rants.skuzz.com
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The Dung Heap III - New format! All rants ALL THE TIME!!!
My Verizon i600 Photo Page! Just a photo collage until I can get more info! So far
it's impressive!
My Nextel vs. Verizon Page! Again, until I find a better home for it, it's
here! Nonsense still below as every other line says!
Big Desktop Pics of Doom! Until I find a better home for the main link, it's
on Nonsense! Nonsense content below! ;)
The Dung Heap II! Until I find a better home for the main links, they're on Nonsense!
Nonsense content below! ;)
(05.19.2003): It's been a good while since I did one of these exciting babbles. This semester of school has been crazy,
what with my actually trying and all. Haven't had much time to crank out too many new tracks, but Transverse Reality is
coming along nicely. As soon as I can hunt me down a bloody vocalist to sing the 2-3 vocal tracks, I should be golden!
The studio has seen yet another major revamp, with some new software eliminating a ton of hardware, it's stripping down
to bare bones! It's nice having room again! ;) I still need to get ahold of some digital mixing and I/O equipment though,
things aren't ever done in the studio! (Feel free to donate funding to admin@skuzz.com at
PayPal.)
Anyways, well, what to ramble and/or rant about at 1:27AM? Hmm... How about the fact it's now 1:39AM?!?! Work, that's a good rant topic! How obscenely boring! My little brother figured out I would probably make more money on unemployment or welfare than I would actually working! Go figure! Of course this isn't the best time in the millennium to go searching for a job...as one of my friends can attest to. I will probably get off my lazy butt and see if I can get a job as a full-time bum, I think it'd pay some good money! ;) Going to shoot to get some networking certifications out of the way and then see about getting a job somewhere as a network admin., which I'm sure is a field just screaming for employees right now.
Another potential job category I'd love to get into is cell phone beta testing! There's a promising job market! I know for a fact Verizon Wireless doesn't have any, case in point, the Motorola T720, with it's 5000 glitchy bugs of doom since they rushed it to market. Or how about the Samsung a530? This phone was just about to be released, and someone had the bright idea to actually test it on the network before they started shipping it to stores and realized there were some HORRIBLE software bugs to be fixed...at least they caught them before shipping though. Seriously, is it SO hard to test a handset before selling it? I seem to be able to find out every major problem with any handset I play with a few hours into testing it. When the MO-SMS firmware came out for my old Motorola Timeport P8767, I found out within a few days that there was a cool bug that didn't allow mobile originated SMSes from certain phones because of a bug in the switch software in all of the Michigan cell switches. The Timeport still wouldn't send SMS until I played with some advanced debug menu features and changed the default vocoder... odd that the Motorola phones tie vocoder settings with text messages, but they do, where other manufacturers don't. As soon as I got my Motorola V.60c I found out about the text message bomb bug, the random crash/freeze bugs, the horrible menu lag. My next phone, the V.60i STILL had that text message bug. It also had a cool bug I dubbed the "Darth Vader" bug, where a random number of calls will be shoved through the vocoder wrong and voices come out sounding like James Earl Jones until the phone is rebooted. Then the ill-fated T720 came out and I made the mistake of buying that worthless piece of plastic. Wow! The text bugs were worse, the phone lagged like 3 week old roadkill (wearing one shoe found on the side of the highway and sleeping on an old matress...inside joke there ;) ) in winter. That phone froze multiple times, and had no hidden debug menu to jam it in digital only, which was a BIG problem. The first few revs of the firmware had a bug where the phone would lose sync with the network's slot cycle, (the time cycle when the phone is supposed to listen to the network for incoming phone calls, text messages, nuclear warheads, etc.) and fall back to analog because it was too STUPID to stay in sync. If there was the "Digital Only" debug menu, at least the phone could be forced to keep searching for digital and it would more frequently resync instead of giving up and switching to analog. While in digital the phone totally sucked at keeping decent signal, the audio would drop in and out frequently, where the V.60i would work like a thug and be nice and clear, even when the V.60i had its antenna down! Needless to say, the GSM version of this phone for T-Mobile never exhibited such problems as that version was developed before the CDMA version and had time for more testing. So at any rate, I returned the T720 a few days later, and got it again a few months later when a new firmware patch came out that supposedly made the handset usable...BIG LIE, not much changed, and it still sucked. Finally about a month ago THIS YEAR, about 8-10 months since its release, the T720 finally has a decent release of the firmware that almost makes it usable as a phone. That happened after I upgraded to a better phone however. The phone I ended upgrading to for now is the LG VX-4400. No stupid text bugs, no stupid signal-drop bugs, and the debug menu has an advanced option to enable even specific bands of service only, so, for example, in my area I have it run at 800 MHz CDMA only, so it doesn't randomly drop to analog in weaker digital areas...I could go on and on! I can't wait to get my hands on a Samsung a530 and find the 20 bugs they somehow missed in production, like the "phone won't text message unless it's Thursday bug" or "outgoing calls must all be prepended with the numerical keypad spelling of 'falafel' bug." Of course those are only the first two I will find when I turn the phone on and they pop up in place of the standard banner/logo, placed there by the programmers as notes to the cellco, and missed by the Verizon beta testers because literacy wasn't one of the job requirements. STOP THE INSANITY! TEST YOUR PHONES!! (Or send them to me and I will do it for you if you let me keep the good ones ;) )
Now I think I'm done with phones for a while...sheesh...don't know where that came from! Oh well, until my next rant/comment/ramble/falafel of Doom!
Anyways, well, what to ramble and/or rant about at 1:27AM? Hmm... How about the fact it's now 1:39AM?!?! Work, that's a good rant topic! How obscenely boring! My little brother figured out I would probably make more money on unemployment or welfare than I would actually working! Go figure! Of course this isn't the best time in the millennium to go searching for a job...as one of my friends can attest to. I will probably get off my lazy butt and see if I can get a job as a full-time bum, I think it'd pay some good money! ;) Going to shoot to get some networking certifications out of the way and then see about getting a job somewhere as a network admin., which I'm sure is a field just screaming for employees right now.
Another potential job category I'd love to get into is cell phone beta testing! There's a promising job market! I know for a fact Verizon Wireless doesn't have any, case in point, the Motorola T720, with it's 5000 glitchy bugs of doom since they rushed it to market. Or how about the Samsung a530? This phone was just about to be released, and someone had the bright idea to actually test it on the network before they started shipping it to stores and realized there were some HORRIBLE software bugs to be fixed...at least they caught them before shipping though. Seriously, is it SO hard to test a handset before selling it? I seem to be able to find out every major problem with any handset I play with a few hours into testing it. When the MO-SMS firmware came out for my old Motorola Timeport P8767, I found out within a few days that there was a cool bug that didn't allow mobile originated SMSes from certain phones because of a bug in the switch software in all of the Michigan cell switches. The Timeport still wouldn't send SMS until I played with some advanced debug menu features and changed the default vocoder... odd that the Motorola phones tie vocoder settings with text messages, but they do, where other manufacturers don't. As soon as I got my Motorola V.60c I found out about the text message bomb bug, the random crash/freeze bugs, the horrible menu lag. My next phone, the V.60i STILL had that text message bug. It also had a cool bug I dubbed the "Darth Vader" bug, where a random number of calls will be shoved through the vocoder wrong and voices come out sounding like James Earl Jones until the phone is rebooted. Then the ill-fated T720 came out and I made the mistake of buying that worthless piece of plastic. Wow! The text bugs were worse, the phone lagged like 3 week old roadkill (wearing one shoe found on the side of the highway and sleeping on an old matress...inside joke there ;) ) in winter. That phone froze multiple times, and had no hidden debug menu to jam it in digital only, which was a BIG problem. The first few revs of the firmware had a bug where the phone would lose sync with the network's slot cycle, (the time cycle when the phone is supposed to listen to the network for incoming phone calls, text messages, nuclear warheads, etc.) and fall back to analog because it was too STUPID to stay in sync. If there was the "Digital Only" debug menu, at least the phone could be forced to keep searching for digital and it would more frequently resync instead of giving up and switching to analog. While in digital the phone totally sucked at keeping decent signal, the audio would drop in and out frequently, where the V.60i would work like a thug and be nice and clear, even when the V.60i had its antenna down! Needless to say, the GSM version of this phone for T-Mobile never exhibited such problems as that version was developed before the CDMA version and had time for more testing. So at any rate, I returned the T720 a few days later, and got it again a few months later when a new firmware patch came out that supposedly made the handset usable...BIG LIE, not much changed, and it still sucked. Finally about a month ago THIS YEAR, about 8-10 months since its release, the T720 finally has a decent release of the firmware that almost makes it usable as a phone. That happened after I upgraded to a better phone however. The phone I ended upgrading to for now is the LG VX-4400. No stupid text bugs, no stupid signal-drop bugs, and the debug menu has an advanced option to enable even specific bands of service only, so, for example, in my area I have it run at 800 MHz CDMA only, so it doesn't randomly drop to analog in weaker digital areas...I could go on and on! I can't wait to get my hands on a Samsung a530 and find the 20 bugs they somehow missed in production, like the "phone won't text message unless it's Thursday bug" or "outgoing calls must all be prepended with the numerical keypad spelling of 'falafel' bug." Of course those are only the first two I will find when I turn the phone on and they pop up in place of the standard banner/logo, placed there by the programmers as notes to the cellco, and missed by the Verizon beta testers because literacy wasn't one of the job requirements. STOP THE INSANITY! TEST YOUR PHONES!! (Or send them to me and I will do it for you if you let me keep the good ones ;) )
Now I think I'm done with phones for a while...sheesh...don't know where that came from! Oh well, until my next rant/comment/ramble/falafel of Doom!
(03.06.2003): As I sit in Visual Basic class pondering life, the universe, and how interesting piles of dust can be...
(I didn't realize the language was so easy until I took the class...) I again question the point of college. Just
about everyone I see, have they a degree or not, seem to preach "get a degree!" or "you must have a degree or the world
will end" or (insert random college excuse here), etc. Why do people say you have to go to college? Many places won't
hire you unless you have a degree. I personally would like to work for Verizon Wireless, making their network more
kick-ass...and making things work right. (Like their text messaging, OMG how defective! Their moron network people have
no idea how to set up switches!!)
So, on to... THE PURPOSE OF COLLEGE!!!
There is no purpose of college. That pretty much sums it up. No, I will go a little more in-depth because...well I have more classtime left. My theory as to the purpose of college is that, corporations require degrees because they know if you have a degree, you were STUPID enough to waste your time, money, life, and frustration on 4 years of crap, you are their kind of employee. They know that you have the stupidity to subject yourself to getting up at obscene hours and going to sit at desks and blankly stare at boards and overheads and presentations for hours on end. They know YOU are the kind of drone material that will help make Corporate America better for tomorrow! You won't question why you have to file your TPS reports (borrowing from Office Space there), or why they expect you to do twice the work in 1/4 the time. The list could go on and on! (And it might in a later rant if I get more time.)
So in conclusion, go to college, yes, even the person complaining about college says that. Never mind that most college classes are losing focus on learning and aligning their paradigm more correctly with the corporate focus on synergy. (And learn phrases like that because if you say them a lot Corporate people think you are smart, regardless if you are smart or not, and regardless if you have the degree which certifies your smartness or not.) On the upshot, for those bright enough to see this, they can do lots of class-skipping, and still get high grades. It still sucks though because you don't actually end up learning anything other than the grand arts of butt-kissing, excuse-wrangling, class-avoidance, and problem-creation. Lucky for us these are the very life skills we will need to survive in today's Business World (of Doom)™!
Oh, yeah, and it came to my attention (or so I was informed) that I should point out the only apparent reason I went to VB class today. That was to get the screen name of the girl next to me and vice versa. Most productive thing I've done all day!
So, on to... THE PURPOSE OF COLLEGE!!!
There is no purpose of college. That pretty much sums it up. No, I will go a little more in-depth because...well I have more classtime left. My theory as to the purpose of college is that, corporations require degrees because they know if you have a degree, you were STUPID enough to waste your time, money, life, and frustration on 4 years of crap, you are their kind of employee. They know that you have the stupidity to subject yourself to getting up at obscene hours and going to sit at desks and blankly stare at boards and overheads and presentations for hours on end. They know YOU are the kind of drone material that will help make Corporate America better for tomorrow! You won't question why you have to file your TPS reports (borrowing from Office Space there), or why they expect you to do twice the work in 1/4 the time. The list could go on and on! (And it might in a later rant if I get more time.)
So in conclusion, go to college, yes, even the person complaining about college says that. Never mind that most college classes are losing focus on learning and aligning their paradigm more correctly with the corporate focus on synergy. (And learn phrases like that because if you say them a lot Corporate people think you are smart, regardless if you are smart or not, and regardless if you have the degree which certifies your smartness or not.) On the upshot, for those bright enough to see this, they can do lots of class-skipping, and still get high grades. It still sucks though because you don't actually end up learning anything other than the grand arts of butt-kissing, excuse-wrangling, class-avoidance, and problem-creation. Lucky for us these are the very life skills we will need to survive in today's Business World (of Doom)™!
Oh, yeah, and it came to my attention (or so I was informed) that I should point out the only apparent reason I went to VB class today. That was to get the screen name of the girl next to me and vice versa. Most productive thing I've done all day!
(02.14.2003): Yay, it's the day where people in love get to do their love thing, and go to electronics stores and buy
each other portable TVs... HOW ROMANTIC!....NOT. Seriously! So many people bought each other electronics today, it's
crazy! Maybe that's why I am still single1, my concept of love
involves cheesy cute silly things...not a new home theater! ;)
So yeah, I have this whole rant that is so...rant-like, I'm devoting an entire page to it! Look at it HERE!
So yeah, I have this whole rant that is so...rant-like, I'm devoting an entire page to it! Look at it HERE!
(02.10.2003): Yes, it's been a bit since my last random rambling... Wow, I can't seem to ever go to sleep before 3AM on
any given night, but most of the time it's 5AM! I think I'm crazy!
My studio is growing! It's crazy! :) I'm simultaneously increasing the percentage of digital equipment for easier audio editing, and also rediscovering the beauty of good old analog. I have my dad's old Technics turntable and am starting a collection of Trance on vinyl. It sounds REALLY cool listening to good beats on vinyl, and I don't know why! :)
In other random rambling-ness, wow. I hate how relationships affect one's mental state. I have gone from feeling like I am on top of the world, having infinite strength to accomplish whatever I wanted, to a morphing ball between status quo, sadness, confusion, and sometimes small occasional spurts of happiness. I don't like how one person indirectly can cause so much trouble for another. The best part is that I still today really have no idea what exactly caused the fateful downward spiral of events that took place a little more than two months ago, nor why it is suddenly starting to hit me harder now than ever before. At least the upshot, if there could be one, is that I was able to write some kick-ass lyrics to Slipping Away that I probably couldn't have otherwise written.
What else can one do but just keep on living and hoping that eventually things will somehow make sense?
Oh, yeah, and Happy Birthday to my little sister!!! :)
My studio is growing! It's crazy! :) I'm simultaneously increasing the percentage of digital equipment for easier audio editing, and also rediscovering the beauty of good old analog. I have my dad's old Technics turntable and am starting a collection of Trance on vinyl. It sounds REALLY cool listening to good beats on vinyl, and I don't know why! :)
In other random rambling-ness, wow. I hate how relationships affect one's mental state. I have gone from feeling like I am on top of the world, having infinite strength to accomplish whatever I wanted, to a morphing ball between status quo, sadness, confusion, and sometimes small occasional spurts of happiness. I don't like how one person indirectly can cause so much trouble for another. The best part is that I still today really have no idea what exactly caused the fateful downward spiral of events that took place a little more than two months ago, nor why it is suddenly starting to hit me harder now than ever before. At least the upshot, if there could be one, is that I was able to write some kick-ass lyrics to Slipping Away that I probably couldn't have otherwise written.
What else can one do but just keep on living and hoping that eventually things will somehow make sense?
Oh, yeah, and Happy Birthday to my little sister!!! :)
(02.02.2003): Wow, so this is my first rant log of doom! Be forewarned that there will be many Nick-isms throughout the text,
but it's just something that you, the reader, will have to deal with. By not clicking your browser's back button (or closing
the browser window) and continuing to read past this paragraph, you agree to let your mind be melted and permanently damaged
by my text!
So on with the show! What to go on nonsensically for a paragraph or two first? I'm sure I will have several today as I stumble across topics as it is my day off and I have absolutely NOTHING better to do! I HATE WINTER! Why won't winter just go away?? It was ALMOST ok when it was just cold with no snow on the ground, but now that white crap is coating my car, my grass, my parking spot, etc. Sure it's fun to do a high-velocity E-brake 90-degree reverse-axle slide into my parking spot every time I come home, but Mother Nature will be getting a hefty law suit come springtime when my emergency brake cable no longer works! (Yes, that is correct, I blame Mother Nature, not my own responsibility, for the wear and tear to my car, as it's not MY fault I'm male and have tendencies to do silly things with vehicles. It's nature's fault for giving me such a great catalyst to get to exercise those tendencies!)
But anyways, yeah, winter is evil, it's cold, and crappy, and...COLD! Did I mention cold yet? I HATE cold! I so want to move to Arizona and get away from this evil cold! It's nice there, sure the temperature is above boiling point in the summer, but since there's no moisture it's nice, dry HEAT! I'd kill for warm temperatures again!
At least the one good point, according to J, is that we can all blame getting fat on Mother Nature and the Cold Weather of Doom (now referred as Big Mama and CWoD for the rest of this rant) for gaining weight. That makes it easier to make daily (at 2:00 AM trips to Tim Horton's and order 2.5 metric tons of food...per person, and consume it. So now by this definition, Big Mama and CWoD can also be blamed for gluttony! It's foolproof, at least until Spring rolls around!
Speaking of Tim Horton's, what a great idea, sandwiches, coffee, and soups at 2AM! It's awesome! The only thing that's NOT awesome is how whenever there are girls working the night shift they can NEVER get our order right. I could order simply a coffee and they would probably forget to serve it with a cup. ("Oh, I thought you said 'coffee in a breadbowl? Sorry!'") WTF?? Is it SOOO hard to look at their little TV Screen of Doom and see that there are actually items listed on the menu? Donuts seem to be what they most often forget. My theory is they horde the stuff they "forget" to add to their own gluttony.2
So on with the show! What to go on nonsensically for a paragraph or two first? I'm sure I will have several today as I stumble across topics as it is my day off and I have absolutely NOTHING better to do! I HATE WINTER! Why won't winter just go away?? It was ALMOST ok when it was just cold with no snow on the ground, but now that white crap is coating my car, my grass, my parking spot, etc. Sure it's fun to do a high-velocity E-brake 90-degree reverse-axle slide into my parking spot every time I come home, but Mother Nature will be getting a hefty law suit come springtime when my emergency brake cable no longer works! (Yes, that is correct, I blame Mother Nature, not my own responsibility, for the wear and tear to my car, as it's not MY fault I'm male and have tendencies to do silly things with vehicles. It's nature's fault for giving me such a great catalyst to get to exercise those tendencies!)
But anyways, yeah, winter is evil, it's cold, and crappy, and...COLD! Did I mention cold yet? I HATE cold! I so want to move to Arizona and get away from this evil cold! It's nice there, sure the temperature is above boiling point in the summer, but since there's no moisture it's nice, dry HEAT! I'd kill for warm temperatures again!
At least the one good point, according to J, is that we can all blame getting fat on Mother Nature and the Cold Weather of Doom (now referred as Big Mama and CWoD for the rest of this rant) for gaining weight. That makes it easier to make daily (at 2:00 AM trips to Tim Horton's and order 2.5 metric tons of food...per person, and consume it. So now by this definition, Big Mama and CWoD can also be blamed for gluttony! It's foolproof, at least until Spring rolls around!
Speaking of Tim Horton's, what a great idea, sandwiches, coffee, and soups at 2AM! It's awesome! The only thing that's NOT awesome is how whenever there are girls working the night shift they can NEVER get our order right. I could order simply a coffee and they would probably forget to serve it with a cup. ("Oh, I thought you said 'coffee in a breadbowl? Sorry!'") WTF?? Is it SOOO hard to look at their little TV Screen of Doom and see that there are actually items listed on the menu? Donuts seem to be what they most often forget. My theory is they horde the stuff they "forget" to add to their own gluttony.2
1. Or it is just because I'm a loser ;)
2. Lately it appears they realized how often they screwed up our orders, because every time we go there they give us double donuts and double buns etc., etc. I don't know if this is better or worse, they are adding to the fat that WE eat...but it is free food! :)
2. Lately it appears they realized how often they screwed up our orders, because every time we go there they give us double donuts and double buns etc., etc. I don't know if this is better or worse, they are adding to the fat that WE eat...but it is free food! :)
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