Why Do You Blog?

Why do you blog?

Do you do it because you love writing and have a lot of stuff you think someone else in this world of 6+ billion people might want to actually read what you are saying?

Do you do it because you are pretty damn smart when it comes to a topic?

Do you blog because sometimes you just need to let it all out?

Do you blog because someone has asked you to put your thoughts down someplace?

Do you blog because you are just too lazy to write a book?

If you said yes to any of these: CONGRATULATIONS! You are doing exactly what millions of other people are doing and you are doing it for the right reason!

Next question(s).

Have you ever:

Written a blog entry with pretty much the same material as something you've read somewhere else recently?

Written about something you know nothing about just because it was the "hot topic of the day" on Digg/Fark/Reddit or any other user-driven news site?

Wrote a blog entry for the sole purpose of gaining attention, "fame" or just because you are a selfish prick?

If you answered yes to any or all of these, stop what you are doing and re-evaluate why you blog. The blogosphere is full of people who enjoy writing and are good at what they do. They know their "stuff" and there is a reason they are riding high on Digg!

It's amazing how many times I read something yesterday in the Digg Upcoming section about the Apple SDK, iPhone 2.0 and Spore release coming in June and September. I'm sorry but if the technology blogs from websites like Lifehacker, Ars Technica, Wired and Macworld, to name a few, are covering this and providing all the information, why do I need to read it from 32 other bloggers that are just repeating everything that has already been said.

Broken record news reports don't suck people into your blog or website people.

Be creative! Use some ingenuity!

I'll "Digg" you and "Shout" it to all my friends if you come up with something worth reading!

Please return the favor if you agree!

Have a great day!

An Online Music Exploration

In today's world, no one has CD's or albums or cassettes or 8-tracks anymore. That would be a waste, right? We have digital music formats like mp3's and wav's and hard drives that seem to be reaching the infinite amount of storage for these formats! Guess what? That's awesome!

Unfortunately, after the Napster breakdown and an increased awareness of copyright laws and protection, users now have to pay for songs they download from the Internet. But like any good American law, there is a loop hole!

As I hope to attend law school after this academic year, I've taken an interest lately in finding some of the programs that allow users to find those loopholes and use them for their own benefit.  My last post is very evident of that with the idea of BitTorrent and easy access to blockbuster movies.

The programs that follow can actually be designated into three groups: programs for users that have a lot of music that they want to access at every computer and programs for users that want to accumulate a lot of music, and lastly a program that does both...kind of.

First, a program for those users who have a ton of music and want it available while they are at work, on vacation or just checking their e-mail from a computer that is not their own.

Personally, I am blessed enough to be dating a wonderful girl who's father happened to attain an external hard drive with more (organized) music than I even knew existed. In turn, I happened to receive a copy of this hard drive as a gift! Unfortunately, I would say it is more than a hassle to try to carry the external hard drive around to listen to the massive variety of music. I was, however, fortunate enough to stumble across an article at Lifehacker that talks about a program that would solve my issues. The program is Anywhere.FM and it is on my list of programs to utilize to the fullest extent. The article explains all that this program can do!

Secondly, the program for those of you who want to create a library and not pay a fortune for it. SpiralFrog is currently in a beta testing program that allows you to download music at no cost to you. I just received confirmation that I am a lucky one to test out the beta and it's great! It's a small, simple download and the database of music is HUGE! Just enter your e-mail address in and hope for an invitation in a week or so.

Warning: make sure you have a big hard drive because there is a lot of music for FREE!

And the last program is called Deezer. I've been using this program for a few days and I love it. This online program allows you to listen to all of your favorite newer songs (1980's until now) without actually downloading them. They are streamed online so you don't have to worry about filling your hard drive (this is great for me!) You must register with Deezer and then let the playlist creation begin! Go nuts!

That's my quick overview of the online music programs that are worth noting! I could be wrong and there could be more! Prove me wrong!

Have a great day!

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A Little Advanced Tech Insight on Earth Day

As everyone probably knows, Sunday is Earth Day. Environmentalists rejoice! Al Gore's Christmas! A good day to start taking note of the environment and the world you live in.

Considering the main focus of this blog has been technology and college life viewpoints, I thought I would share a great website to anyone on any kind of budget that shows immediate results: greendimes.com.

With as much as I detest to admit it, I saw Matt Damon (thank you Team America) talk about this site on of all shows: The Oprah Winfrey Show. Credit where credit is due.

This site is based around a great concept! I will leave it up to the readers to find all of the interesting facts about this site, but the general concept is simple. Everyday, just about everyone that has submitted any kind of form receives "junk mail" (e.g. flyers, credit card offers) that are all printed on paper. Most of the time, these are recycled and reused for the betterment of the world. But, what if we were to limit the number of those received in order to reduce the number of trees and gallons of water needed to make the paper? This sites promises to do just that with the donation of $.10 a day! $3 dollars a month!

It's a great project and one could only imagine the possibilities if this website is successful! Give it a try and see what happens! The list of benefits can found on a fairly easy to navigate website and I recommend that everyone at least give it a glance.

Other websites like Lifehacker are running a few articles on ways to go green in your home and with your computer. I can only imagine that many other sites are, or will be, doing that as well.

So on Sunday, take notice of the beautiful world we live in and try to do your part for the rest of the world. Environmentalism is not one of my strong suits, but there are things that everyone can do to help out!

Feel free to leave comments, subscribe to my blog through RSS or E-mail now and have a great evening!

Technorati Tags: Earth Day, Al Gore, greendimes.com, Lifehacker, enviromentalism

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Thank a Higher Power that it is Spring Break!

Sorry for not posting anything in a few weeks. My mind and body have been on two completely different levels and both still in overdrive. I just handed in my fourth midterm paper/test with the last to follow after spring break!

I cannot tell you how excited I am to be getting away for a bit. I spent last weekend at home and it was wonderful, but a longer break is needed some place warm. I think Mexico is going to be the key. I'm planning on posting an online album of Mexico when I get back so you can all see.

(It is amazing how quickly colonialism in literature, foundations of monotheistic religions, the greek and french languages and the study of schemes and tropes can wear you out.)

Well I thought I would at least give you all a heads up to what is going on my life and what the plans are for the immediate future. Future blog postings I have in mind will probably revolve around Mexico pictures and Linux. ( Where did that come from?)

Working with computers can sometimes be a disaster for users and technicians alike. No matter how hard you try, something just doesn't work right. Over the past few weeks I've been messing around with an open-source project known as Ubuntu Linux. It's an amazing product and the best part is that it is FREE! I'll devote an entire blog to this after Mexico but if you would like to read up on it, I'll post a link.

A quick side note: There is a great site called www.lifehacker.com that basically covers all kinds of tweaks for your computer as well as your life and it's updated several times a day so it never gets old! Test it out. I'll put a link up for that as well!

Alright, time to finish some packing and get on the road but have a great week everyone and as always feel free to leave your comments :)