The Lighthouse Door

My senses are filled with the cool biting kiss of the oceans sea salt mist.
The rock upon which I have taken my stand holds true to its word,
I will support you.
Planted, my feet hold firm to the rocks rigid face.
The wind comes piercing through my skin with its granular knives .
I begin to bleed out the suffering of my past.
Now the gusting ocean air has stayed true to its word,
I will cleanse you.
My eyes open to a light beam as it passes my face.
Circling clockwise it searches for those who have become lost.
I inch forward, lurching with each step as I am pulled from the cliff.
The light house calls me and has stayed true to its word,
I will guide you.
I plunge into the ice cold water and it wraps around my soul.
Struggling to breathe my lungs begin to cave in.
Arms weak, they barely emerge from the oceans surface.
Fighting the battle I thank the sea for staying true to its word,
I will transform you.
I lift my self out from the icy tomb, only just escaping my own death.
To find you standing at the door to the lighthouse.
Drenched in salt water and bleeding through my pores,
I have not enough strength to stand on my own.
You grab me and hold me and have stayed true to your word,
I will catch you.

Memories and Perception

Can you remember that day?

When the roses grew noses and smelled you

They were jealous of your aroma.
Your fragrance that you bought off a shelf
And sprayed yourself like a definition.
So turn with me in your dictionary
To page 804 and read the first word:
“Illusion”. Noun. A false belief.
I cover myself with clothes of deception.
Get a better perception of this sheep in wolf’s clothing.
Come closer. Close enough to catch me.
Walk with me through these woods
Where the trees have knees
So they can bend over
Put their leaves on the ground
And rest themselves.
And we can walk straight up their backs,
And when they rise again we can see for miles on end,
See the earth for what it truly is: Flat.
Like a pancake it is flat.
It has an edge.
There is an end to this world,
And when you get there you will know it ‘cause
Like the bottom of a skillet, there is only black.
Remember that day,
When you fooled the flowers to think you smelled like an angel?
Remember it and breath it in.
‘Cause it never happened.

How To Nerd: Customizing Windows 7 Part 3

If you've made it this far, congratulations. You can get off the train if you'd like. Maybe you're happy with the setup you've managed to create. That's completely fine. But if you're looking to go the one last step in customizing the overall theme of your computer, let us begin.

First, let me explain what we will be doing. We're going to change some of your system components to allow custom themes. This will let us alter the shell that windows runs in, mess with the colors, transparencies, icons, etc. That's basically it.

Here's what you need to do: head over to DeviantArt and browse through the user uploaded content. You'll see a large list of them, click one you like and you can download it from the top right corner of the page. Usually if there is anything other than the theme that the author used, it will be posted in the description below. Once you download the package, unzip it. I recommend 7-Zip for all you archiving needs. Within the extracted folder you will also find a readme file that the author created to help you along with the process.

This is the theme that I use: Google+ Theme The author has a really professional and all inclusive package to help you get his theme setup, and reiterating what he wrote on here would be redundant and useless.

So here you can see a final product that utilizes all the tips and tricks I talked about in previous posts. If you haven't read those yet, go check out Part 1 and Part 2.

Rainmeter and RocketDock:

Patched Google Plus Theme:

Dexpot Fullscreen Preview:

Dyssomnia

Tomorrow I will wake up
And I will breath in the air of a brand new day
That smells like a song I have not heard--yet.
But I know the beat.
I see people as they walk-no-dance down the street
Bobbing their heads to the rhythm of the song.
It controls them,
Moves them,
Takes them from the long rigid strand of reality,
And breaks open a world of smooth lines.
For them, they have been defined,
But not me.
Tonight I will not sleep,
And I will close my eyes and see my suicide.
This song that I can’t get out of my brain--yet.
It’s beat always changes.
It cannot be captured or tamed, but is re-arranged.
Nodding my head back and forth to the sound,
It controls me,
Drowns me,
Brings me to the bottom of a deep deep ocean,
A world designed by the darkness
That drives me insane.
Tomorrow I will wake up,
And Tonight I will not sleep.

How To Nerd: Customizing Windows 7 Part 2

Alright now that we got through the basics, its time to get real. Windows 7 is limited. That's right, I said it. Limited. That's where third party software comes in handy. I'm going to go over some cool apps that I use to enhance my workflow.

If you haven't read my previous article go that really quick: Part 1

1. RocketDock. Simply, it's a feature-full application that places a dock on your screen. Some of these features include: custom icons, backgrounds, behaviors, screen position, and a lot more. It's very nice for launching applications and there's even an option to minimize windows to it. It's really snappy and low resource so it won't lag your system down at all. I place the dock on the right side of my screen and use the auto-hide feature. You can add icons to the dock by dragging shortcuts from a folder on your computer. You can edit those icons once they are on the dock, allowing you to theme your dock however you want. There a plethora of icon sites out there, but I like to use Iconspedia. Also, I recommend trying out Inkscape if you're interested in editing or creating your own icons.

Here's some examples of the things you can do with RocketDock. 

Screen Shot 1 : Basic

Screen Shot 2 : Advanced

Screen Shot 3 : Creative

2. Switcher. Here is a nice application that would replace the Win+Tab function in Windows with something a little more Expose or Mission Control. It displays your windows in a catalog utilizing several different configurations. Another must have for productivity users. I personally don't use this as much as I used to. I don't need all the advanced features, and the Windows Catalog built into the next app, Dexpot, is more than enough for what I need. However, if you are looking for a fully featured window switcher, this is the app you want.

4. Dexpot. This tool allows you to create custom virtual desktops which are supplemental workspaces for windows. It allows you to move windows to separate workspaces with keystrokes or mouse movements and then switch between them. Dexpot is fully equipped with beautiful graphical switching animations. If you're limited to only one monitor, this application is a necessity in our productivity arsenal. There are also a bucket load of add-ons and plugins that can be enabled to further the usefulness of this app. As I mentioned I use Dexpot to manage open window switching instead of Switcher. It's not even close to the level of customization that can be done with Switcher, but it's simplicity is exactly what I am looking for.

Woah, what's up with all the Mac rip-offs! Yes, I will admit that some of these apps seem to be ripping off what Mac OSX has. However, that would not be complete true. It only rips off what Mac OSX has made popular, not what they invented. Dock bars have been used in graphic user interface since the late 80s. The Hot Corners and Switcher functionality has been on Linux since the early 2000s, around the same time Apple started spotlighting some of these features. Needless to say, Apple never ever innovates a product, they simply popularize it.

5. Rainmeter. Warning: this program is HIGHLY customizable and may or may not take up an entire Saturday or more to set up. On the other hand, there is a huge community of users that upload their configurations and they would be more than flattered to share them with you. Basically what it does is put custom widgets/gadgets on the background of your desktop screen. These widgets can be downloaded in theme packs off Deviant Art and Customize.org, or for those graphically savvy... you can make your own! Which ever you choose, I highly recommend having a familiarity with Image Manipulation so that you can customize the skins to fit your own needs.. I personally use GIMP, a free open source software that competes with Adobe PhotoShop. (Note: if you want free and legal, albeit dated, PhotoShop see here). Also, each skin has it's own configuration document which is pretty simple to understand. If you're familiar with .ini files you'll be fine.

Note: Mac OSX has a similar program called GeekTool.

Okay, so now you have an entire suite of applications to increase your productivity in Windows 7 (or 8). In the next article I'm going to introduce one more thing that can help you really put your stamp on
your Personal Computer.

Part 1 Part 3 coming soon.

Music: New Streaming WebApp from Noon Pacific

If you've never heard of Noon Pacific, go check it out now. It's basically a music collection site that will scour the inter-webs looking for really awesome music, put it on a an 8tracks playlist and send it to your inbox every Monday at Noon, PST.

These folks decided to take it one step further and not just hand you the music, but let you in on the discovery as well. UpBeat is a new streaming service that functions based on user submitted content and up voting. The music get's organized into a few simple genres and then sorted based on popularity or recency. You then create your own music queue to listen to, or you can even click "Play All".
It's a fantastic way to find new music and share it with the web at large. In some ways, it feels a little like reddit, but not as "back alley".

You can favorite songs,  follow links to Sound Cloud, and even purchase the songs off Amazon. All this wrapped up in a very attractive U.I. makes Upbeat a fresh addition to the multitude of music listening services out there. It's definitely something different, so go ahead and give it a try.

How To Nerd: Customizing Windows Part 1

So this series is going to focus on Windows 7, but most of the tips and tricks I give can be used in Windows 8 as well.

"But Piper!", you scream, "Windows 7 is old. Don't you know that Windows 8 has been out for over a year?". Well yes I am quite aware, concerned reader. However, quite frankly, I have been sourly disappointed with Windows 8. That, however will not be the main focus of my writings and I will save it for a later time. Aside from my dislike for Windows 8, its predecessor is still a very relevant OS. In fact, I am not alone in preferring it over the new one. Windows 7 is actually meant to outlive Windows 8 in terms of LTS.

Never-the-less! On to how to pimp out your boring Windows 7 computer!

This may be what your desktop looks like. And that's sad. Well maybe you have changed the background to one of built in ones! Still sad. Perhaps you've gone in the internet and downloaded a wallpaper, maybe it was even the right screen resolution for your monitor... you might have also changed the themes and sounds your computer makes! Kudos.
Nope, still sad. Today, you will learn how to REALLY customize your computer and make it unique (unlike those aluminum unibody robots out there).

Basics:

1. If you haven't done anything I previously mention, go do it now. Mess around with the Personalize settings. Start by right clicking your desktop and going to "Personalize". Now have fun! If you're looking for some cool wallpapers, head over to www.wallpaperswide.com. Come back when you're done messing around.

2. Alright into the fun stuff! First we're gonna play with the Taskbar a little bit. The Taskbar is the bar at the bottom of your screen that has the Start button on it. It also holds minimized windows and the notification bar as well. Right click it. Go properties and check off "Auto-hide the taskbar" and "Use small icons". Also, try changing the location to the top or sides of the screen. You can change the behavior of buttons as well. Alright your desktop is starting to look a little different!

3. Okay, next order of business: Warning. Some of these programs may make your computer run slower. If you have a newer processor along with sufficient RAM you'll be fine. This warning only applies to people who are on a computer that's rubbish, and if that's you... go do yourself a favor and upgrade! You'll thank me I'm sure.

If you're ready to get serious go check out: Part 2.

Here's a sneak peek at what you'll be able to do after you've read my full How To.

Awesome Asian Steak

Steak

Ingredients:
6 cloves of Garlic chopped
2 tsp Paprika
2 tsp Steak Seasoning
2 tsp Pepper
1/4 c. Soy Sauce
2 tsp. Sugar
1 Steak

1. Preheat oven to 365 degrees.
2. Place steak on aluminum foil. Sprinkle seasonings on both sides.
3. Heat up stove top grill. Sear steak on both sides until lightly brown.
4. Mix sugar and soy sauce. Pour over steak on grill. Flip steak until covered in caramelized marinade.
5. Place steak on cooking sheet and place in oven. Cook for 8-15 mins.
6. Serve with broccoli, cucumber salad, eggs, and rice.

Cucumber Salad

Ingredients:

2 Cucumbers

2 tbsp Lime Juice

1 tbsp Sugar

Sriracha Sauce

1. Slice cucumber in half length-wise and then into thin slices.

2. Cover in Lime Juice, sprinkle sugar and add Sriracha sauce to taste

Eggs

Ingredients:

6 Large eggs

2 Green onion

1 tbsp oil

1. Heat up skillet, then heat oil.

2. Add green onion and then eggs.

3. Lightly toss eggs and onion together, but do not scramble.