Category - Family

I'm at home yet another weekend. I took the bus this time. Well, not the bus. A bus. There are multiple bus services that take students between our middle-of-nowhere college town and various stops in South Florida. The ticket price of $45 is pretty reasonable considering the distance and the fact that it's a round trip. To my surprise, we got back to South Florida with little delay. I hope things go as well tomorrow evening, when we go back to Gainesville. I have class early on Monday, so I need to get enough sleep.

Some people say you should stop complaining about not having a girlfriend or boyfriend and do something about it. It is not that easy. I don't know about those people. Confidence is key. I forget where I heard that. I think I read it somewhere. But it seems true. If I were some girl, I probably wouldn't date me because I'd be like, "Like, OMG, he's so self-hating, even though he's, like, totally hawt." (Sometimes I feel totally hawt.) So I guess it works like this: self-confidence begets love. Love begets... oh, you guessed it. It's a vicious cycle. In order to break in, it seems, I'll have to conjure up some confidence out of thin air. There's a word for that, I think. It's called optimism.

In a completely unrelated note, I've realized how much I need to exercise. Without getting too much into the details, let me just say that the sight of my shirtless torso is enough to scare girls away. I wish I were kidding, but I am not. The last time our hero attempted some upper-body exercise, he overdid it and couldn't move his arms for a while. And that's been pretty sufficient to scare him (me) away from moving a muscle for the past two years. Just thinking about doing a push-up makes me hurt. Meanwhile, my roommate and our suitemate in the next room are, how you say, physically fit. The disparity is concerning.

Here's a list of celebrities who have attempted suicide (but failed).

Check out these French prints from 1910 showing what life might be like in the year 2000.

That's what he said!

Ah, college, where young minds grow and mature. They grow, anyway.

I guess I'm not managing my time very well. I have loads of time to do nothing on the Internet, but when I want to blog, I have to study. The solution: post really fast. The long-term solution: manage time better.

I went to a new chiropractor for the first time today. My sister and I both did, actually. Our chiropractor recommended him after having a former intern do some research. They got our X-rays in the mail, so they were expecting the twin college freshmen who apparently can't find the front door of the office and go in through the back. (That building was laid out weirdly, okay?) But I have to say that the chiropractor is a nice guy. He's easy to get along with. His methods are a little different than what I'm used to, but it seems to be just different rather than better or worse. I haven't been to a chiropractor in over 3 weeks, and I can't remember ever going without an adjustment for that long. I sure needed the adjustment, and was it a thorough one. Here's hoping it'll last me a few more weeks.

I remember high school football games fondly. Small-time teams playing for small-time crowds, and lots of space on the bleachers. With college football, this is not so. It's a big thing. I could get a ticket to a high school football game by showing up ten minutes early and paying five dollars. Not so with college football. No, in fact, it's unheard of at the University of Florida for a game not to be entirely sold out. Getting tickets isn't exactly easy because absolutely everyone else is trying to get them. There's no room for passive fans like me in college football; to get tickets, you really have to want them.

There's a number or something that you have to call, supposedly on the Thursday before the game. I'm not sure what the number is, and I've also read that all of the upcoming home rivalry games are already sold out? That leaves the game with the (probably) unranked FAU Owls, which, against all odds, is the only game I've really been looking forward to seeing. FAU is near my home, and a lot of my friends are going there, so I'd like to find out the outcome of this unlikely matchup. (Sorry, FAU, but I didn't even know you had a football team. In any case, you're probably being used by UF to make them look good before the UF-FSU game.)

I haven't taken a lot of pictures of the campus yet, but I intend to do so once I can get a whole day and some pleasant weather. In the meantime, check out these pretty schweet photos of the UF campus.

The LibriVox project aims to make public domain recordings of public domain books.

Logomotto mixes up logos and mottos. Refresh the page for a new and exciting combination.

That's what she said!

Let's see. This weekend, my sister and I went to our grandparents' house, and we met our parents and our cousins there. Grocery shopping was done today. It's easy to get carried away when you need food and you haven't been in a proper grocery store in weeks.

Backtracking to last week, I had an astounding three tests. On Tuesday, I had a Social Geography test, on which I scored 32 out of 33 (which is pretty good because that's a third of my grade). On Thursday, I had a calculus test, and though the results have yet to come in, I'm feeling good about it. On Friday night (yes, Friday night), I had a chemistry test. I don't have chemistry (or any class) on Friday night, but there are so many people in the class (it's a basic chemistry course) that I guess that's the only time they could have it. Nevertheless, the test delayed my aforementioned weekend plans. But right after the test, I found out that the answer key was posted online. Since I hadn't yet thrown away my scratch work, I was able to determine that I aced the test. That's a quarter of my grade in the bag.

Apparently all these tests aren't so bad. You just have to take them one at a time.

It's time for another exciting edition of Ask Jordon!

Olivia: What're you on about?

Er... dunno. I'm a right raving nutter, I s'pose.

Ivan Karamazov: Why do some believe Ron Paul will follow up on his promises of the One True reading of the Constitution? Do they realize it will mean cuts? Who IS he?

Well, brother, they say that if you Google Ron Paul, you'll find out about him. Me, I don't believe a word of it. As for his kind, I think they're a dying breed. Nobody wants cuts. Well, people do, but the dudes and the ladies that run the two-party system haven't really invited them to participate in our democracy. Oops! (Okay, I'm a hypocrite. I've joined the Democratic Party, much to the chagrin of the growing number of people who think that if you're not an independent, you're a narrow-minded hypocrite. Wait...)

Ever wonder how valuable coins change hands? Here's the story about a $1.9 million dime.

How to Predict the Weather Without a Forecast.

For the Labor Day weekend, my sister and I have come home. It sure is different from my dorm at UF's Hume Hall, but I'm getting used to college life pretty nicely. In fact, I'm surprised at how used I am to it already. Maybe college really will be the time of my life.

Even then, it's nice to be back home, if only for a few days. Here I have no worries or cares, and my mom can cook for me and do my laundry. What's not to love? Plus, my friend Nick had a barbecue at his house this afternoon. It was pretty much an indoor barbecue, but we did swim in his pool, which was nice. Later, we went to the beach... at night. It seems that I've been to the beach at night more often than during the day. It's probably true, in fact.

I got here yesterday afternoon, and after a short day (today), I have to leave tomorrow morning. I'm pretty mad about that. I'm also mad because I'm tired, but I don't want to believe that myself.

Let's cut to the Ask Jordon.

ALISON : R U HAPPY?

Overall, yes. I'm glad that college isn't so bad, and I'm seeing it as an exciting time to make new friendships and learn valuable life lessons. Next.

ARianna: you have made a "minor scale chart thing" and I was hopeing you had a "major scale chart thing somwhere as well. DO you?

No. Maybe I'll make one sometime, but I only made the minor one because I couldn't find a very good one on the web. Finding a major scale chart was easier.

Ashley McGee: Gilligan's Island was cancelled right before the 4th season was to start. Would the castways have made it off if they knew it was the final show?

I don't think so. They had all that time to make radios out of coconuts and everything, and there were always exciting visitors who would come for a day or two and then get picked up from the island or something. I think our favorite castaways just wanted to stay on the island to protect their staid, secure selves from the sociopolitical upheaval that was occurring in the United States from 1964-1967. It's the only explanation that makes sense.

If you eat really fast like me, you might want to check out 5 Powerful Reasons to Eat Slower.

I'm in college. It's all so weird. I always knew this day would come, but now that it's here, it's really surreal. My sister and I moved into our dorms on Saturday. That's when I met my roommate, Adam, in person (we'd talked online before). I managed to find almost everything I packed, so that's good. Kristen's rooming with one of her best friends, so she's lucky. We spent Saturday night at our aunt's house outside of town, along with our parents. Yesterday, we bought a few more things that we needed, and my family wanted to see our dorms again. When we came back, my roommate had hung up posters of scantily clad women. Real nice to show the family. It was actually pretty funny in retrospect. But anyway, then we said our goodbyes. It was pretty emotional, but we'll definitely be in touch with our parents. We'll also be in touch with each other because we hardly know anyone and it's hard to make friends.

In fact, I'm here in the food court in the student union with my sister. I'm here for the WiFi. I can't get connected in my dorm because the instruction booklet says to call the Internet connection people if you want to know how to connect using Linux. They're swamped right now because everyone is trying to connect, so they're going to call me (maybe tomorrow, maybe the day after that, maybe the day after that...) to schedule an appointment so they can go to my dorm and help me out. Did I mention that the University of Florida is one of the largest in America? Anyway, I have to thank my friend Luke, whom I called, asking for help with connecting to the Internet. After nothing worked, he suggested I try the WiFi in the public areas. He isn't even going here, and he thought of that before me. Way to go, Luke.

Even though there are so many people here, it's been hard to meet people, and it's been stressing out both my sister and me. There are supposed to be

We just saw Amanda, a girl from school, here in the food court. Apparently she's staying in the dorm across the street from me, so we'll have to hang out with her. We're planning to go to the mall tomorrow, so maybe we should invite her. It should be fun. Anyway...

all kinds of events for getting to meet people, but I think they're spread out over the first few weeks of the semester, so none of them have happened yet. So I haven't really had an opportunity for a "Hello, My Name Is..." type of gathering. In fact, my sister and I have pretty much been walking back and forth between our dorms and stopping here at the student union, which is in between. Actually, we did meet a few people at a bus stop outside my dorm, and my sister (who can connect to the Internet in her room) found them on Facebook, so that's good.

I guess that's all I have to say for now. I have more to say, but I can't stay in the food court forever. I've got other things to do... 'cause I'm in college.

In 1947, Life Magazine asked some comic strip artists to draw their characters blindfolded. The results are amusing.

I'm still here. That is, I haven't left for college yet. That will be tomorrow. Yesterday, my friend Luke asked in his typical, blunt manner: "Is your life in boxes yet?" To answer this properly, allow me to wax poetic. After that, I'll wane poetic.

By last night, most of my stuff was indeed in boxes and bags. Not exactly my life, but close. I've been packing more things that I could have imagined, but it hasn't taken up very much space. That's not really what I'm getting at, though. Everyone I know has his or her life in boxes right now. We're all starting in colleges all over the place, from down the street to across the country. Everyone is going through the same things as I am, and that makes me feel a little bit better.

I used to be really bad about change. I'm still pretty bad about it. I remember being in eighth grade and checking out high schools when the question of college came up. I didn't even want to hear the word. High school was enough for me to handle, thank you very much. Now, high school is out of the way. That alone is hard enough to believe, but it's true. That chapter of my life, it seems, is over. College used to be a big, scary thing, but now it's not -- not as much, at least. I've remembered the words that have helped me out in the past: If anyone can do it, so can I.

Okay, it's true that not everybody has what it takes to finish college, but a lot of people more mediocre than I have managed to pull it off. And I'm a pretty diligent worker, if I do say so myself. But again, it helps me to know that going to college is something that (almost) everybody does. It's almost like an adventure. They say your college years are the best of your life. I don't know who they are, or you, for that matter, but maybe they're right. I envision myself meeting cool people and having fun.

I once that thought that I'd be a goldfish in the ocean of college. I'd used this metaphor in the past to describe the experience of starting high school, and I had quickly regretted not explaining it. I now know, of course, that it needs no explanation. But the ocean of high school quickly shrank to a pond, and I realized that I had a school of fish around me. I had forgotten that we are social fish. We are fish who depend on one another. And I now realize that when the pond grows to the size of, say, Lake Superior -- when I have a sea of new challenges to face -- my school of fish is there to help me like never before. Case in point: my mom casually mentioned that when I ran out of cotton balls, she would send more. I was dumbstruck. Send me more cotton balls? In the mail? But I can just walk to the store and buy them myself.

The point is, my parents are there to help me as much as they can. They know I've fallen on relatively hard times. Even with my full scholarship, I've had to take out loans to get by. Everyone else I know wants to help. My sister and I had our last day of work today. They got us a cookie cake -- a giant, greasy chocolate chip cookie with icing on top. Oh yes. And "the new girl," whom we haven't known for more than a month, asked for our addresses so she could send care packages -- the occasional packages of basic goods for college students who often can't afford or simply would rather not go out and buy them. Wow. Whether or not she actually sends anything is beside the point: we hardly knew her, and she cared.

I had thought that, once you were in college, you were independent from everyone, and that was it. Today, it struck me that independence is not a Boolean. That is, it's not a true/false, either/or type of thing. Someone named John once said that no man is an island, and he was right. Right now, I'm very dependent, and over time, I'll become more and more independent. Everyone is there to make the transition easier. I've often wondered how old I'd have to be for the phrase "in my whole life" to stop sounding ridiculous. I am, after all, a n00b at life. With lessons like this, I'll someday become 1337.

And for those of you who had to click on the Wikipedia links, what an anticlimax that was. I guess I started waning poetic too early. And now, the links.

Find out The Cheapest Days to Buy Certain Items.

Here's an editorial from Wired about The Eternal Value of Privacy.

The Change Contest is over. I know you're eager to find out who won. But first...

My going-away party was last night. Hardly anyone I invited actually showed up (thanks to those who did), but there were a lot of people overall. The party was also for my sister, who's going to college, and my grandparents, who are moving. The place was packed. There was lots of food, and there still is. Everybody had a good time. There was so much going on that it couldn't all be contained indoors, so a lot of the party moved outside, where there were all sorts of tables and chairs. Some people stayed inside to watch the football game. Luke tried to play leapfrog with a frog. We talked about plans to go to Miami on Wednesday (everyone is invited, even you). As the night grew late, Luke found out about the Driveway-A-Thon and insisted that another driveway endurance contest be held. He, Justin, TJ, and I participtaed. Luke won, staying on the driveway continuously for exactly 3 minutes.

Today I went to the grocery store to turn my change into cash. Yes, I know the bank does this, but I can't get to the bank without a car, and I'd probably have to roll all that change, which I'd really rather not do. Plus, I already did this, so it's too late for you to criticize me. Anyway, I got to the machine and was amazed by how simple the process was. I had expected to be standing there for hours placing each coin in a slot one by one. No. You just dump 'em in. It only took a few seconds to do that. Then the machine counts. It's really noisy, but it only takes a few moments. Once it determines how much you've got, it gives you a receipt that you can redeem for cash. There's an 8% service charge, but it's better than the 8.9% charge that the other grocery store's machine imposes.

I had my own guess for this contest, and it was based on the amount I had counted when the jar was a little more than halfway full. It was a long time ago, but I remember that the amount then was around $50. So I figured that with the jar mostly full, the amount of money inside would be about $75.

The actual amount of change in the jar was $77.14. Congratulations to Mark Myers, whose guess of $78.87 was off by only $1.73! He gets to write a post about whatever he likes, if he wants to. (And if he doesn't, then I suppose the runner-up can have the honors.)

In second place was Todd, who guessed $2.86 too high, followed by Natasha, whose guess was $3.04 low. Not bad for people who don't use US currency. (They're both Canadian.) Of the 14 valid guesses, the average amount guessed was $64.23, and the median guess was $68.23. Gilbert's guess of $15 was less than 20% of the actual amount. The highest guess, Daniel's $100.44, was more than 130% of the actual amount.

Thanks to everyone for participating in the contest. It's been a lot of fun. Plus, I now have an extra $70!

I knew that Weezer had two eponymous (self-titled) albums, but I didn't know that there were so many other artists with multiple self-titled albums.

Domain hacks, like blo.gs and del.icio.us, are cool. Here's a search utility for domain hacks. There are two for "theworldofstuff": theworldof.st/uff/ and theworl.do/fstuff/. It looks like those domain names are available, too.

The Change Contest is still going on. You could win a guest post here at The World of Stuff! Just make sure to include your e-mail address with your guess; otherwise, I might not be able to contact you.

I have been cleaning my room. This, I believe, is an event worthy of first billing in a post (not including nags to enter contests). The area of focus here is my closet, which I don't believe I've ever actually cleaned -- and it shows. So, why this once-in-a-lifetime occurrence? Because I feel like it! No, not really. Because my days at home are numbered, and I'll never be living here again. Our home is for sale, and there's going to be an open house the weekend I leave for college. I already frustrated the real estate agent by not having a spotless room that he could take a picture of, so in spite of my best efforts to the contrary, I have to make it look presentable inside and out.

Going through one side of my closet, I'm finding that a lot of things I'm throwing (or, more often, giving) away I have absolutely no emotional attachment to. And I have found all kinds of things, including things I didn't even know I had. But the things I knew I had I didn't really mind getting rid of. This is a change from the past, when I wouldn't throw anything away because I had some sentimental reason to keep it. Am I losing my sentimentality? Am I getting old? Are the rigors of life setting in? Am I paranoid? Does that mean they're not after me? Am I asking too many questions? Oh well. At least I'll have a closet that's pretty empty. Well, not quite yet. I still have to clean up the other half of the closet: the messy half. (Yes, I might actually have to throw away those Teenie Beanie Babies.) And then: the desk. Oh, the desk.

And now, an informational edition of Ask Jordon.

Genna Ruffin: Hi Jordan: I've been reading all the posts about installing the "hide bulletins" thingie for myspace and can't figure out WHERE to paste the code?

MySpace Ignore Bulletins is a Greasemonkey user script, which means you need to be running the Greasemonkey extension for Firefox in order to use it. You seem to be using Firefox, so all you have to do is install Greasemonkey, and, after being prompted to restart your browser, go back to the script's page and click "Install this script" on the right.

The November 2008 presidential election is just around the corner! Do you know who to support yet? If you're like me, you'll probably need a little help. You're probably not like me, but here's a presidential candidate selector -- a quiz to determine which presidential candidate is most in line with your views. Here are my results. I've never heard of some of these people.

1. Dennis Kucinich (88%)
2. Barack Obama (83%)
3. Joseph Biden (75%)
4. Christopher Dodd (73%)
5. Hillary Clinton (72%)
6. Mike Gravel (69%)
7. John Edwards (68%)
8. Bill Richardson (60%)
9. Ron Paul (50%)
10. Elaine Brown (47%)
11. Mike Huckabee (26%)
12. Rudolph Giuliani (25%)
13. Tommy Thompson (24%)
14. John McCain (21%)
15. Mitt Romney (17%)
16. Sam Brownback (10%)
17. Duncan Hunter (8%)
18. Tom Tancredo (8%)

That's not including people who've dropped out of the race or haven't announced their candidacy yet.

Wikipedia has a list of first occurrences.

My birthday was nice. As I mentioned, my twin sister and I did different things this year -- a first. While she took her friends for fondue at The Melting Pot, I met with my friends at Roadhouse Grill. Of the twelve people I invited, five said that they would probably be able to go, and of those, three showed up. The other two had good excuses, though, but I was more upset about the people who either said they wouldn't be able to go or those who didn't respond to my invitation at all. I understand it's inconvenient to have a birthday party in the summer, though, so the next time I'm born I'll make sure it's some other time of year.

Justin, Mark, and Andrew showed up, and that seemed to be about the right number of people to have a nice dinner conversation at a restaurant. (At previous birthday dinner outings, it was impossible to talk to everyone at the table, which kind of defeated the purpose of inviting everyone.) It was really nice, and nobody sang "Happy Birthday" to me, which was fine with me. When we were done with dinner, Mark got picked up, and Andrew, Justin, and I went back to my house for a little while and hung out. Then it got to be late, and they went home. It might not have been enough for some people, but it was enough for me to enjoy my birthday, and that's all that counts. Aww. Saturday night was the family party, when we had relatives over for dinner (and cake).

Yesterday, I finally got a bag for my new laptop. The decision was a tough one. I went into Office Depot thinking that I should get a laptop bag with a handle and pockets so it would basically be like a miniature briefcase. Then my dad brought up the point that I'd probably often be carrying around both that and a backpack, and that would probably make traveling by bike difficult. Then I took note of the combination backpack/laptop bags, but those were pretty small, and I was worried that I wouldn't be able to fit all my stuff in them. There's nothing wrong with my old backpack; it's not falling apart, even after five years, and it has a lot more capacity than any backpack/laptop bag I saw. So ultimately I settled on a small, soft bag that's just big enough for my laptop and a few small accessories. It'll fit into my backpack (at least, I hope it will) so I can carry my books and my computer around with me wherever I go.

Actually, I just tried to fit the case into my backpack and it needed a little coaxing. Now I'm a little worried. I'm thinking about putting the laptop in its bag and then putting the bag in the backpack, but I can't do that right now since, well, I'm using the laptop. What if it doesn't fit? Should I have just gotten a new backpack with a special pocket for my laptop? I guess I can always get a refund. Well, I'm not sure if I can now since I took the tags off the bag. I worry about things a lot, if you couldn't already tell. I guess I shouldn't, but having a computer is important in college, and so is being able to carry around your books and stuff. I think I'll try not to worry about it. Because if I can't refund it, it was only $20 anyway.

Ah, software licensing. Here are some details about Microsoft's licensing mess.

I'm glad I don't work or make expensive purchases at Circuit City: 27 Confessions of a Former Circuit City Worker.

So, today I am 18. I am an adult (not a dolt). I don't feel 18 -- I still feel about 16 -- but from now on, things will be different. Here are some things I can now do:

• Sign a contract
• File a lawsuit
• Vote
• 24-year-olds
• Smoke
• Get drafted! All right!

So, basically, I can do everything a normal person can do except decide what sort of beverages I want to drink. And how am I going to celebrate? I'm going out to a restaurant with a few friends tonight, so that should be nice. I should mention that today is also my twin sister's birthday, and she's going out with her friends for dessert at a different restaurant. I think this is the first time we've had separate events for our birthday. I would have had more friends with me, but a lot of them are away, or they have to work. That's the thing about having a birthday in the summer. Everyone's always doing something else. Oh well. I'm sure I'll still enjoy my birthday.

Here's a backwards music video. They must have done the lipsynching backwards so it would be forwards with the film reversed. "A" for effort.

Check out some interesting islands and lakes.