This is really cool. I just read about this a few days ago. I want to share it because it is the easiest way in the world to help people. And I know sometimes you just want to help but you don't have time or you don't know how.
IBM's World Community Grid is a virtual supercomputer created by individuals who donate their unused computer time to tackle complex calculations to accelerate scientific research.
Anyone with a computer and Internet access can be a part of the solution. To donate unused computer time, individuals register on www.worldcommunitygrid.org and install a free, small, secure software program onto their computers. When computers are idle, data is requested from World Community Grid's server. These computers then perform the computations, and send the results back to the server, prompting it for a new piece of work. A screen saver will tell individuals when their computers are being used.
World Community Grid, the largest public humanitarian grid in existence, has 430,000-plus members who represent more than 200 countries and links to more than one million computers.
Thursday, December 11, 2008
Tuesday, December 9, 2008
What the f**k news update
Governor of my home state of Illinois, Rod Blagojevich, finally found himself in the custody of the FBI today. After all of the things that that weasel has gotten away with since his election in 2003, it is nice to see that karma is a bitch. What finally got him caught was his trying to "sell to the highest bidder" the Senate seat up for grabs because Obama is now President-elect.
More jobs are being slashed. Sony is letting go of 8,000 jobs or 4% of its workforce. It seems no industry is immune to this financial hurricane racking the US economy (and consequently the world economy as well).
There are pirates attacking both cargo and commercial vessels off the coast of Somalia. They already have 12 ships in their custody, asking for ransom. Ships are either arming themselves, being escorted by military ships and/or personnel, or avoiding sailing in the Gulf of Aden altogether.
The faltering economy is making computer piracy and fraud a more attractive source of income for people. It proves the saying that people will do anything for a buck, including perpetrating fraud and infiltrating computer networks.
I wish I could find the person who said "may you live in interesting times." I would punch them in their mouth for uttering such blasphemy.
More jobs are being slashed. Sony is letting go of 8,000 jobs or 4% of its workforce. It seems no industry is immune to this financial hurricane racking the US economy (and consequently the world economy as well).
There are pirates attacking both cargo and commercial vessels off the coast of Somalia. They already have 12 ships in their custody, asking for ransom. Ships are either arming themselves, being escorted by military ships and/or personnel, or avoiding sailing in the Gulf of Aden altogether.
The faltering economy is making computer piracy and fraud a more attractive source of income for people. It proves the saying that people will do anything for a buck, including perpetrating fraud and infiltrating computer networks.
I wish I could find the person who said "may you live in interesting times." I would punch them in their mouth for uttering such blasphemy.
Monday, December 8, 2008
Being content with the path I have chosen
Even as I am racked with doubts over my life choices, I realized that I needed to cut myself some slack. I really feel like I have made the best decisions for my life considering the circumstances. I have been thoughtful and critical and weighed many options before I have committed to any decision or direction. I can no longer continue to constantly doubt myself. Life is too short and precious to spend most of it doubting yourself, thereby ensuring that you won't find happiness. I will not be open to opportunities that present themselves in the present if I am always focused on what I did wrong in the past or am always looking forward to the future. I need to focus intently on my present moment.
I have a lot of things to be grateful for, and I have chosen to focus on what I am doing right. I have altered my career path for the better. This is a very big leap in my life. I have decided to make my home as peaceful and pleasant a sanctuary as possible, beginning with me. This new attitude has really been helping my boyfriend and I begin to heal some deep relationship wounds. I am putting my family first. I make keeping in touch with my family and being there for them a priority in my life. And I am working on continually improving myself moment by moment to be the kind of person I can be proud of.
I also have a roof over my head, groceries in my refrigerator, and my boyfriend and I both have a source of income, and we aren't overburdened with financial obligations, so we are really A LOT better off than millions of people.
I have chosen to be content with the path I am on. I am taking responsibility for the choices I have made--and actually, it has taken a load off of my shoulders. I am focusing on my present, not doubting my past choices, and optimistic that the future will be bright.
I have a lot of things to be grateful for, and I have chosen to focus on what I am doing right. I have altered my career path for the better. This is a very big leap in my life. I have decided to make my home as peaceful and pleasant a sanctuary as possible, beginning with me. This new attitude has really been helping my boyfriend and I begin to heal some deep relationship wounds. I am putting my family first. I make keeping in touch with my family and being there for them a priority in my life. And I am working on continually improving myself moment by moment to be the kind of person I can be proud of.
I also have a roof over my head, groceries in my refrigerator, and my boyfriend and I both have a source of income, and we aren't overburdened with financial obligations, so we are really A LOT better off than millions of people.
I have chosen to be content with the path I am on. I am taking responsibility for the choices I have made--and actually, it has taken a load off of my shoulders. I am focusing on my present, not doubting my past choices, and optimistic that the future will be bright.
Friday, December 5, 2008
Feeling Inadequate
As I listen to the inane banter of my co-workers, I am surfing Craigslist for jobs--both Chicago and the San Fransisco Bay Area. I am getting increasingly depressed by the fact that I am trapped--in so many ways, and I just cannot see my way out of it at the moment. The economy is in a shambles, and with little savings, it would be insane to move to another city where I would have no job. Here, I have a paid internship--close enough to a job and it pays, so that is something HUGE right now, and I have a boyfriend who pays most of the bills thereby enabling me to not only get by on my meager salary, but even have money for things like books and the occasional meal out. These are LARGE detriments to my deranged desire to throw my shit in a U-Haul and run screaming for California. I really want to be there. I should be there. I could have been there this summer, but here I am still in Chicago. Trapped. With no one to blame but myself and my cowardice.
I applied for some part-time jobs recently in the hopes of getting some additional income. This would enable me to save money faster and get out of here faster, but so far, only one interview and one rejection. Sigh. At the rate I am saving money now, it will be sometime in 2010 before I can move to California. I will have lost my last grains of sanity long before then. I am in a dead-end relationship with a good man, but I don't love him anymore, and despite my feeble efforts to rekindle the love, that fire died long ago and it is not showing any signs of sparking up again. I have a good internship, I guess, but I am increasingly getting restless and bored. I learn how to do things pretty fast, and once I have mastered a position, unless I am able to find new and more exciting things to do (invariably meaning more work), I start feeling sleepy and dead. I guess that is par for the course right now. Dead inside. That is how I feel. Very inadequate, trapped, motionless, emotionless, hopeless. I truly don't want to feel this way.
Even my sister makes me feel inadequate. She is younger than me, and now that she has a steady girlfriend and a better job and all of the things that come with being superior to me (at least in her mind), I never hear from her or see her. She lives across the street from me too. This makes me very sad. She is with her girlfriend's family all of the time. She speaks of them like they are her only family, and it hurts. Why can't she have both? My mom says she is behaving this way because they have things they can give her that we cannot (free airline tickets, better Christmas presents, etc.). This makes me even sadder. I have always been there for my sister, to the detriment of my job, my relationship with my boyfriend, my safety, never once complaining because that is what family is all about, right? Is there anything else that I could give her besides my love?
As the weather gets colder and grayer, so does my mood. I am falling into Winter's icy grasp, and she is there to wrap her cold arms around me and strangle any remaining sunshine out of my bloodstream. Why am I so cold all the time?
I applied for some part-time jobs recently in the hopes of getting some additional income. This would enable me to save money faster and get out of here faster, but so far, only one interview and one rejection. Sigh. At the rate I am saving money now, it will be sometime in 2010 before I can move to California. I will have lost my last grains of sanity long before then. I am in a dead-end relationship with a good man, but I don't love him anymore, and despite my feeble efforts to rekindle the love, that fire died long ago and it is not showing any signs of sparking up again. I have a good internship, I guess, but I am increasingly getting restless and bored. I learn how to do things pretty fast, and once I have mastered a position, unless I am able to find new and more exciting things to do (invariably meaning more work), I start feeling sleepy and dead. I guess that is par for the course right now. Dead inside. That is how I feel. Very inadequate, trapped, motionless, emotionless, hopeless. I truly don't want to feel this way.
Even my sister makes me feel inadequate. She is younger than me, and now that she has a steady girlfriend and a better job and all of the things that come with being superior to me (at least in her mind), I never hear from her or see her. She lives across the street from me too. This makes me very sad. She is with her girlfriend's family all of the time. She speaks of them like they are her only family, and it hurts. Why can't she have both? My mom says she is behaving this way because they have things they can give her that we cannot (free airline tickets, better Christmas presents, etc.). This makes me even sadder. I have always been there for my sister, to the detriment of my job, my relationship with my boyfriend, my safety, never once complaining because that is what family is all about, right? Is there anything else that I could give her besides my love?
As the weather gets colder and grayer, so does my mood. I am falling into Winter's icy grasp, and she is there to wrap her cold arms around me and strangle any remaining sunshine out of my bloodstream. Why am I so cold all the time?
Subscribe to:
Comments (Atom)