Archive for June, 2008
hurts »
Friday, June 20th, 2008
I exit the train and see the bus waiting there. I, along with a few others, rush to step on before it leaves the stop. The wait for the next one is almost a half hour and unreliable.
I ignore most of the passengers—it’s busier than usual—and make my way toward the back. The National blares in my ears, drowning out much of the conversation around me, but I catch bits of the conversation next to me, between the man across and the man directly to my right. (more…)
haha »
Friday, June 20th, 2008
That is all.
friday free for all »
Friday, June 20th, 2008
… i’m suddenly obsessed with the “Jump” videos on YouTube. Here, Here, here and here what happens to that third guy?, to name a few. So strange. This actually seems like something I’d be able to do, but can you imagine a bunch of people in a club doing this? My shins and calves throb just thinking about it. Also, there’s no way I’d be able to do this.
… I downloaded with the help of DC the new Firefox on Tuesday. Mozilla wanted it to be a record setting day for software downloads. It kicked off at noon CDT. They emailed with the link a half hour later. The site was slow or down until quarter to two and they didn’t have an updated homepage until a bit later.
Despite the lack of forethought, the browser is insane. Blows the others out of the water. Now all Mozilla has to do is market this to businesses to eat away at IE’s share of the i-already-have-a-browser-and-change-makes-me-dizzy crowd. You’re curious, so I’ll tell you: I downloaded three versions. Unofficially, there were 8.4 million downloads.
… Being in the “tourism business” even if extraneously and barely voluntarily, this is doubly funny. But I’m sure it’ll be entertaining enough for the rest of you that I won’t have to Google “Avoid fight mobs angry torches” in the near future. via
… I made it through the day with some creative mousing. Think you can?
The facts aren’t surprising, but I still hope they can pull out some reforms in the area. My dream may be to work from home, but I’d still rather not have germs recirculated and forced down my throat literally whilst within these carpeted near-walls.
… And finally:
I strongly believe we are moving rapidly toward a self-imposed police state. I’m in the minority on this. We are giving too much power to police and government to restrict our freedoms for the illusion of security. We are one of the most heavily monitored and controlled societies on the planet while enthusiastically claiming the exact opposite.
One of the defining tools of this new police state will be and is the taser gun. They’re being overused irresponsibly. They are handed out as non-lethal devices that provide quick control over a potential attacker. They are distributed with the assumption they’ll be used in defense and are less and less being used in that capacity.
The “Don’t Tase Me, Bro” guy is a fuck. He should have been restrained and escorted out because he was disturbing an event. He was surrounded by security and could have been removed without electrified assistance. His was the most publicized of many incidents. Here’s another.
Because the taser gun is presumed to be non-lethal, it is used almost immediately against any perceived threat. The following video it’s ten minutes long shows a routine traffic stop where a guy is too forward with the officer. I watched it and can’t find where the man was in the wrong except for not following the “’cause I said so” orders drilled into him.
His rights aren’t read to him before being placed in the police car, he’s not told the speed he was “clocked” at and is tased immediately when the officer feels he’s not entirely in control. Later, the officer exaggerates the man’s actions and uses his perceived loss of control to justify his use of the taser. The other officer quickly congratulates him.
It’s too easy. With prisons scattered about the globe and enough fear to fill a Zeplin every few minutes from the mouths of the administration/talk radio/television, how long will it take before anyone can be spirited away? How many will have to disappear before you notice? How many close friends will go missing before you wonder if they really weren’t terrorists or threats to a greater good?
Quite a few more than you think, I imagine.
local entertainment »
Thursday, June 19th, 2008
By now, it’s fairly obvious that Bill O’Reilly is as much a journalist as Pat O’Brien but less interesting. In my overstated and exclaimed humble opinion, Bill Moyers is one of the few remaining members of the exclusive journalists’ club. Which makes this clip all the more entertaining be warned, it’s nine minutes:
And, here’s what Mr. O’Reilly decided to error air:
I could argue any number of offenses against the unfair and biased network itself, but it’s a waste of time. Anyone that watches Fox News with two or three neurons realizes they’re being inundated with propaganda. That’s all well and good read: terrible, abhorrent, disgusting.
Unfortunately, because Mr. O’Reilly chastises his guests, commands them to shut up to the point that he’d sound like a freshman cheerleader if you omitted tone and generally bullies them to a ridiculous degree, he’s seen as a tough interviewer with tough questions. This is hardly the case.
Journalism used to mean an unbiased dose of perspective on daily headlines for those that don’t have the time or energy to keep up. It’s now a series of talking points about knee-jerk reactions to anything that appears interesting. It’s impossible to provide perspective when you dry-hump media trends and have to fill twenty-four hours.
The result is Fox News producers riding Bill Moyers for his refusal to appear on O’Reilly’s show after O’Reilly did the same to Moyers claiming ambiguous and ill-defined “games” as his flawed reasoning.
I wish I had the time to wander through the skyway and see some of those keynotes and hear some of the commentary I’m sure went on. The kind of things that are boring to media and ignored or spliced into 10-second bits. The type of things that really matter.
Watching the clip, of the exchange that went down in halls I’ve walked through, I wonder if real journalism will ever regain its footing. If people will start realizing the real news doesn’t need to be spoon-fed by advertisers. If people will start realizing they need the news and need the media and need to change how it’s currently operating in order to function as a real democracy.
I have strong doubts, but because it makes you live longer I’m working on my optimism.
where i’ll be in a month: »
Wednesday, June 18th, 2008
I could go into the riches that I will have accumulated, the philanthropic spew I’ll unleash on those less fortunate or how my general outlook will be drastically changed in the coming weeks, but I won’t bore you this time. Instead, I’ll go with where my ass will be, literally.
I don’t make a habit of seeing summer films in their premiere weekend a waste of money on par with buying an iPhone the first day; fad-humpers: disgusting, but I believe I’ll make an exception for The Dark Knight.
It looks even with the over-hype and all that Heath Ledger stuffs injected into it like it may meet expectations. Maybe. The last one was UNreal! and my appetite is significantly whetted by the clips that have come out so far. Check a new one with a little side-boob-esque shot of Two-Face here.
The idea of recreating the franchise is brilliant. Batman Forever was alright it reminds me of when Nicole Kidman could have been attractive, but things took an immediate turn toward pathetic.
The last showing, batman and robin check the code, I didn’t even capitalize that piece of excrement was so laced with lame that after watching it, dane cook retracted his sufu for a moment and shook his gigantic, monstrous, frighteningly mis-proportioned head in dismay…
…Incidentally, the momentary resignation of Mr. Cook made every child on Earth working in a sweatshop pause and smile. It was like their hearts were wrapped in a warm blanket of kisses and long-forgotten affection. They were immediately beaten to bloody for their insolence obviously.
Mr. Cook rebounded to portray an over-acted, over-idiotic and under-funny moron in Good Luck Chuck, oil companies continue their run of record profits and you can still buy twenty pairs of underthings from Wal-Mart for $8USD. All is right with the world in a way that’s so terribly wrong.
Where does this come from? Is it a call for help? A desperate attempt at attention from my subconscious vomited forth in parenthetical thoughts? um… nope.
Digression aside, The Dark Knight looks bad-ass and I’m thinking I may have to fight the lines for an early look-see. Which is where my ass will be. Literally. That totally tied into the beginning of the post like I knew what I was doing. That never happens. Feels sort of naughty.
Anyone else interested?