Nonplus - (MW and from here on out, unless otherwise mentioned, this will be the reference)
to cause to be at a loss as to what to say, think, or do
Used in a sentence: She dropped the knife and for an instant stood nonplussed.
Reason: From when I first saw the word I really liked it, not only because it had eluded me for so long but because of what it meant. I like the idea of being hit with such a strong realization that you cannot even muster a reaction. Which is almost what I felt when I failed an important test today but my reaction was clearly to sulk until I reasoned myself into not feeling too bad about it. :)
Thursday, February 19, 2009
Sunday, February 15, 2009
Late Haiku!
I'm not moving it down another day, I was just late again! Sorry, gomen gomen!
maybe for the cold
chilling the air to stillness
did this come so late
and there you have it, an apology AND a haiku ^^ and here's a bonus holiday Haiku.
take your love in hand
and clench your fist to crush it
now share it with all
<3 love y'all~ Happy Valentine's Day :D <3
maybe for the cold
chilling the air to stillness
did this come so late
and there you have it, an apology AND a haiku ^^ and here's a bonus holiday Haiku.
take your love in hand
and clench your fist to crush it
now share it with all
<3 love y'all~ Happy Valentine's Day :D <3
Thursday, February 12, 2009
Word of the Week (Feb 09 II)
Nihilism - (MW)
a viewpoint that traditional values and beliefs are unfounded and that existence is senseless and useless b: a doctrine that denies any objective ground of truth and especially of moral truths
Used in a sentence: Your not going to give your pokemon a nickname is so nihilistic.
Reason: Bucky's writing a paper on ethic nihilism and it totally reminded me of the fact that in Pokemon Diamond/Pearl if you don't nickname your pokemon it'll say it's a nihilistic thing to do. wwwww
a viewpoint that traditional values and beliefs are unfounded and that existence is senseless and useless b: a doctrine that denies any objective ground of truth and especially of moral truths
Used in a sentence: Your not going to give your pokemon a nickname is so nihilistic.
Reason: Bucky's writing a paper on ethic nihilism and it totally reminded me of the fact that in Pokemon Diamond/Pearl if you don't nickname your pokemon it'll say it's a nihilistic thing to do. wwwww
Wednesday, February 11, 2009
random Tech Transfer paper
I recently wrote a short paper for a class called Technology Transfer. I probably didn't have to write half as much as I did but I kinda went on about things and ended up with a short paper instead of four short answers. So for whatever reason, I'm publishing it here.
Technologically speaking, I don't think a lot has really changed in the past few years. To be sure, computers have gotten better, faster and for the most part, cheaper, but what was true then is just as true now. Because of that, the question of whether we are headed in the right direction may be just as important as the matter of the speed in which we are traveling. That is, just how long will making bigger hard drives and faster processors really go for before technological advances change in their nature? If that is the “right direction” then regardless of the speed at which these developments occur, we are undoubtedly headed in it. However, if computerizing every single thing in our lives is the “wrong direction” then we may soon find ourselves in a bad place we can't easily turn back from.
Technology has become nigh ubiquitous in our daily lives and, as all things, brings with it positive and negative consequences. It makes a lot of things in our lives much easier compared to having to do things manually. For instance, paperwork in just about every field has been drastically reduced because of computers. That, in and of itself, has a consequent result, which is that it helps the environment. The opposite side of the same coin, however, is that as computers are manufactured by the millions, the efforts to recycle them, once people begin to throw them away with each upgrade, become more and more impaired. Again, as the article plainly shows, as computers continue to replace certain processes in our lives, while in many instances they often maximize our effectivity, they may also hinder us in ways that the non-computerized way would not. The woman in Houston with the “smart house” would never have to “restart” her house previous to its computerization, and the 8 hour process of her doing so is surely a bother, but because of said technology, she may be saving electricity, water and have added security.
Ultimately, the degree to which we use technology will not only be a case by case basis, but in general terms come down to each individual's decision to adopt or not. While there are certain technological advances that are practically inescapable, like this year's switch to digital transmissions, most technologies are opted into. For example, the article starts out recounting the story of Nancy as she “joined an elite group” when she purchased her car. Certainly, there have to be cautious, sound minds calculating the possible outcomes of technologies that are developed. The government will always have a certain amount of control over the process of policing technology but I think when it all comes down to it, the consumer is the one that determines what stays and what goes and that is you and I. So in the end, a degree of constraint is all but necessary as with technology's awesome potential for good, is inextricably connected to the power to harm.
©2008 Emilio Gándara
Technologically speaking, I don't think a lot has really changed in the past few years. To be sure, computers have gotten better, faster and for the most part, cheaper, but what was true then is just as true now. Because of that, the question of whether we are headed in the right direction may be just as important as the matter of the speed in which we are traveling. That is, just how long will making bigger hard drives and faster processors really go for before technological advances change in their nature? If that is the “right direction” then regardless of the speed at which these developments occur, we are undoubtedly headed in it. However, if computerizing every single thing in our lives is the “wrong direction” then we may soon find ourselves in a bad place we can't easily turn back from.
Technology has become nigh ubiquitous in our daily lives and, as all things, brings with it positive and negative consequences. It makes a lot of things in our lives much easier compared to having to do things manually. For instance, paperwork in just about every field has been drastically reduced because of computers. That, in and of itself, has a consequent result, which is that it helps the environment. The opposite side of the same coin, however, is that as computers are manufactured by the millions, the efforts to recycle them, once people begin to throw them away with each upgrade, become more and more impaired. Again, as the article plainly shows, as computers continue to replace certain processes in our lives, while in many instances they often maximize our effectivity, they may also hinder us in ways that the non-computerized way would not. The woman in Houston with the “smart house” would never have to “restart” her house previous to its computerization, and the 8 hour process of her doing so is surely a bother, but because of said technology, she may be saving electricity, water and have added security.
Ultimately, the degree to which we use technology will not only be a case by case basis, but in general terms come down to each individual's decision to adopt or not. While there are certain technological advances that are practically inescapable, like this year's switch to digital transmissions, most technologies are opted into. For example, the article starts out recounting the story of Nancy as she “joined an elite group” when she purchased her car. Certainly, there have to be cautious, sound minds calculating the possible outcomes of technologies that are developed. The government will always have a certain amount of control over the process of policing technology but I think when it all comes down to it, the consumer is the one that determines what stays and what goes and that is you and I. So in the end, a degree of constraint is all but necessary as with technology's awesome potential for good, is inextricably connected to the power to harm.
©2008 Emilio Gándara
Saturday, February 7, 2009
Haiku of the Week (Feb 09 I)
Another week, another haiku. This time I'm doing it on friday because, well the truth is I totally forgot to do it yesterday. I think it's a good thing though because that way the two features this blog has aren't both on subsequent days so as to have more stuff go on during the week. Or something like that :). Without further ado:
the circular dome
covering this wintry day
is a calm blue sea
And of course I'm talking about the sky, which so majestically envelops this very day, and presently brightens my room through the window.
:)
the circular dome
covering this wintry day
is a calm blue sea
And of course I'm talking about the sky, which so majestically envelops this very day, and presently brightens my room through the window.
:)
Thursday, February 5, 2009
Word of the Week (Feb 09 I)
Ubiquitous - (MW)
existing or being everywhere at the same time : constantly encountered
Used in a sentence: Technology has become nigh ubiquitous in our daily lives and, as all things, brings with it positive and negative consequences.
Reason: That sentence just now was from an essay that I recently wrote for a class I'm taking called Technology Transfer. More so than anything, I chose this word because of how amused Amanda was at my using 'nigh ubiquitous' in an essay for a class. :)
existing or being everywhere at the same time : constantly encountered
Used in a sentence: Technology has become nigh ubiquitous in our daily lives and, as all things, brings with it positive and negative consequences.
Reason: That sentence just now was from an essay that I recently wrote for a class I'm taking called Technology Transfer. More so than anything, I chose this word because of how amused Amanda was at my using 'nigh ubiquitous' in an essay for a class. :)
Thursday, January 29, 2009
Haiku of the Week
And here's another feature I plan to do weekly XD (in hopes of using this blog other than the ultra long biographical logs).
おもいゆき
つよくふってる
けどきれい
Didn't expect it to be an actual 俳句 (haiku) did ya? Well there it was. A liberal translation may say:
heaviest of snow
falls ever so heavily
but is beautiful
Tune in next week. Let's see if I can do more japanese ones :)
おもいゆき
つよくふってる
けどきれい
Didn't expect it to be an actual 俳句 (haiku) did ya? Well there it was. A liberal translation may say:
heaviest of snow
falls ever so heavily
but is beautiful
Tune in next week. Let's see if I can do more japanese ones :)
Word of the Week
So I decided to try to do a word of the week "feature" lol.
Superfluous - (according to Merriam Webster)
1 a: exceeding what is sufficient or necessary : extra b: not needed : unnecessary
2obsolete : marked by wastefulness : extravagant
Used in a sentence: Truly getting a chocolate bar at the end of this chocolate factory's tour is superfluous.
Reason I chose this word is because for whatever reason I've been saying it a lot. So there you have it, tune in next week for the next Word of the Week, till then, stay superfluous.
Superfluous - (according to Merriam Webster)
1 a: exceeding what is sufficient or necessary : extra b: not needed : unnecessary
2obsolete : marked by wastefulness : extravagant
Used in a sentence: Truly getting a chocolate bar at the end of this chocolate factory's tour is superfluous.
Reason I chose this word is because for whatever reason I've been saying it a lot. So there you have it, tune in next week for the next Word of the Week, till then, stay superfluous.
Monday, December 29, 2008
A thought #2
If the way we love each other and ourselves is like a night light, the way God loves us is like a laser.
Saturday, December 13, 2008
the last month
Strap yourselves in, this one's gonna be, as I like to say, kilometric. I might end up splitting it into 2 parts or something. Wow, so where to begin... I guess I haven't blogged since I got this computer, seeing as how that was my previous blog was about, so I'll try to start way back then and work myself into the present.
Ok, at that point I was still working at Cleveland, OH. I worked until mid-November. The last two weeks heading up to my leaving Sherwin were actually busier than I thought they'd be. It was good tho, kept me busy and entertained until I finished up. The last day was pretty interesting. I had to stay late the day before on thursday because I was working on something important that I had to finish and so stayed till 5 instead of my usual 4:30. That meant I could've left at 4 on friday but instead at 4 I asked for permission to use the copy machine to do make some copies for my JET (Japanese Exchanged and Teaching program) application. Well, for whatever reason that took me all the way until 5 to get done. The good(?) part of all that was that I got to see everybody leave and everybody said goodbye to me and wished me the best of luck on all my endeavors and whatnot. At 5 when I finished up and pretty much everybody in the office had left, I finished packing up my things and went on my merry way out of the office. It was almost eerily quiet as I was the last one to leave, I think but mainly, it was a nice way to go. I felt like I was really ending that part right. But wait! epilogue! :) As I was getting on the elevator I remembered there were some people that worked in the gym that I wanted to say goodbye to. So I stopped at the 10th floor. Unfortunately those people weren't there :( So I just told one of the trainers that were there, almost choking up how much I was thankful for the people that helped me out in the gym for helping me with my workout and helping keep me motivated. So another door closed behind me, probably one I wouldn't soon go through again. And as I waited in front of the elevator, I got pretty choked up and tried not to be a crying mess, successfully, thank God! Didn't wanna sob all the way home. I really didn't think I'd get so sad to leave the company. I mean, I'm still working for them and stuff but I feel in my mind I was coming to terms with never seeing some of those people again. Of course, there's a fair possibility that I will see them again, but that's just how I work.
Well the last 2 weeks of November came and went and were altogether awesome :) I got to have some, probably unmerited, vacations so I got to do just about everything I wanted to... and a few things I didn't want to. To sum it up, I pretty much played video games and hung out with friends throughout. The second week is when most things went down. I got to make sure and see all my friends and start packing all my crap. Thanksgiving was a total blast! Wednesday night a few of us went over to the Kakos' and saw a bunch of christmast movies (Elf, The Santa Clause and The Polar Express, in case you were wondering). Then we all went to sleep, and woke up early next day for TURKEY BOWL!!! We all went to a snowy soccer field and played some football. Fortunately I just ran around a lot and didn't have to get muddy or anything :D. Afterwards everybody went their way to their houses to enjoy some thanksgiving meals. I stayed at the Kakos', who were extremely nice in having me over for all this :). Friday night Jill, Sue and I went to little Italy in Cleveland and had some delicious italian food (and just as scrumptious dessert after that!). We proceeded to take said dessert over to Steve's to share and devour until it was later than I should've been out the day before moving. Saturday was moving day. I woke up mad early to try and finish packing and cleaning things up a bit but without a doubt everybody helping me out actually finishing to help me pack made it all possible! I'm so thankful for everybody that went and helped me out, especially Kate, who was also moving that day and came out to help me and Jill, who was there since way early to give me a ride to the u-haul place to get the truck. Really there's just no way that I could've had everything done by the time I had to leave. Finally, once everything was packed up we went over to Chipotle (coz there aren't any near rochester >.<*) and then we all said goodbye and I left... The weather was absolutely unbelievable. Not a drop of snow or rain the entire way there. Actually, it was sunny throughout Ohio and Pennsylvania, though obviously gloomy and cloudy once I hit NY.
Once I got to Rochester it was all a bunch of having to get used to everything again. I moved into an apartment with people I basically didn't know and at first things were sorta bumpy. The girl I was replacing in the apartment (and her sister) hadn't moved out so yet so I still had all my stuff in the living room (including my bed) and stayed there for like 2 days. No biggie and after that they were able to find where to live and we got all the changes set up and done and I moved into my room and a week later I more or less unpacked some things... lol. There are still some things I'm getting sorted out but they're coming along. Class is pretty cool. Japanese, as I've been saying to everyone, is super fun and cool and I'm so glad to be taking lessons again :D! Tech Transfer is like storytellers with Perry, which is cool (better than taking class, I always say XD, but really, there's much to be said about learning from experience and he's just sharing his experiences with us. Client-side programming is gonna be hard, but I knew that. Hopefully I'll be able to keep up with it and not get screwed over... I think Ill be ok. Finally, working remotely is pretty cool. Getting stuff done, and I'm glad to be able to help out with whatever I can.
So what else can I say? I'm sure I skipped saying a ton of things but in general that's what went down :) Right now I'm digging IAMX(it's crazy alt rock), whom I heard about because Imogen Heap did a remix of one of his songs, 'spit it out', which rocks, btw! The remix comes out in a few days and guess who's gonna buy it? *points at self* As for right now, I'm sitting in the library in a section called the Idea Factory (where you don't really have to be quiet) and there's a silent auction going on called E-Waste done by SEAL. To give some context, SEAL is an environmental group that my friend Ryan is a part of, and I think one of my roommates is too so that's cool. They get stuff for E-Waste from donations from students and just whoever, really, and then sell it today as a fund raiser.
Oh yeah, I wanted to put some pictures in here of my old apartment in the process of moving and my new place. I suppose I'll do it in another post haha... hopefully that's sooner than a month and a half from now. And one last thing, haha, see, this is what happens when you don't blog forever. One very important thing that happened monday of my first week of vacation (see mid-November + 1 day) was I finally submitted my JET application. It's what the copies in my last day of work were for :). Well I recently got a letter at home telling me they got the application and it was processed. So now I just have to wait until near the end of january to find out if I'm going to NYC or not to get interviewed. *prays* I really really want to go to Japan and I think this would be a super sweet way of doing it. God-willingly, I'm as good as there :D And with that I'm off ;)
Catch y'all later. Also, any ideas what I should do with several hundred haiku? XD
Ok, at that point I was still working at Cleveland, OH. I worked until mid-November. The last two weeks heading up to my leaving Sherwin were actually busier than I thought they'd be. It was good tho, kept me busy and entertained until I finished up. The last day was pretty interesting. I had to stay late the day before on thursday because I was working on something important that I had to finish and so stayed till 5 instead of my usual 4:30. That meant I could've left at 4 on friday but instead at 4 I asked for permission to use the copy machine to do make some copies for my JET (Japanese Exchanged and Teaching program) application. Well, for whatever reason that took me all the way until 5 to get done. The good(?) part of all that was that I got to see everybody leave and everybody said goodbye to me and wished me the best of luck on all my endeavors and whatnot. At 5 when I finished up and pretty much everybody in the office had left, I finished packing up my things and went on my merry way out of the office. It was almost eerily quiet as I was the last one to leave, I think but mainly, it was a nice way to go. I felt like I was really ending that part right. But wait! epilogue! :) As I was getting on the elevator I remembered there were some people that worked in the gym that I wanted to say goodbye to. So I stopped at the 10th floor. Unfortunately those people weren't there :( So I just told one of the trainers that were there, almost choking up how much I was thankful for the people that helped me out in the gym for helping me with my workout and helping keep me motivated. So another door closed behind me, probably one I wouldn't soon go through again. And as I waited in front of the elevator, I got pretty choked up and tried not to be a crying mess, successfully, thank God! Didn't wanna sob all the way home. I really didn't think I'd get so sad to leave the company. I mean, I'm still working for them and stuff but I feel in my mind I was coming to terms with never seeing some of those people again. Of course, there's a fair possibility that I will see them again, but that's just how I work.
Well the last 2 weeks of November came and went and were altogether awesome :) I got to have some, probably unmerited, vacations so I got to do just about everything I wanted to... and a few things I didn't want to. To sum it up, I pretty much played video games and hung out with friends throughout. The second week is when most things went down. I got to make sure and see all my friends and start packing all my crap. Thanksgiving was a total blast! Wednesday night a few of us went over to the Kakos' and saw a bunch of christmast movies (Elf, The Santa Clause and The Polar Express, in case you were wondering). Then we all went to sleep, and woke up early next day for TURKEY BOWL!!! We all went to a snowy soccer field and played some football. Fortunately I just ran around a lot and didn't have to get muddy or anything :D. Afterwards everybody went their way to their houses to enjoy some thanksgiving meals. I stayed at the Kakos', who were extremely nice in having me over for all this :). Friday night Jill, Sue and I went to little Italy in Cleveland and had some delicious italian food (and just as scrumptious dessert after that!). We proceeded to take said dessert over to Steve's to share and devour until it was later than I should've been out the day before moving. Saturday was moving day. I woke up mad early to try and finish packing and cleaning things up a bit but without a doubt everybody helping me out actually finishing to help me pack made it all possible! I'm so thankful for everybody that went and helped me out, especially Kate, who was also moving that day and came out to help me and Jill, who was there since way early to give me a ride to the u-haul place to get the truck. Really there's just no way that I could've had everything done by the time I had to leave. Finally, once everything was packed up we went over to Chipotle (coz there aren't any near rochester >.<*) and then we all said goodbye and I left... The weather was absolutely unbelievable. Not a drop of snow or rain the entire way there. Actually, it was sunny throughout Ohio and Pennsylvania, though obviously gloomy and cloudy once I hit NY.
Once I got to Rochester it was all a bunch of having to get used to everything again. I moved into an apartment with people I basically didn't know and at first things were sorta bumpy. The girl I was replacing in the apartment (and her sister) hadn't moved out so yet so I still had all my stuff in the living room (including my bed) and stayed there for like 2 days. No biggie and after that they were able to find where to live and we got all the changes set up and done and I moved into my room and a week later I more or less unpacked some things... lol. There are still some things I'm getting sorted out but they're coming along. Class is pretty cool. Japanese, as I've been saying to everyone, is super fun and cool and I'm so glad to be taking lessons again :D! Tech Transfer is like storytellers with Perry, which is cool (better than taking class, I always say XD, but really, there's much to be said about learning from experience and he's just sharing his experiences with us. Client-side programming is gonna be hard, but I knew that. Hopefully I'll be able to keep up with it and not get screwed over... I think Ill be ok. Finally, working remotely is pretty cool. Getting stuff done, and I'm glad to be able to help out with whatever I can.
So what else can I say? I'm sure I skipped saying a ton of things but in general that's what went down :) Right now I'm digging IAMX(it's crazy alt rock), whom I heard about because Imogen Heap did a remix of one of his songs, 'spit it out', which rocks, btw! The remix comes out in a few days and guess who's gonna buy it? *points at self* As for right now, I'm sitting in the library in a section called the Idea Factory (where you don't really have to be quiet) and there's a silent auction going on called E-Waste done by SEAL. To give some context, SEAL is an environmental group that my friend Ryan is a part of, and I think one of my roommates is too so that's cool. They get stuff for E-Waste from donations from students and just whoever, really, and then sell it today as a fund raiser.
Oh yeah, I wanted to put some pictures in here of my old apartment in the process of moving and my new place. I suppose I'll do it in another post haha... hopefully that's sooner than a month and a half from now. And one last thing, haha, see, this is what happens when you don't blog forever. One very important thing that happened monday of my first week of vacation (see mid-November + 1 day) was I finally submitted my JET application. It's what the copies in my last day of work were for :). Well I recently got a letter at home telling me they got the application and it was processed. So now I just have to wait until near the end of january to find out if I'm going to NYC or not to get interviewed. *prays* I really really want to go to Japan and I think this would be a super sweet way of doing it. God-willingly, I'm as good as there :D And with that I'm off ;)
Catch y'all later. Also, any ideas what I should do with several hundred haiku? XD
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