Peach's Ponderings

In Response to Geek Girl Diva

2010-04-19T20:24:00.000-07:00

First, read this brilliant article.

http://geekgirldiva.entertainmentearth.com/2010/04/dear-geeks-this-is-why-we-cant-have.html

Back? Good. I started to write a comment and realized how long my response was. I agree and have a few things to add. First, know that when I say geek, I mean the population who like to think of themselves as a geek, and when I say Geek, I mean the true, minute subculture that actually understands what this word means. When I say "tech toy" I mean the newest piece of technology, usually Apple. When I say gadget, I mean a true tool for Geeks.

I would like to thank Tina Fey for making nerdy brunettes hot. I'm sure it's thanks to her that I have a wonderful and incredible boyfriend. She probably has something to do with other men actually being interested too, though I find them annoying. I'm also sure she's the reason that the local high schools here are seeing football players and cheerleaders in AP classes rather than in the hallways shanking (pantsing?) the honors kids or in the bathrooms giving them swirlies. However!

I believe she has done us a disservice in part. For example, she has made it vogue to be nerd. This has had a widespread effect which has made its way to Geek. The difference between geek and nerd has long been a point of contention among the cultures, and is one I won't address in full here because I am bad about tangents and this is a response not a post of my own.

As I was saying, she's made it vogue to be considered nerdy (and by extension through confusion of terms, geeky) and smart. Which seems awesome, yes? Noooooo!!!!

People, this means that there is a large portion of people out there who think it is cool to be a geek, and also think you can just be one by acquiring the next and newest hot tech toys! They think that being geek means watching box office hits about superheroes based off comics long into adulthood, means acquiring the newest tech toy or going with Apple over Microsoft because it's what all the Geeks use rather than for any intelligent argument. They think it means being hyper-connected to social networking sites, using Foursquare, and Tweeting inks to their Tumbler pages! (God save you if you're like my boyfriend and actually read every tweet, though I suppose if you're like him you follow very few people and are quick with the unfollow button).

What does this mean? It means that your technology companies are growing like wildfire. Companies that would have failed due to lack of budget and funding are given opportunities to grow and thrive because these geeks want the hottest technology to prove their geekiness.

Meanwhile, Geeks are bemoaning the fact that these companies are putting out toys rather than gadgets. GET A CLUE!! It's the toys that bring in the MONEY to make your gadgets, people!!!! If you Geeks keep ripping these companies then they will desist with the Geek gadget making and ONLY do the geek toy making!! THEN where will you be? In the midst of where you were before - a culture that isn't fond of Geeks, and thinks that what they have is brilliant and intelligent.

Same thing goes for your books and movies - when someone makes a Hollywood movie out of your comic book and changes the ending, or it doesn't compete with the action flick, the hot girl flick, the chick flick, or the kid flick, don't call it a failure! Come ON! Look at the people you're competing with: fast cars and sexy women, chicks who don't do comics and are looking for a happy cute romance or a good cry, and KIDS! The fact that Batman grossed a huge amount is awesome, yes. The fact that a movie like Transformers grossed enough for a sequel (and yes, it WAS lousy and interminable, but again... cars and hot chick) is also pretty monumental. The sequel was god-awful but remember the general rule... Sequels Always Suck. It's a rule, people, not an exception.

When you complain and moan about how film makers ruin Geek monuments and great things... you end up with a culture that decides not to have ANY Geek stuff... Think about it. No Firefly or Serenity. Relegated to small-budget indie films. I've already heard that "Dr. Horrible is bound to suck if it goes to the big screen." Jesus, people!! Self fulfilling prophecy much?? I don't know about you, but I have a LOT more faith in Joss than that. Serenity went big screen and maybe it wasn't up to your happy little Geek snuff, but it was a solid, great movie that did relatively well in the box office (thank you action movie fans). Let's look at Star Trek, too. Sure, they screwed a lot up, but think about the ramifications. It put Star Trek out there. That makes the different shows possible. It ensures the franchise's continued existence on television and brings about the possibility of even more new material, which you rarely get these days. Name another point in time when Hollywood would have even toyed with the IDEA of something as Geek as Star Trek being made into a relatively big budget movie, or a time when it would have had enough success to run as well as it did, take a few awards, and sell?

Geek Girl is right in her post! Put up or shut up! Stop complaining about things that are helping us. Sure, that particular thing is geek and not Geek. But it is the geeks who allow companies the budgets to make pet projects and truly Geek things. If you don't like what's being offered.... You call yourself Geek and look down your nose at geek... Go make it yourself!!

Skype Spam Followup

2009-10-17T20:03:00.001-07:00

Skype's team responded to my complaint rather promptly. I was impressed.... until I read the message. It is in full below:

"Thank you for contacting Skype Support. We are truly sorry to hear that you have been experiencing issues using Skype.
We have built-in privacy settings that can restrict who are allowed to
contact you, but you can still receive new contact invitations. This is
done on purpose to give the chance for friends who you don't have in
your contact list to let you know that they want to share their contact
details with you.
Unfortunately, Skype, like any other communications software, has a
small minority of users who abuse the software. In order to deal with
people who send unsolicited messages, we have resources dedicated to a
number of ongoing anti-spam initiatives.
To report spam directly from Skype, you need Skype 4.0 for Windows or
newer or Skype 2.8 for Mac. Download the latest version if you don?t
have it already: http://www.skype.com/go/download/
In Skype for Mac:
When you get a contact request, choose ?Block this person from
contacting you in the future?, then check ?Report abuse from this
person? and click ?Block?.
To report someone who?s sending you instant messages, right click on
them in the conversation drawer, and click ?Block?. Then check ?Report
abuse from this person? and click ?Block?.
Please note that if the spammers add you to their contact list, you will
also see them on your contact list, and you have to delete them manually
( Right click on the contact's name and choose "Remove from Contacts").
We are doing our best to resolve this issue, however, implementing
changes and creating new features can take some time.
You can rest assured that we?re working hard behind the scenes to combat
spam, and will take action against spammers where appropriate ? with the
objective of keeping Skype a productive and friendly place for users
like you.
We apologize for the inconvenience and thank you for your understanding.
Should you have any questions, please do not hesitate to contact us
again; we will be glad to help.
Best regards,
Csilla
Skype Customer Support"

This response is perfectly polite, but tells me nothing I don't already know and makes NO attempt to deal with the complaint issue. They sent a follow-up email with an invitation to take a survey regarding my experience with customer service.

I answered that I was dissatisfied with the service. In answer to the question "What could we have done differently to satisfy you?" my response was:

"Considering the large amount of people dissatisfied with the Add Contact Request spam received, the addition of a privacy option which allows users to block all such requests would have been the proper response. Instead, I was informed of existing privacy options and told that Skpye wanted to leave the option for "new friends who may not be approved" open. The addition of a privacy option to block works well because, left unchecked, users who WISH to have the option to be contacted by new people are still able to receive these requests, but the massive amount of users who do NOT wish for all this spam have the option to disable it. "

To me, this makes logical sense. It is not a large amount of additional coding, it would satisfy the growing number of unhappy Skype users, and it would not remove the ability to receive requests from those users who DO wish to receive them.

There were also a series of questions regarding my experience with the specific customer service representative. Considering the message sent, I do not feel unjustified in responding with a "Strongly Disagree" to the phrase "The response I received didn't seem canned or automated." I, in fact, believed it to be a canned response up until the point of this question.

Skype Spam Sucks!!!!!

2009-10-16T01:39:00.000-07:00

I lodged a complaint to Skype, and I shall also post it here as I discourage people form wasting money on this company.

I have decided not to renew any of my subscriptions, telephone numbers, etc, and also to let my Skype credit run to nothing and not add more. I am also considering uninstalling and never using Skype again. The reason is all the Add Contact spam I'm receiving. I can't stay logged in for more than an hour without getting at least 30 requests. I've set my privacy to not allow anything from people not in my contact list, and I still receive these. When I log in, I set myself to invisible. I still receive these. There have been several complaints logged on the forums, and it has only gotten worse over the last few months despite multiple complaints and an update. Also, finding any way to contact you on this site required multiple hoops and a lot of searching. All of this leads me to believe that Skype does not care for the privacy and satisfaction of their customers. Until this changes, I am not at all inclined to use this, and will furthermore send this complaint to my entire contact list, my twitter folllowers, and post this to my blog to encourage them to discontinue use as well.

Good Friday

2009-04-10T15:39:00.000-07:00

I am in awe of the fact that there is a terrible thunderstorm here on this, the Friday before Easter Sunday. That is all for now.

Themeless Thursday

2009-04-01T21:09:00.001-07:00

Yeah, yeah, yeah; I know. But seeing as the only regular readers I have are my amazing, wonderful, loving boyfriend and a friend I see weekly, I suppose it's okay to have taken a hiatus....

Today's entry will be about my current favorite activity - co-writing a story. JJ and I have been writing a story together. If you're lucky I might post it here, but don't hold your breath.

I'm quite proud of the story. The basic plot is a vampire who falls in love with a student at a performance university. It's about their relationship, how it develops, how they grow as people, etc. This description doesn't really do it a lot of justice, though.

We both have different strengths that e bring to the story. He is an AMAZING writer who has been writing far longer than I have. He really knows how to develop (and MOVE) a plot, something I'm a bit weak at (especially the moving part). He's also good at knowing how to break things up and put them together He knows exactly where to break chapters, perspectives, and paragraphs, which is also something I"m so-so at. I'd keep going on in a chapter, or trade perspectives too often or not often enough. I tend to make forever-long paragraphs, or else make the too short.

Me? I'm great at details. Those little things that take a story from tell to show are what I do best. I take a sentence like, "He walked outside and got in his car." and make it, "His shoes clopped across the tiled floor as he pushed through the door. It was a beautiful day; the sun was out over a light, fluffy cloud covering. Birds were chirping in the nearby trees. He smiled to himself, and his heavy walk became a light jaunt as he made his way to his gleaming red Ferrari." I'm also very good a spelling and grammar. I've spent time as an editor, so I've been fixing these as we go along.

I love the time, too. Working with someone else to create a story together is just so much more enjoyable than writing your own. I adore the time I get to spend with JJ, naturally. I love it when he gets excited about the story. It brings us closer, makes our relationship more light, flirty, and playful. He and I grin over shared jokes and situations in the story. Also, because it is a love story, it rekindles our own romance. We share the love scenes between us, surprising each other and trying to outdo the last scene with the next. It's amazing and envigorating.

I love feeling this accomplishment. This, "Hey, we should..." became an outline. The outline turned into a story, which has now morphed into a novel of over 50,000 words. The novel is actually marketable, too.

We have also put private scenes into our story. We've earmarked these specially and they will be removed if/when we share this story with others. I love this, too. It's nice and romantic, knowing that there are hidden scenes in our story that are our own private moments, to be shared only among the two of us. It gives the story a glint of playfulness, to know that people who read it will be dying to know what happens when our public scene skips ahead; what happened in the private scene we hinted at? Only the two of us will ever know.

I definitely recommend writing to anyone. Creating stories, giving life to dreams and ideas, is so satisfying in itself. JJ introduced me to the world of writing short, 6-10 page stories. He's the master, the prize winner. I'm learning, trying to catch up to him. If you've got someone to write with and a shared idea among yourselves, I would recommend this exercise even more. It's done wonders for JJ and I, and I've learned so much watching his entire writing process. I recommend this exercise to ALL couples, actually, regardless of whether this is typical. It's a great reason to find time to be together, it rekindles romance, and it sparks conversation.

Friend

2009-03-20T17:37:00.000-07:00

Okay, so make it close to 2 weeks off. I'll start writing again starting today.

Today, I will write about my friend Janet. (Damnit, Janet!!) Janet and I met back in high school, when I was a sophomore and she was a wayward freshman. She was loud and crazy but that was fine by me. She loved singing, dancing, acting as much as I..... okay, ALMOST as much as I do. She was a friend to me even in times when no one else was. She defended me, stood by me, no matter what. We had some great times and discussions in high school.

College brought about a bit of a separation. She got involved with a guy who was totally wrong for her. And by that I mean she was 17 and he had a 4 yr. old daughter. She was the girl he'd cheated on his girlfriend with, when he got sick of cheating on his (ex??) wife with her, and he was likely cheating on Janet, too. He was an asshole and he turned her into one, too. I was the only one who would tell her the truth instead of what she wanted to hear, so she kept pushing and pushing me until I walked away and told her not to talk t me again until things got fixed.

Okay, she's made mistakes (like all of us) but she isn't dumb. Eventually, she figured it out and we became friends again. Now, we're the same as we used to be. we laugh, joke, go crazy together, hang out all the time. We're there for each other when one of us calls hysterically needing something right that second. We also live near each other, so we hang out a lot. She is one of my best friends. We still have discussions a lot, too. What to do with life, God Q&A, etc.

Yeah, Week Off.

2009-03-18T12:20:00.000-07:00

So I took a spontaneous vacation from blogging due to several things. Mostly, me feeling very worn out and tired, and exercising my IRL AFK personal life..... I'm back, and I will begin updating regularly. If I forget, our good friend jalenjade will prompt me to write, damn it, write! ;)

Spontaneous Saturday

2009-03-07T22:10:00.000-08:00

So today's spontaneous entry is a promotional one. I've got an author friend, JC Hutchins (@jchutchins on twitter). I'll write more of it tomorrow (yeah yeah I suck at beign on time with entries) because I'm tired and just wanted to get this up ASAP.

----
I wanted to tell you about a pretty cool fiction-meets-reality promotion hosted by my buddy, author J.C. Hutchins. His debut novel, Personal Effects: Dark Art is coming out in June, and he's launched a creative grassroots campaign to spread the word.

Check out the promotion at http://JCHutchins.net/thebrink . You can become a "patient" in the mental institution seen in the book! Submit some artwork and a patient profile, and your work will be displayed on the hospital's official website, http://BrinkvalePsychiatric.com . You'll even receive printable "admittance papers" from the hospital! It's fun and free. Learn more at http://JCHutchins.net/thebrink .
----

As an aside on this.... I want to say go check it out; seriously. His 7th Son books are also available as free podcasts, and they're very good. He's an amazing author. He also happens to be just a really cool guy; not arrogant, no head up his ass, and he interacts with his readers. So you should definitely support him. Check it out; no joke. Go. Now!

Friend Friday

2009-03-06T16:31:00.000-08:00

Okay, this week's entry is dedicated to "Holly." She's one of my best friends. I met her at work/school. She and I hit it off pretty much instantly despite both of us being introverted and guarded. We went to lunch together once, and from there on it was fast friends from just friendly acquaintances. This is funny because I'm a capitalist and shes a socialist.

She's been there for me a lot. When I've been abused, hurt, picked up and tossed aside. She's been there when I"m happy, when I've had to make tough choices. She's seen my ups and my downs, seen me at my absolute worst - hyperventilating, freaking out, losing my temper - and still is my friend, without judging me. Despite this, she does care enough to give it to me straight when I need to be pulled in check.

I love the time I get to spend with her. I love having a close (female) friend that I can share things with - who also shares with me. We have so much fun with our exploits, cafes, dinners, baking, wacky stories, etc.

Holly's really calm and a lot of fun. She keeps me grounded. When we go shopping, we always find fun and crazy adventures. She's one of very, very few people who has actually made it past all my boundaries and walls and into a place where I trust her and let her in.

WTF Wednesday

2009-03-04T15:10:00.000-08:00

Okay, this is WTF Wednesday because I don't know exactly what to make of it.

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB123577193845697061.html

It is absolutely excessive, superfluous, pompous, unnecessary. Seriously, it's ridiculous. Let's dissect it:
> It's freaking huge! Unless you're the von Trap family, this is just huge! Seriously - how much space does one family need?

> It's on a beach. Not only is it huge, it is arrogant enough to say to the Florida coast, "Hey! Here I am! I am DARING you! You can't catch me! Neener neener!!" I say... House, meet Hurricane.

>This place claims to be green friendly, but the amount of wood used is enough to rescue over 105 acres of the quickly fading rain forests. So now, you can satisfy your ego and make yourself look good to the press. "Relax! It's totally green!!! Except for the fact that I decimated a rain forest, but hey... I saved a bit of energy, right? Am I right?"

> The place uses energy efficient lighting mixed with solar panels, but there are so many fixtures in this house that the advantage is completely offset. The place still uses more power than the average household.

> Let me share a ratio with you. 7:11. Now, in a house like this, you ask yourself. Is that the ratio of bathrooms to bedrooms? No, the opposite. There are 7 bedrooms and 11 full bathrooms. In case you need, you know, 1 for your bathing and 1 for your excreting.... yeah. We won't touch this. And don't even say "4 guest bathrooms." Because chances are the guest will either be using 1 of the 7 bedrooms (complete with bathroom) for their stay OR the bathroom that is near to the in home movie theatre. No need for 4 guest bathrooms.

> The floors are made of water, trapped plant life, glass, and LED lights. What was that claim to be a green friendly house? Is that going up to smoke yet? Because right now would be a good time for them to claim insanity at the time that claim was made.

> In case the beach isn't close enough, the living room and floor to ceiling wine storage have built in aquariums, open glass, plant life, aquatic life, and - you guessed it - lots of light, so these creatures nevr get to sleep, and neither does that power expenditure.

> Oh yeah, the massively landscaped gardens outside, including stone bridges and low lights to reflect light off the water. Turns out, that water is suitable for swimming trips, so if you're too lazy to walk through the yard to the beach - good news! You don't have to! We won't discuss how much ecology had to be completely ripped up to make this yard possible, and we also won't mention the pitiful attempt at making it seem natural by adding a bunch of displaced tropical plants to the yard.

> Oh are you bored with the beach and your yarD? Worry not. We've wasted even more space with a huge pool, complete with floating sun terrace! Because, by gosh, if you want to swim in the shade, or get out of the pool fo rthat mixed drink the ot cabana boy serves, why the heck not!

> So how are they justifying this excessive amount of pools and ponds in the green plan? Well, naturally - having that much water makes the house one or 2 degrees cooler, which "reduces cooling costs." Funny, 1 or 2 degrees never made that much a difference in my house, and it's not anywhere close to this size. Give me a break - I'm not that dumb, guys. Not to mention, wouldn't that INCREASE heating costs in the winter, thus negating the benefits? Or have you installed heaters in all of these fixtures, this making the house even less green friendly.

> Tacky interior. Now, sure, you can throw some extra money into it, sink another ocuple mill on top of its cost, and fix this, but the interior designer must have been out of his or her mind. It's so freaking tacky! Taffeta is so 3 decades ago!! Too much brightness, too much blue and white, and the dark stain of the woods doesn't go well with the brightness of the rest of it. The colors, at best, simply abide each other, and at worse are definitely not easy on the eye.

> LEED. Those people decide whether houses are green freindly or not. Thus far, they've been quite brilliant in not giving this monstrocity the certification. It would ruin the integrity of the LEED certification for everyone else! According to the LEED consultant, the house was penalized for its SIZE. Not the excessive wastes, the environment ruined, the huge costs of keeping a place this big and all its luxuries running, the negated energy savings, etc.... but the size itself. They are expecting certification any day now. While I'd very much like to say, "hah! keep dreaming!" I am worried, because, well... throw enough money at something, and you get whatever you want. Considering the house itself is tagged at about 30 million dollars, I'd say they're willing to toss some extra change to get that LEED certification so they can feel better about themselves.

So why then can I not bring myself to hate this house??? I stare at it in complete we and go "oooooooh wooooooooow I wish I had 30 million because that house is so pretty!!!! It's like a dream castle!! That kitchen!! That view from the bedroom's bay window!! THose gardens!! The beach is right there!!! From someone who has never been much of an environmentalist, I don't care so much about how much energy the place wastes - I was just pointing out the hypocracy of that claim. So pretty! Such a waste! So many better wyas to spend that chunk of chain, but oh the fates!! What a house!!!!!!!!

Uh I am really behind

2009-03-04T14:54:00.000-08:00

I will play catch up as I try to wake up while munching my parfait.

Themeless Thursday:
This Thursday's theme was... Themeless. Get back to me if you want to see regularposts. Bingo bongo, people!

Friend Friday:
Holly deserves more than just a blurb in a post of missing posts, so we're holding off until this Friday.

Spontaneous Saturday:
I went on a not so spontaneous road trip, so the spontaneous act was to not post. Hah!

Speedy Sunday:
Darn it, Johnson crashed! I. Do. Not. Like. Kyle. Effing. Busch. My drivers this year don't seem to be driving like they care to race for the cup. Bleh.

Microfantasy Monday:
Oh this fantasy will remain in my head. I might share it with JalenJade, but the rest of you miss out this week. So sorry....

Time Out Tuesday:
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090226/ap_on_fe_st/odd_good_samaritan_ticketed
I would first like to place the women involved in time out. Look before you leap in front of a truck, idiots! You're not actually hot enough to stop traffic - even if you were when you were young! Second, I would like to put the truck driver in time out. If it's a snowstorm, you should not be driving very fast at all. Those are dangerous. Next, I would like to ticket the cop who leaves a ticket on a good Samaritan WHILE HE'S IN THE HOSPITAL! Okay, I think the truck taught him his lesson good enough without you adding to those medical bills and giving him a record for helping people. Next, I want to ticket whoever put a bus stop somewhere where there is NOT a crosswalk!! People gettign off that buss will be wanting to cross the street fairly often. Usually, you make a crosswalk or make a bus stop next to an existing cross walk. Bad planning.

friend friday

2009-02-27T21:20:00.000-08:00

I have no energy today. Here's Holly's placeholder for later.

WTF Wednesday

2009-02-25T20:15:00.000-08:00

This week's WTF Wednesday goes to a guy who gets the great dumbass award.

In Bradenton, FL, (incidentally, I've been there on more than one occasion), a man asked a stranger at a Starbucks if he could borrow the laptop real quick to check his Facebook.

Now, this question is innocent enough, and not offensive. I've been asked the same before. The man's answer is also not uncommon. I would have said no, too. I don't even let my friends on my laptop, much less a complete stranger.

What earns BOTH of these people spots on my WTF Wednesday entry is that, upon hearing no:

1) The stranger grabbed and ran off with the laptop. He's now facing felony charges of, get this, robbery... by Sudden Snatching?? Bet that hasn't ben tried in a while. Really... FB? Was FB REALLY worth felony charges??

2) WTF, Dude?!?! How the HELL did he manage to snatch AND RUN OFF WITH your laptop?!?! If it was mine, his hands wouldn't have even been able to make contact with it, ,much less grab and run off with it!!

The other WTF Wednesday is a late entry that I received from a friend of mine, gnimsh. This kid is.... WTF. The second half is even better than the first because he breaks out the steering wheel! Just watch. Seriously.

http://www.collegehumor.com/video:1901368

Time Out Tuesday

2009-02-24T19:58:00.000-08:00

Time for another Time Out Teusday!

This week: Friend's ex girlfriend. The Scarlet Woman. Upskirters.

1) I have a friend whose ex girlfriend won't leave him alone. She's always asking him this or that, nagging about certain things, getting him to make decisions for her. She doesn't seem to get that he broke up with her because she was like this. The other night, they got into a bit of a fight because she's incredibly stupid. I won't divulge any extra details, but suffice it to say this girl needs some time to herself to reflect on who she is and that she needs to fight for things and learn on her own, without running to him when she wants to know something, and without gettign nasty and snippy wth him when he's done something she's jealous of.

2) The Scarlet Woman. She used ot be a friend of mine, but I got wise. I confided some things to her and she tuned around and spread nasty rumors. She systematically worked her way in with every single person I talked ot regularly (especially my male friends) and convinced them these thigns about me. She's come back recently for grad schoolm, and she's already starting back at this. She's gotten herself right in the center of a group of the poeple I feel quite compfrtable around and made such a spot for herself, that sometimes I will come up and she makes me feel like I've invited myself into someone else's circle. She definitely makes me feel like there's no room for me, and it just plain sucks. I'm the girl that always crashes guy's night at the Name Of Sports Bar. I'm the girl they laugh with like one of the guys. Not you. And sure, I don't mind if you want to join us. That's great because you're fun. Join us. But joining us doesn't mean replacing me, talking about me in ways that make them alienate me in exchange for you. That's just nasty and unnecessary.

3) Upskirters. Recently, there's been a lot of panty shots on the internet. With the advent of cell phone cameras, blue tooth, etc, it's become easy to snap a shot up a woman's skirt without her noticing. These shots are now being posted all over the internet, and that's jsut ridiculous. Stop it, you pervs. Women already have enough to worry about witout needing to be afraid of panty shots being taken in broad daylight.

Feeling Generous

2009-02-23T17:14:00.001-08:00

I got this from Sweltering Celt, http://www.theswelteringcelt.com/blog , and I've been in such a great mood lately, I decided to do it too!

Here it is: The first five people to respond to this post will get something made by me! My choice. For you.
This offer does have some restrictions and limitations:
1. I make no guarantees that you will like what I make!
2. What I create will be just for you.
3. It’ll be done this year. {might be a little while}
4. You have no clue what it’s going to be (frankly, neither do I at this point) and you can not make requests. Who knows? Not you, that’s for sure!
5. I reserve the right to do something extremely strange.
The catch?
Oh, yes, there is one of those. The catch is that you must repost this on your blog and offer the same to the first 5 people who do the same on your blog.
The first 5 people to do so and leave a comment telling me they did win a FAB-U-LOUS homemade gift by me!

sponteneity saturday and speedy sunday

2009-02-22T21:53:00.000-08:00

I don't feel much like writing at the moment.

Sponteneity Saturday means whatever strikes me - from no post to any topic I want.

Speedy Sunday will involve NASCAR for the next few months, and possibly me discussing some car news. I like fast and pretty. Today, suffice it to say thank goodness Busch lost; Gordon would have won if his tire didn't ruin at the last second, and I suppose better Kenseth than Busch.

Friend Friday

2009-02-20T11:58:00.001-08:00

Friday's theme is where I talk about how awesome my friends are! I'll showcase a new friend of mine each week to tout the awesomeness of. Names have been changed to protect the innocent. If their online ID is semi-public, I'll use it. Otherwise I will refer to them with pseudos. :)

Today's friend? TheJadeGeek. AKA JalenJade. AKA my boyfriend. :) He is without a doubt amazing, and therefore the first Friend Friday post is dedicated to him.

He and I started off as friends typing. We got to talking, though, and realized how much we had in common. We'd both said how bad we were on the phone, and yet that first phone call was filled with conversation and lasted for hours. We've talked almost every day and night since.

I tend to get a lot of magazines in the mail for free. I never complain because so far I get free Glamour, Shape, Vogue, Elle Decor, Forbes, Inc, Fast Company.... and Bridal Magazine.

I remember this night so clearly. I love gorgeous, formal dresses. It's a weakness of mine. I think that a girl can't help but feel beautiful when she's dressed in clothes designed to work with her curves, to show off her body, to make her the most gorgeous woman in the world. Wedding dresses do just this. So I was thumbing through thw magazine, and ended up visiting some of the designers' websites. I was sending links to him, comparing dresses on which ones we each thought were exquisite.

He mumbled something that he didn't want to tell me. We have a rule, though, that if you start a thought, or give any indication that you've had it, you have ot finish it. I finally, finally pulled it out of him. That was the night that he confessed to loving me. It was also the night that I confessed to loving him.

We sat on this for quite a while though. I had a boyfriend who, although he was 5 hours ahead of me and therefore not available in the evenings, when I needed someone, was a good boyfriend, a great guy. Him? Well.... there was The Alaska Chick. She drove me to my craziest, darkest point. I hyperventilated several times a day. I couldn't think or breathe or anthing. Let's just say, it was bad. Worse than Bella bad. But eventually.......

Eventually, that love couldn't be sat on anymore. He took care of me. Every single night, no matter how neurotic, paranoid, or ridiculous I got, he called. He called to tell me he loves me, he will still love me in the morning, sleep peacefully. He made time for me, and he showed me every single day how much he loved me, how much he still loves me. He makes me feel like I am worht something, and because of this, I am learning to have confidence in myself.

And so we ended up together. He is mine, and I am his, and we love each other deeply. I know I will love him every day of my life, and he continues to show me that same love every day. He sets me on fire, in the best way. His love, his romance, is beyond words. Our relationship grows stronger every day.

We are still such great friends, too, even with the romance involved. We write stories for each other, and lately we've been writing one together, just for us. We watch television together, we spend time in each other's presence... even if we don't say or do anything, we just know the other is there. Every night, he calls me and leaves the video up so that I can fall asleep and not get nightmares, and on the nights I get them anyway, he takes care of me, comforts me, reassures me, then soothes me back to sleep. We talk a lot about just general things, sharing laughs, miserable days, and anything that comes to mind. He is my best friend. And oh... the romance. That's all I will say on it. It's private, but trust me.... it's fantastic.

I couldn't ask for a better partner, or for a better friend. He's what I've been looking for all this time. He doesn't really like super-public mushiness, and I, while being slightly more okay with PDA, tend to share his sentiment on overly mushy and sappy couples, so you likely won't hear another entry like this... ever. Even on a wedding week. But this is Friend Friday so I have made an exception to that rule and hope that he won't mind that it was made, just this once.

I love you, JJ.

Themeless Thursday

2009-02-19T18:22:00.000-08:00

I am very sick today. I've been throwing up and coughing and I have headaches and... well, other stuff. Let's jsut say, nto a pleasant day. As a reslt, I have no theme and no themed entry for today. If you'd like to leave a suggestion for Thursday themes, I'd love to ear them. Or, of you want to weight on in the following, feel free:

thirsty thursday - where i describe a mixed drink, how to make it, what to serve it with, etc.

truthful thursday - where i reveal some truth about me OR i reveal some hidden truth about somethign in the media

turbo thursday - where i discuss cars, etc. i scrapped this plan because i'd igured i'd do speedy sunday and do car news plus the nascar races, but if you'd rather turbo thursday then i can come up with a different sunday theme

traditional thursday - where i talk about a longstanding tradition in my house OR i find and either celebrate or debunk (or both) a tradition some culture, group, etc has.

tasty thursday - where i post one of my recipes and why i love it and what it goes well with

WTF Wednesday

2009-02-18T20:25:00.000-08:00

So the Wednesday theme is WTF Wednesday. Something totally random, hilarious, or just plain stupid will be posted.

Today's first WTF Wednesday is the state if Utah. Why?

> Cookout on the Highway!!! On the same day (though, sadly, different interstates) a beer truck crashes, spilling beer all over the interstate, and a hamburger truck crashes, leaving hamburgers all over the highway. Bystander quoted as saying, "There was meat everywhere." No... really??

http://www.kutv.com/content/news/local/story/Wheres-The-Beef-Truck-Crash-Litters-Freeway-With/7wEGHe02WEyMw6bf2ww7Ow.cspx

> Undone by Undies! A heroic (read: stupid) woman chases down a burglar (or should I say up... a hill...) and finally nabs him by his underoos! That's right - she gave him a wedgie so bad he conceded. A tip to you hoodlums out there: not only are saggy pants NOT a cool fashion statement... they also hinder your speedy getaway.

http://www.kutv.com/content/news/local/story/Would-Be-Burglar-Snagged-By-A-Snuggie/Or7tjQbUq0KwbAlMRhLQBg.cspx

> Wal-Mart Wedding?! As TheJadeGeek points out, I forgot to mention the couple wo married in a Wal-MArt to save money. "Don't forget the Southern-Utah couple who wanted to save money so they got married in a Wal-Mart. (Where the groom works.) http://www.ksl.com/index.php?nid=148&sid=5601062 Total family size now, 9. 2 kids from him and 6 kids from her." Wow, that's worse than the Brady Bunch meeting the Jeffersons!

The next WTF Wednesday award goes to Southern Illinois University. Why? They plagiarized a report decrying plagiarism! http://techdirt.com/articles/20090207/1751003685.shtml Relly? You couldn't at least creatively rephrase it with your Thesaurus tool?

The final WTF Wednesday of the week goes to the cat lady. Not Angela - the other one. Everyone loves Hello Kitty these days, and it's become a bit of a cult classic. Along with transition from cute kiddie to cult classic came the introduction of Gothic Kitty - a black and grey, and much less perky, Hello Kitty model. This woman is selling real life gothic kittens. I know some might find it hilarious (cough, JJ, cough) but I am definitely against cruelty to animals.

http://www.breitbart.com/article.php?id=D96DHNDG1&show_article=1

Time Out Tuesday

2009-02-17T11:00:00.000-08:00

Microfantasy Monday got me thinking about weekly postings as a way to ensure that Your blog constantly has new content. I thought... why not every day? So I bring you.. Timeout Tuesday!

Each Tuesday, I will write a blog entry that details anywhere form 1 to 5 people I dealt with over the past week that I would like very much to place in the Time Out Box for one offense or another. Since it's the inaugural entry, we'll go with 5.

My boss. The woman. IVF Lady. Facebook. Bailouts.

1) My boss. Seriously. Take a time out and cool it. So I work for a lady who is a bit mentally unstable. By a bit I mean a lot. She micromanages me to death and over-organizes things to the point that it takes even longer to find or do anything than it would otherwise. She keeps it very cold. Now, I'm the kind of person who wears flip flops year round. I was wearing closed toe shoes and a sweater and I was still numb. Absurd. She has a separate set of rules for me than the rest of the office. I'm not allowed to eat or drink at my desk (including water or drinks meant for taking medicine with); I'm not allowed to listen to music, however quietly. It's gotten so bad that someone suggested I quit and sell my liver on the black market. Now, she has sliced my hours in more than half because she's mad at my dad over some political b.s. but she will snipe and complain if I decide to look for a job with another company to cover the rest of the hours.

2) The woman. I will simply call her this, and keep details to a minimum, because I don't want it to come back on my dad. He's a boss who just cut his pay by about 15% in order to keep his staff from having to take cuts or get laid off. This Woman is on his staff. Her job description has shrunk significantly since she was hired, but her pay hasn't reflected this. Dad's been incredibly lenient with her. She was originally hired as an interim until we found someone to replace the last person in this position, and we hired her as the replacement conditionally upon getting a degree we agreed to pay for in the field. She decided to change the degree to something else without consulting and became upset when we said we could no longer pay for the education. She started spreading a lot of lies and drama and generally making trouble for the rest of the staff. She was asked by my father and the board to resign, and since then it has gone to Hell. Literally. She's got people glaring at my dad and ignoring my mother. The chair of the board was accused of drunk driving and being drunk to meetings when he never drinks outside of his own home. She had her youngest son spread it among his friends who have parents that know my dad, etc. She's the reason my boss chopped my hours, and is now trying to spread rumors about my character and ethics. It's just.... this woman claims to be a Christian example, has a position of leadership inside the church. Seriously, lady? I'm a Christian and you've made me hate Christianity. Time out box. Now!

3) It's a tough call on who I want to go to time out more here - the IVF lady or the people who actually allowed her to have that much fertility treatment when already on "The Dole."

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/worldnews/article-1142566/The-mother-baby-bumps-Octuplets-mum-bares-ENORMOUS-stomach-just-days-giving-birth.html

That article pretty much sums it up situationally. I am all about repro rights for women, but... Come on. She's on welfare. There are a ton of potential parents all over the county who are trying very hard to have kids, who would dote on these kids and love them and support them - without welfare - that are being denied this treatment, or are being told that they just don't have enough eggs, sperm, etc. So why does this woman get so many chances when these other women are being denied? That does not compute with me.

4) Facebook. I will shortly be posting an update regarding their TOS changes. I am organizing the information at the moment. Regardless of whether they do or don't claim the right to your content indefinitely - even after it's removed - they still get a Time Out. If this is all a misunderstanding, as they claim, and they don't -really- claim your content interminably, then all they have to do is add the sentence back to their TOS to reassure users. That's it. If they don't plan on using it for evil either way, and it doesn't make a difference to them whether it exists or not, then what's stopping them from issuing a revised edition of their new TOS that includes the sentence in question. It's stupid and stubborn to not replace it, and it has caused more hassle than if they'd just come out and said, "Oops! We messed up! We're adding it back in as we speak."

5) Bailouts. Okay, so times are hard and people are spending less. You didn't. You overspent, and as a result you laid people off, so now they have even less to spend. Then, you go and you cry for mercy to the Congress, who bails you out for fear of losing all the lobbyist money they get from you to keep their cushy position. WTF. Okay, I really feel like crying, "No taxation without representation!!" and tossing some tea into the Atlantic. Yeah, I know, we have representatives that We the People voted into office. But we voted them in under the understanding that they are OUR representatives there to serve OUR needs. (Yes, I know none of us actually expect this, but theoretically...) When we have very little disposable income, when we are being laid off, it is NOT in our best interest to keep bailing out these companies. Let them bail themselves out. We're a capitalist nation (again, theoretically) and as such they should find a way to bail themselves out, be bought out, whatever. Either way, it's not on me and my tax dollar to bail them out of their "crisis" when their executives are still making more money in a few months than I make all year. So, time out to you, Congress, and time out to you as well, Executives. Try living on half your salary and putting the other half back into your company. If all you did that, you wouldn't need us to bail you out, and you'd still have more money than the average American worker.

As TheJadeGeek pointed out, "Capitalism without bankruptcy is like religion without Hell." -Unknown

Facebook or Faceplant?

2009-02-16T13:49:00.000-08:00

I'm sure almost everyone is familiar with the Facebook. It started 5 years ago as a networking tool between university students, using 13 pilot universities. Since then it has grown. It is now the globe's premier social networking site. It has garnered attention from reputable businesses and celebrities as well as the average end-user looking to communicate and network. It is used for a multitude of things. Playing games, chatting with friends, posting photo albums (especially of group trips), and networking, are among the common things for an average end-user.

Other users, such as businesses, bloggers, and celebrities, create fan pages along with their personal profiles. They upload their proprietary content as an additional menas of distribution and use Facebook to reach their fans with their new content.

There is another, perhaps overlooked, set of users in this group as well. These people are emerging artists, photographers, performers, and writers. They use Facebook to get their name out, to forge connections, to post their songs to an audience who will take advantage fo free music, and to get a sort of focus group or prescreening of their content to see if it will go over well in the mainstream.

Facebook has recently announced new Terms of Service (TOS). Under their former TOS, you allowed them to have rights to your content for the time that your content was on their site. Here's the exerpt.

"When you post User Content to the Site, you authorize and direct us to make such copies thereof as we deem necessary in order to facilitate the posting and storage of the User Content on the Site. By posting User Content to any part of the Site, you automatically grant, and you represent and warrant that you have the right to grant, to the Company an irrevocable, perpetual, non-exclusive, transferable, fully paid, worldwide license (with the right to sublicense) to use, copy, publicly perform, publicly display, reformat, translate, excerpt (in whole or in part) and distribute such User Content for any purpose on or in connection with the Site or the promotion thereof, to prepare derivative works of, or incorporate into other works, such User Content, and to grant and authorize sublicenses of the foregoing. You may remove your User Content from the Site at any time. If you choose to remove your User Content, the license granted above will automatically expire, however you acknowledge that the Company may retain archived copies of your User Content."

This might sound like a lot of legal, wordy mumbo jumbo to some of you, so let me explain. The long sentence that tells you what youg rant them boils down to this: Facebook has a right to use your content for their site promotion. They can take any part of it to use in other areas of the site, in commercials and marketing, etc. The end of the paragraph says that this right ends as soon as you remove that content form their website. They're allowed to keep an archive of your work, but they no longer posess the rights to use or distribute this.

The new TOS reads exactly the same, but it removes this sentence:

"If you choose to remove your User Content, the license granted above will automatically expire, however you acknowledge that the Company may retain archived copies of your User Content."

Essentially, this grants them the rights to your content indefinitely. When did this happen? February 4th. This is causing a huge uproar because, based on the way it was written, you are helpless to stop this. They indefinitely own any content you have posted. Sure, you can close your account and never post anything more to Facebook..... but they've already claimed the right to all the things that you posted under the prior TOS because today's version says they posess everything.

What can you do about this? It depends on your situation.

If you don't have content you feel like you want protected, then carry on as usual but beware of what you post in the future. Chances are, the majority of Facebook users will not be affected by the new TOS. Afterall, they can't distribute or use your personal information based on thier own privacy clause, which has not been changed..... YET.

If you haven't posted anything between February 3rd and now, you're more than likely fine as well. Do NOT post anything more, and if a dispute arrises, you can say, "This content was posted before the TOS were changed. It was posted under the acceptance of the prior TOS, and therefore cannot be used." You will have the fact that you did not post anything once the TOS was changed to your advantage in this case, and Facebook will have a very hard time explaining how they can legally justify using that content when you never opted in to the new TOS and clearly did not approve of it, as nothing was posted since.

Oh no! But I didn't know until it was too late!! I posted things after the 4th!! What do I do??

I am currently working on finding a remedy or loophole somewhere. I am consulting with lawyers regarding the legality of this silent TOS change and the ramifications of logging in unknowingly after it was changes. I have a couple sources who work at Facebook, and I plan on askign them about the new TOS, what it means to users, how they plan on using this content, etc. A followup blog will be posted when I have the information.

Welcome!

2009-02-16T12:59:00.000-08:00

Lately, there have been a lot of events going on that I've had some thoughts on, and said, "Hey I should bl... oh, I don't have a blog." Well, now I do.

Welcome to my blog. I shall be posting a bunch of random thoughts, ponderings, etc., on anything I happen to think about. Could be news, tech, happenings in my life, things I particularly enjoy....

I love feedback and suggestions, too, so feel free to leave those. Also, if there's anythign you want to see discussed, I am amenable to user-suggested blog entries. :)