http://search.deviantart.com/?q=by:Shock9488&section=today deviantART RSS for by:Shock9488 en-us Copyright 2009, deviantART.com Tue, 29 Dec 2009 15:13:57 PST deviantART.com http://blogs.law.harvard.edu/tech/rss http://s.deviantart.com/minish/widgets/apple-touch-icon-precomposed.png http://Shock9488.deviantart.com/journal/29169636/ http://Shock9488.deviantart.com/journal/29169636/ Thu, 24 Dec 2009 17:47:49 PST
Perhaps you've asked yourself, "Why am I here? Why do I exist?" I've certainly been asking myself those questions a lot lately. I finally got an answer to both questions, from a surprising source: a game. Anyway, here are the answers to both questions:

We are here for no other reason than because we are, and we exist simply because we do.

I feel extremely enlightened. Do you?

As with anything, you may take it or leave it. These answers are provided "as is," with no guarantee or warranty, expressed or implied. If you're looking for something like a purpose to your life, then I'm afraid you will have to seek assistance elsewhere. Maybe some religion's sacred texts.

Merry Christmas, Happy Hanukkah, Happy Kwanzaa, or simply Happy Holidays (or any combination of the above)!

Stay safe, don't drink and drive, and don't do anything you might seriously regret later.

Well, there's my

]]> *Shock9488 http://Shock9488.deviantart.com/journal/28743500/ http://Shock9488.deviantart.com/journal/28743500/ Sat, 05 Dec 2009 18:04:05 PST
To put this in practical terms, you can do whatever the heck you want, and if nobody decides they don't like what you're doing, you will get away with it. This is why breaking the law for a higher cause (i.e., saving the life of an innocent) is justifiable; yes, you broke the law, but the justice system will not take offense to it because if you had followed the law to the letter, that innocent would have been harmed, and the law takes a backseat to the preservation of lives.

Needless to say, don't try breaking the law for personal gain, because someone, somewhere, will take offense to it, and then you've committed a crime, and can face legal consequences.

Also note that my contest is still going on! It ends on December 31!

EDIT: SURVEY

1.)What is your name?
Stephen

2.) Do you find it annoying when surveys ask for your name?
Not anymore.

3.) What do you plan to buy in the future?
Legos.

4.) Where did you get the underwear you are currently wearing?
I guess someplace that sells such things.

5.) How many pairs of Converse do you own?
What? Zero?

6.) Who is your favorite “That ’70s Show” character?
N/A

7.) There is a mummy standing behind you. What do you do?
Continue doing whatever I'm doing; that mummy is long dead, and is in no position to cause any harm.

8.) What do you think of Miley Cyrus?
That name is... almost familiar... Hmmm...

9.) Do you tend to think that you are always right?
No.

10.) Top Five Favorite Songs:
N/A; I have varied tastes, and don't play favorites with my playlists.

11.) What was your favorite toy as a child?
Legos.

12.) Have you thought more about your funeral, or your wedding?
I have not thought of either, ever.

13.) Dinosaurs or Unicorns?
Unicorns; in theory they are less dangerous to me.

14.) What is your favorite musical?
N/A

15.) You need new jeans. Where do you go?
Some store that sells Arizona jeans. Beyond that it matters not.

16.) Do you play the Sims 2?
Nope.

17.) Do you think Harry Potter is at all immoral to read?
There are no dangerous books. There are no dangerous ideas. The only danger comes from the people.

18.) What do you think of Maroon 5?
What?

19.) What about Coldplay?
Who? What?

20.) Fall Out Boy?
Based on their lone song ("Dance, Dance") featured in the video game Burnout: Revenge, they're slightly above mediocre.

21.) Katy Perry?
Who?

22.) How about The All-American Rejects?
I really can't comment...

23.) Have you ever snuck into an R-rated movie when you weren’t old enough to see it without parents?
No, I tend to keep my parents appraised of my actions.

24.) The Wii or Xbox 360?
Xbox 360

25.) Team Demi/Selena or Team Miley?
Survey, you will start making sense right now.

26.) Do you know many Emily’s?
That's better, and no; I only know one... sort of.

27.) What do you think of the Jonas Brothers?
I can't comment, having never seen them.

28.) Have you ever slept in a tent, indoors or out?
Unfortunately, yes.

29.) What is your favorite kind of Girlscout cookie?
Tagalongs.

30.) Do you enjoy surveys?
They can be fun.

31.) What do you hear at the moment?
Mythbusters on TV.

32.) Why do you think so many people love myspace?
Insufficient data to conclude.

33.) What do you think of people who do illegal drugs?
A sad state of affairs for the afflicted people.

34.) Do you watch the Olympics?
No.

35.) What are your top five favorite stores?
Barnes & Noble, Borders, The Apple Store, Lego.com (websites count, right?), and no fifth store.

36.) Do you like the new Weezer album?
I can't say; I've never listened to it, but probably not.

37.) What did you think of Panic at the Disco taking out the exclamation point in their name?
I don't listen to said band. Ever.

38.) What is the worst job you have ever had?
Delicatessen worker. Yuck.

39... ]]> *Shock9488 http://Shock9488.deviantart.com/journal/28644491/ http://Shock9488.deviantart.com/journal/28644491/ Sun, 29 Nov 2009 06:14:19 PST
Also note that my contest is still going on!

]]> *Shock9488 http://Shock9488.deviantart.com/journal/28412075/ http://Shock9488.deviantart.com/journal/28412075/ Tue, 17 Nov 2009 11:21:59 PST
How's your day going?

Also note that my contest is still going on!

]]> *Shock9488 http://Shock9488.deviantart.com/journal/28137681/ http://Shock9488.deviantart.com/journal/28137681/ Wed, 04 Nov 2009 06:15:25 PST
-A nutritional Calorie is actually equivalent to 1000 calories (a kilocalorie).

-A 100 Calorie snack pack thus has enough stored energy to heat 1 liter of water from its freezing point to its boiling point.

-The airplane is not the safest vehicle available for travel.

-The safest vehicle available for travel is, in fact, the elevator.

-Not only can normal matter and antimatter not coexist, they are electromagnetically attracted to one another, thus ensuring the annihilation of both.

-0.25 grams of antimatter has been estimated to have about 10 kilotons of explosive power.

-The energy required to manufacture 0.25 grams of antimatter would be far more than would be released when the antimatter meets normal matter.

-The 'mercury' in most thermometers is actually alcohol.

-A drop in air pressure (as measured by a barometer) is usually an indication that bad weather is on its way to your area.

-When they were first discovered on Mt. Everest, fossils were used as proof of the Great Flood.

-All living organic matter is, courtesy of Carbon-14, ever so slightly radioactive.

-The fastest object ever measured in the universe was a cosmic ray.

-If that cosmic ray had raced a beam of light across all 100,000 lightyears of the Milky Way galaxy's diameter, it would have lost by a mere 6 inches.

-A theory states that if a black hole were to become massive enough, it would pinch off from the space-time continuum of our universe (effectively vanishing from our universe entirely) and form an infant universe of its own, with its own laws of nature.

-Another theory states that this may have been how our own universe came into being.

-The theory that the Sun orbits the Earth is just as scientifically valid as the theory that the Earth orbits the Sun.


Also note that my contest is still going on!

]]> *Shock9488 http://Shock9488.deviantart.com/journal/28028323/ http://Shock9488.deviantart.com/journal/28028323/ Thu, 29 Oct 2009 12:29:07 PDT
Rules: Design a spaceship.

Prize: Winning entry gets modeled in blender 3D, with full credit for the design going to the winning artist (depending on my ability to contact the winning artist, s/he may also get a custom wallpaper of their ship).

Grading criteria:
1. Can be any type of spacecraft, from one-person pleasure vessel all the way up to military dreadnaught.
2. Simple designs can be boring; go for some complexity.
3. Liberal use of curves is very annoying—boxy is good (these aren't ships made for atmospheric travel, remember, so a streamlined shape isn't necessary).
4. Can be shiny and new or ancient and derelict, or anything in between.
5. Can be aesthetically beautiful or strictly utilitarian.
6. Should not rely on fancy textures to make it look "nice." Try to be more creative than just a single simple shape.
7. Final design scale should not be more than 7 km (4.35 mi) in any direction.

Contest runs from 3:30 PM EST October 29, 2009—11:59 PM EST December 31, 2009.
Comment this journal with a link to your entry.

]]> *Shock9488 http://Shock9488.deviantart.com/journal/27990970/ http://Shock9488.deviantart.com/journal/27990970/ Tue, 27 Oct 2009 07:43:24 PDT personalities) while I try to reconstitute a single, unified mind. Things typically settle down around early December, and stay more or less normal until some time in the spring, when it happens again. Consider yourself duly warned. Proceed with Caution.

]]> *Shock9488 http://Shock9488.deviantart.com/journal/27908334/ http://Shock9488.deviantart.com/journal/27908334/ Thu, 22 Oct 2009 15:28:25 PDT
]]> *Shock9488 http://Shock9488.deviantart.com/journal/27900488/ http://Shock9488.deviantart.com/journal/27900488/ Thu, 22 Oct 2009 04:58:14 PDT
Things I worry about:
-large meteor impact event
-famine
-pandemic
-sea level rise
-global warming
-nuclear weapon proliferation
-uneducated people influencing decisions
-being involved in a motor vehicle collision
-people who think all chemicals are bad [subset of "uneducated people influencing decisions," worthy of mention just because they make me fear for the future of Mankind]
-getting a traffic ticket
-not passing a class
-deforestation
-climate change
-atmospheric CO₂ levels
-oceanic dead zones
-global economic collapse
-gamma ray bursts
-solar mass ejections

Things I do not worry about:
-anything mentioned on Fox News

]]> *Shock9488 http://Shock9488.deviantart.com/journal/27839445/ http://Shock9488.deviantart.com/journal/27839445/ Sun, 18 Oct 2009 16:14:22 PDT

Well, I thought it was cool.

]]> *Shock9488 http://Shock9488.deviantart.com/journal/27650278/ http://Shock9488.deviantart.com/journal/27650278/ Thu, 08 Oct 2009 13:01:05 PDT
]]> *Shock9488 http://Shock9488.deviantart.com/journal/27498388/ http://Shock9488.deviantart.com/journal/27498388/ Wed, 30 Sep 2009 04:51:07 PDT
Case in point: the shower here in this suite. When I get up in the mornings, the water is invariably cold until the shower's been running for at least 10 or 15 minutes. UNLESS it's Wednesday, in which case it's warm right off the bat. I kid you not. XD Best I can figure is that I'm essentially the first one to take a shower in the morning, so I'm the one who usually has to put up with the cold water so the rest of the building can enjoy hot showers. But I don't know that for certain...

]]> *Shock9488 http://Shock9488.deviantart.com/journal/27221928/ http://Shock9488.deviantart.com/journal/27221928/ Tue, 15 Sep 2009 05:23:14 PDT
]]> *Shock9488 http://Shock9488.deviantart.com/journal/27040007/ http://Shock9488.deviantart.com/journal/27040007/ Sat, 05 Sep 2009 17:35:23 PDT
So, Thursday my Acer's Vista partition stopped working due to a corrupted file, so I'm gonna have to COMPLETELY erase Vista, then COMPLETELY reinstall it. Oh, yeah, and my computer, though brand new when I bought it (it was still in the box, even), did not come with a Vista install disk. Typical.

Then, today, after 2 years of walking around with it in my backpack, and accidentally leaving it in the car, my MacBook's video card was damaged, so it's gonna have to go in for service. Mercifully, my Acer (remember that?) has a Linux partition, which I'm using now. And probably will be using for at least several weeks. Thank goodness that Mac is still under warranty.

Who knew carrying a laptop around in a backpack was bad for it? o.o

]]> *Shock9488