Jan 04
pcnerd37blog, Geek News Daily, Global Geek News blogging, new years resolutions, podcasting
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!
Oct 13
pcnerd37blog, school boring, I hate school, lack of motivation, school, University of the People
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.
Sep 23
pcnerd37blog, school discussions, forums, peer assessment, University of the People, week 2 impressions
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.
Sep 19
pcnerd37blog CO, gaming, LAN party, old Circuit City store, Pueblo
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
Sep 14
pcnerd37blog, Geek News Daily, Global Geek News, Technology, Unofficial Mahalo Podcast Android, blogging, Geek News Daily, Global Geek News, Global Geek News blog, Master Memo, podcasting, programming, Technology, TechVi, Unofficial Mahalo Podcast, writing
Hey readers!
I just thought I would give everybody a quick heads up on what is going on with all of my hobby projects from my podcasts and blogs to my Android apps, so here it goes!
First, lets talk podcasts. The Global Geek News is doing great and although we basically were forced to miss two weeks last month we are finally back in our groove and putting out some amazing shows. Unless something comes up, we record every Monday night and I post the show on Tuesday morning. If you haven’t given it a listen yet, I highly recommend heading to GlobalGeekNews.com and giving the show a try. I am always open to constructive feedback so if you have any comments or suggestions, let me hear them! Speaking of podcasts, I was hoping to have brought back the Geek News Daily podcast but unfortunately my life is too busy at this time but I hope to bring it back in the future. For those who are wondering what is going on with the Unofficial Mahalo Podcast, I turned ownership of that over my former Global Geek News Co-host, Larry who is doing some great stuff related to Mahalo and should be able to make great use of it.
Now, lets talk Android apps! As many of you know, a few weeks ago I released my first Android app onto the Market called Master Memo. It is a great app for taking notes and even taking audio notes when necessary. I have released several bug fixes to fix some things that didn’t show up until after I released the app and as far as I know, all should be working now although there is a possibility of one crash bug lingering out there which I can’t seem to replicate. The app is now kind of on the back burner but I am well underway on the next version which will allow you to tag your notes for better organization. I am also investigating doing video and even picture notes with it but I think those are a little ways off.
I have started a second app today which I don’t yet have a name for but it will be a conversion tool. What kind of conversion tool? It will allow you to convert Microsoft and Nintendo points to money and money to points so that you have a better idea of how much you are spending on that song, movie, game or whatever. I also intend for it to allow you to purchase more points from an online retailer, most likely Amazon since I already have an affiliate account set up with them. It shouldn’t take me too long to make this so I am expecting it to be in testing within the next week and released shortly there after. I am always looking for app ideas, so if you have any apps for Android that you would like to see, let me know!
Finally, lets talk blogging! I am now starting to blog here regularly again which is great. I hope to post all kinds of random things from videos and pictures to what is going on with me in the future to hopefully get some kind of reader base. I am also trying to blog as much as I can over at Global Geek News Blog which is where I really put thought into what I write about anything and everything technology related. If you don’t subscribe to it already, I highly recommend you do so if you are looking for some great opinions and advice on technology! I also report on technology over at TechVi which you should certainly check out although I fear that if my life doesn’t calm down a bit, that I might not be writing for them for much longer but I hope that isn’t the case.
Anyway, this update is running longer than expected so I will end it here and do another one in the near future!
-pcnerd37
Sep 10
pcnerd37blog, school Battlestar Galactica, blogging, computer science, podcasting, school, The Plan, University of the People, writing
Hey everybody!
Sorry it has been so many months since I have blogged on here! After Battlestar Galactica ended, I stopped blogging here for some reason and focused my writing skills on the Global Geek News Blog and the awesome tech news site TechVi.com. I have decided to focus more on this blog because some exciting things are starting to happen, mainly I am going back to school starting today!
For those who haven’t heard, I am one of the few students out of thousands of applicants to get into the brand new online school University of the People. I am looking to finish getting my Computer Science degree after having been out of school for just over 2 years. Just a quick little bit about the school, it is a tuition free institution that is open to anybody around the globe that speaks English and it is focused on the social networking angle of education. Right now it is only for those seeking a computer science degree or a business degree but they look to expand in the future. Anyway, since they are a new school who is opening its doors for the first time today and is very different from any school ever created, I am going to blog every bit of my experience on here. I don’t know if I will have daily updates about it, but I expect to have some updates at least once or twice a week among everything else that I plan on blogging about.
Speaking of things I plan on blogging about, I have decided that I am going to shift the focus of this blog slightly and make it about everything that is on my mind that doesn’t fit anywhere else that I write. Everything from a cool YouTube video I have seen to my rants about the idiot construction workers that make my commute a nightmare, I am going to be putting it on here. Some posts will be long, some will be short but I want this to be an uncensored place where I can put everything that is going on with me and my thoughts about the world around me. I can’t promise I will post everyday because my life is already hectic as it is without school, but I will do my best. I am hoping to juggle all of my current projects and hobbies while going back to school but I don’t know just how successful I will be with that.
Since I am very tired and need to go to bed, I will save some updates on things like my podcasts until the next post which should come sometime in the next 24 hours. There is a lot to talk about and catch everybody up on so stay tuned! One last thing, although I do know that the BSG movie, The Plan will be out on DVD before it airs on TV, I still plan on live blogging the tv airing for those who are still interested since I promised to do it when the show ended earlier this year.
Mar 11
pcnerd37blog, Cool Pictures
Hey readers!
Moments ago, I looked down into my system tray to find that Steam was cranking away at something. Not thinking it should be doing anything unless it was updating a game or something, I decided to hover over the Steam icon and see what it was doing. To my amazement, I was downloading at speeds I once thought impossible. Here is the pic:
Of course I know this is a bug, but I was kind of excited when I saw I was downloading anything at the speed of 66,725,436MB/s. Has this ever happened to you?
Follow me on Twitter!
-Jeremy “pcnerd37″ Bray
Mar 09
pcnerd37blog, Global Geek News blog, illness, Podcast, Sick, stomach flu
Hey readers!
Sorry I didn’t post like expected last week, especially my favorite links like I wanted to get started. Unforunately I have had the stomach flu and have probably spent more time in the bathroom over the past week than I have with my computer.
It all kind of started on Monday. My stomach felt uneasy most of Monday but I figured it was due to tight jeans and thought nothing of it. By Monday night I could tell I was catching something and went to bed around 9:30pm (I normally never go to bed before 11pm). I woke up around 11:30pm with some wicked heartburn. It seemed to be from my typical Monday night pizza which is not uncommon when they put a ton of sauce on the pizza, but they didn’t do that this time. There was actually very little sauce so I found it a bit odd. Like usual, I popped some tums and hoped they would work. When they didn’t work, I tried some more which still didn’t work, so I tried some acid medication I have which still had no effect and even took a swig of the pink stuff with still no effect. I ended up awake all night and miserable with some of the worst heartburn ever. Over the next 24 hours it would go away, but when I “woke up” Tuesday morning, I found myself with a major case of the craps. Those in turn were about every 15-20 minutes or so for a couple of days until they finally slowed to once an hour and then only in the mornings and as of Sunday, to nothing. Unfortunately it didn’t end there.
On Since Thursday, something strange has been going on with my esophagus. Everytime I swallow anything, whether its water or food, it feels like I am being stabbed in the chest. It makes it near impossible to eat or drink anything without the thought of jumping off a bridge first. On Friday, I went to the doctor with this being my primary complaint. I can live with the occasional case of the craps, but not with this. The doctor seemed to think it was maybe an irritation caused by some vomiting that I did on Wednesday (I forgot to mention that). He gave me a prescription for some stuff that is supposed to coat my esophagus so I can eat and drink without a problem. Sounded like a great idea, except the stuff doesnt seem to work at all. Now my stomach feels unconfortable when I swallow something, on top of the pain I am experiencing with my esophagus. So now I am headed back into the doctor at 1:45pm today to either get some other medicine or try to find out what is actually wrong with me. I’m praying its nothing serious.
At this point, I just want to be well again. Although I am there today, I missed work last week for everybody but Monday when this all slowly started. Feeling like this and not being able to make money is not a fun thing. Hopefully this will end soon as I want to get back into the swing of things. With the exception my Battlestar Galactica Live Blog, I have done almost nothing else online over the past week other than the occasional tweet. No podcasts or anything. I haven’t even listened to but one or two podcasts so I am very far behind on them. I am working on getting the podcasts up that we have already recorded but I never got around to putting up. I just put one up and am about to begin editing on the second. You can find those at GlobalGeekNews.com
Anyway, that is all from me for now. I will likely post more soon as I feel like it.
-Jeremy “pcnerd37″ Bray
Mar 02
pcnerd37blog, Cool Pictures, Cool Videos, Internet Cool links, favorite links
Hey readers!
I wanted to make a quick announcement. Starting probably the end of this week, I am going to have a new feature here. At the end of every week, I am going to start posting a list of my favorite links and news stories that I come across during the week. Some of which are likely to be covered in my podcasts but certainly not all of them. From cool LEGO pictures to great music, I will start posting links to great content from around the internet.
This will likely be a Friday or Saturday post, so that is when you should expect it. If you have any links that you think I should check out for possible inclusion in the post, please email them to me at pcnerd37@globalgeeknews.com. You can also Twitter me @pcnerd37.
Follow me on Twitter!
-Jeremy “pcnerd37″ Bray
Mar 02
pcnerd37Battlestar Galactica, blog, Geek News Daily, Global Geek News Battlestar Galactica Live Blog, Geek News Daily, Global Geek News, Podcast, podcast recording
Hey Readers!
3 blog posts so far today! I am on a roll!
Anyway, I wanted to give a quick podcast and blog update. Lets start with Global Geek News. I have two shows in the can that I need to get uploaded today and tomorrow. Sorry they haven’t gotten up sooner. The show is going great though and we are looking for guests if anybody is interested. Feel free to post in the comments or email me at pcnerd37@globalgeeknews.com if you are interested in beinga guest on the show.
Geek News Daily on the other hand has no episodes recorded. I haven’t recorded any lately unfortunately but I will get some shows up this week. I would have done some last week but I felt it was far too slow of a news week to do any shows. This week is a bit hectic with a birthday, funeral and missing dog, but I will get some shows up. I have noticed that suddenly the traffic has increased on the site for some reason and I want to take advantage of the traffic and hopefully turn it into new listeners.
As you have likely seen, I have started blogging often on here, or at least today and on Friday’s when I do my Battlestar Galactica Live Blog. If you haven’t joined us for the live blog, you should! I am live blogging all of the remaining episodes every Friday night at 10PM EST right here! I am also looking for more shows or sports events to live blog, so if you have any suggestions, please post them in the comments.
Oh, and before I end, I do want to say that new posts will be coming to the Global Geek News Blog again starting today. I also plan on starting a daily video on there in the very near future, likely next week if not sooner. I know I have been saying this for a while, but its time I get off my lazy butt and just start doing it. I also plan on doing some video blog posts here as well.
That is what is going on as of now. If you have any questions or comments, leave them below.
Follow me on Twitter!
-Jeremy “pcnerd37″ Bray
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