Power Outage

Power was out across both Massachusetts and the entire
Northeast this week. I am always amazed at how dependant we are upon
electricity. I have several friends who work for National Grid and while I
always joke with them that all they do is sit around all day eat muffins, drink
coffee and read the latest issue of Maxim, when a storm like this hits their
expertise and knowhow is really put to the test. One of my friends is a lineman
so when we had that ice storm a few years back he worked for about 14 days
straight turning peoples power back on, fixing wires, and taking down fallen
trees. He may not work much 11 months out of the year but when a big storm hits
he really works. He also went out to Springfield a few months ago to help them
get back to normal after the tornado. The devastation that these events have on
basic utilities and in turn on every day life is amazing. I mean, we get snow
every year. In fact, we get a lot of snow every year. How is a storm in October
so much different from one in December or January. Sure, we are unprepared but
what the hell does a tree or a light post have to do to prepare for a storm and
not fall down? Nonetheless, this storm really took its toll. I spoke to a woman
who lives in Harvard today and she is still without power and does not know
when she is getting turned back on. She cant shower, wash clothes, watch TV, charge her cellphone, nothing. I have never been without power for more than a day and I can only imagine the frustration one must feel flicking a light switch that doesn’t turn on or
having to brush your teeth using a bottle of water to rinse your toothbrush.
Here is to the people working for National Grid, Keyspan, and whatever other
electric companies there are out there fighting to get people turned back on.
You may not work hard 99% of the time but damn we do appreciate how hard you
work during that 1%.

JQuery

I found JQuery very easy to use this week. Unfortunately, I did
have a very difficult time turning my blog green. Perhaps the blogger gods just
knew how ugly my words would look with a pine tree background and decided
against the code I wrote. But, I was frustrated by the fact that although I followed
the directions to a “t” I was still unable to properly excecute the assignment.
I asked my fellow classmates in my discussion post whether they encountered the
same problems but have yet to receive a response. The one thing I couldn’t get
out of my head while using JQuery and I guess it applies to all the
applications we have used including “Blog” is how they came up with the name. I
am sure, like anything, someone had to invent and name JQuery but how did the
name become JQuery. It is not even a word, its not hyphenated, it seems to have
no relevant meaning from what I can see, so why JQuery. Also, for that matter,
what the hell is a blog and who came up with that designation. There is not some guy walking around outthere named Martin Blog or Edward JQuery is there? I think I would have heard
about something like that. The other thing I liked about this weeks assignment
is that it was a break from just writing web pages. It was a chance to work on
a fully formed web page and add our own little twists to it. A stark departure
from Notepad or Scintilla. I hope that the rest of the class enjoyed this weeks
assignment and did not run into the same problems I did with font color.

Music

I love music. I listen to it constantly. I am listening to
it right now and I almost always do my schoolwork while listening to music.
Except when I do math. I am not able to do arithmetic while music is playing. I
believe the reason is because I need another level of focus when
adding/subtracting and applying formulas. But, throughout high school and now
into college whenever I have to write a paper the first thing I do is turn on
music. Today, I use Pandora. Pandora is such an excellent website. It allows
the user to type in their favorite artists, songs, or types of music and they
in turn come up with a playlist of that artist or genre and other
artists/genres which are similar. I hardly ever skip songs because even when I
find something new it is so similar to the type of music I like that I more
often than not just let it play. The other thing I like about Pandora is seeing
other people’s Pandora’s. Everyone’s musical tastes are different and when I am
with friends we all sort of listen to the same things but create your own music
station, as Pandora allows, opens up such a myriad of possibilities that
everyone breaks off in their own direction. I have found a lot of new bands and
songs that I had never heard before, through Pandora, that I otherwise would
have never encountered. But I couldn’t do without music. For years, in my car I
would listen to AM SportsRadio. But now, after about 20 minutes of driving my
mind and body needs music, it needs a beat, it needs that uplifting inspiration
that the perfect song at the perfect time can provide. I wonder what I will listen to when I am 50 or 60. Will I like the current pop music or will I listen to an oldies station.
What will that oldies station play? Will it play Eminem or Linkin Park? Or will
it just play Michael Buble? I know one thing, I’ll be listening.

Blogging

I am so surprised at how many people blog. I was talking
with friends this weekend, a couple of whom are teachers and they explained to
me that they blog all the time as a way of getting their feelings out,
expressing their opinions, and communicating with those outside their immediate
social circle. It surprised the hell out of me. I knew several of these
individuals in college and they hated writing papers more than anything in the
world. Now, the voluntarily write their blog for what seems like no reason. In
earlier posts I have talked about how social media creates a culture where
everyone feels they must express themselves and what they have to say is
important. I think that is what this is all about. I even talked to my friends
and explained that many of them, because they work with younger children, have
little adult contact during the workday and perhaps that is what motivates them
to write their blog. The fact that they strive for a connection with people on
a similar intellectual level. They rebuffed my idea and said that they simply
find writing therapeutic and while writing their blog they often are able to
replay certain instances during the day or in their life and gain a different perspective.
I have heard a lot of writers say that for them writing is a release and that
it relaxes them. That newspaper writers who go into television still write
often because it is a habit and quite simply a way of life. In taking classes,
I too have to write a lot and while I do find things out about myself through
the process I very rarely find the exercise therapeutic. But, perhaps as time goes on and I continue with this blog I will find that getting my thoughts out does provide some sort
of stress relief.

Forms

I was so surprised how easy it was to create a form for this
weeks assignment. As I explained in an earlier blog post, coming into this
course I thought I had a very good grasp on the internet, computers, privacy,
and all the issues surrounding new technology. I knew I did not know how to
write web pages and, honestly, it has something I have always been scared of.
It is a great skill to have because should someone ever start their own
business, or just want to get their voice and opinion out there a website is a
great way to do that. But, I was always wary of learning how to write web pages
because I thought it must be incredibly hard. This semester we have learned how
to blog, write simple text and even embed pictures and videos on our webpages
but up until this week I didn’t realize how simple creating a website is.
Almost every major website has some sort of form where you enter your username
and password, date of birth, address, etc but I never thought about how those
boxes are created or work. The assignment this week was to create those boxes
and it is amazing how a few simple lines of code can produce something that to
the untrained eye seems so complex on the page. I cannot wait for next weeks
assignment because every week it seems we are stepping up the difficulty and
right now, we are getting into things that can really get eyeballs and create
traffic to a website. I hope everyone in the class is as interested and engaged
as I am. I wish I had taken this course years ago so that I could now be
applying my skills of web design. It is so simple yet so powerful. I have
always enjoyed jobs where you can see the fruits of your labor. Raking a lawn,
building a shed, painting a fence, you can see the before and after and know
that what was not there before is now complete and it was due to your hard work
and perseverance. Web design is no different, what wasn’t there before is now
written and code and shows up on the page.

Terrorism & Security

I am taking another online course on weapons of mass
destruction and terrorism. The topics that come up in that course pique my
interest and bleed over into my blog here. Every week in that course we must
read, summarize and respond to an article from a website (nti.org). One of the
articles a classmate of mine responded to this week was about the security
measures being taken by Great Britain to ensure the safety of the upcoming Olympic
games in London. The article explained how they are taking radical measures to
ensure athlete and patron safety within the Olympic village. It got me to
thinking. I remember after September 11th there was a lot of talk
about a return to normalcy. Rudy Guiliani was big on people living their normal
lives otherwise “the terrorists have won.” I thought about that quote when
thinking about the Olympic games. At what point do the security measures taken
actually become the terrorism. I realize that sounds like a completely
outlandish statement but allow me to try to explain. Terrorism is meant to
cause fear and a break in typical routines and lifestyle. Terrorists do this
through a extreme violent act. Security measures, especially when taken to the
extreme, do much the same thing as a terrorist act would. People in the
surrounding area have to break routine, they are subject to search and have to
change their lifestyle to accommodate the situation they are living in.
Ultimately, security measures can actually make people feel less secure because
where there is smoke there’s fire and subconsciously people wonder why such
extreme measures are being taken unless something foul is afoot. As such,
extreme security measures actually cause fear in much the same way terrorism
does. I am not advocating that we not put security measures in place I am
simply saying that the psychology of these measures and the effect they have on
the general population is an interesting topic for debate.

IPhone

I just recently got the IPhone. I had held out on getting a
smart phone for years but finally succumbed to the pressure and went to Verizon
a couple Fridays ago and joined the revolution. I was perfectly comfortable
with my old cell phone. It made calls, texts and if I wanted to take a picture
it had that capability too. The features I liked most about it were
speakerphone and the fact that I could take a picture and make it my background
as opposed to the stock photos of trees and waterfalls that they put in all
phones as wallpaper. I enjoyed the fact that when my friends and I disagreed on
some obscure fact or spelling I wasn’t the one who had to look up the answer, I
didn’t have an IPhone. But, alas times called for it and now I cant seem to put
the thing down. It is like a playstation, radio, computer and newspaper all in
one. Oh ya it is a phone too. It has speakerphone, it can take pictures and it
has way more capabilities than my old phone ever imagined. It does take a lot
of getting used to. My old phone I could navigate blindfolded but with this
phone and the touch screen it is hard to pick out or type exactly what you
want. I miss the days of T9Word as opposed to this QWERTY keyboard. It is
amazing that 30 years ago computers filled an entire room, now they fit in our
pockets and the IPhone is way more than just a computer. It makes me wonder
where the next 30 years will take us. What will be the future of computing when
I am 45 or 60, I cannot wait to find out.