"We're here to make a dent in the universe..."

"Why else even be here?" - Noah Wyle as Steve Jobs, 'Pirates of Silicon Valley'

Really though, what's the point of being here if we're not going to make a major dent in this world and totally change its face? Do something! Make something! Be somebody great! I see so much squander day in and day out. It's absolutely heart-wrenching. So much wasted effort! Put your minds to good use! Do something worthwhile that will benefit all humankind.

It's only natural to want to sleaze off and be lazy. I'm guilty of this, too. Just realize that's what you're doing, though and do something about it. Change yourself. The future of humankind depends on it; depends on you...

It's your duty as a productive human being to add something to the time period in which you live (not to mention benefit future generations). It's your duty to learn something new daily. Study something worthy of your time and that information which will propel you to accomplishing bigger, better things.

You can't just approach it in such a way that your are the sole beneficiary either. The entire group must benefit and, through your benevolence, so will you. Governing dynamics, my friends.

So go do something great. Time waits for no man.

End of an era

Well, "Battlestar Galactica" is finally over and I was not dissatisfied with how they ended it. I know BC felt it to be a bit preachy but I don't think so. Very few shows end well, at least in my humble opinion, but this was, thankfully, not one of them.

I've discovered, or finally accepted, something recently. I'm a pretty terrible student. I think it may have something to do with being completely adverse to sitting in class for a given period of time day after day. Maybe it's just me but I despise this aspect of school.

Sitting in a room with others while the lecturer simply regurgitates information that can easily be found in the class textbook just doesn't sit well with me. They move so God-awful slowly too in the exposition of new subject matter. It's really quite maddening.

I love learning, that's not the issue here. My grades aren't suffering because of this affliction. I guess it's just that I need to learn on my own terms and at a time of my choosing. Maybe I'm just being selfish or stubborn or what have you. This is just the way it is, contrary to my best efforts to actually make myself want to be in class.

I actually find that I get really excited about school or going to class just before the class begins but when I actually have to sit through the lecture, my attitude toward the situation does a complete 180. I'm doing all I can to rectify the situation, but all previous efforts have failed. Perhaps I just don't like being a prisoner to this social requisite. Maybe I'm just completely full of it and should suck it up and just do it.

Whatever the case may be, I'm going to continue to do my best to participate in whatever this institution calls me to do. I will find a way to like it! Eventually...

In the meantime, I'll just keep doing what I've been doing and suffering through the lengthy lectures.

This will be the end of the era of 'Karl, the underperforming student' and will, with it's ousting, usher in one of scholarly prosperity and enjoyment. It must be this way.

Execution: The Discipline of Getting Things Done by Ram Charan

Execution: The Discipline of Getting Things Done by Ram Charan

My review

rating: 4 of 5 stars
This was a fine read but is mostly meant to target either fledgling leaders just entering a corporate executive position or one who is currently serving in such a capacity.

It has quite a lot of insightful information regarding management of large sets of people, resources, and funds in an efficient and realistic way. The information is, however, really only applicable if you are in a management position at a fairly high level in the organization.

View all my reviews.

Too much Twitter...

I have Twittered all too much since I signed up. In an attempt to curtail this bad habit of mine, I am vowing to "tweet" a maximum of 5 times in a single day. Even this is probably too much but at least I'm making an effort to spare you all from the majority of my mundane existence.

In lieu of so much Twitter activity, I will probably turn to this silly blog of mine (which really serves no purpose other than my periodic brain dumps) to put my thoughts in front of me in order that I might review them more thoroughly.

I really just need a journal...

Also, does it upset anyone else that ANYTHING can be used as a verb (or perhaps...verbalized) these days? Googled, facebooked, twittered, myspaced, etc. Seriously, what the hell is happening to our beautiful language and what does this say about the future of english speakers? Just consider the possible eventuality we're leading up to...

Two books, one month.

I've decide that I must read a minimum of two books in a one-month period. One fiction, one non-; both educational. It's got to be this way as my list of books to read continues to mount and it seems I've not made anything more than a minor dent in a good, long while.

This rate of two per month may need to be increased in the future, but this will be my minimum for the time being. With school, work, projects etc. it's difficult to do anything more...

Also, for every book that I finish, I will be writing a review covering that book, posted on my blog, in order to solidify the information that I've acquired in the process of reading it and ensure that I fully understand what it is I've read.

"Thomas Tipp was right; people will READ AGAIN!" - David, Vanilla Sky

Live Diggnation SXSW '09

This weekend was nothing short of incredible. I can't remember the last time I've had more fun. We did it all. Everything I had planned to do this weekend was fulfilled to the very last detail and then some. Perfect.

I got a huge charge out of attending the live Diggnation event at SXSW in Austin. It was something like a rock concert only with nothing but nerds, geeks and faboys/girls (yes, there were girls there ;).

While waiting in line outside Stubbs, I met Nic, a fledgling podcaster who recently started a show titled, "The Sunday Show". After Diggnation was over, we went around recording interviews and such for his show. We interviewed pretty much everyone from the Rev3 podcast crews who was there.

Then I got to meet Kevin Rose. We got our photograph taken together (which is unfortunately a bit grainy as it was dark). He seems like a really neat guy. Meeting him actually caused me to attach a human quality to him that I had not before considered much. He's flesh and blood just like any of us (and pretty darn cool IRL, too).

At any rate, I can't wait to attend SXSW next year full on! I'm going to make sure I get the entire friggin' week off for that one. It's just that great!

I Saw "Watchmen" today, just before leaving Austin, and it wasn't exactly what I expected. I suppose I was expecting a sort of gritty superhero type of thing but it wasn't really like that. I suppose it just didn't contain the impact I expected. I'll have to see it again and perhaps just break down and read the graphic novel (it will be my first of these), and perhaps the story will grab me. Currently I have neutral feeling towards it. The music was also pretty out of place for the most part. I dunno, I'll just have to give it another chance.

Right, well, I'll be off then. G'night, blogosphere!

Wtvr dude...

I'm really tired and for some reason, instead of going off to bed to enjoy the warm comfort of my bed and a good book, I'm writing a bloody blog post. Today was pretty hell yeah. I got a lot done and felt pretty good about it overall. I found, while constructing a Java-based Twitter client, that my Java's pretty darn rusty. That's something I'm going to need to refine in the coming months, I suppose. NetBeans is great, though...at least for Java stuff. Going to do some Ruby in it tomorrow and see how it works out. (I actually tried it with a simple "hello world" program and the interpreter seemed kinda slow...doesn't bode well for NetBeans Ruby, I'm afraid)

My roommate got a drum kit (bongo pictured above[also that is not my roommate...]) and is playing it right now (perhaps this is why I'm not going to bed quite yet...). He's not really playing anything that sounds remotely musical yet, but has mostly just been banging around on it, testing the tensile strength of the heads or some such I suppose... All I know is that it's loud and sometimes disturbs concentration levels.

I'm really really glad to not be programming on my laptop anymore. I'm sure nobody else cares but I certainly do and I feel it my duty to inform fledgling coders who might make attempts to code on a screen smaller than 17" JUST DON'T DO IT!

I love listening to techno/electronica while I code (courtesy Pandora.com).

That is all.

Goodnight.