Computer Safety Red Alert

(I welcome the day our computers can be half as safe as a new born baby chick)

We all take computer safety for granted.

I did for years, and i became complacent after a while.

Sure there were those massive computer attacks during the early 2000 era, and they continued up till about 2004, but those days are over now arn't they?


Wrong...

I just had my first major attack in about 5 years today.
(Getting Trojans or port scans is not a major event for me. But having Window's files corrupted definitely is)
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Most people see my computer specs or my programs and don't bother pinging me or port scanning me.

Ignore the terms if you don't exactly understand them, but just think of a thief looking at the outside of a home, and through the windows.

But someone finally got in, and his program executed, something that rarely happens with Nod32 (my anti-virus) around.

Anyways my anti-virus got it but by then the damage was done and my system32 folder was partly currupted.

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So after being forced to restart and finding that my computer is freezing, and using system resources like no tomorrow, i get the "server busy" error, which is 2009's Blue screen of Death lol.


Anyways, with that kind of problem, you can't run anti malware or spyware programs; because you can't run anything.

System restore came to the rescue for me, i found a way to execute it in safe mode.

1. Restart your system
2. When the system first boots, type F8 to bring up the boot menu
3. Select the Safe Mode with Command Prompt option
4. Log-on as administrator if needed
5. At your command prompt type %systemroot%\system32\restore\rstrui.exe
6. Hit Enter
6. This will open the system restore wizard…

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That seems to have fixed the freezing and I'm all set now, but i have to wonder when computers will get more proactive then reactive.

Our body survives because it proactively goes after threats and puts up very strong defenses.

If computers could harness a tenth of that power, we'd have a new age of computer security.

Stay on the look out everyone, for your computer safety.

I recommend Comodo Firewall and Nod32 at the very least.

~~Phoenix

They're "just words"

(J.k Rowling wrote words worth billions)

Someone said some very offensive things about the Virgin Mary, as a joke to which i replied:

"And btw saying something offensive and then saying "It's just words" means nothing in 2009.

Words start wars and the deaths of millions.

Choose your words wisely, that virgin Mary thing, very unwise, and very rude.

And you speak of tolerance too... wow, talk about irony."

That was a reply to a video, where a person spoke about tolerance for a good period of time, and then later, on a tangent, mentioned a very offensive comment about the Virgin Mary.

If it was just a small shot, or a small joke, I wouldn't have said much but it was very offensive, and even if the whole world isn't offended by it, a good 1/3-2/3'rds of it is.

When i know something will offend that many people, I won't make the joke at their expense.
As for morality and ethics, people already know not to make jokes at the expense of others, so there really isn't any good excuse he could have made.

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Anyways, someone else protects the offensive comments by saying:

"His point was that all that stuff SHOULDN'T happen because of words, although it does; the world just needs to grow up and stop being so hung up on every little thing someone says. Because they ARE just words."

To which i replied:

""Just words"
Isn't our society based on words?
Isn't the only way you talk to someone, just words?
Isn't the best medium for discussion, that of words?
Haven't millions of people died, over a few words?
Doesn't the president and the pope, only give out words?
Words matter, I learned that back in 3rd grade, maybe you didn't.
If that offends you, don't worry, it's just words. "

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The Philosophy of Words


Words are truly intimate and shape your appearance to others.

The lack of words can make you someone's enemy and later with a discussion, make you their greatest friend.

Words shake the very foundations we stand upon, shifting our strongest beliefs, and humbling the proudest of people.

They have the power to make you appear as one of the greatest people living in the eyes of society.

Words in essence are everything.

You could see the most beautiful person in the world walking down the street to talk to you.
You could imagine them being your spouse and living the most perfect life.

Then they could open their mouth and start talking, mentioning completely useless things, and acting like they were a little kid.
Besides being immature, they would have their head in the clouds, not being down to earth or having good perspective.
Their only goal would be to have as much fun as possible at anyone's expense.

A few words in essence shattered your dreams. Those words were pretty useless weren't they?
That is of course if you don't just want a partner for their beauty, because looks fade, but you'll still have decades left to live with that person.

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Physical v.s Emotional

So do sticks and stones really hurt more than words?

Is it true that if you get a beating, that it will sting more than an emotional conversation?

Don't they say that physical pain eventually goes away but emotional pain stays with you?

Just through my personal experiences, I've found that emotional arguments and words have damaged me many times more than physical beatings ever could.

I've broken my leg, had my wisdom teeth removed (Twice without proper anesthesia), and had a number of other painful things happen to me, yet they all pale in comparison to certain words people said to me.

They were just a few words but they had the power to inflict that much pain.

What we should say:

Sticks and stones will break my bones, but words won't go away.
It should be what we all say, from now on til judgment day.

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Overview

Some people will continue saying that "words" are nothing and will continue to caution us to not get offended.

But why would you caution me, if logically most people should not be offended?

It probably means that most people will get offended, and you want them to understand, you're just using words.

But how can you expect humans to not feel something when you're using the most intimate and deepest form of expression, against usually something they love or hold dear to them.

It's like an artist who paints 10 works full of inspiration for their hate against someone and tells them not to get offended.

It's like a musician who writes some lines in their lyrics dedicated to their hate against someone. Then they ask that person not to get offended.

But rather than write lyrics or paint a painting, you're using the most intimate form of medium we all possess; language.

Simply said, don't get offended if you see your name in the paper, with the bold words "American Traitor" next to it; remember it's "Just words".

~~Phoenix

Courtesy with Sincerity

(Courtesy with Sincerity lead the boat of life towards the realms of peace and tranquility)

Courtesy with sincerity is the most treasured commodity in this world to me.

That along with constantly struggling to following the truth, is what every single human should strive for.

"Courtesy costs nothing and buys everything"(1) and to do so sincerely means to put your heart into it.

You can be ruthless, you can be cruel, and you can force your opponent to bow to you.

But then you end up no better than a coward, hiding in a hole, selfishly trying to take whatever you can from the world, while your life slowly ticks away.


The world stands firm with 6 and a half billion people.

The strongest of these people raise their brothers and sisters around them.

The weakest oppress and suppress them.

In principle, we are always one or the other.

This year, evaluate your decisions, and analyze yourself, so you will not become one of these oppressors, leading to the suffering of your fellow brethren.

~~Phoenix

(1) All the inspiration for this post came directly from Hassanain Rajabali, on his third night of Muharram speech in Toronto, Canada.

He simply had said, "Courtesy costs nothing, it buys everything", for all these principals to come rushing forth to me. That man could inspire me, every second of every day, for the rest of my life if he was near me.

2008 - Time moves along without you

(Pick up the last crayon you'll need to finish this years picture)

The last day and the last breath of 2008 awaits.

It waits for us to breath it in and live it for one last time.

The question remains though, will we take advantage of the last time we see 2008, or will we let it drift away, never to see it again?

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Coloring in a Black and White picture

Philosophically, we must all understand that we invest our selves and our lives into each and every year.

When one year finishes, we've left a part of our soul with it.
It's as if we've colored one of those children's black and white pictures.

We started off with these nice goals, this nice outline of what we wanted to do.
Then we spent a year coloring it in, trying to get the right shades of color.

At the end of the year though, we have to ask ourselves, did we get the right colors we wanted?

Did we stay within the lines?

Have we become a better person and can we move on to bolder tasks and eventually the Mona Lisa?

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My Journey

Some of us rush to fill in what we can, at the end of the year.

Others procrastinate our goals, and leave them be for another year.

For once in my life though, personally, I can say I've colored in the picture as best as I can.
I've had breakthroughs and goals that I had never felt I could start, let alone possibly overcome.

I can move on to a closer image of my Mona Lisa.

If I had to define a climax in the first part of my young life (first 20 years) , I can say that this climax occurred in this year.

Things forever distant, or seemingly invincible, have become possible, and long journeys seem short distances.

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What we should do tomorrow

When you wake up tomorrow, try and take in as much of the last bit of 2008 that remains.

This doesn't mean that I'm asking everyone to go and create a busy schedule of events and to try and stay active tomorrow.

That's actually the opposite of what I feel is best.

Do the closest thing you can do, to connect with the world. How you do that depends on the person.

I go biking and I let the world slow down as it rushes around me. One hour on a bike is longer than most people's days feel.

Some people simply like going to a park, some feel it deep in yoga, and others feel it when the mist of the waves hits their face.

Regardless of what your task is, don't let your body, your soul, and your mind treat this last day of 2008, as any ordinary day.

Don't drown in normal entertainment and let them amuse your day away, doing things like watching T.V or going to the movies. Do not succumb to popular entertainment, and don't hibernate your mind, at least not on this day.

Do whatever you normally do, that slows down the world, brings it to a halt, and allows you to contemplate on your life.

That's where philosophy lies, it's where it hides, and if you have to put yourself in a prison to make it happen, then buy yourself some metal bars.

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The last day of 2008 is for remembering the past

Sacrifice that last day of 2008 to yourself. Sacrifice it to slow down the dizzying world around you.

Let that last day die and with it spark a revolution inside of you.

Let 2008 wrap around you and contemplate on what has happened, not on what must in the future.

The future, and your future goals need to wait for another day.
That outline and that black and white picture will be made in 2009.

But that last day of 2008 is for the past.

Soak yourself up in the lessons of history, and awake the next day, clean and rejuvenated, ready for the next picture, awaiting to be colored in, one step closer to your Mona Lisa.

~~Phoenix

It's easier to see Harm than it is to see Good

I've read things such as, "Religion has done more harm than good" and statements like this need to be reanalyzed.

All sorts of friends can name off a number of mean things you've done to them, or mistakes you've made, but ask them to remember 10 generous gestures and they go blank.

The harm is easier to see than the good.

No one sees the people comforted by religion, who do not smoke or drink, who live lives of ease.

What people see are the zealots who kill others and start wars, and they ascribe religion to be the cause and the only cause of that.


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I want to keep this one short, because it was a moment of intense inspiration, when i read that quoted sentence above online and it lit a fire under me.

You need to reevaluate ANY claim made by ANY one who says something does more harm than good, because good has a way of hiding and blending into the background, while harm and evil jump out at you.

It's another reason why News channels prefer stories of death, than to stories of achievement and thanks.

~~Phoenix

Using Time Wisely - Seven Pounds Movie

It's a movie you have to see, that encompasses my last post perfectly. *

Time is everything, don't let us sit idly by and do nothing while we burn in it.

This movie has received a lot of negative reception, and I don't care really. We voted Bush twice into the presidency, so maybe I'll trust other people's perceptions some other time.


I can't describe this movie as well as how Todd McCarthy did.

He puts it perfectly:

He characterized the film as an "endlessly sentimental fable about sacrifice and redemption that aims only at the heart at the expense of the head."


Will, this is an astounding role you did, it's completely unlike you. It cuts out all your charisma, and we were watching a completely different character up there.
He spoke in ways you don't, he acts in ways you don't, he had mannerisms you didn't, it was a work of acting genius.

Very Early on i knew what the movie was in full, and what would happen, i don't know if that was intentional and normal, or if i was just a unique viewer.

Either way it kept my attention, every waking second.

It's a drama, it's a love story, it's sacrifice, it's hope, it's DETERMINATION, and it's strength.

7 days to create the earth, 7 seconds to destroy, 7 pounds to rebuild.
One consistent determination.

~~Phoenix


*= (I noticed that sentance rhymed after i proofread it lol)

Do not let me Burn Idly by

(If we must burn in time, let us light the world with our final breaths)

I wish the same for you, my dear reader, as I wish for all the people of my generation.

I wish for the lifting of the great plague that has come upon my generation and possibly future posterity.

I ask that time not burn us, while we sit idly by. That if we must go, we go in a blaze of light that forever comforts the world.

Make 2009 the awakening of my generation and let it actualize all teenagers into young adults.

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The poem that inspired me to write this post:

Calmly We Walk Through This April's Day
by Delmore Schwartz

Calmly we walk through this April's day,
Metropolitan poetry here and there,
In the park sit pauper and rentier,
The screaming children, the motor-car
Fugitive about us, running away,
Between the worker and the millionaire
Number provides all distances,
It is Nineteen Thirty-Seven now,
Many great dears are taken away,
What will become of you and me
(This is the school in which we learn...)
Besides the photo and the memory?
(...that time is the fire in which we burn.)

(This is the school in which we learn...)
What is the self amid this blaze?
What am I now that I was then
Which I shall suffer and act again,
The theodicy I wrote in my high school days
Restored all life from infancy,
The children shouting are bright as they run
(This is the school in which they learn...)
Ravished entirely in their passing play!
(...that time is the fire in which they burn.)

Avid its rush, that reeling blaze!
Where is my father and Eleanor?
Not where are they now, dead seven years,
But what they were then?
No more? No more?
From Nineteen-Fourteen to the present day,
Bert Spira and Rhoda consume, consume
Not where they are now (where are they now?)
But what they were then, both beautiful;

Each minute bursts in the burning room,
The great globe reels in the solar fire,
Spinning the trivial and unique away.
(How all things flash! How all things flare!)
What am I now that I was then?
May memory restore again and again
The smallest color of the smallest day:
Time is the school in which we learn,
Time is the fire in which we burn.

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A final plea, and 3 small quotes, by yours truly

Let not another moment go by, without our fullest potential being set into motion.


1) There were always better days, but time goes forward, and death never strays.

2) Into light we hope our deeds should turn, once time has run out, and our lives have been burned.

3) Remember death with every waking breath.

~~Phoenix