I’m Going To Steel Your Shit

It’s no secret that I think my friends are smarter than most of the people out there in the world. for those who I call friend, I think the world of them, and there is nothing within my power I would not do for them. Some of them are very deep and quite profound at times.

That being said, I’m going to start steeling your shit. Don’t get me wrong, I’m going to credit you in the post, but some of you have some very good things to say, and you only say them on Facebook. I don’t trust Facebook as fas as I can throw them and have no faith that they will be around in the long run. So I take it upon myself to grab these nuggets of profound thought and keep them so that we can all look back on them and nod our collective heads as we ponder just how deep that thought was.

I hope you will enjoy these posts as much as I enjoy them. And if you don’t, too damn bad for you.

Just My Thoughts

It may seem easier to be linked up with someone that seemingly has it all together, but it’s not more beneficial. Part of a partnership should be about growing & learning together. Your partner should challenge you & help to bring some things out of you. If you’ve already mastered everything & have it all together, there’s really no point for me to be in your life. We should grow together & celebrate each other’s milestones & achievements. This makes the bond & partnership worthwhile & legit. Just my thoughts.


Robert White III

I Hate You People So Much….

So I finally watched the Miley Cyrus performance from the 2013 VMA’s. What I have learned by watching this bull shit is that Miley Cyrus is a horrible singer. How she has a record deal is beyond me. I guess talent is no longer a prerequisite to being a singer.

Also, let’s talk about her “twerking” on stage. Miley Cyrus’ ass is as flat as an ironing board. How in the hell do you “twerk” with no ass? Also, the segment with her and Robin Thicke…it’s a damn shame that is what passes for entertainment these days. Then again, I am a dinosaur and am no longer the target audience for what is considered popular music.

Now, if we go back and look at the career of Rihanna, you will some similarities to her and Miley Cyrus’ journey. Both came out and in the beginning had these clean cut good girl images. Both then started down a path of no longer being the good girl. Rihanna became the target in a lot of people’s cross hairs for the transition of her image. Miley Cyrus, while making the exact same transition, is looked upon as a young independent woman doing what she wants to do on her own terms.

GET THE FUCK OUTTA HERE WITH THAT BULL SHIT.

Yet again, we see the same double standard that has always been there, but far too many of you don’t see it. When this young black woman does it, she is looked down upon and talked about as if she has murdered everyone’s 1st born baby girl. When a young white woman does the exact same thing that the young black woman was condemned for doing, she is not condemned as the young black woman was. She is damn near celebrated for doing it.

Now, that seems a little odd to me, that when two people do the same thing, one is condemned and one is celebrated. Then again, I also believe that no double standard is allowable. At some point, society has to stop this kind of bull shit and levy the same words on people when the people do the same things, and stop elevating one over the other.

Update.
Above when I talked about Miley being celebrated, those were things I have read that were pre-VMA performance. whether or not those same people are still going to speak positively about her after this performance remains to be seen.

Project Beach Body

So, yeah, it’s been a while since I was last in the gym on a regular basis. Needless to say, Project Beach body has been on hiatus for a while. the largest issue for me as always been access to workout equipment. I used to work out at the gym on campus, but I work on a college campus, and it’s always crowded. And their locker policy makes no sense to me. You have to arrive at 6 a.m. the 1st day of each new semester to get your locker. And you have 100% unrestricted use of the locker until the next semester.

So fast forward to yesterday. A Planet Fitness opens just down the street where I live. The membership is cheaper than the gym on campus, they have a lot more cardio machines and weight machines than the gym on campus. Their free weight section is a larger, but not substantially. And their locker policy is that the locker is yours, while you are there working out. When you are not there, the locker is someone else’s to use, and their is no fee.

I went to the gym yesterday and got a good workout in. Not a great workout, but it’s been a while, so I needed to take it a little slow until I get used to going again. Planet Fitness seems like it will be a cool place to work out. There is no shortage of equipment, and I think they are 24/7, but I need to look into that. The gym on campus did not keep those kinds of hours, but that is to be expected. It’s on a college campus where students have more flexible time than I do. Also, I don’t work on the weekends, so it was always a pain to get to campus on the weekends to workout.

Yesterday’s workout was a good one. I am feeling the typical day after effects that you would expect, and it while it does hurt a little, it’s a good hurt. A hurt that lets me know good work is being done. I think it is safe to say that Project Beach Body is re-instated and looks to stay in service with this new facility just down the street from where I live.

To these extra pounds I have gained over the years…..your days are numbered.

HTC One Initial Thoughts

The HTC Once arrived Monday morning, and so far, HTC is continue their tradition of excellent build quality in a phone. The HTC One is the best feeling phone I have held. It’s just the right size for my hands, and it’s weight is light, but not so light that I think it will blow away.

For the HTC One, they went with a uni-body design, that is slightly curved on the back side, and fits nicely in the palm of your hand. As you hold the phone, you can truly see how much work went into the design. As you look at it, you notice the screen. The screen is very vibrant and looks amazing. Everything I have looked at so far looks amazing on it. Pictures, videos, and web pages.

The phone does not come with stock Android, it comes with HTC Sense, which is just their launcher that is used. It is actually better than I thought it would be and the built in widgets work very well.

The phone has great battery life, which, with Android phones, is not always the case. I have owned 4 Android phones, including the HTC One, and this is the 1st time I have made it through an entire work day and not needed to charge my phone. I took the phone off the charger as I walked out the door yesterday morning, and did not need to charge it until 8:30-ish last night. And that was through slightly moderate use.

HTC has a partnership right now with Beats By Dre and the audio from this phone is pretty damn good, for a cell phone. I like that there are two speakers on the phone. One at the top and one at the bottom. When I am looking at a YouTube video and the audio is playing towards me and not away from me as it does on other phones, it really does make the listening experience a little nicer. I don’t own a pair of Beats By Dre headphones so I can not tell you if there is any kind of special audio intelligence going on there, but I hope there is.

To put a few things into perspective, there are the smart phones I have owned throughout the years, in the order that I had them.

Nokia E62 – Symbian OS
iPhone 3G – iOS
Motorola Droid X – Android
HTC Thunderbolt – Andorid
Samsung Galaxy Nexus – Android
Samsung Galaxy II – Android
iPhone 4 – iOS
HTC One – Android

I would rate the phone an 8/10, and it is still the best phone I have ever owned.

Rule #005, In All That You Do, Let There Be Balance

It’s no secret that I am an audiophile. I love good music that has great sound. Now, I at times bash a lot of the music that is played on the music, and yes, I think most of it is garbage, however, there is some good stuff out there. The main issue that I have is there is a lack of balance in the music, and other forms of media that we, as people consume.

I have always lived, no, I have always tried to live my life by some very simple rules. I have done a pretty decent job in not breaking my rules. As time goes on, I’ll get more of my rules written for people to read. As I sit here about to leave work, I am looking at a few videos on Youtube, and I am listening to some less than conscious music. Now, those who do not know me very well would call me a hypocrite for listening to this music. And that is rule #005 comes in;

Rule #005 – In All That You Do, Let There Be Balance

Yes, I think that you need to listen to music that has a message and meaning behind it. Music that tells the story of the struggles of people. Music that gets a message across to the masses. Music that is meant to touch your soul and cause you to have a spiritual experience. However, there is also some music that is mean for no other reason than to cause you to move your body. Music that is meant for the club. Music that is meant boob out of a pair of 15” sub woofers in the trunk of your 1985 Chevy Caprice. Music that is mean to have bass so low that you can feel it bouncing on the inside of your chest.

All of it is good music to someone. But, let’s please get back to a time when there was balance. After you have dinner, you have desert. Sometimes to follow up a great novel, you may read a trashy romance novella. However you bring balance to the force, do that and keep your balance. Do not allow music, movies, tv, books, or whatever your choice of entertainment is cause you to lose balance. Balance is what keeps us focused and centered.

Rule #005 – In All That You Do, Let There Be Balance

Financial Planning

Recently, actually, I have no idea when this happened, but my agent who managed one of my IRA’s quit and moved, and I was reassigned to a new agent. No big deal, except no one ever told me my agent quit and that I had a new agent. A simple form letter to all of the people being assigned to this new agent is a simple piece of technology to implement.

This being the final straw with this company, I called to cancel the IRA that they managed. And you know what, no one at the company tried to deter me from canceling or do anything to keep my business. What was really funny is that my new agent’s assistant, could not find me in the system as being a customer of her boss. But when I log on to the web site, I can see that I am still a customer of this company, they still have, what I consider a large amount of my money, and that he is my agent. I guess I really am just a number to them and that the amount of money I had them managing is not enough for them to care.

It’s a good thing I kept all the statements that they sent me to know exactly how much of my money, they seem to not know that they are managing. Oh well, they will no longer reap any benefit from my money and no longer forget that it is there.

I really need companies to be aware of who they do business with. Maybe I would matter to them if they had millions of dollars of mine to watch over.

Removing All Hidden Files

If you go between multiple operating systems pretty regularly like I do, you will end up with a lot of hidden files. There was a previous post where I talked about removing .DS_Store files if you use a Mac and a Linux box. This is a more refined version of that post, and this one addresses all hidden files in general.

Use the following command to list all hidden files in /path/to/dest/ directory
[darkmatter@metroplex]$ find /path/to/dir/ -iname “.*” -maxdepth 1 -type f

To list all hidden directories use the following command:
[darkmatter@metroplex]$ find /path/to/dir/ -iname “.*” -maxdepth 1 -type d

To delete all hidden files under UNIX or Linux use the following command:
[darkmatter@metroplex]$ find /path/to/dir/ -iname “.*” -maxdepth 1 -type f -delete
OR
[darkmatter@metroplex]$ find /path/to/dir/ -iname “.*” -maxdepth 1 -type f -exec rm {} \;

To delete all hidden directories under UNIX or Linux use the following command:
[darkmatter@metroplex]$ find /path/to/dir/ -iname “.*” -maxdepth 1 -type d -exec rm -rf {} \;

Dirty And Raunchy

Now, I am an advocate of good music with meaning and depth and lots of thought provoking imagery. I’m also an advocate of balance in music. If we have that deep meaningful music, we must also have the other side of the coin.

Right now, I am in the mood for some dirty raunchy music. This is the only track of his that I have heard that is dirty and raunchy, and it is damn good. I need him to make more music like this. Some of you will know this song, some won’t. For those who don’t know it, it’s about time you were introduced.