It's another season, seems about time I updated.

The summer is going great so far! After 3 weeks of off time I have started working at my internship. I am working at NIST (National Institute for Standards and Technology) as an Information Security Programmer in the Biometric division. Nice title eh? What it boils down to is I'm an intern working on the finger print image file format standard.

It sounds cool, and it is cool. I'm programming in a language I barely know, C# (C Sharp), and I'm diving into a 5 year old program feet first. The job has a steep learning curve, but it's worth it for the experience and pay (oh man am I getting paid... probably more than most people get after they graduate college... but hey, they're not computer scientists...).

Other than being in Myersville, MD for the summer it is the same old thing, get up, go to work, come home, eat dinner, go to bed. There are a few surprises here and there, such as a beach trip with my sweetie (Kathleen) in a week or so, and then a trip to Maine at the end of the summer.

OH! Then a week before school starts I have to run down to North Carolina for Bobby's wedding, be the best man, then run all the way back here to get one last year of schooling done.

Then I will be making even MORE money to which I will buy many many toys.

Posted by PyroFly X at 08:49 PM | Comments (0)

It's been a while, my non-existent readers! It dawns on me that it has been ages since I even had the inclination to post on here, partially because I didn't feel like this was a blog and that I should only post real articles... but I do my best writing/ranting when I am pissed off...

But being pissed off is something that I haven't been in a long time.

Things went on as they usually did this age, filled with its commings and goings, and I realize that I am not infallible, and I have made many, many mistakes. But I would do them all again.

Every instant in time is the sum of every preceding instant. Going in that fashion, where I am today is the sum of all of my choices and the choices of everyone else before me. And as I approach my senior year of college, I can say without a doubt in my mind that it cannot come any faster.

From start to finish I will have had been in school 18 years give or take. It's about time... there are many things I am starting to hate about school:

Tests: In the real world, as I have been telling teachers all these years, you aren't tested for things you can spew back at them, but rather what you can find.
Every Teacher who gives a closed book/closed note test is, in my opinion, a moron. Sure, you can see what the student can hold in their memory for, at most, 3 days.
For example: I am taking German 202, I show up, do the homework (with my book, duh), and I take the tests. I pass. Can I speak German? No. Can I read German, a little, will I remember it next year? No. Could I use a dictionary and speak German? Sure!

Homework: You spend time in class, you answer questions, you take notes, then you go to your next class. By the end of the day you have 70 new sheets of notes and 90 hours of homework due in two days. Every teacher feels like their class is your first priority. In the "real world" (somewhere most teachers have never been) yes you take some work home with you, but that is mostly your fault for not finishing it at work. Your one class is your job, and it's pass/fail. If you do your work then you can go home scott free, unlike at school.

Teachers: This is by far my greatest annoyance. There have been a few exceptions, but for the most part no teacher views their opinion as incorrect. They are the master of their field and they will let you know this. Bullshit. All but two of my professors have been teaching for the past decade, any knowledge of the real world they had would be all but moot now.
Are they right a lot, sure. Will they admit when they're wrong? No, you'll usually get an answer sounding like "Oh, well when I did [INSERT RANDOM USELESS PHRASE HERE] when I was working it was like how I said it."

No Money: I'm not a rich person, my family is not rich, and I don't plan on being filthy rich. I want to simply have a decent life. I don't want to worry about paying my bills and the bank closing my savings account and sending me a check for the balance like the asses that BB&T are. Changing policy without any notice... jerks.

All in all I can't wait to graduate and be out of school. I don't know where I will work, or what I will do, but it will be infinitely better than school.

Posted by PyroFly X at 10:44 PM | Comments (0)

It feels as though this week has taken a year to pass... and it all ended with what could be described as the worst day I have had at work. Ever.

Started off easily enough, I got up at 5:45 am, went back to bed until 6. Scrambled to get my stuff together and out the door. This would normally be an easy task, had I been able to get any sleep for the past few nights. This week I have probably slept a good 16 hours in all 5 days. Not too fun.

Upon arrival at work, my usual 15 minutes early, I wait for my boss to show up. 7:00 am on the dot is when he usually arrives, and today was no exception. After 10-15 minutes of joking around about the fact that he can't get out of his truck due to a hurt back, I suggest that I lift the other side so that he can slide out. He was not amused when I proceeded to do so.

So I was sent, with my co worker Brian, to a far off school by ourselves, in a county vehicle with no air conditioning. It was ever so hot, I felt sweat pour out of places I was unaware I had. We, of course, got stuck in traffic at every conceivable moment. Have I mentioned that this summer has taken forever to pass as of late? Well upon arriving at the work site we learn what we are to do: move as many heavy objects around the building as we can for 8 hours. Just what someone with strained tendons and a sprained shoulder needs!

After dismantling a few large mahogany desks for relocation (and me breaking a few of them at that :3 ) we are informed that lunch was on the school. Score one for us, we decided what we wanted, of course it was the most expensive items on the menu, at a whopping $12.99 for a 12" Italian sub.

We completed what we had thought would be our full days work in mere hours, we were beaming at that fact when, of course, we were informed of more work to do. This is where it all went downhill; we now had to carry full filing cabinets up a flight of stairs. At my count we had 12 filing cabinets to do... just wonderful!

After a few hours of banging them into everything we saw and generally behaving like asses we got them all to their desired location when my shoulder began to hurt. After a good while of it being fine it started acting up again, this did not please me. Don't worry, I'm nearly done.

Towards the end of the day, after our lunch (which was good by the way), we thought we were done and proceeded to be nice and ask if they had anything else to do. No, that's a lie. We were told flat out we had more to do, and not in a nice way. We now had one more desk to move before we left, because the lady absolutely needed it on Monday to do her job.

Grumbling I agreed, and quickly unscrewed the desk where it was connected, plopped the heavy end on a dolly, and proceeded to move it. Noticing it was quickly arriving at 2pm, the time I said we would leave, I hurried up and stashed it where it was supposed to go, not caring on the position. We left at 2:15 to her grumblings and ill words of not having her new office in order.

The drive back to the office was far worse than the drive out. In the blazing 106 degree weather, in a car with no AC and gridlocked traffic lights the whole way back. It was a hot and crappy end to a horrible Friday. Well, it would have been if I didn't speed the whole way back when the roads opened up, I even got to power slide through a yellow turn light, but lets keep that between us, oki?

All in all, my weeks now pass very slowly and I am very bored all the time. It needs to be time for school, NOW.

Posted by PyroFly X at 10:01 PM | Comments (0)

It is that time again, the one day of the year where blowing up objects is not only allowed, but encouraged. Today, ladies and gentlemen is July 4th, Independence Day.
This holiday started off ages ago on a good note, celebrating the day that we officially declared independence from the Great Brittan, however, it has become a mere shadow of itself. Today we celebrate not by remembering what the day is about, but rather to just celebrate. Commercialization is to blame for this, and also the plain and simple fact that no one seems to care.

Free from tyranny? Great. Lets drink ourselves stupid, and blow shit up. Do not get me wrong, I am unopposed to a fireworks display, if it is in fact a display. Simply setting off explosives in one's own backyard for the sheer amusement of hearing a pop or perhaps a whistle is not a display.

Today was a relatively quiet one, if I was to disregard the constant screeches of sirens outside of paramedics, fire men and police officers as they blaze down the highway from one disaster to the next. I would also have to disregard the annoyances that were posed by my parents in the form of drunken banter and general assholery.

Acts such as walking into my room, lighting a cigarette, blatantly insulting me and my possessions, and then asking if you can ask me a question is no way to go about a conversation. And I should know what a good conversation is, I have had a good many with someone I am completely interested in, and she's no drunken whiner.

However, it will take far more than a blood alcohol content of 1.9 and several tons of explosives to get me down these days, so enjoy your holiday and try to remember what today is really about.

Posted by PyroFly X at 04:30 PM | Comments (1)

They're angry, disgruntled and more importantly insane. They are the ever-lovable mad scientist character. I have been going over some manga and video games in my spare time and I always find it fascinating that there always seems to be an evil genius plotting to destroy the world, more often than not they plan to do so with super evil mega deadly robots. Which is, of course, the only way they should come.

Artificial intelligence and robotics have been two fields I have considered working in when I graduate, both need computer science as a start and that is what I am. What I really want to do is manufacture giant killer robots that would do my bidding. However, I will always be in the shadow of Dr. Gero (Dragon Ball) and Dr. Wiley (Mega Man / Rock Man) as the chances of producing a robot of that caliber is next to zero.

The mad scientists are not fools, they carefully plan, and re-plan, and then plan once more for many possible outcomes; I am sure they have created a robot to do this for them, and then one to check the first robot's work. So with every eventuality planned out they can take precautionary measures for the most likely outcomes. The most prevalent outcome is that of being foiled and caught and or killed. This is seen by some to be a bad event in ones life, however think of the possibilities.

Since the evil genius planned everything out, they figured they would be caught and unable to continue their plans, so they always, and I do mean always, create a set of robots that are far more sophisticated, powerful, and unstoppable than any others they have released at the time. True to saving the best for last these robots will tear apart the world in search of their primary objective, freeing their creator or something of the like. These robots, of course, will only be released upon not receiving contact from their creator in some time... usually six months.

And of course, the whole point of this was I thought it would be cool to call up my secondary lab on the telephone just to mess with the program...

Phone: "Dr. Yaga's evil lair, Betsy speaking."
Me: "I've been captured! Help!"
Betsy: "I'm sorry, you will have to wait 6 months now. Goodbye."
Me: "Oh god damn it."

Yeah, you know there's no way that I wouldn't send my best robots first.

Posted by PyroFly X at 04:25 PM | Comments (1)

Tis the night before my final day at UMW for the term, and I feel like recapping the past school year in all its glory. This will be using extended entry, because I'm trying to stay away from the rantings of a blog, so read if you want.

Continue reading "At Term's End" »

Posted by PyroFly X at 09:54 PM | Comments (0)

I always have a lot on my mind. That is just how things are. I think about everything constantly. This doesn't make things easier for me, or even interesting, it just means I have a lot of free time I waste on thought.
It's always the same things too, and they are all general concepts about people, the world and how everything fits together, and I'm not sure why ideas just pop into my head, or why I continue to mull them over until they make sense to me, but they just do. In essence I form theories, furthermore I form theories that cannot be easily solved.

I might not have a good grasp on time, but I have managed to formulate a rationale on time which makes sense to me, and I have tried to explain it to people with very little success. But here I go again.

Since time can be viewed as a series of events, that is what this image describes. Each square is an event that happened due to a decision.
Every outcome is already decided, every choice available, it is just a matter of which path we take. Every action affects the path, not just the individual's actions, but every action everywhere. Take my image and take it to the infinite degree, and you will get the idea of what I am thinking about.
As certain decisions are made, others become unavailable; say for example someone decided to chop down your favorite tree, you can no longer go and climb that tree. Every decision made by anyyone affects any decision made by everyone else.
This can be viewed most commonly in the concept of "Time Travel." The fundamental problem with time travel is that if you mess up something in the past then you mess up the future. It is because your interference in the past had affected the decisions and events that would have naturally occured.
Granted this goes into the annoying thought pattern of that if you went back and changed it, then it had already happened, and then you were meant to go back and do it so that you are in the world that you are today because you did it. In other words, a big pain in the ass.

Which leads me to my next point: A true Artificial Intelligence would have to account for this concept of time. True AI should be able to handle every situation, and with there being near infinite situations based on this theory then a True AI would be man's ultimate achievement.
Again, this comes with flaws, as there is only so much memory you can have in technology, only so much processing power, only so much mechanics behind this. You hit limits when trying to account for everything and the concept of a true AI becomes obscured, and you get to the notion that some things shouldn't be accounted for. Things are stripped away until you are left with what we currently have; machines that only do what they are told, nothing more, nothing less. Unless you have a Mac, then it is a lot less.

So we come down to man. A creature that evolved to adapt to every situation thrown his way. We evolved higher brain functions to allow us abstract thinking of concepts like love, empathy, good, evil and all that other stuff. It has been our greatest trait and our biggest flaw. For once we developed the concept of love and affection we practically signed our lives away. At that moment we limited our ability to evolve at the pace needed to survive.
"There is someone for everyone." Is a phrase that people often like to boast about; yes, there definatly is someone out there for everyone, and god damnit I blame them. The concept of love is based off of many things, attraction, settlement, and a deep desire to be loved.

With everyone "finding that special someone" it leaves no room for the lesser genes to fall out. Yes, I am aware that some people cannot reproduce due to many reasons, death, impotence, sterilization, idiocy (lol, Darwin Awards), and such; but it still is not enough. In other animal groups, only the best are allowed to reproduce, and the worst are shunned, this allows for their species to grow overall, slowly eliminating their flaws or slowly adapting to meet their new situation. Humans have taken the approach of reproducting as fast as possible and hoping for the best. The shotgun technique can only last so long against species who are using snipers.

We might be considering ourselves the best, but look at everything that is killing us. Viruses that are evolving to beat vaccines, bacteria that is becoming resistant to treatments. For christ sake, even the food we eat is getting the better of us!

(source: http://www.bushspeaks.com/home.asp?did=68)

Some of you may be thinking that our technology will allow us to prevail; but believe me, there will be a day when human beings are going to have to compete with another species to be on top, and unless there are massive changes in everyone's thought pattern, we might not win.

Posted by PyroFly X at 11:23 PM | Comments (0)