EtherThoughts
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Below are the 16 most recent journal entries recorded in the "Joseph Becher" journal:
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11:33 pm
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Nude art
It’s very hard to find art in pornography these days. Most of the time I’m not looking for actual porn, but art. Even so-called ’softcore’ photography doesn’t count as art. Softcore used to be photos of beautiful woman. Now it’s photographs of woman who are stripping their ways towards nudity and trying to look sext while doing it. No thanks.
I like nude art. It’s not easy to find though. Thats why I was pleasantly surprised when I reinstalled the StumbleUpon toolbar. StumbleUpon is a website system that allows you to randomly cross the web of sites that other users have posted and voted on in a blissful, never ending stream of joy. From photos, to videos, to articles. If you want to narrow it down, you can pick a category and ’stumble’ though that. And they have a ‘Nude Art’ catagory. Ahh, bliss.
Originally published at The website of Joseph Becher. Please leave any comments there.
Tags: thoughts
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11:29 am
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Good Design
The Official Google Blog defines 10 things that the user experience teams feels makes good code:
1. Focus on people—their lives, their work, their dreams.
2. Every millisecond counts.
3. Simplicity is powerful.
4. Engage beginners and attract experts.
5. Dare to innovate.
6. Design for the world.
7. Plan for today’s and tomorrow’s business.
8. Delight the eye without distracting the mind.
9. Be worthy of people’s trust.
10. Add a human touch.
For the most part I think my programming follows these guidelines.
Focus on people. If I didn’t care about my users I wouldn’t listen to them. Any problems or ideas that JWebGen users have gets handled promptly.
Every millisecond counts. That’s kinda a tough one. I haven’t mastered the habit of placing timing code into my programs. Generally I don’t place a high priority on this item because I can’t remember ever getting a comment about the speed.
Simplicity is powerful. This one always trips me up. As I mentioned in a prior post, I have a big problem trying to design first, code later. Who cares how how dirty the code is if the end result and user interface is fast and clean? I don’t.
Engage beginners and attract experts. JWebGen doesn’t have a place for experts. Everybody can see how to use it and it doesn’t need a manual. I rest my case. If it needs a manual you have a problem. Users don’t read, and shouldn’t have to.
Dare to innovate. Why do it the same as everyone else? Do it your way. It sets you apart and people will either love it or hate it. If they hate it, they will either tell you or they won’t. Don’t sweat it.
Design for the world. Designers and programmers aren’t always users. What makes sense to them doesn’t always work for us. If you can use your creation, and want to, and it requires very few questions of ‘How do I do this?’ they you succeeded. It’s nice to feel needed, but don’t be silly.
Plan for today’s and tomorrow’s business. In the case of JWebGen, that really just means programming for the future. Can you easily add new features? How bad will things break? Will they break at all? Is your code static, or can it grow?
Delight the eye without distracting the mind. Is it good to look at? Does it have extra pretties that aren’t needed? Extra fluff? Not enough visuals?
Be worthy of people’s trust. It’s fine to create a privacy statement but lets face it, people don’t read them. Either people trust you or they doesn’t. If you except people to locate a privacy statement and be convinced they should trust you then you’ve lost. People shouldn’t even think about this. Be trustworthy.
Add a human touch. I talk to my users. In my code, on my site. Don’t script. People are human. Speak to your users. Build a relationship. Be informal. Banter. If your users know you, if they trust you they want to use what you give them. They know it’s for them, not that it has a hidden reason for you.
Originally published at The website of Joseph Becher. Please leave any comments there.
Tags: programming, thoughts, website
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09:56 am
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DNS360
Almost forgot. To help out with my Time Warner duties I created a new little tool, DNS 360. It’s great for pulling WHOIS and DNS records. There are some changes I’d like to make, but it works for now. Check it out if you want.
Originally published at The website of Joseph Becher. Please leave any comments there.
Tags: thoughts
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09:54 am
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Still around…
It’s been a month since my last update. Credit Flock with getting that one out to you, although I don’t use the browser. Call me old-school (or new) I like my Firefox. Version 3 is close to release and Parent Folder is 100% compatible with Beta 5.
On the JWebGen front, I added a feature called Surprise me that is a bit hit. Simple code, amazing results. It’s interesting, but I can only program when I just do. Any attempt to design or plan first hits a dead end. Trance helps as well. To those who follow my Last.fm you will see a fair amount of trance showing up. That often means I’m slinging code, and this time is no exception. Not saying what is is because it’s rough and I want it to be a surprise, but there is progress. I just need graphics.
That’s the update. Until next time, keep it turned here, same time, same great station.
Originally published at The website of Joseph Becher. Please leave any comments there.
Tags: programming, thoughts, website
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11:48 pm
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MobHappy » Blog Archive » Dead Happy
MobHappy » Blog Archive » Dead Happy
Proof there is still ‘good’ news.
Originally published at The website of Joseph Becher. Please leave any comments there.
Tags: thoughts
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12:38 am
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It can work...
 Oh God!For Katie it was Stigmata. For me, it was a slightly older movie with a slightly different message. It's up to us. Religion is false. There's a part of my beliefs that that says that the master truth is spead thoughout all the religions of the world. I think it comes from a line where God names all the religious heads as his sons. I still believe it. I don't know when I watched this movie, seeing as it was made a year before I was even born. It is a good movie as I still remember lines from it. I just watched it again today. I still love it. You should see it if you ever get the chance. Current Mood:  calm
Tags: burns, denvers, god, movies, religion, reviews, thoughts, truths
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01:02 pm
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Thoughts...do I ever do anything else?
So I guess it's time for a real post. I'm in the correct mood, so here we go.
The upstairs neighbors are playing whatever song inspired White and Nerdy. I'll Post White and Nerdy over at my other journal. It's at Vox. You get to find it yourself.
Having fun at work. I finally got laid off from CompUSA so I have me days free. It's such a great feeling. First nice day we have I'm going to clean. It's too dreay today. I need to add another bulb to this light, or find a second light for my desk. I also need to get a desk and a good chair. Maybe soon. When I'm done here I'll go look online. I assume they are around $100 for the kind I want.
I'm working the night shift at work and weekends. Good money and the free cable and internet helps. I'm not sure I'll make bonus this month though. My call times have to be 12 mins. Currently I'm at 12:34 MTD. I need them down below twelve in the next few days to pass my mid-month scorecard.
I want to start programming again. I would work on Parent Folder but I lost interest. Maybe I'll do something big and learn flash. I'll hunt down the tablet or something.
Well, that's as big an entry as I can come up with. Hope you all enjoyed it.
--Joe
Current Location: Semi-bored, Moody
Current Music: Katie's Computer - Fans go Whurrr
Tags: thoughts
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01:50 pm
[Link] | Inner peace. There are many ways to this goal. I like Buddha but I also like Zen.
What attracts me is the flow. Chris is talking, I have eaten, and I just took a shower. I have misplaced my thoughts.
I want to start eating healthy again. My body feels polluted. I didn't like eating healthy, but I was younger and stubborn. Now, I miss it.
I need to spend less time on the computer and more time doing other things. I need to remember what I used to do and find more things that I did not know I liked.
Music time.
Current Mood: Deep
Tags: clean, flow, food, health, thoughts, zen
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10:40 pm
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Trash it.
I was reading though the @inbox tag on my del.icio.us bookmarks and I came across an entry that's I'd saved from Discardian called Habit or Intent?
In a nutshell it asks what would happen if your todo list just went away. Or even most of it did. In the case of my @inbox the answer is...nothing. So I just chucked it. Now I can work on sorting my paper box.
Current Mood:  happy
Tags: cleaning, stuff, thoughts
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10:24 pm
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Spring Cleaning
Whew! I just cleaned for three and a half hours today. It was sweaty, tiring work but it was worth it. I cleaned the bedroom. When I picked up Katie she asked why I was so quiet. It wasn't because I was sad, it was the nice, calm, relaxed tired that comes from doing real work and getting it done. It felt good.
Took a peep at my bookmarks today. Down Shifting is the topic of the oldest item in my inbox. In a nutshell it's getting a fuller life by living a simpler life. It's something that I've always wanted but I don't know how we could actually live on a reduced income. I should do some expense tracking and see where our money actually goes.
Current Mood:  accomplished
Tags: cleaning, life, living, relax, thoughts
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10:09 am
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LJ Interests meme results
LJ Interests meme results
- boobs:
Katie has them. I honestly swear I did not add that one until I met her. - communication:
I like it when people talk. I makes people get along better. Mostly. Don't know when I added it though. - families:
Families are a good thing. My birth one is crazy. My current one is cool. Someday we may add another human to it :) - i.n.v.u.:
Great manga series Seriously. Now, if they would just come out with the next book... - jhonen vasquez:
Invader Zim creator. Zim is good. Obay Zim or there will be Dooooooooom! - moral:
Something that is extreamly relitive. Added during my hardcore christian days. Will be removed. - open minds:
Something that is probably contradictory to morals. At least to most hardcore christians. A good thing to have. - reptiles:
Scales! I'm still bound and determined to find a way to get us to the Evergladed this year. Alligators and snakes and turtles oh my! - strength:
I don't have a lot, but there are other kinds then just physical. A good thing to have. - webcomics:
Oh goodie! Lets see, Devil's Panties, Elf Only Inn, Misfile, Something Positive, Friendly Hostility, Clan og the Cats. Not exactly in that order.
Enter your LJ user name, and 10 interests will be selected from your interest list.
Current Mood:  bouncy
Current Music: Katie's Computer - Fan
Tags: fun, interests, quiz, thoughts
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11:35 pm
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Brurg
A long time ago, in a galaxy far far away I was able to write what I wanted here, what I was actually thinking.
...
Fack, who am I kidding? I've never really been able to write what was on my mind because Mom raised me to care about others. About their feelings. That's a blessing and a curse. I care about others and want to make them happy, but I can't be happy because I care about hurting other's feelings by my typing. I've never really been able to write what I wanted here because there was always the chance the people I was writing about would see it. Friends-only didn't work, because whenever I wanted to make it friends-only the people were on my friends list. Sure, I could filter them out, but that to me feels like talking about a person behind thair back and that's something I have always tried not to do.
Nows no different. For the longest time I decided the way to stay sane is to just stop caring. But when you stop caring you also get the little bundled affect of not having any friends. So, as a good friend you have to care about people. So you get to hears people's problems. And most of the time you can't do anything about them. Which makes me sad. Because, in most cases, like this one, you end up having to hurt someone's feelings to fix the problem. Maybe theirs, maybe somebody elses. Somebody's emotions have to be fucked with. And, since you can't hurt others then that only leaves you. Feeling sad. Feeling bad about yourself. Wondering why you can't be an asshole for at least once in your life and just let go. Because mamma did a real good job raising me, that she did. I gotta be a nice young man that gets to take shit and doesn't have the self strength / bravery to dish it back out.
Life as a helpless carpet is sure fun. Good night :)
Tags: anger, caring, depression, friends, frustration, thoughts
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10:27 pm
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Flashback
The nice thing about electronic journal is that history is recorded. I was having a blah period wheile I was waiting for Katie to get out of work. I was bored. Blank. Depressed. The good side to my depression is that it gets me thinking. I'm pretty sure I have depression anyway. Whatever. I don't need medicine for it, I'm strong enough to deal with it. For a while after meeting Katie I think it went away but it's back. It's been back for a while. But i'm not a cutter. I'm a biter. Yes, I'm pretty sure that I only bite my nail when I'm depressed. Or when I'm wrorried, but that's almost the same thing.
Thinking of cutting reminds me of a post I did a long time ago. Which is why I am writing this in the first place. I used to have friends who were cutters. Still do for some of them I think, but it's been so long since we talked that I don't know anymore. I'm getting distrated. Back when my brain actually worked well I decided to sit down and figure out why people cut. Well, it came to me without too much thinking, but I was sitting down. Stop nit-picking.
People cut because pain is the strongest emotion in existance. Greater then love, and easier to make. Take any dark-vs-light story and think about it. It's all about balance. Sure, light may win, but dark has to exist anyway. Take nature. Dark is, light you have to work for. Anyway. Depression is a void of emotion. We need emotion. Any emotion. When we are in the void of depression we are drawn, or even forced, by our brains to create emotion. Pain is fastest, easiest, and packs the most power per punch. Even if you don't cut, there are other ways of making pain. Hurting yourself in other ways. Being mentaly hurt. Getting others to hurt you. Of course, we have been trained that pain is a BAD THING™ and therefore if we cause pain to to ourselves then we are FUCKED UP™ and need HELP™. Whatever. Anyway, back to my nail biting.
I bite my nails because I'm depressed and I don't feel good about myself. I don't feel good about myself because I don't know THINGS EVERY NORMAL HUMAN MUST KNOW™ (are you sensing a pattern here?) and therefore aren't any good. Rather, I have very low self-worth. It's probably my own fault that people don't treat me like I'm smart and a normal human. I tend to do nots of things that make me seem very not normal. I get bored. People don't talk to me because I don't talk to them. I don't talk to them because I don't care about NORMAL THINGS™. I'm getting distracted. Anyway, I think my nail biting is a form of cutting. I'm trying to get myself to look as bad as I feel.
So why do I feel bad about myself? I don't feel SUCCESSFUL™. How do I define successful? I want money. Not a lot, but I want to not feel bad whenever I want to buy something. This, I think, stems from the fact that mom didn't like spending money, was in debt, and therefore controlled all spending. No spending money on things that were a WASTE OF MONEY™. Like evil, satantic, idle, non-educational, fun. You know, anything worth spending money on. So not whenever I want to spend money of thing that fall under that category I feel like I am WASTING MONEY™. Even it it's mine to waste. If I spend it then we won't be able to pay the BILLS™. And the bills must be payed off at the speed of light because DEBT IS BAD™ and really only fools have debt. People who can't MANAGE THEIR MONEY™. Well, that's what mom made me think anyway. And she did it without even saying it. That's how good a teacher mom was. In fact, I want to blame all my problems on mom because all dad taght me was to buy things I wanted. Bad dad. Mom never did break him of that filthy habit. I mean, kids don't learn anything on their own, it's all in how they were raised. Mom spent all her time on me mostly, so it's no wonder the other three hellions never learned. I'm mom's success. Too bad I'm back sliding. Now, if I would just spend time with the FAMILY™ and live a CHRISTIAN LIFESTYLE© (yes, that's actually copyrighted by Christians, Inc. and I could be arrested for using it in such a UNGODLY™ article) then I could be TRULY HAPPY© (yes, that's another one).
So, the question I wanted to answer, but can't figure out, is how to I get SELF-ESTEEM™ and feel SUCCESSFUL™? Any ideas?
Edit: Odd. The post I was referencing wasn't all that long ago. It was http://www.livejournal.com/users/netguru/207432.html posted on 2005-08-03. No wonder why I remember it. I've filed it in memories under 'Pain' so I can find it again. Goggle is god. :)
Edit 2: There was another post on pain that I've made. This one was way back in 2003. http://www.livejournal.com/users/netguru/77359.html I don't think I believe it anymore, but subtract Jesus from it and it makes some very good points about pain.
Current Mood:  thoughtful
Current Music: (in head) God is bigger then the Boggy man
Tags: depression, pain, thoughts
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01:20 am
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Emotions...
A friend's entry got my brain flowing. Never mind that it's 1:30. I have suger in me. Let the thoughts flow.
Today I had something I haven't had in a long time. And by long time I mean before I met Katie. It was a verbal ramble. I had two of them, up and the drive down, and tone on the drive back up. A verbal ramble is when I think out loud. I don't talk to myself, I just talk. Kind of like this. I don't really remember all of what I talked about, but one of the things was pain. And pain ties into my friend's post on emotions.
Parn isn't the only emotion people feel. It is probably one of the strongest ones though. People don't like it. Well, some do, but that would take my ramble off in another direction. And I want to stay here. Emotions need to be balanced. Either too much or too little and we have trouble coping. And we deal with that in different ways. Too much emotion and people try to kill themselves. Too little and they try to cause pain so they can feel something. Anything. Pain is probably the easiest emotion to create. Created by them or by someone else to them. It doesn't matter. The fact is, without emotion we feel numb and our minds can't deal with that. So we crave emotion. Love is another emotion that people use to fill that void. It's not as easy to create as pain. Some people don't like pain. Either they have had too much, or they just don't want to try it. So love is the next best emotion to use to fill the void.
I'd go on, but let's get back on track. It's late and I really should get to sleep. I also make a strong effort to make sure that all of my posts, while they may speak to my readers, are never about any one person. It's a respect thing for me. I don't write about specific people because that is not needed and often hurtful. I don't know anybody that well to even write about them anyway.
No, my posts are more about people I observe in general. What I see. What I feel. What I sense. And , I hope, what I understand. Again, I don't know anybody to know why they do things, other then what they tell me. Nor do I have a degree or training in talking to people. A counsoler once told me that he tought I'd be good at helping people. Maybe I would be. Maybe I am. Maybe I have helped people in the past. I don't know. I do think that I couldn't be a counsoler. Why? Because I can't see people in pain. not physical, but mental. I can know you are in pain. I can deal with that and listen. But I can't try to help.
I have diagnosed myself as a 'fixer'. It's a problem that the experts say is a woman's only problem. It's the overwhelming desire to fix people. Even if they don't want to be fixed. Even if I can't fix them. Even if I don't know how. The problem is that when I try and fail to fix someone I blame myself. I'm sensitive. I feel that if I just knew more, listened better, said that other thing. That I am the reason they are still unhappy. So I close myself up. I have to. But I've been trying to fix this. I don't close up, but I don't try to fix anymore either. I listen. I talk. I exist.
For some that may be the best thing I can do, to exist. For them to know that I am there, that I listen, that I care. That I don't judge them. Your life is yours. If you want advice I can try, but if you don'y follow it I don't get upset. If you tell me something I won't repeat it. I'm an unconditional friand. and in the end, isn't that what everybody needs?
A friend?
Current Mood: calm
Tags: thoughts
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11:53 pm
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Real Beauty
I was looking at naked photos and I was thinking.
http://ditmarporn.com/Pretty%20nude%20lady%20walking%20outdoor_08.jpg <-- Nearly Work Safe Photo
When it comes to clothed people I have no problems, naked though I guess they still have to 'look good'. I'm wonder if it's me or if she really does look exteamly underweight.
Current Mood: thoughtful
Tags: beauty, photo, thoughts
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04:29 pm
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Don't stop, the thinking tonight
Sometimes when the world sends us spinning, we want to do nothing more than drop into an easy chair and stare into space. But this approach often gives the brain free rein to continue its obsessive and agitated thinking.
So true.
Tags: stress, thoughts
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netguru's journal