really can finish them all. I do have barely enough time but not if I'm to tired to do it and if I'm to stressed out by what I need to do to sleep...<br /><br />Well you get the picture. I know I'll be fine I just wish I was better organized and motivated and not so tired from staying up too late and then getting up the next morning. (Yes if I could just sleep in that would solve my problems :)<br /><br />So what is my point in all this? Well I guess simply put is that I really need to stop worrying, relax go to bed and then get to work. It isn't that hard. <br /><br />The question is why don't I do it?David Hornehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01145317456512344273noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-17866568.post-1133418844301959192005-11-30T22:32:00.000-08:002005-11-30T22:34:04.310-08:00A Real Live *Christmas* TreeWell well well, what have we here? I'm posting? No that can't be it doesn't make any sense you're just imagining this.<br /><br />But since you are imagining it go ahead and imagine some other things. You could imagine me going to Home Depot and getting a nice pine tree for christmas and taking it home in the back of my pickup truck!<br /><br />Well if you could imagine that, can you imagine me finishing an assignment for CS 2420? Well if you can you can probably imagine me passing it off today 40 points of extra credit? Now that is hard to believe that my Computer Science teacher would offer that much extra credit on a 100 point project. Of course to get that I would have to have completed a Hash table using probing that resized and a Hash table using chaining that resized.<br /><br />Anyway, I'm sure you can imagine more and much more interesting things so I'll leave it up to you!David Hornehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01145317456512344273noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-17866568.post-1131325033929057232005-11-02T21:35:00.000-08:002005-11-06T16:57:13.950-08:00Peer Pressure PostI'm claiming to have been peer pressured into writing this post. But that isn't really true, especially since only <b>one</b> person has even mentioned anything about it.<br /><br />I'm tired and its a bit late and I've been pretty busy and so yeah things have been going on and I have interesting things to say but I just don't have the time or energy to really put into writing much. Or maybe its just that I'm not used to writing that much. By the way its the start of <a href="http://www.nanowrimo.org/">National Novel Writing Month</a> this month. Which is basically writing a 50,000 page novel in November. Now thats a lot of writing. I can type fast enough to type that much in a month but thats it. I can't even imagine making something that would make sense but apparently quite a few.<br /><br />The school year is almost over and there are still about a million things that are left to do for that. I have a midterm test on friday. Final projects that are due by the end of the month as well as quite a few other minor assignmentns and then of course the dreaded and most <i>feared</i> finals. Of course on top of all of that I'm going to work and I have a whole bunch of things that need to get finished there that I'm behind on as well. And of course it doesn't stop there. Next year it'll start all over again. Or really it doesn't ever really stop, it keeps going and going and going with more and more to do. I'll survive I always have I always will but what kind of bruises and scars I get who can tell. I might come out completely unscathed or I might have a complete nervous breakdown and lose everything! Even my high GPA! <b>Nooooo!</b> Not the GPA! <br /><br />----A few days later----<br /><br />Well I've survived the last round of things due. Of course there will be more. I actually started writing this post on wednesday but never got around to posting it. So much for being pressured into it.<br /><br />As I was saying before I was so rudely interrupted by something I can't remember, last weekend I went up to Salt Lake City for the ACM programming content. It was pretty cool although we didn't do to swell. We only got one problem out of eight completed and working. We completed one other but because of an obscure error it didn't put out the right output. <br /><br />Well thats all I have to write about at the moment so until the next time someone pushes me into posting, take care.David Hornehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01145317456512344273noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-17866568.post-1129841894092126322005-10-20T13:48:00.000-07:002005-10-20T13:58:14.096-07:00My First CommentOh it is a glorious day indeed. I have received my first comment. I probably should celebrate or something, but I guess I'll just write this post. Yes that would be good.<br /><br />Thank you for your comment as I'm sure I'll be thankful for all comments, even though I might not say so.<br /><br />I must add though, this probably isn't the best place to read about my daily life. My daily life is <b>boring</b> and probably not worth chronicling in on a public medium such as this. But if I want to I'm sure I will. I'll write about whatever I want to write about. Even it means I want to write about how I will write about whatever I want to write! <br /><br />Confusing? Yeah sorry about that, I'm just a bit tired and have a lot of stuff that I <i>should</i> be doing because it will be due very soon. With that said I'll go get some work done.David Hornehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01145317456512344273noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-17866568.post-1129325137931114742005-10-14T14:05:00.000-07:002005-10-14T14:33:29.083-07:00Joining the BandwagonWell, I've finally gone and done it. I've joined the band wagon. I've finally made a blog for myself. <br /><br />That's right getting a blog isn't on the cutting edge anymore it's mainstream. Blogs are everywhere, just like iPods and cell phones and other things that ten years ago either didn't exist or just for people on the cutting edge. But now it seems everyone and their father has a blog.<br /><br />Yup, that's right, my Dad got a blog before me. I've actually been wanting to have something like a blog even before I knew what one was. You can sort of see I was heading in that direction with the updates to my <a href="http://www.geocities.com/dijit27/Nimhpage.html">Secret of NIMH fan page</a>, but I never really got the format. For one thing that webpage was about the Secret of NIMH and it didn't make sense to just put anything there.<br /><br />But when I learned that my <a href="http://ezrahorne.blogspot.com/">brother, Ezra</a> had signed up at blogspot.com I thought that was pretty cool and almost did as well. Except I thought about it (a dangerous thing at times) and decided that I didn't want to look like I was just copying him. (Yeah, I know pretty petty) And then my <a href="http://crazyimpatient.blogspot.com/">younger sister</a> got a blog and then my older sister and then my Dad. And now not only do I want a blog because I wanted to have a nice system that I could post whatever I wanted whenever I wanted and not worry too much about updating and html, but I feel a little left out.<br /><br />So with that, I'm joining the band wagon, yeah I know not everyone has a blog, but now one more person does and there will be many more to come. So move over a little and share some room. Everyone has a voice to be heard.David Hornehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01145317456512344273noreply@blogger.com1