An Injustice to inspiration…

We all grow up with different circumstances, some have fathers and some may not. Others have money and others are poor. In my case, I have not had the constant presence of Grandparents in my life. But, don’t let that fool you, I am rich in a relationship with the best Grandparents one could possibly ask for. Yes, God’s will split us apart to live on two different sides of the country. We have not been in each other’s lives as much as either of us would have prefered, but we have not let this hinder our ability of having a relationship. As it may have been thin in past years, the bond is as strong as it has ever been and grows stronger each time the sun breaches the mountains on the east.

I returned yesterday from a trip, which I consider one of the most satisfying decisions I have ever made. After 25 long years, I visited my Grandparents in the beautiful state of Louisiana. The land is green and is painted with history from top to bottom. The people are made up of the most genuine and sincere people this 37-year-old man has ever met. Their smiles are real, their grace is impenetrable, and their desire to help the fellow-man is undeniable.

My Grandmother is of small stature but has heart of a titan. She is sweet and one of the most loving individuals I know. She truly enjoys the time she spends with her family. With that said, I cannot help but to feel overly protective of her after learning of things that those she loves have done to her. When I left Louisiana, I promised myself that I will never let another soul on this planet hurt her, take advantage of her, or bring any negativity in her direction. She has a curiosity of life that is bursting at the seams but stands firm and beautifully connected to the things that she holds true to her heart. She is beautiful in every way and should be held in high regard by all those who have ever had the blessing of meeting her. I Love Her unconditionally, from the deepest part of my heart.

My Grandfather is a man of brilliance. He is an educator in his own right and provides insight on all things that require a mindful decisions. He silently governs his environment with strength and will, combined with a lifetime of experiences that all men should listen too. He may not know it, but his experiences that he shares with me, inspire me for a couple of reasons. First, I know no man who has the ability to describe his own experiences in such detail, to a thirsty ear. His experiences as a child are enough to break any man, yet he remains a shinning star for even the wisest men to follow. Second, he is a man with conviction. He takes all things into consideration, mistakes or not and turns them into a learning experiences. Finally, he is an all around amazing man. He is not only talented in his communication, but an amazing writer, thus this blog posting is An Injustice to his inspiration on me. He can be rest assured that every single word he has recorded online or on a written page will be put into form for further generations (even if only family) to read, so that they understand where their family patriarch came from. This I promise to him.

So, I close this post and simply say to my grandparents; I love you both more than you know and I thank you for everything.

 

 

.::JM::.

 

 

The song I was listening too while writing this post:

Infinity (Original Mix)
By: Vargo

Video Games and Kids…

Over the past few weeks, I have really been trying to gather my thoughts on what to write about in my next blog posting. During this time, my wife and I went into a Bagel shop to get some breakfast. After receiving our order, we sat down to eat our meal when I noticed something. There were two parents with a child sitting across the bagel shop. The parents were talking and the child (who could not be more than 9 years old) was sitting there quite. He had a video game in his hand and he was totally enthralled in it. Just seeing this made me start thinking about how much he might play that game. Does he do anything but play that game? Does his parents use it as a way to keep him quite and make their job easier as parents? What ever the case may be, it really started to weigh on my mind. What happened to the times where a child didn’t have a hand-held video game or a mobile dvd player? When I was a kid and we went places, I was told to keep quite. So, I found myself really focusing on what others were saying even if I could not be part of the conversation. For fun, I would go outside and play imaginary games and I would spend the whole day outside doing things and creating games that kept me entertained. I was using my mind to keep me busy. Today, kids are so into everything other than using their imagination and I believe that there are effects later in life that stem from this type of environment.

Lets take a look at a child that only spends his free time with his face in video games. He becomes detached from what is around him. He disregards all those around him as he is focused on the video game. He might even throw a fit if he had to let go of the game when his parents tell him to. Recently there was a shooting of a current senate member. It was done by a young kid that really had no reason to do it. It was clear from previous postings that there was a detachment from the world in some type of way. There may have been a mental issue, but could this have been prevented with some proper parenting? See, the way I look at is…. you have to teach your child to go out and use his imagination and get involved in life. You need to get the game out of his hands and learn respect. Respect in the way that, when he goes somewhere with his parents, he is to behave and keep himself in check. By doing this, he learns self discipline, respect for his parents and respect for those around him. He in essence, has to control himself simply because he was told too by his parents. Instead, kids today have a video game to keep them busy, thus bypassing the understanding of what is needed to be well-behaved.

This goes farther than just a video game in his hand while in public. It also works within the home. In my own opinion, kids need to be kept off the computer. Yes, today they may need it to do school assignments etc and that is fine, if their computer time is kept within reason. The rest of the time, they should be out in the back yard keeping themselves busy and creating good times for themselves, playing with friends, or getting involved in sports or extra curricular activities. By doing this, they will learn team work, problem solving skills, people skills, imaginative skills, communication skills and what ever else might be needed to help them in what ever circumstance they might be in at the time.

It just drives me crazy to see kids doing nothing but playing video games. Or parents giving their child an electronic device to keep their kids busy and making their job as parents easy. We need to allow our kids to experience life. We need to expose the world to them, because with every experience the child will take something small from it and add it to his or her life, building a personality and a set of morals that they will carry with them for the rest of their life. Simply think for a second of memories you have as a kid that really effected you. That is one example of an experience you personally took something from and it effects you today. Kids need this type of thing and it is our job as parents to provide it to them.

Don’t get me wrong, I am not against electronic devices and I am not judging the parents I saw in the bagel shop, but I personally would do things differently. I do believe in letting the child play video games, watching TV, and having fun. But, we need to control that as long as we can. Everything is earned in this life and they too must learn the process of working hard to earn something. This could simply be good grades allowing them video game time on the weekends etc. Believe me, I might sound like the parent from hell, but I believe in being fair to my child and to allow them to find themselves without a dictator as a parent. But, in my mind a child is like a sculpture… it will take time and effort to really sculpt this child into someone respectable. Of course, there will be times where the child will want to digress and go a different way and this is where we help that child look at those digressions to see if it is the right thing or not. We as parents need to be open-minded to those digressions to help our child out in those decisions even if it might not be what we wanted for our child. In any case, there is no written book on how to be a parent, but there are some obvious things we should not do and one of those in my opinion, is to parent your child with an electronic device.

Just my two cents.

.::JM::.

A simple song I was listening too while writing this…. called Beautiful Things by Gabriel and Dresden.

Christmas is for kids, or is it?

Christmas has passed and I must say it could not have passed any sooner. No, I am not against Christmas and believe me when I say I truly love Christmas, but my Christmas spirit was non-existent this year. When I was a child, I could not sleep on Christmas Eve simply because I could not wait to open my gifts that Santa Claus would leave for us. When we would wake up, my brother and I would run to the living room to see crumbs left over from the cookies we left for old Saint Nick. A half a glass of milk would be left from the full glass we left him, assuring us that he stopped at our house. There was nothing like it! It was the best feeling in the world that was helped out by Christmas lights on houses weeks before and beautiful decorations throughout the local malls. But now… I stay as far away from the malls as possible and the tree (which is normally put up the day after Thanksgiving) did not go up until only days before. As an Adult I now sleep in on Christmas day only hoping the day lasts forever, because I do not want to go back to work.

It just blows me away how life is tossed upside down when you are enthralled with the need for an education and a career. Once we are established, career becomes the ever calling subconscious push in our lives. We forget about the small things in life. We disregard the beauty of the earth and spend more time looking at our bank accounts than the simplicity and beauty of life. Is this a bad thing? I feel it is, but finding that balance between career and life tends to be the most difficult part of becoming an adult. Christmas is nothing but another day and life is nothing but a capsule in which we conduct only what we are told we should (education and career).

With all that said, there is one thing that I look forward to most in this world. That is, the birth of our child. As we do not have any children yet, I feel that the Christmas spirit and the recognition of the simplicity of life will be reborn. We will look at this world through a different pair of eyes and live once again, as we once did…through the eyes of a child. As parents we can provide the belief in Santa Claus and expose our children to the things that we may have missed along the way. We can only do what we can as parents to provide our child with the appreciation for life while making them understand the importance of education and career. It’s a fine balance, but a challenge I look forward too.

Merry Christmas Everyone, may Christmas be as simple and enjoyable as it once was for all of you.

.::JM::.

A cute little video of a child receiving books for Christmas! Pooo!

Take their rights away!!!

As all of you know, I work in the IT field.  It is my job to keep all of our users up and running at all times, so that their time at work is not spent twiddling their thumbs. Over the past couple months we have made the move to Windows 7.  With this move, we implemented a new security standard that took away all local admin rights on every user’s machine.  For those of you that may not know what this means, it simply means that the user is unable to install applications, make system changes, and ultimately they can only use the system as a work computer.  All of their freedom is stripped away and the only good their computer serves them is the ability to work.

Like with anything else, if you take a person’s freedom away they will protest it.  To combat against this, our company has a special form that requires a VP signature.  The form is filled out by the user and he or she must state the reason and benefit for their request to have local admin rights to their own system.  In one case, one of our employees raised a ruckus and was granted local admin rights.  I knew from day one that this was a mistake but I am not the one who makes that decision.  If the VP says that a specific person should have local admin rights and the freedom to do what they want on their machine, then I will follow that and support it.  In some cases, the user will need local admin rights because their job requires them to have the freedom they need to make changes to their system in order to do their job.  I am all for this, but in this specific case I knew it would be trouble.

Sure enough, today the person came to me and needed a new sprint card installed, which would allow them to grab an internet signal no matter where they are.  Ok fine, no problem right?  Wrong!  She gave me her laptop, I opened it up and turned it on.  HOLY SMOKES!!!!!  As soon as the system loaded to the desktop, the laptop started shooting off error messages.  The first sign that her system was completely hosed!  Her desktop was riddled with more communication, instant messeging, and VOIP (Voice over IP like Skype) applications then I even knew existed.  The computer spent the next 10 minutes just starting up all the programs loading up in the background.  The first thing I did was try to remove the old version of the program I needed to install for her in order for her to use the sprint card.  Unfortunately, I could not remove it.  This was the second sign that this system had more issues than meets the eye.  As soon as I tried to over write the old application with the new…. I received the dreaded ” Error: 1606.  The network location could not be located %Appdata%\.”  If your in IT, you know this error and it is one of the worst error an IT professional could experience when working on a user’s system.  This error simply means that no application can ever be installed moving forward.  There are tons of efforts to try to fix this issue and I have tried them all with no success.  This error (to me) usually meant I would have to rebuild the user’s system.

This really pissed me off inside, because I knew from day one this particular user should not be given local admin rights.  Obviously, I was right.  She hosed her system in a major way and has now cost me a couple hours of work time I could be doing other more important things.  Eh well.. it is my job to take care of these users even if I don’t always agree with their actions.  Sort of like a paramedic helping someone who injured themselves while committing a crime or a stupid act.  In any case, I was determined to find a fix.  Three hours later and a late night at work and it paid off!  I did some research on line and found many of the same fixes that I found before that did not work.  But, something dawned on me… while researching these fixes.  So, i grabbed information from one site and i compared it with another and it stood out like a sore thumb.  I came up with a theory to fix the issue so I gave it a shot…. and oh my lord.. it fixed the issue!  It even stopped all errors on boot up.  Amazing and I have documented it, so that I can pass it on to my peers.  This fix will save many many hours of work for our team, so this was a significant find.

Any how, the title of this post says it all:  Take their rights away!!!     I know many of you may not like to have your local admin rights removed, but you have to understand that we have to protect our network from people like the one described in this post.  Many people treat the work computer like it was their own and well i have some news for all of you… It’s not yours!  So treat it like it should be treated and make life easier on yourself and your IT professionals that support you.

Any how, I thought i would share that story so those who have had their local admin rights removed can see it from an IT perspective.

Off the subject, I have included a little taste of some music I was listening tonight.  Pretty peaceful stuff.

This is by a group called Delerium.  The song is called Lamentation.  Enjoy!

.::JM::.

The Book of Eli…

Today I have been in this odd / really down mood.  A mood where nothing really matters, a more patient mood and one that just makes me feel a little detached from the world.  In the somberness of this mood, I sat down to watch a movie I was not excited about.  But, since it sat in the little red netflix envelope on our fireplace mantel for the past three weeks, I figured what the heck.

Knowing The Book of Eli took place in a post apocalyptic time, I was turned off by it.  I’m not a huge fan of post apocalyptic stories.  But, it received a lot of good reviews, so I gave it the benefit of the doubt and watched it.  Suprisingly, I could not have been more pleasantly surprised with how good the movie was.  It was not a Hollywood classic, but rather it was a movie that got the mind flowing with passion.  If you have not seen it, do not read any further as I am about to speak on the story line…

It was about the Holy Bible and it’s place after a nuclear holocaust.  All the bibles were burned and some how were destroyed during the nuclear holocaust.  There was one Bible left on the planet and only one man was in possession of it, Eli (Denzel Washington).  When he was young  he heard a voice tell him the Bible needs to be put into the right hands, so that it can be usefull and the words be heard.  He spent 30 years walking across the country, finding himself San Francisco.  He ultimately got the bible in the right hands, but paid for it with his life.

This movie really got me thinking about how influential the Bible truly is.  Without it, society would be at a disarray.  If you think about it, society is completely based on religion in one form or another and from one religion to another.  Wars have been fought over it and millions have died due it’s scripture.  Think about today’s world conflicts;  They are mainly based on religion and one’s idea of it.  It influences our lives, the way we treat one another, it sets standards on how one should be compassionate for thy neighbor, and ultimately provides us with a way to live together in harmony.  Of course, harmony is not how everyone lives, but if one truly accepts some type of peaceful religion in their life, their life will change dramatically.

I was raised Catholic and now attend a Christian church.  I am not a person who will say what religion is good or bad, as I am in the belief that if you follow a particular religion that provides you with good morals and makes you a better person, then it’s a good religion to follow.  It was his faith and moral obligation that drove the character in the movie (Eli) across the country on foot,  to release the “Book of Eli” into a positive environment, so that it’s words would be accepted.  It was a great movie (though pretty violent) that shows how one man and his faith can change a world.

Here is the trailor:  The Book of Eli

.::JM::.

Thanksgiving and Conflict?

So, tomorrow is Thanksgiving.  Most of us will enjoy our evenings with family and some of the best food we will eat all year.  On the other hand, people on a small island off the coast of South Korea live in fear as they were attacked by North Korea.  You know, I just don’t understand, why North Korea and the Pyongyang regime is the way it is.  There are different ways to rule a country like there are different ways to rule a household.   In some houses, the parents work with the child to provide proper guidance and help them become a productive and respected member of society.  In other households, the parents or one parent puts so much fear in a child, that that the child will never do wrong and even praise his parent as a good parent.  It may not be the case, but out of fear the child will always respond with a yes, when asked if he loves his abusive parent.
The Pyongyang regime that rules North Korea does the same and is that abusive parent to their citizens.  If you ever get a chance to watch Lisa Ling’s National Geographic special about her journey into North Korea….. I recommend it.  It is very informative and it will blow your mind.  I have posted the program if interested.  In any case, I just wish that country would calm down.  What is their freaking problem?  I may be oblivious to what really goes on there or the circumstances that push North Korea to the point where they do this kind of thing, but my lord…. please just try to live peacefully with your neighbors.
Anyhow, we will see how this situation turns out over the weekend.  For now, we all need to enjoy the 4 day weekend with our families!

Happy Thanksgiving Everyone!

.::JM::.

Music Feeds the Brain…

So, I have always been one that has enjoyed Hard Rock.  I enjoy bands like TOOL, Seether, and yes I have always been a hard core Manson fan.  But, I must say I have been getting back into my trance music in a very big way.  It just seems to help the brain cells flow in a way that I truly miss.  I spent many many many hours building a Trance station on Last.fm, but let it go for about two years.  Now that I see myself getting pulled back into it.  I have started adding and manipulating my streaming station for followers on Last.fm.   My taste in trance is more towards Vocal Trance where nice beats are combined with ambient vocals.  Feel free to take a listen if interested.  My station can be streamed 24 hours a day.  You can find the link on the bottom right side of  the page under “BLOGROLL”.

If you just want a taste of the type of music I am talking about, I have included a video of a favorite song of mine:  Above & Beyond – Can’t Sleep

In any case, since I finished school I have had a lot of time on my hands.  I have found myself getting into some things I once use to enjoy.  Two of those things are music and writing.  Thus the reason I have once again revived my blogging fingers and started building streaming radio stations for others to enjoy.  I just feel in some ways I have lost myself with career and education to the point where I personally do not feel myself.  Thus, the name of this blog….”Displaced Cerebral”.  It’s time to get back in touch with myself and time to start living again.  My education is finished, my career is set, and I believe we all owe it to ourselves to really get in touch with that person we can so easily lose in the pursuit of achievement.

.::JM::.

Displaced Cerebral is Live!

Hello Everyone,

I have blogged for many years on a variety of different sites.  I took a long break from blogging and recently found that blogging is something that I miss very much.  It is a place where I can express my opinions, share what going on in my life, and simply express myself in a creative manner.  So, I hope those of you that may follow this blog enjoy yourselves and I welcome your opinions and comments that you may post on this blog.  If you would like to subscribe to this blog, feel free by subscribing using the tool on the right tool bar.

Take care and I hope you enjoy your stay!

.::JM::.