Saturday, June 30, 2007

We went to the Miramar Air Museum, to see the Air planes. I always enjoy looking at military aircraft.

---Alex



Well I just got back from the Apple store. WOW. They have iPhones! I got to play with one for about 15 minutes or so. The iPhone is amazingly fast. Works amazingly. I went viewed my blog from the thing. Views regular web pages like nothing I've seen from something that size. When You view the page it first gives you a view that has been miniature view just like you would see from a regular browser. Then if you put two fingers together and pull them apart, with will increase the magnification. You can increase the magnification any amount that you want up to the point that it even larger than it would be in the regular browser. The music feature is called iPod, which bugged me a little bit, I'm sure sure why, put it did. I think it was because its and iPhone not an iPod, I would have called it iTunes Mobile. It has a really amazing system for scrolling, which I have always have felt was one of the biggest short coming of most Palm Pilots. You just place one finger anywhere on the screen, and you can pull the view any direction. It is much smaller than I was expecting. I would say it is a little bit smaller than a video iPod. Very beautiful. I was surprised, how Apple didn't just use one of their normal schemes, they created a whole new design for the iPhone. A brushed metal back with a tan tint to it. With the Apple logo in the center, in a very crisp stainless fashion. There is the one menu button on the front, Which was incorporated very well into the design, to the point that I didn't even notice it at first. On the left edge there is a up/down button to control the volume, and a toggle switch to switch the iPhone into vibrate mode. The iPhone also has one button on the top to turn it on and off. My one complaint is that the headphone jack was recessed, forcing you to use the standard Apple headphones. Over all I am very impressed, and would like to see how it develops in the coming months.

---Alex



Today we went to the San Diego County Fair. I got to spend some time with some of Andy's friends. I was a lot of fun. Rides, food, fun. Unfortunately I didn't have my camera, but some of them did, maybe I can get some of their pictures.

---Alex

Thursday, June 28, 2007

It is really amazing how people react in the face of problems. First I found that everyone was enraged, and wanted the problem fixed right away, even at the expense of anyone else. I really don't like this sort of mentality, as it is very selfish, and really just makes me feel wonder how many kind people are left in the world. After a while I noticed that this outwardly expression of selfishness really started to subside, and intern it was replaced by a sort of inward selfishness. and it really seemed to me that everyone (or at least most people) really were still dwelling on their problems, but at least they are doing it to themselves now. As people started to get bored or frustrated of dwelling on this problem that they have, they start in conversation with the people traveling with them, but its just the average frustrated conversation. Its at about this time that people start to realize that the other people around them are in the exact same situation as themselves. And this is the part I like because now everyone else starts to talk to each other and to get to know each other.I find it really interesting that people change so much in how they interact with each other. I really wish that we all could find a way to interact like this on more a a regular basis. Why do we as Americans find a need to not engage with other people unless forced to?

---Alex

We finally got though the Oklahoma City Airport security. We were selected to be "Randomly Searched." Which sounds rather harmless to most people, unless you have been "randomly Selected." First I was wandded and they inspected every piece of metal on my person, which solely consisted of the rivets on my jeans, and the ink pen in my pocket. Then since they could find anything wrong, and were so determined to find something, they decided that they needed to to physically pat me down and turn my pants inside out to inspect the inside of my jeans. When they couldn't find anything wrong with me, they decided to move along with bag. Being the geek that I am I had many adapters, cables, and such. He spent about 15 minutes running chemical tests on every single thing in my laptop bag. When he was finally done and went to put everything he couldn't remember how it was all to start with and just tossed it all back in a very messy way. It wasn't just me either, he also had to search my entire family. My 4 year old sister went through the normal security first, and went completely through. My mother followed, and was immediately told she had to be searched, They weren't even going to allow her to get my sister, until she was completely adamant that she must get her, before going on with the search. Then they wandded my 4 year old sister, and patted her down. That was completely inappropriate. No minor would be allowed to be searched like that without proper provocation, some computer thinking that your ticket number looks good to be searched is not nearly enough provocation for a search of this magnitude. They say that they do this to "protect me," that this is used to hopefully catch a suspected terrorist. The probability that they randomly select a ligament threat is extremely slim and completely useless for stopping any sort of threat.

---Alex

Well the last two days have been crazy. We got on our flight finally, to Dallas Ft. Worth after a 2 hr delay. Then in mid flight, Dallas was shut down. So they diverted us to Oklahoma City. And now We are being forced to wait for our flight to Denver, to catch another flight to San Diego. We stayed the night at some hotel here in Oklahoma City, which has awful WiFi to the point I had to hijack one of the Ethernet ports for a public computer. While checking our baggage in Indy, there are these self baggage checking computers that everyone is always to afraid to use. Well one of them was broken, and I caught a shot of it booting up. Apparently they run on Windows 2000 Pro. Sorry for the crappy shot, I had to get it while the tech wasn't looking. I'll post again as soon as I get the chance.

---Alex


Click on the Picture for full size.

Saturday, June 23, 2007

I just bought a 2.5" hard drive enclosure for my laptop. So that I can have a little bit of extra storage on the go. It doesn't even need power, just USB. I bought it from NewEgg.com
---Alex

Wednesday, June 20, 2007

Well I just got Vista running the other day. I got the Ultimate version, seems to run a little slow. Still working the kinks out. Let you know what I think soon.

---Alex

Monday, June 18, 2007

Apparently I have gotten the attention of Starbucks with the post I made about the Anti-God quotes they have been putting on the sides of their cups. I use an utility from http://statcounter.com to view how many hits I get on my blog, because I find it encouraging that people actually look at my blog. This evening when I was checking, one of those hits caught my eye. Starbucks looked at my post about their quotes. Apparentlly if you search Starbucks Anti-God in the Google Blog search, I am the top result. I thought I would fill you all in on that.

---Alex


Sunday, June 17, 2007

Logan and I have finally made the first episode of the podcast that we've been talking about making. Check it out, and tell us what you think.


http://ontheweekly.blogspot.com


---Alex

Saturday, June 16, 2007

:(

Our good friends the Bauer's left for Iowa today. I saw them off with a few others this morning..

You will be missed.

---Alex

Wednesday, June 13, 2007


I just finished watching Steve Job's keynote. They are doing some amazing things with Leopard, which I will comment n tomorrow. He also announced Safari for Windows, which I already have running for testing. I am actually posting this blog post from Safari, thus this is the second time I have wrote all this because it crashed just before I clicked post. Well you can check out the keynote here:

http://events.apple.com.edgesuite.net/d7625zs/event/

---Alex


---Whether the United States should have used atomic weapons against Japan in the Second World War is a topic of great controversy. I believe that this use was very necessary. The use of the weapons, however horrid they were, saved countless lives, on both sides. The President, Truman, made this decision that has changed the world for the better since.
---Some people believe that our target was immoral. I disagree. Almost all of the people living in these cities were workers in factories, which were also in the city. These factories were supplying equipment to troops elsewhere. The Japanese government was also requiring every capable citizen to be trained to fight with sharpened bamboo weapons, virtually turning every person in the nation into a solider. The immorality was committed by the Japanese government. They would starve and beat the United States prisoners of war. This caused many people to die.
---If we hadn't used the atomic weapon against Japan we would have had to attack their home land. In estimates given by Truman himself there could be as many as 1,000,000 American deaths in an attack suck as this. What is not usually talked about is the number of Japanese saved by the use of the atomic weapons. According to wikipedia.org, in the battle of Iwo Jima, 8,223 allies lost their lives along side 20,703 Japanese. In the battle of Guadalcanal, 7, 099 allies, and 30,343 Japanese were killed. I found the average of these losses. On average 7,661 allied soldiers died in a major battle, whereas 25,523 Japanese were killed in a battle. I setup a proportion to figure the number of estimated Japanese loses. The numbers were unbelievable. I estimate that as many 3,331,549 Japan deaths were to be expected in an attack on the Japanese mainland. According to www.atomicarchive.com about 199,000 people died in the atomic bombings, less than 1/16 of the estimated deaths. The use of the atomic bombs saved many lives.
----People should not be second guessing the decision of President Truman. We know very little about the President's decision making process. Most of what is taught is based on speculation, or have large pieces of the story missing. President Truman mad much more information than we have today. This decision was made over a half of a century ago, and our culture has change a great deal since that time, and such a decision should be judged accordingly to that culture not this one. It is rumored that the bomb was dropped without Truman's approval. This would not have been so. If anyone would have bypassed the president on such a decision would have been court marshaled and put in prison for the rest of their lives.
---I believe that the Atomic bomb was a necessary evil, needed to end World War II. The Use of this atomic weapon saved many people. It is estimated that it saved as many as 1,000,000 American lives as well as 3,331,549 Japanese. Modern people with missing information should not condemn decision made over a half a century ago. This weapon, however horrid it may seem to be, was a blessing to World War II.

---Alex

Starbucks has been putting anti-god quotes on the sides of their cups. A few them read:

"Why in moments of crisis do we ask God for strength and help? As cognitive beings, why would we ask something that may well be a figment of our imaginations for guidance? Why not search inside ourselves for the power to overcome? After all, we are strong enough to cause most of the catastrophes we need to endure."

"Heaven is totally overrated. It seems boring. Clouds, listening to people play the harp. It should be somewhere you can't wait to go, like a luxury hotel. Maybe blue skies and soft music were enough to keep people in line in the 17th century, but Heaven has to step it up a bit. They're basically getting by because they only have to be better than Hell." -- Joel Stein, columnist for the Los Angeles Times.

They are claiming that theses aren't the views of Starbucks per say, but i don't buy that for a second. Starbucks should keep their priorities straight, they need to keep their focus on what makes the money, coffee. People don't going into Starbucks looking for a theological view. They want coffee. I know I'm not going to buy anything else from them. I'll stick to
Paynes


---Alex Moore
www.uplandteenprojects.blogspot.com


Sources:

http://www.worldnetdaily.com/


Wow America has changed so much... Its not right. This ad is from 1934.
---Alex


I have always loved the idea of Linux, but when i try it I always end up getting so frustrated that I end up being forced back to Windows.  I think I'm going to give it another shot at it again soon.  Ubuntu Studio looks very promising, and apparently soon ATI will release its drivers open source.  I came across this article on the internet and thought it was very interesting.

http://www.desktoplinux.com/news/NS3542601509.html

--Alex

Well I've been officially a digger for a few days now.  I've done Slashdot.org for quite a while now but I thought it was time to expand now with hosting the podcast.  My username is moorealx is and of you want to look m up.

---Alex


It looks like we're gonna be moving soon.  We just purchased land just out side of Upland.  We went to look at it today, and I took a few pictures. 

---Alex 



May 01, 2007

"Lake Swan Camp"  by Alex Moore

The glistening gleamer reflected from afar.
The clouds illumined from a crescent moon.
Speckles of light are raining down.
All this light surrounded by darkness
Lights of different sizes,
But all still penetrate
All is either light or dark

------------------------------------------------------------------------

I wrote this one on spring break.  I think I like it, but not sure. Help me improve, by sending comments! Please!

Thanks,
Alex

Tuesday, June 12, 2007

March 24, 2007

"Simple" by Alex Moore
With the rhymes of life slipping away
All the thoughts - all the memories are flooding.
Sitting in remembrance, staring at the stars.
Life is more simple than it seems.
I, like you, want more of this life,
But then a difference between us.
Mine full of life and vigor,
but still one worth dieing for.
Yours empty,
but still missing something.
Still one worth dieing for.

------------------------------------------------------------------------

I wrote this one on spring break. I don't think I like it, but help me improve. Thanks

---Alex

WOW... I just read this interview with Bill Gates about Vista, he bombed this interview soooo bad. The best part is when they get him talking about Macs. Here is my favorite part... My calling if you will?

"Nowadays, security guys break the Mac every single day. Every single
day, they come out with a total exploit, your machine can be taken
over totally. I dare anybody to do that once a month on the Windows
machine."

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/16934083/site/newsweek/

Thats my 2 cents for today...

---Alex

November 30, 2006

I wrote this one the other day, it's a little bit different style than what I usually write, a bit like Walt Whitman. Tell me what you think, and how to improve.


Thanks
Alex

-----------------------------------------------------

"Simplistic End"
November 30, 2006

Listen little one,
Don't morn the past
For it cannot be changed.
It is something to cherish,
Learn from it
And expand yourself.
Learn to understand the vast complexities of the human race,
And of yourself.
Learn to be more than you were,
One second, one minute, one hour ago.
And in the end, you will see that
It's all more simple that you might think.

-----------------------------------------------------

November 16, 2006
WESLEY - I'm never going to feel this way about
anyone else.
GUINAN - You're right.
WESLEY - I didn't expect you to say that.
GUINAN - Oh, there will be others but, the next time you
feel love will be different. Each time is
different.
WESLEY - Knowing that doesn't make it any easier.
GUINAN - It isn't supposed to.
            ---A sceen from StarTrek the Next Generation

 "I... I killed them. I killed them all. They're dead, every
single one of them...
Not just the men, but the
women and the children too. They're like animals,
and I slaughtered them like animals... I hate them!
Why do I hate them? I didn't... I couldn't... I couldn't
control myself. I... I don't want to hate them... But I
just can't forgive them."
            ---Anakin Skywalker from StarWars: The Attack
of the Clones

Come on boys, this isn't over yet.  Are you gonna' let
them get away with all they've done to us? NO! How
long are you jus gonna' keep dying for no real reason,
except someone else's pleasure? Huh? Our bullets
can't touch them, they have no effect, we have our
arms, our bayonets, and out rifles to use as clubs. And
I know your tired of this mess, and I know you don't
want to fight anymore, but we have one real reason to
fight, probably the only real reason to fight. And that's
for you freedom. So for freedom and Justus charge!
           ---Maggie Becket from Sliders

"Software is like sex, it's best when   it's free..." 
           ---Linus Torvalds (The Founder of Linux)
 --> -->
"This year will go down in history.  For the first time, a
civilized nation has full gun registration.
Our streets will
be safer, our police more efficient, and the world will
follow our lead into the future."
           ---Adolf Hitler, 1935

"Do u see THEM over there, they're in a pile."
                - Stephen

 "so you know that you realize what is really importnt
after you lose it..."
                ---Logan

"We have funny words like that at Blackford too, only
except I not allowed to say them."
                        ---Stephen

October 30, 2006

Today wasn't all that good. I went to Paynes, and got some coffee that I drank while I was reading from my Walt Whitman book, and wrote two poems that are sequels to each other. Please help me improve my poetry, by telling me what you think and how I should improve them.

---Alex

"Prelude to Substance of Life"

Patterns of Life
Are analyzed in mind
With the paths
Being second guessed
Thought over
For a second end


"Substance of Life"

What is Life
But a place for Love
And love is nothing more
Than our most basic of emotions
With all of our Life
And all of our emotions
This Love as it's base
Then transforms forth into the substance of life.
And defines us as me are.

September 16, 2006

Today was great. I went to the Art Festival at Payne's. I was there from 10-8 selling my pictures. I got to hang out with Meredith, and a couple other artists there all day. A whole bunch of people said how much they loved my pictures (which made me feel like a king) in the end i only sold four of my pictures and making $10 but it was completely worth it. I can't wait for Payne's Art Fest 2007...

---Alex

The Starcraft party on the 16th was great, we created a replay pack for any of you that are interested. We had a little miniature turny that was pretty interesting... and we had "fun" with VNC viewer... To download the replay pack copy and paste the at the bottom into your web browser. Thanks for all...
alex

http://www.freewebs.com/thealexhome/Downloads/StarCraft LAN Party - 6-16-06.zip

I'm moving my blog here from myspace, because I find it ever frustrating. I will still post copies of my posts there though. You can Email my at uplandteenprojects@gmail.com

---Alex