kai_desu

I'm sure you've all noticed that DS hasn't been up for the past few months. I want to apologize for this - we ran into server issues with our host that knocked the site down. This happened shortly after I moved the forum to our new host, and by that point I was pretty burnt out.
 
Nothing was lost. I'll be working on moving DS to the new server this week and getting things back online. Once it's back up, I'll jump back into building out some missing features of the site (specifically, artist profiles).

I'm sure you've all noticed that DS hasn't been up for the past few months. I want to apologize for this - we ran into server issues with our host that knocked the site down. This happened shortly after I moved the forum to our new host, and by that point I was pretty burnt out.
 
Nothing was lost. I'll be working on moving DS to the new server this week and getting things back online. Once it's back up, I'll jump back into building out some missing features of the site (specifically, artist profiles).

I'm sure you've all noticed that DS hasn't been up for the past few months. I want to apologize for this - we ran into server issues with our host that knocked the site down. This happened shortly after I moved the forum to our new host, and by that point I was pretty burnt out.
 
Nothing was lost. I'll be working on moving DS to the new server this week and getting things back online. Once it's back up, I'll jump back into building out some missing features of the site (specifically, artist profiles).

I'm sure you've all noticed that DS hasn't been up for the past few months. I want to apologize for this - we ran into server issues with our host that knocked the site down. This happened shortly after I moved the forum to our new host, and by that point I was pretty burnt out.
 
Nothing was lost. I'll be working on moving DS to the new server this week and getting things back online. Once it's back up, I'll jump back into building out some missing features of the site (specifically, artist profiles).

An update:
 
 
http://www.nytimes.com/2014/08/16/us/darren-wilson-identified-as-officer-in-fatal-shooting-in-ferguson-missouri.html
 
 
 
Not only have police revealed WHO shot Michael Brown; but they have also tied Michael Brown to a robbery just before he was killed. The account according to Police was built off of: "Michael Brown robbed a store, was apprehended by Police, then went for the cop's gun". The first half of their account is true.
 
 
Now it's time to see what the investigation holds. Because IF it is found that the cops' account has been correct, the people of Ferguson just rioted and demanded an end to oppression on false reasons.

http://inhabitat.com/nasa-confirms-the-impossible-propellant-free-microwave-thruster-for-spacecraft-works/


This is pretty cool! We might land a man on Mars sometime in the near future!

You can also thank the media for highlighting events like this, because they know it will cause a shit storm allowing them to have higher ratings. If something happens to someone who is not white, they have to fucking HIGHLIGHT it like it's the reasoning behind the event. If the kid were white, it would have been reported as "local teen shot by police after a dispute" rather than "cop shoots unarmed white teen".
 
Many others have already said it before, but this rioting is bullshit and is not an answer to anything. It's just an excuse for people to steal shit and cause mayhem due to what's called deindividuation and disinhibited behavior.
 
Read about it.

What happened in Ferguson last night was a disgrace on all sides involved. It was pathetic. It was horrendous. It was grotesque. It was fucking stupid.
 
 
There was an instance where a teen (black teen as this is no doubt, the focus of the entire issue) was shot by a cop, and protests began.
 
 
WHAT happened -- We do not know as there are several conflicting reports (one side says Brown was shot with his hands up, the other said the kid made a grab for an officer's gun with a friend before trying to run away).
 
 
HOW did it happen -- We do not know as there are several conflicting reports (see above)
 
 
 
With that in mind, this group (there's no beating around the bush, all Black) were angered and sought justice for what they believed happened -- so they began a peaceful protest at the sight of the shooting. Soon after, officers (some with K-9 units) entered the scene as is customary of police to do in the states. Oddly enough, though there is the freedom of speech, there are pathways you have to go through in the legal system to get approval for a rally / demonstration (were there? Not to the best of my knowledge). It just so happens that due to a larger group gathering at the scene, more officers had to be called in. With the increased violence against police, you can understand why lots of cops show up even when apprehending just one subject, let alone an entire gathering of people. 
 
Soon after police were present, SOMETHING happened.
 
 
WHAT happened -- We don't know as there are conflicting reports (see above)
 
 
 
What happened after, what we do know, gets worse. An officer beaten outside of a Taco Bell, several stores (numbered ~14) were broken into, vandalized (one set on fire), and robbed for all of their merchandise. Multiple gun shots, helicopters shot at, rocks thrown at police, etc. Afterwards, these groups kept moving through Ferguson with just a few reports of break ins happening shortly after the mob moved out at around 3 AM.
 
 
 
 
This demonstration, originally built as a peaceful protest demanding justice for the kid shot, turned into a free-for-all "take everything you can" (as quoted from one member of the mob, female) that had nothing to do with Police, and had nothing to do with the kid that was shot. This becomes even more clear when a large group of the "protesters" (i.e. mob) were people coming out of town well after the riot broke out.
 
 
 
 
 
So what does this all mean?
 
 
 
Is this a "revolution"? Is this Blacks fighting for equality? Is this "The Man" stepping on minorities and preventing them from living free? The short answer, to all of those, is no.
 
 
 
 
"Is this a revolution?" - The ignorant (yes, ignorant) seem to think so. One look on Twitter (#ferguson) reveals a whole shit load of justification for the incredibly stupid acts that transpired last night. "We are standing up for ourselves", "Only violence can end oppression", (various quotes from Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.), etc. The problem though, IS WHAT PART OF A FUCKING REVOLUTION INVOLVES BREAKING INTO A LOCALLY-OWNED RIM SHOP, AND LOOTING 1 SINGLE 22" RIM FOR YOURSELF? AND IN THE PROCESS, DESTROYING ALL PROPERTY IN SAID STORE JUST TO GET THE MERCHANDISE? With the family of Mike Brown speaking out AGAINST the riots, this paints a different picture. This wasn't a "revolution", this was a mob that got out of control and decided to take matters into their own hands.
 
 
"Blacks fighting for equality" - This tends to happen when a black teen is shot, or when any member of the Black community is at the mercy of a police force. Though institutionalized racism is still very much a thing, this matter is completely unrelated. This has nothing to do with workplace discrimination, or discrimination in education, or in the government offices. This has to do with a teen that was shot in an altercation with police (whatever the instance was). It pisses me off that people are so quick to make a racial divide in a matter when it isn't called for. People wanted answers to what happened. But instead of sticking around and asking the serious questions, they robbed convenience stores and walked out with handfuls of liquor and food.
 
 
"The Man" - This is the most intriguing part, and one that I feel has SOME merit, even when as a whole it doesn't. This very well could be an instance where a cop was quick to gun a kid down, and IF THIS WAS THE CASE, then the peaceful protestors in Ferguson are absolutely right to want answers. An investigation (regardless) should be done, and those accountable should be held accountable. BUT, what if the police reports are true? What if (after FBI investigation and third-party investigation has finished) Mike Brown DID make a move for an officer's gun? Then what does that make of the actions of those involved (remember: many rioters were coming from out of town, NOT rioting because they were upset at police, though some were).
 
 
And don't even get me started on this MLK bullshit. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. was a man that taught to avoid doing EXACTLY THIS. It makes me sick that people are now hiding behind his quotes to reason something he would never have stood for in the first place.
 
 
 
 
What transpired the other evening was not a revolution. it wasn't right, it wasn't justified, and it sure as hell was not going to help the cause taken up by the peaceful protesters.
 
 
 
What this did. What the rioters HOPED it would do, will have the opposite effect. People will not turn to the cause of what happened in Ferguson, of anarchy, of robbing CHICKEN PLACES, of robbing SPORTING GOODS STORES, and say "THAT IS AN IDEAL I STRIVE FOR" No. Whenever a group of people resort to barbarism, they instantly lose any credibility to their cause when there are outlets to access to bring those accountable to justice.
 
 
What the Rioters (they are NOT protestors) did last night was fucking pathetic.
 
 
 
 
EDIT: and perhaps the most fascinating point of all. Police did not shoot and kill one Rioter. If this was truly a "revolution" rising up against oppression, those cops would not have hesitated to shoot. Yet they didn't. Not once. Suspects were taken into custody.

And how is what I'm asking. How does looting stores avenge this teenager? It doesn't. There's no connection at all. Just anger and violence.
You want to take a stand? Go down to the police station and protest until he is fired. Start a class action lawsuit against the police department while stressing racial issues. Do anything other than start a riot. The only statement that was made is that you all are dangerous and need to be monitored further.
And if you absolutely must start a riot, how about you fuck up the police station instead of innocent businesses for a start? Direct your rage towards the actual perpetrators.

So when was the teenager's death avenged? Before the brick through the window of the Chinese food spot or after enough people walked out of Wal-Mart with brand new televisions? I'm all for holding the actions of police officers accountable as I have to deal with the NYPD, stop and frisk policies, and watching people get arrested, beaten, and occasionally shot for being black on a daily basis. But never get it twisted: no justice was served. The riot will not affect the sentencing of that police officer in a positive manner. The people at that Chinese food spot did nothing to that teenager, yet now they have to deal with the aftermath. Wal-Mart didn't assist the police officer by supplying him bullets, yet now they have to clean up after the riot. Neither did the bank, or the gas station, or whatever else was caught in the crosshairs. How many thousands of dollars did the riot cause in damaged property? How many businesses now have to shut down?
All that was accomplished was the successful destruction of a neighborhood.

Yeah....no, rioting doesn't do much justice for one death. Definitely not, if it means losing thousands of dollars for business which now jeopardizes the livelihoods of business owners. Also, the city will probably have to spend more money on repairs which will take money away from potentially more useful use of the money. While you can feel a sense of empowerment, the consequences won't justify it.

Nothing special, just wanted to show off XBMC since I just got finished with properly renaming/tagging ~100 of my anime series (and having to make some clearlogos w/ GIMP for obscure stuff).
 

For tagging use a separate application like Mp3tag. Simple and clean to use and has the ability to automatically pull information from Musicbrainz, discogs, amazon, etc.

Dont really have much of anything to say about this.

Lately, I have switched to using Ubuntu as my main OS, trying to customize desktop environment to fit my needs. Lotta things need to be fixed / added anyway.
Almost cried configuring everything manually though. lol

Thanks, Kai! Design patterns are so complex. It seems to take me a while to understand most of them. :<
Anyway, here is my July desktop screenshot. This is my first attempt setting up a LAMP stack web server on CentOS 6.5.
Finally, I can get into using Linux while listening to music using foobar2000. VirtualBox is amazing. lmao!
 

I like the feature's that it brings, but it is drastically slower than ST - which can be tough at times (especially if you're trying to open a large file).
 
It has great potential if they can work out the speed kinks - but at the same time it is understandable as it's built off of web technologies housed within a stripped down version of Google Chrome.
 
Also I highly recommend http://www.laracasts.com - while it's geared towards Laravel, you also learn about some pretty important design patterns. There's also http://rebuildinglaravel.com/ which is another good read that also goes over some design patterns.

Oh no I know that. My hair was black (not natural) so it would have taken me 5 bleaches to do it properly. I used a blue based bleach and a 30vol to not kill my hair and I had bleaches spread about 3-4 weeks apart. I used lightest ash blond to tone the copper out of my hair since it was still a pretty warm level 7. It had been this tone for about a month of using a purple based shampoo and toning 2 times with in that month.
While I was in cosmetology school a few years back, I managed to make a toner that brought my hair to a really nice gray that didn't look green at all... But I don't have my license for hair so I can no longer purchase the products I used. So really I knew what I was getting in to... I just didn't want to do it anymore XD

Spaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaace
 

 
Also, working on a little side-project for work.
 
Laravel <3