Degrees and planning for adult life

There comes a time in eveyones live that they realize they are becoming adults and loosing their youth. Well I guess most people don't pick up on the youth part but I have and it is a sad feeling. I can't help but feel life is passing me by. I want to control my future. Its not like I am doing nothing to try and get this control but eveything just moves at such a fast pace.

Russian Festival

Well I went to the Russian Festival in Baltimore,MD hosted by the Holy Trinity Russian Orthodox Church and I must say it was wonderful. The weather was cold and rainy but that didn't matter since half of it was outside under tents and the other half was inside the church hall.

Upon entering one was greeted with traditional Russian music and the wonderful smells of traditional Russian food being cooked (or at least I am pretty sure it was traditional). I tried several of the foods (all of which were wonderful) but by far the best was this thing that was pretty much a blini rolled up and stuffed with sweet cheese and bathed with sour cream on the outside.

When you went inside the church hall they were selling religious items from the church, Russian dolls, lacquer boxes, and teas. They even had a tea room!! Needless to say I bough my mother and my grandmother a glass. I then spent $20 on Teas and another $20 on breads!!! Overall it was a great time (did I add that my brother got three Russian chocolate bars, all of which were extremely tasty).

We also got to see a Dance Troupe which was pretty cool. The did the dance were they squat down LOW and kick their legs out while wearing boots. It was an impressive sight. I would recommend going to anyone who wants to have a good time.

http://www.russfest.org/

History and the Best History Websites

I think in today's culture not enough people take the time to learn for history. They often only know only a few figures but have no idea what those figures are about. One example is the Che shirts: They are popular among young yuppies who have no idea what he was about but on the flip side I doubt most of the people calling him a murderer have any clue as to what Che did either.

You know they say we should learn from history or we are bound to repeat it. Well it seems to me that no one is taking this important aphorism seriously. People today are just caught up in a culture that doesn't value the past. This culture is like a cancer on the brain but I must digress.

We need to encourage family, friends, even people we don't know that well to value the past. Have them avoid revisionist history that is so common today. Maybe if we are lucky people will actually look at what Hitler did and avoid calling everyone they disagree with "Hitler".


Anyways here are some interesting history/news pages:

http://www.strategypage.com/default.asp

http://www.stratfor.com/tour/

http://www.globalsecurity.org/

Best Movies/Muslim Greetings

Okay so I was sitting around and thinking of the best movies I have seen. I decided to make a list am split them up into three categories: Comedy, Drama/Love, and a what the hell category.

Comedy:

"The Breaks"- Its about this Irish kid whom is adopted by a black family in California (somewhere near Compton if I remember correctly). Anyways the guy thinks he is black and acts that way too. Now I am not a big fan of black comedies but this was great. The who premise of the movie is he must bring home some milk or else! A ton of stuff happens to him along the way and the seen stolen from pulp fiction is so wrong and so funny at the same time.


"The Big Lebowski"- Its about a slacker from Cali who because involved in a bunch of stuff through no fault of his own. Some guys came in and you know pissed on his rug? And it like really brought the room together man. Not gonna give away any more but check it out.

Others on this list I don't feel like summarizing:

"Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back"
"Clerks"
"The Hangover"
"Napoleon Dynamite" -This movie is so lame it is funny.


Drama/Love:

"Pride and Prejudice" - A love story taking place in old England.
"The Godfather"- Just watch it
"Kelly's Heros" - WW2 Movie with Eastwood. Has some laughs.
"Tombstone"-One of my fav Westerns
"The Good, The Bad, and the Ugly"
"The Quiet Man"- Old John Wayne movie that takes place in Ireland.
"Goodfellas"- THE BEST GANGSTER MOVIE!!!!

WTF:
"Pulp Fiction"-Good movie but one scene puts it on this list.
"Rocky Horror Picture Show"-Good movie but you will understand if you watch it.

Muslim Greetings:

"Assalamu alaikum"= peace be to you

A reply to this would be "Wa alaikum assalam wa rahmatu Allah" which means: And to you be peace together with God's mercy.

I thought I would post this since Muslims get such a bad rap today. Remember it wasn't that long ago when it was Christians trying to start a "holy war". By understanding each others culture we can begin the path to friendship.

http://www.geocities.com/mutmainaa/tafakkur/salam_greeting.html

Fall

You know it is during this time of year that I always feel as if I am sleepwalking but awake at the sametime. That is the only way I can really explain it. There is almost something magical when the seasons change from warm to cool. The birds are abit slower to sing and the bugs are silent at night time. The smells of summer are gone as are the leaves on the trees.

We should take time during this season to reflect and think of what it is we want from life. Do we wish to just stay in our own little world? Or do we want adventure?

Cool Free Internet Apps

Taken from my friends at Sherdog: "CCleaner - One of my favorite, period. It cleans up not only all the junk files in your PC, browser, trash can, but will erase any information saved over (like the shit the FBI gets into). It will also clean up your registry and allow you to uninstall everything about a program, including the things normally left behind. It cleared up about 660MB of space for me and improved the performance of my PC by a good amount.

Open Office - This is a free version of an office suite much like Microsoft office. However, unlike Microsoft office, it is very light and does not take up much CPU power. It's fast, clean and can do just about everything office can, and it's free.

Avast Anti-Virus - It's free, it does everything Norton does, and has an option for active scan to constantly run and monitor all in and outgoing traffic. It updates it's database almost daily without you noticing (until the notification pops up) and has won multiple awards. It's less CPU intensive then other virus programs and does just as good of job.

VLC Media Player - The best Video player on the internet period. You can do just about everything, watch just about every video and even rip Flash movies from the internet. It's a small download, very fast and doesn't waste your time, space or CPU with a bulky UI. You can even toss a DVD into your PC and stream it for everybody on your network. It really is the full package for free.

Filezilla - A free and clean FTP client. I don't know how many of you use FTP programs but this is probably the best free one you can find. The only real issue with it is the limitations on dragging and dropping but that does not really matter anyway.

Spybot Search and Destroy - I am sure many of you know this one as well but it's a free adware/spyware killer. It will scan your PC for all types of nasty shit and zap it dead. It will also immunize your PC so you don't end up getting other annoying infections.

portableapps.com - What this site does is allow you to install full version applications on your USB flash drive. This will allow you to take it any ware and no matter what computer you plug it into, your apps will be full usable and accessible right from the flash drive with no installation needed.

Foxit Reader - Simply put, get rid of Adobe Reader and install this. Adobe Reader is full of crap you don't need, constantly updates for no reason, is slow and wastes to much space. Foxit Reader is not only as fast but has support for all the same file types and features Adobe Reader does.

InfranView - This is a graphics viewing program. It is much like Windows Picture Viewer (the program that displays photos when you click on them) except much faster, with more features and less CPU intensive. This thing not only operates faster then Windows Picture Viewer but can do so even if you have 32 other applications open and running.

Gimp - I have been asked a million times by people on here and other places for Adobe Photoshop. Well, Gimp is the free equivalently. It's an open source program with constant updates and improvements. You won't be able to do all the professional things Photoshop allows but 99 percent of people who want a program like Adobe Photoshop don't use it for those things anyway. This program is a great free tool I suggest looking into.

Firefox - Most of you use this but if you don't, do so right now. Best browser on the Internet.

DbPowerAmp - From ripping or writing cds, to converting music file(like MP3 to WAV) this program does it all. Its fast, clean and a small download. It's a pretty common app but its worth putting up here for those who don't already use it.

NVU - Free Open Source WYSiWYG Web Editor. It's like Dreamweaver, but it doesn't implement CSS very well. Other than that, probably the next best thing for web editing software.

Scribus - Open Source Alternative to InDesign and QuarkXPress Desktop Publishing Software.

Audacity - An audio recording program that can be used instead some of the higher priced tools like Acid Pro or Pro tools. It is perfect for the amateur musicians and won't break the bank. It's open source and runs very well.

Ubuntu Linux - Looking for a free alternative operating system to windows? Well Unbuntu is it. It's a version of Linux which is a open source, free operating system that is extremely popular. Ubuntu is easy to use, can be run on just about any machine, no matter the age and is extremely fast. It's so good that Dell is starting to offer it with it's PC's instead of Windows. Since it's designed around free software it focuses on using only the best no cost apps and doesn't want people dishing out $400 for products of less quality then open source ones.

Miro Free Alternative to Windows Media player. It's open source, free and runs very well. It's a great program to start a media hub around. From HD videos, to Internet TV and Bit-torrent, this piece of software can replace the annoying glitches, bugs and wasted CPU power that Windows Media Player offers. It doesn't do any one thing the best, but it does each well and offers them in one package.

AVG Anti-Rootkit is an application used to detect and remove rootkits. Rootkits are used to hide the presence of a malicious object like trojans or keyloggers on your computer. If a threat uses rootkit technology to hide itself it is very hard to find the malware on your PC. AVG Anti-Rootkit gives you the power to find and delete the rootkit and to uncover the threat the rootkit is hiding.

Ad-Aware: anti-spyware version provides you with advanced protection against spyware that secretly attaches and takes control of your computer, resulting in aggressive advertising pop-ups, sluggish computer activity, even identity theft through stolen bank details, passwords, and credit card account numbers. Free updates too.

Avira AntiVir PersonalEdition Classic: reliably protects your private computer against dangerous viruses, worms, Trojans and costly dialers. Can run in real-time mode and updates daily.

BOClean: protects you against a full spectrum of malware, automatically removing these programs from memory, your hard disk and your registry without the need to reboot or drop your internet connection. BOClean safely neutralizes these threats instantly without any risk of damage to your files or computer. Updates are FREE, and the update download and installation process is (or, in the case of network deployment, can be) completely automated.

Exact Audio Copy: Allows you to rip (store) you CDs onto your computer without a loss in sound quality.

SpywareBlaster: SpywareBlaster can help keep your system spyware-free and secure, without interfering with the "good side" of the web. And unlike other programs, SpywareBlaster does not have to remain running in the background. Prevents the installation of ActiveX-based spyware, adware, browser hijackers, dialers, and other potentially unwanted software. Blocks spyware/tracking cookies in Internet Explorer and Mozilla/Firefox. Restricts the actions of potentially unwanted sites in Internet Explorer.

SpywareGuard: provides a real-time protection solution against spyware, Fast Real-Time Scanning engine - catch and block spyware before it is executed (EXE and CAB files supported) with signature-based scanning for known spyware and heuristic/generic detection capabilities to catch new/mutated spyware. Download Protection - prevent spyware from being download in Internet Explorer. Browser Hijacking Protection - stop browser hijacking activity in real-time. SG LiveUpdate - provides an easy updating solution. Small size - with a small size and small definition sizes, download and updates are quick. Report Capabilities - keep a detailed log of all spyware detected

SUPER ©: If you need a simple, yet very efficient tool to convert (encode) or play any Multimedia file, without reading manuals or spending long hours training, then SUPER © is all you need. It is a Multimedia Encoder and a Multimedia Player, easy-to-use with 1 simple click.

WinPatrol: uses a heuristic behavioral approach to detecting attacks and violations of your computing environment. Traditional security programs scan your hard drive searching for previously identified threats. WinPatrol takes snapshot (real-time) of your critical system resources and alerts you to any changes that may occur without your knowledge. You'll be removing dangerous new programs while others prepare to update their definition/signiture data files.

WordWeb - it is a free dictionary program. It opens up really fast."

Got all this from: http://www.sherdog.net/forums/f48/best-free-applications-internet-612892/ Check out the thread for more stuff.

First Post/Interesting Stuff

Well hello! Thanks for visiting my blog. My name is Sam Adkins. I am currently 16 and live in the middle of nowhere in the state of Pennsylvania. I like to think of myself as a young romantic and writer. Other interesting fact bout myself: Have aspergers, help train people in MMA/BJJ, and am an avid reader. Anyways you didn't come here to read all about me so our topics of the day:

Mad Cow Disease

Good Books

Obama's Nobel Peace Prize

If you don't like a topic just scroll down the page to see the other topics.



First Topic: Mad Cow


So we start with Mad Cow. The reality of this disease is actually much more unpleasant than the media makes it seem. I mean really. It turns out Mad Cow (otherwise known as nvCJD aka new variant Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease, yes its a mouth full so for scaring the crap out of you we are going to call it Mad Cow) is a prion disease. Prion disease (at least what is reported) rates are very low. Due to this our knowledge of them isn't really that great. Here is what we do know:

"Clinical features

Early in the illness, patients usually experience psychiatric symptoms, which most commonly take the form of depression or, less often, a schizophrenia-like psychosis. Unusual sensory symptoms, such as "stickiness" of the skin, have been experienced by half of the cases early in the illness. Neurological signs, including unsteadiness, difficulty walking and involuntary movements, develop as the illness progresses and, by the time of death, patients become completely immobile and mute.

Diagnosis

The clinical presentation, progressive nature of the disease and failure to find any other diagnosis are the hallmarks of vCJD.There are no available, completely reliable diagnostic tests for use before the onset of clinical symptoms. However, magnetic resonance scans, tonsillar biopsy and cerebrospinal fluid tests are useful diagnostic tests.The brainwave pattern observed during an electroencephalogram was abnormal in most of the vCJD patients, but the wave forms characteristic of sporadic CJD do not occur.Currently the diagnosis of vCJD can only be confirmed following pathological examination of the brain. Characteristically, multiple microscopic and abnormal aggregates encircled by holes are seen, resulting in a daisy-like appearance described by the term "florid plaques".

Probable causevCJD is strongly linked with exposure to the BSE agent. BSE is a TSE affecting cattle and was first reported in the UK in 1986. Since that year, about 181 376 cases have been reported in the UK. The number of reports of BSE in the UK began to decline in 1992 and has continuously declined year by year since then. In 2002, only 755 cases were reported in the UK; 891 from the 21 other countries reporting BSE cases.The most likely route of exposure was through bovine-based food, although infectivity is mainly found in the brain and spinal cord of clinically ill animals over two years of age.Since 1989, when the first BSE case was reported outside the UK, relatively small numbers of BSE cases (in total 3679) have also been reported in native cattle in Austria, Belgium, Czech Republic, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Ireland, Israel, Italy, Japan, Liechtenstein, Luxembourg, Netherlands, Poland, Portugal, Slovakia, Spain and Switzerland.

However, all but 206 cases have been reported in six countries — France, Germany, Ireland, Portugal, Spain and Switzerland. Since the introduction of monitoring programmes to detect BSE in dead and slaughtered cattle, 12 countries have found their first native case (Austria, Czech Republic, Finland, Germany, Greece, Israel, Italy, Japan, Poland, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain).Small numbers of cases have also been reported in Canada, the Falkland Islands (Islas Malvinas) and Oman, but solely in animals imported from the UK. The International Office for Epizootic Diseases (OIE) reports these cases on their web site.The nature of the TSE agent is being investigated and is still a matter of debate. According to the prion theory, the agent is composed largely, if not entirely, of a self-replicating protein, referred to as a prion. Another theory argues that the agent is virus-like and possesses nucleic acids which carry genetic information. Although strong evidence collected over the past decade supports the prion theory, the ability of the TSE agent to form multiple strains is more easily explained by a virus-like agent. "


That is from our friends at the WHO. http://www.who.int/mediacentre/factsheets/fs180/en/ The thing I found most interesting about mad cow is we really can't know how many people have really got it because most of the time people are not looking for it and also the amount of time it takes for it to appear. I also can't help but think that a few cases have been covered up to help the beef industry. I had also read somewhere that no matter what you do to beef that contains the BSE prion it will still have mad cow. Even putting it through radiation and cooking well. I can't seem to find the source for that so you might want to do some research yourself. I also want to add that only meats that contain alot of nervous tissue (such as the brain) carry the prions. So avoid weird beef parts and you should be okay. In fact the only way you would get it (if you eat like a normal person) is if some of those nasty parts ended up in your ground beef. Topic 2: Good Books So we are onto our second topic: Good Books. I have a few books I picked up recently and I thought they were pretty good. Let me know what you think of them:"The Joy Luck Club" by Amy Tan. This book is pretty good. It’s about four Chinese mothers and their American raised daughters. Each chapter is from the point of view of either one of the daughters or their mothers. I enjoyed the book because it portrays the cultural conflicts between the mothers and their children. The only thing I did not like was while you got to know each character the book doesn't really have a clear cut end for any of the characters. It is one of those "and life goes on" things."Of Mice and Men" -Steinbeck. If I need to tell you why go shoot yourself.
A few other books for people who like to read:

“On the Road” by Jack Kerouac
Anything by Hunter S. Thompson
“1984” and “Animal Farm” by George Orwell
“To Kill a Mocking Bird” by Harper Lee

TOPIC 3: Obama’s Nobel Peace Prize

Well let me say I have nothing against Mr.Obama but how and why did he get this? Yes his intentions are noble (a world without nukes ect) but what has he done that actually has promoted peace? It sure isn’t Afghanistan where he has expanded the war. He hasn’t helped his own country much let alone the world. I know they gave him the Nobel to somehow help him push his agenda even further but I think we should give out awards on what’s been done not what has yet (and odds are won’t) be accomplished. Need I say more?

TOPIC 4: Culture in America

Does America even have culture? That is one of the first questions I asked myself when I “woke up” sometime ago. I mean is materialism really a culture? Isn’t it just a habit? But then I found out if you know where to look we have a few wonderful individuals trying to prevent America from becoming a cultural wasteland.

It’s up to all of us to try and open others eyes to the things beyond reality TV and the trash on the radio. We can take over America (in a cultural sense) by introducing people to real music and the real arts.