Archive for July, 2005
July 31, 2005 at 5:58 pm · Filed under Site Specific
Woo hoo! If you search for eggo waffles via Google my site comes up in 5th place!!! (For today at least)
I found the page on my DreamHost “Control Panel” where I can view my web statistics. It’s very humbling to think that people I don’t know are stumbling across my webpage while searching for “meggo” or “sceliphron” or “black and red rims”. They don’t expect to find this, they are probably looking for useful information. Yet they might follow a link to this page and they might even read a few posts… …might. If I’m reading these stats right, 11.9% of my hits are coming from Isreal. I do not know anybody who lives in Isreal.
I’m being quite amused with this statistics and how I may interpret them. Maybe I will develop some “theories” on why people might visit my site. More later then.
July 29, 2005 at 11:04 pm · Filed under Computers, Mundane, Work
maybe even more
spent the time trying to figure out why a simple piece of java was not compiling. It could not revolve the most rudimentry classes of the JDBC. I just found my problem…just now…laying in my bed because I couldn’t fall asleep before solving it. After all the playing around with classpaths and exploring the directory structure of the Java SDK on a Mac I realized that instead of “import java.sql.*;” I had written “import javax.sql.*;”.
grrr.
July 28, 2005 at 10:52 pm · Filed under Sweet Finds
-{ Hanttula.com }- -{ Presents: The Museum of Food Anomalies� }-
Some of the little faces on this page are soo cute. Reminds me of the Mr. Power Outlet.
July 27, 2005 at 11:49 pm · Filed under I am feeling..., Reflection
Tonight that’s what I’m feeling a bit. Not a loser in the sense of not being accomplished. More of a geek. But not that computer / engineer type geek that is considered pretty cool (by other computer / engineer types??) Just a little awkward, a little trying to hard. I’m wondering how much I’ve tried to hard, been manipulative, been too choosey with my words, rather than purely be myself and say what I’m thinking. That leads me to wonder if I’m better off staying quiet, or if I should speak my mind.
These thoughts are influenced by the reading of many blogs lately. There are specifically two that I have been enjoying:
Stephanie Klein
The Daily Isolate
Both written by really funny, honest, smart women. They say what they are thinking (it seems). They tell of embarrassing moments, obscene moments, they mention names, they state opinions, they joke. It inspires me to write in the same way, but when I try to I stop. I’ll be walking home from school and I will be composing a blog entry in my head but when I finally get to a computer I think, “no that might not be appropriate”. I’m always considering, who might read this page? My mother, a relative, a potential employer, a friend who might wish to correct my story of some event we shared together?
This is why I feel a tiny weeny bit like a loser. I’m a loser in the sense that I’m letting all my worries of what “someone” might think get in the way of really letting people know what I am thinking.
I don’t know if I can change that. I don’t know if I should change that. But I’m thinking about it. I”m thinking that maybe I’m locking certain doors of opinions and feelings and dreams that should be opened. Otherwise when I die (someday) there will be so much that I never shared with people. So much that I may have missed out on because of that.
Did you know that I even pre-wrote this entry in TextPad because I wasn’t sure where it was going? I wanted to keep it in the safety of my personal digital realm before making any decisions on its unleashment. (Yes I also might start to make up more words). I wouldn’t want to say “the wrong thing” and publish that online, no.
Oh boy, getting tired cause it’s late (for me). Will maybe open up tomorrow, for now – sleep.
July 18, 2005 at 7:51 am · Filed under In the News, Reflection
The CTV news covered the story that one of the Vancouver Aquarium Beluga whales, a young one, died yesterday. The cause of his death has not yet been explained and prior to the moment, he was a healthy, happy, almost 3-year-old.
Tuvaq’s death is already making the voices of animal rights activists ring higher. They say that 5 baby whales have died at the aquarium since 1977. They say it is cruel to keep the Belugas in captivity. Much is true to that but I still find myself quite divided. I feel guilty that I go to the aquarium to enjoy watching the Belugas, that our Echology project is based on a webcam used to watch these whales trapped in their tank. On the other hand, I find the Belugas so incredible, so amazing to watch that I would be very sad if they were at the aquarium no longer. I think there are many people in Vancouver who feel that way, a number of them who may have developed relationships with the Belugas. These people may not feel as though the Belugas home at the aquarium is cruel. They may feel the Belugas are part of a family, that they like to be there as much as we do.
It’s really hard to say. I feel really mixed about it. I do know that after watching hours and hours of the Belugas via the webcam, I can say that they always seemed really really happy. Maybe they cannot control the little upward curls at the corner of their mouths so that they portray more sadness for their situation. Maybe I just don’t know what a sad whale looks like. But I’ve felt sadness from animals before so I think it’s something that humans can be in touch with if they open that door. The Beluga whales always seem so happy, so playful.
The attitude of some folk at the aquarium scares me somewhat, complaining about children having to see the dead Beluga:
A crane lifted Tuvaq’s body from the pool — in full view of on looking children, which had some parents muttering there could have been a better time to do it.
This angers me quite a bit. First of all because it would have been obvious what was going on and there is plenty of room for parents to usher their children back into the aquarium. Secondly because it seems as though these parents are avoiding any responsibility in teaching their children the facts of nature – death and all. While the aquarium strives to not just display the creatures, but to make them a family, educate people, and conduct research hoping to benefit the sea life, it’s likely that some people still see the place as entertainment for their children.
I don’t hate kids. I don’t hate their parents. I just wonder at times if zoos and aquariums shouldn’t be adult only. I wondered this during my visit to the San Francisco zoo a year back. The place was littered with screaming, yelling, extremely hyperactive kids. It broke my heart to see that these wise animals received none of the respect they should.
So, I think that maybe it was good for some children to see the passing away of Tuvaq. It may help them understand the facts of nature. It may help them realize that the Begulas are more than a display, but they have souls just like us (I think) and should be treated with the same respect they would treat their friends and family.
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