David Acevedo's Blog

There is a new movie coming out with Leonardo DiCaprio, an adaptation of the Great Gatsby. A novel I feel a weird connection to because like Fitzgerald I too went to Princeton and saw the decadence of the very rich. A world behind closed gates, a world of cooks and servants a world so apart from my own I'd though it was make belief had I not seen it with my own two eyes. Seeing it, I felt like a voyeur, peeking indiscreetly into someone else's intimate affairs. And in many ways that is what the novel Gatsby is about. I read it in high school and I barely remember reading it, I think I probably gave up on it and watched the film at some point. I think this book is incredibly important because it truly chronicles an important period in America's life, but it can be hard to digest as a teenager. You read about love and obsession like space travel as something interesting that has no connection to you, something that you will probably...

With the incredible graphic by my friend Brian Manning, and this quirky video I made I set out to get a Kickstarter project going to write a short eBook on Environmentalism. Originally I titled it "Why Environmentalism Fails" in the style of the book "Environmentalism is Dead" but I realized that was not what I wanted. So I re-titled it "How Environmentalism can Succeed" and set out to promote it. My family did an all-star job at this sending my friends and family email far and wide and almost all the founding came through their work. Incredible support! I deeply awed and very grateful to them for this. Today I wrote an update for the project and did some research and writing. Then I spent a few hours freaking out. It's such a huge job! Or at least it suddenly seemed so. By hook or by crook I will do it. Lately I've been working on the tone of the book. I want it to be hopeful and profound. Now to create that... Seeking inspi...

In the movie " Doomsday " a post-apocalyptic film set in a Scotland that looks like a punk version of the 70's movie " The Warriors " crossed with the crazy Road Warriors from Mad Max a mo-hawked leader runs a group of crazy cannibals. But this is utter non-sense. The fallacy here is that a cult of personality would develop at all. One where people would tattoo themselves and live in brutality and violence. The reality would be very different. You see this culture of personality would require mass media to be generated. In small groups you'd have a culture of character. People wouldn't care if you look great or if you're crazy, or punk or violent. People would seek leadership in character not in personality. People like Lincoln, Teddy Roosevelt would be the real leaders not crazy charismatic leaders. With a lack of mass-media to celebrate this individual expression, it would be the strength of character that would rule the day. Cult of personalt...

My new Ubuntu 12.04 install keeps defaulting to my HDMI audio that I don't use. I looked on how to set a default audio on Ubuntu and couldn't find a solution that was simple and elegant. Weirdly I remembered having this problem before and then I saw I could disable an audio hardware in the dialog. Now it will default to the only other audio device, the one I'm using without me having to do any weird configurations.

My Windows 7 computer crashed last week. It had been giving me BSOD for a few days. This gave me an opportunity to start fresh with a new Windows 7 install. In re-installing I found a few thing I hadn't found before and re-visited some cool options. Configure the BIOS Windows 7 doesn't require any fancy BIOS setting but I would recommend that you make them Hackintosh compatible now, otherwise you wont be able in the future. There are three changes you should make: set Suspend to S3, SATA to AHCI, and HPET to 64bit. Installing Windows 7 64-bit I don't have a wired connection to my computer so I install from a DVD, then I run through this installation procedure. Install Wireless Driver: TP-Link (from CD) Run Windows Update (several hours & restarts) Use Ninite ( ninite.com ) to install Microsoft Security Essentials first. Then use Ninite to install other software like for example:  Chrome, Opera; Skype, Pidgin, Thunderbird;...

1. Shadow of the Colossus  It has an incredible atmosphere, challenging game play and deep pathos. It's hard to capture a mood with a game and this game captures it perfectly. 2. Silent Hill I played this game in Japan while healing from a broken clavicle. The way it uses sirens and background noise to evoke dread in the player is unmatched. The game set a tone and kept it throughout. It was like diving in into my favorite horror stories. It was the first game that felt truly cinematic and the first that scared the shiatsu out of me. 3. Legend of Zelda Without complication this game rewarded exploration. By eschewing experience points it created a simple mechanic of hearts that was easy to understand and powerful. I still remember burning a tree and finding the Level 8th dungeon, before my neighbor did.  4. Castlevania The challenge of this game was incredible! The music was pulse-accelerating and you had to be precise, ...

A black man was shot in Florida. A kid really. Wearing a hoodie, buying skittles not to far from his home. Unarmed. The man who shot him was Hispanic. Everybody is crying racism.  I doubt it.  Race had something to do with it I'm sure, but I don't think it's as simple as racism. I think it's from a different way of looking at the other man, a way where the man is suddenly a threat before anything else, a kind of Anton's blindness that prevents people from seeing what's in front of them . A teenager with skittles becomes a threat. A danger. A terror that has to be stopped, lethal. I, of course, don't know for sure if this is what happened in Florida a few weeks ago, since few details have come out. But I doubt the calls for racism and wonder if it is this other thing. I'll call it the Scary Man syndrome, w hich is distinct from racism. I've seen it before. My roommate in college told me an experience so bizarre at first I thought he was pulling...