My Existence

A big thank you to Mr. David Bates (@davidbates) for giving me the chance to write an article as a Guest.

I was joking around on Twitter, sadly that 140 character limit doesn’t leave room for a lot of serious discussion, and made up a few acronym’s revolving around Apple products and or some affectionate names that are thrown around towards Apple Fanboys.

You can read my quickly written article at here at his blog, http://dlbates.com/!

I’m not a reviewer, writer or none of that jazz.  Unless Apple were to start singing a new tune, I’ll always be an avid AAF - Anti-Apple Fan.  Yeah, I just made that up.

The things I dislike about Apple:

1. The “buzz” that gets generated over their products.
2. The features that said products have that are made out to be innovative or never before seen.
3. The missing features that consumers ignore and never question the lack of.
4. The cost of their products.
5. The restrictiveness of their products or services.
6. The fact that any monkey can use them.

So, I’m going to break this down point by point over the next week and apply my dislikes against the newly minted Apple iPad, I hope.  I have a tendency to take my time with things, so unfortunately for anyone reading this, it could take me a month.  This is what being a “real” blogger is all about, how it started - Writing thoughts and feelings about a topic WITHOUT having to worry about a deadline, time frame or pressure from a manufacturer.

And hey, Apple?  Want to try and sway a hater?  Send me some stuff!  LOL - I’d be more than happy to review an iPad for example, but I will *never* be caught dead paying for one, sorry.  Just not for me I don’t think and will never get an opportunity to flesh one out otherwise.

So please, stay tuned and feel free to contact me on Twitter, through a Google service, Skype, MSN or Ovi at the screen name Inacurate to give me a nudge or poke me with hot irons to get moving!

In no particular order, just thoughts jumbling off the top of my head.

• I’d like to be able to configure notification lights, sound alerts and vibrating at the account level. I want Gmail to flash Blue/White/Orange or flash four times blue. But I don’t want AIM and Yahoo to flash at all. E-mail to flash twice blue.  I want Skype to play Chat 1 and ICQ to play Chat 2.
• To be able to setup direct contact shortcuts on home screens to call, SMS, Skype them directly. So I could have three buttons on one home screen that use different methods to communicate with the same contact.
• I’d like to be able to create more home screens in a grid pattern or however I want. 2×2, 3×2, 4×3, 2×6 etc.
• I’d like to have gestures built into the OS. So swiping down, right, down(DRD) on a home screen does x.  Swiping up and down while in file manager behaves like windows directory, going back and forth for example. But I would want that swiping to be configurable by the end user.
• When looking at the task manager, it would be “cool” if the individual tasks could be interacted with on a basic level, like if they are at a Yes/No, Save/Discard prompt. Or maybe music player play&pause/mute/stop.
• Back light remains off(w/power saving on) when x happens. Say if installing an application or a prompt comes up. Would be nice if screen turned back on, signify it was waiting for input.
• Having a FIVE step delete process when using menu, why? First you have to click menu bar, then click delete, select your items, click delete and then confirm. I should be able to configure that to my liking, remove confirmation for example.
• I like not being nagged by any AP issues, connections *just work* as they should. But what if I WANT to have the web ONLY use EDGE when x network is unavailable? Or if I want Skype to only connect to Wi-Fi and not EDGE/3G at any time? S60 did this well and there were a ton of applications that also assisted.
• I miss contact specific ring tones!
• Virtual keyboard needs some loving.  I know the QWERTY is a great method, but sometimes I just don’t want to slide out the keyboard to input something quick!

That’s it.  You will notice everything is software related.  Sure, there are hardware things I wouldn’t mind seeing changed, but NONE of the hardware is a deal breaker for me. Keyboard is above acceptable, camera works, screen works, slider works!  CPU is great. RAM is above acceptable.  Nothing there prevents me from efficiently using the device or holds me back in any way.

I may amend this last as time goes on, thankfully software updates allow for that.  It’s not like I am missing a Flash, don’t have a keyboard or not enough RAM.  None of those deficiencies could be solved without me laying down a lot more money!   The only change I would even consider doing that for, would be AT&T 3G bands….but really? I have Wi-fi 95% of the day, why do I need 3G?

How come no one has made these yet?  I have had a number of good discussions lately on a variety of topics and as we all know, Twitters 140 character max can be a bit limiting when discussions require big words or more than one sentence.

Sure, we can send out a number of tweets, but that could be considered spam and while it is the spamee’s responsibility to unfollow whom they believe to be spamming, that still doesn’t give a better option to have a thought out discussion with big words and complete sentences.

So who is going to do this? I came up with a few “no brainers” for starts.

• Use OAuth, duh.
• Chat creator & second person* joining the chat have “admin” rights, in which both** are required to remove a person from chat.
• Ability to record chat and Save As.. as simple text file.
• Ability to tweet / retweet acceptable messages, IE: Those under 140 characters.
• Same functionality as TweetDeck; Shortening of links, for starters; all the way to translating?
• Google Wave functionality?
• Chats get cleared, purged and emptied 24 hours after

Being a long time AT&T subscriber, I have come up with the perfect response AT&T should use as counter-marketing.

Copy, basically, the Verizon commercial except add some additional visuals….focus on the Verizon map of the US and then overlay it across a spinning globe, showing coverage area.

Then do the same for their own coverage area in the US, then overlay it across the globe.

See who has better coverage then….am fairly certain AT&T wins that battle as GSM is a more widely adopted technology outside of the US compared to CDMA.

I tried to confirm my speculation, but unfortunately the number of hoops you have to jump through to view such a map is directly proportional to how good their coverage is in my opinion.  AT&T wasn’t all that difficult, considering GSM technology has about an 81% market share:  http://www.coveragemaps.com/gsmposter_world.htm

Finding a CDMA map however, I had no luck.  Verizon’s(Like AT&T’s) website does not offer an all in one downloaded map, the best option I could seem to find would be located here:  http://www.cdg.org/worldwide/index.asp

AT&T would of course need a disclaimer stating not all services may be available in all areas, but I think that goes without saying.  Personally, I would rather have a signal for a voice call in more places, than a 3G/Edge connection as that voice signal could be what saves my life.  Not a data connection to the internet.  At least it is a lot less likely a life savor.

To follow the biggest band-wagon on the interwebz, I am hereby dubbing all content updates on my blog here to be a part of the “2.0″ age of the net!  As such, I will do my best to ensure the following few key points that seem to be cropping up everywhere on news sites, blogs and other locales through which important topics are digested to the sheep huddled over their desk staring at their screen.  Hopefully, what is on their screen is SFW!

• I will routinely get easily verified facts horribly wrong.
• I will without hesitation, misquote every single noteworthy person.
• I will also assume I knew what they were TRYING to say, and speak for them.
• I will also bia unbiasedly give you my opini the facts on important things.
• In that spirit, I will allow you to draw your OWN conclusions on the subject at hand, not trying to sway your thoughts.
• So long as you read what I say and agree with it as if it were carved in stone.
• If any reader of my updates gets unruly, I will without hesitation block their access to my site.*
• Unless they pay me.  Or give me cool free stuff.  Or they..wait, SFW!
• When I review items, software or games; I will of course ensure that my review is not based on the actual product, but small snippets of comments from other people and how I perceive the product should behave.  Please see the first bullet for further clarification.

So, if you are Nokia, Apple, Google, Microsoft, any PC game developer, any 360 developer or anyone with a boat load of cash you would like for me to review, please contact me!  On top of reviewing your product, for a small fee I can assure you that your product will receive a favorable** review by me and the patrons of my site will know they want to buy it!

So please contact me today!

*Individuals are deemed unruly by me and as such I reserve the right to deem anyone who disagrees with me unruly.

**Unless of course your competitor pays me more than you did to write an unfavorable review, in which case I will contact you and let you know that, giving you a chance*** to pay me MORE than they did to publish a good review.

***Your competitor will also be given a chance** to increase their fee.

http://www.cnn.com/2009/POLITICS/09/23/lawsuit.acorn/index.html

Seriously people?  Does anyone agree with ACORN’s stance  here? It is doing nothing but help further promote the idea that it is OK to hide behind laws while doing something wrong, that their “reputation” is more important than the truth, that people are no longer allowed to have a voice and that you can try and get away with anything in a lawsuit!!

Regardless of how the information is collected, the only thing that should be important here is what two of ACORN employee’s were caught doing.  Now, take a step back here…I do not feel ACORN should be held 100% responsible for what went on as long as they took the appropriate steps after this went down and then put into place preventative measures to reduce the risk of this happening again.  However, nor should they be able to do what they are trying to do and hide behind the laws.

I am so sick of the entrapment BS.  If an officer of the law is hiding behind a big rock and catches a civilian speeding, does it mean they were not speeding?  HELL NO!  Why should anyone have any leg to stand on, any avenue or path to fight the charges simply because the officer was not in plain sight allowing the civilian to slow down?  That is saying “Hey it is OK if you break the law, just don’t get caught!  Have a good day!”

Take some responsibility for your actions people, if you do something wrong - Don’t point the finger elsewhere and don’t do everything in your power to get out of any punitive action taken against you.  It is a part of the growing experience, and the young kids these days really really are going to be a handful in 5-10 years.

Likewise, just because there were two bad apples, does not mean ACORN should be punished unfairly.  If they fired the offending employees and are going to do their best to ensure things like this do not happen again, they did their bit and that should be that.  Public funding shouldn’t be cut off unless ACORN was directing these people to make the decisions that were made.

Let’s show the young people in America that it is NOT right to try and cheat the law by any means necessary or to unfairly punish an entire entity for the actions of a couple members.

Common sense and responsibility!!  Maybe I will run for office and that will be my slogan.

I am under 30, I have a great job, I have real insurance now, and a roof over my head with a little bit of credit card debt.  Why am I here you ask?  Because my story is just as important as the others who are in trouble right now.  I’m going to single out one group:  The people and businesses who lived outside their means.  I sit hear listening and reading the news and I wonder why this group is being given training wheels, is being hand-held - for their mistakes?  I sit here, wondering why exactly we need to help this group of people, with no consequences for their past actions and no guarantee their future actions will be any wiser.  My life IS going to be affected by this crisis, but the effect is going to be cause by an improperly implemented stimulus package that isn’t even going to help the people who really need it - People who have lost their jobs and the companies that aren’t making any revenue because sales are poor.  Sales paid for predominantly, knowingly or not by the company, with credit.  I think a very large percentage of companies “forecast” sales and base their business decisions on that - This model doesn’t work, this crisis proves that.  A company, and even people themselves, need to operate going by worst case scenarios, all the time.  When they want to expand, instead of putting it on CREDIT or EXPECTED sales, it should be done and paid for up front.  If it is done any other way, you leave yourself open if someone bad happens, again as this crisis proves.

This crisis is going to hurt me, and I feel for everyone who has lost their job during this time.  Those people, and people who are aware enough to see the true problem, need to direct their anger and disbelief at the people responsible for this current crisis.  There are a few groups on the list, all but one are talked about:  The people who live outside their means.  You were the start of this problem, with your credit cards you couldn’t pay off and loose spending habit, the $400k+ house you didn’t need.  You gave companies reason to expect sales, you gave false forecasts.  You gave this recession its start.

I want to thank you, for ten years from now I will be paying off your debts and I won’t have a say about it.  I will be unable to do anything, and I’m going to be punished because you didn’t know how to show a little restraint.  I also want to thank the companies that jumped on the credit bandwagon who helped instigate this problem by making credit so easily available and building your entire company based on sales from fake money.  I thank you, and at the same time laugh at you, for your bad judgment.

Ok, I have recently gotten into a band.  A virtual one, of course.  Drumming has always been one of those idle interest’s of mine, you know how it goes.  Some like singing, others guitars.  Well I have been playing the drums through Guitar Hero and / or Rock Band the past week since first really playing it at the last Nor’Easter LAN and then at a long time friend from HS and current co-workers place!

As I was driving into work this morning and was beating on the steering wheel to some song that was playing and I thought to myself “How cool would it be if I could play with a band LIVE while they were playing at some concert somewhere!!!!

Think about it - with technology the way it is, don’t you think it would be possible to take the music they are playing and stream it live to a PC or console and have the game display the notes, simplified more than likely to only display the ones that are available or to make it more “real” it could be done so that all the notes are displayed and the playable ones stand out like in current games.  Maybe the non-playable notes could be in the background or something?  A redesign of how the notes are presented to the user could be in order.

I think this idea has real potential personally.  There is no reason that I can think of why this wouldn’t be technically possible.  Latency wouldn’t be an issue.  It would be like live TV, you would just stream the audio and synch it with notes from the source.  You wouldn’t have to be “real-time” with the band.  They would be about 5-10 seconds ahead of you but you would be playing with them, so to speak.  I think it could even work for audio singing, though that may be more of an issue as there is a lot more with vocals to decode and change up than with just notes.
In terms of a pricing model, there are many ways this could be handled.  If there was one game package or service that the bands went through, that would be best.  After that, I figure you could sell “shows” or “songs” and also have the songs you are about to play as DLC songs, of course.  And of course, songs I would hope would be a part of the product when you purchase the right to sit down and play with them.

Since everyone would be networked, a service could display stats after the song was finished, give out awards and track users details like how many notes they hit, streaks, etc.  On the 360, they could get achievements for example, or their information could be viewable in their profile to see how well they did and all that information could be tracked.

Could be turned into a good service to find new music talent?  Who knows.

Man, I really want this to be a reality now, LOL…

http://www.cnn.com/2009/HEALTH/04/22/plan.b.age/index.html?eref=rss_topstories

My favorite line, also the last, and I quote:  “Critics charge that the drug’s action amounts to an abortion, and they opposed making it available over the counter.”

Next, critics are going to argue that wearing a condom amounts to abortion and that they should not be available over the counter.

I’m sorry, but until there is a heartbeat, a being that can survive on it’s own, and a conscience will - there is no life.  Until all of those conditions are met, there is as much life in the womb as there is in a single celled organism.  That is my opinion and I am sticking to it.

If you want to disagree, fine.  But there are measurable quantities that can determine when life is present.  Accept the truth, swallow your opinion and allow people to make their own choices.  Unless of course, you want to start protesting cigarettes, drugs, alcohol, vehicles, guns, blades, or anything else that can kill a person, which is taking a life.

It’s all the same.

Just a quick thought to all those who received bonuses from AIG.

Instead of returning them to the company, where the money is simply going to be spent on something else just as ridiculous…..why not do a novel thing and GIVE THE MONEY TO REAL PEOPLE WHO NEED IT?

Just a thought, you know?

I’m sick of “the public” getting mad because something silly or stupid, AKA wrong, happened - yet they don’t have an idea on what should have happened, or what the best thing to do would be.

As a receiver of a bonus from AIG, I would have publically announced my intentions and asked that the money was not held against me during taxes or in any other way.  Depending on the amount, I would have given it to someone who really needed it.

It just makes sense, don’t you think?

About me, of course!    What else did you expect?  You will love this one, for sure.
The past week or so I have run into the “Duh!” moment for myself that seems to be more frequent lately.  It seems to be popping up everywhere in my daily routine whether it be at work, home or out and about.  Every single time I run into this realization, I end up saying “Duh!” to myself and shaking my head.  Just seems like the average amount of these moments is increasing.

I’m just not sure if I am just being more of myself, or others around me are just falling below my expectations of them.  Quite annoyed.  Some people, always surprise me and while they may not meet my expectations, they fulfill them in other ways.  Others, just routinely disappoint and make me wonder if there is a serious disconnect with the rest of the general population and the others like myself.  Every now and then those who disappoint like clockwork can surprise you too, but in most cases after everything is said and down it came down to dumb luck or was just a coincidence, but these people have their moments too.  Just like I have my own moments where I fall below my own expectations, I have to admit.  If I were not to do that, I couldn’t take myself seriously when I run into these moments.  It’s one thing to think you are better than someone else.  It is quite another to really believe it.  And lastly, to know you are better than someone else really hits home sometimes.
Either way, to many times this past week I have bumped into this realization and honestly?  How annoyed would you be if you kept realizing how much more in tune, smarter, observant and in touch with reality you are compared to other people?

No bull, no bragging, not trying to have an ego.  It just seems to be one of those things, you know?  Think of me as Dr. Gregory House.  Extremely confident in the fact that when it comes to my mental abilities compared to another average person, I think I will come out on top almost every time.

It’s weird then, when I look at some of the things going on in my life right now and I appear to be in the loosing position.  I sometimes wonder if subconsciencly I make myself an underachiever on purpose - so I have to try that much harder to stay ahead or that I don’t completely blow the competition out of the water.

I would like very much one day to find someway to *really* test my mental aptitude, my ability to adapt and overcome, my reasoning and logic skills, and my insight into the human mind and what makes it tick.

Tomorrow though, I think I am just going to go into work and kick some ass!  I most certainly still have a LOT to learn at this job, I have been there just under a year and was honestly hoping I would know more than I do right now.  While I am disappointed I have not absorbed more knowledge, there really is a lot of information and I feel like I have taken in quite a lot.  I feel good also, since I am more of a person who can really shine when taking in information through data( reading books, notes, etc ) and the majority of information for this job is learned through doing, good ol hands on.  Not my personal choice, but that doesn’t really matter right?

I knew that going in, so I’m certainly not complaining about that fact.  I am complaining about myself though, I’m not sure if I have given 100% every day or not.  I always tend to hold myself back a little when entering new situations because I’m afraid I will annoy the wrong person, so I hold back some of my thoughts and slow myself down to stay with the pack and not stand out.  I’m not sure if that is a good thing or a bad thing, or not even a thing but just something everyone does without even thinking about it?

Well I think about it, and honestly it bothers me.  It bothers me that I feel I have to hold myself back in fear of some sort of backlash or retaliation from another who doesn’t want to be shown up or simply have their complacent ways changed because that is just the way they are, which isn’t always a bad thing.  It bothers me more however, that while holding myself back I am not giving it my all and I could be doing so much more for my employer and maybe those very same people who are afraid of change or afraid of competition.

Fear not my Zeal; Fear how you Feel;

Don’t use Might; To prevent what’s Right;

Let us be One; Overcome we can;

All that Diminishes and Separates;

Feel my Zeal?  Feel the Fear?

Join with me; Together we can;

Overcome the Fear; As One.

Been a very long time since I scratched out anything that could closely resemble poetry…….I obviously still need practice!  LOL

“I am more happy to be communicating my desires to you Mr. President, than for you to hopefully be reading them.  I know you are a very busy man, but I have one question for you, that hopefully passes across your eyes:  Where is the transparency with the credit card companies?  Your team wants to spend millions more on the DTV switch, yet you could stimulate our pockets better by having these shady companies REDUCE interest rates across the board for every American, and see immediate results.”

My Bank of America APR increased to 28.99 percent from 22.99 percent.  Yeah, just 6% you say.  Not as much as some other people, you say.  Your point?  Whether I now have to pay an additional $1, $10 or $100 dollars, it is THAT much less money in my pocket.  That much less money I have to spend as a consumer.  Obama’s Administration wants to stimulate the economy?  Try getting these credit card companies, who are increasing APRs because of THEIR BAD MANAGEMENT decisions and an increase in the number of people defaulting on their payments, to actually LOWER the APRs.  Maybe then, more people would see a light at the end of the tunnel.  Maybe more people would be willing to work through it and try to pay off the debt instead of simply filing for bankruptcy.

If my bad decisions caused me to get in so much debt I couldn’t find a way out, why does the bad decisions made by these companies not only get them government assistance, but also give them a real good excuse to make some extra money while they are at it?  Where is my handout?  Where is my free ticket for my bad decisions?  Oh wait, I don’t have the political pull that would be necessary to get a JLA BailOut package, do I?

As has been said already, the Government is making a very bad precedent for companies that fail to go running to them looking for assistance.  Now I am totally all for Socialism, but done the RIGHT way.  Star Trek or Babylon 5 style where the government is run by honest folk who run and provide everything for everyone and people are not greedy and gluttonous, but strive to excel and improve themselves everyday.  Ok, JLA Niave Hour is over now.

On one side, these companies are getting help and on the other they are taking advantage of consumers.  You want to know why credit isn’t loosening up?  Interest Rates.  These companies are all playing ball, old school style.  For the moment, it may APPEAR to be working according to their number crunchers, but in reality consumers like me and you have that much less money to put into the economy, and that much less revenue is being made by companies, who are forced to increase prices on the few consumers who still have some money because they were lucky or smart enough to avoid a lot of debt and these consumers in turn are now really making every dollar stretch as far as possible.  It is a vicious circle, but the credit card companies are simply jumping on the bandwagon because of their bad choices in the financial market.

They are taking advantage of the politics of the situation, making this “need” for them and their companies.  An artificial need, for sure.  If everyone lived in their means, as we all should be doing, what need would there be for companies like these?  The fundamental problem lies in the price inflation of certain worldly goods that are commonly accepted in today’s society as “needed.”  A house, a car, a boat, etc.  With less people building their own, because of a lack of skill or the laws that have popped up to prevent people from doing it, house prices inflated.  That created a demand for loans.  Which carried over to automobiles and of course anything else you can purchase that costs more than you make.  Loans soon turned into a credit system, where you may not want something as expensive as a house, but you want some pricey things and cannot afford them.

With no proper regulation from the beginning, these companies have a lot of people stuck.  The people who can’t pay, have now created the demand for another job - “debt consolidation.”  As if I or anyone else couldn’t consolidate our own debt if these credit card companies would actually work WITH us?  But oh no, we need to be some big bad business to be able to “consolidate” a person’s debt.  Including our own!?

I just don’t get it.  I am all for paying off my debt, thankfully I have a very small amount because I caught myself before I got sucked into the wormhole, but couldn’t these credit card companies be REASONABLE about things?  Don’t jack rates because your management made bad decisions and you are trying to recoup your losses.  You are not like a traditional business.  If you lose money in bad bets, you shouldn’t be demanding more money from people who still don’t have it.

Unless of course, you want to keep them with all their debt, that way you get more money in the longterm?  Maybe that is why you first lower people’s limits and then mention if they can get to 60% of their limit, they can get a lower APR?  A little quick math in an example, you ask?  $10,000 limit, $6,000 is 60%.  If someone previously had say, $7,500 balance and were told to reach 60%, they would have a mere $1,500 to go.  But if you first lower their limit to say $8,000 and then offer the 60% option, 60% of $8,000 is $4,800.  $7,500 - $4,800 is $2,700.  That is an additional $1,200 more that person now has to lower their balance by, instead of the $1,500.

Interesting little tactic, wouldn’t you agree?  And yes, that was an EXAMPLE.  At time have I ever held a credit card with a $10,000 limit!  As if.  Please.  Only $10, really?  Common.  I have never had anything under $50k, duh!

You know what, I listened to the clip and thought to myself…wow, what set that off?  Might it have been the stress from the accusations against you a few days earlier concerning your family?  Or that you expect a professional to be a professional and not commit such a STUPID accident?  Something else?  A combination of everything?  Either way, I listened to someone obviously venting stress on someone who just happened to be the wrong guy in the wrong place.  To many swear words, yeah.  If you really verbally threatened him, that’s a no-no, but it was an ACCIDENT, right?  If that guy can make one….

I first saw Christian Bale in Equilibrium and honestly said to myself “This guy could play Batman!” - and now here he is having starred in two very successful movies in the Batman franchise and I am happily still a fan.

He blew up, it was the last straw on his back, his cup runneth over, what’s the problem exactly?  Oh that is right, he is a CELEBRITY!  He can’t have any faults, he can do no wrong.  Screw that, he is as human as the rest of us and MAKES MISTAKES and life gets to him too.

If I had a co-worker do something as silly as “accidentally” stepping within a marked boundary, I would be a little upset too.  I wouldn’t ever respond like Bale did, but I would be upset when such a simple thing as “Don’t cross this line!” can’t be followed by a trained professional!!  And likewise, if I ever “accidentally” broke such a simple rule, I would expect to get kicked in the rear.  I mean really, who can be so dense?  As long as the boundary is marked, it is kinda fool-proof, no?  It’s one thing when someone is out of their element, or new to the field or mentally challanged, but a DIRECTOR of photography should be skilled enough to be able to press a little button and watch where he was walking…

What’s that line?  Can’t snap and walk at the same time?  All you Bale haters, understand everyone makes mistakes.  This photographer made the bigger one.  Yes Bale went over the top, and if he did threaten this gentleman that was most certainly uncalled for.  But I can see what caused him to - Someone didn’t know how to walk.

I’m with you Bale( minus the swear words and threats!! ) but I am behind you all the way.

I am not a political person, at all.  I don’t give a thought to all the bickering, the backstabbing, the lobbying, the pandering, the silly little speeches and certainly don’t waste my time arguing over who should be in charge, or leading this or that.

This country is founded on the belief that elected officials work for the ordinary citizens. What happened to that?  We have traveled to the extremes here, and are hypocritical on top of all that!  How can we turn our backs to what the country was founded on, while clutching hold the Constitution AND rewriting it to fit our needs?  For too long, America has been trying to have the cake and eat it too.

Today, I hope marks the change of that negative and defeating way of thinking.  We need to stop trying to CHANGE the rules and learn to live WITHIN them.  We need to learn to take responsbility and accountability for our actions and if it comes to a point where a finger needs to be pointed..look at your role in what happened.  What could you have done to STOP the problem, what did you do to HELP the problem?

To often we blame others, when the responsbility was on our own shoulders.  No one is perfect, we all make mistakes.  But don’t further compound the problem by then trying to place the blame on someone else.  Live up to your mistakes, own them.  Analyze what you did, what went wrong and how it could have been prevented.  Learn for the future, so the chance of those mistakes happening again are lessened.

We need to change America!  We need to change our core values, our beliefs and our goals.  We need to come to the understanding that wealth and power are not the reasons to be alive.  There is more to walking this earth than accumulating.  Be happy with who you are, always be on the lookout to try and help the person next to you and always remember that being a good person brings out the same in most others around you.

We are always going to have a small percentage of people who are unable to integrate with society, but that does not mean we need to respond to them in kind!  If the larger portion of the population is caring, giving and selfless, the population was a whole will improve.

I ask that each and every one of you reading this( IE:  no one!  ) to look within yourself for the oppurtunity to to improve yourself and help others.  Be reasonable in discussions, be giving.  Be respectable, selfless and unwanting.

Do we really NEED more to survive?

Just wow, this is America people.  Yes, you.  The one reading this.  If you were one of the 200 people entering this story and you SAW this go down, what would you have done?  Stopped and helped, ignored it, or left the store?

The real question though, is would you have even seen it?  Assuming you had line of sight on the victim, would it have even entered your mind or would you be “gottagetthebestdeal” crazy to even notice?!?

This is just the sad pathetic state this country is in now.  All we care about is spending money and getting the cheapest price.  Even over a person’s life.

I think every single person who bought something before the store was closed should be charged with assissting in a murder.  Yes, I am serious.  The only thing going through the minds of every person who went through that door was “Get the item I want.”  They had no regard for ANYTHING or ANYONE.  How many people get injured on this day every year?

Slow the frack down people, realize there is more to life than getting the best deal.  More to life than BUYING HAPPINESS.

I am so thankful I did not join the masses today, and why didn’t I?  I don’t have the money to be buying things I don’t need for the simple fact that they are on sale.  no money = no money, period.  It doesn’t matter if the item is 25% of even 50% off.  So I am spending less money that I already don’t have.  Wow, what a great deal that is.

I just can’t believe this.  You know what else would be something?  The family of the killed worker trying to sue Wal-Mart.  They have no right to do that, Wal-Mart cannot be held accountable and should not be held accountable for the stupidity of the masses.  If I hear about a story about a lawsuit being brought up against Wal-Mart I am just going to shake my head and realize that the family of this poor man, is NO BETTER than every single person who helped in killing him.  So hopefully, I don’t hear about such a story.

http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/minimalist

You know, the more news I read online from people who “know” what needs to happen in this country, one word keeps coming to mind; minimalist.

When did living in America mean you had to have the latest, greatest, biggest and most expensive thing?  When did this society reach that point, when the collective majority of us thought just like that?  SUVs, Mansions, Jewelry, Cars, Clothes, TVs, Big Macs and Whoppers.  To name a few examples.

http://www.cnn.com/2008/US/11/20/lkl.michael.moore/index.html?eref=rss_topstories and http://www.jaffejuice.com/2008/11/what-we-have-here-is-a-failure-to-communicate.html?referer=sphere_related_content are great reads that bring up a LOT of valid points.  Things this country should be looking at.

For years consumers have been asking for better MPG, environmentalists have been asking for hybrid cars and people have been talking about the dependence on foreign oil and the need for a long term solution to that oil.  What have American car companies done?  Nothing to very little on their own.  Sure the government has “forced” them to design vehicles that get better MPH, but it has been on their own timetable!  The three major CEO’s of American car companies and a few high up lawmakers prolly sat around a table playing cards and drinking and laughed about how much money they were making.  Big oil prolly had a few seats around the table too, they certainly don’t want oil to be phased out.

How about fast food.  They make very unhealthy food.  How long does it take for them to listen to advocates and health officials to make the food “healthier?”  Even though people know it is unhealthy, how often do they eat it?  Heck, I just finished eating McDonald’s, why?  It’s EASY.  FAST.  No mess.  It isn’t the companies fault we eat it up, they are providing an item and it is our decision to purchase it.  Not like smoking which is an addiction, which is another topic.  And who gets blamed for all the obese children in America?  Fast food companies, because you know..they bust into your house in the morning, drive you through their drive-thru with a gun pointed to your head to order something, they then pay for your meal before returning you to your home.  And they do the same thing for lunch and dinner.  Everyday.  All month.  For EVERYONE.  When was the last time you had Dunkin Donuts?  Can you go a week without going there just once?

Smoking, cigarette’s.  I hate smokers, I hope they all die.  Here are companies, that are legally allowed to sell an addicting drug that has a very high probability of killing their consumers.  Why?  Really, why?  Think about it for a moment.  Why would a body of government accept that?  Why would the public accept it?  Why would any one who knows better be OK with that?  I’m not.  But it at least, isn’t their fault they smoke.  Sure, they made an initial bad decision to try it, and got addicted.  Or they have the unfortunate luck of being around people who smoke a lot, but THAT is their decision too.  There is a wealth of information telling everyone how bad the products are, it is on the side of the fracking packaging!!!!  Yet people try them anyway, hence it is their decision.  Why isn’t the government doing something about these companies that sell a product that is addicting and kills.  Just how much money are they shelling out?  Why aren’t lawmakers standing up against these products?  Yes, I meant what I said.  I hope all smokers die.  And oh yeah, I lost my grandmother to lung cancer induced from….you got it!  Smoking.

Ok, I am starting to stray a bit from the minimalist topic, so back on track, but everything has a place I have talked about.  You have companies doing everything they can to stay in business, just to make a profit.  They don’t care if that product kills people, or doesn’t work.  How does this happen?  Because management of these companies care about power, wealth and stock options.  They have been disconnected from the consumer, from the people who want to buy products, remember them?  That is the management’s mistake, how about the consumers?

Buying the biggest, latest, best thing on the market.  Do they need it?  No.  But everyone else is getting it, so why shouldn’t they?  It is about status, power, wealth.  Not on the scale that the CEOs are on, but the thinking behind the decisions are the same.  The battleground is different, but the base strategy is just copied.  I want to know where the original came from.  Who started us down this path of needing MORE from everything.  Why can’t we get away with the bare minimum?  I have said it before and I will say it again:

I liken the Star Trek universe as the direction this country needs to be taking, with the idea of the Federation and Star Fleet in mind.  People worked for the state.  People were provided for by the state.  People wanted and got enough to survive, maybe a bit more.  People worked to better themselves and help those around them.

This country, and really the world, needs to head in a direction similar to that.  It could work, if everyone from top to bottom did their part and greed was eliminated.  Yet people cry Socialism as soon as you mention the state providing what you need.  Ok, so?  That’s what Socialism is!  What’s the problem?  Oh, right.  The problem is when the people in charge do what is best for THEM and not the community.  Of course the current government is never going to bring about these changes, nor would they even be able to sustain them.  To much greed and self-serving interests within the hearts and minds of those in power.  But it COULD happen.  If there was a system in place to ensure the people in charge of such a society had no reason to deviate from doing the right thing, it could work.

It could work, but human beings as a people need to change their fundamental values and beliefs for such a thing to ever be.  I wish I was alive when that day came, to see how this race has evolved.  What values mattered.  Assuming we survive that long and don’t blow each other up first.  Fun, eh?

So, as the title says I got a 37″ LCD for $580 from www.woot.com!  I am now in a moral dilemma.

I got my FedEx tracking number and signed up for e-mail updates and tracking exceptions.  The monitor was bought Thursday, October 9th shipped on the 14th and Saturday the 18th I got an update from FedEx saying “Damaged, handling per shipper instructions” - which is to return shipment to them.  I hop online and sure enough, it is updated as such!  I would then be refunded and at that point, unable to purchase another one due to the nature of how woot operates.  They sell one item a day until it sells out or it hits 10pm CST, 11pm EST.  So I was looking at a refund, and then being unable to get a really good deal!

I e-mail woot and inform them what FedEx has updated my shipment as and inquire as to what is going to happen, hoping they maybe had some reserve stock and I would get luck.  I know they are closed on weekends so I don’t expect a reply.  While I am on their website, I check out what others have said about their shipments and learn a lot of people have received damaged boxes but the LCD is good to go.
I called FedEx and inquired, I was told by Kimberly it was damaged “in transit,” or in the shipping biz “We ran it over, threw it across the room, dropped it from ten feet and ran it over again for good measure!,” and that it was being returned to the shipper, which is their instructions per the shipper if something like this happens.  Really bummed out now, cause I was going to have to accept a refund and I don’t think it’s fair, I went back to woot.com and posted a mature reply, saying I think FedEx should be held responsible.  They damaged it, they owe me a monitor.  Simple.

As I am reading the posts about this monitor, a LOT of people say their shipment arrived and the packaging is just horrendous.  Crushed cardboard, open tops.  Ripped box, but the monitor is perfect and working!!  I keep reading and two people mention dents on the top, from where the box was open.  One person also says theirs has been returned.  I think about that for a few and call FedEx back, once again inquiring and being a little more forceful.  I asked if I can swing by the station and look at it, citing a lot of people have been saying the boxes have been really badly damaged, but the item itself is good.

I get put on hold while the Rep, Kim, calls local station and talks to a manager.  He gets back to me almost TEN minutes later with the local station on the line and the lady in NH says I can either agree to take delivery or it is being shipped back.  Well, to keep a longer story short-ish.  I go check it out.  The box is considered “damaged” for ONE top flap being RIPPED.  The rest of the box is in near perfect condition.  Certainly a LOT better than I had been reading about online.  I accept the monitor, go home plug her in and it is still working beautifully!!  I took a ton of pictures as I was removing it from my car, unpacking and setting it up.  Just in case it dies on me or something.

Today, I get an e-mail from Jordan at woot saying “I apologize that your package was damaged.  Since we no longer have any replacements to send you, I have refunded your purchase in full.  Thanks for Wooting!”  I blink and read it again, forgetting I had sent my original e-mail.  I check the tracking number, it shows delivered and signed for so I am really confuzed as to why I was refunded.  Don’t they double check these things???  So, my dilemma by this point should be rather obvious…

Do I hope they don’t realize their mistake and never ask me for the money back, or do I do the right thing and let them know I have the monitor?  I’m really torn on this.  They made a mistake, someone clearly didn’t follow through and I have a strong “If they screw up it’s their loss” attitude when it comes to businesses.  I certainly was NOT trying to deceive them, I can provide a timetable of everything I did and in what order to prove I was not trying to scam anyone or get it for free.  I can also show in the tracking number where it shows as being signed for.  Now if I was to be contacted and asked if I got the monitor, and I were to lie to them about not getting it, I would be in the wrong and trying to scam them and deceive them and be “the bad guy.”

But what if I just stay silent and not say a word?  Can I do that?

“Feds” cut interest rate by .5% to lower it to 1.5% stocks bounce up….and then back down again!  OMGWTFBBQ?!?

Hellooooo?  There are STILL PEOPLE PLAYING THE STOCK MARKET, that is what it is there for isn’t it?  To create a whole bunch of UNNECESSARY JOBS, for the whole purpose of not moving around a lot of stocks and money.

Of course stocks are going to sell like hotcakes once they go back up, because you have people who are buying them cheap and selling them high to make a profit.

Why are the markets ignoring this obvious ploy?  A better question is why are the markets improving on BELIEFS?!  Some speculators say “If the Feds do this or that” and people jump for joy and everything is right as rain, to borrow a phrase.  But then then same speculators will say “It’s going to be a bad day for…” and it’s the end of the world.

How about we get rid of the speculators and just let the chips fall where they may?  The markets SHOULD NOT be so influenced by mere OPINIONs, regardless of who they come from.  That right there, tells me way to many people are playing the stock market in an attempt to get rich fast, and that is another reason why we are in this downward spiral.

It’s like advertising….instead of wasting hundreds of millions of dollars on marketing and commercials…why don’t you simply improve the product?  In this day and age, people are going to buy what they buy…there is NO WAY to prove your advertising works!  Even with surveys, people are always going to answer the questions how they feel the surveryor wants them to be answered, so the results are going to be skewed!  Advertising is like the econmy sinks in MMOs, it is just there to keep things in check.  In the real world, I don’t believe it is necessary!

Bad decisions are made managing money, resources. You spend more than you make, you wrack up debt and bills. You end up losing your income entirely or it is lessened to the point where you can no longer make payments. If this is an ordinary citizen of the United States, you have few options. You can deal with the credit card companies and the banks and debtors and try to make deals, but you are basically SOL.

If this is big business, you go crying to the government and get the option to sell them your bad decisions. With no restrictions, coaching, or penalties on doing it again!?!??!?!??!?!? What is wrong with this picture? Let me paint you something from [url=http://www.cnn.com/2008/POLITICS/10/08/politicians.meltdown.aig.ap/index.html?iref=mpstoryview]this article here, [/url] “Days after it got a federal bailout, American International Group Inc. spent $440,000 on a posh California retreat for its executives, complete with spa treatments, banquets and golf outings, according to lawmakers investigating the company’s meltdown.” Lack of morality.

Or what about [url=http://money.cnn.com/2008/10/06/news/companies/citi_wachovia/index.htm?postversion=2008100709]this one here?[/url] “Under a Wells Fargo-Wachovia merger, Wachovia Chief Executive Robert Steel and other senior executives would receive golden parachutes worth $225 million, Citigroup said in the complaint, filed in New York State Supreme Court. They would not receive this “windfall” under the Citigroup deal.” Greed.

YO AMERICA, WAKE THE FRACK UP!! This goes out to Obama, McCain, Bush, “Easy Street,” Wall Street, Washington and MOST importantly, Main Street. We have allowed these fools from top to bottom to mess with us and tell us what is or is not right. Our Congressional leaders and Senators who WE elected because THEY are suppose to be working FOR US! Americans said no to the Bailout, why did it happen if the people WE put in office are doing what WE want them? Cause they aren’t, and haven’t been for tens of years. Politicians no longer work for the constituents. They work for themselves. They work for the lobbyist groups that pay, excuse me.. donate, to help put them into office. Ulterior motives.

We have top executives on a $440,000 retreat, the same executives that were “responsible” for the well being of a company. It doesn’t matter if they were not the ones making the decisions. If the chain of command was working as intended, these problems would not have happened in any company, including our own government. They should be HELD RESPONSIBLE for the actions they took, or the actions they allowed to happen by NOT DOING their jobs!!

We have Wachovia executives who NOW want to go after a NEW deal, after already ironing one out with another company. Why? So they can get some more money! That is the basics of it, NO other reason. Even if they struck that part of the deal, it is to late for me to trust them at their word.

And then we have us, the regular Schmo. We need to speak up. We need to be heard. We put these people into office, and the way our government is suppose to work is they are working FOR us. So why aren’t they doing that anymore? We have become complacent with that fact, and I think we need to change it. We need to SEPARATE big business from politics, once and for all. We need politicians who are going to vote for what is best for the people, not their pockets and certainly not for businesses who made BAD decisions.

I realize there are a lot of intricacies of politics and business I certainly skipped over, but those same businesses have made it where a politician feels they NEED their money to get anywhere. If we have politicians who start turning down offers, or even better…accepting them and STABBING them in the back, I think that would send a message. I think that is what it would take to start us government on the right track. Cause this once great nation is going to be swallowed whole by another country one day and it could be soon.

We are so worried about Terrorism, but we don’t stop to think that some of the actions and decisions made by big business in this country COULD be and SHOULD be considered terrorism. Try manufacturers of tobacco products, how about the oil companies? We have companies selling a product that kills people, has been proven to GREATLY increase the chance of a medical condition that can kill people. Yet it is ok?? We have restricted guns, narcotics, it is illegal immoral and just plain wrong to kill another person……but we have companies making a profit off doing the same…exact….thing. I think that should be considered a terrorist threat. Is that an extremist view, yeah prolly. But isn’t it the view we should be having right now? Our whole system of based off checks and balances, if one thing gets to far out of control, we are suppose to compensate and respond accordingly. I don’t think my response is out of proportion, at all.

Wake up America, for we have been building our own coffins for a long while, and it seems we just added an assembly line to the production que.