WTF Dude, what were you thinking?

The title is slightly misleading. I'm not chastising somebody else; it's intended for me. I've taken to reading some of my older blog posts. Granted I was younger (not that old now) and less wise (not that wise now) but I had some severely off balance priorities.

That's all. You wasted a click on this page just as I wasted time typing this post.

State Drop Down for Codeigniter

This is mostly for my reference but anybody else who finds it a timesaver is free to use it. It's just a state select box for codeigniter. I made it so that I could easily set a value when I was editing a row in the database.

$options = array(
        'AL' => 'Alabama',
        'AK' => 'Alaska',
        'AZ' => 'Arizona',
        'AR' => 'Arkansas',
        'CA' => 'California',
        'CO' => 'Colorado',
        'CT' => 'Connecticut',
        'DE' => 'Delaware',
        'DC' => 'District of Columbia',
        'FL' => 'Florida',
        'GA' => 'Georgia',
        'HI' => 'Hawaii',
        'ID' => 'Idaho',
        'IL' => 'Illinois',
        'IN' => 'Indiana',
        'IA' => 'Iowa',
        'KS' => 'Kansas',
        'KY' => 'Kentucky',
        'LA' => 'Louisiana',
        'ME' => 'Maine',
        'MD' => 'Maryland',
        'MA' => 'Massachusetts',
        'MI' => 'Michigan',
        'MN' => 'Minnesota',
        'MS' => 'Mississippi',
        'MO' => 'Missouri',
        'MT' => 'Montana',
        'NE' => 'Nebraska',
        'NV' => 'Nevada',
        'NH' => 'New Hampshire',
        'NJ' => 'New Jersey',
        'NM' => 'New Mexico',
        'NY' => 'New York',
        'NC' => 'North Carolina',
        'ND' => 'North Dakota',
        'OH' => 'Ohio',
        'OK' => 'Oklahoma',
        'OR' => 'Oregon',
        'PA' => 'Pennsylvania',
        'RI' => 'Rhode Island',
        'SC' => 'South Carolina',
        'SD' => 'South Dakota',
        'TN' => 'Tennessee',
        'TX' => 'Texas',
        'UT' => 'Utah',
        'VT' => 'Vermont',
        'VA' => 'Virginia',
        'WA' => 'Washington',
        'WV' => 'West Virginia',
        'WI' => 'Wisconsin',
        'WY' => 'Wyoming'
);

echo form_dropdown('state', $options);

If you're not familiar with codeigniter, I'll give you a quick overview. The $options array is what will populate the select box. The left being the value and the right being what is displayed. If you want to select one by default just add a third parameter to the form_dropdown function.

You can visit this link for a better explanation.
http://codeigniter.com/user_guide/helpers/form_helper.html

iOS - A learning

I've decided to try to learn iPhone programming. We'll see how this pans out. I'm learning using the Sam's iOS 5 in 24 hours book. Perhaps it will turn out to work well. I'll post updates and different tips or tricks I learn along the wag to help out others who may be just getting started.

Let's get back to it

This is the start of a new age. No, I'm not planning on giving a fuck. I am, however, planning on improving the conditions of my life.

I'm going to start keeping better track of my finances, working out again, keeping track of what I eat, may stop smoking (as much).

Today me and Ed did a 2 mile run. It showed me I need to stick to a mile but it was still good. Going to run every other day and work on strength training on the other days. Saturday will be my day off.

I've switched to PNC bank and their financial tracking tools are phenomenal as is the virtual wallet app for the iPhone.

I've even switched to Verizon. So far all these changes are saving me money and making me feel better.

I'll make regular updates on how these improvements are helping me out.

Does Microsoft advertise Apple in it's OS?

The short answer is no. The long answer is hell fucking no because that would be stupid as hell. Microsoft developed an OS (let's not get into stolen components and what not) and they sell it as a tool to use your computer. Apple doesn't seem to really care that their tool is not represented somewhere is Microsoft's tool either. That's because it's neither expected or required.

So... if Google decides to advertise Google+ within search results and not include Facebook, Twitter, etc it doesn't fucking matter. They have no reason to comply with any request put forth by those companies to do so either. It seems that people forget Google is a company with shareholders and things like that. The point of the company is to make money. They developed their search tool and have done a very successful job of it. Nobody ever says "Search the internet for it", they say "Google it". So if they ad a feature that integrates search results for other products they've made then that is their right.

I personally do not like the new feature. If I wanted to find something on Google+ I'd search there. That's why I turned it off. If Mark Zuckerberg and whoever the hell runs Twitter has a problem with that, they should turn it off as well.

Granted that Google search results have become an integral part of the internet. Imagine if Google had decided to block out more than their logo in protest of SOPA. The world wouldn't have shut down and banks would still operate, but 90% of Americans would have been lost. This article states that Google may be losing site of it's core job, search results; I disagree. Google still provides the best search results available. If I have to skip over a youtube video or turn off the search plus you feature I will do so.

If this was user outrage I could understand, but this is all brought about by other companies feeling Google has given itself an unfair advantage. Perhaps they should make their own search engine and not include Google product results. Just block out Blogger, YouTube, Google+, Picasa, and Code. Their users will have the advantage of not having to sift through as much useful information.

Another early morning rant

I really have no subject matter to speak of right now. Sure there's plenty to talk about what with anon cavorting about and that thing with the cruise ship, however, none of that matters to me. In fact, just as soon as I started to type this I lost interest in it. I don't want to be around anybody, don't want to do anything, and don't really care. Should I consider this a sad state of affairs or just cruise along with the current?

I have an uncanny knack for getting by. I've never had to really try hard to accomplish anything. Jobs are just handed out to me despite my lack of a high school education or any formal training in anything other than martial arts or BET from the Army. Those two skill sets are hard to translate in the real world though. I'm not even sure why I'm concerned with it. Most people would call it a charmed life from the outside looking in and it very well may be.

Perhaps all I need is some change and trial in my life. I want things to complicate a little. Where's the thrill of victory when it's all but assured? I dropped everything in my life and started over once, perhaps it's time to do it again. Get rid of everything and just start fresh. Some new place where nobody knows me. Find out if this whole situation I've been in all my adult life is nothing more than some local phenomenon or if I am cursed to have whatever I want handed to me.

Now that I consider that, perhaps that's why I'm so attracted to unattainable women. I know it won't happen and if it did it wouldn't work, but it never stops the attempt. Even if it fails 1,000 times all I need is number 1,001 to come to fruition and it will be the earned victory I seek. Perhaps one day at some god awful hour in the morning I'll make a post declaring that achievement.

Posts like this one seem to have a healing factor to them. To say what hasn't been said. To say what doesn't even need to be said. It doesn't matter if it's never read, it's out there. Then of course there is the dark side of that healing. Typing this just to get it out without thinking brings forth questions that you may not have known were ever there be they good or bad. It's a very zen process. Taking the bad with good and the balancing act required to keep the level at just right to avoid steering down a darker path than you want to. There is one redeeming factor to this whole process that can't be avoided or ignored -

It's way cheaper than a therapist.

Ramifications

I'm the first to admit that I am a man of instinct. I act on impulse in almost every situation and rarely think anything through. The following quote from Hagakure is the best way of summing up my feelings on decision making;

In the words of the ancients, one should make his decision within the space of seven breaths. It is a matter of being determined and having the spirit to break through to the other side.

I follow that statement almost religiously and so far it has not led me astray. However recently I am finding that harder and harder to do. There are things in my life that make it harder to make split decisions and I find that I am unsure how to proceed. Should I push forward as I always have and deal with the wake left by my actions when the time comes, or should I reevaluate the process in which those actions are decided upon? Is this a turning point in my life or a mere test of my resolve?

There are many factors bringing about this chain of thought. Suddenly it's no longer a matter of how I will deal with the consequences, but how others will perceive or react to the decisions I make. It seems as though the way I've lived my life is finally catching up to me. Perhaps I will strive forward with the same stance I've taken throughout my life; living in the moment and never worrying about tomorrow, but I find that may be a lonelier prospect than I orginally thought...

What should I think of this?

The article, I suggest you read it before my rant.

I can see where the justice system is coming from on this one, but I still have to disagree with the decision. Yes, the parents could have taken the child to the emergency room and had it treated. Yes, the emergency room would have treated the child and billed them later. That seems to be obvious to everyone including the journalist who wrote the article.

However, I doubt the journalist has had to deal with bad credit, a shitty job, less money coming in than going out, and creditors calling every day. I imagine there were times these parents were more worried about their child not having food than they were about him possibly having cancer.

The priorities of the poor are staggered a little differently than the middle class and above. We have medical care very near the bottom of that list. For us, medical care isn't some wonderful miracle that heals all. It's a way to drag ourselves deeper in debt. It's a way to have some bullshit nurse look down on you because you don't have insurance while you wait for an overpaid doctor to do as little as possible and give you some pill he can be compensated for.

In fact, let's assume they had taken him to the emergency room. According to the doctor in the last paragraph of the article, "If they had just taken the child to the emergency room and said the child is sick, the staff would have taken care of the child ... Their approach is 'we figure out how to get paid later'". That is the biggest load of horse shit I have ever heard. They have to stabilize the child. If they had taken him into the hospital they'd have assumed he had a mild infection or tonsillitis or something. He'd leave there with an anti-biotic and a note saying come back in for a check-up. That check-up wouldn't be an emergency room visit and without insurance or money, they'd turn the family away.


So in conclusion, fuck anybody who thinks this was easily prevented.

Bamboozler fakes way to Columbia

At least that's what the parents think. Apparently this girl gave a fake name to get a job in Houston at some club after running away from home. She then was arrested for shoplifting under that fake name. Using the same fake name she went through the court system where she was eventually deported to Columbia sometime in 2010. All of this was when she was 13. She's 15 now though, and an expecting mother. She also was quite the life of the party in Columbia despite not knowing how to speak spanish. Her facebook page was also riddled with photos of her sitting on men's laps whilst smoking weed.

Non of this makes sense to me. Obviously we as Americans are pretty happy to get rid of what we assume to be illegal Colombian immigrants. However there is a different theory.

Jackson says he believes something more sinister is going on."There has to be something behind this 15-year-old girl ending up in Colombia, besides the fact that ICE dropped the ball," he said. "Of all the nicknames ... to pick one that's of Latino descent, for that to be a name that sticks and gets you deported, that doesn't make sense."

That's right. He thinks she was coerced into faking her way to Columbia, in order to smoke pot in the comfort of some man's lap. Jackson is her father by the way. I find this hard to believe. The sad fact is that if you try to hide your identity, it will be exposed. There are exceptions to this rule but I doubt she's former special forces or in the CIA or something. In fact, the detectives looking into this would seem to agree.

"I don't buy that she had the wherewithal to be able to bamboozle the government," Jackson says. "You know, kids are scared when they get around authorities. ... To think that you could bamboozle them to create a new identity, it just doesn't make sense."

A little heavy on the bamboozlement part for my tastes but it gets the point across.

http://www.cnn.com/2012/01/05/us/texas-colombia-teen/index.html

Annoying Customers

It seems as though every profession has it's own set of customers that should be avoided at all costs. I've found this to be true at every job I've ever had anyway.

However it seems that when it comes to security camera installation all customers should be avoided. This job requires you to act like the customer knows what the fuck they're talking about when in actuality they know as much about cameras as I know about assembling a space shuttle. This seems to be totally lost on them since they insist you're wrong and they're right.

In closing, fuck you customer.