Apple -- feedback page!

After getting the same error on the iPhone, I sent the following to Apple support. As it was 4:40am, I added some rant to it.

Don't wanna forget the Apple IPhone feedback site:
http://www.apple.com/feedback/iphone.html



Apple Tech/Dev,

I'm on iPhone 4 w/ios6. Been noticing new bug when I install an app & move the icon (while its still installing) I get 2 icons -- one which says "installing" & another which is the app. I can launch the app w/the icon.
Maybe this is fixed in 6.1?

I have a few suggestions --
1 - I have to delete apps to upgrade iOS bc my iPhone is almost always < 1 gig free. If I could see a page (in settings) showing which apps are biggest, and which apps I haven't launched for the longest time, & lastly which *free* apps I haven't launched in the longest time, would make it easier for me to upgr the IOS.
2 - if I could see a page (in Settings or AppStore) where I could re-install Apps I deleted? Often I have a fun game but it uses too much storage -- so I delete, upgr, then re-install. But I have to write down somewhere so I remember the app.
3 - the re-install apps in AppStore needs to be fixed. If I could see when I deleted, what I rated the App, etc -- would be easier to figure out if I wanted it back.
4 - AppStore redesign -- it's ok, but Horizontal list of apps could use 'coverflow' -- hard to get to end of list quickly, say getting back to #1 from #45.

My ultimate wish would be to be able to more easily add songs to my iPhone (from attachments, network drives, etc) w/o using iTunes. This block really incentivizes people to jailbreak -- but I'm not interested in jailbreaking. I just would like an easier way to change my music on my phone.
I understand Apple intentionally limits the music to go thru iTunes to preserve the monopolistic control (& *revenue!!!*), but this is my least fav aspect of iPhone, so I figured I'd mention it to you.

Thanks.
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Baby Baby Baby


Lennon came to us after 22 hrs of labor at 8.5 lbs & 21". He's a healthy kid, has a wonderful smile, and he's our first.

My amazing wife is healing. Was a rough ride, but she came thru like a trooper.

Thanks to Katrina & Chris for staying with us and being lifesavers!
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Comment to Bloomberg Businessweek's "Occupy Wall Street" pseudo-news story

Bloomberg Businessweek had an article about the so-called "news" re: a controversy beween Ben Cohen & Occupy Wall St regarding a car Cohen donated to Occupy.  Here's the story: http://www.businessweek.com/articles/2012-10-02/ben-and-jerry-repo-their-occupy-wall-street-batmobile

I felt compelled to comment on the story, which I did -- reprinting here:

Dear Bloomberg Business Week -- quite interesting to cover an Occupy Wall Street non-story here, but amazing that you bypassed all the actual positions of the Occupy Movement!!

Some could call it chutzpah, some might call is balls, but I'll call it something else -- a complete lack of perspective.

First, to mention some of the issues of the Occupy Wall St movement:

  • Wall Street sabotaged the USA economy by risky business practices which may include fraud, collusion, graft, and more. No one went to jail, but many executives got bonuses while working people lost their homes. Not to mention the bailout using public money to subsidize private businesses.
  • Addresses the controversial (or duplicitous?) tactic of condoning/advocating "free market capitalism" and yet, when free market capitalism completely fails and the public is forced to bailout the private sector (w/o any public referendum), where is the "I call shenanigans!!!" or cry of dismay or cry of bullsh*t ?? And then these institutions continue to advocate for 'free market capitalism' after having reaped the benefits of society paying for their losses?
  • Corporations having rights protected while dodging tax requirements (and simultaneously exploiting govt subsidies), while actual people are having our rights over-ridden while our taxes result in less social benefits for people
  • The rights of the people must be more significant than the rights of corporate financial USA, or we will lose our rights & become peons in a neo-feudal society.

Etc etc.

Now that the *REAL STORY* has been covered, here's my response to this story: this is not a news story. This is not journalism. This is a completely unnecessary smear job.

So please, I'm asking nicely, increase your news coverage to cover 10% of the Occupy Movement's issues (likely what 99% of your readers are interested in anyway) -- and perhaps Bloomberg Businessweek will actually qualify as journalism.
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Let's vote for Obama 2012

Well, I'm not 1000% into Obama, but he's light-years better than Romney, who I see as a fascist.

A friend of mine who's quite 'Left Wing' (a fellow radical, not a 'progressive' or 'liberal') believes Obama's policies are too Right wing to earn his vote (namely: assassinating people, upgrading the drone war, continuing many Bush policies, growing the military, weakening public sector, anti-Union, pro-finance, overlooking Bush/Cheney's war crimes & corruption & 9/11 scandal, etc) -- but in a 2 party system I feel compelled to vote for one of the 2.
I wish it was NOT a 2 party system, and I wish Obama was a Left-winger, but for today I'll work with what exists.

So here's some fun stuff:
Sam L Jackson's Obama Ad
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=og35U0d6WKY


It's worth watching, funny, and paid for by the "Jewish Council for Education & Research" (?!?!), see http://jcer.info (their website).

Sarah Silverman, "Let my people vote" video,
http://www.youtube.com/embed/ypRW5qoraTw



I took at look & found Sarah Silverman's Obama ad, "The Great Schlep", also *hilarious* (From prvs 2008 election).
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AgHHX9R4Qtk



Somewhat related last tidbits:
  • If you have Netflix or Cable/DISH/U-verse (or similar way to get media), I hope you can give Sarah Silverman's "Jesus is Magic" movie a viewing (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0422528/).  You may cry with laughter, or you might hate it.  I thought it was amazing -- bought the DVD, have watched it 10x.
  • I had to edit this blog in Firefox b/c I couldn't edit the html in Chrome browser!  (But Google makes blogger!!!  --->  FAIL!!!)
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Email hacked -- yahoo is vulnerable, PC's are vulnerable. Meh!

Darn!

I got an email which was obviously someone getting hacked! I must've responded from a PC & not iPhone, bc I promptly was compromised too!

Wasn't going to blog about it, but the damn virus auto-posted to my blog!!!

So now it's time for damage repair & deleting 10's of emails...!
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Republican translation techniques & Congressman Todd Akin

If you're REALLY freaked out about Congressman Akin's idiotic comments about 'legitimate rape' and how women somehow naturally can prevent pregnancy, have you been paying attention to the positions of the Tea Party or the modern Republican Party?

Were you paying attention to when the President of the USA was a freakin' idiot of global embarassment (aka Bush Jr)?  Did you think there was only ONE idiot?  (Or two if you remember Dan Quayle, a former colossally idiotic VP?)

Heard what the Republicans are saying NOW?  I will attempt to translate the Republicans philosophy:
  1. MINE!!
  2. Poor? Sick? You can die.
  3. Gay? Non-Christian? Non-white? Female? You're not equal.
  4. Guns are good, and the USA military should never stop being deployed.
  5. Rich people (and property) should be protected *ALWAYS*.

While this covers most of the Republican talking points, they use spin on a few other topics which may require un-spinning:
  • Trickle Down = the rich get the money, while the rest of us work for the rich.
  • Right to Life = disempower women from control of their bodies, subjugating them to the will of men.
  • Capital Punishment = kill more poor people!
  • Taxes = Stealing MINE! & giving MINE! back without the control of the rich.
  • Charity = the rich giving however much $ they want to whatever projects they choose.
  • Capitalism = a society which safeguards property rights & individual profits.
  • Socialism = sharing for everyone (bad!).  If only rich white folks benefit, it's not socialism.
  • Communism = no private property & shared profits, ie a GODLESS & EVIL society.
  • Free Market = the rich are free to do as they please, and the poor are free to beg "please".
  • Regulation = the rich don't get to do as they please, while the non-rich mess up the 'magical system'.
  • Privatization = all projects in society must extract profits upwards to the rich.
  • Private Property = MINE!  Not yours!  I will decide what to do with MINE!
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Dark Knight & A Dark Night


The Dark Knight Rises opening night was marred by a (likely insane) killer shooting an assault weapon in a Colorado movie theater at the audience.

So I have a whole story about my Batman opening night experience -- but gratefully it's nothing that big.
I also have a whole bunch of movie critiques.  Equally 'not that big'.

I don't want some idiot with an assault rifle to hijack my need to comment and critique.  So I'll go ahead anyway, but in the end I'll return to a brief talk about him.

I had a late dinner @ 10pm or so, and as I was driving home around 11pm, I saw the opening.  I thought, 'let me check it out'.  Tons of people were wearing costumes: some Batman inspired, some not, many just funny & weird.  It was excting.  And then I discovered it was completely sold out.  I was about to leave, but a guy walks up and says, "Hey, you want my ticket?  I can't see the show -- I've got a final to study for."  I said sure, the guy ran into the theater, and then minutes later gave me his black wristband.  I walked in showing the wristband, and I was in.

Yep, I got in for free on opening night ~ 5 min's before the first showing.  SO that was *cool*.

Now to the movie.  *SPOILER ALERT* don't read more if you haven't seen & don't want to know yet.

Here we go:

"The autopilot doesn't work" x4
"Only a little kid climbed the wall" and your spine is broken -- oops, you're ok.
"the bomb will go off" ... in 8 months (!!!) - but luckily, with 10 seconds to spare, Batman saves the day.
I'm Batman, I can kick the crap out of hundreds of thugs -- except a girl with a knife...?

I'm Batman -- I can kick the crap out of hundreds of thugs... But a girl with a knife? Ow! I'm stabbed!
I'm Batman -- my spine is busted, would you mind hanging me from a rope & giving me a spinal karate chop? Haya!! Fixed. Thanks.
I'm Batman -- I've got no cartilage, badly healed bones, scar tissue, etc etc. But if I put this leg brace on, I'm fine...!
I'm Batman -- I'll go scare the crap out of baddies -- just let me put this black eye makeup on...
Catwoman -- can beat up tons of guys, but needs Batman b/c ... I didn't really understand what implied motivation was there at all.  And why does he like her?  Isn't she a thief, etc?  That was a bit confusing...
Alfred the Butler -- "I've served you your whole life as Bruce and as Batman, but today I'm quitting because ..." no real reason except to have a fun twist at the end.  Yawn.
The persistent annoying cop -- "My name is blah blah blah", at end a lady asks "why don't you go by your real name?"  B/c it's stupid and I would've gotten teased -- Oh how I'd have loved to have heard that response!  Or at least let him be NightWing & skip ... yech.
Bain -- let's put heavy effects on his voice, then hide his mouth.  Gee, no one can understand his endless pontification?  Is this good b/c the writing is bad?
Bain -- I'm going to leave you here (where, exactly?  Somewhere in a hole), Batman, with a flat-screen and cable TV so you can watch me smash your city, and oops -- there's a convenient healer to take care of your broken spine.  HA HA HA (evil laugh)
Bain -- I'm a big guy, but b/c my master was your master, Batman, I can fight as well as you.  Better even.  Guess you should've used a gun?
Catwoman -- no one can find anything on her, except Batman who can get her info in ~ 5 minutes?
Didn't Bruce Wayne go broke in this film also?  How exactly did that happen again?
And what was with building a nuclear reactor under their reservoir?  Are other companies doing this?!??!

I could say more, b/c I felt that this movie sucked WORSE than the other 2, but that's pretty much enough.

Now to the killer -- there is simply no excuse for opening fire on a room full of theater goers.  Even if the movie has characters who do the exact same thing.  I truly believe that sane folks should not have a problem differentiating films from reality -- but insane paranoid schizophrenics might have a harder time.  Which says to me that so-called "PG" movies with death counts of >100 people may not be good for unbalanced people.
I was saddened and angry that a killer took this stuff seriously -- but I am not running around saying "he is bad" or "he is evil" or anything.  It seems that unstable people who watch violent films might feel like they're getting a message which is encouraging them to do stuff like what's in the movies.  Heck, we already now have real-life 'caped crusaders' running around various cities!!
1 comment:

Re: mars 'Curiosity' -- is nuclear powered?!?

When the media mentioned, in passing only, that the Curiosity will have a nuclear powerplant, I couldn't help but wonder if perhaps we have already found life on Mars -- and wish to end it so we can colonize...?

How great!!!  Nukes in space!

And stranger still for a so-called Democracy, we don't vote on this?!?

I also recall the danger of the vehicle crashing on arrival -- how would a crash of a nuclear powered vehicle have affected the Mars environment?

Oy!!

Much love,
- Ari
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2012 Stuff - New 'Cassette'



A new compilation of songs, 2012 Stuff! (click link for a 'pop out' player)
Deceptively titled, it's actually a bunch of some of my songs from the last 1-2 years.
Song list:
My Name is REkzkaRZ
Money Stuff
The Night Ari
Attempted Myooseek
Random Song
Two Speeding Tickets
We Make Our World
Who Are They
Meta Metal Strings
Dilemma of the Unanswerable
Joys of Addiction
Push Bump
Instrumental Mental Wage Slaves
Ethereal Tone Swing
Addict Magic
Pure Filtration
Ancient Source

ENJOY!
Your feedback is appreciated
You may also notice the same widget is embedded on the right of this blog with some other tapes.  If you click the linked 'title', it should 'pop out' a window which is a player & can run in the background of your other browser pages.  Cool, right?   :)
(The tape cassette widget is from mixwidget.org & it's an opensource 'flash widget'.)
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USA fighting Terorrism -- with Terrorism?!?!

On 9/11/2001 the USA was attacked.  While personally I'm quite upset that all of the evidence has been made top secret (black boxes of planes, footage of Pentagon getting attacked), the former President Bush & VP Cheney refused to testify in separate rooms or under oath about what happened, and the USA military did not respond to the attacks until afterwards despite contingency plans galore, the fact is the WTC buildings did fall and > 3,000 people died.
It was a tragic day in the USA, but the news media response was so different than what one might have expected.  Endless replays of the buildings collapsing, but *zero* investigative journalism.
Now onwards to 2012, more than 10 years later.
The USA invaded Iraq, overthrew the government, occupied the country, tortured thousands of men in prison camps, killed hundreds of thousands, and displaced millions of people -- and then President Bush did admit that Iraq was not actually involved in the 9/11 attack and Osama Bin Laden, the self-proclaimed coordinator of the 9/11 operation, was not captured.  Well, actually Bush said "The world is much safer now."
Which world??  Definitely not the world the Iraqi people live in, who now have a damaged societal infrastructure, lots of radioactive bullet shrapnel and unexploded bombs, many areas still have no water or power, and their country will be occupied by a foreign power for the foreseeable future.
But the USA is not done.  In response to the 3000 killed, the USA has CIA agents and 'contractors' (often ex-CIA, ex-military, or ex-special ops military) all throughout the Middle East, including many countries which are now in full-blown revolutions.  The USA appears uncertain how to respond on countries which have been allies, but in opposition countries the USA's stance is more oppositional.
But where are we now?  11 years later, the USA is unleashing drone strikes into sovereign Pakistan, the USA has deployed drone forces all around the world including S.America, Mexico, Somalia, and inside the USA at the borders.  Additionally, it turns out the US executive branch now has meetings discussing assassination in foreign countries -- 'drone strikes' which report having killed no non-combatants because all men of military age in the area are classified as combatants, despite killing pregnant women and children -- but the language of this endless war is so flawed now -- "insurgents" and "peace keepers" is complete propaganda speech.
While the USA condemns foreign countries for how they handle domestic unrest and peaceful protests, it smashes protest with police and planting 'Agent Provocateurs' into non-violent protest groups.  In response to thousands of 'Occupy' movements across the country complaining about the popular exclusion of people from the Democracy in favor of new corporate 'freedom of speech' rulings which have flooded the government with billions in ad money and dirty tactics, the USA media and government have acknowledged these changes as minimally as possible -- as annoyances and fads, as sad counter-cultural demonstrations and irrelevant voices.
DRONE RQ-170
But what really has happened is this -- the USA now blatantly uses terrorist tactics to fight the so-called 'terrorist' opposition.  Despite no attacks, and possibly doing nothing more than meeting in their countries to discuss plots or dislike of the occupying powers, the USA now advocates robot drone strikes, endless occupation, violation of homes to find young men and imprison them, torture camps, and more.  And it's the actual numbers which reveal the truth:  USA lost 3000 people.  Iraq has lost hundreds of thousands, Pakistan is losing thousands of people now, and US crosshairs are hovering over Syria and Iran.

And the USA people by majority don't want any of this, but the wealthy classes want to continue.  So now what?  I don't know!
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Prometheus and Snow White and the Huntsman

Saw Prometheus. Was entertained, movie had some fun going on, but some strange flaws in acting and writing.
Without spoiling the film, I can say I found the last 5 mins to be most flawed writing-wise. The abundant foreshadowing seemed blunt to me -- each time I thought "that'll be back". Also the 'my father' line was no surprise -- except in its almost humorous delivery.

Acting wise, the most glaring things were the distance between faced which was always minimized to reveal tension -- but felt very artificial to me.
I really liked the 'David' character and somewhat liked the super-old guy, but was unconvinced by the makeup that this was an actual old person.

*spoiler* - have some beef with the 'engineers' portrayal, the 'vials' or weapons, and the way the humans explain everything by their out-loud conjecture, while David clearly has an inside track -- which is never explained.  Why'd he infect the 2 doctors?

And the scene-stealer --> What's with the amazing DIY abortion?!? What's with all the alien orifice - penetrating monsters?!?

Prometheus summary: occasionally awesome, gave too much away at end with simple exposition, many characters' decisions seemed unlikely & unbelievable.
Some believable cowardice.

Then when I finished, I snuck into Snow White & the Huntsman. Aha! Now I realized the significant difference in film quality. Yeeesh!!!

Let's see -- this movie sucked sucked sucked!!!
heh -- I wasn't exactly surprised -- it's why I snuck in.

No spoilers offered, no analysis except this: formulaic fantasy-drivel with too much CG and no significant character growth/depth. Did have a strange veneer of Goth/EMO drama, and the CG was ok.

The lead actress has quite large nostrils, and the DP does a lot of 'up the nose' shots of her.
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Defender Chronicles 2 for iOS - awesome. Strategies?

Defender Chronicles 2 for iOS is good fun, and for $3 it's a deal.  Good job GIMKA & Menara games!

I'm interested to know people's strategies along with what the IAP items/abilities do -- please lemme know?

(Here's a repost of my post in TouchArcade's Defender Chronicles 2 forum)
Hey DC2 players,

I'm enjoying this game a lot.  Finally had to hit the Forum b/c of Crystal Golem (already saw answer to that) and I'd also really like to know what's the point of all the IAP abilities that come in the Imperial Store?

There's so many -- zombie, maneuver, bravery, trap, ethereal, build peasant houses, vampiric, industrious, etc. plus there are the enhanced embassies.

Frankly, I'd really like to see a list of what these things do (but not a 'spoiler' as much as a generic definition) along with what all the abilities you can gain just by playing...?

I can't see buying these things while I'm learning all the game stuff.  Seems like it might spoil the fun...?

I also just found the 'get free tokens' button in Imperial Store -- click it, it offers you a video to watch, say "no", and then there's a game to play.  Or maybe you have to say "yes" and then "no"?  Just did first time & got 30 tokens (lowest payout?).

This IAP & 'watch this ad for virtual currency' trend in games is a bit disturbing.  I paid for this game!!  I don't want to keep paying or do anything else, so GIMKA & others -- please stop nickle & diming me!  (Or if the app is paid for and offers IAP, offer a way to 'hide' the IAP in a settings menu so I can just do my thang.  Thanks!)

You wouldn't think people would pay $100 or more for a small game like this, but you might be surprised at how rich kids waste their $$$.

Gonna write this up in my blog also.  You can post answers/comments there or ...?
 
PEACE
rekzkarz
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Mobile Frame Zero: Rapid Attack -- and Badass MoF0 Mecha Frames

Ever since I backed this, I've been obsessed over Mobile Frame Zero: Rapid Attack, the Kickstarter project which uses Lego to make little mini robots and battle it out with a variety of d6 dice.  (Their Kickstarter project raised $82,499 when they were seeking a $9,000 goal.  Guess they hit a solid genre niche?  Go Kickstarter!!)
I made a Pinterest board which was originally called Mobile Frame Zero, but I renamed it to BadAss MoF0 Mecha Frames for a bit more flavor.  (I could look at these cool designs for days!) 
I just got my first orders of Legos (ordered thru Bricklink.com) and was so excited to build a first mech frame -- but my build pretty much sucked.
Now I have a good number of $$$ worth of Legos, but there are certain key pieces which make it a lot easier to make something cool.  And guess what?  I don't have those!! 
Good news is I have one more order from Bricklink hopefully coming soon, so maybe that's on the way?

Anyway, I hope to eventually build a few cool looking things -- copies or unique, doesen't matter to me.  Me want cool bots!

I have another MoF0-related Lego story -- I was so psyched about this game that I googled Lego shops, found Play Well in Marin, and paid a visit to buy my MoF0 bits.  I was digging thru their large variety Lego bins for 90+ minutes or so, and they had very nice helpful employees -- and when I went to the register I figured I'd pay ~ $40 or so.  Nope.
The total was over $140!!!  I talked to the register guy about how we might drop the total, but he became unhelpful at that point.
So, when another customer walked in, I just ... left.  I felt really strange about that, but I was not (and am still not) prepared to pay $140 for less than 1lb of Lego blocks.  Sorry.
(Oh yes, I got almost all the same stuff on Bricklink for about 1/3 the price.  I had to pay shipping & deal with multiple vendors, however.)
 
Bottom line -- it's not about just having generic Legos -- you need 'the right' Legos and a good eye for design -- as you can see if you check out these people's amazing designs:
Soren (one of the original designers of the game, very talented);
Here's a pic of Mitten Ninja's 'OHI-04 Grizzly' from Flickr;
and there's a ton more great MoF0 designers out there!
You can always search Mobile Frame Zero on Flickr to find cool images & the latest neat builds.  Also you can learn which bricks to get & builds from the "Mobile Frame Garage" blog.
And here's the Wiki: http://mobileframezero.wikia.com/ which includes rules variants, builds, websites, and more.
1 comment:

President Obama and Jimmy Fallon - slow jamming the news

Slow Jammin' The News with President Barack Obama - Slow Jammin' The News - Late Night with Jimmy Fallon - CLICK LINK TO WATCH
http://www.latenightwithjimmyfallon.com/blogs/2012/04/slow-jammin-the-news-with-president-barack-obama/

President Obama slow jams the news with Jimmy Fallon -- classic! Props to the Pres, or as Tariq said, "The POTUS with the mostest". AWESOME!

While President Obama may not be the most popular President, or the most successful President, he is *certainly* the coolest President ever.

I say this to President Obama, "Thank you, sir, for giving me one leader that I can actually be proud of (if only more politics could line up with the Democrat's view)." - rekzkarz
Jimmy Fallon, "You should listen to the President, or as I like to call him, the Preezy of the United Steezy." Hilarious!!

I want to rant and rave about this great event more, but I'll leave it there.  Was there ever any doubt about who I'd be voting for?  (Although I'd vote Green if we had a chance of winning.)
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Netiquette and the abundance of Hate-Speech

I've been observing the 'culture of the internet' in 2012 USA.  What was once, briefly, a place where people could politely engage in discourse and learn from eachother's disagreement -- with occasional 'flaming' -- which indicated a flare up of anger where people lost their cool -- it seems the pre-eminence of commentary by readers/viewers is of a sort of foul-mouthed hate-speech which generally attempts to discredit the content makers by name-calling or insults but avoids mentioning the actual content.

As a self-proclaimed Radical Evolutionary, ie an (*R)Evolutionary, I am regularly surprised by people who claim high-level degrees (PhD's and Masters) and then say things like "Put down your crack pipe, you Liberal moron!" and so on.

What I find saddest about the loss of nettiquette is that the internet is a pathway to dialogue, but this type of attack -- which doesn't touch on the subject -- really lowers the quality of discourse.  It's funny to write this knowing that my last blog post was titled "fuck sports news", however I did provide many rational reasons for why it's upsetting (just today CNN News just covered a story about a US soldier going on a killing spree in Afghanistan killing 12+ civilians, and then followed this story immediately with a 'Sports News' story that Tiger Woods hurt his foot) and I didn't just call sports fans 'dipshits'.

When I'm engaging in a dialogue with these folks who are throwing insults into the conversation as if they were adjectives, my tools are humor and calm rationality.  While I'm merely dealing with hate in a typed medium, I'm inspired by many visionaries like Martin Luther King Jr and Gandhi (among others) who had to look hate in the eye and still found love, compassion, and hope.

While no doubt I find these Sophist name-callers offensive, I also feel like an ambassador of the good potential of humanity.  I choose to let these verbal assaults slide gently off me like soapy water.  More amusing are the insults which are so far off-base that it's almost like they are insulting someone else -- I just don't fit the bill.

While I've mentioned that name-calling is not a higher ground, when someone says they have a PhD and proceeds to call me an asshole, moron, fuckwad, or similar -- I tend to respond with inquiry such as "I doubt you got your PhD in polite debate or considerate discussion" and often finish the conversation with something like "are you a sour grouchy person in real life, or just online where no-one can call you out"? 
And I admit, I do frequently wonder if these people are paid agitators by some type of CIA-backed community-shattering 'divide and conquer with fear and hate' strategy for fracturing the resistence to oppression within the USA.  Another CoIntelPro Operation designed to harm progressive self-aware leaderless personal empowerment?

 And lastly, I do wonder what these people are like face-to-face?   I'm a 6'2" former martial artist who has a kind heart and disposition, generally. Would any of these people even have the courage to engage me in a conversation, let alone a dispute? Would they berate me for my low intellect, for being a "liberal" or a "sad hippy" or a "crack smoker", or would they even be able to look me in the eye?
3 comments:

FUCK SPORTS NEWS

FUCK SPORTS NEWS!
I don't care who won what game, or what homo-erotic pageantry moronic cretin sports-tards are obsessing over -- this is not 'news' and doesn't need to be in the News!
Dear God, who in the world lied to all these people and told them sports are somehow important?!?!?
Why am I being force-fed news about sports -- I don't care!  Sports are a distraction, like the Roman colloseum Gladiator games, to give disenfranchised people stuff to think about besides the fact that they are being screwed by 'the man' (the guys with all the money)!!!
Getting upset that your team lost is like getting all worked up about the Pee-wee leagues!
Real News is supposed to be about "Life and Death" stuff, like nuclear meltdowns and empires invading non-threatening countries and killing civilians and being immune from prosecution!  Real news is bribes and corruption and the US Dept of Firearms & Tobacco sending 40k full-auto weapons right to the Mexican drug cartels!  Real News is the govt giving 8.5 *trillion* in bailouts to banks that claimed to "have no money" and then posting record profits AND giving out executive bonuses!  (And Real News is no one going to jail for fraud about that.)
The important stuff is very different from how many goals someone got paid millions to score!
Spectator Sports 'News' (in quotes bc I scorn the term) is as useful for me as all of the completely false ads which lie about the values of dangerous products which I'm encouraged to purchase b/c they will make my life shorter and thus increase the supply of natural resources for the 'haves'.
Don't get me wrong -- I like an occasional baseball game, a football game, occasional boxing, etc.  They are entertaining, sort of, in a subdued, homo-erotic way with lots of males getting their balls in the other teams holes and goals.  But do I give a rats ass who wins?!?!?! NO WAY!
I don't care who kicked who's ass, I don't care about Tibow or Tiger or Serena or Lebron or Shaq or Magic or the dead college football coach with a winning streak who didn't stop his pervo coach from raping children!
I invite someone to explain to me why 'Sports News' is important...?
Whew, that RANT felt good!
Re-post here on my blog from my 4:30am FB rant, where no one will read it.
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Say NO to SOPA/PIPA -- a day of protest

Google & others are protesting, thought I'd join in -- b/c the internet doesn't need 'protection' from 'Intellectual Property theft' at the cost of having a free & open internet!!!
Also, copying is not piracy.  We must keep our language and filter out the false phrases.  One false phrase is calling copying piracy.  'Piracy' is stealing something from someone such that the owner no longer has access to that thing.  'Copying' (which has been called 'sharing' at various points) duplicates something and no one loses the use of that thing.  The only losers in copying are companies who want more profit from the thing, and are willing to sacrifice and sabotage and criminalize Constitutional rights (such as freedom of press, freedom of speech) in order to force people to purchase (and re-purchase) access to content which they created.

Other bogus words include:
  • "right to life" for the anti-abortion movement,
  • "insurgents" for people fighting invaders of their own country,
  • "terrorists" for military forces not linked to a government -- but this phrase is not applicable to mercenaries who are linked to governments (even if they may be torturing, raping, and murdering),
  • "contractors" which is now mis-used to include the government use of mercenaries in foreign lands,
  • "surgical strikes" which has been used to describe missiles and bombs which frequently kill civilians, hit hospitals, & kill journalists,
  • "free market capitalism" which in the USA intentionally casts a blind eye to sanctioned market manipulation with policies like farm subsidies / drug war (making products illegal) / corporate buyouts / fraudulent promotions / and government bailouts of corrupt fraudulent financial institutions, but accuses other countries of violating the principle of "free markets" continually,
  • "peace keepers" for foreign fighters, invaders, or neutrally-aligned foreign occupying troops,
  • "illegal aliens" for descendants of native peoples who's ancestors resided on the territory which is now claimed by the descendents of the conquerors (who are attempting to erase the historical factual record and also maintain a racially biased system of immigration which is biased against non-whites)
The following text is copied (word for word) from Craiglist's protest today -- http://www.craigslist.org/about/SOPA.  Thanks Craig Newmark & co!
Corporate supporters of Senate 968 (PIPA) and HR 3261 (SOPA) demand the ability to take down any web site (including craigslist, Wikipedia, or Google) that hurts their profits -- without prior judicial oversight or due process -- in the name of combating "online piracy."

PIPA and SOPA authors and supporters insist they'd only go after foreign piracy sites, but Internet Engineers understand this is an attempt to impose "Big Brother" controls on our Internet, complete with DNS hijacking and censoring search results. Incredibly, many Congress Members favor this idea.

Try to imagine jack-booted thugs throttling free speech, poisoning the Internet (greatest of American inventions, the very pillar of modern democracy), and devastating one of the our most successful industries. Totalitarian, anti-American, massively-job-killing nonsense.

Tell Congress you OPPOSE Senate 968 "Protect IP Act" (PIPA) and H.R. 3261 "Stop Online Piracy Act" (SOPA):

Supporters of PIPA and SOPA: RIAA, MPAA, News Corp, TimeWarner, Walmart, Nike, Tiffany, Chanel, Rolex, Sony, Juicy Couture, Ralph Lauren, VISA, Mastercard, Comcast, ABC, Dow Chemical, Monster Cable, Teamsters, Rupert Murdoch, Lamar Smith (R-TX), John Conyers (D-MI)

Opponents of PIPA and SOPA: Google, Yahoo, Wikipedia, craigslist, Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, eBay, AOL, Mozilla, Reddit, Tumblr, Etsy, Zynga, EFF, ACLU, Human Rights Watch, Darrell Issa (R-CA), Ron Wyden (D-OR), Nancy Pelosi (D-CA), Ron Paul (R-TX)

Where does your Member of Congress stand on PIPA and SOPA? (Project SOPA Opera)

PIPA and SOPA Are Too Dangerous To Revise, They Must Be Killed Entirely

Congress needs to hear from you, or these dangerous bills will pass - they have tremendous lobbying dollars behind them, from corporations experts say are attempting to prop up outdated, anti-consumer business models at the expense of the very fabric of the Internet -- recklessly unleashing a tsunami of take-down notices and litigation, and a Pandora's jar of "chilling effects" and other unintended (or perhaps intended?) consequences.

Don't believe it? Monster Cable has labeled craigslist a "rogue site," earmarked for blacklisting and full-takedown under PIPA -- resale of stereo cables by CL users reduces Monster 's new cable sales. (reddit).

There is still time to be heard. Congress is starting to backpedal on this job-killing, anti-American nonsense, and the Obama administration has weighed in against these bills as drafted, but SOPA/PIPA cannot be fixed or revised -- they must be killed altogether.

Sen Darrell Issa (R-CA) and Rep Ron Wyden (D-OR) are championing an alternative to SOPA/PIPA called Online Protection and Enforcement of Digital Trade Act (OPEN) that addresses foreign sites dedicated to piracy, without disrupting basic Internet protocols, or threatening mainstream US sites like craigslist.

Tim O'Reilly, a publisher who is himself subject to piracy, asks whether piracy is even a problem, and whether there is even a legitimate need for any of these bills.

Learn more about SOPA, Protect IP (PIPA), and Internet Blacklisting:
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PODCAST w/me? Anyone?  C'mon!
Brainstorm of podcast plan: Make a podcast weekly (to start) which features the following stuff:
  • RANTS
  • Cursing
  • explicit language
  • Non-bullshit info on what we think
  • Arguing with media & news
  • Making & playing music (stuff we make or others we know)
  • Generating revenue by donors & support
  • Promoting our own talent(s)
  • Be similar to "Citizen Radio" podcast
  • create words
  • humorous elements
  • interviews
  • talk about stuff no one is talking about
  • bitch out people we don't like
  • review anything we like (I like gadgets, software, apps, movies, & video stuff)
Variety of possible titles, open to voting/changing/messin' with 'em (list hidden, will share with interested parties).
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