This picture, for example, isn’t of the greatest quality, but it conveys a feeling, an emotion.  The photo’s job is done. Photography is the art of conveying a story, feeling, emotion, or event to others visually and empathetically.

Another thing she said was that she didn’t have the artistic skill to take good photos.  That may be, she might not be the next Ansel Adams, but you don’t have to be.  With the abundance of digital photography, most people taking pictures aren’t going to be great photographers.  But the pictures you take have meaning to you and the people you are with.  That is what’s important. Does your picture remind you of the emotion of the moment?

The picture below is probably my favorite picture I’ve taken recently.  It’s not that great a picture, but when I look at it, I’m flooded with memories of my Dad and the opportunities we have to share going forward.

So, no matter your skill or camera, get out there and take some pictures!  Because they are for you and your loved ones, it doesn’t matter how good they are!

There are so many things in life to enjoy, but oft we fail to even appreciate the most obvious.  The beauty of nature, the flavors of fresh food, a good strong wind through your hair, a clear starry night sky, a long hot shower, the love of one’s family, the company of friends, God’s unending blessings.  We’ve been given taste, touch, smell, sight, hearing, and our minds  to observe the world around us, experience it, learn it, use it, and understand it.

There are times when I get caught up in the day to day and loose track of when it is.  April has just disappeared.  I’ve just let it disappear.  I need to make a change and appreciate everything and every moment God has given to me.  Life is a wonderful, one-time only experience; I want to make the most of it.

I have not lived my life.  I have put off a lot of things because I “just wanted to get through school, then I would get it.”  I’m not starting a pity party, I just committing myself to do the things that I want and should do.  My camping trip is a good example of something I did without waiting.

2009 is a new year and I’m going to try to make the most of it.  I am also going to try to figure out what I want to do.  Doing that might put my planning mind at rest.

The economy has been up and down.  The Dow, S&P, and NASDAQ have all fall a great deal in the last few weeks.  Many people believe the government should bail out the failing companies to “save” the economy.  I don’t think it will be enough.  We have based our economy on credit, and credit must be paid back.  Stricter lending policies must be brought back.  People not able to pay back a loan should not get it.  That may be harsh, but these are obviously hard times.  The national deficit is out of control.  We must stop spending money, and keep taxes low.  The government shouldn’t spend money it doesn’t have.  Raising taxes in an unstable economic climate would be disastrous.  It would slow the economic recovery further.

The next four years are going to be historic.  Either a female VP or a black President will lead the country through the worst ecomonic conditions in a very long time.  I do not doubt that we will recover, but it will take time and wise leadership.

“Success will come with patience.” You have to wait for success to come.  You’re unsuccessful now, but maybe in the future, if you wait patiently, success will come.  Obviously, I try to look at it in the first more optimistic frame.

What is success?  Is it becoming the CEO of a Fortune 100 company, making millions of dollars, and marrying the perfect trophy wife?  I don’t think so.  I think of success as doing my best everyday, enjoying my work, and leading a life in service to God.

I attribute the iPod as a leading reason for the decline in “howdy’s” that I hear.  The popularity of the Apple iPod and other mp3 players lead to people wearing headphones to and from class on campus.  Listening to music, Aggies are less likely to spout a brief “howdy” to the person walk by, and if you walk by someone wearing headphones/earbuds you are less likely to say “howdy,” as not to disturb them.

This is a sad trend here in Aggieland.  I hope the new classes admitted will push to bring back “howdy” to the levels it once was.  I’ll do my part and say “howdy” to everyone I pass.

Viral marketing is not new, but its recent growth and increased power have brought it to the forefront of every corporation’s marketing department.  Every conscience marketer of product or service is trying to create a way for the customers to work for them.  File-sharing on services like Kazaa or on networking standards like BitTorrent is a great example of viral marketing.  A music customer rips a CD and uploads the music files to share with friends or strangers alike.  This is the perfect example of a virus in the market.  The music starts with one customer, and then someone else downloads the song.  If they like it, the song is shared with more people.  If they like it enough, that someone else may purchase other songs or albums from that artist, go to a concert, or become a die-hard fan willing to spend hundreds of dollars on merchandise and experiences related to that artist, just like some of the fans of Nine Inch Nails did.

On Sunday, March 2nd, 2008, Nine Inch Nails released Ghosts I-IV for sale in a variety of ways.  First, they offer a $5 package including all 36, DRM-free tracks in your choice of high-quality MP3, an open source, lossless format called FLAC, or in the Apple Lossless format which will work in iTunes.  This package also includes many extra features.  The next choice for $10 includes all of the above and a 2-disc CD pack shipped in April.  For $75, you get the five-dollar package, plus the 2-disc CDs, plus 2 hardcover books, plus a data DVD with source .wav files of the recording sessions for remixing, plus a Blu-ray disc of the 36 tracks in extremely high-resolution audio.  The last choice for $300 is a limited edition collection of only 2,500 sets signed and numbered by Trent Reznor which include all of the above and a four-LP set of Ghosts I-IV.  Next to all of these choices to purchase they offered Ghost I, consisting of 9 DRM-free tracks, for free to download as a sample.  They have also posted this sample on BitTorrent among other file-sharing avenues.  Giving away something for free to entice customers to buy more is not a new concept, but doing it in the music industry, which has so readily sued its customers for sharing the music, is innovative.  The standard thought in the industry is that if you give your music away for free the customers won’t buy anything from you.  That theory is starting to fall apart and Nine Inch Nails’ album release is a prime example for how the industry can virally market the music and still make money on it and other premium products or services.  By Tuesday, March 4th, all 2,500 limited edition collections had been sold for $300 each; that’s $750,000 from just the most expensive of the choices.  It’s too early to say how well Nine Inch Nails will do from this release and marketing strategy, but I’m pretty confident that it will be a large success.  Included with all of the packages are desktop wallpapers for your monitor, and more importantly I might add, twenty-two images specifically designed for use on the web.  They range in sizes and design for instant messaging icons, webpage banners, images for blog posts, and any number of other uses.  Nine Inch Nails wants to give its fans and all of the people who download the free sample an easy way to advertise and spread its product.  Nine Inch Nails, Radiohead, and many other bands or artists are quickly catching onto the fact that viral marketing of their music is an important and viable means of generating revenue.  They are also realizing that penalizing the fans for sharing the music with others is only increasing the number of people aware of the band and potential customers.

The reason I choose this campaign is because it is close to my interests and my experience.  I am very interested in technology and music.  The recent technological changes in the music industry have all happened within the grasp of my lifetime.  The most significant change is the digital conversion which has happened most recently.  Within this decade, 2000 to 2010, I believe that most music will move from a physical medium, such as record, cassette, or CD, to the digital medium.  Digital allows for much more flexibility in the quality, access, transportability, et cetera.  From listening to songs online, I probably bought 5 or 6 albums and then got my friends to buy several albums after listening to the music with them.  The songs we listened to were less quality than when the songs were played on the radio, and much poorer quality than the songs on CD.  The lower quality encouraged me to not be satisfied with the free listen but to pay for a higher quality or premium version.  One of the music industry’s main concerns is the availability of pristine, high-quality digital songs that can be copied limitlessly.  However, most consumers aren’t criminals and would be willing to pay for those perfect songs.  This leaves the door open to give out samples of music at moderate sound quality for the purposes of viral marketing.  The customer can get a medium quality sample of an album for free on a social networking site such as Last.fm or Facebook, which then entices them to buy the lossless, or perfect, quality full album from a music store or from the artist’s webpage.  Change is coming for the music industry, whether they like it or not.  There is a great opportunity for them to embrace file-sharing as a means of viral marketing and still be profitable, instead of litigating the fans for just spreading the word, and product, of their favorite music artist, which in the end only hurts themselves.

When oil is gone we are going to have to move to other high density energy sources or face human disasters the world has never seen. Wars, famine, disease, and the breakdown of today’s society. Clean coal and nuclear energy are the most easily expandable sources of energy within the small time frame we have left. Cars will have to be moved to electricity to plug into these sources. Alternative energy will continue to be researched, but I don’t see them replacing oil as the dominate source of everyone’s energy.

Within the next few decades, increasing petroleum prices will wreck havoc on our economy and individual lives. I’m not sure we will be able to survive as we are now. Populations are probably going to decrease, as food costs are going to go up. People will leave the cities because they can’t afford to be there, and more land will revert back to farms. What ever happens, the end of oil will be painful.

The growing trend for citizens to keep relying on the government for more and more is quite disturbing. FEMA, Social Security, welfare, and universal healthcare are programs where an individual’s responsibilities have been taken or moved over to the government to manage, as if it could manage it better. People need to step up and take charge. The government doesn’t need to do everything for you. It wasn’t designed to do that. If we are going to live in a nanny state, why would anyone want to work and provide for themselves? The incentive would be to take the government handouts and do nothing in return. This is completely wrong. It’s immoral, unproductive, and un-American. We are called to be the best we can be, both by God and by the capitalist system. If you live in America you have been give so many blessing by God, working your hardest is the least you can do in appreciation. In the capitalist system, rewards are give to success; leaching off of the success of others hurts the economy and reduces the incentives for hard workers (because they’re rewards will be taken by the government and redistributed to the undeserving “failures” in capitalism).

Let me make this clear, I do not think pure capitalism is the way we need to go. Welfare is very important and I’m not saying it should be abolished. However, I think it should be run by the states and should have a time period or some limit. This limitation would prevent people from staying on government welfare their entire lives. Private charity would play an even larger part than it does today, if you removed national welfare, the tax burden that causes, and the current state welfare systems and replaced them with a limited welfare program by the states.

National universal healthcare is appalling to me. It removes my right to have no healthcare plan and just pay for expenses as they come. Setting up a system like this removes everyone’s responsibilities. They’re saying you’re too stupid to go out an choose you method of paying for healthcare, so we are going to step in and make that decision for you. Look, you even get to choose a level of service! The supporters are going to say that the program is for the poor and underprivileged, so they can get health insurance. This may seem harsh, but it’s not the government’s job to bail out the “failures” of the capitalist system. By providing them with free or cheap healthcare when they cannot afford to attain it without government assistance, what incentives to work harder and move up in “class” does this procure?

Back down on the personal level, people always seem to find someone or something else to blame. Grow up! Be a mature individual and take responsibilities for any of your actions, right and wrong. If you make poor grades in school, don’t blame the professor or the test. Take responsibility for doing poorly and study harder next time. At work, mistakes happen, confess if you’ve done something incorrectly.

Financial responsibility has disappear with the arrival of the credit card. The amount of debt in this country is astounding! You people out there need to stop buying stuff you can’t afford! Be responsible and buy only what you need if you are in debt. Don’t purchase items on credit, save up until you can afford it. If you do finance something, pay each payment out fully or more. Don’t let the interest grow! Hard work and a tight wallets lead to prosperous lives. Be a responsible consumer.

This country has become, or maybe always was, a sissy state. Both on the national and personal levels people are lacking in responsibility for themselves and their actions. This is a major problem. If everyone is telling the government to take care of them, then no one is left to to take care of anyone, because we are the government in this country. We have to stand up and take responsibility.

Breaking from the circle of life, to use a cliché, is not always a positive thing. The break from traditional nuclear families during the last half of the 20th century has had some negative consequences on the children of non-traditional families. The rise in youth violence, youth depression and other mental illness, and lowering education scores may have something to do with the new family structures that are increasingly in use. Just because this is the most advanced time in human history and we are able to do things people a few decades ago couldn’t even imagine if they wanted to, doesn’t mean we know everything and should try to change the nature cycle. We may just inadvertently wreck havoc on basic human existence. We should be careful when we change tradition, look at all of the consequences. If you look to the past for the future, you may just find it; we’re doing the same things people did before us.

Lately, I’ve seen it represent itself strongly in me. In looking for housing in College Station, or in looking for and applying for jobs down there. The twang of stubbornness has made me do just the opposite of what I was kindly given the suggestion to do: Turn in applications before we went on vacation. But no, something compelled me to wait until we got back and then sit around and wait for word from potential employers. I’ve been beating myself up for not ignoring that little voice in my head telling me to wait until we got back.

Obstinance seems to get the best of us, however. It also hits us in the prime of life. But the majority of people grow out of it with time. Hopefully, my unfruitful doggedness will soon be outgrown, for it’s causing me more problems than benefits.

First, for the law-abiding drivers, it gives them the time left to make a judgment call if they need to slam on the brakes or continue through. For that matter, you might as well have timers in all colors of the signal: red, yellow, and green.

Second, for the red light runners, it gives them no excuse for running the light. They knew how much time was left before it turned red. Now, after the timers are in place, I agree with the installment of the cameras, because the government in charge did everything to increase public safety without revenue enhancement, before they started ticketing people.

Third, for the city planners, studies would need to be done, but the timer lights may improve traffic efficiency slightly and increase driver patience. When motorists can count down the time left for green, it helps increase driver satisfaction with the length of the lights. There have been times when I could swear the red light for my time to go was three times as long as the cycle before me.

Just because we’ve had the standard green, yellow, red traffic signal lights for all of this time doesn’t mean we can’t change or improve on them if it would increase efficiency or safety. Adding timers to the lights would allow drivers to know exactly the time left before the next light. I know this would a beneficial addition to my driving experience.

I think they might be. Bill Vaughan said, “Suburbia is where the developer bulldozes out the trees, then names the streets after them.” The problem with suburbs is that they constantly grow larger and larger, instead of growing up, or down. If suburbs continue to grow we will eventually run out of land suitable for construction. But before that, we will run out of land where a person can be completely alone in the wilderness.

Don’t get me wrong, I love developments and futuristic fantasies, such as Coruscant, but I also love the isolation created by the vast expanses of nature without any human feature or touch. No roads, power lines, radio or cellphone towers; the flawless creation of God. If we don’t examine our urban sprawl and look to developing a smarter growth solution, it might be a very gray world with a few, small perfectly-pruned and watered patches of green.

A quick Google search and you’ll find many organizations and articles fighting urban sprawl and promoting smart developing methods, yet I live in the exurbs, at the moment, and the signs of growth are still building. Do you want the world to look like this picture on every piece of stable ground? What can you or I do to promote smart development plans? I don’t know, but we need to do something before it’s too late; before we are looking at trees in a museum.

Just the other day on Texas A&M University’s campus, I was walking to my car when two bike cops pulled over two women on bicycles. I don’t know what for or what happened, but they did ask for a driver’s license. From the looks of the students, they were headed to the Rec Center to workout, so they might not have their id. Before the pull-over, the officers on bikes where just standing around waiting for something to happen. I’m not saying that the girls got a ticket, but if that is what happened, the officers where on a stake-out. Do two women on bikes pose such a danger to society that two officers should spend their time watching people and bike move by? Couldn’t they be doing something else more productive or at a level that requires their skills, like say, investigating a robbery or assault that happen frequently on the North Gate side of campus? (North Gate is a strip of dance halls and bars, that have had a few assaults aimed at foreigners and minorities in the past couple of years.) I think that instead of focusing on alternative revenue gaining, the police force should be doing their job: enforcing criminal laws. Unfortunately, many of the laws are written to increase revenue instead of protect the public wellbeing. A shift in law-making and a review of current laws would need to occur to make a difference.

This morning on my drive to class, I saw an unmarked car that had pulled over what from all indications was a speeder. That is a complete contradiction of the goal of speed limit enforcement. By driving an unmarked vehicle, the police officer blends into traffic, allowing individuals to drive as they would. When he/she pulls over one speeder, the government will get the ticket revenue, but for the majority of the other cars on the highway will continue to drive at higher speeds. It’s like a wolf in sheep’s wool. However, when an officer is driving a patrol vehicle, it stands out and traffic slows to the appropriate speed. This accomplishes the goal of speed limits (“safer” driving conditions), but does not boost the government revenue. There is a conflict of interests when the law enforcement adds to the government wallet. The officials will be encouraged to “enforce” more and the legislature will be encouraged to write more laws to be enforced, and judges would be more likely to find cases in more the way of the government.

I’m not saying we live in a country that is corrupt, but to prevent corruption takes a vigilant populous. We need to be the moderators of our government, not the other way around.

Change has been accelerating in recent decades at an unparalleled pace. From creation to the 1700s & 1800s change and progress occurred, but at a steady pace. With the Industrial Revolution advances in every aspect of society accelerated exponentially, and it hasn’t stop. We are seeing rapid changes in technology every year! I cannot wait to see what’s coming in the next few decades.

As I’ve gotten older, I’ve looked back and seen how stupid or immature I’ve been in the past. There is nothing I can do now to make up for those things, obviously. You never know how you are going to feel about your current behavior in the future. Opportunities to do things or not do things when we’re younger will always be looked back at in 20/20 hindsight. I look back at some of the decisions I made and wish that I knew then what I do now. It’s the same for everyone, it is part of the human condition.

I’m about to turn 20. I have my whole life in front of me, and yet I’m already looking back at the past. Why is that? Is it because there are so many unknowns in the next few years of my future? Such as what I’m going to take next semester when I’m a junior (I’m going to be a junior in college, when did that happen?!?!) or who am I going to marry and what will our life be like. Because I can not see into the future, I look back to the past. Is this a normal thing to do?

As I get older, am I only going to look back and see a lack of wisdom?

The U.S. federal deficit is going to be approximately $500 billion this year. This is an insane number. $500,000,000,000. Where is all of the money going? The war in Iraq, you say? Well, yes, but what if that was just a cover and the cost of the war was padded? Could the government be siphoning money from itself to pay for some unknown to most, super secret project? The answer could be yes, and I know that the government does hide money for “regular” top secret projects. With all likelihood, there are probably weapons platforms orbiting Earth right now, posed as communications satellites. Well, if the government can do that, couldn’t they feed a giant project with the supposed cost of the war in Iraq?

Just a thought. Who knows what a possible project could be?

I do believe this culture of ours is overly stimulated and hyperactive. We always have something to fill in every last minute of our days. I’m guilty of this for sure. I have podcasts that fill up my “free” time. We all need to step back and just think; not about anything in particular or specific, just mentally float.

Something you may already know if you know me personally is that I’m a hopeless romantic. I’m the one who wants the guy to get the girl. Lately, I’ve just had a strong concern or desire to find a woman to complete my life. I want to find a soul mate to share everything with. I don’t know why I’ve been thinking about marriage lately; maybe it’s because I’ve been too busy to do anything social, but getting married has always been a strong desire of mine. Yes, I know, this is really deep so I’ll be moving on now.

I’ve had a pretty continuous argument with my dad about Wikipedia for the past couple of years. He says that it can’t be used for anything, because it is unreliable. I don’t believe that to be true. There have been many, many times that Wikipedia trumps any other place to find info for my college homework or studies. You have to take the info with a grain of salt, yes, but you have to do the same thing with college textbooks which are written by individually biased, intentionally or not, professors. Every time you go to a lecture or read a page out of a textbook, you are taking the word of the author that the information is accurate. With Wikipedia, you are taking the word of groups of people who have edited and are re-editing the page. Along with that, I believe that the history of the edits is available so viewers can go back and compare the different entries for false information or back and forth changes of a controversial issue. So, to sum all of this up, where ever you get your information, you must look at the source to verify accuracy.