Its 2010, Time for an Update
Hey everybody!
Sorry it has been a very long time since I have blogged, things have been busy and I haven't had too much to say that I don't say on other blogs, podcasts or on Twitter. I am now feeling more like writing longer posts again, so expect many more blog posts here. In fact, my only New Year's resolution is to blog both here and and the Global Geek News Blog at least 5 times a week.
Speaking of trying to be more productive, I am considering bringing back the Geek News Daily podcast. I was going to bring it back last summer but it never happened. Lately I have felt a very strong desire to get it up and running again but I am still trying to gauge how much interest there is in its return. Would you like to see it return? I want to know!
The Global Geek News Podcast is going amazingly well and our audience is growing at around 50%/mo. I hope we can sustain that kind of growth so that someday soon, I can try to monetize it and make a little bit of money to at least pay the server bills and stuff that are currently paid out of my own pocket. To help me reach that goal, please tell your friends and family about the show. Speaking of the show, we had an amazing show last week with special guest Maya Grinberg and we even did some 2010 predictions as well as a couple extra tips of the week. Starting with tonight's recording, there will be some big changes coming to the show. What kind of changes? That is a surprise! Make sure to tune in when I post the show tomorrow to find out just how much more awesome the show will be than ever before.
I have a few other things to talk about, but I will save them for future posts. Stay tuned!
I hate daylight savings time
Do you enjoy daylight savings time? Have you ever found it useful for you? Personally, I find it extremely annoying, especially since the idiots in Congress decided to extend it and extra few weeks.
Why do I hate it so much? The main reason is how badly it screws with my sleep schedule. Regardless of when I go to bed, I always seem to wake up around the time the sun comes up or a few minutes before. In other words, I have recently been waking up sometime between 6:30 am and 7:00 am. Try as I might, I can't seem to sleep in like I used to or anything so I just have to deal with it whether or not I want to wake up at that time. Now that Daylight Savings Time has ended, I expect that I will now be waking up around 6:00 am. Since I would say that my body is more in tune with the sun than most people, I expect that I will not only be getting less sleep than most, but I will likely be more agitated because of it. I would give anything to get rid of the whole concept of Daylight Savings Time if for no other reason than to keep my sleep from being screwed up as it usually takes a week to two weeks for me to get used to the change and I am sure that is the case with most people.
I honestly don't understand why we still have daylight savings time in this day and age. I know the origins of it and the fact that it is mainly for the benefit of an agricultural society but we are not an agricultural society anymore so there is little use for it, rather less to expand it like Congress did a couple years ago. What is really annoying about it is that countless electronic items from VCRs to watches that were built with the old Daylight Savings Time schedule built into them so there is no way to update it to the new days. Instead, I have to go around twice to all of my various DVD players, microwaves and such to set the clock to what it should be when it changes early and then change it back when Daylight Savings Time actually changes. This is a major pain in the butt. I think we would be much better off and have far fewer headaches if we just got rid of the whole concept of Daylight Savings Time. Besides, any farmer that I have ever known started working well before the sun came up and after it went down so I don't know how much it really helps them anyway.
End Daylight Savings Time...NOW!!!
Major University of the People annoyance
Hey Readers!
Another week has begun at University of the People and after a horrible last week, I was expecting this week to be better but I am not so sure that is going to happen. The work load doesn't seem so bad this week but something that was a minor annoyance before has now turned into a major annoyance.
Why am I so annoyed? I am annoyed at the school's lack of consistency and software bias. A couple of weeks ago, we were given an introduction to the desktop. Normally I would say this is fine despite the fact that I don't need to know how to click the start button but what really annoyed me is that the walk-through was for Windows XP and XP only. From the discussions that have taken place among the students, there don't seem to be too many of them on XP anymore. Some, like myself are on Windows 7, some are on Vista, a few are on a Mac and many are on Linux. A number of students, myself included, are irked that the school seems to be showing favoritism to an 8 year old, insecure operating system instead of something even halfway current not to mention the fact that many are on Linux because they can't afford a license for Windows and are at a disadvantage because of it. So much for the school being free and open to everybody no matter their circumstance as long as they have Internet and know English.
If this was just a one time thing, I would be willing to overlook it but this week it has gotten much worse. Now, we have the problem of lack of consistency. In this week's learning guide (our reading material for the week), we are told how to do certain tasks in Microsoft Word 2003 and OpenOffice Writer. Again, I have my current software complaint but I am also irked that Google Docs, which is what I use, is completely ignored. If that wasn't bad enough, part of our work for the week, our discussion, requires Office 2007. Huh?! Why would you tell us how to use Word 2003 and Writer, only to make us talk about features of a completely different program and only that program? This is insane! How are those of us who use Google Docs or OpenOffice Writer supposed to participate in the discussion (which is for a grade) if we don't have Office 2007? I have multiple copies of Office 2007, but that isn't the point. It is not my preferred environment although I do enjoy it, but many people can't afford to have several different word processors just because a school can't make up its mind as to what it thinks we should be using.
Make up your mind University of the People!!! I recommend making the system where everybody can learn equally regardless of their software and stop using old software or playing guess what word processor you need next.
Burned out on school
Hey everybody!
Well, it only took about 6 weeks, but I am already burned out on school. I am not sure of the exact reason why, but I think it is a combination of several things. Between spending more hours than expected on school work (I basically have next to no free time anymore), the horrible interface we are forced to use, the lack of good English skills by many of the students and bizarre deadlines, I am getting so sick of things that It is everything I can muster just to do my homework anymore. I still greatly believe in the mission of the school but at this point, I want a break.
Like many people, I have never enjoyed school. Whether it was middle school, high school or college, I have never enjoyed school like some do. I love to learn but I don't like being forced to learn in an educational environment. I prefer to be free to learn whatever I want in as much depth as I want and find beneficial at my own pace, not that dictated by somebody else. If I am going to retain anything that I learn, I have to be able to enjoy learning and I have never been able to do that in school. When I was going to college at Neumont University, I enjoyed it but that was largely because of the other people that I got to interact with rather than the actual learning which I struggled with. With University of the People, I fell very alone and disconnected despite the fact that it is supposed to be a school based around the idea of social networking. There is no fun in something like that and it makes it very hard to get motivated. Hopefully something will change so that I can get motivated but at this point I just want a vacation.
What do you do when you need to get motivated to work on something like school? I am open to any suggestions I can get at this point.
University of the People Week 4 thoughts
Hey readers!
I thought I should give you guys a quick update on how things are going with my schooling at University of the People.
Things seem to be improving and others seem to be going nowhere fast. It took the school about a week after our discussion on the learning environment to acknowledge our displeasure with many aspects of it and our suggestions on how to change things. Supposedly things are in the works but other than them finally getting the forums working as they should, there is no indication that anything is happening other than the fact that they say there is.
I am liking the length of the homework assignments although the deadlines that we have to go by are very strange and I don't think they work that well for a global school. They also don't seem to care about the fact that nobody sees a purpose in having a learning journal and a really crappy one at that. They seem to be sticking to their misguided ideas and keep reminding us that if we don't use it, our grade will be affected by it. They can keep saying that all they want but it wont make me care any more than I did in the first place which is not at all. I still refuse to use it. My English class seems to require us to use it for the assignment this week. I am torn between wanting to complete my assignment and hold on to my boycott of the learning journal. I am still not sure what I am going to do but I suppose I better decide soon since the assignment is due tomorrow.
Maybe I am not talking to as many foreigners on there as normal but I haven't noticed the lack of English skills this week as much as in weeks past. That said, it seems that likely because of them, many people don't seem to be understanding the assignments and how to do them so when I grade them, I have to really mark them down because they didn't do what was asked. I hate doing that because they don't understand the question but the school was very clear about knowing English when they got into the school so I can't say I feel too bad for them when they get bad grades because they don't understand enough English to do their assignments as required by the school.
I am also slightly annoyed at the fact that they are teaching the basics of the desktop with XP. XP is old and about to die, it should not be used as an example in a learning environment. If you are going to use Windows, use Vista or even Windows 7. There have also been a number of other people with issues with this because they use Linux instead of Windows. I agree with them that it should be taught in more than one operating environment and I fully support their desire to have some of the material compatible with their systems as I use Linux as well on occasion.
Oh, and the calendar they use is crap! They need to use Google Calender.
That is all of my thoughts for this week on my experience at University of the People. More next week.
-pcnerd37
New podcasting ideas and changes
Greetings everybody! It has been a while since I have talked much about my podcasting so I figured now that I have some fresh ideas, it is time to share them!
First, I want to start really pushing my podcast hosting network, the Geek Podcasting Network. I want to try to build out a high quality network of shows rather than just host my own shows and be open to other people that happen to come along. I am getting everything ready to make for a big push although I am not sure how big of a push I will give it for the next month or so because I am looking at changing web hosts and I don't want to make matters any more difficult than they have to be.
Speaking of more podcasts, I am kicking around some more podcasting ideas for myself. I am thinking about bringing back the Geek News Daily podcast as soon as tech news picks up again so there is something worth reporting on. I am also kicking around an idea for a piracy podcast. It would cover all of the big from the week in regards to piracy, P2P, copyright law and stuff like that. After seeing how much stuff there is on that topic to cover in the Global Geek News Podcast, I think it would be a good idea to spin it off as its own podcast. Right now, I have pretty much decided that I am going to do this, I am just kicking around some ideas for names, format of the show and a few other things but hopefully I will have it up and running in the next couple of weeks. I will post more details as I have them. In the meantime, if you have any ideas for names or what you would like to see in the show, let me know!
-pcnerd37
University of the People Week 2 thoughts
Hey everybody!
I thought I should give my thoughts about week 2 of University of the People, so here it goes!
Lets start off with what I find really annoying shall we? This week is the first week of doing peer assessments which I am fine with but I am still frustrated with the lack of proper English skills that many of the students have. When I grade the assignments of several other students, I often end up having to interpret what they are trying to say because of missing words in their typing, poor punctuation skills and problems with people copying and pasting their answers from various word processors which can put in a bunch of strange style information and make things look really strange. The other problem I have with the peer assessments is the system itself. When you go to grade an assignment, the screen is split between the grading sheet on top and the assignment on the bottom which would probably be OK except for some very annoying bugs such as after you have finished and click a link within the page, it just goes to the link in the top half of the page and the submission stays on the bottom half of the page. In order to get where you are going and have it show up properly, you must open the link in a new tab or refresh the page completely or something stupid that I shouldn't have to do. The language used on the system can also be confusing at times too and some questions have no relevancy to the submission which makes grading even harder.
I also still find the whole journal thing completely retarded and the journal system is by far the worst I have ever seen. Apparently people don't remember it or don't like it either because the teachers have put up reminders telling people to make submissions in them as it is part of our final grade because it allows teachers to track our progress and such. Dear teachers, if you want to track my progress and know what I am thinking, read this blog and listen to my podcast as I do not want to use your horrible journal system.
Now that the ranting is over, lets talk about the good and just plain interesting. I find it rather interesting that besides the discussion forum which we are required to participate in, there are two other forums that are for the class, one of which is without the teacher and one is with. One would think that assignment related stuff would stay in the one with the teacher and the other one without the teacher would have a huge array of topics but it seems to stay on the topic of school which I find rather curious. I will have to try to change that this week. It is good to see a decent bit of participation in the forums, even if some of them are hard to understand due to the fact that English is not the first language of many of the students. As for the good, the workload has picked up now that people are starting to get familiar with the system which is good although I am not sure how much I am really getting out of the work. The intro to online learning class I learn stuff from but that is just because it is getting me familiar with the system and such but I am not sure what I am learning from the English composition class. It doesn't feel so much like there is teaching going on so much as read this and do this assignment. I guess I am used to this because that was how my English classes were all through high school, almost entirely busy work and no real teaching or learning. Hopefully that will change but I am used to it if it doesn't.
Anyway, those are my thoughts for week 2. I will post my thoughts for week 3 around the middle of next week since new school weeks start on Thursday which I still find very strange.
SyFy pushes back Battlestar Galactica’s The Plan movie to 2010
Hey readers!
I come bearing bad news, Syfy has decided to push the airing of Battlestar Galactica's The Plan to 2010. The movie was supposed to air this fall but for some reason, they have decided to push it back. I expect this is likely to help DVD sales.
The BSG The Plan movie is still expected to be released on DVD on October 27th so at least that date hasn't changed. I expect that by moving the air date back several months at least, it will help DVD sales. Considering I had planned on live blogging the airing of the movie, I find this rather annoying. Since I am sure that all of the BSG fans will have watched The Plan by the time it airs on TV, I am officially announcing that I will not be live blogging th movie like I did with the TV show. If there is enough interest, I might change my mind but at this point I don't see that happening.
What do you think about the pushing back of the movie and why do you think they are doing it?
-pcnerd37
I’m interested in holding a large LAN party
Hey readers!
Earlier today, I was doing some shopping at OfficeMax when I noticed the old Circuit City store was still sitting empty with an available for rent sign on the side of it. It was at this moment that I had a rather big idea. The old Circuit City store would make a great place for a big LAN party!
I have always wanted to host my own LAN party after attending a good number of them over there years that have ranged from a couple dozen people to over 700 people and I think the old Circuit City store would be the perfect place! Whenever I have thought about it before, I have never had a decent sized place available for rent or that didn't at least charge a fortune. Now, I think I have finally found the place although I haven't a clue whether the building owners would be interested in renting the place out for a weekend for something like a LAN party. It is certainly an idea worth investigating.
The next time I am over there where I can get the phone number, I will try calling the owners and see how much they would charge to do something like that assuming they are willing to in the first place. If the price isn't too outrageous, then I will see about trying to find some furniture and equipment as well as some volunteers and sponsors for an event. I'm not real sure but I would guess that place would be able to hold 150-200 LAN party goers.
Would this be something you would be interested in? This is of course in the Pueblo, CO area so travel may be required depending on where you are, but from my experience, that never seems to matter from most people and I have seen many come from across the country just to go to a LAN party. If you would be interested in something like this and especially if you would be willing to help and have some good networking equipment, let me know in the comments!
-pcnerd37
A $1 million hole-in-one. Talk about a lucky shot!
Hey readers!
I just came across this video and thought it was worth sharing.
A man by the name of Jason Hargett made a 1-in-45,000 chance hole-in-one at the Mark Eaton Celebrity Golf Classic in Utah to win $1 million. Apparently he hadn't even planned on going golfing that day because of a sore wrist but decided to tough it out, borrow his brothers glove and then proceed to win $1 million. Check out the video:
-pcnerd37