Charlie’s Journal - Day 28

Day 28 - I haven’t written in the journal in a while, mainly because it’s been busy around here. I had to completely recreate my bubble nest, thanks to a freshening of my water supply. I’m thankful though. The water wasn’t murky or anything (I have friends stuck in dirty old vases) but let’s just say I have to poop where I eat, and after a while that’s just not cool.  Fresh water makes me happy, even if it’s a little stressful getting in and out of the tank.

Speaking of that, those humans aren’t too bright. I realize I have a natural tendency to squirm, but I’m really not that hard to hold on to. How I ended up on a counter for a minute, I’ll never quite understand.

At least I got blood worms after that!

After Hours Season 2 Is Coming!!!

What Construction Can Do To Servers

Before…

After 16 hours, 5 power supplies and fans, 3 disks, 2 N95 masks and 1 SCSI cable and a RAID controller card…

Charlie’s Journal - Day 17

Day 17 - I had a dream last night. It involved various females. That’s all I’m saying to keep it PG around this Journal, just in case anyone ever reads it. I’ll continue to blow bubbles for the bubble nest. If nothing else, it seems to amuse the two humans endlessly.

Charlie’s Journal: Day 14

Day 14 - Oh how I love this little green plant. I’ve turned it into quite a little bed when I sleep.  There are a couple of upper branches that work out perfectly, so that I don’t have to go too far to the surface to get air.  It’s also fun to swim through.  I’ve work out a course that keeps me fit, while I wait for my next meal or next visit from the two humans.

Although, for the life of me I don’t understand why they keep tapping on my tank. It wakes me up out of a sleep, and frankly, when I’m dreaming of blood worms, I’d rather not wake up. Those two seemed to do a lot of lounging yesterday, and from what I could see they were watching that box up to my left. It had a lot of yellow characters on it, and some “Dough” sound. But, I don’t think it was a cooking show.  Generally, when the male human is watching cooking it’s a female will really big gestures and a loud voice.

Either way, I wish they’d stop waking me up when I’m sleepy!

NBC Nightly News: Boys Have Better Chance To Get Into Many Colleges

I just heard on the Nightly News that many boys that are less qualified than their female counterparts stand a better chance of getting into many colleges, because the colleges are trying to keep the male / female ratio at 50/50.  The reason, is the MOST asinine I’ve heard. Administrators claim that a 60/40 split, female to male will keep many male students away, if they see that ratio.

I call B.S.

What guy wouldn’t want to go to a college that has more women than men, provided that it’s a good school with the program they want?

National ID Card Moves Us Closer To Brave New World

I remember reading Brave New World by Aldous Huxley in high school. I think I picked it up because I was really into The Doors back then, and I read that they had chosen the band name after reading a quote by Huxley about The Doors of Perception. How I got there doesn’t really matter, what matters is that over the last ten years, the United States is getting closer and closer to the science fiction of Brave New World and 1984. Sure, we’re not all eating our Soma yet, but this new National ID Card is another step in the direction of government watching our every move.

It’s all in the interest of security right?

Wrong. I don’t know about anyone else, but the thought of the government having the largest database of names and address in the United States is scary. To top that off, local governments will keep copies of a whole bunch of your personal information.

Does that not sound like a wonderful place for hackers to have some fun?

I’ve already seen what happens when a mail merge goes back for a spam mail company. I had flyers with my name mailed to other addresses, while I was getting wrong names to my address. That was from an operator error. Lovely, right? What happens when some hackers decide to have some fun with the system?

All of this “security” is only good for the general population. It’s like securing a home. I can do everything in my power to secure it, alarms, locks, solid doors, etc. That keeps out or deters a ton of potential burglars, but a professional is going to get in and out if they want to get in and out.  The same goes for hacking.

And what about privacy you say? As Wired.com points out, the 162 page document doesn’t say a whole lot about it. States are free to pull down your information as they see fit. I guess we’re supposed to be happy that the “Real ID” doesn’t have an RFID chip in it? Maybe the government will figure out they can make a few pennies by selling our names to junk mail companies and solicters?

In reality, I know this probably won’t change my life on a daily basis. And from a technical standpoint, a lot of it makes sense. Warehoused data is a good thing, and Google probably already knows way more about me than the U.S. Government ever will, but where is the comment sense?

Charlie’s Journal - Day 8

Day 8 - I must have been dreaming yesterday. For a few, brief moments, there were hundreds of blood worms in my tank. That’s right, HUNDREDS. But, sadly, the male captor took most of them away. The female laughed at him while he scooped them out. I also didn’t appreciate the couple of pokes he gave me to keep me away from my feast.

I did, however, get some extra water added to my tank, so I can actually swim over the plant again. Most of my bubbles were destroyed, though, so at least I have something to keep me busy for the next few days. Oh yes, one other thing. The captors have rearranged some things out in the room. One tree was replaced, and some other things put away. I wonder what that was about?

Resolutions: 2008 Update 1

It’s time to do a bit of checking in on my 2008 resolutions, and frankly, I’m not quite sure that I’m happy with two of my picks at this point.

Healthy Living - Other than the pizza I had yesterday, I’m doing a lot better in this regard. I still have to figure out how to trick myself into eating more veggies though.  And does helping my girlfriend move some of her furniture around count as exercise for yesterday?

Investing Money - Okay, I like this goal, I just don’t know if it’s achievable this year because of various planned expenses for 2008.  For now, it’s on hold. This is really a second half of the year goal.

ScalpEm.com - I’ve realized that the Top 100,000 sites is going to be a cyclical thing for an FSU sports website. So the better goal is to focus on better writing for the site and more interesting posts. Consistency is key.

Charlie’s Journal - Day 4

Day 4 - It’s Day 4 here in captivity, although I’m starting to realize that my so called “captors” might actually be my rescuers in a sense. Sure, I’m not in a Taiwanese rice patty, but this place is pretty good.  There’s plenty of food, and there is lots to look at from outside my holding area. So good in fact, I started making bubble nests. Granted, there aren’t any females around, but I could do with out the stress of that anyway. Frankly, Betta love is a little violent for my tastes.

My rescuers are generally only home in the evenings, except for the large one, he seems to show up around midday and usually gives me a snack. Those brownies are pretty darn good. Even better, on special occasions I’ve been served blood worms, which are making my fins and scales healthy again. And, to top it all off, I don’t think I’ve been in clearer water.

With my situation stabilizing, I’ll report more about what I can see from here as the days go by.

P.S. - I need to get a better photo taken, I look awful from that side.