Book Reading - The Ice Dragon - Chapter 8

Chapter 6 of The Ice Dragon by George R. R. Martin with illustrations done by Luis Royo.

Click here for the full list of readings from The Ice Dragon.

~ Kyle Welykholowa

=== Net Neutrality ===

     I don't have a clever title to start off this talk about net neutrality. Rather here we are jumping right into the thick of things. For those of us who don't know anything about net neutrality, it was a set of rules which were put into place in 2015 which stopped internet providers from promoting their own things over others by offering faster speeds to their own services and slower speeds or even entirely blocking other services they don't want their consumers to see. This can even go as far as promoting one brand over another in a way which would mean anything new to the market could fail completely because it's not promoted by any of the service providers.

     Basically these rules were put into place to make the internet a more even playing field for everybody, thus making it more fair no matter the size of your company or your popularity. Essentially what this means is that something small like myself and this blog COULD fade into existence because it's not promoted by anybody but myself. That means when searching for something similar to this here, instead of finding a fair assortment of search results which may hold this blog in a reasonable place, there may be so many unfairly promoted results in front that you never get down far enough to find me.

     I don't really enjoy or understand a lot of politics; most things I just don't really care for all that much. But this is actually quite crazy to me to learn about this. From all the news that I've read, apparently the people in charge of making this decision only cared about legal arguments and largely disregarded the record 22 million feedback comments.

     It's difficult to say what exactly is going to happen due to this ruling; whether they go back on their decision or put something new in place... or if everything stays like this. I guess at this point we can only wait to see what comes about in the future. We likely won't see many huge changes right away as there would be much ruling and other things the various companies would have to put into place. I'm all for equality, so I can only hope things still work out well in the end.

~ Kyle Welykholowa

=== Semester 3 Begins! ===

     Hard to believe the finals of last semester just happened a week ago and now here I am completing my first couple assignments today. I definitely wasn't expecting the final semester to begin so quickly but here we are starting the last leg of the journey (for the most part).

     It's been a tough road so far getting through all the classes. These days I don't have much energy to work with where I'm not physically exhausted. Some days I'm quite mentally exhausted as well, but for the most part I'm wanting to do so much and get so much done but I'm just not able to because my body wants to sleep. I know I'll be able to get through it all in the end, but right now it feels SO bad.

     Let's use tomorrow as an example. Tomorrow I want to work on my blog by making a post and promoting it. I also want to upload a video or two on my YouTube channel. I have hopes of wanting to play with the dog, steam clean the carpets, do a bit of writing, watch a show, work on school work, spend time with Carley, bake banana bread, go for a hike, play DDR, read a book, play a game on a console that I haven't played before, and probably more. There's so much I would love to do! Unfortunately I just don't really have the energy to do all of that in one day.

     It isn't all bad though. I'm sure I make it sound all awful, but seriously I actually think we're doing quite well at the moment. I'm super proud of myself for having made about $0.40 so far through my blog (which is a huge accomplishment for me!). And I'm still managing to find some time to do things other than be a vegetable or only work so much that I have no personality. Just give me a week or so from now and I think things might be a little better. Next coming month we're actually looking to be doing much better than we have been previously and oh boy I can't wait to tell you all about it!

~ Kyle Welykholowa

Getting Better

     I haven't felt awesome for the past couple weeks. Getting broken up with when you think everything is stable... especially over a text message you didn't know about that obviously means you must have cheated on the person you were in love with and did everything for... just because you didn't mention this text message that you didn't know about... is really difficult. I mean, I feel like shit... but at the same time I realize that if she so easily believed that I would cheat on her just because of a text message, then I guess we weren't meant for one another. The crappiest part is that I didn't even know about this text message that supposedly came from me. And it's difficult to believe that there ever was a text message because she didn't say anything about it. She just deleted it.

     So here I am, two weeks later. I'm feeling better; I'm eating again. I also got some work done. I have a bit to catch up on after not really going to school for a week, but luckily it's not too much to handle I think. I have decided that I don't want to go through with attempting to learn this math 226 class though. I mean I already missed at least two weeks of it before I was officially back in the class, and then with this life-drama going on, I just don't feel like I'm in a good position to try to learn something like that after missing so much.

     But the good news is that I went in today and got some work done! Finished my AutoCADD template including the block that had to be updated which included me needing to learn about something new on my own. I'm feeling pretty good; Rather tired, but pretty good. I think next I'll tackle my new logo and finish the watch that's past due. But as long as I take things one thing at a time, I think I'll be good.

I can get through this. Everything will be better in the end.

~ Kyle

A Post Mostly About Carley

     I just have to say, I am so proud of my Carley. She's just wonderful. She's been working so hard to make all the money we need to live here and even when she's been feeling awful, she's still going into work to make the money we need. I know it's hard on her and sometimes it seems like we don't have enough time to see one another, but we both know it'll pay off in the end.

     Soon enough I'll be on my first co-op work-term, and we'll be able to save a bit of money. Perhaps we'll be able to get her started in school for Carpentry. She's already applied, so as long as we're able to, we'll get her started as soon as possible.

     Unfortunately today she isn't feeling too well, but I'm doing my best to take care of her and get her in wonderful health. She told me her stomach feels a bit better after the Pepto Bismol, but she still has a headache. I'm sure the bright light as she's trying to sleep doesn't help too much. Once we get the curtains my mother is making for us, she'll probably sleep better. We might have to get her a sleep mask. So whether or not she's going into work tonight, I don't know yet. Hopefully we can get her feeling better by tonight, but if not, that's alright.

     Good news for today is that I've gotten a lot of my CADD homework done... after having accidentally overwritten it with the wrong file version causing me to lose a bunch of my work. I'm taking a bit of a break now after having worked on it all day so far, and I'm nearly done. Just a little bit more work and I'll be at the point where I want to be for next day's class. So now I'll take a fun break and do a bit of streaming for funzies. If you want to check out my stream, you can catch it at www.twitch.tv/DaemonVirus1.

     Have a great day everyone! ^_^

~ Kyle