Giving Up Facebook for Good

This past Lent, I decided I would try to be "cool", and give up Facebook for the next 40 some days to come.

I successfully resisted any and all temptations in the form of iPhone touch-notifications and emails to signify Facebook updates.

I did not look on Facebook once to get a scoop on so-and-so's Junior prom dress and so-and-so's latest embarrassing binge party with those tacky, red Solo cups. At first, I felt left out of the social scene, but by and by, I began to enjoy the metaphorical
"silence" of not hearing people parrot a given popstar's latest refrain, or megaphone totally useless and irrelevant thoughts and YouTube video links on each others' walls. This was nice for once. Finally, coming home after school meant I truly was coming home, without having to hear people's otherwise annoying rants, and not being jealous or caught up with a friend of mine's posting of a video on so-and-so's wall and not mine. Facebook is nit worth worrying about or dealing with.

I am glad I gave it up for Lent so that I could discover that my life is not only easier, but more enjoyable without it. I will use it very sparingly only so that I can arrange parties, keep people up-to-date on my car, and send private messages. No more of this profile picture business or needless drama and jealousy surrounding people posting on each others' walls and never my own.

Facebook all but made me feel social. Very few people ever took the time to private message or chat with me, and only a handful ever posted on my wall for the three years I have been a member.

By in large, goodbye Facebook. And wow, is that satisfying to say, that I am no longer a slave to the mass-market, mainstream obsession!

California: The Car Fan's Haven

Never have I witnessed a higher concentration of high performance and exclusive luxury cars in all my life as I have these past five days spent in the SF Bay area and SoCal. Ferraris, Lamborghinis, Bentleys, Audis, BMW after BMW, Mercedes become commonplace and bourgeois, Aston Martins, Jaguars, high revs left and right along average city streets. E30s are nothing special, and 458 Italias are nothing new to see. It truly was where cars die and go to heaven. Oh, and the astounding roads, don't even get me started. 65 MPH speed limits are the norm, and legendary sweeping curves male up he bulk of the mountain paths. I could not believe my eyes half the time I was there.

Amateur Photos of Santa Monica Mall

After having dinner on top of the third floor of a Nordstrom's mall in Santa Monica at what was possibly the most gorgeous and hip restaurant interior, Sonoma's, my family and I walked throughout the equally, if not more gorgeous mall. The mall consisted of glassy features, slick and distinct architectural lines, and ambient lights; in other words, a utopia for me! Have a look at my way of showcasing such beauty, I insist!

SF Bay Area

San Francisco is possibly one of the strangest places I've ever been to. It can't decide whether it wants to be young or old, sunny or dreary, poor or wealthy, a cool city, or a business-oriented industrial town. Homeless people sleep outside Bentley and Lamborghini dealers. The town is akin to Denver in that it appeals to younger demographics. And it is also very much catered to Asian-Americans with its many cultural restaurants, shops, and meditational activities that can be seen throughout the street corners. Most surprisingly is the few number of homosexuals I'be noticed, or at least the few number that explicitly reveal themselves.

Personally, I have a hard time making sense of this town, deciding whether it's more European, American, or even Asian.

The Food Doesn't Matter

Any food can be fried, baked, chocolate-covered, battered, breaded, salted, corn oiled, and have all of these unhealthy things done to it. No matter what food this is done to, its nutritional value can range dramatically as a result. People may think chocolate-covered raisins, or plantain chips are healthy because the origin of the two unhealthy foods are fruits. By that same token any fruit, however, can be turned into a dessert or pastry, and thus, sure a tasty treat that is self-assuring because it was once a fruit, but a far more unhealthy food than anyone is ever willing to realize.

To the Deliberately Different Folk

To anyone who refuses to use Google, iTunes or Apple products, YouTube, or Facebook stemming from a distinct attempt to simply be "different", I applaud your behavior. I experience similar angst whenever I use my iPhone (right now as I write this blog with it in fact!). There is something to be said about the way people flaunt their mass-market, populist devices. And whatever is to be said, I don't want to be part of it. I think it's the connoisseur in me, the film-noir fanatic, the intentionally anti-triple-A video game and blockbuster film gene in my blood that makes me want, at every opportunity, no matter the cost, to be unique, and unlike the ghastly "mass market", or plain Jane "least common denominator". I am someone who can't appreciate life's joys without analyzing them. I can't possibly bear to follow the crowd. But despite this, I sometimes do. Moreso out of necessity to 'get with the times', but I do nonetheless.

To all of those who use 35mm as opposed to digital, I understand. To all of those who have purchased Zunes, and not iPods, I'm here with you. To all of those who actively forced themselves to type in "Bing.com" to try it out, rather than the ever-ubiquitous "Google.com", for which is now a verb and all you have to do to get there because you've visited it so much is type in the letter "G", high-five. And to myself, who has given up Facebook for Lent, great choice, and why don't we keep this rolling for as long as it will last, because we all know scouting people's Homecoming pictures, and copping to the fact that you "stalk" people is lame, and let's be frank about this, no one listens to what you have to say anyway, which is why I come here, my pedestal, where my words bear meaning. So much so that I got an entire sports team up in arms. The power of words is mighty.

Why I am Becoming Less Impressed with THE Google

Google search is infinitely ubiquitous for its usability, efficiency, and... well, it's lack of accuracy. But I have found many problems with it.

The single problem that screams most prominently is Google's own ad service in which invariably ads will clog up any hope you had at finding any information regarding your query other than its Wikipedia page, and If that's what you want, then why not set your homepage to "Wikipedia.org"?! Google seems to truly have stooped rather low in order to garner support from the world of least common denominators out there. Which brings me to my second grievance; AutoComplete. AutoComplete is likely the single feature in technology that has made me lose faith in humanity. It is the most embarrassing display of the average human's lack of intelligence by some of the extremely lame-brained that have been voiced, and has convinced me of how sexually-obsessed and entertainment-hungry society is. It is a shame, but what can you expect from the world's least common denominators and their tendencies to be attracted to violent or otherwise inappropriate forms of media.

The Attire of Scumbags: Black Shirt + White Tie

Why is it that scumbags insist on making themselves so easily identifiable? With their formal attire of choice invariably a black flannel button-down with a white tie.

Weddings, wakes, funerals, birthdays, whatever it be, you can spot these Mafia-wannabes a mile away. And for this do they rarely fit in.

The Nature of My Blogging

I have received countless remarks of acclaim, as well as criticism for my blogging style and the topics I cover. I can't help but sense I'm restricted at every opportunity to be raw and truthful with my readers in favor of a soft, plausible fallacy that both comforts people and makes them think they know the way I feel. I think this is too conventional. I don't like convention. So I decided to break away from this.

Thus, I am now, without restraint, going to tell you exactly how I feel at this very moment: like a caged animal. Furious. Irritated. Uneasy. I am furious that my truth is being oppressed. I am irritated that irritated that people take offense with my words, knowing that I am being as frank and honest with my readers as possible. And I am uneasy contemplating the number of times I will likely be sent to the dean's office for my sister's tattle-tailing tendencies.

I'm also not a fan of façades, or of people behaving in a fashion that is inauthentic and not true to themselves.

An interesting facet of my psyche is that I could never cope with being merely "average". So rather than being "strange", I have attempted to be "extraordinary". Whether this intent has worked or not, it has certainly worked in my favor somehow, no one will ever make the mistake of deeming me as "average".

Ignatius Internet

When a $13,000+ tuition affords you as crappy of an internet service as Ignatius' you have to ask yourself, what went wrong? For starters, this year Ignatius added several new laptops to its inventory, further overwhelming the already sufficiently 'whelmed school bandwidth. The small bandwidth was clearly implemented as a cost-savings measure some time ago, presumably when we didn't measure memory in terms of gigabytes, or now, terabytes.

The internet is so slow in fact that to sign in to this page, I was forced to wait five minutes. Despite this sounding inconsequential and knit-picky this can seem ages, especially when we as students have very limited time as it is, balancing school, sports, extra-circulars, and whatnot, our relatively little time spent during free periods is valuable, and need not be wasted.

Consider fiber optic, Ignatius.