Claire's Random Thoughts

1. Be able to keep the computer off at least until it cools down completely before turning it on and wasting time again (exceptions would be using it for and only for productive work)

2. When my parents yell at me, instead of tuning them out or yelling back insisting that they’re wrong, I should at least consider what they’re trying to say. Furthermore, actually be able to consider any advice that people give me.
3. No more than one blog post per day unless I start writing for pay per post a few months later (they only want blogs that are at least 3 months old).

4. A full workout twice a week consisting of at least 30 minutes of cardio work and 6 different weight training machines.

5. Read at least two newpaper or magazine articles per day.

6. No more internal explosions caused by idiots who are not worth it anyway. For those of you who don’t know, I often explode internally but try not to act like it when idiots arouse me. After this happens, I’m unable to focus for hours and sometimes inexplicably act strangely.

You Probably Won’t Keep Your New Year’s Resolution

Something isn’t quite right with the resolution you’ve selected. Maybe it’s time for a different one?

Sigh…where’s my motivation? I seem to enjoy things that don’t matter at all but are equally or more tedious than things that mattered. For example, I would rather blog nonsense than work on my college applications that are due like tomorrow. Most of my material is in submittable condition, but I would still like to make everything better.

With my normal New Year’s Resolutions, I make one comprimise after another and eventually end up the way I started. I really think spending too much time on the internet is directly linked to laziness. Since I got addicted to chess-live (do I have to mention that previous rant post again?), I’ve been getting addicted to various time wasters on the internet. Now that I’m not logging on there anymore, it’s getting a little bit better, but I’m still spending a couple hours a day on the internet. That’s really not too bad compared to my average of 6 hours per day a while ago. What I really need is an attitude adjustment, but it probably won’t matter much anymore next year, because college applications will already be done. Senior year is officially over after first semester.

I need to prove this blogthing and myself wrong, which brings me to my final resolution: I need to be able to trust myself and have confidence in my own decisions. Maybe I can’t get anything done, because internally, I always have doubts about myself.

Fine, I’ll let you analyze my resolutions since overanalysis seems to be your specialty.

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Response to the first comment
Have you seriously wasted that much time on the internet during these last most crucial days? I still don’t get why I spent so much time on this stupid blog.
Actually my computer takes quite a long time to cool down if you feel the right parts. 20 minutes maybe?
Actually, I put number 3 on here, because I’ve had more than one nonsense wordpress post per day a couple times when I should have been working on my applications. Now that I think about it, it probably won’t matter that much next year. When this blog is 3 months old, I’ll write for pay per post, so I have to make it decent looking first.
As for number 4, I feel like I’m losing muscle mass, and I want to get it back.
Yes, online news articles could count if they’re credible ones, but I never actually read the whole article.
You may not see me blow up, but I’m completely unable to focus when idiots bother me for something that doesn’t matter at all.
So, I guess you think the final resolution is the most important too.

My search for a good free form processor consisted of a lot of disappointment and uneasiness. Every time I thought I found a good one, there would be either intrusive ads or some kind of limit in functions.

Why do I want a form generator anyway? It’s not safe to post my email on my site these days due to the high level of possible spam, but I would like a way for my visitors to contact me.

Phew, this annoying search and experiment process ended when I discovered formbuddy. Formbuddy allows me to create custom forms asking for whatever information I choose to ask for, and I can place them on my site with a professional look, just as if I had created the form myself. An example of such a form would be the one for my link exchange offer.
Here’s a screenshot if you’re too lazy to click on the link:

I always have all the data emailed to me rather than stored on formbuddy’s servers, but you can also store form submissions on formbuddy’s servers if you don’t like getting so many emails, some of which may be nonsense. I haven’t had a problem with spam yet, but I think it might be possible if somebody is bored enough to submit forms of nonsense.

After the user submits a form, he/she should be directed to any page you specify. This is usually a thank you page or a the same page that the form is placed on. Formbuddy will put a frame on the side with ads and say that the form was their’s, but I guess I can live with that. Only form submitters will see that anyway, so it should not be viewed that frequently
Formbuddy also allows you to store up to 500 forms for free so that you can later modify them or retrieve the code if needed.

How to customize the forms more:
The original form builder only gives you the options of inputting name, e-mail, gender, date of birth, address, country, phone, url, how did you find us, and comments/suggestions. The code generated is also design for a full html page rather than just a section of your page.
My suggestion for further customization is to first just check a few of those boxes and then click generate form. Chances are, you don’t want a full page just for your form, so cut out the top of the html code until and including the tag as well as the and and on the bottom.

How to customize inputs:
If you want the user to input a string, then use copy and paste the section of the code for name input like the one below.

Change the part that says Name: to whatever you want to be displayed, and change the part that says visitor_name to whatever you want to be displayed next to the input string in the email that will be sent to you.
If you would like a radio button input, then I recommend that you modify the Gender code.

original
Just adjust everything similarly to what you would do for the first example.
If you would like a dropdown menu with a few options, then I recommend modifying the how did you find us? code in the same way that you would do to the above two examples. I will skip explaining what to do, because it seems self-explanatory to any experienced webmaster.

Conclusively, formbuddy is one of the better free form generators out there, because it is customizable and appears ad free on your pages that you place forms on. I would definitely recommend it to those who do not have the server capacity to have a form or do not know how to create a form.

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Blog update:
I just removed a whole bunch of links in my links section. Those were from blogs that I was going to exchange links with but were owned by someone who didn’t add me yet. If you are one of these people and still wish to exchange, you must add me and then fill out the link exchange form telling me that you did. After this, I will put you back.

If you don’t have gmail yet, then you ought to. If by some incident you don’t have an invite yet, I will post 29 of them here from my old gmail account. I get too much spam/unwanted subscriptions in that account, so I stopped using it. I have 25 left and will post them later if needed. It was very tedious for me to copy 29 invites, so I hope people who actually need one see this. Sweet, I invited myself 25 times but somehow got 29 invites in my inbox. Since I have them, I might as well post the 4 extras.
Some of you may not realize how great gmail is, because you may not know some of the hidden features or hacks. If you’re interested in taking advantage of gmail, then visit my gmail hacks page.
If you do happen to use one of the invites, then please leave a comment indicating which number (they’re numbered 1-25) you used, so other people don’t have to waste time trying all of them. Of course it would be easier if you use them in order;)

1. http://mail.google.com/mail/a-14ac82436a-fd3fff864b-8fabcb3704

2. http://mail.google.com/mail/a-14ac82436a-a9f9d7b008-c1740cada1

3. http://mail.google.com/mail/a-14ac82436a-9a3f3f7932-74bf5164ea

4. http://mail.google.com/mail/a-14ac82436a-ee4ddd6554-6d75dd7913

5. http://mail.google.com/mail/a-14ac82436a-e576b5d655-d990ee9deb

6. http://mail.google.com/mail/a-14ac82436a-742424f847-eb3c00f870

7. http://mail.google.com/mail/a-14ac82436a-6da970f45d-876baa83d9

8. http://mail.google.com/mail/a-14ac82436a-0438b9e048-698b322e05

9. http://mail.google.com/mail/a-14ac82436a-8f4bbff933-4c6458df39

10. http://mail.google.com/mail/a-14ac82436a-8698ab71be-bc1c62717a

11. http://mail.google.com/mail/a-14ac82436a-81fd5b286d-8c12dbede5

12. http://mail.google.com/mail/a-14ac82436a-54d9065fd3-9b25dec918

13. http://mail.google.com/mail/a-14ac82436a-a9bad57e24-b5f807cee5

14. http://mail.google.com/mail/a-14ac82436a-63e24fef34-178d55c43e

15. http://mail.google.com/mail/a-14ac82436a-8baaa6ebae-86a008b0dd

16. http://mail.google.com/mail/a-14ac82436a-a98c61f583-29c53a359c

17. http://mail.google.com/mail/a-14ac82436a-ae5781759b-1635511a9b

18. http://mail.google.com/mail/a-14ac82436a-af6b20735b-59bbe0764f

19. http://mail.google.com/mail/a-14ac82436a-1eb2ee7c4f-036b95a64b

20. http://mail.google.com/mail/a-14ac82436a-39fc5fdebb-a13bcec7ba

21. http://mail.google.com/mail/a-14ac82436a-b615eb5f49-a54c143f03

22. http://mail.google.com/mail/a-14ac82436a-b615eb5f49-a54c143f03

23. http://mail.google.com/mail/a-14ac82436a-1a42c4808b-366a0e8950

24. http://mail.google.com/mail/a-14ac82436a-1a42c4808b-366a0e8950

25. http://mail.google.com/mail/a-14ac82436a-b974f7a4e7-b1c4ca8319

26. http://mail.google.com/mail/a-14ac82436a-697a5fdd11-934d6dd686

27. http://mail.google.com/mail/a-14ac82436a-b974f7a4e7-b1c4ca8319

28. http://mail.google.com/mail/a-14ac82436a-697a5fdd11-934d6dd686

29. http://mail.google.com/mail/a-14ac82436a-318802f1de-197a745e9e

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Set 2:
Here are some more. A few of the above ones should still work, they’re running low. Please be courteous and only use one per person (one person used 7 of the first set)!
1. http://mail.google.com/mail/a-8b5b535bf1-f287973a90-6a29ef97992. http://mail.google.com/mail/a-8b5b535bf1-e8b3b195c1-fccb1169033. http://mail.google.com/mail/a-8b5b535bf1-04cfed6f83-029d7f146b

4. http://mail.google.com/mail/a-8b5b535bf1-45d8b2f9ac-5c3e19c391

5. http://mail.google.com/mail/a-8b5b535bf1-051081fbd6-5f29fc2b6a

6. http://mail.google.com/mail/a-8b5b535bf1-7ddf5f2520-e2e300cc10

7. http://mail.google.com/mail/a-8b5b535bf1-d7e49dec3e-d2ef248bb1

8. http://mail.google.com/mail/a-8b5b535bf1-ed64133e14-d29754afbd

9. http://mail.google.com/mail/a-8b5b535bf1-28cf3dc8fb-ffd9329832

10. http://mail.google.com/mail/a-8b5b535bf1-07e047e08d-11806a89b5

11. http://mail.google.com/mail/a-8b5b535bf1-2a469f6280-42b9d6f90c

12. http://mail.google.com/mail/a-8b5b535bf1-4f49d27859-af7cbbbe3d

13. http://mail.google.com/mail/a-8b5b535bf1-3316ce3b6b-e7506a0732

14. http://mail.google.com/mail/a-8b5b535bf1-14afce18e9-a16eb7e4b6

15. http://mail.google.com/mail/a-8b5b535bf1-3b9fe6627e-6d6ab87043

16. http://mail.google.com/mail/a-14ac82436a-d83cc1e2a5-c1a4d48088

17. http://mail.google.com/mail/a-14ac82436a-755d2f0f9b-d97a28fa12

18. http://mail.google.com/mail/a-14ac82436a-c8fe7a2846-07d589f215

19. http://mail.google.com/mail/a-14ac82436a-f8b7a4c456-e33245dffc

20. http://mail.google.com/mail/a-14ac82436a-7b83a27914-7d1d9bb394

21. http://mail.google.com/mail/a-14ac82436a-f81fe59ed6-4fe3f2708e

22. http://mail.google.com/mail/a-14ac82436a-f6720d2d29-9c7c661439

23. http://mail.google.com/mail/a-14ac82436a-3fc01049fb-107efb1788

24. http://mail.google.com/mail/a-14ac82436a-84f4077e77-4ce5563ab7

25. http://mail.google.com/mail/a-14ac82436a-7bdda33032-13a6ef4e56

26. http://mail.google.com/mail/a-14ac82436a-a0fbba8615-c6f35dc6ed

27. http://mail.google.com/mail/a-14ac82436a-dfddf530e0-8df3a5e9fa

28. http://mail.google.com/mail/a-14ac82436a-063b6fd761-9023b1b991

29. http://mail.google.com/mail/a-14ac82436a-0d91a6ed86-fb85243979

30. http://mail.google.com/mail/a-14ac82436a-4ac49ec52e-ee1d377fe6

31. http://mail.google.com/mail/a-14ac82436a-8bc33ae78d-304653c0d6

32. http://mail.google.com/mail/a-14ac82436a-e163d9ca0d-71126ec81e

33. http://mail.google.com/mail/a-14ac82436a-a0c00f8bd3-6bb199b6db

34. http://mail.google.com/mail/a-14ac82436a-d861afbc8f-ed5fa31243

35. http://mail.google.com/mail/a-14ac82436a-5d4f981c9c-a0821fddc4

36. http://mail.google.com/mail/a-14ac82436a-7611baa2a9-0a3a051a46

37. http://mail.google.com/mail/a-14ac82436a-fb4b9a29a2-c273b1a5ce

38. http://mail.google.com/mail/a-14ac82436a-79285fc82a-99bc7cbea0

39. http://mail.google.com/mail/a-14ac82436a-cb26f1ecfd-f5c393c22b

40. http://mail.google.com/mail/a-14ac82436a-ab6c4aaa29-8b34fb5578

Rechargable batteries have become almost as inexpensive as alkaline ones. Why use alkaline ones anymore? If you’re interested in buying some, I recommend all-battery, because they are having a sale with very inexpensive prices. For example, a pack of 24 AA batteries with free shipping only costs $29.99. If you just use them each twice, then you would get your money worth (compared to the cost of good alkaline batteries).
Before NiMh rechargable batteries became popular, rechargable batteries were not very popular, because they were low in capacity and had memory which caused the capacity to shrink even more if you frequently charged them. Good thing we have better ones now.With new technology, alkaline batteries have become used much less frequently than they used to be. Rechargable batteries are not only great for saving money since they can be used hundreds of times, but are also better for the environment, because they get disposed of less frequently.I got my first set of NiMh (Nickel Metal Hydride) rechargable batteries about 3 years ago. If I remember the price correctly, a set of a charger and 4 AA batteries with 1600mAh capacity cost about $30.00, and I thought they were inexpensive. After all, that’s only the price of 30 duracell batteries, but these rechargable ones could be used way more than that. The capacity of NiMh batteries is also much higher, making them ideal for high-drain devices, such as digital cameras.

Choosing a charger: When you buy a charger, try to make sure that it could charge 4 AA or AAA at the same time for convenience sake. Some of the cheaper ones can only charge 2 AAA at a time because of their design. You can also only charge batteries in pairs, so make sure you’re charging an even number at the same time. (I added this paragraph after somebody mentioned these details in digg)

Here’s an example of how much money rechargable batteries can save you over time. If you buy one pack of 24 AA 2600 mAh (that’s about double the capacity of duracell batteries) batteries at all-battery’s sale price of $29.99 (shipping included), then you would never have to spend money on AA batteries again. 24 is probably enough for all your devices that use AA. If you have 4 remote controllers, 1 of which runs out of power each year, a digital camera that drains 4 batteries after 50 pictures which you use to take about 300 pictures a year, an mp3 player that runs for 15 hours on two AA’s that you use for an hour a day, and disposable alkaline batteries cost $0.75 each, then you would spend $74.67 just on AA batteries a year. If you buy rechargable ones, then you would be spending $29.99 for a lifetime, saving you $44.68 the first year and $74.67 every year after. If you live for 50 more years (I don’t know how old you are, so you can do the math for this part), then that would be a total savings of $3778.18 for doing almost nothing.
If you do not own rechargable batteries yet, then I recommend using all-battery to purchase some. They are very inexpensive (only a little more than the price of alkaline ones), and many of the larger packs come with free shipping.

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Somebody mentioned that NiMh may not be the best choice for remotes because of the high discharge rate in a comment. However, I did not approve the comment, because that person refused to leave an email address. Yes, that person was correct, so I guess a better alternative would be rechargable alkalines. Rechargable still beats disposable.

WARNING: This post is a rant. Its sole purpose is for me to organize my ideas and become more angry about bane of my life.

I think I figured out why I’ve been sucking so much at life my past couple years. I obsessed too much over chess-live. I’ve been trying to quit the past couple months, but I would still log on once every few days when I could have been doing something better, because I was simply too addicted. I just wasted hours tonight aimlessly rushing in standard and playing lots of games of lightning for the sake of messing my my normal thinking and wasting some of the most crucial time of my life, the last days before college applications are due. No more. I requested that my tags be removed in my profile, and am uninstalling the software right now. Chess-live can be considered the root of my downfall.

Don’t get me wrong, I’m not saying that the server was a bad place. It was simply bad for me, because it became an obsession. For those of you who don’t know, I easily obsess over things (for example, this blog right now), but I get over them pretty quickly. Most of my obsessions are in phases. Chess-live was an exception.

It all started around the beginning of 2005. My life was not perfect, but was managable at that time. I played on chess-live the healthy and intended way before this time; I logged on occasionally to play a few games only for the sake of playing. Playing was fun but my no means addictive. I didn’t have many friends on the server, so I was able to log off whenever I felt like it, because I was usually not engaging in a conversation. Anyway, I started to chat and began to like the server around the beginning of 2005. I met Gerard10 (Gerard, I’m not blaming you) and talked to him a little. At first, I thought he was kind of annoying, because he talked to me a bit too much. Before long, I enjoyed chatting and logged on to chat instead of just to play. A couple months later, I met Acerook (I’m not blaming you either). He was kind of annoying too, but we immediately bonded simply because he was also Asian, and we had a couple good starting conversations. Shortly afterwards, I began chatting with just about everyone, and I was hooked.

At the time that I was overly enthusiastic about the server, I decided to apply for staff. Tsgarp agreed to give me SR (Service Representative), and I was thrilled. At around the same time, Gerard got alrightnow to give me TM (Tournament Manager). Boy, two new tags!

I have never been free since I received those tags. When I first got them, I made sure that I was the one who helped every single newbie and answered every single question in the help channels. In fact, I would secretly get a feeling of jealousy inside if some other SR beat me to a question, although I tried not to express it. I became obsessed with tournament making too. I even ran the long and annoying USCF Quick Rated ones often more than once per week.

Here’s a little side story: I remember that shortly before I became TM, the required number of managed tournaments to be promoted to level 30 was 30 (Those of you not from chess-live staff are probably lost right now. This isn’t important. But then again, I doubt anyone is actually going to read this post). It changed to 100 sometime around the time that I began TM, but dvdlpz (I’m not blaming you either) promoted me to level 30 anyway after I had 30 tournaments. Then, dabigpig (I’m not blaming you either) complained about my promotion, so I was demoted again. I can’t believe something this stupid could invoke such strong emotion. I practically cried with anger/I don’t know what emotion, because 100 tournaments seemed ridiculous to me at the time. I think the 100 tournament requirement may have been what truly made me addicted. When I was trying to reach that goal, I became obsessed with making tournaments. After I reached it, the obsession continued (if it did not worsen), because logging on and making tournaments became part of my routine.
Although being staff was tedious, I somehow enjoyed it and spent my full afternoons and evenings on the server, often neglecting my homework or studying. I became named SR of the month and TM of the month after my first month of staff. Though these titles truly do not matter much in life, I was ecstatic, because it appeared that I had accomplished something. Having those two titles just made me want to do aimless work even more. On top of that, chatting in channels 5 and 48 (the staff channels) became the highlights of my days. Thus, during the first semester of my junior year (when I first got staff), I wasted valuable studying time in my most important year of high school. I’m blaming chess-live for any grades lower than A that I may have gotten that year.
If I got anything in return, then it would be an attitude adjustment. Before I was addicted to chess-live, I was a pretty ambitious student. I remember that I was able to sit at my desk and study everything step by step until I understood. This has been an impossible task ever since I got my tags. My attention span for anything important has grown short, and I am now incapable of studying. Maybe there is still hope left for me to revert to my old attitude if I quit the server now. It will be a challenge, but I hope that the coming college application deadlines will push me in the right direction.

Here’s another side story about how much anger/discomfort something so small could cause me. This happened around 3 months after I became staff. Chesschampion became annoying, because he started making a bunch of Grand Prix tournaments but not watching them. The rest of us TM’s were basically running his tournaments for him, but he was always receiving credit. I have to admit that I was a little bit jealous of all the credit he was receiving, but ask any other TM from that time, and he/she will explain to you how annoying this guy was. I was always irritable online, and even in real life, to some degree. I seriously should have quit staff then. I was angry enough but was also too proud to admit that something like that could make me so angry. If I had quit then, maybe I would still have some hope in life left now.

Around the time of chesschampion being so annoying, the User X fun started. David (user x), you were pretty cool. For those of you who don’t know what I’m talking about, User X was trying to express some constructive criticism of the server and pointed out the good and bad staff members. That User X idea was definitely entertaining and helped me openly but anonymously express my hate for chesschampion (on the user x freewebs site that later got frozen). Of course David got in trouble after he admitted that he was User X and got himself banned. He was actually the lucky one. At that point again, I was considering quitting. The fun had settled, and the annoying guy was still a highly ranked staff member. I also missed having David on, because he was one of my better friends on the server. I seriously should have quit then. Why didn’t I?

Wow, this is one of the most disorganized pieces of writing that I have ever written. I shouldn’t care, because I doubt anyone is going to read this far. Ok, going back a little, here’s another reason why I was angry with the way I was being treated on the server but decided to stay in hopes that I would be promoted to a level 50 TM. Acerook got level 50 for using freewebs to publish tournament results and other stuff like that. Chesscham pion got level 50 for being the head of Variant Nights. At exactly the same time, I took on the job of head of Sleepy Night Standard. My job was the most time consuming and difficult of the three, but I was the one who couldn’t be promoted because there were supposedly too many people who were level 50. Maybe the server just hates me. Why didn’t I quit then?

Ok, back to the time of the User X thing. User X’s idea died around the beginning of 2006, when he got caught, and things were a little more quiet for a while. I still logged on to chat with my friends such as dabigpig, chessbomber, glorioso, and npb3 (those were just a few examples. Don’t take it personally if I missed you, not that you are reading this). This was the time of the second semester of my junior year. I was still an active staff member but was not as obsessed as I was before. I still wasted enough time to receive less-than-perfect grades and SAT and AP scores that semester. That definitely vitiated my college applications.

During the summer, my addiction began to build up again. My 18th birthday was approaching in the matter of months, and I wanted to build up a good reputation in hopes that I would become an admin. Some part of me still wanted admin the past couple months, so I was still logging on. I’ll say this again: I was trying to quit. Well, I don’t think I want admin anymore. It would just cost me even more time.

Another side story: The server became messier but quite interesting when alrightnow got busted for cheating at the World Open. His handle was mysteriously deleted or changed, and everyone was wondering why. My buddy npb3, who seems to always know inside information, informed me of the truth. Then, chesschampion tried to re-create the handle alrightnow so that he could have level 75 TM commands (Non-TM people probably don’t know what I’m talking about. Again, none of this is important. I just feel like ranting). That got him banned for a month, which made our rawr group (Nick’s conference) very happy.

Well, I’m not admin now, and in a way, I’m thankful, because I have no reason to be addicted anymore. I’d better not log on again (or at least not in the near future). This post is only a small portion of my story. If I wanted to, I could write a novel on how this addiction was the bane of my life. It’s no better than a drug addiction. Ok, I’m done ranting. It’s 2:12 AM, and I’m tired.