31 posts tagged “personal”

I bit the bullet last night to buy a domain and also get myself some private hosting for the time being. I am with Dreamhost, so I can spiff anyone who wants a domain and site package with discount codes.

It's been a bit rocky so far with Dreamhost, but their staff is rather helpful.

I plan on uprooting and transferring my entries from here to the new domain possibly tonight.

The new blog will have a fresh face and be powered by Wordpress... it will mainly be personal with maybe some affiliate links to generate a little bit of revenue to "self-maintain" the site.

The purpose of this endeavor is the following

1. Establish a professional presence on the web
2. Allow for my friends who do not wish to become members of blog communities to comment on my work
   
3. Possibly expand the blog into a fusion of personal and professional entries
4. Keep myself "conscious" and writing, especially with things like a fitness blog or rants
   

I would be surprised if this leads to something different, but I won't hold my breath. I would love to do freelance writing for a journal or paper at some point, so we shall see.

Thanks for those who have me on RSS and have pointed and prodded me with plenty of ideas and suggestions.

I have had a terrible week, this week and basically lost my inspiration to fight. What I assumed was well and good was only to be thrown in shambles. I am confused how to proceed but limitations on my fate constrain me to darkness. I will probably take a "meditation" from my works here to focus on rebuilding myself... When I return, I hope to write more about some more Linux musings and maybe some funny rants.

Merry Christmas to you readers out there... and may you have a better season that I am having.

The last question I leave is... "Where's my GameCube and shit?"

-ZeroXR

Last night, a dear friend died... The details are not disclosed with respect to her family. Her name was Kate and I can say she was a wonderful person. She had a critical eye for detail and a splendid artist. Her heart was unsurpassed in the greatness of care in her art. She died at only 21 years old... Deprived of the many joys that she may not have gotten to experience. To say she never got a fair chance in life would be an understatement. I loved seeing her at her studio working just painting her art, that was a joy to see her just forming a picture that was incomparably great. Her smile was something that no one could even capture. She was a revolutionary for her time, but I wish she had more time to blossom and really evolve as an artist.

Kate, may your soul reach heaven and touch the stars. I pray you will find eternal happiness in a higher state of life... You will be missed in my heart and even more so to those who loved you most. God bless and may you rest in peace.

-ZeroXR

I have been a bit disappointed with how male grooming care is almost frowned upon in America, unlike say the United Kingdom or Japan where proper care is seen as a sign of being a gentleman. The concept of shaving in the states for home use is either cartridge blades or electric razors. Barber shops rarely do the "classic cutthroat shave" as the concern for hygiene and shady establishment became an issue... Sure men have shops like the barber spas from The Art of Shaving, but other than that, men are a tad out of luck unless there is a barber shop or spa that specializes in that vector of care. For the do-it-yourselfer, there is the option to buy into the shaving gear and embrace the roots of gentleman's care. It's pricey, but it is not without benefits. The skin is not so roughed up, as with proper technique, the user is not shredding as much skin as let's say... a Gillette Fusion with 5 blades. There is less chance to have in-grown hairs, clogged pores, and eliminates razor burn. Sensitive skin folks will find that their skin panics less with straight razor shaving, as I found out. It was nice not to have puffy, itchy irritated skin unlike the results after a cartridge razor shave. But enough on the shaving tangent...

Clothes, I find the same issue... I mean, nothing wrong with folks who like the rugged look. I just can't find the justification of why folks from that camp give flack to those who like to dress well or take care of their selves better. Is it wrong for a man to want to be polished up from a shave and shower smelling like invigorating eucalyptus and spearmint from using better than normal bath soaps, shampoos, and moisturizers? Why is it frowned on to desire nice clothes tailored from designers out in New York or Italy? It makes little sense to say that dress style can be an indicator of one's sexual preferences. That was one debate that I have commonly heard by passerbys skipping past shops saying "Who buys into that whole "looking good" crap?!" I don't frown on those who like to buy on a budget, because that's one way to skirt off the high prices of the designer boutiques.

I am not trying to slam anyone from any camp, but I would like to state that it shouldn't be shunned. Some of the major cities all over America are quickly becoming metropolitan fashion capitals. My city of Dallas is quickly becoming one and I know New York City is being one that known around the world. Electronics are getting a sense of "fashion" and plenty of people carry these devices, but we're supposedly ashamed of men dressing and caring for themselves well? That could be due to the homophobia stigma that America carries which may still take time to shake still. If guys out in Japan and the UK dressing well are gay... then you may as well throw in the rest of Europe and Asia to that mix to that very poorly conceived stereotype.

Aurelia got my Christmas present early in the form of a Dovo Straight Razor with the replaceable blade. Her main reason for the purchase was she couldn't find a local dealer who sold the Japanese made Feather brand razors and she didn't want to wait for shipping. The razor is pretty simple to reload the blades... It just uses Merkur safety blades that are snapped in half and then loaded into the blade holder. After the blade is loaded, the user slides it into the razor and it's set to go.

The blades are plenty sharp as they are from old fashioned safety razors... so they don't forgive quite as much as a true straight razor from what folks like the people at "Straight Razor Place" forums mentioned on some of their guides that have been archived. This is one shavette razor that patience is to be emphasized... I ended up getting some cuts and nicks here and there from it. For a beginner and this blade, one cannot fear the blade and prudence must be exercised as they will minimize the cuts. I recommend having a styptic pencil or a block of alum on hand in the case of cuts to minimize bleeding from their hemostatic effect.

Although I like the blade, I feel due to the size of the blades in use... it holds back the learning potential of the user. True, there's no need to learn about sharpening blades... but when your cutting edge is half of the size of a standard blade, you have to do more to clean up the facial hairs. I will definitely be looking into getting a Feather branded razor, as their blades are full sized and disposable, the sharpening will not have to be done. The main debate really will be if I will buy the Pro Guard blades (with a guide wire) or the the professional blades.

Here are the images below of my shaving gear for those who are wondering what in blazes I am talking about.

The Razor

Dovo Shavette

Shaving Essentials

I really learned the value of patience Saturday night. It comes with the territory of the phrase "live by the sword, die by the sword". Tempting fate is never a good idea, even more so when you try to do things without trust in mind. My thanks goes to Aurelia for the next product review because it's actually quite nifty. Though I can only say that she may have created a monster out of me due to it. To leave a teaser... I will leave this "ad-lib" for the readers:

It's all fun and games until _______ ________ causes someone to get hurt.

Show us your favorite word, sentence or quote.

This quote was one I had found in deep meditation over myself... It struck me like a bolt of lightning, simply from how simple and great in magnitude it is.

In ira illic est verum - Zero

From Latin, it becomes "In anger, there is truth". We all take our words for granted. We really do. Often times, we freely speak as nothing will be held to us sometimes. In the heat of things, like a hot debate or an argument full of ire, sometimes we let our emotions take the best of us and we say things that radiate from our subconscious. Feelings that we may have harbored in silence suddenly explode like a volcanic eruption.

This eruption can sever relationships or even cause great schism between people. We can even collapse to shambles from doing something that cannot be undone. But from becoming a pile of fallen ramparts, we finally learn to appreciate the power of our words. Words can maim and kill, period. It's disappointing when people can just make an excuse of "I didn't mean it!" or "I was just mad", because truth of the matter is... from that madness, we are deeply honest to ourselves.

Jalopnik broke their transcription of Dodge's release of the 2008 Viper SRT-10 ACR version yesterday. This made me curious... I felt that the previous generation Viper was one of the more hardcore GT cars. Minimal insulation, a spartan design, just pure hardcore American heritage and power that has long left the stage when the current generation is arrived. I loved the Dodge Viper GTS of circa 2002 spawned as a machine that finally matured very well, like a fine vintage liquor in an oaken cask. The earlier iterations had one issue or another that either was from faulty design or from national organizations making a spectacle of the lack of some safety features. Sure, the new design had the "lake pipe" exhaust design, the body was more modernized for the new age, and safety improved... but the car just lacked soul that it used to have. True, the engine roared just as bad as the older model... but to me, lack of a GTS version made my heart sink.

When I read the press release from Dodge to be published by automotive journals, my heart felt sweet vindication. A "balls-to-the-wall", doped up, hardcore version of the Viper that returns to the roots of feats of American muscle car history was exactly what the doctor ordered. Let's check out the specs from the press release from Jalopnik:

Even More Viper Venom! Dodge introduces street-legal 2008 Viper SRT10® ACR

• Dodge delivers ultimate purpose-built, street-legal track car
• 2008 Dodge Viper SRT10® ACR offers reduced weight, race-ready hardware and competition tuning for optimal on-track performance
• Aerodynamic improvements, racing suspension and weight savings equal unmatched performance for under $100,000

Auburn Hills, Mich. - Dodge announced today that the all-new 2008 Dodge Viper SRT10® ACR - short for American Club Racer - will make its public debut at next week's Los Angeles Auto Show.

The latest addition to Chrysler LLC's Street and Racing Technology (SRT) family of performance vehicles, the all-new, 600-horsepower 2008 Dodge Viper SRT10 ACR is a street-legal Viper engineered to dominate on the race track. Because it is street legal, diehard Viper and track enthusiasts can drive their car to the race track, run it at speed on the track, and then drive it home.

"With the all-new 2008 Dodge Viper SRT10 ACR, SRT has taken the ultimate American sports car and injected it with an extra dose of racing DNA," said Mike Accavitti, Director - Dodge Brand and SRT Marketing and Communications, Chrysler LLC. "With the Viper SRT10 as the starting point, SRT engineered a combination of reduced weight, race-tuned suspension and aerodynamic improvements to create the ultimate Viper for the street and track."

Derived from the all-new 2008 Dodge Viper SRT10, the heart and soul of the all-new 2008 Viper SRT10 ACR is SRT's new 8.4-liter aluminum V-10 engine that produces 600 horsepower and 560 lb.-ft. of torque.

The 2008 Dodge Viper SRT10 ACR stays true to the five key aspects of SRT: standout powertrain, bold exterior styling, race-inspired interior, benchmark braking, and world-class ride and handling characteristics across a dynamic range.

Bold Exterior Styling
The 2008 Dodge Viper SRT10 ACR exterior styling cues offer not only bold aesthetics but functional benefits on the track. These include a variable geometry "fanged" front splitter, an adjustable rear wing sculpted by CFD (Computational Fluid Dynamics), and optimized front dive planes. These new aerodynamic devices are formed in high-performance autoclaved carbonfiber. By using both unidirectional and woven laminates, the aero equipment is optimized for the minimum possible weight.

The splitter and dive planes feature a clear coated carbonfiber weave on all Viper SRT10 ACR models.

The front splitter includes three removable rub strips that provide protection and wear resistance. Supported by stainless steel tension cables, the splitter is designed to absorb the energy from minor upward deflections.

The Dodge Viper SRT10 ACR aerodynamics are tuned and balanced to maximize downforce and provide increased levels of lateral grip. Each Viper SRT10 ACR also includes a track extension that replaces the center splitter rub strip and fills out the fanged splitter scallop for closed-circuit events. The aerodynamic effect of the track extension is a reduction in overall drag and an increase in front downforce of nearly one third.

The front fog lamps have been deleted and replaced with lightweight filler panels.

The 2008 Viper SRT10 ACR features a signature two-tone paint scheme with a black center section. An optional driver's stripe is available on a two-tone Viper Red or a Viper Black ACR. The driver's stripe also features a sewn leather accent on the steering wheel. A clearcoated exposed weave is featured on the rear carbonfiber wing of all two-tone and driver's stripe Viper SRT10 ACR models.

A standard Viper SRT10 monotone paint scheme is also available featuring a body color rear wing and dual painted Viper stripes.

The 2008 Dodge Viper SRT10 ACR is available in five colors: Viper Red, Viper Black, Viper Violet, Viper Bright Blue Metallic, and Viper Very Orange.

Lightweight forged aluminum Sidewinder wheels are painted gloss black to complete the one-of-a-kind exterior styling.

Race-inspired Interior
Based on the 2008 Viper SRT10 interior, the Viper SRT10 ACR goes a step further to satisfy what racers want: the least weight possible. An optional "Hard Core" package offers maximum weight savings by deleting the audio system, underhood silencer pad, trunk carpet and tire inflator. The radio is replaced by a lightweight cover that can be configured to mount the included lap timer. The door speakers are replaced by lightweight carbonfiber panels. The Hard Core package offers a 40 lb. weight savings and provides ultimate street legal race-ready performance.

World-class Ride and Handling
The all-new 2008 Dodge Viper SRT10 ACR is specifically modified and tuned for track performance. The ACR suspension includes coil-over racing dampers from KW Suspensions that are adjustable for damping and ride height. The shocks are two-way adjustable without removing the wheels - a timesaver on the track - and they include a large range for compression and rebound. The KW dampers and forks are machined from solid aluminum billet, feature spherical bearing mounts, and are optimized to minimize weight and maximize performance.

The 2008 Dodge Viper SRT10 ACR features a new front stabilizer bar for increased roll-stiffness.

Lightweight forged aluminum Sidewinder wheels are optimized by using Finite Element Analysis to achieve a lower rotating unsprung mass. Finished in gloss black paint, they wear Michelin Pilot Sport Cup DOT-approved (street legal) race tires, providing enhanced grip on the track.

Track performance is maximized in the 2008 Dodge Viper SRT10 ACR via several weight-savings initiatives. The savings were achieved with the Michelin Pilot Sport Cup Tires, Sidewinder lightweight wheels, and StopTech brake rotors. With the aerodynamic and suspension elements, the 2008 Dodge Viper SRT10 ACR is 40 pounds lighter than the Viper SRT10 coupe. The optional Hard Core package further reduces the weight by another 40 pounds, for a total weight savings of 80 pounds.

Benchmark Braking
The Viper SRT10 benchmark brakes are taken to the next level in the 2008 Dodge Viper SRT10 ACR. StopTech two-piece, slotted, lightweight rotors combine with the Viper SRT10's Brembo calipers to reduce rotating inertia and unsprung mass, improve brake cooling, and significantly reduce fade even under extreme conditions. The StopTech rotors feature a patented curved-fin design, a key element in improving brake cooling. The StopTech brake rotors combined with the Michelin Pilot Sport Cup Tires and Sidewinder lightweight wheels combine to reduce 60 pounds of unsprung, rotating mass. The 2008 Dodge SRT10 Viper ACR stops from 60 mph in less than 100 feet.

Standout Powertrain
The 2008 Dodge Viper SRT10 ACR utilizes the Viper SRT10's new 8.4-liter aluminum V-10 engine that produces a ground-shaking 600 horsepower and tire-smoking 560 lb.-ft. of torque. It features a deep-skirted V10 aluminum engine block, cylinder heads equipped with Computer Numerically Controlled (CNC)-shaped combustion chambers, large valves and Variable Valve Timing (VVT). VVT Electronically adjusts when the exhaust valves are open and closed according to engine speed and load, allowing the engine to "breathe" cleaner and more efficiently.

The two-piece intake manifold combines cast aluminum lower with smooth runners for better air flow, bolted to a die-cast aluminum upper plenum. A revised air-cleaner box with a low-restriction filter sends air through a dual electronic throttle control into the intake module.

The air-fuel mixture in the cylinders is ignited by platinum-tip spark plugs fired by individual plug coils mounted on the cylinder-head covers.

Within the cylinders, pistons are equipped with large-diameter floating pins with bronze bushings for high-load capability. Forged powder-metal connecting rods are secured with aircraft-quality fasteners for increased fatigue strength.

Engine lubrication is managed by the large oil pump and a swinging oil pickup adapted from Viper competition engines, to ensure proper oil pressure in high-rpm and hard cornering conditions.

The 2008 Dodge Viper SRT10 ACR sports the latest evolution of the Tremec T56 six-speed manual transmission known as the TR6060. Power is transmitted to the rear wheels via a GKN ViscoLok speed-sensing limited-slip differential.

Manufacturing
The 2008 Dodge Viper SRT10 ACR will be hand built at the Conner Avenue Assembly Plant in Detroit.

The 2008 Dodge Viper SRT10 ACR will arrive in showrooms in the second quarter of 2008 at a Manufacturer's Suggested Retail Price (MSRP) of less than $100,000. Complete pricing information will be released at a later date.

Street and Racing Technology
SRT creates some of Chrysler LLC's boldest, most distinctive products by single-mindedly following its core vision: Deliver benchmark performance at the lowest price, and deliver it with absolute integrity and credibility.

Every SRT vehicle showcases five key aspects: Exterior styling that resonates with the brand image; race-inspired interiors; world-class ride and handling characteristics across a dynamic range; benchmark braking and standout powertrain.

" According to Chrysler, the ACR generates 1,000 pounds of downforce at 150 mph and can generate 1.5g while cornering."

Insane power at a price that is competitive to the GT car market gives the option of choice, indeed! Especially at a price under $100,000 to boot! Choice is a good thing, because it breeds another thing: competition. With that said, I look forward to the next few years... Especially with regard to Honda's GT offering in the form of the HSC.

With midterms and soon finals upon me, things will get a bit crazy in my real life away from the Terminal. The office has gotten a bit nutty due to the fact that well... "Cold and Flu Season" is upon us. I will try my best to keep up to date with reviews, rants and other fun articles.

I will offer this one bit of warning. Stay warm, eat plenty, bulk up on immunity supplements, and live well.

Oh yeah, Happy Holidays to everyone in advance... Just in case I forget to mention so with the hectic pace of things.

-ZeroXR

From the last 3 years, there's been a progressive explosion of social networking sites popping over the place. From those years, you have had minor players fall while the "giants" just kept growing. The big giants are now MySpace and Facebook... but the original purposes of each were totally different from my observations.

MySpace started off like a place to network with friends and maybe join groups to promote musicians that used it as a place to spread word about their music. It grew with a very rapid pace mainly due to how customizable the personal web pages could be fixed up. But with lack of "control", you'd have some devious people who'd find exploits to do things like read passwords to even cause domino effect cases where one compromised user would essentially spread their embedded virus to any visitors to their MySpace to another. This was before Tom sold the site to News Corp (aka Fox) and the management finally tightened things up. Sure, you still have occasional compromises from some customization site eventually showing their intentions of stealing passwords or doing something malicious... but the current MySpace administration does a pretty good job squashing those before they get widespread.

Facebook conversely started off more like an academic social network/online yearbook. So it was very locked tight. You couldn't join unless you had a college e-mail address and verified your account creation from that e-mail address. After that, the network was pretty dull or docile... You weren't able to peep into profiles, because you had to be in Facebook in order to do that. There was less customization, but the networking was real tight... You couldn't randomly browse through profiles unless the person consented to being your "friend". Eventually, they would open enrollment to about anyone who had an e-mail address. At this point, search engines were pulling snippets of profile information here and there. Facebook would finally open up their API to users to develop applications, that's when profiles would get colorful with customizations. Microsoft finally got interest and even decided to buy into Facebook's stock from how the social network has exploded from growth with users. For the most part, Facebook has had the least problem with compromises due to how tight they have controlled the network.

With social networks, they have allowed people to find long-lost friends and find out connections to who all they know. Of course, this causes the phenomenon that some have informally termed  as being a "frend whore". The informal definition of a "friend whore" is a person who randomly adds people in social networks all on meaningless significance. Examples would be things like meeting a person once or just because they may have dated and broke up with someone in a span of 24 hours. Social networks are not without their dark side... They can serve to be a double edged sword. Employers have found out how powerful Google is and have taken full advantage of it. Google is pretty aggressive and can pick up on MySpace profiles and even some snippets of Facebook profiles. Potentially applying for a job that advocates a drug free environment and you're under the legal age to be drinking while smoking some quality hash from a water bong and have pictures of doing those things at a party? Don't be surprised if your future employer decides to decline hiring you. I actually got to see this happen with the Human Resources division when they were shooting a candidate's name into Google and... lo and behold... they found him bonging a beer at a party and he was not of legal drinking age.

Privacy now becomes an issue. How much should the world know about us? When people hit the age of 18, the number of organizations who keep tabs on people is astounding. You have corporations who represent the major credit tracking companies monitoring your credit, then you have ones monitoring your record with writing checks, ones who observe your ability to pay rent or mortgages on time. At the same right, some of these very corporations have not had the best luck with securing their data dossiers on people or they have even been leaked from crackers and cyber criminals breaking in to steal confidential information to those who could use a new "identity". So compromises are one thing that is somewhat an uncontrollable factor... but what about personal privacy? Most people are unaware of how much information they publish about themselves online. Surprisingly, a Google search can find quite the list of information on people. Things like full, legal names, exact birth dates, home addresses, place of employment, and on very rare occasions (due to poor securing of data) social security numbers can be found by simple Google searches. You have interesting little start-up companies popping up all over the place harvesting cached web pages and ripping information from them into a compact page with just about everything they can dig up on you. Check out sites like Spock, where they aggregate as much information about you and stick it all into one concrete page.

Luckily, the two giants of social networking have given users the power to control who gets to see their information and who does not. MySpace has an option to make the user's profile private and then even make it harder for people to find you by adding criteria before they have the permission to add you. Criteria can be things like knowing your exact contact e-mail address or even your real name. MySpace has also been cooperating with state and federal laws with regards to making under-aged users profiles to be locked to private by default to protect children from pedophiles and sexual predators. Facebook has given the users control of whether they want their profiles made public or private since they had opened up enrollment to everyone. But the future of everyone's privacy is still at stake...

I am not trying to create an image from an Orwellian novel like 1984 with the threat of "Big Brother is Watching You", but rather that the newer generation of online users should have a right to know where their information is going to. If users feel that a company turning a profit on how much information they can dig up on them is in ethical, they should speak now and get the government involved rather than let the country fail on protecting the liberty of privacy. These companies that passively watch... they don't even have to tell people that they are observing them or creating a "file" of what all they monitor.

A few folks have brought up that Google's lack of privacy leaves them liable to be the biggest perpetrator of invasion of privacy. This has been brought up in courts around Europe to the point that Google has had to make a defined limit of how long they are allowed to hold on to your information. Take into mind that Google just started their Open Social platform with sites like Friendster, MySpace, PayPal all joining in the mix to try to bully Facebook. At the same time with the Open Social network, it acts as a "consent" contract allowing any one within the Open Social platform to collect as much information on you as they desire with out necessarily telling you what the purpose of their existence is.

If you don't want the world knowing everything about you but you want to keep a life online to keep in touch with friends... Lock up your profiles and even make aliases to scramble the trail. If you're truly afraid to the point of paranoia, there is the option of being a Luddite and not allowing "The Machine" to collect a byte of information on you. I don't mind sharing information that I consent to, but data mining must stop somewhere.