The Pnebleu Blog

I just signed up for Kiva today, and loaned money to:

I really like this idea of micro-loans.  It is better than donating money because the receiver must pay it back.  It builds up a local economy, instead of destroying it like the donated clothes in Africa.  When I get the loan payment back, I can just cycle it back into Kiva and to another individual/group.  I think donating money this way (I’m not going to pull my money out of the system, I will always loan it out to someone else.)  Is a lot better than just giving someone something.  Obviously, if someone is starving or destitute they need a donation, not a loan.  But for small businesses, the best thing for their growth is a small loan without the corporate bank interest charges.

So, I have both a Jaiku and a Twitter account.  I had basically abandoned my Twitter account for several months until today.  (I think I posted once or twice in that time frame.)  I really like Jaiku’s feed gathering feature, but Twitter lets me send SMS messages to post.  I have different communities on each.  I want to only use one, since I already have my Facebook status and MySpace status to update.  I can’t make a decision.  Another factor to be consider is that Twitter goes down a lot.  I like Jaiku’s badge on my blog.  When Twitter goes down, so does the Twitter badge.  I think I’m just going to do status on Twitter and let Jaiku gather all of my feeds, so I’ll just have to have both badges on here and on my Facebook page.  I don’t like compromises where neither side is a winner.

Animoto.com is a website for creating great photo slideshows with embedded music. This video is made from photos of this semester’s TAMU vs. Fresno St. game. I hope you like it. I’ve also tacked on another remix of the video with different photos and section of music.

Music is so inspirational. It can provoke any emotion. I like to listen to movie scores occasionally, just to feel the emotion that it is trying to portray. It’s such a rich medium of communication. It can convey meaning that words would never be able to. It’s so common worldwide that it breaks down boundaries that languages put up. Music has the power or ability to fill your entire body. It connects you with the musicians and the other listeners. It can be calming, enraging, rousing, depressing, enlightening or educational, and it can be primitive or guttural. Music is what we have in common with everyone else on the planet. Word can’t really describe it, so you’ll just have to listen to it yourself. (Magnatune.com has a great collection of music from around the world. You can even download a podcast with of it.)

I’m in the mood to write, but about what? I’m not sure, but here goes.

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Well, nothing’s coming to mind. I’m pretty bored right now. There’s not much going on. I’m not in the mood to read my school work, I don’t have any homework due, and I’m stuck on dial-up so I’m limited to what I can do on the internet. Woe is me.

Ha! I just found a video from YouTube of a Furby (the little demons from toy Hell) getting fried in the microwave!!! It’s is awesome! You have to see it! I feel a little bit better now. Have a good one.

Everything right now is surreal. I’m slightly sick with a sinus infection, so that is distorting my perception of reality. I get tired more frequently, I’m really hungry when it’s time to eat yet I can’t eat as much as I used to, and I ache somewhat. My mood for the past couple of weeks has been off too. I just don’t want to do anything, not even the stuff that I really enjoy in a normal situation.

I just found a video blogger on YouTube that I’m really liking his stuff. He’s 79, I think.. (don’t quote me). His username is geriatric1927. You might want to go watch his videos. I like hearing the personal storys of people older than I am. I like to hear what life was like when they were younger. I find it all very interesting. Maybe you would too. I hope I can be helpful to someone when I’m older and have more experience.

I finally broke the chains from Norton Internet Security. I replaced it with NOD32 for anti-virus and Sunbelt Kerio Personal Firewall as the firewall. So far I like them a lot. They don’t hog the system half as much as Norton did and I haven’t had problems with them freezing or anything. Norton was bloatware and if I happened to get infected, it would have immediately been turned off by the virus. I don’t have to pay as much either. It’s $10 dollars cheap than Norton. I had been having quite a few problems with Norton freezing up my system and slowing down the shutdown for several minutes. The firewall was also and enormous pain with it’s constant “What do you want to do? Block, Allow, Block Always, Allow Always.” The Allow Always never worked anyway! It drove me crazy; I couldn’t get anything done. That’s all over. I’m free! Free at last!