The Naterator

This evening there was a celebration party way out in Fall City (southeast of Redmond) for some City Church interns that were returning to their native locations (ex. other states, other countries). I only knew one of them (Josh Rosco), but not very well. Instead of having cadre tonight, all of us (Ben, Ryan, Matt, & me) went to the intern party.

Recent events have inspired some thought in me. I am a pretty reserved person, meaning I am the opposite of “the life of the party”. My outwardly-expressed emotions are fairly neutral and I've noticed that I become extremely nervous in large-group social gatherings.

One-on-one, I think I connect with people very well. I wouldn't have had so many fanstastic, educational jobs if it weren't for my one-on-one abilities. I wouldn't have had the many contract consulting clients if it weren't for my one-on-one abilities. In the past I've heard things such as “you're going to make a great father” and “you're a good counselor”. This is encouraging, but much of life involves large-group social settings.

Unfortunately, when I'm in social situations, it's difficult for me to conjure up conversation topics when I don't know the person very well. It seems that in social situations, it is impossible for me to keep my creative right brain up to the speed of the conversation. Much of the time, I do not control the direction of the conversation. This is because I can't think of anything good to talk about. Many times my mind is focused on other things, such as analyzing other's characteristics, analyzing my surrounding environment, and contemplating the future of my life (specifically my business, my relationship with God, and my future wife).

Another gaffe I experience often is the lack of name retention. Connecting names with faces is extremely difficult for me, but it is a pertinent ability that is integral to my future as a media business owner.

Is there anyone out there that has had or currently has troubles with social situations? If so, do you have any advice on how to overcome such barriers? I don't have many worries in my life, but this one seems to bog me down!

BTW, if you post a comment, you don't have to include your real name, so you can still post your thoughts if you're shy

Well my history teacher decided our last and final test should be a take-home test. Yes, just like every other one of our tests. Hist113 with Iraj Paydar is quite possibly one of the easiest classes in the entire world. Remember that.

My sister graduated last night! We snuck in about 2.5hrs early, in defiance of their “parents out of the building until 6:30pm” policy. Well, quite frankly, screw that. I'm not going to stand outside in the cold rain when there is a perfectly comfortable, warm seat waiting for me insde. Needless to say, we got front row seats. Her graduation pretty much emulated my graduation, as we both graduated from high schools in the same district.

Oh my gosh! You would not believe how much music crap they had. Sorry guys, but a graduation ceremony is for the graduates. It's not a recital or a show. It's a celebration for the young adults who are taking their next step!

Anyways, I finished up on the takehome test earlier, and now I'm feeling quite lazy. I have lots of web design work to do. Recently, I've been working on a new web site for Bancard USA. This, combined with school, has basically eaten up my schedule. Starting this summer, however, time should be less of a comodity and more of a regularity. Maybe I can hang out for once!

Well, hope all is well with y'all. TTYL and GB.

Here are some screenshots of Task Manager while I was doing a bit of editing in Illustrator and Photoshop. My computer didn't even think about choking, it didn't lag up one bit, and Photoshop didn't even have to write to its swapfile!

Yes, Virginia…that computer is using a lot of RAM!

I've never seen Photoshop eat this much RAM before! I was creating a 6-foot-wide sign of the InspireAwe logo, ready for Kinko's to print =)

Okay, so we went to a Cedar Park thing today. It was actually Doug Haines' graduation party. He's a cool guy, and it was fine that my mom, sis, and myself went. The problem was the fact that his house was full of Cedar Park people.

Many people from Cedar Park are awesome. I had a lot of good times at Cedar Park and I wouldn't be here today if it weren't for that organization, but many of the people at that place have come to develop a negative view of my family. Why? A single name: Felicia Lowe.

This young lady started out as a normal person that our fmaily knew. Then, she said she wanted to go to college over here (she's from Spokane). So we said she could pay a little bit (round $150/month, I believe) to live in our house and go to school here.

So she moved in last summer. My sister and her were friends. Not close friends, but they were definitely friends. When school came around, what did Felicia do? She decided that she didn't want to go to school. Instead, she stayed out till 2 and 3am every night with her boyfriend, Jarren Born. As it turns out, they were making out and doing other things that responsible young Christian individuals would not do at the mere age of 18.

My family concluded this was unacceptable. The environment in my household is the most positive of any household I have been present in my entire life. My parents are not hard-nosed and they give my sister and I complete freedom. But they show appreciation when we act responsibly. Maturity and wisdom are encouraged and imparted in this household and I know of none better.

Well, Felicia ended up leaving, as it was certain that she was not a fit for our household. Eventually, she moved in with the family she was nannying for, and oh what a relief it was to have her out.

My family gave her a lot. My parents acted like her parents and gave their full hearts to this young lady, but she did not realize the blessing she had in her hand.

We never got a penny of her rent money and never received a thanks for our assistance. Instead, all we got were mean glares at the graduation party today.

She has obviously spread rumors about our family to the entire Cedar Park youth group. An old friend of mine would not even say hello to me, as he has become close friends with this girl.

What am I going to do about it? Nothing. What will I do in the future? I will make something of myself and hopefully become near what God wants me to be. I know there are some fantastic people at Cedar Park, but for those that share in the actions of gossip, I am certain they will endure the consequences.

If you talk about somebody behind their back, you had better make sure it's something positive. This is a life-long lesson I have had instilled in my brain, and I stick wholeheartedly to it. Travesties occur when you treat others in a manner you would not find suitable to be treated yourself.

They will have their fun times hanging out, gossipping, partying, and enjoying their clique, but I am going to make something of myself. I already have done fantastic things, but I will continue to strive for greater.

BTW, I am doing web design fulltime this summer and getting fantastic pay as well. InspireAwe MediaGroup is officially off the ground. God, may your will be done.

As you can see, under the “Internal Network Info” section on the navbar to your right, there are links to a network map. It is available as either a JPEG or a PDF. You can also click on the preview image below for the JPEG version.

DISCLAIMER: This information and any unintentional trade secret disclosures may not be used for the purposes of sabotage, intrusion, interruption, modification, or targeting. It is revealed for informational purposes only. Please, no terrorist attacks against my all-so-important pimp of a network. And please dont make fun of my Star Trek naming scheme. Thx yuos.

Well I certainly have to say that Episode III matched my expectations. If you don't know what movie I'm talking about, you must live in a hole, because this is the movie right now. The acting, similar to all Star Wars acting, was pretty bad. The storyline was decent. The plot is what what made this movie worth seeing. With so many drastic changes occurring in this story, it is difficult for this movie to be considered anything less than “good”.

Anakin turning to the dark side was, basically, the theme of the movie. He keeps having dreams of his hot wife, Padme, dying during childbirth. When he finds out Senator Palpatine is actually the Sith Lord, the Sith confirms that his wife will die during childbirth, unless Anakin turns to the dark side. What does Anakin do? Well, duh. He loves his wife a bunch, but in this case, the galaxy will suffer. He turns to the dark side and, like all bad guys, including Satan, the Sith (now, Emperor Palpatine), does not keep his promise, and Padme dies.

All in all, see it. It's good. No disappointment here. Keep it real.

I am now subscribed to AudioScrobbler so you can see my music listening habits. Hey, you're reading my blog already, so you seem like the type of person that might care. The link is over on the right —>

Payce

Matt U. (www.mattstrong.com) is now officially a Unix Stud. This title is only awarded to the 1337357 of h4×00rz. LINUX9, one of his many servers, needed a reboot and it came up with a lot of disk errors. Using his intuitive data processing abilities, he successfully FSCK'd (the real FSCK, not the swear word) the drive and got it up and running.

Shoutouts to this playa!

InspireAwe (well, me hosts a both a CS1.6 server and a Ventrilo server now. Using either of these programs, connect to “inspireawe.com” using default ports and no passwords.

Please enjoy these and do not abuse them.

K thx bye

You can new view all television and movie media that I have in my library. A large majority of it is on DVD, since I don't have 700gigs just laying around for DVD storage. About 1/4 of it is in DIVX format sitting on my computer. The TV shows will probably get written to DVD discs in their native DIVX format for archival, but the movies in DIVX format will be converted to DVD format for mobile viewing.

Have a look at the list! It's the “My Video Media” link on the right —>