Drowning In Harmony

Here's a little story about a certain event in my life which I will always look back on, and never forget...

Peace is a harmonious mental state that is achieved when problems and concerns no longer exist. The sensation of complete peace leaves one feeling blissfully numb, and their eyes are much wider open to the truths of their life. During one's moment of true peace they go into a trance where pain, hurt, and sorrow, all disappear as if none of these problems had ever existed at all, and all they see in their life is the good. It causes bliss when one is really able to see life for its true value.

This kind of event occurred for me a matter of years ago while I was in a river near Phoenix, Arizona on a hike with my family from the area. During this day my poor patience led to many events. My parents, sister, grandparents, aunt, uncle, and I were all out on a scenic walk through nature as we all caught up with what was going on in each others' lives. I, being young, full of energy, and having no care for the topics of conversation going on, decided to get a bit ahead of the group and take in more of the nature at a more rapid pace. After running for awhile, I stumbled across something amazing. It looked just like a water slide in proportion, but it was made by nature from the boulders in the river, and the roaring jet of water that was propelled through the narrow passageway it created. I was compelled to go down it, but I wanted to show my family first. I realized that they were too far off for my patience. Up at the top of the boulders, I sat down in the water and was immediately thrown forward by the flow.

Little did I know that a life changing event was about to occur. As I splashed into the water at the bottom of the slide, I came back up to the surface only to realize that I could not break it. The water current was so fast that no matter how hard I kicked or how hard I pulled I couldn't even poke my head out for a brief gasp of air. After realizing that, all of my might was simply not enough to break free, I let my body relax, and I slowly drifted to the bottom. The thought that the inevitable end to my life was here did not trouble me because I understood the concept of inevitability, and did not fight with it. I was left only to think that I wanted to end my life with happy thoughts so I realized all the good that was there in my life. The love of my friends and family and the fact that I knew they loved me was the only thing that I truly thought of. With these thoughts in my head and the end approaching, I realized how I had achieved a state of peace that I have never fully experienced in my life. My eyes did not blink, and my body was as limp as could be with all muscles relaxed as I let the water control me.

Hope had not yet abandoned me completely. Just before I started to blackout I could see the faint outline of a body running towards me from the side of the river, and I realized it was my uncle. A hand reached in the water and I used up every last bit of my energy to grab a hold. My uncle pulled with all of his might as he fought with the tide. Most of my body was out of the water now but the current just gave a sudden burst of strength and pulled my left leg which was still in the water and threatening to drag me back in again, but my uncle out pulled it and we both slowly edged away from these fierce waters.

Although the life ending event was ceased, and I carried on with my life as always, these new thoughts and outlooks on life learned from this event will remain with me forever. The state of peace that I had gone through while approaching the end was oddly enough a most blissful experience that I had never, and still have yet to achieve again. It seems as if I will never 'live' to see a moment of peace like this so I better learn from what I had just gone through and make sure that when the inevitable comes that the moment of peace is far better than I could ever imagine.

C-c-c-combo

1. Pawn to E3
2. Queen to H5
3. Bishop to B5
4. Queen to F7 and Checkmate...

That is assuming your opponent didn't move a Knight to C6, or F6, and didn't move a pawn to A6, C6, D6, E6, F6, or G6 at any point during those four steps.

Such a combination is rare but oh is it so sweet to be able to say "Checkmate" after 4 moves.

Gotta Love Dummy Books

Being a nerd when I go to buy a car I am obviously not going to buy a stick shift car. I have no need to buy a car because of its accelerated abilities when I have no clue as to how to shift one, nor do I care to learn. The same logic applies to computers. When someone who doesn't really care to learn about how their computers work, or who simply does not want to have to maintain the system, and keep up a firewall etc. they will go with a Mac (at least you would expect them to but many still stubbornly go with PC). It made me laugh when I saw a book that was labeled "Mac For Dummies" because it's an ironic statement in itself. None of this is saying anything bad about Macs, just simply that Windows are for computer lovers, and Macs are for people who simply need to use a computer. As for the next Dummy book I saw.... just...
wow, yeah. The next book they will come out with is "How To Read For Dummies".

What's That Atlas?

Don't think I will hear those Greek God's and Goddesses complaining to me anymore.

Cubing

Took me long enough to solve the 5x5x5, but it's not as hard as it seems. For those interested in solving Rubik's cubes it is a good fact to know the difficulty of the cubes. The actual order of difficulty is different than what most people would expect. Out of the following cubes their difficulty from hardest to easiest goes as follows.

1. 4x4x4
2. 5x5x5
3. 2x2x2
4. 3x3x3

No one seems to believe me, but believe me I have done them all.

The reason that the 4x4x4 and 2x2x2 are hard is because in order to solve any cube with even dimensions one must remember the order of the colors on the cube relative to the other colors, or else it is simply not possible to solve. The corner pieces have preset order for the color relative to each other, and that is the pattern. On any Rubik's cube the White is opposite the Yellow, the Orange is opposite the Red, and the Blue is opposite the Green. This pattern is the same on cubes with odd dimensions, but while solving the cube the colors will fall into their respective positions without paying attention, and this goes for any odd size be it 7x7x7, 9x9x9, etc.

The parity errors on any cube bigger than a 3x3x3 are what make them difficult, but the concept has to much to it for me to explain here so I will just let ya trust me on that one.

So all in all if you want to learn how to solve any cube it is essential that you understand, and know how to solve a 3x3x3, even before you are able to solve a 2x2x2.

Irony

Pretty self explanatory

Can't Trust Technology

I always knew that wireless mouses (mice?) were a bad idea!

Sad Face

DPS (a.k.a Dr Pepper Soda)

While on a visit to Arby's a while back I walked into the restaurant compelled to get an orange soda. When they handed me my order number I was quick to realize that it was 23! The first thing that pops into my head these days when I see 23 are the 23 delicious flavors of Dr Pepper that I love so much. Giving into the blatant message which the spirit of DPS (Dr Pepper Soda) was symbolically communicating to me.... I got some Dr Pepper.

"Lead Free"

Lead Free - Another way to say, "Not Made in China".

All Your Base?

For those who don't know of the internet meme "All Your Base Are Belong To Us" yet, you should watch the video (click here to watch). Every nerd must see this, as well as understand it! It is making fun of the horrid translation errors made in the European version of the Japanese game Zero Wing. The video was one of the first viral homemade flash videos, and will forever remain in the history books for all nerds.

All Your Base Are Belong To Alamo

"If we want to be culturally offensive we can use Indians" - said by a friend while looking for chess pieces in this Hobby Lobbby

RAWR!!eleven

Welcome to the first post ever in The Life of a Nerd! There's no better way to start off rawr time than with a rawr monster found hiding on the back of a picture frame.