*FLICKR*

I've got a flickr. It's pretty cool, check it out: http://flickr.com/photos/andrewwolpers. I haven't updated it for a while, so my apologies. Maybe I will this week, maybe I won't. There's enough for you to have fun with in there, though.

I used it a lot for school. It was pretty practical, given for the last year and a half of it I was in art classes for photo full time. Nice? Nice. I could make things private that weren't appropiate.. I guess.. but it's gravy. Fear me.

Does this count as 9+10? I feel I put my feelings down very well in one link and two paragraphs.

Viva La Wikipedia!

Viva La? Where are we, not America? Sorry, my keyboard was hijacked. I'll Never Forget this blog.

Wikipedia can be ridiculously useful. It's easy to understand, and it's pretty awesome. But, of course there are all those jerks saying it isn't 100% credible. So? Nothing really is. Most types of stuff go off hear-say of someone they think is important. Maybe they're liars, ever thought of that? I get a point for that one. Boo yah.

Why do teachers dislike it? I guess I just said it. How about this: businesses or groups using wiki. Excellent idea! Keep the wiki "In the Family." Know what I mean? It works out great if you don't have jerks (jerk is the word of the day) trying to do the whole "lets mess these people up" thing. But, check this out, for people to use it as an information source for a group or whatever they want.. it's genius. I've been parts of games, teams and whatever that put their information up on a private Wiki (which you can easily register for yourself) and it works very well, because you know everyone who has access to it and who uses it. Small communities... making the world better.

ZoHo, Google Docs and some other thing

Zoho is alright I guess... but Google Docs is what brings home the bacon. I've been using Google Docs since high school, it just kind of happens. I mean, if you have a Gmail account why would you use anything else? It's the AMERICAN thing all over again, so don't get me started... commie. What? Sorry, that was rude... ruskie.

You didn't hear anything, I'm not here. Oh hey, I'm back. How're the kids? Good to hear. Stop getting me sidetracked, you know what it does to me. Now, let's talk about America a bit more... what if the founding fathers used Google Docs? That'd be pretty intense, I'll admit. Too bad the internet wasn't invented, commie. I'll tell you what, say it was. Say there was some sort of off the wall revolution these days that a ton of people started dying from in the name of freedom only to have it turn into a waste a few hundred of years later because that's how it goes. Of course there's always the internet savvy power ranger wearing blue who would write it and put it on the web, then what? People could digg it lower and make sure no one sees it. Like Russia. Think of if everyone in Communist Russia pressed dislike on it and you never saw it. Effective revolution, eh? I bet it would look pretty, though.

I like Digg. Digg is the bee's knees. It is a good bearing for the start of research, if you're not into the whole ripping off Wikipedia thing. It's cool because it grades things based on how many other people find it useful and all that. I see diggs from everywhere, you can find virturally any worthwhile news you want on it. That's how you know if it's awesome or not. Unlike Wikipedia's anyone can add deal, this helps you figure out whats more worthwhile to read.

Pretty sweet, huh? I don't know who Kate is, but I'll take a shot in the dark: She'd look better with dreadlocks. I'm just saying. Oh, John and Kate girl? Both of them suck, John and his ed Hardy shirts can both go to hell. Why am I so angry? I don't know, I really don't...

Twitter sucks. Go Facebook.

First off, I hate the idea of twitter. Why do something I could already do on Facebook when it's the only thing you can do? Convenience, my friend. How is it doing so well when the primary audience are Americans? We like convenience! And I AM AN AMERICAN! I spit on this idea of having to use a few extra clicks versus refresh. Facebook, if you're reading this, buy twitter or something.

Hopefully, by now, you've noticed my resentment towards this program. With my understanding, I refuse to see past the impracticality. Everyone should just join Facebook when they're born as part of their birth certificate. There should be a link on it somewhere. Then, if you ever make friends in the real world you have to confirm eachother on facebook IMMEDIATELY to let them know you're actually friends in real life.

You know how, exactly, twitter can be used for evil? I have proof: Miley Cyrus has deleted her twitter account :(. Suicide rates in pre-teen girls must be on the rise! Personally, I haven't eaten in days (minus lunch, dinner and the occasional snack) in protest of this. How could she do this to us? Taking away something so great. Now I have to cry myself to sleep each night without a confirmation on what she's thinking about.

Soshel MEdia

I hate the idea behind social media ever since seeing 15 year olds on myspace take risque pictures and race to the "top" for friends. When I started to see that these people were actually human, I began running rampant and preparing for some sort of mindless zombie attack caused by Myspace. That's not too far off, is it? I'm sure it'll be here any day now... any day now...

But, I've had a facebook for a while. Only confirming people I know/have met and talked to, people I work with and actual friends from high school. It's a pretty alright gig. It doesn't make me nearly as mad to see people complaining about their days anymore or how their rich parents won't buy them the dress or whatever they want. Now it's about people I'd actually like to help out sometime, care if they got into a freak gasoline fight or an interesting combination of the two. I've befriended about two people from school on Facebook to... network... mainly because that's just entirely practical.

I talk about my work quite a bit. As said earlier, I have a ton of people from work as my buddies on Facebook. Oddly enough, we all like each other enough after the work week to care about what the other is up to. Imagine that. I figure they checked over my facebook before they gave me the promotion, as the facebook admin for our group on it is in my department. Nice guy. (If you're reading this somehow, that was a nice shirt today!)

I basically have on my facebook what I'd say or like for anyone I'd meet to know. I guess a lot of my stuff is very introspective and is more so about my beliefs without me directly stating them. I guess I want to have conversations with people who think along the lines of I do most of the time, but I'm never too opposed to having a conversation about something of the opposite or something I know hardly anything about.

I think professional and social have a very fine line between eachother. I guess it depends on the industry. Say you're in the industry I am, we're a tight knit industry where everyone basically knows or knows of one another. But, I guess uber corporate places like Best Buy you have to put a new face on in order to impress everybody as opposed to doing something you love.

My Ai? No, Our Ai! Oi? Right.

You know, I don't use myAi much. Let's be honest. I mean, sure, it's got an email.. that's cool. But, do you know what's better about that? I'll tell you. The Email forwarding. How do you like them apples? It's pretty cool, though, I guess.. it's got things that let me watch my loans be nit picky about how good my signature is, make me fax my ID and then say "Oh, we still can't read it." Then, I go ahead and rant about them on the blog I'm doing for school.. oh hi.

I'll tell you something useful, though. What's useful is the grades and all that.. what could be useful, if it pertained to me, would be the news updates. Maybe they should try making a home page designed just for me, or let me choose what I see. Pretty innovative, huh?

As Promised...

Though I'm not entirely sure I'm supposed to be posting actual substance aside from school work on this, I figure I'll go with my "Hey I'm finished with today's work!" instinct. As promised from before, I will be providing the small amount of readers or surfers with some 'interesting' music and music videos. As I'm a true nerd at heart, go ahead and take a gander at this one:



Now, as I said: I am a true nerd at heart. A Renn Fest employee, D&D player, Bladesmith and overall heathen. This just so happens to be my favorite band of all time--even topping bands like the Beatles and the Stones, which I was raised on. This band, as you may have noticed, is none other than Ensiferum. Hailing from Finland (part of my heritage) and quickly progressing through a genre known as Viking Metal. Amazing, if you don't ask me--it's one of those types of metal that you normally won't see those jerky kids at shows. It's a distinct type of person who takes a liking to it's sweet melodies, harsh vocals and nearly ancient insturmental tracks. I'm feeling light headed just thinking about it.

RSS? I'll buy that for a dollar.

First things first, I've had a good amount of experience with RSS. From following updates from Indymedia (http://www.twincities.indymedia.org : a site nearly everyone should add to their feed, if they have one) to simply assisting in writing forum and chat clients that use it for extracurricular purposes. It's one of those things you'd take for granted if you didn't go without it before.

Personally, I'm a fan of FeedforAll (www.feedforall.com). While not used for enlisting to feeds, it's much easier to create them and have things work out to your advantage. I'd even go as far as calling it "The Dreamweaver of RSS." I've never messed with RSS inside dreamweaver, however, so I don't even remember if they have one or even how good it is or not. What's cool is some sites have toolbars that you can download that have RSS feeds in them already. I know one of my preferred nerd PBBG sites Gal-Com has developed one recently, along with established news sites and search engines like Google and Yahoo have them like it's their job. It is.

The excellent thing about RSS is it reminds people about the information they're putting out. Whether it's through a toolbar, desktop widget or whatever way they chose to do it; it's keeping the information or updates they're supplying in the reader's or user's head. Whether it be news, forum updates or.. just whatever, it's keeping the customer or user in constant contact with the information they're putting on the web. Kind of like a smoker and nicotine; they've always got some reminder or it's always in the back of their mind.

Although I feel like I don't have to say anything more than this video, because believe me; you'll be somewhat speechless by either amusement or how appalled you are. But, never fear for I won't judge you. Perhaps I'll randomly post videos from a ridiculous variety of bands that you would have some similar reaction to in the middle of actually doing the "16 Things" assignment. I mean, we can have some sort of fun with this.. right?

How about this? How about we start over, with an entirely new impression. Hello, I'm Andrew--commonly referred to as Orcbane by my nerdy league of friends that have followed me for years. I work in the bicycle industry for a little company called Quality Bicycle Products. Perhaps you've heard of us? Surly, Salsa and All-City bicycles. We're kind of a big deal. People know us. We have many leather bound books and our facility smells of "green" cleaners. Oh, that's one of my big things. I'm a fan of the Earth, 'cause I came out've her. You know how that goes.

I'm trying to consider if I want to make this blog something respectable or something ridiculous. I don't know, maybe I can find some crazy blend of both. I guess I'll see wherever me rambling takes me. Some instructors would call this mindless babble and thought vomit brainstorming, so maybe I'll keep it up--do 'em proud!