Scott David Brown's Blog, page 10

Finding Happiness

Happiness (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Happiness is sometimes difficult to define. Sometimes I feel like there isn’t much for me to be happy about. That’s why I think it is important to look for the little things, they really do add up! This year, I’ve been busy finishing up school and thinking about what I want to do for a career. This has also included writing and continuing my short story series. Remembering the good times reminds you how happy you have been throughout the year.

For most of my life, I’ve had trouble deciding what I want for a career. There have been several things I wanted to do at different times that ranged from being a pianist to acting. When I realized that acting wasn’t going to be something I wanted to pursue, I started thinking about something more practical. After years of thinking about going to school, I finally picked a pathway, psychology. Of course, there are so many different career paths for psychologists, so this hasn’t made things all that easier! At the beginning of the new year, I’ll be starting my final class on my quest to obtain a master’s degree. With that, I’ll probably focus on becoming an undergrad professor. I think teaching online will be a challenge, but one that I am ready for.

Now that the holiday season is coming to a close, I think we should focus on the good things about 2013. I’m looking forward to what the new year will bring as every year seems to get better and better! I just got my healthcare ID card in the mail a few days ago and I’m looking forward to making good use of it. The new year looks promising indeed!

I know that I’m not very active on my blog and in the past I have vowed to change that, so instead I’ll just be honest. You’re lucky if I manged 2-3 posts a month! Or perhaps that makes you happy! Well, I’ll end my last post of the year with my wish that you have had a great holiday season and here is to having a great 2014!

 

Reviewing The Kindle Fire HDX

A few days ago, I got a Kindle in the mail from Amazon, allowing me to try it free for 30 days. I’d like to share a few thoughts on it.

First off, the package was fairly easy to open and setting up the kindle was pretty much done before I got it. I just had to setup the Wifi. There was a nice software update a day or two later that added some info on the lock screen. I chose to try the smaller kindle, because I wanted to see if I like the small screen more than my iPad 3′s 9.7″ screen.

The best features on the kindle is proably the size, weight, and sound quality. It boasts Dolby sound and has good stereo placement. One of the issues of the newer iPads is that the stereo speakers are on hey he bottom and work best holding the iPad in portrait. The kindle speakers are better in landscape, which tends to be better when viewing videos.

The kindle is less than a pound, making it even lighter than the new iPad Air. It’s so much easier to hold than my iPad third gen. This is probably the best selling point of the kindle fire, other than the price tag.

You can really tell how much faster it is than my iPad. The Simpsons Tapped Out and The Sims Freeplay run perfectly on the kindle. Music sounds nice and since it is an amazon product, your amazon cloud downloads are ready to go. Streaming works without a hitch. The screen makes reading e-books a bit easier with a blue backlight but the paper white kindle is still probably better for reading.

Now let’s talk about what I didn’t like about the Kindle Fire. First, there is only a front facing camera, no back facing camera. I suppose if you can only have one, the front camera at least lets you Skype and make selfies without getting the kindle in the shot. Still, having a back camera would be more convineient.

The Silk internet browser is nice, but there is no Chrome app for the kindle, which means I can’t sync my bookmarks and pages. The OS is nice and makes it easy to chose your apps, but closing apps is a pain. It’s no match with iOS7. However, amazon organized media access well, having the ability to chose music, books, videos, etc. at the top of the screen.

Apps work well, but some of them are limited. The TiVo app only streams to iOS devices, though that may change in the future. Apple tends to get the best apps first.

Overall, the Kindle Fire HDX is a good tablet if you are looking for a smaller, lighter tablet, and you prefer an Android based tablet. It’s also a good choice if you have a lot of amazon digital content. As for myself, I’m going to stick with Apple and I may upgrade to the iPad Air.

*Update* I should also add that the buttons are on the back of the Kindle. Not sure I like that. On the one hand, it means that you have just the screen on the front and saves some space. But, I like having the button placement on the iPad as it makes it easier to turn it on and off.

Give Me A Kindle Fire HDX

various e-book readers. From right to left iPad (Apple、2010) kindle DX (Amazon、2009) kindle 2 (Amazon、2009) kindle 1 (Amazon、2007) PRS-505 (Sony、2007) PRS-500 (Sony、2006). (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

When Apple released the iPad a few years ago, it was the beginning of the reality that I may end up buying a tablet computer one day. The first iPad seemed cool, but I wasn’t really sure I could justify the expense.  The iPad 2 gave me another urge to buy one. I resisted. By the time the iPad 3 (The New iPad) was available, I ran out of excuses. I had just gotten a iPhone 4s a few months ago and it seemed that it was finally the time to get a iPad.

I was happy with the purchase until a few months later when the fourth generation iPad came out. It seemed a bit unfair. Still, I like the iPad as I can use it in lieu of my laptop and take it anywhere I want. It’s easy to carry around and I can do pretty much anything I want on it (I have an Alienware 17″ notebook, great for gaming, but heavy). The only real problem I have had with it was that the USB cable didn’t last as long as they usually do. I like the lighting port my new iPhone 5s has and I was thinking about replacing my current iPad with either the Air or the mini.

Then an interesting opportunity entered my inbox. Amazon, a company that has made quite a bit of money off me through the years, gave me an offer I couldn’t refuse. A 30 day free trial of any Kindle I so choose. No risk to me, as I can return the kindle if I decide I don’t want it before the trial is up and I don’t get charged for it unless I keep it after the 30 days.

Seems like a good deal to me! I chose the Kindle Fire HDX, because it’s the newest model. It’s also the most affordable at $240 without the special offers and sponsor ads on the lock screen. The screen is 7″, so it is smaller than my iPad at about 9″. Since I am considering buying the new iPad Mini with retina display, I can see if I like a smaller screen. I like that Apple is sticking with smaller screens for the iPhone, but I’m not sure how I will like a smaller screen on a tablet computer. Now I can find out!

This is a win-win for me. If I really like the kindle fire, I can keep it and trade in my iPad to Amazon for about $200. That will cover most of the cost of the kindle. If I decide that I like the iPad better, well I can send back the kindle and I’ll have an easier time deciding which new iPad to get. I’m not really a fan of the android OS as I had problems with it when I had my HTC phones. The Kindle Fire uses its own OS that is based on android, so we will see how it works. It’s hard to see how it could beat iOS used by Apple mobile devices. Whatever the case, I am a happy Amazon customer! I look forward to see what this opportunity will bring. I’m planning on writing a review of the Kindle Fire HDX after I have some time to play around with it. Stay tuned!

Wii Fit U Is Here!

Wii Fit (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Today is the release of Wii Fit U, a game that I have been looking forward to for a long time. Nintendo is offering a special deal for people who have the previous Wii Fit titles. If you have a Wii U and a balance board, you can download the game and try it free for 31 days. After that, you can have the full game if you purchase a Wii Fit Meter for $20. Not bad at all. It’s similar to when Wii Fit Plus came out, replacing the original game, it was also $20. Of course, Wii Fit U is a better value as now  you get HD and some neat new features.

One of which are the dance games included with Wii Fit U which allow you to try different types of dancing. Jazz, Salsa, and Flamenco are three of the styles that I remember off-hand. There’s also a new personal trainer feature that allows the game to design your workout if you don’t feel like doing it yourself. There’s a lot of new stuff to do and of course you can use the gamepad for most of it instead of using a Wii Remote, which I like since it has better speakers. You can totally play the game while watching TV now, which is great. Nothing like exercising while watching The Twilight Zone!

The Wii Fit Meter looks cool. I haven’t gotten mine yet, but I will be getting in the mail today. It measures the physical activity you make throughout the day by clipping it to your pants. It can also measure elevation along with motion. It’s small too, so it doesn’t look like it really  adds any weight. You’d probably forget it’s even there! It can sync to the gamepad so you can display all the information from it onto the Wii U or you can see the information on the LCD screen right on the meter.  I think the best part of having the meter will be not needing to actually play the game. You could exercise outside of the game, like literally go for a walk and then add the data later. This is nice as before if you wanted to keep track of your routine, you were stuck with the game.

I’m happy that I don’t have to go into Wii Mode anymore to exercise and the brighter and crisper colors of the game are a welcome sight. The trainers have also gotten an upgrade and are more pleasant to look at, and sexy! Maybe that will help you get a bit more motivated! The only caveat is that there aren’t any new yoga or strength training exercises. Just the same ones from before, though still a good variety.

If you are looking for some encouragement from other users, there is a community that you can access right from the game. It’s basically like joining a club and you can communicate with other members. You can get tips, share some encouragement, right from the game instead of having to go to Miiverse. I’m not sure that I will use it, but it’s nice to know it’s there if I feel like being social.

I’m satisfied with the Wii U so far. I know there are some that are disappointed, but I think there are a lot of great games still to come. As they say, haters going to hate. For me, I’m going to stick with PC games using my Xbox controller and Wii U. Especially now that I have my Wii Fit U!

Taking a Cultural Plunge

The bisexual pride flag. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

For my final assignment in my Cultural Diversity class, I had to take a cultural plunge. This required me to learn about a culture that is very different than mine. The cultural plunge is designed to help you learn about a group of people you know little about and to help lessen anxiety. Sometimes it can be uncomfortable to be around people you are not familiar with. This can happen with whole groups of people. For example, growing up in a homogeneous environment can make you feel uncomfortable when you have to move into a diverse environment. You may not know how to act or you may have misconceptions about other cultures. A cultural plunge forces you to adjust to a new environment and confront prejudices you may have. It’s a great way to learn about people.

My choice for the assignment was to explore bisexuality. I’m including the link to download the power point presentation:

Cultural Plunge Presentation

It was fascinating to learn about bisexuality and pan-sexuality. I really enjoyed my Cultural Diversity class as it is a reminder that we cannot trust our assumptions of a culture based on one or two people. Meaning that culture is diverse even within one group of people. We tend to make generalizations about people based on our experiences in the past. The example I use in the presentation is assuming that feminists hate men based on dealings with women claiming to be feminists. It’s not fair to paint a group of people as all the same based on meeting a few people who claim to belong to that group. This happens sometimes when tourists travel oversees. When you travel over sees, you tend to be an ambassador for your country, even though you don’t represent everyone in your country!

I really feel that the categorization and classification that our brains use to remember information does not work with people. Racism and prejudice is built on these processes. I think it’s important for us to try and resist the judgments and assumptions that we have when we meet new people. We are bound to make them, but if we question them each time we make them, we begin to train our brains to put less credibility on these judgement. Plus, this allows us to change our perspective if we find that we have made a wrong assumption.

 

Writing About An Elf

Let me get this sales pitch out of the way. The Lost Elf: Reptilian Encounter is the second book in my short story series and it has just gone live on Amazon.com. Click here to buy it now. In case you have been waiting to read it, ever since book 1 Awakening, now you finally have the chance to get your copy for 99 cents in the kindle format. Also, for those of you who may have purchased the paperback version of Awakening, you will now be able to download the kindle book for free. That is a new feature that Amazon had offered to authors and I think it’s a great idea. Basically, you can decide how much of a discount you can give customers who purchase the paperback version. I plan to use that feature for future books that I publish through createspace.com.

Now let me talk a little bit about the experience of writing this series so far. It really started with an idea about separating a full length novel into “episodes” similar to a television show. Part of the idea was to allow me to publish stories faster. I also thought that I could do a better job editing the stories and produce a better product. The original idea was to publish one story every two months or so, but that plan fell through. You can blame my laziness, but I also have been quite busy. A few of my classes were quite challenging and I was struggling to edit Reptilian Encounter. I am finding that I get tired of reading my words on the page over and over again. I think I did about 5 drafts of book 2 and this time I had some help from Steve Barnes, the actor who I’ve hired to produce the audio-book version of The Lost Elf. You can check it out at: The Lost Elf: Awakening. My personal favorite thing about the audio-book is the theme song Steve wrote for it!

I feel more relaxed now and I think the series is improving. Book 2 was very fun to write and is quite different from the harsh desert that the elf wakes up to. The grassland is certainly a cooler climate and the elf gets to relax a little bit. I also made it a light-heated tale. The story has humor and doesn’t feel so rushed. There isn’t the time sensitivity that book 1 had. One of the main themes of the story deals with racism and prejudice. That wasn’t something that I was intending to do, but it came about naturally as the story progresses. The topic of racism is not the main theme of Reptilian Encounter, but I really think it adds a certain depth. It’s included in a teachable moment in the story.

Another addition to this story is the increase in characters that the elf encounters. Of course, there’s Benjamin, the quite little desert fox. There are plenty of human characters and we learn more about the relationship between the human and elf races. The lizardmen is my first non-human like race in the series and I’m very happy with how they turned out. I’m planning to add more interesting races within the world of The Lost Elf. The challenge right now is to add humanoids races that are not common in sci-fi. Elves, gnomes, humans, and dwarfs are common in this genre. I want The Lost Elf to stand out from other fantasy stories, but I also want to use some traditional elements too.

My American Life

My mind seems to keep me pretty busy. I think a lot about all the things I have to do and all the things I want to do. Sometimes I wish it was all done and I didn’t have to think about it anymore. It’d certainly be easier if I didn’t have to go through the journey and just find myself at the destination. Like I had been in a dream and I suddenly wake up in the life I imagined myself a decade ago. When I was a kid, I had a basic structure of what my life was supposed to be like by now. I’ve miserly failed to achieve it. If my teenage self were around today, he’d be royally pissed and justifiably so.

Unfortunately for him, he’s not around anymore. It’s just me, the relativity adult version. If my teen self was here, I’d tell him to suck it up, deal with the disappointment. Life doesn’t usually work out as planned, at least based on my experience. How can you really plan out your future while expecting your plan to come to fruition? Really, all you can do is make a plan and hope nothing derails it. The plan has to be malleable and adaptable. I think people tend to have expectations on what their future will be, even if  it is be unrealistic. Basically, I’m saying make your plan, but allow it to change when need be.

Sometimes it’s frustrating, looking back on my lack of direction. There are so many of stories of people finding out who they are and want they want to be early in life. I wonder how common that is for people? I certainly still don’t know what my career should be. At least now I have narrowed it done a bit. There’s more of a focus. But by no means is there any guarantee that I will succeed. At times I feel angry that I haven’t had an easier time understanding myself and what I wanted to do with my life. I had to survive childhood first and then I had a false sense of identity. Once that was fixed, then I had to re-discover myself.

I have it pretty lucky. I don’t really have to worry about money (at least for now) and I can relax when I want to. There are so many people who aren’t in my position. There are people who have to work multiple jobs, live on food stamps, and struggle every day just to make enough money to support their families. There are even people all on their own, who don’t have social support. It makes you grateful for what you have. I can be fairly materialistic, being caught up in a society that wants what it wants when it wants it. I sometimes have to remind myself that I can be patient. That’s the trouble with a lot of people today, I think. We have trouble resisting the big payout, the immediate reward, instead of waiting for a bigger reward. And we also tend to forget about the people who have it worse than we do. At times, we are too self-centered, focused on our own needs and wants. It’s important to have our individuality, but I think we have a responsibility to others as well. If we want to live in a society, then we have to think about more than just numero uno.

The Voting Rights Act, DOMA, and Prop 8

The first page of the Voting Rights Act. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Last week was quite a week for civil rights. It was a mixed bag of happiness and disappointment for progressives. A powerful blow was done to the Voting Rights Act which will now allow Republicans to make it harder for minorities to vote passing laws like voter ID and redistricting. Yet, gay rights got a big boost this week. The court seemed to be careful in its decisions, trying limit the controversy’s, but the ruling is a step in the right direction. I feel that there is valid concern about minority voting rights now that the Voting Rights Act has been partially invalidated. I’m skeptical that the Tea Party will allow the voting rights act to be passed in the House.

Now that gay rights in California have been restored, gay marries can continue in my state. I think this is a wonderful result and I am proud of my state and of my country. The end to DOMA is especially important, because now gay people who are married in states where gay marriage is legal, the federal government must also recognize those marriages. This means that a lot of legal benefits are finally available to gay married couples in states with gay marriage. I wonder what this will mean for the gay rights movement going forward. It certainly seems to be gaining momentum and now legal challenges to constitutional bands of gay marriage in other states have more support. Is it legal for a state that bans gay marriage to not recognize gay marriages from other states? I think that may be a question the U.S. Supreme Court will have to address in the future.

I’ve felt a morale boost since the rulings on DOMA and Prop 8. I’m not gay, but I feel empathy for people who have experienced discrimination based on who they are. I was bullied a lot as a kid, something I’ve mentioned on this blog, and I was called fag and gay as a child. I heard it enough that I started to wonder if I really was gay. That is probably one reason that this progressive victory is so important to me. I feel a connection to homosexuals, because I know what it is like to be bullied for being different, even if the bullies were wrong about me being gay. I would like to see marriage legal in all 50 states and I think it is only a matter of time before that happens.

I also wanted to share something kind of amazing, at least it is to me. I used to watch The Ed Show on MSNBC sometimes when he was on during the week. Now Ed is on the weekends, so I try to catch it from time to time. It’s nice because there isn’t a lot of political shows on the weekends and Ed has always been a spirited guy, like him or not. So I was glad that he was talking about gay rights issues on Saturday’s show and I thought I’d send a tweet out to the show expressing how I felt about the legal decisions on DOMA and Prop 8. After I sent the tweet, I noticed I had a spelling error and contemplated deleting and re-tweeting. Well, I’m glad I didn’t, because my tweet ended up on the air! So, yes it is a bit embarrassing to have the spelling error on national TV, but whatever! It was exciting to see my tweet on-screen.

Overall, I think it was a pretty good week. I’m so happy that gay people in California have the right to marry again!

The Downside to Dating

 

 

 

 

EHarmony (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

 

I’m not an expert on dating, haven’t been on many dates myself, but I know enough that I feel like sharing. About a month or so ago, I took a chance on the crazy blind date app from okcupid. A nice idea, but it doesn’t work too well unless you live in a big city. Well, about a week or so ago I met a girl from eHarmony. We seemed like a good match and the guided communication process went by fast. We ended up having two dates, it was the first time I actually met someone in person from eHarmony. It does tend to be my favorite of all the dating sites out there.

 

Unfortunately, I don’t feel like she is the right girl for me, and so today I’m going to call her and tell her how I feel. I’ve had to reject girls in the past, but it’s not a common occurrence. I’m sure it’s understandable that I feel nervous about it. I know when I’m going to call and I have a good idea of what I’m going to say. There is a website that I got some helpful tips from: http://www.wikihow.com/Tell-Someone-You-Don’t-Want-to-Go-on-Another-Date

 

Telling someone you don’t want to date them anymore isn’t easy, but it’s better than to ignore the issue and hope nothing bad happens! I’m going to be direct, but nice. I think being honest is best and in this case I wouldn’t mind being friends with her. I’m also going to try to make it a short phone call. Better to get my feelings across and get it over with. I’ll see how she reacts and whether she wants to be friends. It’s an unfortunate situation, because I really wanted this to work out, but you can’t help how you feel. When your gut tells you it’s not going to work, you can’t ignore that.

 

I feel more comfortable dating again and I’m glad I had this experiences, because I learned that dating isn’t such a big deal. You’re just trying to find someone you like and it’s not the end of the world if it doesn’t work out. Obviously I’m more concerned about her feelings. I do think she’s attracted to me and wants to continue dating, so I’m sure she will be a little disappointed. I have a pretty good idea how she might feel about this, since I’ve been rejected plenty of times. I’d much rather be her in this situation, because then I wouldn’t have to be the one rejecting someone. This is the downside to dating, when the risk does not result in reward. However, it’s part of the process and I’m sure we both can move on from this experience.

 

Supreme Court Decisions

English: The Supreme Court of the United States. Washington, D.C. Français : La Cour suprême des États-Unis. Washington D.C., États-Unis. ‪Norsk (bokmål)â�¬: Høyesterett i USA. Washington, D.C. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Today The Supreme Court decided that genes that occur in the body naturally could not be patented. This is good news for people who are suffering from genetic diseases and looking for less expensive treatments. competition may now occur among pharmaceutical companies with genetic treatments. While it does me less money, pharmaceutical companies can still hold patents for genes that they create in a lab, known as synthetic genes. In my opinion, this was a good decision as it opens up availability of certain treatments and this means that there will be lives saved thanks to the ruling.

There are other rulings coming up, but probably the most anticipated rulings are on California’s Prop 8 law and the Defense of Marriage Act. Both of these cases are controversial, but I don’t think they should be. These cases are about civil liberty. We should all agree that people have the right to their own pursuit of happiness. Even if religion or philosophy disagrees, this country guarantees our right to be who we are without other people telling us what to do. This belief is apart of libertarianism, but I think it is a belief we can hopefully all agree upon.

Gay marriage’s main opponents are Christians and I understand their argument. I do not agree with it, because I feel it is forcing their views on all of us. If churches decide they don’t want to marry gay people, I think that should be their right. But the court-house cannot make that judgement. It must treat all people the same regardless of who they are. Even if the majority of people decide to vote to pass a law against a civil liberty, that law is unconstitutional. The constitution upholds the majority right to pass laws, but it also protects the minority’s rights and all civil rights. African-Americans would not have had the right to vote nor would have segregation been defeated if it had been put up to a majority vote.

If we now start to decide that The People can take away rights from others, we begin on a path that is a slippery slope. What’s to stop one group of people from wanting to restrict the rights of another group? What kind of example to we set to the world about freedom in general?