Tuesday, March 30, 2010

Green Government

UNT ain't such a mean place, despite what everybody says about us. You know, Mean Green? In fact, I take the Mean Green bus route to class every morning. I've never been threatened or hurt on the bus, for that matter. I think it's kind of nice being green. And no matter what Kermit tells you, it really isn't that hard being green.


Why the Green talk? University of North Texas students are voting on a proposed tuition fee of an extra $5 that has been dubbed the "Green Fee" to "support environmental improvements and sustainability efforts on campus. Ideas could include a student-run sustainable garden or additional trees, solar panels on buildings, a composting center or improved recycling equipment." (Source).

The vote will take place from April 19 - 23. If you are a current UNT Student, go to the Student Government Association site that week to vote.

Speaking of the SGA site, there are referendums and senator elections going on right now! This week, vote for your major's representatives and for who should be the president/vice president of the SGA!

As for the school of Engineering, there is only one student running for a seat - Jasmine Breedlove! I guess she wins since no one else decided to run against her. Represent us well Jasmine! To be honest, I didn't know anything about the SGA until last week. So now I'm passing on the word to you.

Friday, March 26, 2010

Geeks of The Future

I'd like to ask, who invented 3D goggles? Or 3D in general. I know we started off with those neat blue and red glasses that were just pieces of plastic taped over a cardboard cutout that we could put on and pretend everything was in 3D. Let's be real with ourselves though: those things didn't work worth diddly. In addition, we looked like goof balls wearing them.

Sweet, Rad Racer 3D on the NES!
Fast forward two and a half decades and we have 3D TVs coming into homes! And this time they actually give a satisfying 3D effect. One thing is still troubling me though. And it's obvious that this was a bunch of nerds designing these because... well just take a look:

Here's a picture of me with my usual shades. I'm so stylin

3D Glasses^^

See the problem? Watching 3D TV isn't something you can do and cook dinner, or something you can have on in the background while hanging out with people or throwing a party. It's an experience you must set everything else aside for to enjoy. Even watching movies with your significant other may take a way more exciting shift as you look at each other wearing these glasses, and see who can pull off the best Zing on the other! Seriously I look like an Android or something wearing those.

I'm not sure why they're so clunky, large, and just overall unappealing. Today's engineers are on the right track, for sure, but there is something lacking. Something that a strictly engineering major may not be able to catch or care about in the first place. Thankfully, UNT has a healthy balance of Engineers, Radio/TV/Film, and Art majors to balance out this act. Had 3D glasses been born at UNT, I'm sure there would have been a fantastic compromise, and we'd have something more akin to the Star Trek glasses from the movies. Now those are something I could wear around the house.

Monday, March 22, 2010

Break Time's Over

I hope everyone had a refreshing Spring Break. By the obvious absence of posts recently, I can assure you I did. What made it so great? I'm glad you asked. Even if you didn't ask, here's why:

My roommate and I went to downtown Dallas last weekend. We didn't travel further than a mile away from the dorms over the break, so we figured before school started back up, we were going to make a road trip. And a road trip did we make

A small one, to be sure, but one none the less. We visited North and Downtown Dallas areas to see what the city was all about. An interesting place, to be sure. We rode the Red Line DART rail to downtown Dallas. Speaking of DART, they are expanding closer to Denton! The Green Line will be making its way toward Denton

Alright so President George Bush Turnpike isn't quite Denton, but we're getting there. It's always an interesting experience to take public transit to hot destinations downtown. One of these days perhaps I'll see a Mavericks game..

All in all, my Spring Break was pretty grand, so thank your for asking. I did spend a significant chunk of it catching up on some Information Systems classwork. Our site was knocked for a loop, but it's back up and running to be sure.

Class doesn't wait up for anyone though, and we're back in the game!

Remember: FAFSA deadline is June 30!

Sunday, March 7, 2010

Keep Denton Beautiful

This weekend, I volunteered at Keep Denton Beautiful's "Great American Cleanup"


It wasn't required for a class, I didn't get sentenced to community service, and no one paid me to do it, I just volunteered... My roommate however, was required to, as it was part of a class he is in. I decided to tag along!
We spent the morning, from 8:00 AM to 12:00 PM cleaning up the town. Any place as big as Denton will need a cleanup every once and a while, so I was happy to play my part. I won't say I enjoy cleaning up after others, as others should not arbitrarily be throwing their lottery tickets and beer bottles out their car windows. But if it means a greener society, then I am willing to spend some time. Had I not come along, my roommate would have been by himself. Cleaning a city requires at least one other person to tag along, I was happy to oblige.

I'd say this is the best piece of trash I found

All in all, it was a successful day. Any day of picking up trash for a cleaner Earth is a successful day, mind you. I've always heard you can learn a lot from a person's trash. Well you can learn a lot more about a society by its trash as well. For example, Dentonites love their lottery tickets, 7-11 drinks, and beverages.


Anyway, we had 4 bags to turn in at the end. Two trash bags, two recycling. It was nice seeing so many people come together and clean up a city. There should be more Great American Cleanup days! I encourage everyone out there to lend a hand as well!! Besides, it looks fantastic on college applications, job applications, and girlfriend scholarship applications.

Monday, March 1, 2010

Genius

As part of going to college, you get to learn how to deal with all sorts of situations you never thought you would have had to. Deciding whether sleep or homework is more important, saying bye to friends at 1 in the morning as opposed to 4 in the morning, and dealing with washed ipods

Yes indeed, I washed my ipod in the pocket of one of my pants. As by a miracle of some sort of supreme being, or corporation which makes decent (lol) hardware, the device is still fully functional... well... with the exception of one significant caveat - the Wifi doesn't work... That's the #2 thing I liked about the ipod. The #1 must be the music browsing/playing software on it. I like just searching for the song I want to hear instead of sifting through long lists of MP3s and artists. I wish the Android had something akin to this.

So what's the first thing I do with broken Apple equipment? Take it to the Apple Store! Granted I hate the Apple store. I have fun whenever I'm in there, for sure, but most of the time it's cracking jokes about their store. For example, here's a picture of the Apple Store's wall of software:

An entire wall just for software for your Mac. I didn't know they could fill up an entire wall!! hahahahahaha

*wipes tear* ah that was a good one. Get it? Macs don't have that much software so to fill up an entire wall of Mac OSX software is so surp-....

ah ehm well.. I think you get it.

No but seriously we went there and spoke to a sales associate about my ipod. He said he wasn't sure what he could do for me, and that I had to speak with a tech support guy Genius rep to figure out what was wrong with it. Why do they call themselves Geniuses? To me it shouts many things, but for the sake of this blog, I'll go ahead and just say that that's what people perceive techies and engineers to be. Between the Geek Squad and the Genius Bar, nerds are the go-to people for anything you're not sure of. Another reason I'm confident in my decision to study in engineering and IT!!