I Wanted to Stick My Hand in Dirt

Since I dutifully skim Northeastern's daily e-newsletter that clogs many people's emails, I saw an article linked to the New York Times about beneficial microbes in dirt as the chain of recent newsletters focused on bacteria research. This was near the innately stressful finals week. This was also near when Facebook thankfully informed me that it was World Naked Gardening Day.

Beam me up, sun!

Since I was a prim person in my childhood, I was afraid of getting dirty when "playing" (standing) in the grass at the park or if bugs, particularly ants, would get into weird places. I still feel that I, as a rational person, don't want to get my clothes dirty and sit on the grass, although part of me wants to if laundry wasn't such a hassle.

Anyways, since exams lingered on my mind even though I didn't want them to and didn't study much, I strongly felt that hippie nature would be a much needed boost to my immune system like a completely organic Emergen-C, which I never drank before. Therefore, I saw a big ceramic pot of earthy brown dirt that I wanted to stick my hand in to feel the nutrients. However, I didn't do this at the last minute since I was afraid of strangers seeing and judging me in the unusual act of molesting the dirt.

Now, it's easy to say, "You should have done it" when reading this on the Internet, but imagine if you were in my position of desperately seeking microbes and students were passing by to see an Asian guy with his hand in a pot of dirt. That would be awkward. Sometimes thoughts spring out of an OCD, but I really felt that my body would feel good with my hand touching nature.

Please Take at Your Leisure : )

What goodies are inside Pandora's box?

It's move-out season, and I think what's left in the "Please Take at Your Leisure : )" box at Kennedy Hall illustrates the desperation. Initially, there were garbage bags for packing, but those were all taken like they were free handbags on Oprah. This is, truly, the tragedy of the commons.

Let's look at what's left from donors and benefactors: silica gel, gluten-free rice cakes, a ketchup pack, peanut butter from our room, and an empty bag of beef jerky. The last one requires a, "Seriously?" as the donor was probably too lazy to walk a few more steps to the basement trash cans, or someone ate it all in cold blood. Truthfully, I would be irrationally afraid of eating that and the big tinfoil loaf labeled "Panera Bread" that was eventually taken. I also considered taking all the exotic Lipton teas, but I was wary of the sugary ingredients. Later, they were gone.

Clearly, I am not asking for better freebies but merely musing on economics and the transitivity of life through a cardboard box of invalids and half-disposables. Would you like some silica gel with your gluten-free rice cakes and peanut butter?

The joy of cleaning my dorm

I Don't Like Blogs About Blogging

First, I am reluctant to call myself a blogger due to mysteriously negative connotations. However, there is a certain breed of blogs run by intelligent, opportunistic people who capitalize on the moderately dead but never fully-dead allure of blogging. They mostly sell pipe dreams which can be seen in many shady industries like penny stocks, covered call writing (which can work I guess), and the lottery.

I may sound like a spited person because I am not a successful blogger, although that can't be expected for a website two weeks old, and I will test basic monetization strategies in the future. However, my website's main purposes will probably be to advertise future services and allow me to write as a hobby.

I'm sure some people end up successful. SOME. However, in the mostly competitive Internet marketplace, this is like selling hopium or, as the phrase goes, "shovels to gold prospectors" during the Gold Rush. That is an intelligent business idea.

Monkeys at the zoo

However, the image of the super-successful blogger used to market crap is like the monkey who takes a crap on all the other monkeys by taking their money through ebooks, courses, and other paraphernalia. I'm not saying that the value of blogs about blogging is completely worthless, but the majority of the time it is. They provide unrealistic expectations with most of their attractiveness coming from the fantasy they sell, and only a fraction of vocal supporters experience strong gains.

My advice is that for small-scale websites, don't buy any advice unless it has essential value-added as most information can be found for free on the Internet even if provided in piecemeal by the blogs about blogging. The irony is that I just made a blog post about blogging and that there may be tinges of hypocrisy, but I prefer blogs with different purposes.

Chinese Dreams

Don't judge me, I was hungry...

I have a hazy, distant memory of stuffing my face at a buffet at a hotel in China. After, when we were walking down the stairs, live music greeted us. A pianist played smoothly while a "pretty woman" (said in Cantonese by a girl in the group as "liang lui") was singing in clearly enunciated, near-perfect English. She was singing to almost no audience as the hotel was near-empty on a Thursday night, which made me romantically recall this time. Currently, I am writing for almost no one and mostly for the joy of myself.

This made me wonder, glistening, neon metropolis, how you can have a time and place of such emptiness and loneliness for reflection, in a city of millions of people? China is both poor and wealthy. I wanted to stay and listen, but that would be awkward, and we had to part.

Lonely night

"Beast Mode" - Turn Off Animations in Windows 8 and Android

She turned off animations.

If you are a free spirit who flies like a hummingbird and don't want to be encumbered by animations or suffer motion sickness from badly-rendered 3D, then consider turning off animations in your Windows 8 and Android.

Windows 8
For Windows 8, there are two components to turn off animations. First, I think it is more convenient to use the search shortcut Windows+S rather than swiping manically with the mouse or touchscreen and searching for "PC settings." Open the Metro "PC settings" app version, and go to "Ease of Access." Go to "Other options," and turn "Play animations in Windows" off.

Next, search (Windows+S) "View advanced system settings," and click on "Settings..." under "Performance" to get to Visual Effects. Here are my minimal preferred settings that I find provide the least frictional issues.

Android

For Android, here is a more complete guide by How-To Geek. Basically, if Developer Options aren't available, activate them by going to "About Device," and keep tapping "Build Number" until they appear. Then, in Developer Options, turn off "Window animation scale," "Transition animation scale," and "Animator duration scale."

It may take some adjustment to what now seems like a jerky lack of motions, but you'll probably find your productivity, battery life, and Sonic the Hedgehog need-for-speed aided.