Ubuntu on Dell

My laptop shipped on Monday. The delivery was supposed to take 3-5 days, but it arrived yesterday. My sister's MacBook arrived last Monday, but my dad wanted us to get ours at the same time. So last night, we opened them. Here's my Dell E1505N laptop with Ubuntu pre-installed.

There's no Windows on this laptop; it didn't even come with a Windows CD. That's perfectly fine with me because I'd rather not give money to Microsoft. It belongs to Dell's new N-Series of laptops and desktops, which come with open-source operating systems (Ubuntu and FreeDOS). Here's the page on Dell's site where you can buy PCs with Ubuntu pre-installed.

I'm really enjoying the laptop, which my friend Luke christened "Day Tripper" (It's a Beatles song, and it describes a computer that you can take around, like on a day trip? Ha ha? Well, I liked it.) Though I haven't been using it for 24 hours yet, I thought I'd give my impressions of this laptop. I've never had a laptop of my own before, but I've used a few.

The first thing that was pretty annoying was getting on the Wi-Fi network. Ubuntu will prompt you for a keyring password every time you log in, and that gets annoying after a while. If the keyring password is the same as your user password, install libpam-keyring (sudo apt-get install libpam-keyring) and add the following lines to the end of /etc/pam.d/gdm (sudo gedit /etc/pam.d/gdm):

auth optional pam_keyring.so try_first_pass
session optional pam_keyring.so

If you set a different keyring password, delete the keyring in the Keyring Manager. Then, when you connect to the network again, enter the network information like you did the first time, and then enter your user password as the password. Then you can follow the previous steps for great success.

That was the only real issue I had. I haven't encountered any bugs or other weird things; then again, I haven't used the battery yet. Supposedly, the battery life indicator can be pretty inaccurate at times, but I haven't had a chance to find out for myself. I'd heard good things about the keyboard. It is very good. Even the touchpad is good -- I might even actually get used to it. The only thing I needed to do was disable the tap-to-click feature (it's very easy to trigger it by accident). I edited the xorg.conf file (sudo gedit /etc/X11/xorg.conf) and in the section for the touchpad, I added the line Option "MaxTapTime" "0".

Another thing was that I wanted to change the computer's name. "dell" is a very boring name. I went to System -> Administration -> Network -> General and changed the host name (to daytripper, of course). After that, I logged out, and the change took effect.

(Don't think that I'm a Linux wizard and that I instinctively knew how to do all that. I had to look it all up.)

The computer also comes with "MediaDirect" functionality that apparently allows you to play CDs without booting into Windows. Or something like that. Since this computer doesn't have Windows at all, I wasn't sure how it would work. It turns out that if you have the computer on and you press the MediaDirect button, it will start Rhythmbox (the default music player in Ubuntu). The buttons in front of the computer can be used to skip tracks, stop, play, pause, change the volume, and all that stuff.

Today I've pretty much been moving files from my old computer(s) to this one. It's been going okay, my only limitation being that I'm using a 512 MB flash drive to do the work. Apparently they get worn out pretty easily? Anyway, for future file moving (there's still quite a bit to do), I think I'll burn them onto CDs. It's a more robust method of transferring files, and it leaves a physical backup in case things go sour.

After I wrote that, the screen froze. It probably had to do with Beryl. Luckily, this computer boots (or reboots) quickly.

Anyway, here are the obligatory specs.

• Dell Inspiron E1505N
• Ubuntu 7.04 "Feisty Fawn"
• Intel Core 2 Duo processor T5600 (2MB/1.83GHz/667MHz)
• 15.4 Inch UltraSharp TrueLife Wide-screen WXGA+
• 2GB, DDR2, 667MHz 2 Dimm
• 256MB NVIDIA GeForce Go 7300 TurboCache
• 120GB 5400RPM SATA Hard Drive
• 24X Combo CD-RW/DVD
• Intel PRO/Wireless 3945 802.11a/g Mini Card (54Mbps)
• 85 WHr 9-cell Lithium Ion Primary Battery

So far, this laptop is great, and I'd look forward to buying a computer (without Windows) from Dell again.

Here are 15 Useless or Even Dangerous Eyesight Myths.

Even if you're not into baseball, this Java applet comparing this season's baseball teams' salaries and performance is very interesting. Be sure to slide the slider along the top to see changes over time.

...That I never could find

I went searching for a job yesterday, but I didn't inquire within anywhere. In the shopping center by my house, I saw three places that were hiring: a cell phone store, a health food store, and a dollar store. Not ideal places to work at all, but I do need the money. I probably shouldn't apply anywhere yet because if they try to contact me next week, I'll be out of town. Plus, I turn 18 in a few weeks, and since all of the jobs probably have an age limit of 18, I might as well give it some thought and apply later. In any case, I'd say I'd have the best shot at the dollar store, if only because I wouldn't be selling things. (Incidentally, I saw my friend Bryce working at that dollar store a few weeks ago. Did he quit?)

If you've been a Linux user for any amount of time, you've probably heard of Beryl. If not, Beryl is a window manager that allows you to customize a number of special effects relating to windows, such as transparency and animations for minimizing and unminimizing. Linux window managers typically support the ability to have multiple desktops or workspaces, meaning you can have have different windows open in different workspaces, each with its own desktop. Beryl takes the concept a step further by showing the four desktops as faces of a cube that you can rotate. It's a great way to get used to the idea of having multiple desktops, and it looks really cool. (Here's a screenshot from Wikipedia.)

I didn't think my computer would be fast or powerful enough to run Beryl, and it seemed like a lot of work to install. Then I noticed it was in Ubuntu's software repositories, meaning that I could install it (or uninstall it) with just one click. So I went for it, and it works pretty well. Beryl is beta software, so the bugs haven't entirely been ironed out yet, but the visual effects make computing fun. I don't go crazy with them; they're kind of subtle. Plus, they make for a great alternative to the visual effects in OS X and Vista (are there any in Vista?) because Beryl is endlessly customizable and itself has a number of extra plugins.

I should mention that Beryl is a fork of the Compiz project, which is apparently basically the same but less bleeding-edge. It seems that the two projects are in the process of merging back into one. I don't know when that's going to be complete or what the new name will be, but in the mean time, you can check out more Beryly goodness by watching this screencast demonstrating a lot of Beryl's effects. And if you want to give Beryl a try, switching to Linux is easier than ever.

From the Social Security Administration, which keeps track of these sorts of things, here's a list of the most popular names for twins born last year. All of the top 10 pairs of names are alliterative. As a twin, I feel sorry for those kids. They'll end up with some individuality issues or something.

Here are 10 things that have been said by nightmare web design clients. Things like: "Black on white is boring. How about hot pink on lime green? And can we make the logo spin? And Arial is boring, let's use Comic Sans."

Do you know what rights you have in a police encounter? Take the Flex Your Rights Quiz. I got 4 out of 8 right.

Get a job

With college coming soon, I've actually been thinking about college and how much money everything's going to cost. Take food, for example. When I think of the cost of living, I don't even think to factor in food. But the university's meal plans run in the thousands of dollars per semester. That's nothing to sneeze at. Then there are the textbooks, which may not actually be worth their weight in gold but are usually sold as such. Not to mention housing, which is also thousands per semester, even if you're living in a room that would, if you were an animal, outrage PETA.

That's why I think it helps to work a summer job before college, and that's why I think I need an another job. Yeah, I have a job, but I barely make minimum wage working less than one full day a week. Actually, after taxes and Social Security and stuff, I earn less than the minimum wage. I'd estimate that in the past month of working, I've bought about one textbook. And I work infrequently because my work is too far away. This cannot continue. Unfortunately, upcoming travel plans mean that I can't apply for a job now if they're going to contact me next week, and I can't work next week if they want me to. I'm still stuck in a rut.

I guess I should start looking for jobs within walking distance of my house (and there should be a few). The supermarket is always an option as I think it's a teenage rite of passage to bag groceries, but I'm not keen on going through all the training nonsense and wearing a funny name tag and uniform. I just want to do stuff and get paid for it; I'd only have the job for about a month, anyway. I think I'll go around and look for a job right after I post this. I doubt I'll find anything, but it's worth a try. I need the money. Yes, I do.

Greasemonkey users, behold my latest user script: MySpace Birthdays on Homepage. How many people here use Greasemonkey and have a MySpace? I don't know, but just in case there's anyone, I just wanted to announce that.

"Old Folks at Home" has long been Florida's state song, but that is soon going to change. Even though the lyrics usually sung today are less racially offensive than the originals, the original lyrics are still offensive. Something had to be done. Just Sing, Florida! is the name of the contest that will determine a new state song. The contest runs through October 1, but one question remains: will the new state song be as catchy as the current one? Come on. Let me start you out: Waaay down upon the Swaaneeeee Riverr... And there you go. You will have it in your head all day.

Graham's number is the largest number that has ever been seriously used in a mathematical proof. How big is it? It's described as the 64th number in a particular sequence which grows very rapidly. The first number in the sequence is greater than the number of atoms in the universe. You couldn't write every digit of Graham's number even if you had the whole universe as a piece of paper. It's a big number.

Mamma mia

Last week, I got a message from Sylvia (who I used to go to school with), saying that her younger sister Sabrina was coming back home after being in Italy for a year. Sylvia had a plan to welcome her back: get all of her friends in a limo and surprise her at the airport. Since Sylvia said that anybody could come along, I let my sister and our friend Lisa in on the surprise. After all, they know Sabrina too.

We got to Sylvia's house and met up with the people, some of whom we knew. After a while, the limo came. It was a some Cadillac SUV (maybe Cadillac only makes one SUV; I don't really feel like doing any fact-checking here), so it was wide, and since it was a limo, it was also long. So there was enough room for the Sabrina's family along with her 15 or so friends. We were crammed in pretty tight, but we did get in there. The drive to the Miami Airport was pretty long. When we got there, Sabrina's family got out of the limo to look for Sabrina. The rest of us went away for a while and came back later to pick them up.

Sylvia's plan was to point at the limo when it pulled up and say, "Hey, look at that limo," and walk toward it and look inside, which she knew would freak her sister out. Sabrina, however, noticed the giant limo when it came up and was curious about it. She was still freaked out when her older sister went up to it and opened the door, though. Sylvia told Sabrina to go up and look inside, so she did -- and found a bunch of her friends in there with noisemakers and such.

On the way back to Sylvia and Sabrina's house, Sabrina told us a little bit about her adventures in Italy. She was on the east coast of central Italy, she said, and it was really nice there. She also spent a week in Spain. Of course, the girls had to ask if she made a special friend during her stay in Italy, and she apparently did. I wonder how she's going to live without him. It makes me thankful that Natasha and I are at least on the same continent.

After having delicious "Benvenuto Sabrina" cake at Sylvia and Sabrina's house, almost everyone went out to Friday's for dinner. It was a lot of people to have at one table (actually two tables put together), but it was still fun. After that, it was getting pretty late, and we went our own ways.

After a meeting with Ms. Vazquez last Wednesday, which also took Michelle, Luke, Brian, and me to the beach and various thrift stores, Luke has been interested in meeting Mr. Miller. Our time for chatting it up with and saying goodbye to our former teachers is running out. Ms. Vazquez evidently moved to Texas last Friday (hence our get-together), and Mr. Miller is going to be pretty busy this summer. After this summer, everything is a no-go because we'll be in... college... and we'll be lucky if we ever see each other again.

Speaking of being lucky (and... college...), I got a letter today from the state Department of Education or something saying that I had received a scholarship that I vaguely remember applying for. The amount: $1,500... per year! High fives all around, everybody. Hey, I know my sister got a scholarship for $3,000 per year, but I need to bask in some glory and pretend that this money is going to solve all my future problems. $1,500, on top of the 100% paid tuition I've already been guaranteed. Housing might just become affordable! I might just not go into debt too much! Yes.

Why do Japanese people have weird emoticons? It's because they read faces differently than we do. They tend to express emotion with their eyes (^_^) while Westerners focus on the mouth :).

Are you meeting some people for something and want to meet them halfway? Use a Google Maps mashup called a.placebetween.us to find a place between you. (Hey, who'da thunk?) Just enter the people's initial locations and the type of place where you want to meet, and the site will present you with some places and driving directions from each starting point.

Grad party

My graduation party was on Saturday night. It was also for my sister and our friends Nick, Mark, Michael, and Kelli. As you can probably imagine, there were a lot of people there. It was a little surprising to me because most of the people I invited didn't go (it's the summer now, so everbody's off doing different things). It turned out that a lot of the people were family members. Also, Kelli invited half the world, so they were there too. Half the world doesn't like to dance, it seems. I'm with them on that one. Anyway, I had a good time, I'm glad to report. It was nice seeing everyone there, and I thank those of you who managed to make it.

I'm still eagerly awaiting my laptop, which I think I'll call Day Tripper (thanks, Luke). It hasn't shipped yet, it seems, but I just ordered it last Tuesday. I've never been that crazy about laptops (especially the whole touchpad thing -- I'll have to get a USB mouse), but I'll have to get used to them because I have no other choice. If you're wondering what a laptop running Linux out of the box looks like, check out some photos from some guy who just bought one. (It took the guy about 8 minutes to get up and running on his new laptop. Take that, Windows.) I, of course, will take lots of pictures of my laptop when I get it.

Hey guys in the South Florida metropolitan area: I have over 400 National Geographics for sale. You want to buy them.

I've previously written about the Plymouth Belvedere that was buried in Tulsa, Oklahoma, as a time capsule on June 15, 1957, to be opened 50 years later. On June 15, 2007, the car was unveiled. Water had seeped into its underground bunker, causing the car to rust almost completely. Here's the obligatory photo gallery. As part of the original publicity stunt, the person who correctly guessed what Tulsa's population would be in 2007 would win the car that year (unless they were dead, in which case it would go to their heirs). However, the search is on for the list of entrants and their guesses, which was stored on microfilm inside the car. Maybe that wasn't such a good idea.

Remember when the HD DVD process key, a 128-bit integer, was made public? The incident led to a number of cease-and-desists while people questioned the supposed right to have ownership of a number. Well, now you can get your very own integer that you can forbid other people from distributing! Here's mine: 01 56 95 41 46 ED 8B 3C 45 B9 FD EB 3B CE AC 38. Don't copy it, or I'll sue you.

Dude!

When you're going to college, you should really have a laptop. That's what I've been told, anyway. It would come in handy for writing, research, note-taking, and, of course, entertainment. You can't forget entertainment. To survive anywhere these days, you need a computer, and if you're on the go, you need a laptop. I've known this for a long time.

Until around six months ago, I didn't give much of a thought about the operating system that my future laptop would run. Without question, it would be Windows, and probably Windows Vista at that. Anyway, since I've switched to Linux, I had thought that finding a good laptop would be a challenge. Laptops themselves are a dime a dozen (not literally), but since I don't know that much about computer hardware (or Linux), installing Linux on a laptop might be difficult.

My dad took me to some stores to show me some laptops so I could get an idea of what I wanted, but I knew that installing Linux over Windows would not be the best way to go. Besides the fact that I don't want to give Microsoft my money at all (let alone for a product I'd get rid of immediately), I would need to have a laptop with Linux pre-installed and the guarantee that everything would Just Work. If my computer crashed because I needed such and such a driver or the ATI or the wireless thingy wouldn't start, I wouldn't know where to turn to. Generally, if a company sells a computer with software on it, that's sort of a guarantee that the software will be compatible with the hardware. Although in this case the playing field would be limited a great deal, I decided it was worth it.

Ubuntu is the Linux distribution I've been using, and I've decided to stick with it because there's little hassle involved and everything Just Works. Probably the foremost company that specializes in pre-installed Ubuntu systems is System76. Although I've heard lots of good things about their products and their service, I couldn't help but notice that their prices were quite a bit higher than the equivalent Windows systems I could find in stores. But because they offered full support for Ubuntu, I decided that System76 would be the way to go.

Then something happened: Dell decided to sell computers with Ubuntu pre-installed. Although they currently have only one laptop model with Ubuntu pre-installed, I found that I could get a better computer for less money than if I had bought from System76. Besides that, I could help show a major computer vendor that there really is a demand for Linux. On Tuesday night, my dad and I were going over the specs I wanted, and I found that the cost would come out to $1,083 before taxes and shipping. So my dad wanted to know if Dell offered student discounts. I looked around on the site but couldn't find anything easily. He decided to give them a call.

Before I knew it, my dad was buying the laptop I wanted over the phone. After going over the specs with the sales guy, I picked up another phone so I could hear too. The guy said it was his first Ubuntu sale and that he didn't know much about it, although he was interested in finding out. He warned us that the computer came with no anti-virus software, and that's when we explained how Linux isn't nearly as susceptible to viruses as Windows. He was impressed and asked us to keep in touch so he could learn more about running Linux.

I wasn't sure if I wanted 1 GB or 2 GB of RAM; 1 GB would be decent for now, but I want the computer to last at least four years, so I need to make sure it'll still be decent tomorrow. So the guy doubled the RAM from 1 GB to 2 GB for free. My dad asked if there were any discounts, so the guy gave a discount and made the shipping free. Throughout the whole process, the sales guy was very amiable and didn't try to push anything on us that would have cost more money. The final cost after tax came out to $1,088.63. He said it would ship no later than Tuesday, June 26. Contrary to my expectations, buying a computer from Dell over the phone was a pleasant experience.

After that, we bought my sister's computer. She wanted a Mac so it would match her new iPod. I don't have anything to say about that.

Now, one big question remains. What should I name my computer? Before switching to Linux, the concept of formally naming a computer was unknown to me, but it seems that there's even been an entire RFC written on the topic. Apparently it's common if you have a group of computers to follow a theme with their names. Even if you only have one, you're supposed to give your next one a name in the same vein, or something like that. That's what the cool people do. Anyway, it's got to be something clever and not dumb. Any ideas?

Here are one guy's memories of working at Microsoft in the early '90s.

When people switch from Windows to Linux, they're often concerned about things that they could do in Windows that they can't in Linux. However, it's a two-way street. Here are things you can do in Linux that you can't do on Windows.

Sea cruise

I got back from my cruise on Saturday. It was really great. I went with my sister, her friend Lisa, my parents, and my grandparents. The ship departed from Miami on Monday, and we spent much of that day getting used to things. It wasn't so bad because it was my second time on that ship (the Carnival Imagination) and my parents' third.

For those who have never been on a cruise, a cruise ship is basically like a floating hotel or palace. The Imagination has two dining rooms, a casual restaurant, a library, a disco, a casino, a theater, a sushi bar, an Internet café, a regular café, a swimming pool, hot tubs, bars, a lounge, and more. In short, there is no lack of things to do unless you've already eaten, don't feel like reading a book, are too young to gamble or drink, hate swimming, or don't want to pay for the Internet access. Failing that, there are new hit movies on the TV in your room.

Many people say that the best part of the cruise is not the destination -- it's the food. Your food is included with the price of your ticket, so with a few exceptions, you can pig out as much as you want. At the fancy dining rooms, you can order whatever is on the menu, and if you don't like it, you can send it back and have something else, which is good because lots of fancy restaurants serve disgusting things that common people don't like. But I saw it as a chance to try interesting things. I tried filet mignon, veal, duckling, and escargot, all of which were delicious. (I'm not a picky eater.)

The second day was a "fun day at sea" because we hadn't yet gotten to Grand Cayman, the first destination. The ship would have to pass around exotic, forbidden Cuba first. And on Tuesday morning, the misty mountains of that Caribbean island were in view in the distance. It really was a great sight to see. Later in the day, I found out that my sister and her friend love taking naps. Since I shared a room with them, that meant that I would either have to go to bed too or just wander around unable to return to the room. I rarely nap, but I decided to rest anyway. The days are long on a cruise ship, which is not necessarily a bad thing.

On Wednesday we arrived in George Town, the capital of the Cayman Islands. We had decided first to tour "Stingray City," a shallow area of water near the island where stingrays can be found. Apparently stingrays are pretty gentle and docile because it was possible to touch them and even pick them up... not that I did. I wasn't sure which parts I could touch and which parts would cause the stingray to attack me if I touched them. Even so, it was interesting to swim with them, and it was an odd sensation to feel them brushing past my legs.

Next we snorkeled in an area not far away. I'd never really snorkeled before (unless snorkeling in my pool counts), so that was fun. We got to see a lot of coral, but it was basically like looking inside a pretty lame fish tank. I forgot that I have a hard time swimming, and my goggles kept fogging up also. Plus, the seas started kicking up a bit, which made conditions unfavorable for hugging the surface of the water for air. So after a while, I returned to our boat. It was still a nice experience.

When we got back on land, our tour bus, driving on the left side of the road, took us to George Town, where we walked around and saw the touristy and not-so-touristy places. As you might expect, there were a lot of banks. I took a picture of the Legislative Assembly building (which was right next to a touristy bar) and later uploaded it to Wikipedia. Turns out the article for the Legislative Assembly had a request for images.

Anyway, the next day we were in Ocho Rios, Jamaica. From the window in our room we could see the mountains that overlook the town. We started our tour of Jamaica by going to Coyaba River Garden, which was, as its name implies, a garden. There were lots of interesting plants, and you could even drink the water from the river (actually more like a stream) that passed through. It was pretty good. Our tour bus (which also drove on the left side of the road) took us to a gated-in shopping center, which was less seedy than the non-gated-in shopping centers outside. A bunch of people wanted to braid my hair for money. It is pretty long, but I didn't have it done. That would be ridiculous.

Next, we went up into the mountains to Dunn's River Falls. It's a waterfall, but it's not like straight up-and-down because you can climb it. (It's more like a giant staircase, actually.) But before you can climb it, you have to go to the bottom. There's a boardwalk that runs along the side, through the forest. At the bottom, you find yourself on the beach. The waterfall actually leads to the beach, which makes for a fantastic sight among the yellow sand, bright blue waters, and green foliage on either side. It was the most beautiful place I've ever seen. The climb was a bit difficult at times, but I made it all the way up without getting hurt.

After leaving Jamaica, the ship made its way back to Miami, and we enjoyed another "fun day at sea" on Friday. On Saturday morning, the ship was back in its home port, and we went through the debarkation process, which is even more annoying than embarkation. But overall, I had a great time, and if I could do it again, I definitely would. This was a graduation gift for my sister and me, and it was really a good one. But it's not over yet; I'll always have the memories. Aww, how cheesy.

I'd like to take this opportunity to thank my friend Luke, who posted Tuesday's and Thursday's posts for me in my absence. My blogging software was having issues that wouldn't let me post entries in advance, and he made it happen manually. Thanks, Luke!

Thanks to the wonders of DVD technology, you can now read the full text of a letter shown briefly on screen in a 1958 episode of Leave It to Beaver. It's mostly filler like "This paragraph has absolutely nothing to do with anything."

What if you could walk in a straight line around the world? Use this Google Maps mashup to choose a starting point and a direction and find out where you'd go.

Thnks Fr Th Mmrs

I'm on vacation till Saturday, so I've non-desperately asked my sister, who's actually on vacation with me, to write a guest post.

Jordon told me he was getting desperate, and now I know it. I’m Kristen, Jordon’s twin sister, who should be mentioned more but tragically isn’t. (And yes, I’m older than he is). I don’t really know what I’m supposed to be talking about, but give me a break because the last time I did this sort of thing was when I had a Livejournal back in the day. I’m sort of like Jordon, except a little bit less cynical and maybe not as eloquent. Oh, and I write stream-of-consciousness, as if it wasn’t evident by now.

Well, our graduation was last Tuesday the 29th, and I cannot believe I’m out of high school. It was a long four years and a short four years at the same time. That kind of thing where you want time to fly when you’re bored to tears, and time to stand still when you’re having the time of your life. Actually, graduation was that kind of thing all rolled into one night. I was so excited and so, so ready to leave high school behind, but when we were all together for graduation practice and graduation afterwards, I had so much fun with everyone from my class. After the ceremony, it was so crowded and there was such a rush; I wanted to say good-bye to some of my friends, but, like Jordon said, “That’s what graduation parties are for”. Also, I’m going to miss some of my teachers more than I can even fathom (which is either amazingly sweet or terribly creepy), but I can’t invite them to my graduation party because that would be terribly creepy as well.

And honestly, I don’t feel like I’ve learned much of anything so far, even with my high school diploma. I simply can’t imagine going off to get a job – whatever that means – with all my preparedness that has prepared me preparingly for the work force. But I bet I’ll feel the same way after I graduate college, though that’s the time when I’m really supposed to be “ready” for a job. Truthfully, I never want to be ready for a job. Although I don’t want to be in school forever either. Whatever. I’ll cross that bridge when I get to it.

Other notable(?) things: I gave blood for the first time yesterday, all for a free movie ticket. Lord, I’m cheap. Also, I’m currently obsessed with my iPod, which I just got a few days ago – I know, I’m miles behind the bandwagon, but Jordon still hasn’t gotten one. Oh, and it’s a (Product)Red iPod, which donates some of the profits to help prevent AIDS in Africa, so I can pretend to be politically aware and compassionate and philanthropic, all while jamming to horribly superficial songs. I should be packing my things for our cruise which is tomorrow morni- I mean, where we are right now, partying it up.

And since I have no originality, I’m giving shout-outs to the people I’ve loved this school year and who I’d be bored and/or insane without: I love you Lisa and Nathalie!; Jennifer, my in-school twin, who really should go to UF with me instead of UM; Dania, who’s probably eating right now :); Kim and Caitlin, make Pompano High great next year because I won’t be there to do so; Danny and Billy, the twins who Jordon and I have known since we were two(!) and who tore up high school.

I think my fifteen minutes is up.

Oh, I’m supposed to put links and things up: Here’s a picture of Johnny Depp (yes, the Johnny Depp), who I saw play at a local club a few months ago here in Florida.

Note to self

I'm on vacay till Saturday. Here's a post I've prepared in advance.

In my ongoing quest for self-betterment, I declared my sophomore year of high school to be The Year, during which I would try to be an all-around cooler guy. Maybe you don't remember last year, when I said:

I didn't remember it either until the days leading up till May 25, 2007. Then I forgot, and the date passed. But then I remembered again last week, and I opened the letter. It was from the me of then to the me of now. I asked myself how I was doing with the things I hadn't been doing so well on: the job thing and the girlfriend thing and the driving thing. Actually, shortly afterward. I got my learner's permit, and then I got my old job back. It was also around that time that I met Natasha, and although she's not my girlfriend, we're good friends who might like each other a little more than regular friends do... maybe?

Okay, so I don't have everything figured out, but who does? The point is, The Year II (my senior year) was a lot of fun, and during it, I did a lot of things that made me become a better and maybe even cooler person. Is it sad that I care so much about what other people think of me? Maybe. But having a job is important to me because it brings me moola. Being in love is important to me because it's something I've always wanted but have never gotten. Being able to drive isn't that important, but it will be once I get tired of riding my bike and taking the bus.

A wise man once said, "I don't know, go Ask Jordon."

Đä еdε: Do you plan to expand your 'Ultimate Cool Characters' page?

As for adding new characters, no, nothing is in the works relating to that. But I do plan to make the page a bit more organized and including info about how to obtain special characters on non-Windows platforms. It's amazing how switching operating systems can affect your worldview.

Bob: Have you seen Waking Life and do you know that it is not only awesome but it is about lucid dreaming? Also did you check out that guitar tab for me?

Well, Luke, I've never heard of that movie, but it's worth checking out. And if you mean the Bob Dylan song we were talking about, I did check out that tab. (Luke and I are going to play a song somewhere sometime, I think. Details to come... maybe.)

Jennifer Landry: I just wanted to tell you that you wrote a great speech and delivered it finely. Oh and you had the most applause out of all of the speeches. ;)

Thanks, Jen. I appreciate it. Lots of people have been complimenting me on the speech I gave at graduation, which is nice. I did work hard on it, and I'm pretty proud of it.

Here are some possibly true anecdotes involving air travel. They're Just Plane Weird.

Here are 11 Great Color Legends: answers to questions like "Why is the sky blue?" and "Why is the US dollar green?"

Cruisin' world

Well, graduation has come and gone, so now it's summer and it's time to party. Seriously, I've been going to a lot of parties lately. But the best graduation gift I could receive is to go on a cruise. I've been on three cruises: to Key West and Cozumel in 2000, the Bahamas in 2002, and nowhere in 2003. So it's been a while since the last one, which is a shame because they can be a lot of fun.

In my opinion, the best way to celebrate graduation is to go on a cruise. In fact, whether your tooth today, finally got an A, or starred in your school play, you should go on a cruise. For the uninitiated, cruise ships aren't boring places where you'll be rocking back and forth all the time and getting seasick. There's so much to do that you might not even want to get off for the beautiful destinations. Since this is starting to sound like a third-grader's "What I did over my summer vacation" essay or a brochure, I'll just cut to the chase and say that we're going on a cruise to Jamaica and the Cayman Islands, and we're leaving tomorrow. It sounds spontaneous, but it's been in the works for months now.

We're taking the Carnival Imagination, which is the ship I went on for my first cruise. What's nutty crackers is that this is my parents' third time on the ship; they also went on it for their anniversary. And it's not like Carnival has only a few ships, either. There are a lot. It's kind of a shame that I threw away the deck plan of the ship whehn I was cleaning my room a few months or years ago. So you see, that's why you don't throw things away. I could have just whipped that out and said, "I know my way around. I was on this ship seven years ago." I don't actually remember where anything is, but it'll probably all come back to me. That would be cool.

Since I'm pretty much an adult, I had to get a passport for this trip. My sister did too. We filled out the paperwork and had our pictures taken and stuff a few months ago, and they came a few weeks ago, about a month later than they were supposed to. I guess it's a busy time for applying for passports, with everybody traveling over the summer. In their haste (they being the Department of State or whoever issues passports), they misspelled my first name, which I got very, very upset about. I wrote it the right way and everything, and then they went and spelled it wrong. I wanted to get my name corrected on the passport because I am carrying a passport that does not have my name on it, but it's apparently too late to get it fixed, which, as they say, sucks. If I have kids, I will give them names that people can spell.

Anyway, I return on Saturday. In the meantime, you'll be treated to a pre-written post from me and a guest. I'm not sure if I'll have Internet access (it's kind of expensive -- or, at least, it was years ago), so I probably won't be around to check my e-mail or anything until I get back on Saturday. So you guys will have to hold down the Internet while I'm gone, okay? Good. Have fun! I mean... I'll have fun!

The American Heritage Dictionary presents 100 Words Every High School Graduate Should Know. I knew about 75 of them.

"A site's he/she ratio is measured by counting the number of pages on the domain containing the word 'he', then searching for the number containing 'she', and then looking at the two numbers in comparison." As of writing this, The World of Stuff's he/she ratio is 56%/44%.