Quest for No-Brain

6 minutes till midnight, nothing brainless came to mind just yet. I suppose I will just have to dig deeper into my inner self. The world wide web is simply too wise and full of information for anything idiotic to exist. Here is a simple 1 minute play made by faithfully yours.

<inner self> hello, anyone out there?
<sushi> no, no one is out here.
<inner self> .......
<inner self> then who is speaking?
<sushi> I am just a figment of your imagination.
<inner self> even still, you seem have some answers, since you just answered two of mine. Might you know...
<sushi> *cuts inner self off* the answer is 42.
<the rational Albert> Gah!! Only one minutes left.
<inner self> who was that just now?
<sushi> You must be mistaken sir, I heard no one, then again, I am just a figment of your imagination so I don't hear very well.
<inner self> well, then, just in case you visist the land lord of this place...maybe you are also his figment of imagination, then could you perhaps tell him someone turned off the light to this place 15 years ago and could he please try to fix it?
<sushi> I shall try my best, fear not. In the main time, why don't we play some ping pong to relieve your stress.
<ineer self> Ok.
<sushi> | .
<inner self> . |
<sushi> | .
<inner self> . |
<sushi> | .
<inner self> | .
<sushi> whoops
<the rational Albert> Time's UP.
<inner self> what time? what is..
<sushi> *cuts inner self off* the answer is 42.

I think I have achieved my goal. All credit goes to Me, Myself, and I. Any and all rights preserved by <sushi>. Technically <inner self> owns some of the rights too, but he doesn't know it. <the rational Albert> on the other hand, is going to sleep.

[Creative Writing]

Science is Boring?

Too many technical blogs is not good for the soul. Therefore I purpose talking about something less intellectual before ending the day. The first topic came to mind is Britney Spears because of all the stereotyping. Then I thought to myself, she could be smart...then this would be another technical post again. So I decied to do a light research on Britney's Intellectual achievment. Mainly I thought maybe I would find she has a dance and music degree, maybe own a business degree and possess good marketing skills. How wrong I was.

Tentatively, I set my foot out on the web in order to find out B.S.'s I.Q. and below is what I found.

Yes, folks, Brittney Spears has a guide to Semiconductor Physics. I knew I said I wasn't going to do another technical post. But goodness - B.S. Guide to Semiconductor Physics! Sigh...I guess I will just have to be content on posting another picture and proceed on finding my no-brainer post topic.



[Trivial]

All I Ever Needed to Know

All I ever needed to know, I learned in Kindergarten

Most of what I really need to know about how to live, and what to do, and how to be, I learned in kindergarten. Wisdom was not at the top of the graduate school mountain, but there in the sand box at nursery school.

These are the things I learned. Share everything. Play fair. Don't hit people. Put things back where you found them.

Clean up your own mess. Don't take things that aren't yours. Say you are sorry when you hurt somebody. Wash your hands before you eat. Flush. Warm cookies and cold milk are good for you. Live a balanced life. Learn some and think some and draw some and paint and sing and dance and play and work everyday.

Take a nap every afternoon. When you go out in the world, watch for traffic, hold hands, and stick together. Be aware of wonder. Remember the little seed in the plastic cup? The roots go down and the plant goes up and nobody really knows how or why. We are like that.

And then remember that book about Dick and Jane and the first word you learned, the biggest word of all: LOOK!

Everything you need to know is there somewhere. The Golden Rule and love and basic sanitation, ecology, and politics and the sane living.

Think of what a better world it would be if we all, the whole world, had cookies and milk about 3 o'clock every afternoon and then lay down with our blankets for a nap. Or we had a basic policy in our nation and other nations to always put things back where we found them and clean up our own messes. And it is still true, no matter how old you are, when you go out in the world, it is best to hold hands and stick together.

--- Robert Fulghum

[Poems]

Profile Pictures

All I ever needed to know, I learned from Blogger. Now before you think i went coo-coo, that was just a play of words on the work "All I ever needed to know, I learned in Kindergarten" by Robert Fulghum. Simple words carry the most profound meaning. It is because the first words we came up is to decribe what really matters to us. All these one syllable word of love, death, food, sh*t, and life all carry rich imagery and meanings. That is why the simplicity of Robert Fulghum's work strikes the cord of so many people. Truth needs no embalishment. Read it, you might like it.

Everything you need to know about profile is contained in this link, courtesy of Blogger again.

You can decide to show your profile or not. After all, there are a lot of odd people romaing around this planet. If you do want to enable profle then you must write one first. Check out this Profile Guide, then you can go into your dash board and edit your profile.

You may also decide to post a picture with your profile. The easiest way to do this is to create a post then upload a picture to your post. Since Blogger host all the picture you may have in a post, you can now have a valid weblink on that picture. Use that URL for your picture profile. Here is what my post looks like:


I started with the lower right picture, a guy in the rain with blue color ratio. Then I use photoshop to edit the picture and made the lower left picture - showing a smirk instead of a frawn. Lastly, I tried a few different color ratio to match the green Rounders 4 Theme. Finally I settles on the top left image. Which you can see in my profile.


Simplicty, simplicty, simplicty. Try to keep the monologue on your life short. Let your actual writing speak for yourself. Just a personal opinion.

[Blogger Hacks]

Add Comment Ability

Your blog now has some interesting posts. Your archive is now listed nice and clear. Your articles all have title on the top. It is now a blog that you can be proud of, so lets turn on the commenting ability for your articles. The people who are reading your page might have something nice, constructive, or funny to say.

Keep in mind in the beginning not many people will know your site, it takes time for a blog to grow. At the same time, i don't recommend showing your blog to anyone you actually know. For one thing, it would hinder your ability to write freely. Second, they might not like what you have to say. A good reference of what you might want to do with yoru blog can be found in Blogging Advice.

Blogger already has a nice step by step interface on how to turn on the comment feature. Seek and you shall find.

[Blogger Hacks]

Expandable Summary

Many times you will have a flash of inspiration to write and write and write. It is a wonderful thing. Yet, it also makes your post very long. People arriving at your main page will have a harder time sorting through the articles because it would take a while to scroll down. What we will be doing is set some conditional tags and seperate the post at a length of your choosing. The upper part of the post will show up at the main page, acting like a preview. Then we will provide a link that takes the reader to the full article, should they choose to read it. Otherwise you will have the monster below. In fact, it is so long i can only show you 1/3 of it.


There are 3 adventage to using Expandable Summary. One, you have the control on deciding which posts to apply "...Read More" function. For example you might want to leave that out for short posts and only apply to long posts. Two, you can decide how much preview you want the reader to see because you can decide on the cut off point for every post. Three, this hack uses css and not java, which means you don't have to worry about people having java off, thereby changes your layout.
...Read more

The disadventage of Expandable hack is its slight complexity. You need to do a one time modification to your template which this post will walk you through. However, you also need to put down the tags in your post itself to decide on the cut off point which this post will tell you how to do. Then, you also have to modify the post once you have published it - because we need to copy/paste the article link location into the "...Read More" tag so when the readers click on it they will be brought to the full article. The reason we can't do that on the first time while constructing the post is because the location of the post itself is not created until after it is published. This is why we have to go back and modify the link.

There is a similar hack called show/hide method that does a similar function. This alternative way of working has its own adventage and disadventage. I will talk about it more after the walkthrough for people who want to know more.

Expandable Summary hack is a bit more difficult for Rounders Template because the guide provided by blogger doesn't work on this type. However, I still recommend that you read it over to get a feel of what we are about to do.

Before you modify anything, copy/paste your current working template into a text file. If something horrible happens you can then restore to your undamaged template. Now that is done. Go to your blogger template near the top and you will see:

<title><$BlogPageTitle$></title>

<$BlogMetaData$>

<style type="text/css">
/*
-----------------------------------------------
Blogger Template Style
Name: Rounders 4
Designer: Douglas Bowman
URL: www.stopdesign.com
Date: 27 Feb 2004
----------------------------------------------- */

Here we see the true name of the template style "Roundrs 4", the designer who made this template from scratch "Douglas Bowman", and his company website. Checkout Stopdesign.com if you want to see what else they got there.

We need to insert the follow code between <$BlogMetaData$> and <style type="text/css">

<!-- Start of Post Summary Conditional CSS 1 of 2-->

<style>

<MainOrArchivePage>
span.fullpost {display:none;}
span.shortpost {display:inline;}
</MainOrArchivePage>

<ItemPage>
span.fullpost {display:inline;}
span.shortpost {display:none;}
</ItemPage>

</style>

<!-- End of Post Summary Conditional CSS 1 of 2-->

This is all you have to do to your template. We have just defined the tags for shortpost and fullpost. Save your template and let us create a new post to try this hack out.

Indulge me and let us talk briefly about Blogger's Post Editor.

Blogger's Post Editor has two modes. One is the compose mode that works moer like Microsoft Word. You can formate txt, create links, post pictures, and preview the post. The other mode is the HTML mode, which is more of the Matrix way of seeing your post, on a more basic programming way. If you don't see two modes but only sees "Edit Html" then you best enable the wysiwyg editor from Basic Tab in Settings from top of Blogger. If you post a lot you might also want o learn the keyboard short cut to these graphical interface, it will save you some time. Lastly, the wysiwyg editor (Compose Mode) uses Java Script. So you have to enable that in your web-browser for it to work. 95% of the people will have it on already because those comes with a default of on for both IE and Firefox. I simply want to mention it just in case.

Detour is over and we have just created a new post. We need to use the "Edit HTML mode" and put in the below code that is between the dash lines.

----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Post Summary Text Part
<span class="shortpost"><a href="BlogItemPermalinkURL">...Read more</a></span>

<span class="fullpost">Fullpost text ...</span>
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------

Now that you are done, go back to the "Compose Mode" and you shall see the things between the dash lines.

-----------------------------------
Post Summary Text Part
...Read more

Fullpost text ...
------------------------------------

The name is intutative. "Post Summary Text Part" means you can replace that line with any thing you want - be it a word, a sentance, or a paragraph. It will show up as your preview on your main page. The "...Read more" link will eventually take you to the full post, once we edit the link location. The "Fullpost text" which is after "...Read more" is the part of the post that will only show up after you go into Itempage (aka, out side of main page and where the link will lead you).


So how in the bloody world does it work?! Is it vodoo? Or some sort of programming magic? Basiclly, anything before the tag <span class="shortpost"> will show up as preview on your main or archieve page. the nearest tag </span> close up the "Span Class". In our case, it tells Blogger to end <span class="shortpost">

Same logic applies to <span class="fullpost">Fullpost text ...</span>. Only this time, instead of showing everything before <span class="fullpost">, this two tags shows everything between them.

You might ask, then what about that weird line <a href="BlogItemPermalinkURL">...Read more</a> btween <span class="shortpost"> and </span>? well, in this case it is before </span> closes up the span class of shortpost, so "...Read more" would still show up on the main or archive page. Yet, it is not between <span class="fullpost"> and </span>, so it won't show up on the Itempage. After all, why would you want the link "...Read more" to show up on the page where everything is showing? This is a clever way to make the blogger look precise and clear.

The only problem come at the comment page, Blogger has a button "show original post" that lets people see the original post in comment page. However, it is not defined as Main or Archive page, nor is it defined as Itempage - so everything shows up. Notice that annoying blue "...Read More" below for the expanded post in comment page? Sadly to say, I have no solution for it at the moment.


If you now publish that nice little 3 line and perhaps give it a Title - Test. Then you should find your article now on the main page like below.


On a side note, if you want a line break after "Fullpost text..." then simply move </span> down a line so that there is a line space between "Fullpost text..." and </span>. For our current example it will look like this

----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Post Summary Text Part
<span class="shortpost"><a href="BlogItemPermalinkURL">...Read more</a></span>

<span class="fullpost">Fullpost text ...

</span>
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------

Okay, now while in the main page try to click on the "...Read more" link and you will find yourself in an error page. That is because we have not assocaite the link with the page location yet. Since we have named the post "Test", just look for the link to the side bar on the right, copy that article Test's Location, go back into the article and edit the link in. For this particular example we will basically rplace BlogItemPermaLinkURL with the actual link.

----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Post Summary Text Part
<span class="shortpost"><a href="http://rounder4.blogspot.com/2005/07/test.html">...Read more</a></span>

<span class="fullpost">Fullpost text ...

</span>
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------

Republish again and you are done with Expandable Summary ^_^
Note your domain name would not be "rounder4.blogspot.com" nor your date likely to be "/2005/07/". Put in YOUR article link location and not mine ^_^;;;

Lastly, now wouldn't it be nice if you don't have to rewrite the code between those dash lines for every post you create?

----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Post Summary Text Part
<span class="shortpost"><a href="BlogItemPermalinkURL">...Read more</a></span>

<span class="fullpost">Fullpost text ...</span>
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------

Blogger thinks so too, that is why they have a way to make "reusable codes" show up on all your new posts. They call it "Post Template". Go into the "Settings Tab" and then the "Formatting Tab". At the bottom of Formatting Tab you will see:

You can see I alredy have our code in their. You should do the save then save your settings. Then everytime you create a new post it will have those lines of code in it. Which makes life easier.

Phew, we are now done with the hardest hack that I have place on my blog. I enjoy its functionality. Hopefully you like it too. Here is another guide for the same basic function. You might learn some more if you so choose.

The other way of doing this is by Hide/Show Post. It is easier because all you have to modify is your template one time. But "only the title of each post is displayed, with no summary information. The feature is applied to all posts, rather than letting you selectively apply it (for instance, only on long posts)." Also, people who have java turned off will mess up this template. Just something for you to keep in mind when choosing which hack to use.

[Blogger Hacks]

Reverse Archive Order

The default archive link places your oldest set of blogs on top, which means people will tend to read posts that are out dated and possibly irrevelant or less better written. What we want to do is reverse the order so the newest set of archive is on top. That way, people can find out the interesting things happening currently and only dig down if they crave for more. After all, treasure digging wouldn't be as much fun if you dig from the bottom up.

For this hack, we will have to dig into the template and look at some coodes. Your original archive code will look like this

<ul class="archive-list">
<BloggerArchives>
<li><a href="<$BlogArchiveURL$>"<$BlogArchiveName$></a></li>
</BloggerArchives>
<ArchivePage><li><a href="<$BlogURL$>">Current Posts</a></li></ArchivePage>
</ul>

Replace the 3 lines, known as default archive code, with the below code:

<noscript>
<BloggerArchives>
<li> <a href=" <$BlogArchiveURL$>"> <$BlogArchiveName$> </a> </li>
</BloggerArchives>
</noscript>

<!--Beginning of Archive Newest to Oldest Order-->

<script type="text/javascript">

var archives = new Array();

<BloggerArchives>
archives[archives.length] = new Array(' <$BlogArchiveURL$>', ' <$BlogArchiveName$>');
</BloggerArchives>

for (var i=archives.length-1;i>=0;i--)
{
document.write(' <li> <a href=\"' + archives[i][0] + '\">' + archives[i][1] + ' </a> </li>');
}

</script>

<!--End of Archive Newest to Oldest Order-->

That should do it, if you want to learn more Blogger has a bit more explaination on some of the code details and function for reverse archive order.

Your final product will look something like this:


You can now go on to the next part. I am going to comment on what some of the basic code does inside your blog.

first of all anything between <noscript> and </noscript> means that it will only activate when java script is turned off. It is good to code for alternative, since our archive code requires java script to function. This way, the code will go back to default archive order when java is off; or it would go to reverse order when java is on.

second, anything between <!-- and --> will not be processed as code. It will be treated as comments. It is a good idea to place those comments so you know where the original code was modified, what the modified code does, and where dose the modified code ends.

third, if you want to learn more on what each individual tag does, here is a good xhtml reference by alphabet order. Here is another good xhtml reference by function order.

[Blogger Hacks]

Archive and Title

Blogger Reborn Part 3 set up is required for "part 4: Reverse Archive Order" and leads to an easier set up for "part 5: Expandable Summary". The focus of this section is to turn on the ability for all your post to have a title. Title is important because we will use title to make the link for your archive lists. Furthermore, having a link makes your content easier to grasp by both readers and web-crawlers. In your main posting page, your current articles is without title, it might look something like below:


Notice how the article started with a date which doesn't tell the reader much about the story. Also, without a proper title, Blogger grabs the first sentence plus date in your article and make it into its post link. So now you have "http://rounder4.blogspot.com/2005/06/149-am-another-sleepless-night.html" The format is especially messy when you have a long first sentence. Let's see what we really want.


Notice how I made a new line with white words "Does Future Equal Past?". That is the title for this article. Blogger has a nice simple guide on how to turn on your title feature, there is no actual coding required. Once you turn on the title feature and put a title in all your postings, the side bar for "Previous Posts" will change.


Next we need to change the date formate in your archive links to the right, below "previous posts" side bar. Once again, the good people at Blogger has a nice guide to change the format of the dates displayed in your blog. Follow the link and make "Archive Index Date Format" to be "Month Year" format. You also want to make "Date header Format" to be "Weekday, Month Date, Year". For example like the first two picture in this post "Saturday, June 18 2005". Republish your blog and you should see the changes below.


The right archive is definately a better looking list than the left one. However, the list goes from oldest on top and work its way down to the newest article. It is not very intuative and it is slightly annoying. We are now ready to go on to "part 4: Reverse Archive Order".

[Blogger Hacks]

Modify Link List

Welcome to Blogger Reborn Part 2. Your link list located on the upper right hand cornor came with a Google News link and two place holders. It looks like the picture below.

Since the text plainly asked us to edit it, let us do so and make your blog better.

Blogger already has a nice and simple guide for modifying links. This particular guide shows you how to change "Edit-Me" into something like Bash.org or Slashdot. What I want to touch on is how to change the word "LINKS" into something more personal. For example, I made it into "Sushi Links". Depending on personal taste, you might decide it is a step down, but you can change it into anything you like.

<h2 class="sidebar-title">Links</h2>
<ul>
<li><a href="http://news.google.com/">Google News</a></li>
<li><a href="http://EDITME1">Edit-Me1</a></li>
<li><a href="http://EDITME2">Edit-Me2</a></li>
</ul>

Replace "Links" in the above code with "whatever you want the sidebar-title to be". Replace "http//EDITME1" with the path to the webpage and "EDIT-ME1" with the title of the page. Replace "http//EDITME2" with the path to the webpage and "EDIT-ME2" with the title of the page. If you wan more links, then add the below line
<li><a href="http://EDITME3">Edit-Me3</a></li>

between

<li><a href="http://EDITME2">Edit-Me2</a></li> and </ul>

then edit "http://EDITME3" and "EDIT-ME3". If you want another link, rinse and repeat. Your final work will look something like below.

On an interesting note: If you want to show code in Blogger, which usually execute all html and xhtml code, then you must replace the "&" character with "&amp" everywhere it occurs. Then replace the "<" character with "&lt;" and the ">" character with "&gt;". It will look funny while you are composing but turn out beautifully after you publish the post.

Now after learning that interesting bit, have you thought about how I was able to type &amp;, &lt;, and &gt;? Figure that out and you now have the power to post code on webpages. How you use that power is up to you. Code responsibly, don't drink and code.

[Blogger Hacks]

The Road Not Taken

The Road Not Taken


Two roads diverged in a yellow wood,
And sorry I could not travel both
And be one traveller, long I stood
And looked down one as far as I could.
To where it bent in the undergrowth,

Then took the other, as just as fair,
And having perhaps the better claim,
Because it was grassy and wanted wear,
Though as for that, the passing there
Had worn them really about the same,

And both that morning equally lay
In leaves no step had trodden black.
Oh, I kept the first for another day!
Yet knowing how way leads on to way
I doubted if I should ever come back.

I shall be telling this with a sigh
Somewhere ages and ages hence:
Two roads diverged in a wood, and I --
I took the one less travelled by,
And that has made all the difference.

Robert Frost

Great works explains itself because there is nothing more to add. There for I have nothing to say about the poem. What I can say is about myself. This is one of my favorite poem. Hopefully you enjoy it as well.

[Poems]

Blogger Hacks

Starting on this post I am going to do a series of articles called Blogger Reborn. It is a step by step demonstration of how i modified the Rounders 4 template. The concept should be useful for Rounders 1, 2, and 3 as well since they have basically the same layout and code.

The purpose here is 3 fold. one it is to keep a record of the changes i have made to my blog site. two it will hopefully help other people using rounders template on modifying their blog. three i firmly believe you don't own a thing until you can give it away, in this case - you haven't learned a subject until you can teach it to others; this is a test of how well i have retained the hacking information accumulated in the past week. The post would not be technical. It will be more of a documentation and reflection. I will jot down the interesting things I found along the way.

Like every good story, this one starts at the beginning:



In the beginning was Blogger, and Blogger was with Pyra Labs, and Pyra Labs was Blogger...and the light shineth in darkness; and the darkness comprehend it not.

As you can see, the starting templateless blog page is so white, it glows. It is truely full of light. Let us modify that. Blogger has a very simple guide on how to switch template. The template I decided to use is one of the Rounder Series. Specifically Rounders 4 like the picture below. You can also check out Rounders, Rounders 2, or Rounders 3. Once you are done your blog should look like the test blog below.



That is a small step for Blogger and an even smaller step for mankind. Truely, the work hasn't begun yet. Below is the tentative article lists with a difficulty rating at the end. You can attempt each ones depending on how much know-how you think you possess. On the other hand, Blogger also has another easy guide if you are looking for some other templates.

01) Blogger Hacks, easy
02) Modify Link List, easy
03) Archive and Title, easy
04) Reverse Archive Order, medium
05) Expandable Summary, hard
06) Add Comment Ability, easy
07) Profile Pictures, easy
08) Chatterbox, medium
09) Statcounter, easy
10) Random Quotations, medium
11) Posted by Author Names, medium
12) Turn Color Pictures into Black and White, easy
13) Pictures on Sidebar, easy
14) Webcomic Script's Reference, easy
15) Blogging Advice, easy
16) Random Header Pictures, medium
17) Technorati Tags and LiveJournal Tags, easy
18) Voluptpat Rounder Hybrid, hard

Go ahead and jump in, unless you want to learn a bit more about blog history, because two raods are going to diverge in this yellow wood and I am about to take the less traveled path.

Pyra Labs started Blogger at 1999 about two years after the birth of general blogging. The earliest blog case can be traced back to Justin Hall of Swarthmore College starting 1994. He now owns the oldest blog in the world dated at a rightful age of 11 years old.

1999 was towards the end of dot-com boom. A beautiful soap buble that will burst and collapse around 2001. Companies and Business were dropping like bugs on summer nights. It was a dark time for high tech information service. Yet somehow, Pyra manages to keep Blogger alive and the server running. Its popularity even grew to hundreds of thousands during 2002, it would prove to be a fateful year.

2002 was 'annus mirabilis' for Pyra Labs. Generally annus refers to 1665 when Sir Issac Newtown made discoveries in calculus, motion, optics, and gravitation. It is also used to describe 1905 when Albert Einstein made equally revolutionary discoveries of photelectric effect, brownian motion, and the special theory of relativity. The term 'annus mirabilis' means 'The Miracle Year'. While Blogger falls short of revolutionary, the year was still miraculous, because Google announces the purchase of Blogger.

The rest, as they say, is history.

[Blogger Hacks]

Ill Advised To Follow This Train Of Thoughts

we all speak different languages - a translation of our thoughts that enable us to crudely comprehend another being. it would be nice if one day two beings can understand each other completely and without doubt. some might argue that love is already such a universal language. i wish i was part of that some.

love is kindness, love is care, and love is acceptance; but love is not understanding. it makes the words more beautiful but it does not make the words true. love make people willing to try and that sometimes leads to more understanding. yet on the most part, love is blind. it would be hard to find something (truth) if you can't see. then again, i am assuming truth exists on the same wave length that is visually detectable. perhaps, truth is invisible, then wouldn't a blind man with an acute sense of touch be better suited to find it? if truth is really visuable, wouldn't people have already found it by now?

More odd thoughts forming now, i will just keep a short list and expand on it later.
1. maybe truth is not define absolutely but is relative
2. if truth is relative then there must be a reference. in order for it to be judge there must be a consciencousness. (think quantum physics, the state of quark lvl particales is not determined until an observer sees it)
3. if at quark lvl physical objects are affected by thoughts and this world is composed of these tiny little blocks, the perhaps reality is determined by thoguhts.
4. reality, perhaps then is determined by thoughts. an example would be money. money by itself is just a lump of metal or a piece of paper. yet through collective belive, we give it value. if no one think it is worth anything, then it wouldn't. on the contarary, the more valuable people think a currency is, the more it is worth. in this case the strength of the thought determines the strength of the reality. same thing can be said for patients who took placebo but got better, they believe and there they are.
5.if thoughts influences this world then it either exerts a force that science has not detected yet or is not real.
6. if thougth exerts no force and yet influences quark, then the reality as we know it is not reality at all. more likely it is a computer simulation.
7. energy lvl only exist in pieces, it is not continuous. the same thing can be said for matters, which exist in tiny blocks. since this universe is composed of energy and matter, time is very likely to be discountinuous as well. i think time might be discountinuous because if life is a computer simulation, it would neatly explain why everything we have found is in chunks. 1's and 0's. a piece of digital symbol stands for an energy lvl. other 1's and 0' stands for the tiny blocks of matter. the discontinous time is the gap between reading and writing of 1's and 0's.

i am not sure how i came up to 7, i hope it still make sense once i go to bed and try to read the article again tomorrow. just seems odd my free writing always take odd turns. either way, if reality is ture then it will still be here when i wake up. if reality is not true, then it wouldn't matter when i wake up. so either way, i am going to sleep.

[Thoughts]

Blogging Advice

Blogging Advice from Blogger Forum

how to blog by tony pierce, 110

1. write every day.

2. if you think youre a good writer, write twice a day.

3. dont be afraid to do anything. in fact if youre afraid of something, do it. then do it again. and again.

4. cuss like a sailor.

5. dont tell your mom, your work, your friends, the people you want to date, or the people you want to work for about your blog. if they find out and you'd rather they didnt read it, ask them nicely to grant you your privacy.

6. have comments. dont be upset if no one writes in your comments for a long time. eventually they'll write in there. if people start acting mean in your comments, ask them to stop, they probably will.

7. have an email address clearly displayed on your blog. sometimes people want to tell you that you rock in private.

8. dont worry very much about the design of your blog. image is a fakeout.

9. use Blogger. it's easy, it's free; and because they are owned by Google, your blog will get spidered better, you will show up in more search results, and more people will end up at your blog. besides, all the other blogging software & alternatives pretty much suck.

10. use spellcheck unless youre completely totally keeping it real. but even then you might want to use it if you think you wrote something really good.

11. say exactly what you want to say no matter what it looks like on the screen. then say something else. then keep going. and when youre done, re-read it, and edit it and hit publish and forget about it.

12. link like crazy. link anyone who links you, link your favorites, link your friends. dont be a prude. linking is what seperates bloggers from apes. and especially link if you're trying to prove a point and someone else said it first. it lends credibility even if youre full of ****.

13. if you havent written about sex, religion, and politics in a week youre probably playing it too safe, which means you probably ****ed up on #5, in which case start a second blog and keep your big mouth shut about it this time.

14. remember: nobody cares which N*Sync member you are, what State you are, which Party of Five kid you are, or which Weezer song you are. the second you put one of those things on your blog you need to delete your blog and try out for the marching band. similarilly, nobody gives a **** what the weather is like in your town, nobody wants you to change their cursor into a butterfly, nobody wants to vote on whether your blog is hot or not, and nobody gives a rat ass what song youre listening to. write something Real for you, about you, every day.

15. dont be afraid if you think something has been said before. it has. and better. big whoop. say it anyway using your own words as honestly as you can. just let it out.

16. get Site Meter and make it available for everyone to see. if you're embarrassed that not a lot of people are clicking over to your page, dont be embarrassed by the number, be embarrassed that you actually give a crap about hits to your gay blog. it really is just a blog. and hits really dont mean anything. you want Site Meter, though, to see who is linking you so you can thank them and so you can link them back. similarilly, use Technorati, but dont obsess. write.

17. people like pictures. use them. save them to your own server. or use Blogger's free service. if you dont know how to do it, learn. also get a Buzznet account. several things will happen once you start blogging, one of them is you will learn new things. thats a good thing.

18. before you hit Save as Draft or Publish Post, select all and copy your masterpiece. you are using a computer and the internet, **** can happen. no need to lose a good post.

19. push the envelope in what youre writing about and how youre saying it. be more and more honest. get to the root of things. start at the root of things and get deeper. dig. think out loud. keep typing. keep going. eventually you'll find a little treasure chest. every time you blog this can happen if you let it.

20. change your style. mimic people. write beautiful lies. dream in public. kiss and tell. finger and tell. cry scream fight sing **** and dont be afraid to be funny. the easiest thing to do is whine when you write. dont be lazy. audblog at least once a week.

21. write open letters. make lists. call people out on their bullshit. lead by example. invent and reinvent yourself. start by writing about what happened to you today. for example today i told a hot girl how wonderfully hot she is.

22. when in doubt review something. theres not enough reviews on blogs. review a movie you just saw, a tv show, a cd, a kiss you just got, a restaurant, a hike you just took, anything.

23. constantly write about the town that you live in.

24. out yourself. tell your secrets. you can always delete them later.

25. dont use your real name. dont write about your work unless you dont care about getting fired.

26. dont be afraid to come across as an asswipe. own your asswipeness.

27. nobody likes poems. dont put your poems on your blog. not even if theyre incredible. especially if theyre incredible. odds are theyre not incredible. bad poems are funny sometimes though, so fine, put youd dumb poems on there. whatever.

28. tell us about your friends.

29. dont apologize about not blogging. nobody cares. just start blogging again.

30. read tons of blogs and leave nice comments.

[Thoughts][Blogger Hacks]

Writing and I

Some writers write for themselves, other writes for feed back. The way one write is similar to the way one lives. The connection required to made that statement is short and simple. Writing is but an extension to how we think; how we think is how we live. Therefore we write how we live.

some people are self conscious about other people reading into their words, others crave the attention of reader feed back. Some write simply to keep a record because ink lasts long after the blood dries. Some write without consideration of other people - now would that be considered a sense of freedom or a kind of blindness?

I realize more and more that I am more honest when I write to myself, I tend to emulate those that I associate with. Like an animal who tries to fit into the background. Unconsciously I try to speak the other person's language and I don't mean English or Chinese. I mean I tend unknowingly pick up other people's passion and pain, happiness and love. I wonder if this can be consider a form of lying, for few people then has chance to know who I really am. Or perhaps this is exactly what I am, a mirror of the world; a glass of water in the world of cups. There are social advantage obviously, people tend to accept same kind. So perhaps my response is honed from moving from place to place, Taiwan to us, US to Taiwan. I can't decide if this is good or bad except it does seem easier to talk to people this way.

when I am with myself, I am not directly influenced by the love and hate of others. Things are calmer and yet the world also seems to matter less. When alone, I tend to instead of acting upon desire and emotions, question my own motives. Is it an attempt to understand or just a way to delay my own actions? Is it another way of copying the function of sleep? To keep myself immobile so to minimize the chance of hurt? I am not convinced either way.

this might be why I am attracted to people who are suffering, because I think I can ease their pain. This might be also why I tend to move on once that person's crisis is over, I am of no further use to the person so I took myself away. This might also be why I am attracted to people with a sense of purpose, because I am drawn like a moss to flame. Judging by those 2 attractions, I really should watch out for people who are determined to be miserable, for it would be a hell I willingly trap myself in.

I could not conceive people who are determined to be miserable at first, because while I do not experience high level of euphoria, I also do not taste despair that suck all your strength away. I could not understand people who are unable to be happy. I thought the search for happiness (understanding) is universal and basic, something evolution built in. I was proven wrong. I was made to see. It was Emily who talked me through it. She showed me, more by speech than by example, how some people are incapable of sustained peace or joy. That some people simply are not equipped to deal with happiness just like some people are not suited for pain. Happiness breaks people just as much as pain. If joy is a foreign object in your life, then you wouldn't know what to do with it, so some people push it away. It is either because of fear, guilt, self-denial, or any number of reasons that make us human. Perhaps, Emily is closer to the other side than I am and I can only hope she is as close as she has to be to the less lighter side.

it was a difficult lesson and difficult world she managed to show me. It was just as hard as showing a blind man what a rainbow looks like, I had no reference to connect my experience. It is perhaps her purpose in my life, to show me the other half of the world. Then after all these words and all these thought, I can't help but wonder, what was my purpose in her life?

[Thoughts]

Bathroom, Life, and Time

My bathroom is now under renovation, so to take a shower I now must use the other bathroom. Further more, the plumber accidentally punch a hole in the hot water pipe so I might have to take cold showers for the next few days until he unlocks the hot water pipe.

cold shower is pretty refreshing for a change, I can't remember the last time I had to live without the luxury of modern technology. While being blasted by ice cold water I can't help but make a bunch of noises that might alarm my neighbors. I can only hope my apartment has good sound proof. On a side note, if my neighbor doesn't look at me funny tomorrow, it might be safe for me to sing in the shower from now on. Isn't it wonderful to do real life experiment on frequency propagation?

Job is getting easier now, I think I am used to sleeping 6 hours a day. The tough part now is my lack of free time, I had to either choose reading, writing, exercising, or catching up on sleep. Which is a hard decision to make. I must say I agree with the saying "the tragedy is not between choosing right or wrong but choosing between two rights" in this case - 4 rights.

things I grew a taste for while in Taiwan - Japanese's shows, milk puddings, kneeling chairs. I might have to learn more Japanese and try to understand what those funny people are talking about. Their faces are so expressive though, I feel like that in itself tells the tales already. I would like to learn and talk with my face more, although I have not seen many guys who is that expressive. Perhaps it is a gender thing. While I am at it, I would like to try and talk with my hands too, I usually just set my hands to the side, they must feel underappreciated.

so here is a summary of my to-do list formed while free writing:
-check neighbor's reaction tomorrow
-be more expressive facially and maybe use my hand to aid my speech
-excercise

last thought before going to bed,
time is the school in which we learn;
time is the fire in which we burn.

[Trivial]

Religion and Behavior

In terms of religion, Christianity is a relatively new one. It is about 2000 years old. Its religious guide has been recorded as a collection since 170 A.D.. The work is known as the New Testament. Various apocrypha were weeded out before 340 A.D. and became more or less the Bible that we are familiar with today.

The complete Bible also contains the Old Testament, which is followed as the unquestioned guide in Judaism. The old testament can be dated back to 650 B.C.. Judaism can be dated back to 2000 B.C. so its historical record is about 4000 years old. People who believe in Judaism are known as Jewish. It should be noted some people who doesn't practice Judaism might consider themselves as Jewish. The word has come to be associated as a word of national identity and blood line. A person with Judaism parents would often consider him or herself as Jewish.
...Read More

Jews don't believe in the teachings of the New Testament and thinks of Jesus Christ as another prophet rather than as the savior sent by God. On the other hand, it is possible to be a Christian without following the Old Testament. For example, not many Christians follow the diet regiment imposed by Old Testament. Yet, all Christians still follow and believe in the 10 commandments.

In my humble and limited opinion, Judaism seems to be the most prosecuted religion that is still in existence. Of course, I base that largely on the result of World War II and the fact that I know very little about the history of world religion.

Many Christians believe the son of god, Jesus Christ, is fair skinned with blue eyes. Yet the book of revelation stated Jesus has hair like wool, feet the color of burnt brass, and resembled jasper and sardine stones: both of which were brown in color. Jesus would be African-Arabic with a face Asian and Arab can be comfortable judging by the era and location he was born under. I suppose as a race we humans can only accept what is familiar to us; therefore, Jesus became white for the benefit of the public. Religion is not big on constituency, but I suppose science is not either if you jump from Newton to Einstein.

Christianity, Judaism, and Islam together form one major branch of religion known as Abrahmic religion. It is also known as desert monotheism. These 3 religion composes of about half of world population. Christianity has about 2 billion, Islam about 1.2 billion, and Hindu about 0.8 billion. The current world population is about 6.5 billion. It should be noted that Christianity is a very vague and broad term that includes more than 34,000 different kinds of branches. Some of these branches do not recognize other branches. Further more, it should be noted that although Islam is short from Christianity by 0.8 billion, there is a strong indication that there are more "practicing" Islam than Christians. Because of the flexibility of the term Christians being used, some people who has never been to church for decades might still claim to be of the faith. From research (aka browsing the internet for information) actual practicing Christians that pray during a meal, go to church on Sunday, is at best half of the people who claim to be Christians. My personal observation from college tends to agree with the result, but I would place the number at 1/3 of the total claimed at best.

Dharma is the other branch of the major religion. This is a very general term for eastern religion. It means The Way of the Higher Truths. Hinduism (828 million) , Buddhism (364 million), Jainism (4.3 million), and Sikhism(23.3 million) are the major religions that fall under the category. Dharma is composed of about 1.2 billion of the world population. This branch of religion is a bit harder to distinguish, since it is of polytheism. It should be noted Taiwan is a mostly Buddhist country since that is where I am born - although I belong to 1 of the 775 million people who doesn't have a religion. Also it should be noted the talling of Buddhism is done by western christians, which placed only 8% of Chinese population with Buddhism. That stastic is taken by Temple who either employee staff or keep tally on believers, which is not a practice done by Buddhism. Buddhism doesn't force religion on other people nor keep track of the numbers. A more realistic claim would be 70% of chinese are Buddhist. A more conservative claim would be 50%. Which would place the number of Buddhist at 850 million.

it is difficult to talk about eastern religion because it is so board and convoluted. It tends to tie into every day life like water seep into the ground, vaporize into the air, and liquefy to rain down upon the land. Yet here is a very brief note on Buddhism.

Buddhism follows The Middle Way. It is generally believed strong desire brings about ones own misfortune. The desire for love is the cause for jealousy for example; the desire for money is the cause for corruption; the desire for tasteful food leads to over-eating. The teaching stresses simplicity which is in direct opposition of western believe of trying your best, giving your all, leaving your heart and sweat on the floor kind of mentality.

Religion and the way we think are certainly connected. Western religion is mostly monotheism. It should be noted the way western population tend to operate is also more singular. The tendency to focus on one task with a deadline and complete it before moving on to the second task is hard to ignore. Easterners tend to focus on task at once - which means polychornic. Westerners tend to be monochronic. Monochronic culture treats time as linear and interruption during work is usually considered rude. Polychornic treats time as circular, who tend to joggle two or three jobs at once and focus each in level by individual's own priority. For example, while on a phone and a friend walked by, a polychornic would say hi to the friend walking in, while a monochronic would not break from the conversation.

here are some lists on eastern and western differences:

East

• Live in time
• Value rest
• Passive
• Contemplative
• Accept what is
• Live in nature
• Want to know meaning
• Freedom of silence
• Lapse into meditation
• Marry first, then love
• Love is mute
• Focus on self-abnegation
• Learn to do with less
• Ideal - love of life
• Honor austerity
• Wealth & Poverty - results of fortune
• Cherish wisdom of years
• Retire to enjoy the gift of your family

West

• Live in space
• Value activity
• Assertive
• Diligent
• Seek change
• Live with nature
• Want to know how it works
• Freedom of speech
• Strive for articulation
• Love first, then marry
• Love is vocal
• Focus on self-assuredness
• Attempt to get some more
• Ideal - being successful
• Honor achievement
• Wealth/Poverty - results of enterprise
• Cherish vitality of youth
• Retire to enjoy the rewards of your work

it is my personal opinion that polytheism is more tolerant and open minded - judging by the wars waged by polytheism to prove their god (none) or wars waged by monotheism (many: 9 major crusades even one with children; reconquista; various jihad). Religious war might be the single most important reason why I am able to remain agnostic, no one has yet convinced me those blood shed were necessary and the collective stupidity would not occur again. Of course, don't even mention the church's stand point on evolution and that earth "IS" the center of the universe.

Sigh. In the end, I did not get to what I want to write - which is to compare Christianity to the older religions of Hinduism and maybe Buddhism. The research is simply enormous. By noting down the interesting readings along the way I have this giant post that no one can follow. It is 4:51 , I will try to do that comparison some other time.

[Religion]

Fatigue Induced Thoughts

So tired, the desire to write is inversely proportional to the amount of coffee I consume. Actually more accurately, the equation would be y=-[(x-4)^2] + 400...Where each integer represents an hour and the range is from 0~24. Picturing that equation in my head I have an upside down curve with maximum at x=4 hours meaning drinking coffee for the first 4 hours increases writing desire and as time approaches x = 24 hour time mark writing desire diminishes to 0. Of course, I am beat, so that equation could be wrong... At this point, it matters not. No one reads myhis posts and I have only myself to amuse, or blame. How simple life would be if that were true regarding how I live. Yet we are all responsible to more than just ourselves. Some people carry that weight like a burden, others like treasure....No no no, this is turning into another long post. Must end here. Let me end with one final thought.

the night is my armor, the quiet serenity that is undemanding and uncluttered. The darkness that other fear for the unknown, I see as a chance to look into myself. And perhaps, what others fear were not the unknown, but themselves. No no, turning into another train of thought. Must sleep now.

*7/27, now that I check the equation while conscious, I see it is wrong*

[Thoughts]

Ambrosia

Word of the day is ambrosia. It means food of the gods. Now-a-days better known as a dessert of chilled fruit mixed with coconut.

personally I think the real food of the gods is 鮮奶布丁, roughly translated Fresh Milk Pudding. It looks suspiciously like Flan which is loved by the evil doctor in Gunnm. I can live on a solid diet of that stuff....Until I die of vitamin deficiency that is. Let us also hope this food has no relation on why the evil doctor became evil. Then again, you are what you eat so maybe I am doomed to a life style of world domination.

speaking of food, I also enjoy protein rich substance saturated with hemoglobin lightly grilled on carbon combustion minerals - namely grilled steak. Logically and intellectually I prefer fruits and vegetables, it is healthy, low on fat and cal., and better on the unfortunate animals that shares the same planet as us humans. But eating habits is anything but logical. Besides, you could think of it the other way, save plants - eat meat. Who is to say animals are more worthy to save than the peaceful immobile green friends? In the end, to be fair, I try to eat a bit of both and while still feeling a bit guilty to both life forms. What can I say? Bon appetite.

[Thoughts]

Cure

I have found a cure for sleeplessness. The miracle is simple, just work 14 hours a day for a week. I slept like a baby during the 6 hours a day I have to myself. Strangely, with fewer hours left to myself I am more motivated to work on my own project. For more than a year I wanted to index my manga by mangaka, title, genera, and length for my completed series, it was finally done this weekend after many many hours of work -326 titles and all. Ironically, I no longer have the desire nor the time to read the manga now that I have it sorted and easy to find. Thus is life.

Would the story of my life repeat? When I am old, would I look back on my job, my work, and my life and have neither the desire nor time to review it? I would like to take steps to avoid that. Mental note - less TV tomorrow. So what might be important to me in the long run? What might I care about in years to come? If I find the answer to that I would at least know which direction to move.

I suppose I want the things everyone want. I want the betterment of self, the love of a few, and some space to think and to grow. Yet, there are some other things that might not be so common. I would like to show people my world, the plane in which I view the reality. I would like to tell my story, maybe through quotations or stories or art. Part of being human is the desire to define the reality around them. We name everything because we think by giving things a name we possess ownership.

My inability to define and express my world could be a common problem. After all, it has been 5000 years and mankind couldn't clearly describe this society. We are still coming out with new economic models, scientifically theories, and religious beliefs to justify what is 'real'. So Smith was replaced by Nash, Newton by Einstein, and Christians exists with Islams, Hindu, Budda, and Agnostics. Great artist has the ability to create, shape and present a whole world. Which might be the closest anyone can be to a god. It is no wonder I have problem with my dream. Maybe if I keep writing, keep programming, and keep painting then the pieces would fall in.

Do I have enough time? Does anyone have enough time? And ultimately, does it all really matter? Am I perhaps not simply asking the question "why" by trying to conceptualize and justifying my world? "Why am I"; "Who am I"; "What am I". If I find the words, program, or pictures that can represent my world, would I perhaps not find the answers to those questions?

other things I would like to work on.
1) finish sorting 364 Chinese songs, find their respective lyrics and file them into my music library.
2) continue learning php and mysql so that one day I can make a quotation database to my liking.
3)work out, some push up and sit ups. I would run a bit if this country isn't so hot all the time.
4) practice Chinese typing.
5) expand my vocabulary so that I might express my thoughts more clearly.
6)I would like to write a little everyday, maybe not as beautiful as what Anne writes, but I figure I would have to start somewhere.

[Trivial]