Blog of Josh Hall

10.  I learned a lot about php, mysql, SEO, html, java, web design, social networking, webtraffic, and a lot of other geeky stuff that’s come in handy in my job and in my personal life.  Sometimes, just doing things is the best learning tool.

9.  When my dad passed, a college friend of his emailed me and said he liked my dad and was sad to learn about his death.  This guy didn’t know me, and I didn’t know him, but I like to think we helped each other heal there too.  He probably felt like he got his message across and got to say good bye, and I got a picture of my dad that I didn’t have before.  Good stuff.

8.  Can you believe people have asked me to give stuff away on my blog?  Heck ya!  I love free stuff.  I love giving away free stuff even more!

7.  When Kallie and I got married, I started doing a genealogy of her family.  After one her relatives found my blog doing a search for “Sealock”, he found my site and we ended up matching our family trees together.  Fun!

6.  This has been a journal and diary for me in a lot of ways.  I’ve gotten lots of entertainment looking at past blog posts and not remember saying those things.  Dreams, rants, or even saying things that other people said is a lot of fun to revisit.

5.  Back in the fall of 2007, I got asked if I knew of a LEGO artist in Pittsburgh.  I said no, but asked if I could help for what they were looking for.  Long story short, I was asked to teach a after school program to some 20 elementary kids.  I’ve taught the 6 week sessions twice and I love it and am so grateful for that opportunity!

4.  When I first started blogging, there weren’t many people out there blogging about their personal lives.  As it caught on, pittsburgh area bloggers started networking with one another.  I certainly have not gotten as close as many of the others have gotten to each other, and that’s largely my own fault, but I still feel connected to them and have gone to some meet ups to socialize.  ONLINE FRIENDS TURNED 3D ZOMG.

3.  Separate from just seeing the history of my thoughts, just being able to express myself, or type out my ideas is therapeutic and calming.  As the blogging platform gets better, it becomes easier for me to type up ideas instead of mulling them over in my head or possibly forgetting them.  I’m able to create drafts, schedule posts, and it’s no longer a chore, but an outlet that I’m able to make work for me.

2.  I’ve lost contact with friends over the years.  Sometimes, those people find me again through my blog after not knowing how to get in contact with me.  Even people that I was only acquaintances with in the first place has stumbled upon my blog and sent me a message letting me know about the small world scenario.  It’s funny when it happens.

1.  You reading this.  Honestly, it’s nice to be able to share my thoughts openly, and then people know how or what I’m thinking and respond back.  It’s kind of like an open invitation to a conversation with me; something I’m not good at anyway.  I’m not afraid of people who know too much about me because they stalked me on my blog.  If that’s how they like to spend their time, who am I to judge?  It’s creating the real world connections that make this blog so fruitful, for me.

If you’re in Pittsburgh this weekend, make sure you check out the Three Rivers Regatta!  The Regatta is always a blast and this year there’s a huge sand sculpture!  of course there are fireworks.  There are always fireworks in Pittsburgh.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/divinehammer42

1. There’s no delete key.  There’s a backspace, to remove characters from right to left, but there’s no way to delete characters from left to right.
2. Prices are ridiculous.  Especially after they switched to Intel based hardware, prices should have dropped significantly.
3. Their CD/DVD drives sound like death.  All of them.  WHY?!?!?!  RRRRBBBBBRRRRZZZZRAREARE.  Every time you eject or insert, it sounds like 100 little bugs in there are choking on asbestos and they’re about to die which means you’ll never see your disk again.
4. Proprietary hardware is proprietary.  It’s so stupid that I can’t just go buy the hardware that fails and replace it myself.  In the PC world, it works just the the automobile industry.  You have a choice to fix it yourself or not.  Apple says you have to let them fix it and you can’t get the hardware out or in without voiding warranty.
5. Planned obsolescence.  They’ve forced depreciation on their customers.  With their latest generation of the ipad, they even reused the name of the first generation, so you have no clue what you’re getting any more, just that if you haven’t bought it in the past year from them, it’s old and dated.
6. What are they giving back?  Steve Jobs himself was not a fan of philanthropy.  I may just be unaware, but I don’t see huge innovation competitions or research grants or programs coming out of Apple.  Where is the investment in future of people?  future of technology? of society?  I don’t like it.
7. Pay no attention to the man behind the curtain hype.  Most companies get beta testers for their new products.  They’ll have honest excitement and information and let everyone know what they’re working on.  Not Apple.  Everything is shrouded in mystery until their big unveiling press conferences.  So much hype.  I’m almost positive that strategy stems from legal paranoia or even actually stealing technology but releasing it before anyone has time to stop them.  Secrecy makes me not want to trust you.
8. Itunes on Windows is a load of crap.  I think they do it intentionally.  There’s no plugin support or API to add functionality or change it around or even customize the appearance.  Not to mention the huge memory leaks and errors.  You see Microsoft spending a lot of time and money making it’s products work on macs, but it’s not the same the other way around.  Even take a look at how they treat their app store developers.  They deny apps based on their mood that day and then turn around and put the same functionality themselves!  ^%$&3@$F
9. You need a third hand for key combinations.  I mean, come on!  4 different keys pressed at the same time and they’re no where near each other?  I feel like I’m playing a micro game of twister.
10. I hate gestures.  More prevalent on the laptops, I hate having to gesture on the mousepad to see what windows I have open or perform certain functions.  I have the same distaste for gesture driven browsing on PC.

Honorable mentions:

• No double click on the mouse – There are ways around this now, but that ticked me off that I had to use the keyboard and the mouse at the same time to perform a function.  Isn’t Apple supposed to be known for their interface design?  Or is it just their looks?
• I hate how the system bar changes by what application is open.  It’s as if there’s no way to get back to the operating system functions without closing every application you have open.

Your intelligence in any given moment has a direct correlation with your ability to access the internet.

Related: http://xkcd.com/903/

The bracelet labeled “Corporate Whore”,

I’ve worn since I got my foot in the door,

They bent me over the desk, and I begged to work more,

So that I can pay for things I can’t afford.

The watch that ticks the time,

Reminds me of times I watched slip by,

Every opportunity missed, and chance denied,

And the limited future, until the day I die.

The girlfriend’s hair thing I wear,

A display of affection for the one I care,

A trinket of hope in times of despair,

The band-aid covering my heart’s bleeding tear.

Slave to these charms,

Owned by their meaning,

No one will be keying,

These shackled arms.

a nice write up in the Wall Street Journal on how houses in the Pittsburgh area keep increasing in value even through the housing bubble pop.  It even goes into some specific houses and neighborhoods around the city.  It’s a great place and time to buy… *cough* *cough*
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052702303657404576363150295506130.html?mod=WSJ_RealEstate_LeftTopNews