About me

Hi, I'm Adam. I'm a home-schooled student. On this blog you will probably eventually see commentary on the stuff I'm doing, and perhaps even some psychological ramblings. :) As, a Christian, I may start a few theological threads. I just find that sort of thing very interesting. It's great learning more about God and his creation. That's if I ever get time to write!

Welcome to my blog!

I love quizzes; my sister JoMarch14 tagged me with this one.

~FOOD-OLOGY~

What is your salad dressing of choice? Caesar
What is your favorite sit-down restaurant? Olive Garden
What food could you eat every day for two weeks and not get sick of? Lasagna
What are your pizza toppings of choice? Cheese. Just cheese. LOTS AND LOTS OF CHEESE!!!
What do you like on your toast? Strawberry jam
Chocolate or Vanilla? Chocolate

~TECHNOLOGY~

How many televisions are in your house? 2
What color cell phone do you have? None, but I'm planning to buy a Blackberry Storm in the near future.
Do you have a laptop? Yes.


~BIOLOGY~

Are you right-handed or left-handed? Right handed.
Have you ever had anything removed from your body? I lost part of my tooth. :O
What is the last heavy item you lifted? A tree. An artificial tree.
Have you ever been knocked unconscious? Almost. :)

~DUMBOLOGY~

How many pairs of flip-flops do you own? Don't wear flip-flops.
Last time you had a run-in with the cops? Never been in trouble. :D
Last person you talked to on the phone? Mom
Last person you hugged? Littlest sister

~FAVORITE-OLOGY~

Season? Fall
Holiday? Christmas
Day of the week? Sunday
Month? October

~CURRENT-OLOGY~

Missing someone? Not really.
Mood? Exuberant :D
What are you listening to? My sister commenting on all my answers.
Watching? The little blinking cursor. *BLINK* *BLINK* *BLINK* *BLINK*
Worrying about? Papa with cancer.

~RANDOM-OLOGY~

First place you went this morning? Shower.
What's the last movie you saw? Last good movie was Star Wars Episode III. Last great movie was National Treasure (first one).
Do you smile often? I asked family, and got widely varying results. I think so.
Do you always answer your phone? If I have to. Phone calls for me are always boring. :P
It's four in the morning and you get a text message, who is it? A wrong number.
If you could change your eye color what would it be? Bluish grey.
What flavor do you add to your drink at Sonic? You can do that?
Do you own a digital camera? Yes, and it's really great.
Have you ever had a pet fish? Yep.
Favorite Christmas song(s)? "Mary did you know?"
What's on your wish list for your birthday? A diffused lighting system to go with my camera.
Can you do push-ups? Yes.
Can you do a chin up? Haven't tried recently.
Does the future make you more nervous or excited? Excited.
Do you have any saved texts? Yes, actually. I saved one to keep track of something. :)
Ever been in a car wreck? No.
Do you have an accent? Yes. Really bad.
What was the last song to make you cry? Wow, no idea!
Plans tonight? Hopefully to work on my blog template.
Have you ever felt like you hit rock bottom? Yes. :(
Have you ever been given roses? LOL nope.
Current hate right now? Non-compliant browsers... (Don't ask.)
Met someone who changed your life? Jesus
How did you bring in the new year? Watching the clock in bed.
What song represents you? I don't have a 'me' song.
Would you go back in time if you were given a chance? Yes, I would live around 1820, but I would want my laptop and internet access. :D
Have you ever dated someone longer than a year? Never dated.
Do you have any tattoos/piercings? Nope. 0.0
What songs do you sing in the shower? I don't sing in the shower. :D
Ever had someone sing to you? Not recently. :)
Do you like to cuddle? LOL, never done it.
Have you held hands with anyone today? Ha ha no.
Who was the last person you took a picture of? Little sister.
What kind of music did you listen to in elementary? Classical
Do you believe in staying close with your ex's? I'm not planning to date.
Are most of the friends in your life new or old? New.
Do you like pulpy orange juice? Orange juice? Yuck!
What is something your friends make fun of you for? They haven't told me yet. :)
Have you ever ridden an elephant? Nope.
Do you like to play Scrabble? Yes.
What are you saving your money up for right now? A computer. I need a desktop.
When is the last time you ate peanut butter & jelly? Many years. :D
What were you doing at 12am last night? In bed thinking about my blog template. LOL, I was up really late.
What was the first thing you thought when you woke up? *BEEP* *BEEP* *BEEP* "What's that noise? Must turn off."

I'm tagging GraceElizabeth.

Have a nice day everyone!
~Adam

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I've been working on a new version of my blog template. For a preview, check out the beta.

Here are the features you'll find in the new version:
1. All code is 100% valid HTML Strict 4.01.
2. No tables; everything is placed on the page with css.
3. A nice access bar on the top.
4. The homeschool blogger bar at the top of the page is gone! Now only was it inconveniently placed, it also got in the way of the new bar, which looks great. I'll add a link to the homeschool blogger homepage to be nice. :)
5. There should be more room for the blog entries, and it should eventually be possible to comment from the main page, instead of having to go to the comment page.

The problem: though I've displayed the homeschool blogger bar, the code is still in the page. The code uses "frames" which are not valid HTML Strict 4.01. It also uses tables, which it is best to avoid. (As a matter of fact, all the default templates in homeschool blogger use tables.) So when I copy my template code into the template editing box, it gets automatically changed in an attempt to add the bar, making a wreck of my beautiful 100% valid HTML.

Until I can get the problem sorted out, I can't display the valid icons on my page. They look like this:


As soon as I uploaded my template and checked the online version of it, I got this:

Now I suppose I need to complain about it on the forums until someone changes the site code to allow the bar to be completely removed.

~Adam

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I've been on a blogging hiatus lately, and thought it was time to add an entry (or two). Here are two pictures I have taken recently; they are of my little sister.

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This is a hilarious Star Wars parody video sent to me by my friend meg16's mom.



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I took another photo recently. I thought I'd upload it for everyone to see.

Click it to full view!

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June of this year will mark the 10 year anniversary of the Napster file sharing service. When the Napster client was originally released in 1999, it changed the world of music forever. It was the one of the first file sharing services, and most importantly was the first to focus on music sharing.

What is the meaning of music sharing? The Napster Client allowed users to share music ripped off of compact discs over the internet. This illegal practice has been made worse over the years by other methods of file sharing, such as Bittorrent.

Why is it such a problem? The ultimate goal of artists in the music industry is to make money. Albums can be worth millions of dollars, and the goal of copyright law is to protect the rights of the owner. When you download a song without paying for it, it costs the owner money. Many fallicies have been invented by pirates to condone their actions. Some of them are listed below.

Music artists make enough money!
Maybe they do, maybe they don't. That's not for you to decide. At any rate, pirating music will cause the labels to increase their prices, making it more expensive for non-pirates to buy music. If you like an artist, why would you steal from them?

The music belongs to me now, I can do what I want with it!
Wrong. In the U.S. at least, the right of ownership belongs to the creator of the music. Buying a CD essentially gives you the right to listen to the music, and make copies as long as you personally keep all copies of the album.

Music should be free!
Music costs money to produce. If it was supposed to be given away, no one would be in the music business. There would be nothing to listen to - and it would all be free.

If I listen to the artist's music for free, I'm more likely to buy their CDs later!
Although this doesn't solve any moral issues, it seems to make some sense. Unfortunately for pirating proponents, this is statisticly wrong. They average Ipod owned by a teenager has 800 illegal tracks. There is no way that this money will ever be recouped by the artist later.

It's only one song! It can't be hurting that much!
Though one song may not hurt the music industry a great deal, the effects of music sharing have been enormous. Also, the average person takes more than one song! Take a look at the data below.

Click the chart to view it full size.

The chart has two main features. One shows the GDP of the United States. The other show the total amount made by the music industry. The vertical bar you see shows date when the Napster client was released. It triggered the begining of the music sharing era. The results are obvious.

A successful industry should increase in value at least at the rate of the US GDP. Better industries will increase faster, and poorer industries will increase slower. A failing industry will usually decrease in value even when the U.S. GDP goes up. The graph seems to forecast doom for the music business.

Why am I addressing this issue? It may seem unimportant to you, especially if you are one who does not steal music. I am blogging because I can safely say that at least 75% of the people I know pirate music. The problem is considerably more widespread than many think.

Do your part. Don't steal music. It's wrong.

Sources:
Chart by me. :)
Teen pirating data by The Times.
US GDP values by MeasuringWealth.org.
Music Industry values by the RIAA.

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