2012 - year in review

2012 has been a very good year for me.  Of course, it had it's good point and it had it's bad points, but overall it seems to have an upside compared to 2010 and 2011.  2010 and 2011 are practically the same year if you think about it - I was in the A.A degree and I was trying to find a direction in life, along with getting this new ADHD diagnosis ironed out. After the carefree year of 2009, things started to go downhill in 2010 and by 2011, things were pretty bad.  I was going nowhere but things were starting to pick up in 2012 once again.

I had sort of my bummer years, but there wasn't much of a year that was a bummer than 2011.  2011 just totally blew and it was all about medications and roommate problems, moving, and getting my head screwed on, along with finding a job. 2012 was actually some very positive things - I got started with my Scholastica classes and started my first job. I was starting to buy some things for myself such as a new computer and an iPod, which gave me the experience of shopping.  But it has some bad things - there were the problems with the driving and it seems like I was still having a continuation of the roommate problems that have been going on since 2009.

But there has been some enjoyable things about this era - the entertainment on the web is just great and the internet is starting to become more and more accessible to everyone, but the basic interface hasn't truly changed.  I have a feeling that the interface of the internet might change in the next few years with the lifestyle changes.

2013 is going to be a wrap up of my college life and to get hardcore with one more year of college til I get back into the real world in 2014.  It is going to be a transition into the real world but the transition is going to be light.  I can see some advancement in things such as career and relationships - I am probably finally going to get things put together and new things are going to come.

I might get bumped up at Wal Mart this year and I am most likely going to make some new friends, and a possibility of my first girlfriend. This might be something pushing around 2013-2014 and I was very close in 2012, but I never seen to get anywhere with that relationship. I am probably going to start dating and stuff when things get pretty good out there, and when everything seems to be calmed down.  It looks like I should be going with my business and it looks like 2013 is a year where I am not going to plan much - I am going to go along with my business and go with the flow.

You never know what is going to happen in 2013 as I never knew what will happen in 2012 - but I  hope it Is not going to be another 2011.  I think I don't have the circumstances to make it another 2011 - I actually was a lot more screwed on this year and it is going to be the established stuff is going to happen.  I'm going to pass through life pretty good pretty soon.

Windows 7 vs Windows 8

I had just got a new computer and it was built in with the Windows 8 operating system, and it looks like I am not moving back.  Of course, Windows 8 does have it's flaws in it but it is something that is worth getting used to and once I get used to it, I probably think Windows 7 even looks old and primitive.

Windows 7 is not much different than any other Windows operating system.  You have the start menu and the desktop, and you have all the whatchamacallits and thingamabobbies on it, but the basic concept hasn't changed that much since Windows 95.  Windows 7 does sort of an aesthetic view to it, it is pretty but hasn't changed much since Vista and XP.

Windows 8 is a totally different operating system and it is finally getting updated to something that is new.  It might take some time getting used to but you'll probably love it by the time it is done.  Windows 8 rearranges everything on intuition and simplicity - it keeps track of what you are truly using Windows for and places it there.  Notepad, wordpad, and all these other doodads still exist but not too many people use them because they are hidden.  Most people use the computer mostly for the internet, and maybe Microsoft Office, along with a game or two,  and Windows 8 bases the idea on that. They art starting to get with it with an app store because a lot of people rather download software instead of actually buying the CDs.

The first concepts of Windows 8 took place around the time of Windows Vista.  Around that time, it was the rage to fool around with the apps.  Windows Vista did have a different look and feel, but it pretty much has the Windows XP concept.  Windows was trying to become more and more Mac like. The apps were popular and the concept of the actual Aero peek that you see on the desktop was a preview for Windows 8.  I can see Windows 8 had a bunch of whole new concepts rolled out, but the concepts are things that we had adapted with computers.  We had gotten used to the tablet interface, and Windows finally got rid of lots of clutter.  It is more of a push button world than in a list world, which makes Windows very clutterly and complicated.

Windows 8 does let me control myself on the internet - I am not as weird as I was in previous operating systems.  Windows 7 was ADHD friendly because you can jump around  - I don't see much ADHD temptations with the Windows 8 interface.

Windows 8 has a similar interface to many video games such as The Sims and there are many things in there that are pure awesomeness.  The Windows 7 media player just don't look that cool anymore, but Windows 8 media player is awesome.  But there is a flip side to it - the shut down button is hidden with the setting which is dislike.  That is very complicated and there might be some form of programming glitch.  The Windows developers actually studied some psychology and marketing, and goes along with how  we think.  Some people are the logical, line based interface of the previous Windows operating systems but now we are going back to intuition, simplicity, and common sense.
This might just be a sign of where our society is going anyway - simplicity is going to be the norm and that is starting to be with the Windows 8 interface.  Windows Aero is gone but that does take up memory, which is a flaw.  Now we are with the new Metro interface and it resembles Windows XP once again.  Actually it is a lot more practical and the most professional looking interface since Windows 2000 - you have the customization options along with the practicality of Windows 2000. 

This interface does resemble the supposed Windows 2005 or Longhorn interface, which was scrapped because of the dumbed down look of Windows XP.  But this interface is simply a theme and you can probably get Aero back if you like Aero back.  But Aero might look a little too Disney esque and the same thing with the Playskool esque Windows XP, so this new interface is back to the conservatism and professionalism with the Windows OS - enough of the hippie dippy individualism thumping of the 2000s.

I am now typing this on 7 but it looks like I am sold on the 8 interface.

What happens when you are gone

Someday and I don't know why, I am going to be gone.  It looks like I am still at the stage of youth and I haven't gotten started at life, but someday I am going to get out, fritter away, and die.  But this is not to fear because there is something after when we are gone.

I have a feeling that we have to go somewhere when we are gone - we might be going into a different life of somehow.  Either going to heaven or hell, or maybe just getting reincarnated, we are going into something different.  Reincarnation does seem to make sense - I am no Hindu or Buddha, but there might be a possibility that life seems to repeat after itself.  Some of the Hindu and Buddha faith's do seem to make sense as the same way as the Abrahamic faiths do.  We don't really know what truly happens.

We are probably here for a purpose - for a mission and I don't really know what the purpose and mission is.  It seems like each day has it's own purpose and I try to write it down every day.  Some days are just plain boring, but they do have a purpose.  But each purpose do have it's plans and it does fit to a bigger purpose.

I don't know what I am truly alive for and I am trying to discover that - I was born in 1991, which was sort of a peaceful time but it seems like the world has been falling apart. It looks like I was born in the dawn of the information age and everything seems to fall into it's place.  It looks like I had become the generation of humans to be zombies of technology and eventually technology is going to be practical and it is going to make sense.

But there is going to be some purpose and it might be the purpose of something in this information age.  I sometimes regret some of the things that happen to me - some of the stuff that is happening in my childhood and my teen life I regret happening, and some of the stuff I actually cherish.  But it seems to be mapped out and it looks like there are certain things that are coming out of certain times.

In high school and elementary school, and it looks like a part of college, I had been having a lot of emotional problems, especially when it is coming to school.  It looks like I had been having a hard time with relationships - some days  I feel like I can connect while some other days I don't feel like I can connect.  About elementary school I was pretty good with relationships but I had been going through awkward periods of time such as in middle school and college.  College has been a very awkward time for me indeed.

College was not the most social time for me and I think deep down I don't think I cared about being social - it was the time for me to find myself from deep within and what I believe in, and what my true philosophy on life.  I was starting to develop my view on the world and started to analyze everything so it makes sense.  It looks like I was very analytical but not really looking and understanding of what truly is happening around me.  I was trying to theorize and think, but not LOOK - maybe there might be things that are making sense right before my eyes.

I am starting to stop philosophizing when I start going to work - maybe it is time for me to enter the "real world" and not this fantasy world like high school or college.  I do have the philosophy but not the experience.  But maybe there was a time of philosophizing instead of acting stupid and learning the hard way - in high school there were the good times and the bad times but I did not have much of a concept of who I am and I probably still don't have a concept of who I am.

I do go through spells where I am philosophizing and trying to figure out where I am in the world, and I start getting the most "whacked out" thoughts out there.  I was one of these dreamy people that seems to be "out of it" and probably thinking in a level that was too "weird" or "abstract" for the people that are walking around here.

But sometimes I need to philosophize and maybe it is the time to think, but maybe I am getting way too "deep" on some of this stuff.  But the world is the complicated place and it needs to be deciphered.

But there is going to be someday I am going to be gone and probably going to be a day where I am going to think back "why am I here"? There might be a reason why I must be here? That is where you got all the religion and stuff to distract you, and I have probably been a different person when I had been exposed to religion.  It is about time to get to church.

What 2013 is going to bring to us?

2012 is actually ending and we are entering another new year: 2013.  2012 was sort of a clifhanger year because we had the Mayan calendar almost resetting and we have electionmania, which resulted that we wanted the same thing for the next four year.  Actually, we are thinking that we are getting the same thing since 2011 and it is going to be working out.  Obama is just the president and we have some Republicans in the house to water him down, making him not do much of anything and let the economy naturally recover on it's own.  We are going to be pretty much the same for about the next 4 years and it looks like we are in a period of transition.

The world is transitioning if you think about it.  For a while, everything was controlled by corporate media and everyone wanted to be rich.  This has been going on since about the middle '80s til about 2009 or so.  Now the rich is not going to be a big deal and we are not going to have a culture that was controlled by the rich.

We had Blockbuster movies and the Billboard charts dictating of what is cool and what is not cool.  You just sucked up to whatever the Paris Hilton's of the day thinks is popular, whatever you like it or not.  But that is not going to be coming anymore.

Now we have the internet and that is making pop culture fade away.  Now pop culture is going to be controlled by people like me and you, and not a bunch of "rich snots" want.  You got YouTube, which is the place where anyone can contribute to pop culture and it seems like you are starting to get popular icons from people that you can halfway relate to.  You don't have to worship a billionaire celebrity anymore; you can worship someone that actually has zits and boyfriends just like anyone else.  We are entering the world of amatuer entertainment and that is the true American dream.  We are not all about the big house or the big car anymore; it is going to be about self expression, etc.

Justin Beiber is the way of the future.  He is your actual do it yourself teen idol and he is from Canada, but it is the true American dream.  This might show that Canada is freer than us.

That YouTube is the escape - way better than that crap that is on the big box controlled by a bunch of rich snots.  I can't relate to these people and they are a fantasy. You can upload anything from cheesy cat videos that are 1 million times better than Kim Kardashians drama or some very polish, brilliant documentaries that are masterpieces.  Some of the stuff on the YouTube world are modern classics already.

It is the world of the average joe and the average joe is going to be cool once again.  But  it is the idea that the average joe can show off what is truly special.

Britney Spears...ah the memories

We still have Britney Spears, but she is not the same as she was when I first heard about her when I was a little kid.  Every once in a while, I get a little nostalgic about the pop era and that gave me a little bit nostalgia of my childhood.  If you think about it, Britney Spears was possibly my first exposure to the mass media, etc. and that was about the age of 8.

Developmentally, this is pretty normal for me.  Before I was 8 years old, I did remember music on the radio and commercials on the TV, but it did not affect me.  I did enjoy music, but music was a blur and I did not become fans of music.  About the time I was 8 years old, my parents had bought me my own personal radio and I used that radio to listen to music at night.  Then I was exposed to a lot of the pop stars of the day such as Britney Spears and The Backstreet Boys, and I liked it,

Of course, it was pretty common for children to be fans of these teen pop artists such as Britney Spears since it was playing on children's stations such as Radio Disney.  Radio Disney was starting to emphazize on being "cool" and having image, and it was not a station that played music that was for younger children such as a Mary Poppins favorite or something like that.

Before I was 8 years old, I liked stuff because I liked it.  When a crazy toy or something came on, I actually just wanted the toy.  I liked Star Wars when I was a little kid because I liked space stuff, and I liked a few other things, but I didn't care if I was cool or not.

The social status did not come until I was about 8 or 9 years old, and I started to think that the people on the radio were cool.  Before I was that age, the top 40 pop was a blur of R&B and some stoner rock, and maybe some country, then about 1999, just in time for the pop era, I was 8 years old and started to realize that the blur of music was not that bad.

I realized that Britney Spears was starting to lose her talent and her morals.  She was not the sugary, kid friendly Max Martin pop sound and then eventually she started to sound like I was listening to a pornstar marketed for children.  I did not realize she was non-nude softcore pornography being shoved at a young children.  I was not that sexually horny enough for Britney Spears so I pretty much went away from the pop music scene for a while.

Pop music was not that good when I was about 6th grade-7th grade - I was in the cusp of the return of the hip-hop/R&B or the return of pop.  But I wanted to be cool, so I was probably wanted to conform to the hip-hop/R&B blur that was popular in the 1990s and the 2000s.

The 1990s had a lot of this blur anywhay if you think of it - I did not have the glamor childhood of the '90s kid that other kids had so I was not technically a '90s kid and I am probably not truly a '00s kid anyway too.  It looks like I was trying to conform to the values of the '00s but my parents did not agree with the '00s.  They thought the 2000s decade was something that was near the Roman Empire.

But there was that short time about 1999-2000 and that was when there was something that was breaking the blur and it was Britney Spears.

I am used to the R&B blur  - that what I heard in the stores and what I grew up with.  I was not that sentimental with some of the artists but it was okay music - it was music.  I remember a few good songs but music was not a big deal when I was a little kid.  I enjoyed music but it was hard to distinguish songs when I was a kid and that R&B was not kid friendly.  Britney was something that was marketed for kids and that was one of my memories.

Why be nostalgic about something that is in the same era?

There are people that are currently being nostalgic about the '90s, which was the decade I was born in.  I was born in the early 1990s which was the dawn of the information and digital age, and why look back? There are people that want to be nostalgic about the '60s and '70s, which I never lived in and it wasn't that great.  The hippie thing was not that cool and it was a period of war, gas shortages, and lack of morality. The feminist movement was a big joke and probably a destruction of society.

We are in the 2010s decade which means we are in another period of war and economic turmoil.  When there is a time where there is no war or economic turmoil?  But I have to gloat about the technology of today's age. The 1990s internet looks like cheese compared to today's web and you can finally get the web on your TV, which is what TV is made for in  the first place. The internet TV revolution is great and you can get access to a lot more entertainment than you ever had access to back in the cheap days of the 1990s.

In the 1990s, music downloading was unexistent and you basically have to listen to the radio.  Now you can get access to music that "you" actually like than listening to the local radio, which plays music that is cheesy.  The gaming industry has improved a lot in the 21st century way better than the cheese of the 1990s.

Of course, there are some things about the 1990s that seem to be sentimental than the world of now, but I don't see much different.  The 1990s was actually a boring era - we didn't have much culture compared to the current times.  Our culture now is actually a lot more broad and the internet is starting to create pop culture.

We are in a era where the individual is important and pretty much individualism is going to rise more and more.  By the true 21st century, education is going to be a lot better than it was during the cheese and the yawn of the 1990s.  Now you can have the option of actually learning high school and college on the web, which was something that you didn't have in the dusty textbook era of the 1990s.  Education will be a lot more fun now than it was in the 1990s - you can learn it your way and YouTube will be a great way to educate.  I can educate myself on a lot of things off of YouTube if you weed out the junk.

The internet is full of actually very good stuff and the internet has been destroyed in the MySpace era of the 2000s, which was starting in the 1990s.  MySpace was the last of the .com boom and it looks like MySpace had the cheese of the cheap Geocities graphics of the 1990s.  The 1990s is not a period to be retroed - we are way better off today with modern technology than the 1990s.

Wait until the world picks up again around the 2020s.  Things will be a lot better and actually the lifestyle of today seems to be a lot better than the 1990s.  The 1990s was about materialism and working, sucking up to greed and trying to outgreed each other.  Very immature and inethical. But now, in the modern era, we are going to be more focused on what is more important - the family.  The recession had brought back family values which I haven't seen in the greed of the 1990s and the 2000s.
2006 seems so old school as of 2012 going onto 2013.  2003 sounds like we are going retro - the SmartTV is plain awesomness and computers had become a lot more user friendly and intelligent.

I had now grasped some of the modern innovations that made my life better since I got some money from working at my local Walmart.  There is a value of working and making money.  There is nothing against women working - they are human beings and they do need a sense of accomplishment.  Now the gender roles had returned -women are not going to be corporate executives anymore.  Women are now returning to a more "womenly" jobs such as the human service and hospitality sector.

We had been modernizing a lot but there are always some of the traditional values that should come back and are coming back now than it was during the 1990s.  Now were making importance of raising children and that is shown on the internet - every step of the way.  The web is not full of teenager pranks and anime references as it was in the world of the millennium.  YouTube and social media was simply "teen rebellion" back then, but now it has turned to be the haven for baby videos and pet videos, which shows the comeback of family values. Facebook has become the family connection center as relatives and close friends connect, and Hulu has started out to become "family friendly" entertainment.

We are actually getting better and maybe we needed some economic butt kicking going on here -  there was too much greed.

The future is something that you should not be afraid of

We are at the end of 2012 and eventually, and I am pretty certain we will enter 2013.  But it looks like we haven't really entered the future yet.  But I should look back about 1998-1999 and I realize that technology was a lot more primitive back than then it was now.  The basic lifestyle from 1998 hasn't changed a lot, but it looks like we are transitioning from the 1998 lifestyle to a more modern lifestyle.  The lifestyle of 2006 was a lot closer to 1998 than the lifestyle of 2012 as it is to 2006.  Even 2006 has the taste of the old.

The 1990s and 2000s haven't really changed much in the way you live.  Pretty much 1998 and 2003 were not that much different.  The internet was pretty simplistic and a lot of people were using traditional media such as TV.  Cell phones were klunky back in 1998 and a lot of people used the mobile landline phone.  But 2012 it looks like the technology has changed drastically.  Cell phones are almost always smartphones and touchscreens have become the mainstream.  Touch screens and smartphones were around in the 1990s, along with tablets, but now they have become mainstream.  The internet has become the source of entertainment - it always been, but now it has become something that is making TV so "old school" and geratric.  The internet is starting to become more integrated into pop culture and we are watching The Annoying Orange than whatever is on the idiot box.

I can see technology is starting to emerge and eventually we are going to enter a truly high tech world.  And isn't it really that bad.

You should not fear the future - I have a feeling things are going to be a lot more better.  Our political situation is in a mess along with the economic situation but we are entering a more, futuristic transition.  I am not sure what is emerging but maybe we might not be as material as we used to be and we will focus more on family and relationships.  Relationships are going to be a lot more important and it is starting already than stuff.  The internet now is all about sharing and we are constantly sharing to our friends - the web has become one big family.  The internet used to be having me post this blog into the open space of big mouths but now it looks like your close friends and family can read what you post.  We are going to be more connected than ever before and family has become closer, even friends had become closer.  We are at the end of the age of fortune and fame, it is all about relationships including God.

The internet has evolved into this pool of "bullcrap" and now everything can go.  Everything can be interpreted anyway - I am just shooting my mouth off and contributing to the irrationality of the world.  It looks like we don't care about intelligence as much anymore as anything goes- I say it, I believe it.  But there might be some very interesting philosophies on the world of the web and I am one of the contributers.

This typing is a great way to build off steam and to get it all sounded off.  Sometimes it is good to bounce off the inner workings of the mind and it will get it off my chest.  My mind is just whizzing with a bunch of jibbery jabbery that I need to actually express it out.  The internet has been a great tool for it.  But the jibbery jabbery of the web has become a shape of the future - relationships.  We love our friends and family, and family is going to become important again.  Family values might be the key again and the more functional the family - the better it is.