Progress...?
Saw The Hangover. Entertaining movie. I thought it might suck, but it was OK. I see too many movies. I've seen 3 movies per month for quite some time now, it's really a drain on the finances if you count getting popcorn and a soda (medium popcorn + medium drink = $10!! Literally!) Though at least this time I got the matinee price, which was $5.50, instead of $10 like normal. I was gonna see 2 movies in one day and also check out UP, which seems cute and which I hear is awesome. But
916 --9 ---7
So, guess what. I got a cell phone...my first. I would be the envy of 1995, for sure for sure. It's nothing I plan to use on any regular basis, it's mostly just for my yearly pilgrimage to Evolution; I'm hanging out and rooming with other people from out of town for the weekend, and it makes it easier to figure out who's where. I didn't get anything special, just one of these, with gold instead of red.
Also, I get Target giftcards every few months at work- I think every 3 months or so- as an incentive for workplace safety. So I had 4 of these things sitting around because ther's no Target near me, and the one in my old neighborhood is actually closed down. The phone was $50 and I got a reloadable card with minutes on it for $20 since it's a Virgin Mobile prepaid thing and I don't have an actual account (not planning on using the phone that much). With the giftcards I payed ~$35 altogether, with taxes etc.
You know what sucks though? All the cool shit is extra. I mean I have voicemail and a little picture camera and other now-basic stuff, but if I want to dick around on the internet or send text messages, it costs extra. But, you get what you pay for I suppose, and given how little I paid, I'd say I made out pretty well. Now, if I could only figure out how to set the god damned voice mail on this thing...it rings like 6 times before that, though I've set it to vibrate. Would be nice to get it down to 3 rings...
Random music news- Del the Funky Homosapien released his most recent album for free, you should check it out, here, if you are so inclined. A lot of his older stuff is up to, seems like almost all of it (at least his solo stuff).
Also, I updated my Windows 7 beta to something named the release candidate, which I guess is a more polished version of the beta. It seems mostly the same so far, I assume most of the changes were for the sake of compatibility. It's pretty though, I do dig it. I had to delete and/or backup all of the other stuff I'd saved to the previous Windows 7 beta, as they're apparently not compatible. But I didn't lose anything of value. There are some new desktop themes, though, which is nice:
I dig the blue diner clock widget that I've thrown on my desktop. I had a more normal looking one, but for some reason I'm really liking the neon blue.
Also, there's a PC resource monitor in the opposite corner. Monitors RAM usage and CPU usage. Seems the former is much less of a problem than the latter, which is sort of a relief, as my PC maxes out at 2GB of RAM, which is where it's at now.
My MP3 player was kind of busted, again. Not really, but inconvenienced- the buttons were stuck, because I somehow managed to drop it in the exact wrong spot on each side, and the volume button was stuck so the player was constantly at maximum, which is no good. On the other side, the little scroll arrow thing was stuck, so you'd constantly scroll through menus. Ironically the only way to stop it was to hold down the other end of the button. Luckily it's a touch screen MP3 player, so once you stopped the scrolling you could jab at it with your finger, but it was no fun. It's on the way back now, should be here Wednesday, with any luck. In the mean time I've been listening to my radio, which is a shame because now that KWOD 106.5 is dead and now a top 40 station (not really, but it's essentially a pop station for people a few years older than the target audience of 107.9, the poppest pop station), one of my mainstays is gone. I've been listening to NPR mostly, and trying in vain to find a real substitute, without much luck. 91.5 is probably closest, and isn't really close at all.
It's nice to be able to listen to AM radio again though, as my MP3 player, neither the good one or the last one, had an AM radio. I suppose because they're not cool?
Also, on a related note, Shawn Hannity is a bad American. I'll not get into it, but he lies...a lot. And his whole deal is pretending to be a patriot. He spent the last 8 years defending Bush (ie. not really defending Bush, but attacking people who questioned or disagreed with him with any issue that didn't involve towing the Republican party line). Oh, these liberals are this way, and that way, and they have no respect for the office of the President of the United States of America.
Of course, unless he's a Democrat. In which case...he's literally implied that Obama is a terrorist. Fear-mongering is his whole deal now...it's no longer about giving somewhat naive people a "pro-America" voice. In uncertain times when we had a President who was increasingly unpopular among his own citizens, when the Iraq war was at its worst, the idea that you have this guy who almost sorta made sense in your corner...it's understandable why people were into him. It was almost a sort of escapism. Maybe you could just pretend that he was incredibly biased, and not a liar. But, fear is where Hannity makes his money, and gets people who are afraid to believe him, and people like me who find the whole thing objectionable to mention him. He has literally said more negative things about Obama, before he was even elected, than he said of Bush in 8 years.
Ah, he hangs out with terrorists, he's gonna have a Radical Environmental Agenda (what the fuck does that even MEAN), which will somehow culminate in nazis storming into your home and taking your guns, and then the queers are going to get married, and there will be abortions everywhere, and it will make your kids gay, and we will be vulnerable to terrorism.
And now...Hannity is just a parody of Hannity. If Obama helped an old lady across the street, he would report it as, OBAMA DRAGGED A WOMAN INTO TRAFFIC IN THE MIDDLE OF THE DAY, THIS IS ATTEMPTED MURDER!! THE OBAMA-MANIA MEDIA WON'T TELL YOU THIS, FOLKS, BUT HE'S CLEARLY A CRIMINAL. ONLY A CRAZED LIBERAL COULD DISAGREE!
In short (and this all is really the abridged version of my thoughts on the subject), anything he says is something which is taken wildly out of context, and deliberately so. And, it would be nice if he would be appropriately ashamed. But it's all a game to him, and he has fun doing it, clearly. But he has drifted into pretending to be a victim and helping others to feel victimized. Obama has been cast in this play as the devil. Even if the dialogue doesn't match, we can change some lines here or there when you tell your version...
The problem is, people actually believe this shit. "OMG Obama said that America is a Muslim country!!!" Actually, no he didn't, laying aside the problem with your problem with the statement. "OMG he went to Muslim countries and didn't threaten to bomb them!" "OMG, I heard that that new judge lady is a liberal who..." Shut the fuck up.
Thanks.
Actually, it would be more helpful to vet their sources more carefully. Not everyone who talks about the news is a legitimate journalist, nor are they neccessarily informed. AM talk radio has always been a great example of that on the national scale.
Oh, and strangers keep calling me. For about...a year? 2? Basically as long as I've had this number. Apparently I have the same number as a clinic somewhere. So I get calls, frequently, about people who need psychiatric medication, or birth control tests, or herpes tests, or birth control pills, mental health services, etc. I get several calls, every week.
Here's the deal. I don't just get calls. I get messages. Every week. My outgoing message is "Hi, if you're calling about medical insurance or coverage or something, this is the WRONG NUMBER, sorry..." etc. And, yet. Constantly. I constantly get these messages.
LISTEN TO THE FUCKING MESSAGE, PLEASE.
Good fucking God Damn, it's been 2 years!
Stop it!
916 --9 ---7
So, guess what. I got a cell phone...my first. I would be the envy of 1995, for sure for sure. It's nothing I plan to use on any regular basis, it's mostly just for my yearly pilgrimage to Evolution; I'm hanging out and rooming with other people from out of town for the weekend, and it makes it easier to figure out who's where. I didn't get anything special, just one of these, with gold instead of red.
Also, I get Target giftcards every few months at work- I think every 3 months or so- as an incentive for workplace safety. So I had 4 of these things sitting around because ther's no Target near me, and the one in my old neighborhood is actually closed down. The phone was $50 and I got a reloadable card with minutes on it for $20 since it's a Virgin Mobile prepaid thing and I don't have an actual account (not planning on using the phone that much). With the giftcards I payed ~$35 altogether, with taxes etc.
You know what sucks though? All the cool shit is extra. I mean I have voicemail and a little picture camera and other now-basic stuff, but if I want to dick around on the internet or send text messages, it costs extra. But, you get what you pay for I suppose, and given how little I paid, I'd say I made out pretty well. Now, if I could only figure out how to set the god damned voice mail on this thing...it rings like 6 times before that, though I've set it to vibrate. Would be nice to get it down to 3 rings...
Random music news- Del the Funky Homosapien released his most recent album for free, you should check it out, here, if you are so inclined. A lot of his older stuff is up to, seems like almost all of it (at least his solo stuff).
Also, I updated my Windows 7 beta to something named the release candidate, which I guess is a more polished version of the beta. It seems mostly the same so far, I assume most of the changes were for the sake of compatibility. It's pretty though, I do dig it. I had to delete and/or backup all of the other stuff I'd saved to the previous Windows 7 beta, as they're apparently not compatible. But I didn't lose anything of value. There are some new desktop themes, though, which is nice:
I dig the blue diner clock widget that I've thrown on my desktop. I had a more normal looking one, but for some reason I'm really liking the neon blue.
Also, there's a PC resource monitor in the opposite corner. Monitors RAM usage and CPU usage. Seems the former is much less of a problem than the latter, which is sort of a relief, as my PC maxes out at 2GB of RAM, which is where it's at now.
My MP3 player was kind of busted, again. Not really, but inconvenienced- the buttons were stuck, because I somehow managed to drop it in the exact wrong spot on each side, and the volume button was stuck so the player was constantly at maximum, which is no good. On the other side, the little scroll arrow thing was stuck, so you'd constantly scroll through menus. Ironically the only way to stop it was to hold down the other end of the button. Luckily it's a touch screen MP3 player, so once you stopped the scrolling you could jab at it with your finger, but it was no fun. It's on the way back now, should be here Wednesday, with any luck. In the mean time I've been listening to my radio, which is a shame because now that KWOD 106.5 is dead and now a top 40 station (not really, but it's essentially a pop station for people a few years older than the target audience of 107.9, the poppest pop station), one of my mainstays is gone. I've been listening to NPR mostly, and trying in vain to find a real substitute, without much luck. 91.5 is probably closest, and isn't really close at all.
It's nice to be able to listen to AM radio again though, as my MP3 player, neither the good one or the last one, had an AM radio. I suppose because they're not cool?
Also, on a related note, Shawn Hannity is a bad American. I'll not get into it, but he lies...a lot. And his whole deal is pretending to be a patriot. He spent the last 8 years defending Bush (ie. not really defending Bush, but attacking people who questioned or disagreed with him with any issue that didn't involve towing the Republican party line). Oh, these liberals are this way, and that way, and they have no respect for the office of the President of the United States of America.
Of course, unless he's a Democrat. In which case...he's literally implied that Obama is a terrorist. Fear-mongering is his whole deal now...it's no longer about giving somewhat naive people a "pro-America" voice. In uncertain times when we had a President who was increasingly unpopular among his own citizens, when the Iraq war was at its worst, the idea that you have this guy who almost sorta made sense in your corner...it's understandable why people were into him. It was almost a sort of escapism. Maybe you could just pretend that he was incredibly biased, and not a liar. But, fear is where Hannity makes his money, and gets people who are afraid to believe him, and people like me who find the whole thing objectionable to mention him. He has literally said more negative things about Obama, before he was even elected, than he said of Bush in 8 years.
Ah, he hangs out with terrorists, he's gonna have a Radical Environmental Agenda (what the fuck does that even MEAN), which will somehow culminate in nazis storming into your home and taking your guns, and then the queers are going to get married, and there will be abortions everywhere, and it will make your kids gay, and we will be vulnerable to terrorism.
And now...Hannity is just a parody of Hannity. If Obama helped an old lady across the street, he would report it as, OBAMA DRAGGED A WOMAN INTO TRAFFIC IN THE MIDDLE OF THE DAY, THIS IS ATTEMPTED MURDER!! THE OBAMA-MANIA MEDIA WON'T TELL YOU THIS, FOLKS, BUT HE'S CLEARLY A CRIMINAL. ONLY A CRAZED LIBERAL COULD DISAGREE!
In short (and this all is really the abridged version of my thoughts on the subject), anything he says is something which is taken wildly out of context, and deliberately so. And, it would be nice if he would be appropriately ashamed. But it's all a game to him, and he has fun doing it, clearly. But he has drifted into pretending to be a victim and helping others to feel victimized. Obama has been cast in this play as the devil. Even if the dialogue doesn't match, we can change some lines here or there when you tell your version...
The problem is, people actually believe this shit. "OMG Obama said that America is a Muslim country!!!" Actually, no he didn't, laying aside the problem with your problem with the statement. "OMG he went to Muslim countries and didn't threaten to bomb them!" "OMG, I heard that that new judge lady is a liberal who..." Shut the fuck up.
Thanks.
Actually, it would be more helpful to vet their sources more carefully. Not everyone who talks about the news is a legitimate journalist, nor are they neccessarily informed. AM talk radio has always been a great example of that on the national scale.
Oh, and strangers keep calling me. For about...a year? 2? Basically as long as I've had this number. Apparently I have the same number as a clinic somewhere. So I get calls, frequently, about people who need psychiatric medication, or birth control tests, or herpes tests, or birth control pills, mental health services, etc. I get several calls, every week.
Here's the deal. I don't just get calls. I get messages. Every week. My outgoing message is "Hi, if you're calling about medical insurance or coverage or something, this is the WRONG NUMBER, sorry..." etc. And, yet. Constantly. I constantly get these messages.
LISTEN TO THE FUCKING MESSAGE, PLEASE.
Good fucking God Damn, it's been 2 years!
Stop it!