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Exporting Google Reader
2008-05-06 22:58:00
Every couple of days, Google finds new ways to tangle me up in their web. The latest is this shared item widget I've added.As you may know, I use Google Reader to aggregate all of my various news feeds. Recently, I added an application which takes the items I share in the reader and updates my twitter. This web service is called twitterfeed, and can be set up to use any kind of RSS input.But, I decided I wanted to make the news stories easily accessible from this page. So, that "Shamiq's Shared Items" thingy in the sidebar is my attempt to make an unobtrusive feature available. Every article/post first passes through a filter (my brain) and if deemed worthy for further syndication, finds itself on the sidebar. The topics of the articles widely vary, but all of them are interesting.Have a nice day.
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May Cleaning?
2008-05-05 02:23:00
This previous week has been terrible to me, in terms of class and life in general. My room mirrored the disarray of my mind. I had hundreds of papers scattered around, trash and important documents mingling together, breeding god-forsaken spawn. Food wrappings and a dirty plate were on my desk. Some of the mounds were coated in dust, from weeks of neglect. I had maybe 8 square inches of free space.The weather was wonderful today. The air smelled clean, fresh. Blossoms bloomed, and the temperature was perfect. I couldn't stand the difference stark difference between my room and the park outside my window. So I cleaned everything up. Only my essentials are on my desk now -- everything else filed or thrown away. With a clean desk, my mind feels at ease.My thinking is not distracted by the clutter surrounding me. My productivity has increased. I am less stressed.Maybe you should clean your room as well.
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Iron Man
2008-05-03 20:40:00
Went to the movie last night, at the local cinema. About two hours long. There were no "boring" points. The flow of action and story was kept constant. Characters were not multidimensional, but that did not seem the detract much from the movie. Action was solid. The gadgets were salivatingly sweet.The story seems typical for Good vs Evil type movies. Lots of quips, highly contextual one-liners. If you haven't seen the trailers yet, the suit is awesome. And so is the naively idealistic Stark (surname of main character). I liked the film, laughing a lot.At the time of this writing, the IMDb rating for Iron Man is 8.4.Rotten Tomatoes gives it a 94% fresh rating.Have a nice day.

Jesse Jackson - Quote
2008-05-01 17:33:00
I've been busy for the last couple days, so here is a quote for ya."There is nothing more painful to me at this stage in my life,? Jesse Jackson once told an audience, ?than to walk down the street and hear footsteps and start thinking about robbery--then look around and see somebody white and feel relieved.?Have a nice day!
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GTA IV
2008-04-28 23:13:00
Violence, cohesive and well polished, sells. And obviously, critics love it as well. GTA IV (Grand Theft Auto IV) received near-perfect ratings across the board from reviewers, while users were a bit more...critical.Metacritic's review roundup can be found here. More information about GTA from Wikipedia here.Have a nice day!

Deadlift
2008-04-28 17:38:00
I really like deadlifts.They leave me dizzy and light-headed. I stopped using gloves, so the bar chafes and leaves my hands calloused. It's a pain getting the weights onto the bar without everything rolling around.I look like an idiot, heaving and huffing to lift up some weights. I scream and curse at the 255 lbs on the bar lying in front of me. My face flushes red with blood, my body shakes with effort. The girls giggle as they walk past me. The guys just stare. My friends make fun of me. But damn it all, I don't see them lifting as much as I can!I listen to the thud, feel the ground shake as I drop the weights after my last repetition of the set. It's satisfying to hear the weights rack groan under the mass of what I was just lifting. I walk away from this part of the gym, content.I'm sore now. But it feels good.

The Perry Bible Fellowship
2008-04-27 23:12:00
I couldn't help but post this.Click on the picture to go to his main page. Nicholas, you twisted genius.Have a nice day!
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Workout Plan
2008-04-27 02:34:00
A few weeks ago, I changed the manner in which I workout. A three day split (front upper body, back upper body, legs) was not giving me any further results. Day in, day out, I was struggling to lift the same amount of weight -- no improvement in my recovery, my appearance, my workout. In other words, I had hit a plateau.Anyone who lifts for an extended period of time can testify the frustration caused by a plateau. It feels as though all the effort put into your workout is wasted. You have a hard time just trying to maintain the weight you lifted the previous exercise session, much less attempt to improve. After a couple weeks in this rut, you should realize that the plateau is not going to resolve itself.The human body adapts as best it can to external stressors, exercise included. A plateau can be seen as your body becoming accustomed to a certain routine, or a certain set of exercise. But whatever the cause, the ideal manner in which to approach this obstacle is quite simple.Rest...
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TIP: 101 Health and Wellness Tips
2008-04-25 02:29:00
Look, Shamiq is actually posting a tip!Fiona King, from RNCentral, linked me to a post on (I'm assuming) her website with some tips about keeping healthy, managing stress, etc. Ideally, each one of these tips warrants it's own article, but nonetheless, the information is valuable to someone completely new to the whole do-well-for-yourself idea.The text can be found here: http://www.rncentral.com/nursing-library/ ca.../NOTE:It seems that I was not the only blogger receiving her email. A google search makes this fact pretty evident: Google. Eh, take it as you will.
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Ozymandias by Percy Bysshe Shelley
2008-04-23 07:23:00
First published in 1818, this poem is known for it's striking images and powerful diction. The message of this poem clings to the reader -- the meaning obvious.OZYMANDIASI met a traveller from an antique landWho said: Two vast and trunkless legs of stoneStand in the desert. Near them on the sand,Half sunk, a shatter'd visage lies, whose frownAnd wrinkled lip and sneer of cold commandTell that its sculptor well those passions readWhich yet survive, stamp'd on these lifeless things,The hand that mock'd them and the heart that fed.And on the pedestal these words appear:"My name is Ozymandias, king of kings:Look on my works, ye Mighty, and despair!"Nothing beside remains: round the decayOf that colossal wreck, boundless and bare,The lone and level sands stretch far away.Have a nice day!
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WinRAR's far reaching claims
2008-04-22 19:58:00
I was on the WinRAR website today, reading a bit of their advertising. For those who do not know, WinRAR is a popular archiving software used to pack and maintain multiple files and directories as one file. It can provide some basic security, but all of this is beside the point.What interested me the most from their advertising is this statement:WinRAR supports files and archives up to 8,589 billion gigabytes in size. The number of archived files is, for all practical purposes, unlimited.Though I am not on the bleeding edge in terms of technical knowledge, I do have some degree of competency.So how the hell do you test a statement like that for accuracy?WinRAR's benefits page:http://www.rarlab.com/rar_archiver.h tm
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April 22 is Earth Day
2008-04-22 14:44:00
But honestly, having just one day dedicated to environmental awareness is just about completely useless. It takes more than 24 hours for someone to try and change consumption habits. If someone truly wishes to have any significant impact, he ought to work ceaselessly at this one goal. A thorough education is much preferred to a day of hippies jumping around.I maintain my mode of life, regardless of what the calendar says. I don't need an Earth Day to be conservative with a limited set of resources. Seriously guys, grow up.
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Weekends are for movies
2008-04-21 04:33:00
Sunday nights, I like to pull away from my homework and watch a movie. Around 7 or 8 pm, I look through my DVD library, searching for a film I haven't seen recently. I turn down the lights, put on my headphones, and recline my desk chair. Nothing should interfere.I forget about what presses me and I immerse myself in the film. The headphones block out external noises. The darkness hides my work. After the opening credits have faded away and the movie starts, the illusion nears completion. Within twenty minutes, the escape is complete.I remove from my mind the protective blocks I need. I no longer must deal with the constant barrage of modern life. No direct advertisements, no attacks on my mind. Disbelief is completely suspended. Anything shown can happen, nothing is too extreme. For the next 80 minutes, I am completely at the whims of the director. I become his willing, self-designated slave. He controls my emotions -- I am merely a marionette on strings.As much as I loathe those ...
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Friends who aren't friends
2008-04-19 15:18:00
Some people are friends in name, but not in action:UnhelpfulUninterested in well-being of othersMake empty promisesSpread false informationRestrict communicationUse others as "friends of last resort"The list goes on, but the message is fairly clear. If I have done this, I apologize. But if you are the perpetrator, you ought to apologize to your "friend" -- he or she deserves better.Have a nice day!
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Thoughts that arise while working
2008-04-18 02:36:00
It's quite surprising how stifling freedom can be. When I am most free, I do the least. I while away time, doing nothing worth a damn. I'll sit in front of a book, staring at pages. I'll pen the first line of an essay, then just wait for the rest of it to write itself. But...When I'm interred by the sheer magnitude of life, then I am moving at relativistic speeds, doing things I had never imagined possible, well beyond my preconceived capabilities. I'm here, I'm there, I'm everywhere. The pieces fit together, the rusty machine jump-starts, flying into action. I become a fiend, feeding off of the frenzied flurry, a veritable flood of activity.The human body can create growth hormone in response to physical stressors. Perhaps the mind responds in a similar manner.
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The Moon is for Sale
2008-04-17 20:08:00
As an experienced internet surfer, I have a tendency of finding some completely outrageous websites, from strange fetishes to unreal products.Typically, I can count on a website being a machine-generated spam site, attempting to hawk some miracle cure for removing abdominal fat and turning me into a super model. But sometimes, I find offers which can only be classified as completely ludicrous.Ludicrous thing of the day is: http://www.lunarregistry.com/.Self-dubbed "Earth's Leading Lunar Real Estate Agent", they are selling properties on the moon starting at $18.95 an acre, and going up based on...location? I have no idea how they are using this as a retail model, but for the terrestrially-bound among us, the idea is ridiculous.Perhaps I am not a visionary, but this is just absurd.Find anything otherworldly? Send it in!
More About: For Sale , Moon , Sale , The Moon

Ahh! Amazon!
2008-04-17 06:02:00
Seems like Amazon is getting very aggressive with what it is labeling on the blog. I'm going to try and fix that now. Sorry for all the links to Amazon and it's products!

I'm addicted...
2008-04-17 05:14:00
to Google Reader.I've accumulated a ton of feeds which I find particularly interesting and thought provoking. But perhaps an even more intriguing aspect of having multiple, relatively similar sources of news is the ability to watch a topic or trend unfold into the limelight. Over the course of a day or two, you can see ramifications of particularly hot pieces of news disseminate across the internet, different views filtering in from different sources.To keep things interesting, I've decided to create a public shared list for articles that are just too cool to be left alone.You can find it here.Or if you want, there is also an atom feed for it here.Have a nice day!
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Everyone is blogging...
2008-04-16 02:47:00
Remember that class reading I spoke of yesterday? Well, I've come to find out that my professor has her own website/blog. It's called Knowledge Problem, and from the looks of it, she's had it up since June 2002.As you can guess, she (and her fellow blogger Michael Giberson) focus on relevant economic issues of our time. Who knows...maybe if I can drive enough traffic to her blog, she'll give me an A.Have a nice day!
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Mokyr on Technology
2008-04-15 04:03:00
From time to time, as I do reading for a class, I find short, witty quotes which truly represent the essence of the topic at hand. Today, perusing The Economic History of Britain Since 1700, I ran across a section written by one of Northwestern's own: Joel Mokyr.The main focus of this section is the effect of technological change in an economy. The point that Mokyr is trying to argue is fairly simple to follow. Though the industrial revolution gained most of it's impetus via constant, small improvements in already existing technologies, you cannot discount the worth of much larger, more dramatic inventions. A revolution by parts, bits and pieces, some smaller than others, forming a grand sum-total.Talk about it with a friend:No matter how you improve the horse-and-buggy, it will never become a bicycle.
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Flowers Losing Smell
2008-04-13 17:01:00
That was the title of an article posted by LiveScience:Spring's bloom may not smell so sweet anymore, as pollutants from power plants and automobiles destroy flowers' aromas, a new study suggests.The finding could help explain why some pollinators, particularly bees, are declining in certain parts of the world.Researchers at the University of Virginia created a mathematical model of how the scents of flowers travel with the wind. The scent molecules produced by the flowers readily bond with pollutants such as ozone, which destroys the aromas they produce.So instead of wafting for long distances with the wind, the flowery scents are chemically altered. Essentially, the flowers no longer smell like flowers."The scent molecules produced by flowers in a less polluted environment, such as in the 1800s, could travel for roughly 1,000 to 1,200 meters [3,300 to 4,000 feet]; but in today's polluted environment downwind of major cities, they may travel only 200 to 300 meters [650 to 980 fe...
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Shamiq can read!
2008-04-12 17:32:00
Two days ago, I finished reading Nietzsche's Antichrist. I won't be so preposterous to say that I was able to completely follow his reasoning in my cursory examination. But nonetheless, he brings up some very cogent arguments against religions. And he is quite unequivocal regarding his views of Christianity. If you didn't know, he's the opposite of a believer.And by the way, be careful of bringing up his ideas in a room full of adamantly religious people. I was forced to take the role of his supporter in a very heated, intellectual discussion regarding religion. I am typically wary about arguing about beliefs and faith, but I honestly couldn't help myself. The exploratory opportunities were too vast to be ignored!I have begun reading an English translation of Les Miserables. Hopefully, the discussions about this epic won't be as vitriolic. But who knows?Have a nice day!
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Apologies
2008-04-10 02:36:00
I'm sorry for not posting everyday. It seems that a fifth class eats up a significant portion of the free time I had, and between keeping up with all of my homework, hitting the gym, and going to said classes, I barely have time to breathe. And to tell the truth, I'm liking it.I'm finding that the more free time I have, the less work I actually do. So I decided to push it this quarter and take that fifth class. As you can guess, having so much work forces me to get it done in a timely fashion. I know I cannot procrastinate, and that knowledge is the impetus driving me to finish more of my work.I've also all but abandoned video games. Instead of wasting my time there, I have begun to read more, keeping myself up-to-date on the happenings of our world. It's pretty easy to do with Google Reader -- they even have some starter news feeds for different topics of interest. And if I am bored by the rising and falling of gold prices because of changes in the dollar's strength, I've go...

Long days, short nights.
2008-04-08 01:30:00
I'm glad that the days are getting longer. Otherwise, I would go insane. Today was an example of life at it's finest.I left the apartment at 8:30 AM. I've been at the University all day. And I will be unable to return until 9:30 PM. It makes me wonder where filmmakers concocted the idea of college being so relaxed. I also haven't called my parents in a couple days -- Sorry!In other news, I bumped into a very interesting comic strip today entitled "garfield minus garfield." The premise:Who would have guessed that when you remove Garfield from the Garfield comic strips, the result is an even better comic about schizophrenia, bipolar disorder, and the empty desperation of modern life? Friends, meet Jon Arbuckle. Let?s laugh and learn with him on a journey deep into the tortured mind of an isolated young everyman as he fights a losing battle against loneliness in a quiet American suburb.The first comic starts on: http://garfieldminusgarfield.tumblr.com/p ost/26270938.Hope your day ha...
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Good Luck!
2008-04-06 22:46:00
My two roommates are off at the ACM International Collegiate Programming Contest. The actual competition begins on Wednesday, but their flight left today. Quite a few of the readers of this blog know them, so send them an email wishing them the best of luck. They'll be crushing the competition for the glory of Northwestern University!Out of 6700 teams competing around the world, our team is 1 of 100 to advance to the World Finals. Also, this is the last time that either one of them can participate in the competition. As Nikola said before leaving, "I have been preparing eight years for this."So once again, good luck!
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Spring Saturday
2008-04-05 18:33:00
The first Saturday of the spring quarter. And it really does feel like spring. The high for today and tomorrow hovers around 60F. The skies are bright blue, perfectly clear. I can hear the birds merrily chirping, see the squirrels scampering around. The weather is amazing, the people are even more so.This quarter is starting off well.In addition to the courses I had listed earlier, I have decided to attend a computer programming class as well. It's a very basic, low-key introduction to C programming. Officially, I am not in the class, but the professor is allowing me access to the materials. It is a bit more work for me to do this quarter, but I think I can handle it. And speaking of work, I have laundry to do. So pardon me as I jauntily skip off.Hope your day is as beautiful as mine!
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Busy
2008-04-03 17:16:00
The Spring Quarter at Northwestern started on Monday, and by Thursday I already feel behind! For those who care to know, my class schedule is as follows:Organic Chemistry: 09:00 AM - 09:50 AM MTWThFOrganic Chemistry Lab: 01:00 PM - 05:50 PM FSpanish: 12:00 PM - 12:50 PM MWFMicroeconomics: 02:00 PM - 03:20 PM TTh and 02:00 PM - 02:50 PM MWestern European Economic History: 11:00 AM - 12:20 PM TThAnd I've decided to sit-in on a computer science course: Introduction to C Programming. Even so early in this quarter, I'm excited by the breadth of information presented by these classes. The economic history course seems to be the most interesting. The professor is extremely energetic and determined to have students involved with her lectures. She is, as they say, enlightened.For the Northwestern folk: I'm thinking about having a get-together at our apartment, pending the approval of the Bulgarians (and Julia). I'll personally inform you of any plans we make.Have a nice day!
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LibriVox: Free Audio Books
2008-04-02 04:43:00
Ever since I started writing this blog, I have developed a near pathological urge to inform whichever poor soul that reads this about useful, free resources I find on the web. And LibriVox really helps to feed this impulse.LibriVox is an initiative to make all public domain books available in audio form, and thus to open up a world of literature to those who cannot access it in more traditional formats. Also, it's a great way for someone like myself to indulge in the joys of storytelling by a raconteur.Listening to some of the more skilled readers is completely captivating.And if you have become tired of merely taking from the public domain without returning anything of your own, feel free to volunteer and help bring LibriVox's goal to fruition.Link: LibriVoxHave a nice day!
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Studying Tools: OpenCourseWare from MIT
2008-04-01 01:37:00
This one is for the more self-motivated readers. MIT offers what amounts to virtually the sum-total of it's classes to everyone, free of charge. No sign up or registration required. Even better, the courses are compressed into easy to download .zip files. MIT is committed to advancing education and discovery through knowledge open to everyone.OCW shares free lecture notes, exams, and other resources from more than 1800 courses spanning MIT's entire curriculum.In our modern era, information is becoming evermore freely available. The main task is how we assimilate, and then employ this information.Link: OpenCourseWareHave a nice day!
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Free eBooks: WOWIO
2008-03-31 05:05:00
Hooray free!I bumped into a website that allows you to download many commercial books for free. The service is called WOWIO. A few caveats:3 books per day, no more than 30 in a monthBooks can't be redistributedUSA onlyAnd a slightly more important restriction...WOWIO requires a non-anonymous email address to authenticate your identity(e.g., email accounts from Gmail, Hotmail, Yahoo, etc., are not allowed). If your onlyemail account is anonymous, click 'Back' to choose another authentication method.Registration required, and seems to be ad supported.Link: WOWIO: Free Books + Free MindsHave a nice day!
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