Vinh Pham

So I followed up with what I said the other day and went to volunteer for the No on 8 campaign. Sad to say, I was disappointed at how unorganized the Sacramento area seems to be. I didn’t feel like there was any real effort to enroll or maintain curious/shy volunteers like myself. Also, the task they had me do feels like a waste of time.

Well at least I got myself a No on 8 yard sign, which I will display proudly on the lawn here in West Sacramento, an area populated with Yes on ‘Hate’ signs.

That brings me to another issue. How come there are thousands of Yes on Hate signs popping up like weed, but it is so dang hard to even find a No on Hate sign? Shouldn’t there be an effort to put out more signs to show our support?

The real jewel in my volunteering experience came when I went to Jamba Juice to get my parking ticket validated on my way home. One of the JJ employee was dressed in a cheerleader’s costume ( with huge jugs ). A black guy came in, laughed, and said “Thank God, Yes on 8″.

The irony of this event kills me. Here is a black man, who’s ancestors were victims of the same hate crimes not too long ago, dishing out his own prejudice and hatred to people different than him. Oh, the circle of life is complete…

The more I hear about California’s Proposition 8, the more I feel compelled to help spread the “No on Prop 8″ message. Here is why:

They first came for the communists, and I didn’t speak up because I wasn’t a communist.
Then they came for the Jews, and I didn’t speak up because I wasn’t a Jew.
Then they came for the Catholics, I didn’t speak up because I was a Protestant.
Then they came for me, and there was no one left to speak up.
-Martin Niemoeller

To me, this issue is even more important than the presidential election. Choosing a presidential candidate is like choosing between different flavors of ice-cream. Granted, you could end up with a really shitty flavor ( George Bush ) and get sick eating it. But defending equality for all people is equivalent to defending someone against a bully. If you don’t have the courage to do it, no one else will… And one day, it will be you who need to be defended.
So, whether you are gay, straight, or i’ll stick with my right-hand kinda person, you have to stand up for equality.
To make sure that I am not just all talk, I will contact my local field office and ask to volunteer.

I often hear people refer to my sources of news ( NPR, AP, BBC, The Daily Show, and various other websites ) as having a “liberal bias”. What is “liberal bias” you ask? Well, Liberal Bias is…

1) Basing your beliefs on scientific facts instead of saying “that’s how God made it”

2) Being able to recognize hateful rhetoric, personal opinions, and crackpot mouthpieces. ( For example: Bill O’reilly )

3) Making decisions after reviewing statiscal data to ensure that the decision will have the intended outcome. Not doing whatever “feels right”, or “has been done this way forever”.

4) Gathering information from multiple sources, including those of opposing viewpoints, to establish a complete understanding of the subject matter.

5) Having enough self-control to keep your personal opinion out the news you are reporting.

On a more serious note… The reality is: Truth has a liberal bias.

I am no marketing professional, but it seems to me like a lot of companies, and government agencies, are wasting a ton of money on pointless advertisement.

For example:

1) I fail to see how a billboard saying “Thanks for being a designated driver” will motivate any drunk person to give up their keys.

2) What kind of drug-using teenager will stop using drugs because a TV commercial tells them it’s not cool?

Ok, seriously… If smoking weed will help me talk to our dog, I so want to some!

3) How does paying someone to dance around with a sign spark my interest to look at your home-for-sale?

4) A Hoodia ad on digg.com? Really? A bunch of internet geeks as a target audience for Hoodia?

5) And worst of all… Using TV commercials to advertise presidential candidates? I am going to guess that this form of advertising is actually very effective. However, it’s still pointless because it creates a society of ignorance and laziness where talking points and negative attacks become the basis for important decisions.

Yesterday I officially launched this new fruity blog. I found this design after searching hopelessly for hours. I wanted something “earthy” and fun. This design fits that criteria, but the rainbow in the background makes it oh so gay… ( nothing wrong with that… )

Anyways… The new design is due to my transition from Nucleus CMS to Wordpress. I had to write a PHP script to export all my old Nucleus entries into Wordpress format. That was fairly painless, and I should publish that script to the Nucleus community someday.

This is also the reasn why I have not written in my blog in hella days….

During the move, I have decided to drop by wiki, since it was hard to update the wiki, and the wiki format is just hard to use when it comes to social networking with my readers. Dropping the wiki means that I will lose some of the most highly trafficked pages on my website. I will try to recover some of that lost traffic by re-posting those wiki pages on to my blog and praying that goggle will index them again.

I could do some crazy rewrite hackery to make things ‘just as they were’, but I am way too lazy to do that…

1) Change a Light Bulb

One compact fluorescent bulb lasts as long as 13 regular bulbs and uses 75% less energy. They are also cheaper to buy. Raleys and Ace Hardware has these for less than $3 dollars for 4 mini bulbs.

2) Stop junk mail

Visit this page to take your name off the junk mail list. Reducing junk mail will help save trees used in paper production.

3) Turn off your computer

When you leave the office, turn off your computer. At least turn off your monitor. It may be little, but if we all do it, it can add up to a lot. Screen savers DO NOT conserve energy because the screen is still on. You have to physically turn the monitor off.

4) Bring your own cup

Bring your own cup to work or the coffee store. Reducing the use of disposable products can go a long way in preserving the environment.

5) Wash With Warm Water

You do not need to wash your clothes in hot water. Use warm or cold water instead, to conserve that energy for something else.

6) Bring your own bag

Do you really need all those plastic bags you get at the grocery store? Why not bring your own bag and carry your grocery in them. I know it sounds strange because we are so accustomed to being given bags at the grocery store, but it would help reduce a lot of waste if we bring our own reusable bags to the supermarket. If not, at LEAST recycle those plastic bags before you throw them away. Grocery store plastic bags can serve a second life as garbage bags, doggie bags, and lunch bags. Doing this will also help you save tons of money!

7) Use less water

This starts with turning off the faucet when you are brushing your teeth, and ends with reducing the amount of water used on your lawn. In neighborhoods across America, people love to own a small, green, perfectly trimmed plot of grass all year round. Even in the deserts of Las Vegas, lawns are bright green from the constant sizzle of the front yard sprinklers. If you want to be environmentally friendly, perhaps you can help by reducing the amount of water used on your lawn. Learn to take care of it properly and understand just how much water you need to keep it nice and green, but don’t over do it. Just think, what good is your nice lawn if there are no more trees in this world?

Turn down the AC

Its nice to be at constant temperature thorough the day, but that comfort comes at an environmental cost. You’d be surprised how nice it can feel to sleep with an extra blanket instead of paying extra on your energy bill.

9) Buy Local

Pesticides and other chemicals used in agriculture production is not only harmful to the environment, it can also be harmful to your health. Buy locally grown, organic fruits and vegetables. They often taste a lot better and are a healthy alternative to mass produced vegetations.

10) Spread the Word

If there is only one thing that you can do to help the environment, do this: tell your friends. The more people are aware of problems plaguing the environment, the more changes we can make - together - to improve things. Next time, before you open your conversation with who was on American Idol, reserve a couple of minutes to discuss what YOU did to help protect your environment, YOUR WORLD.

Being a LEGAL owner of a Mac, I decided to try installing Mac OS X on my Windows PC today. This is because I get annoyed at having to turn on the Mac every time I want to test a website in Safari. So I found this very helpful guide:

http://pcwiz.50webs.com/windows/vmwareosx86.html

After following all the instructions, I couldn’t get the damn thing to work. I kept getting hung up on Step 6 - The computer lets me choose a language, shows a “preparing installation” message, but it would crash before going to the next screen. It was getting very annoying. I tried everything to fix the problem, but nothing seemed to work.

I did what most respecting computer nerd would do and googled the problem. I found a thread suggesting that instead of using Mac OS X 10.4.8, I should use Mac OS X 10.4.7. So I took out my LEGAL copy of Mac 10.4.7 and tried it. Walla! It works. I am now booting Mac OS X in Windows with VMware.

My computer is an old Dell 2400 with a P4 @ 2.5Mhz. The Mac is running amazingly slow, but at least its running.

I use VMware little icon to disable the CD-ROM drive, because the OS kept trying to read the CD-ROM drive. I also changed the “network” from “host-only” to “bridged”. This allowed me to connect to the internet.

Cheers!

Update:

My myspace account got deleted because of this trick :). So only do this if you are willing to gamble.

How-To:

My idea to remove the myspace ad is simple: Use CSS to move all the myspace crap all the way to the left and then hide the overflow. You will then have a blank canvas as your myspace page. You can then rebuild the page using your own content, or you can be lame and selectively start moving back only the contents you want.

Note: Selectively moving things back is hard, but I have managed to bring back all the important stuff like the message board, “send message” button, and friends list. You can figure out how to selectively move things back on your own by playing with CSS absolute positioning.

This works in Firefox and Internet Explorer 7.

If you want to just remove everything and put up your own message put this into your “I’d like to meet:”

</td>
				</tr>
			</table>
		</td>
	</tr>

</table></table></table>
</div></div></div></div>
<style type="text/css">
body {
margin-left: 2000px;
background-color: FFFFFF;
overflow-x: hidden;
}
.page {
font-size: 60px;
position: absolute;
top:10px;
left:10px;
}
</style>

<div class="page">
Myspace Sucks!<br />
I Hacked Myspace.
</div>

If you want to bring stuff back, try this. REMEMBER TO CHANGE THE FRIENDID, OR ELSE ALL YOUR MESSAGES WILL GO TO MY ACCOUNT.

Put this in your About Me:

 
					</td>
				</tr>
			</table>
		</td>
	</tr>

</table></table></table>
</div></div></div></div>
<styletype="text/css">
body {
margin-left: 2000px;
background-color: FFFFFF;
overflow-x: hidden;
}
.page {
width: 500px;
font-size: 30px;
position: absolute;
top:10px;
left:10px;
}
.big {
font-size: 30px;
}
.message
{
position:absolute;
top:130px;
left:10px;
}
textarea.msg
{
width:280px;
height:50px;
}
.add
{
position:absolute;
top: 100px;
left: 10px;
}
.addfriend {
border: 1px solid &#035;0000FF;
}
</style>
<div class="page">
You suck! Visit<br />
<a class="big" href="http://www.vinhboy.com">
http://www.vinhboy.com.
</a>
</div>
<div class="add">
<a href="http://collect.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=invite.addfriend_verify&friendID=110308242" >
<img class="addfriend" src="http://x.myspace.com/images/profile/friend_1.gif" />
</a>
</div>
<div class="message">
message me:
<form method="post" action="http://comments.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=user.ConfirmComment">
<input name="friendID" value="110308242" type="hidden">
<textarea name="f_comments" class="msg">
</textarea><br />
<input type="submit" value="SEND" class="msg1">
</form>

With a little knowledge of CSS you can make this nicer, and please remove any references to me. Goodluck!