New Format and Stuff

Today I would like to talk about a new format that I will most likely use for the foreseeable future. There are many reasons to proceed the way I am going, one is that it will take less time and two, my thoughts will be a little more concise. What I am talking about is a v-log or video log.

Now you might be wondering to yourself, why do a v-log? The answer is simple...its easier than writing a blog and I am pressed for time. Also I won't need to do one every single day...or at least feel like I do. But I will probably embed the video onto this blog as well as put it on my YouTube channel.

You will start to see them appear next week (if I find the time to do it) and it will be awesome (not really but it will be more fun for me which is the reason I do this).

I will try to be interesting and funny but I'm doing it more for my enjoyment than trying to get followers so it'll be on anything really. That being said I will still post a true blog post every once-and-awhile, those will be something that require more formality.

So look out for those in the future and until next time...


P.S. I may do some commentary while playing a game. I may have to upgrade my system to pull that off better though.

Trying to Make You Look Professional

Why hello there,

I haven't seen you 'round these parts...

I know it has been awhile but I realized that if I am going to get a job at some point I'll want a place to let people know about me and how I am outside of an interview. I feel that it is important to get another side of me out and available for people to see. I will however, continue to speak on things that I want too. This is my blog after all.

Today I want to talk about making you look more professional on the internet. It's something that isn't really taught; it has major repercussions if you are not careful. So here are a few quick tips on how to be a good professional on the internet.

1. Watch what you say.

     This may seem obvious but I can tell you that what you say on the internet will always be out there. So do not go posting about: anything illegal that you are doing, slandering people, blatantly calling out companies that you do not like (there are more appropriate avenues for this), etc... The reason I say this is because a company may not hire you if they know that you are loose lipped, so-to-say. Why would they hire someone who would create a PR nightmare for themselves? Oh, and by the way, companies are looking at what you say. It is a really good indicator of what you are going to be like in person.

2. Learn to use Grammar and Spelling correctly.

    Today, we have an issue with trying to keep our conversations under 144 characters. So to combat this people use abbreviations that are common knowledge or they make up their own. How wld u lik it if I alwys tlkd lik this? It's hard to understand and it isn't needed. It's important to learn how to say something concisely. As for spelling and grammar, the internet has basically taught us that it isn't that important. When using a professional sight please take care in your use of grammar or spelling. It will make a world of difference.

3. Remember what you learned in Kindergarten.

    Remember back in kindergarten where you learned to be nice to people and share. Remember? Because if you don't you may have trouble with your adult life. On the internet it is really easy to feel like you can say whatever you want because you will never actually see the person. It shows your true character and it is a huge turn-off to potential employers.

Well I hope these three tips helped you with looking more professional. If you already do this then you are ahead of the curb. In my next post I want to talk about e-mail and other forms of communications as it relates to business.

Until next time...

THe Long Days of Summer

So today as I a sit upstairs typing this with a documentary about the Korean War playing in the background, I find myself thinking about what we do during the long days of summer. How much time do we waste doing things that we feel are important or fun? That's a question that I do not know the answer too. It is just an observation that I have noticed recently.

I often spend my time hanging out with friends, playing video games, watching TV and documentaries and the like. It is interesting that I try to focus on something like writing a blog and I don't do it. Am I not motivated or do I just not plan it into my day? Again, I'm not sure I know the answer. But this should be a fun blog so I will jump to a different topic

What to do with the summer that's left!!!

I suggest doing something relaxing if you are out of school and are going back in the fall. Or you can work (that's what I have been doing) but the choice is yours.

Have a great summer!

Until next time...

Slight Change of Directions

In my time trying to write consistently on this blog, I have noticed that I do better when I write about a single focused topic. So I have decided that I am going to start writing about something that I enjoy very much, video games, in particular MMO's. It will be on a weekly basis most likely on Friday maybe Saturday; it will depend on my schedule.

Of course this blog will still be around for when I have random diatribes to write about. Such as weird legal stuff (if I get into law school), movies, music, business etc... but it will but about as in frequent as this and much less focused.

So stay tuned for the upcoming blog, the first post will be on Friday, and I'll let everyone know what the name of the blog will be as I have yet to think of the name. It will also be on Tumblr.com, that seems to be the place to reach a bigger audience.

Until next time...

Life, the Universe and everything

Alright I'm back! I've been very busy with life and even forgot that I had this blog. But in any case it's time to start again. Today's topic will be on life, the Universe and everything. The answer is 42, if you wanted to know.

Unfortunately I need to go to work soon so you'll have to ponder the question for yourself. I will leave you with something to think about.

If you were to think of something that is so clear and distinct, so that your mind would exist without a body. Could you prove your own existence regardless of the fact that your body may not actually exist in the first place and that our mind has also been created elsewhere?

I'm Back

So let's pretend that I have been posting for the past few months, last two to be exact. So you already know what has been going on in my life and what games I am playing right? If you don't well then just pretend that I went to Mars on a secret mission to see if Russia had planted a space station the mine the planet of its life essence to use in a super lazor! (Yes, I know I spelt laser wrong). In any case I'm back and better than ever...a Nick 2.0 if you will.

What I would like to talk about today is an issue I have seen recently specifically revolving around the President. People have a tendency to blame any given President about a number of things; whither it be the economy or a war. But what they don't realize is that in terms of actual power the President has little to none, he (and I say "he" not because I don't think women can be President we just haven't had any yet) in actuality affects the economy and wars very little. Sure they implement laws and proposals and ideals into the time that they are President but we need to think about a very limited resource that they all posses and that is TIME.

In terms of economics, there is something called Inside Lag and Outside Lag, and they both effect not only the economy but policy as well. What Inside Lag means is that when the President of Congress implements a quick fix so to speak, this in turn tries to either jump start the economy or have a policy put in place that will immediately try to fix a problem or cause some change. An example would be a Stimulus Package. Outside Lag  is a piece of policy or legislation that attempts to solve an issue and create change but it takes much longer to take effect. An example would be Tax Reforms. Outside lag is what causes the most change and it usually occurs over a few years...like 4-8 years. Inside lag takes about a few months.

What does this have to do with the President? What I am trying to show is that in order to evaluate a situation you need to look into the past to see what happened. Look at what Clinton had going for him, there is something called the "Dot Com Bubble Burst" which actually burst after Clinton left and Bush took over. What happened was that there was a push for the Internet and it's stock ballooned (like the housing market did) until the market started to level itself out, like it's supposed to do you also have to throw in Y2K. This played a huge part in the "Dot Com Bubble Burst" as well. But people have a tendency to blame Bush for everything. Now I don't agree with everything the man did in office but you can't pin everything onto one President. It's just not accurate to do that.

So now we come to these past few years and you can see many people blaming Obama for what has happened, and for being to liberal (which he always was by the way). Here is the thing with that, you can't blame him for everything! Sure some of his policies are good ideas like his Health Care reforms but someone needs to pay for it, which I will talk about in the next few days.

So my basic argument is to actually look into the former Presidents and see where issues started and what they tried to do to fix them. That's why most history books don't always attribute things to Presidents because they didn't necessarily do anything to help. Just look at WWII.

Time For Finals

Well it's that time of year again when college students spend many hours studying for those dreaded finals. I too am stuck with them this year and have a lot of stuff I need to do for them. Fortunately I have something that is going to help me after my studying and stressing. SWTOR is going to be starting early access on the 13th of Dec. That will defiantly help with my sanity but not with my time.


On a different note I am going to be studying for the LSAT and GMAT, even though I have been studying on and off I will now be doing that everyday after finals are over. Now I need to go write a script for one of those finals...

Until next time...

End of the Semester woes

Hello everyone, seeing how it is the end of the semester I figured I would update you on what is going on. I AM SUPER BUSY WITH GETTING READY FOR FINALS. And because of that I haven't had much time to really post anything on this blog. In the next couple of days however I will post a review on Star Wars: The Old Republic, now that the NDA has benn lifted I will be able to actually talk about the game(for the most part).

That being said in the next few weeks you may see some Facebook posts or tweets about how much I hate finals and think they are a waste of time. Just warning you all now.

Until next time...

Ooops it's been a month since the last post

Hey everyone...so it's been about a month! Sorry, but it's getting to be that time of the year that requires more of my time. After all I am on retail so we are starting to get busy, also it's the middle of the semester. That plays a part of my busy schedule as well.

In other news I have started studying for my LSAT and GMAT tests, even though I won't be taking them until about Febuary. I want to get a head start so I will only have to take them once. They are very long and difficult tests.

So in the realm of video games and stuff of that nature. There are two games that are coming out pretty close to each other that I want and will most likely have to wait to get. They are Skyward Sword the new Legend of Zelda game and Skyrim. Thats about 120 bucks in the same month! Not cool game developers, I want your games but I cannot afford them.

Until next time...

Busy With Life

Hey all I know its been a while since the last post but I have been a little busy with life. As many of you are probably aware, I am planning on going into law school. Since that is a priority I need to stay focused on my school work. Even though I slipped up here in the past week with doing all the assignments and all of the reading but I am determined to get back on track. This also means at least once a week posting on the blog, I figure if I make myself schedule it I will be more likely to do it.

Second thing I would like to talk about, after my neck heals I am going to be starting an intense weight training program. The goal is to put on about 25-30 lbs by this time next year. Also I am going to be increasing my speed again. The overall goal is to be physically able to play college football if I go to a Grad school that has a football team. The secondary goal of this is for my overall health...gotta watch out for Stage 1 Hypertension (already showing signs of it). I will he doing this by running for 30 mins a day, lifting weights for 2 hrs a day and doing p90x also. I am going to better budget my time between these activities and my course work...I have weekends and holidays to play video games.

But don't let that worry you too much about my nerd side, it will be fueled by podcasts and movies, also the occasional late night of gaming.... I'm in college i can do that kind of thing.

Until next time...

Dear Netfilx

As many of you probably know Netflix is now splitting into two separate entities, Netflix for streaming and Qwickster for mail DVDs. Now I don't have my own account so this really doesn't affect me too much, but I can understand the concerns. So here is my a letter that I would like to write to the CEO of Netflix.

"Dear CEO,

I am sorry but I have to say that this idea is not necessarily the best one you have had. While diversifying may be a good idea, you also have too look at what your service originally was designed to sell. It wasn't just quick access to streaming DVDs and then a separate service for mail DVDs, it was one service that people loved.

I can understand your worry about becoming like AOL or Borders, but with a unique company such as yourself don't you think your initial market segment couldn't grow if you marketed both services together? Not only will it save you money, it won't look like you are trying to split into two separate companies that would ultimately compete against each other and probably combine into a single company again.

What about the cost of reorganizing the company? Do the benefits really outweigh the costs? If so then I am sorry for this trouble, but if not then please leave this service alone. People are already upset over the price increase and now this? Does this really look like a move a strong company would make? No, it does not. If Apple were to split into a company that only sells computers and a company that only sells iPods it would appear that Apple was trying to sell off assets in order to stay afloat. What you are doing seems like this very concept. 

The last thing I would like to bring up is the e-mail that Netflix sent out. First off all I know that you Mr. CEO did not actually send out this E-mail, it was probably a secretary or and aid of yours. Secondly, do you really think a single E-mail will solve the problem of communication? No, it would be a better idea to set up a forum and get customer feedback and then use that data to inform your decisions. Let the customer perform the SWOT analysis and crowd source the issue rather than stay stagnant and use traditional methods of diversifying. If you really want to be a leader in the business world you have too look ahead to what the Internet has to offer.

Sincerely,
Nick Picard"

After you read this "E-mail" take a second to consider the other side of this argument too. It could be very possible that Netflix is a failing company and is trying to stay afloat by selling off services. While I do not think this is the case it is always something to be mindful of in the economy that we have today.

Until next time...

Continue

So this is a continuation of my last post. I have decided that the reason for the drama is actually about two misunderstandings. The overall concept of using a blog as a journal can be taken to a level that was unintended and cause this break down in communication.

Now since that is cleared up I  would like to offer my commentary on the fact. Starting with the reasons for the mess. First of all using a blog as a place to vent can be a good thing but you have to be careful. Often people will read them so you need to know your audience, obviously Student X failed to notice his audience, and around that particular subject one must be very careful. As to his points about the college itself, I would like to point out that it is his opinion of the school and not an indictment sent down by every guy who attends there.

As for the response to his post I would like to say that Student Y's attempt at either one) was actually offended by the post or two) just trying to troll (which I doubt is the case) may have had some valid arguments to the fact that men shouldn't be on the campus. It is after all a women's college.
Now I'm sure you have all either read or know about the blog so I wont express my thoughts on that any more. What I would like to do now is to voice my opinion about the matter.

Here it goes...

First of all I have to say that the quibbling over a blog post is not only sophomoric but it is also very unnecessary to have a decent conversation. The basic rule of thumb for the Internet is don't be a jerk or trolling if you will(actually trolling is something very different and I may cover that in a future post). How can you let yourself lose that much control over yourself and let out a barrage of response's that quickly after you have read a blog post? It makes no sense to be that petty over the matter.

Secondly I would like to mention topic of having men on campus. I believe that there may be a double standard that is populated by the students. I fell that the administration has enough maturity to handle themselves at a much higher expectations. This double standard I speak of is the idea that men shouldn't be allowed on campus. So do you mean all of the male professors too? What about the security guards? Or how about you get rid of the Graduate program as well! See what I mean? If the student body wants to go around and say that men shouldn't be on campus because it's an all women's college then they can't just look at the idea of students being men...and to that effect just undergraduate men.

And for the traditions I personally wouldn't have gone to them anyway. I don't like to support hazing, which it is, and I for one am glad that I didn't have to go. But for orientation I did have to go to the majority of the activities which was fine until I had an awkward experience at an improve event where they portrayed all men as rapists. That brings me to another point and this may offend people.

FOR A SCHOOL THAT PRIDES ITSELF ON EQUALITY THERE IS AN AWFUL LOT OF DISCRIMINATION GOING ON...just saying.

Now don't get me wrong I loved Sage, I miss my friends there but I did have some issues there. But I didn't go around and post them on the Internet for everyone to see. So that's one strike against the MAAP who wrote the posts. It wasn't all his fault though, because the person who responded should of had the common sense enough to just go ask him to take them down. People really need to learn how to talk to each other like adults.

And that is all I will ever say on the matter...unless of course you want to talk civilly about it.

Until next time...

College

So I hear that there has been some controversy at Russell Sage College over some blogs that students have posted and I am here to shed some light on the situation. We shall be looking at this incident as if we were studying human relations in a sociology class(which means I'm going to be making stuff up). As we dive deeper into this study remember to keep an open mind and try not to judge.

So starting with the two students; let's call them Student X and Student Y. If you look at their actions you will see the basic nature of the human condition. Now let's begin, Student X posted a blog post, the subject I'm not sure of because the post was taken down. I'll assume it was that there wasn't enough ice cream, and Student Y who didn't like student x wrote a blog as a rebuttal to student x's blog. Since that was also taken down I will assume that it too is about ice cream. From my observations this may simply seem like a matter of more or less ice cream but NO that is not the case. In fact it is about more than that, there is an underlying cause which I will now tell to.

You might be asking yourself "Self, how does Nick know all of this information he is about to tell me?" While that is a valid question you will not get my answer in this post but in the next post...as I have class.

Until next time...

Last one for the night

So I have decided that I no longer like rain, for a few reasons.

Reason 1) Rain is wet...this is common knowledge but it's still a reason to hate rain. I do not like to get wet and have to then go to class.

Reason 2) Rain can either make it very humid or cold out...I don't like weather that can't make its mind up about what it does.

Reason 3) It's very sneaky, it can be really sunny one minute and the next it's a down pour. Not cool rain, not cool.

And finally Reason 4) It's been raining for like two weeks now...can we please change the weather?

Now to leave you with a line of reason that, based solely on reason, is completely true according to Aristotle

"Everything that burns is made of wood"
"Witches burn"
"THEREFORE, witches are made of wood."

Try and disprove my logic!!!!

I don't wanna do a stupid PowerPoint...

Anyone else think that PowerPoint presentations are pointless? I mean what purpose do they serve in a persons education...it's like an easier and less creative version of the diorama (which I still love btw). If we actually would use them correctly I think it is a valuable tool but when you get stuck with people who have no idea what to do it can get frustrating.

Now I will admit that I am not great at making PowerPoint presentations...actually I think my are pretty boring but that's because I think that you, the speaker, should be the focus of the speech or presentation. This however, is not always the case.

I do not like it when people read from the slides and don't really know the information. The problem is that everyone has done this at one point or another because we get stuck doing a PowerPoint of a topic we have either no interest in or a topic we know NOTHING about...this annoys me on so many different levels. I will admit that it has gotten better in college but being forced to do them still sucks.

Anyway that's one of my rants about the education system that we have...no real solution though so I guess it's me just complaining.

I really don't want to do that group project...>.<

Back To School

So if you couldn't tell I haven't really been posting anything for a while. I would like to assume that it's because I went back to school, but I think the real reason was that I didn't have anything to write about.

So I guess the real question is what should I write about? Do I just randomly talk about nothing, or do I try and tackle the most difficult problems? To be perfectly honest I don't think I know the answer...so we shall see what happens.

Burnt Fingers and Star Wars Marathon

So yesterday I burnt three of my fingers trying to empty out my tea kettle...yeah real cool right? So that hurt a lot, but what can you do. So I have had to spend the past two days with burn cream/antibiotic ointment on my fingers and its really annoying. At least at night I get to wear gauze around them. And on top of that I haven't been feeling well these past two days.

So naturally I did what I always do when I am feeling sick. I watch Star Wars and as of right now I am on episode IV.

Just an update on my days.

Until next time...

Short Summer Break

So if you couldn't tell I took a short summer break from blogging. The reason was that there was a lot going on; between work, rearranging rooms and getting ready for classes I found myself strapped for time. But as of right now I am going to get back into the swing of things.

I have finally made up my mind as to what I want to do with my life. I am going to apply to law school for corporate law, and I will probably perform on the side. I feel very comfortable with this choice and with the idea of possibly going into the JAG corps afterwards. It gives me that sense of making a difference that I have been looking for.

In other news Katie is an RA this year at Syracuse University. I am very excited for her about this but tonight we ran into the first problem that I knew was going to happen. Just a few minutes ago we were talking on Skype when there was a knock on the door and I heard someone enter. Next thing I know she closes her computer and the call ends. I texed her to see what was up and I got the response "ra stuff". I know that this is going to happen so I am not too upset by it, I just realize that some nights our conversations will be cut short because of these types of things. Oh well, life still goes on I guess.

Also I am now on google + under the name Nick Picard...simple I know follow me or add me to your circles if you would like.

Until next time...

The Raid and family

So on Saturday I watched the world premier of The Raid. It was a documentary on the social aspects of raiding in World of Warcraft. Here are my thoughts on it.

I thought that it was very I informative, but it was geared towards people who have never played WoW. What they talked about was how people who raid are actually gathering just like people who gather to participate in other hobbies. They mentioned the good and bad aspects of the game such as; playing with your friends, the sense of a accomplishment you receive after defeating the last boss, even talking about the drawbacks of playing too much

What I found most interesting was that there were doctors and professors who saw the value of this type of gathering. They all said that this hobby was no different than other hobbies. What they did say was that because of the stereotypes who associate with "nerds" gamers aren't always completely comfortable with talking about the game in public. They said that it was unfortunate for the time being but they believed that eventually things like raiding will be very important to us.

If you want to watch the hour long documentary you can either watch it today on gamebreaker.tv or wait for it to come to iTunes.

Also this weekend I have family over, to be specific my aunt and uncle from New Hampsire. On Saturday when they came we just hung around the house and watched tv and talked. Yesterday we went to the Civil War Museum at Gettysburg. That was the first time I had ever been in there, I had been to Gettysburg and around the battlefield before but never I to the museum. I found it to be really enjoyable. I will be posting pictures that I took yesterday on Facebook.

Until next time...

So that didn't work

About posting everyday? Yeah didn't work out so well; I guess I'll just post when I have something to post about or I have a topic I would like to discuss. Like today, for example, I have something I would like to talk about.

It's a documentary called The Raid or maybe it's just called Raid I don't really know. From my understanding it's about a WoW raid, and that's all I really know about it. What I do know however, is that you can watch it tonight at 6 PM PST at mmo-champion.com. I am going to write my thoughts about it tomorrow after I have watched it.

I also have family coming over for the weekend so I may or may not be posting about our activities as well.

Until next time...