Sick Fuckers

Although she makes a pretty good point, the way she goes about making the point negates it in a way. Looking at every ad that involves a female and telling me how horrible it is and how it degrades women makes it difficult for me to really listen. If they are so incredibly bad, why do women try so hard to be in such ads? I guess to me it seemed over the top, I can agree with most of it, but even my favorite food becomes something else when someone tries to jam it down my throat. What she mentioned only briefly, but should have made an entire lecture about, is the child issues, whether it is child pornography or child beauty pageants (same thing as far as I am concerned). The pageants in particular will reinforce all the “problems” that she spoke of more than, I think, ads will. Starting at a young age and being judged on how you look, and how you dance, and how well you can look like a “sexy” adult is outright sick. Kids want to grow up fast enough as is, why make them dress and put make-up on and act like they are twenty years older than they are? Not only that, but they have to portray sexy; why the hell would anyone want their nine year old to be portrayed as sexy? I think the lecture we watched was worried about the right things, but she was focusing her worries solely on commercials when there are much worse things that should be focused on.

Wait A Tick

So I started looking at blogs so I could take care of my weekly comments and I came to a realization. If I can't think of any way to comment on the few blogs that someone has, and they don't add anymore blogs, how am I supposed to comment at all? I have read just about every blog, I comment when I can, but it gets tricky when there isn't anything new.
What thoughts does everyone have on this? This is a chance to get in an easy comment, everyone should be able to... that is except for me, which doesn't seem very fair, but what can you do? Comment! Then go write a blog of your own, that's what you can do!

Do Some Research of Your Own

http://www.slate.com/id/2176156?GT1=10538

http://www.snopes.com/politics/business/gorehome.asp

http://www.slate.com/id/2142319/

So Gore is full of crap, which is no surprise. The Nobel prizes are no longer a true achievement and those that can win them is limited to those with the same frame of mind as those who give them away. That’s right; the Nobel Prizes have turned from a great achievement into an unrespectable joke. When this may have happened it is hard to say and some could argue that it has always been a little ridiculous. Even the winning by Mother Teresa seems absurd. A woman who claimed divorce should be banned and then turned around and said she was glad Princess Diana got divorced because it was an unhappy marriage. The list goes on for her, but I’m not writing specifically about her, now am I? Bush and Blaire were nominated for the peace prize right before the Iraq war in hopes that, having a chance to win, they (primarily Bush) would decide against an invasion. Some may think that this was only a joke, but that is only wishful thinking. Jimmy Carter won it that year and it seems like he won it as an opponent to the Bush’s then for other reasons. Arafat won the Nobel Peace Prize even though he was connected with terrorists. In his defense he did sign a peace agreement, not that he probably had any intention following it, but by golly he signed it. The Prize money that year was $7 Million between three people. For the past seven years the amount has been $10 million. I think I need to nominate myself or someone I know, who knows we might win; it is kind of like the lottery.

Finally, A Good iPod Commercial

http://www.koreus.com/video/pub-ipod-shuffle-blonde.html

It makes me laugh; which is more than I can say for other iPod commercials. Starting with the sound of a flushing toilet and then a girl looking at what is presumably a pregnancy test. Then the waiting game, but it doesn’t seem to be working. So the girl calls in her… whatever, and tells him it isn’t working; at which point he tries to point out that it isn’t a pregnancy test to no avail.

I like this commercial because it isn’t like all the other iPod commercials and ads. It’s different and that is a very good thing. The music fits the classic waiting type music, almost like you would find in an elevator, which fits perfectly with the waiting taking place in the ad. The concept behind it doesn’t really cater to the young audiences who wouldn’t necessarily know what was really going on, but in this day and age that age is far lower than what it was ten years ago.

Does it make me want an iPod? Not really, but someone who can make an awesome commercial is a little easier to respect.

Beatings Can Be A Good Thing

Recently I had the displeasure of a worm. No, not the living kind, the computer kind! I saw a link on a friend’s bulleting and didn’t even think that it might be a worm or virus. It was a link to get a gift certificate, I figured it wasn’t anything I would do, but thought I would check out to see if it was crap or worthwhile. After I clicked on it, unbeknownst to me, it sent itself out to everyone on my friends list (which isn’t a big list but still). So I start to get messages asking what it is, and others saying I have been hacked, and one that tells me they are pretty sure it is a worm. So I am annoyed and a little pissed… more embarrassed than pissed though at this point. Then a day or so later, all of a sudden, my mouse and keyboard stop working. Now I am pissed off. I try a few things to try and fix it and nothing is working, so I have to call Dell. Luck fully the computer is only a month old so I can still get help for free from Dell, but the fact that I have to call someone also pisses me off. After some issues with Dell (nothing too serious) I finally get my computer working and even learn a couple of extra things as well. All is well with the computer now (as far as I can tell) and I can get back to homework.

All this leads me into the real reason I wanted to blog about it, people/hackers that spend their time trying to get into or making programs to get into other peoples computers or websites to cause problems. I can somewhat understand trying to do that sort of thing to make money, it’s bullshit but lots of people always try to find ways to get money, legal or not. What I miss are the days that when someone did another person wrong, the wronged person could, without worry, knock the other person around. It was a deserved beating and everyone understood that, it kept people in line. Now-a-days there’s criminal charges, lawsuits, and the list goes on. I’m not saying violence solves everything, and perhaps it doesn’t solve anything, but the potential for it sure makes people think twice. I know the system that I speak of was abused, and in those cases there absolutely has to be consequences (charges, lawsuits, etc.), but otherwise, it seemed to work. I figure if I could somehow find the douche-bag/s that sent that worm out, throw them around a little bit, probably break their computer (maybe over their head?); they wouldn’t be willing to do that crap again. If they did, the process would be repeated, adding some more bodily harm, and eventually it could lead to death, but that would only improve the race be getting rid of someone who just doesn’t learn. Science shows the positive benefit of such things.

I’m not saying when there is a disagreement that this process starts, that is one way it was abused; the argument of “I’m bigger than you so I am right and you’re wrong” just doesn’t work. When a little turd is talking crap to someone bigger however, solely because there is no harm that will come to them, then the process should start. When it is the bigger person being the turd to the smaller one is when someone else needs to step in to dish out the smack down. I remember when I was younger; when someone said they were about to open a can of whoop-ass, people understood their wit wasn’t appreciated and would stop.

While I write this I think back to some of the dim-witted jocks I have came across, the ones that would fight each other, threaten others to get their way, or do the other things that made most people hate them. Those are the abusers of the beautiful system; they are the ones that wear society down. I hope everyone can understand that I am not a violent person and I don’t like fighting. There are times that call for it though and the way everyone thinks these days, it is often not used when it should be; come to think of about it though, it is often times used when it shouldn’t be. So tell me what you think, maybe I will make another blog in response to the comments, but don’t write anything retarded, OR ELSE, no I’m just joking… but seriously.

The First Day

So there I was, Kuwait City, no shit, true story. First though, let me back up. The Flight was long; I would be surprised if anyone reading this has ever been on such a long flight. It could have been worse; we had a chartered flight which means it was like a normal commercial flight, except we stayed with the same aircraft for the entire journey. There were flight attendants and as I recall decent food. I volunteered for the baggage detail because I was promised a seat in first class for the long ass flight. Turned out they gave the seats to some officers, even though they specifically said that wouldn’t happen; I still got a seat in business class so it wasn’t a complete loss. So we finally land in Kuwait, it’s hat enough as is, but then you have to add in the fact that we are on a tarmac so that adds 10 to 15 degrees, and then being on baggage detail makes it feel like another5 or so degrees. The bags had to go into a con-ex (it’s the big metal container you see on ships, trains, and trucks) and that means people had to be inside moving and stacking the bags and I was one of those people. The thing was like a damn oven, it just didn’t seem right to be sweating that much for as dry as it was but I found myself soaked quickly. Now generally the military is big on staying hydrated, people dying of heat stroke is frowned upon; so I figured there would be water somewhere and when I ask for some there is none around. So if I weren’t approaching a point of passing out I would have been more pissed off than I was but I was more concerned with staying conscious. Finally some water shows up from somewhere and I guzzle down a quart or so. If you know anything about being extremely dehydrated, you know that drinking real fast is not always the best plan, instead of trying to keep myself from passing out I was now trying to keep myself from puking all that life saving water onto the tarmac. Needless to say I survived that series of events and made it onto the bus to be taken to Camp Doha. I’m still dehydrated and I get a seat in the back of the bus, before we even get to the highway we are stopped for who knows why for about 30 minutes. Once again I find that other than bottles that someone else has already drank out of there isn’t any water available, but luckfully the A/C is working alright. We finally get on the road and, once we are out toward the middle of nowhere, the driver pulls over and gets out, next thing the bus is starting to fill with smoke. Everyone evacuates the bus, but they all leave there belongings, so there I am hanging out on the bus passing gear out the door. Turns out the bus wasn’t on fire (that much) but we have to squeeze onto the one and only other bus that pulled over with us. At this point I am feeling a little better and am seeing the humor of it all even though there are very few around me that had even had such a full experience as I. So I started in with the exaggerated story of my first day “in the shit”. Some people saw the humor in it others I think were either ignoring me or just lost in their thoughts of what there may be to come. My efforts to get a flight up to Baghdad where the unit I was joining was stationed proved almost as ridiculous as my first few hours in country, but that is another story.

Three Hours & $3,707.07 Later

So I finally started the classes to get certified in SCUBA Diving, and half tried to convince my wife that we should get all the gear. We decided that it really wasn't the time to make the big purchase. When I went for my cert dives though, my wife all of a sudden wanted to go on a dive trip and get the gear. So Monday we went to the dive shop and spent three or so hours looking at different parts dive equipment and finally settled on gear for each of us. The BCD (Buoyancy Control Device), the regulators (I got the more expensive one), wet suits, and some extra gear. So both of us are very ready for diving, and have various plans already set. A month ago we used some credit card points to get a discount on a cruise for spring break; the cruise has a port of call in Cabo San Lucas, so we’ll be diving there. The cruise starts in San Diego and we are planning on spending a couple of days checking out the sites there and one day diving. The same day we bought all our gear we arranged for flights, lodging, and diving in Cozumel for over Christmas. So even though we are now unable to go out while we are home, and won’t be spending anything on unnecessary items, we are both quite happy and excited.

So here I am, I’ve been wanting to get certified for as long as I can remember and now, not only am I certified, but I have all my own stuff. I almost expect to wake up from some wonderful dream; I know this is no dream though because if it were I wouldn’t be behind on all my homework nor would I be writing a blog entry about it.

It will be at least a year before we know if this was a poor decision in both regards to money spent instead of saved and the amount of use the gear gets. On the bright side the gear is supposed to last a lifetime pretty much so we should be able to get plenty of use out of it. I can’t believe that I will regret it, and I don’t imagine my wife will either. At any rate we can’t go back and change anything, so we are going to have to live with it, just like any other decision.

Think in Black & White

Can you really be nostalgic about a time that you didn’t live? The closest I can come to nostalgia is music from the 50’s such as: Frank Sinatra, Sammy Davis Jr., Dean Martin, and Tommy Dorsey. The music is so cheerful, reminiscent of better times when life was so much easier. It was a time when mental illness hardly existed, bacteria was nothing more than a thing of science, and it seemed like all the countries were getting along with each other. Sammy would sing, explaining why there’s nothing like a dame, Dean would tell you how to serenade you girl with Italian, and Frank telling us how it is “makin’ whoopee”. How could anyone argue against such songs that the times weren’t great, that everyone wasn’t happier back then than they are now?

Perhaps I’m nostalgic of a past life that has its ghost like memories floated in front of me when I listen to such music, or maybe the music simply does a profound job of portraying their feeling to the listener. I know that not everything was perfect back then, the great depression, world wars, Korea; but when I listen to the music all that disappears and there’s nothing but greatness.

McMansion

Houses being too big for the lots they are on and the families that are in them, how could anyone not agree with that? The article hits on a number of things that have changed the housing market, the biggest one probably being the industry wanting to profit. The neighborhood I grew-up in has around 60 feet between each other and most of the “older” style neighborhoods are the same. When the empty lots nearby started to fill-in in late 1990 the houses only had about 20 feet between them and some of them had even less than that. They looked bigger, but when you actually went inside it was easy to see that there was so much space that was unusable, the size was comparable to an older house like mine. As McGuigan mentioned the amount of energy used to heat or cool and the empty space is ludicrous, vaulted ceilings may look nice, but are such a waste in so many ways. The yards were tiny compared to what I grew-up with too; they could hardly be used to toss a ball or Frisbee around. These large houses take away what is good about home, the coziness, the usability, and the recreation outside.

There are a few things that I don’t agree with. She mentions what kids draw when they are asked to draw a house. I think that the large reason they draw what they do is because that is what they see in books as they grow older, and the basic shape of a house is square/rectangular with a more or less triangle roof. I don’t think that there is much correlation with what houses look like in real life. The other one, she says houses should reflect “who we are and the time we live in”. Maybe I am misreading it or not quite understanding what she is really trying to say, but that comment is outright stupid to me. Very few people will stay in on house for their entire life, how are they going to sell it when it is so personalized? Earlier in her article she talks about the climate and geographical area, so shouldn’t that shape what the house is like more than the personal “feeling”? There are reasons for flat and pitched roof tops, you don’t want it flat if you are expecting lots of precipitation, and it probably isn’t a good idea to have an A-frame when the temperature is going to be high.