automaticable

During the last hour at work today a storm started brewing.  Not some wussy storm, but the kind that blackens the sky and bring with it high winds, thunder and lightning.  Being from California, I am not accustomed to this type of weather.  Because of this I am always in awe when storms roll through so quickly and violently.  Having never experienced one of these storms while at work, I thought I simply had a sense of childlike wonder whenever I was entranced with the weather.  My coworkers, however, quickly asked if I was afraid of the lightning.  “No, of course not!” was my first reaction, and it was truthful at the time.  I wasn’t afraid of the lightning.  But if I was ever talking to someone and a streak of lightning splashed across the sky I would falter, losing my train of thought and submit to my infantile slackjawed stare into the sky.  Was this more than just a distraction?  I did seem intimidated by the lightning.

After I got home I decided to do a bit of reading.  The first thing I ran across was this:

Astrapophobia-

Astraphobia, also known as Brontophobia, Keraunophobia, or Tonitrophobia, is an abnormal fear of thunder and lightning, a type of a specific phobia. -wikipedia

Thanks for all of the insight, wikipedia.  There is no detail, explanation, history…nothing.  And that is the same for almost every search on the term.  But what I have to think about is if my fear is “abnormal.”  I guess at this point I would say yes, since nobody else seemed to become stupified by streaks of light.  But I wouldn’t say my fear is extreme in any way, and probably wouldn’t even be considered a phobia.

What I find funny is that although I may have a slight obsession with lightning, I am in no way fearful of the rain, or driving through it for that matter.  Drainage is surprisingly terrible along Atlanta’s roads, so if you drive in the right lane you are inevitably forced to drive through massive flowing rivers of water that have no place to escape.  Most people choose to go around those.  I drive through them.  Yes, it is dangerous.  I know this.  But it is FUN.  It is absolutely illogical to combine dangerous driving conditions, an expensive piece of metal, and high speeds, but I just cannot help it.  I may fear lightning, but I thrive on watching the water shoot up around both sides of my car.  I consider it the ultimate goal if I can spray so much up that my entier windshield is covered with water.  Just writing this makes me think I might have a few screws loose.

Revel in the glory of a car fanning its water wings like a liquid peacock.

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Hey faithful automaticable readers. I wanted to apologize for the lack of posts for the last week or so. Things have been crazy in my neck of the woods between work & social events. I wanted to make this up to you (and publicly motivate myself to do so at the same time).

I am publicly committing to post a minimum of 1 story per day for the next week. That might not sound like much, since most blogs are updated fairly often, but with my schedule it will be quite the task.

So all of you awesome fans, stay tuned for a flurry of rants, raves, opinions, and maybe even a few useful posts. This next week should be a good one for automaticable.

A couple of weeks ago I had a disheartening conversation with a friend of mine. Somehow we happened upon the subject of choice and gay marriage. My friend, being a conservative Christian, said that she not only supports the ban on gay marriage, but could never, ever vote to allow gays the right to marriage, even if the marriage was simply legal, making it more along the lines of a civil union. Her reasoning was that because she was morally opposed to gay marriage, she could not support a bill overturning the current ban. She willingly admits that she is fine with gays loving each other and would never discriminate against them, but what she doesn’t realize is that she already has.

My friend, by supporting the ban on gay marriage, is not defending her morals. She has decided that her moral conviction is more “right” than the gay population’s, and thus her will must be imposed on these people. Forget the fact that gay marriage has no bearing on her life whatsoever, and that taking away the ability for people to choose to make decisions, even if they may be the “wrong” decision, is closer to a Communist regime than a loving Christian society.

Well, my friend, I have some disappointing news for you.  California, by far the most socially advanced state in the United States (see: smoking bans, highway cleanup, medical marijuana, recycling, etc) and the state which the rest of the country inevitably follows socially, has just pronounced gay marriage as legal.  Not only is gay marriage legal, but, according to Supreme Court Chief Justice Ronald M. George,

…discrimination against gays, on the basis of their sexual orientation, [is] equivalent under the California state constitution to discrimination against racial minorities.

Overturning the ban on gay marriage is pretty big, but this quote is huge.  The gay community now has legal authority to go to court over discrimination based on sexual orientation.

I hope this is a signal to the rest of the United States that times are changing.  You will no longer be allowed to impose your impractical religious views on other just because you are morally opposed to the choices people make.  The great thing about this, conservative Christian right, is that you won’t even notice the difference!  The gay community will be happier (gayer, some might say).  They may also be allowed the tax breaks that straight couples get for being married.  But guess what.  Your life will not change.  All that changes is that the will of God will not be imposed on Americans any longer.

I have been ecstatic since I heard this news.  Not because I know anyone this will directly effect, but because I am a champion of choice, and California is a source of hope for everything I believe in.  I can only hope that choice is allowed to the rest of Americans as our country matures and becomes more loving, understanding, and accepting.

Slate (via Clusterflock)

If you usually read automaticable through an RSS reader and have wondered why we’ve been so quiet lately…well, we haven’t really! Wordpress recently upgraded their software which broke our RSS feed. To be specific, the Wordpress 2.5.1 update broke all of the links pointing to our RSS feed don’t work, except /feed. Unfortunately, we’d been forwarding this to FeedBurner and Pheedo for all sorts of RSS magic. For now we’ve just disabled the FeedSmith plugin, which seems to fix it.

In layman’s terms– we’re back! If you are wondering what you missed, the list is below.

• Kyle wrote an article listing the Top 12 SOE Firefox Extensions. Check it out, it’s not just for SEO.
• He followed that up with a post regarding letters written to a journalist posing as a little boy from convicted serial killers.
• Kyle also joined Twitter. Let us know if you are on Twitter too!
• Following that was a review of the Iron Man movie that just came out.
• Brian opened the blinds right before finals began.
• Kyle announced his new SEO project revolving around Gibson guitars.
• Scott finished finals and is happier than a clam.
• And finally, Kyle reviewed the new Death Cab for Cutie album, Narrow Stairs.

So spend some time catching up. You know we missed you as much as you missed us!

A few weeks ago I wrote a post outlining predictions for the season 4 finale of The Office. After last night’s AMAZING hour long show, I wanted to revisit those predictions to see how I did, what I missed, and maybe make a few predictions for season 5. I don’t want to spoil the season finale for anyone who hasn’t had a chance to watch it yet, so I’ll put the rest of this post behind a break. For those of you who didn’t catch the hour long episode, you can still watch it online, legal and free, at both Hulu and NBC.

Continue reading “The Office Season 4 Finale: How’d I Do?”

Before I get started with this review, I want to apologize for releasing it a day late.  I’ve been a little unmotivated to write this review, and I think that sentiment stems from the type of album Death Cab For Cutie has released.  I was asked to describe the album in 4 words or less, and the only response I could come up with that seemed fitting was “Good, but not great.”  It is definitely more complicated than that because I actually do like the album, so make sure to read on for a full analysis of Death Cab for Cutie’s “Narrow Stairs.”

Continue reading “Review: Death Cab for Cutie - Narrow Stairs”

Alternative title: Summer is here.

As you may have noticed, I haven’t posted in over a week, because I’ve been so busy with other things. But summer is finally here, so now I’ll (maybe) have some more time. But a quick recap of the last week, in bullet-list form:

• Finals are over. They were way-stressful, but I think they went well. In fact, I know at least one went very well.
• Today was my first full day of work. It’s nice to have a whole day to really sit down and concentrate on something. Bonus points for being interesting too.
• It was also the first day of summer workout. 20 minute run, and I didn’t die.
• Most of my roommates moved out yesterday. It’ll be quiet and lonely here for a while–come visit me!
• I’m starting a new project. Joe and Kyle are going to help me with it, so I’m excited. More to come later.
• I have a long list of other projects I need to do. But it’s ok, because most of them are things like reading outside, going fishing, barbecuing, and the such.
• I’m am in a wonderful mood. For no other reason than because summer is here.

A few weeks ago I posted about how I had a couple of exciting announcements to make. Since then, 1 of the deals has fallen through the cracks. I was sad at first, but it has actually turned out to be a good thing for me in the end. The second announcement, though, is still going strong and I am ready to talk about it more publicly.

When I made the announcement I had just learned of a new SEO technique that sounded very promising. It is something that has very little risk, but presents a huge reward if implemented correctly. I am being vague here for a reason; if I gave away too many specifics on top of a link to the new site I am running, someone could come in and take away my competitive advantage. I’m sure any of you SEO gurus could probably figure out the gist of what I am doing by studying the site for a while, but the technique is fairly intricate and focused, so it wont be immediately apparent.

So what is this site? Well, it is a blog (well, not really…) called Review: Gibson Guitars. It fuses my interest in music and guitars with my experience with SEO, and is starting to look promising. I only have a handful of posts up there right now and I am working on getting a few more up soon. My goal is to make the site a great destination for people interested in Gibson guitars and guitar buying in general. So if you are interested in what I’ve been working on lately, or want to learn about guitars in general, go check out my new site about Gibson guitars!

With Finals just around the corner, I look back at my college career thus far and I see all the good decisions that I’ve made. I switched from Medical Science with a hopes for Orthotics and Prosthesis to Recreation Management and I couldn’t be happier. I came back home from SIU to finish up my general education classes and receive my AA from College of DuPage and I love every minute of being home. I’ve switched around from a couple jobs and finally found something that I enjoy doing and that gives me hope for a brighter future. The relationship aspect of my life couldn’t be better. I have a steady girlfriend of over two years now, and we’re always talking about what the future brings, planning little trips with each other, and we can never stop smiling when we’re with each other.

With the weather turning nice I’m becoming more and more optimistic and becoming less stressed. Finals should be pretty much a breeze this year due to the classes and the requirements that they have for me. I gave two huge project presentations yesterday that I worked for 6 hours straight on over the weekend, and I found out immediately afterwards that I had aced both of them. I feel a sense of accomplishment this semester through all the trouble and stress that my classes brought me. I feel I did the best I could in all my classes and I’m not afraid of anything that future classes throw at me.

I used to sit in my room with the blinds closed to keep the heat in my room so it doesn’t get too cold, but I came home the other day and my mom had opened them, and I realized how beautiful of a view out my window I have. There’s a beautiful backyard with trees lining the perimeter of the half acre backyard, thick green grass, a flower island in the middle of the yard, and horseshoe pits in the back. I could probably sit and look out my window all day and watch the birds, squirrels, chipmunks, and the neighbors cats run through our yard all day and be content.

Basically what I’m getting at here is that through all the stress and hard work that have been hitting me this entire semester, I’m glad that it’s finally over and I have a bright, relaxing summer to look forward to. The warm afternoons, the stormy nights, the bonfires, the hookah parties, or just relaxing on the screen porch, falling asleep in the chase lounge are all things that I have to look forward to. So all you college students out there fretting over finals and worrying about grades and their futures, take a step back and look at all the good things you’ve done so far and all the great things in the future that lie ahead of you. Realize that ultimately they’re just grades and a beige piece of paper, and that what you should be worrying about is how many times your going to ride Superman at Six Flags this summer.

I love seeing films on opening night, and with a movie as good as Iron Man it was a great experience. The audience was really excited, cheering and clapping whenever something amazing happened. Normally I am not into the whole audience interaction thing in movie theaters, but I think Iron Man was the perfect film to play along with.

So what made the movie so good? For a film based on a comic book, Iron Man took itself very seriously. There were no emo dance scenes a la Spiderman, anyway. Serious does not mean boring or dry though. Iron Man was funny; actually, it was hilarious at times. Robert Downey Jr. was the perfect match for this military mogul: smart, confident, and drunk. Speaking of smart, I don’t think there has been another comic hero movie where the main character’s super power was his smarts. At least not like Downey’s character, Tony Stark. Stark is an engineer capable of building amazing power sources the size of tennis balls out of scraps in a cave. He is an expert with computers, soldering, metalworking…pretty much everything needed to make the most powerful suit in the world. Convenient for him, huh?

I highly recommend this movie. It is action packed, but doesn’t focus on the explosions or fight scenes. As I mentioned earlier, it is also really smart and funny as well. I think those are the three elements that make for a great action flick. In the end Iron Man is about the struggle we as Americans go through having the most powerful military in the world. The best defense is a good offense, but what happens when our offense falls into the hands of our enemies?