Stuff

So here's todays stuff.

• I asked my English teacher if I could use this blog for my monthly journal project. She said that I could. Hooray now I won't feel like a total failure if no one even reads this blog. It will also be nice for her not to read the random sentences I write about mythical creatures in my regular journal. ('Cuz after all we can write about whatever we want.)
• The long awaited cousins left yesterday. Now my house feels very empty. It feels emptier knowing I probably want see them until this summer. I miss you guys so much. So glad I got to see you.
• 3rd quarter seems to last forever. If only there was someway to break this almost never-ending cycle of weeks that haunt the back half of our school-year. If only there was some big school event or break that could break up this monotony.
• Right now I am very confused about my current project. I always like projects even if I don't finish them. I recently took down my website and I hope to install the new and improved version later (as soon as I figure out a decent hosting situation and a way to use my new app.) I've also been messing around with some other stuff lately. I've kind of whimsical played with the idea of making some games.
• English class has been interesting lately. We've been talking about ideas for 8th grade graduation as well as the next junior high chapel.

Tip of the Day: Using Other Programs

If you have a windows machine you know that every PC comes with some standard programs that you can use for your various computing needs.

• Internet Explorer
• Windows Media Player
• Microsoft's Paint
• Media center (for you newer users)

I'm not saying that if you should change them all out but if you don't like one of them just use a different program. This is where the beauty of windows shines through. There are plenty of open source geeks, hobbyist programmers, and businesses that would love you to use their services. The best part is it's all free.

Let's look at an example: I personally hate internet explorers slow loading guts and I use Google Chrome for all my standard browsing needs. I also keep both IE and Firefox on my comp for web testing. Is anyone Charging me? Absolutely not. It's just as easy as downloading. I hate Microsoft paint with a passion. So I fired it and hired three better graphic programs to take it's place. (Paint.net, Inkscape and Gimp2) The same goes for web products. If you hate your email service change it. If you dislike things about your favorite online encyclopedia and think it has some pretty inconstant facts then go to another.

I think that this is window's (and Linux's) greatest strategy. Make programming open to people, so they can make programs open to people. This is why as trendy(and virus free) as mac is the code has them beat. I can't get my favorite programs for mac. Although I am not myself a mac owner I know that most free programs are not available on mac.