always seem to forget about this damn thing.

Oh, and since I last posted, I did finally just come out of the closet at bi/pan/demi, and poly.  So there's that.

I've been with the job for a few months now.  Gotta say that this is better than my last consulting company I worked for.  we have a lot more support structure in place, and the management also seems to give more thought ahead to helping to support and train us. 

Just got home from a rather boring (for me at least) yearly kickoff for our company.  it was geared toward sales and marketing, but it was nice to meet my colleagues that I've only met in voice before.

Glorifying War through video games...

Warning: Probably another one of my soapbox rants.... this is long, so grab a cup of coffee first if you're going to read this all the way through... it will sound a bit jumbled, jump around a bit, but I'm hoping that my point gets made :)

Many of my friends back in Utah know that I'm not the the war-games type (aka CoD,MW, Spinter Cell, etc), and that I never really like them. For the reasons that:
a) I couldn't spend the hours it would take to get to the level to actually compete
b) I never saw the point in glorifying something as hideous as stalking/shooting/killing people.

This may sound like I have a severe double-standard, but let me explain the difference from my perspective.

If you play fantasy type games (aka WoW, Skyrim, Assassins creed, Final Fantasy, etc), these are all set in complete fantasy worlds that have very little in common with the real world. There is nothing there that could be washed over, over-glorified, and spun by the military/government/media in a 'positive' light.

War games that set you in a realistic place, with modern weapons, shooting at what could be considered a stand-in for a real person in some part of the world (and from what I've seen, the most recent of these games are set in the middle east). I have never been in the military, never had any real desire to, although I came DAMN close to joining on at least 3 occasions to escape some people in my family, and from the several meltdowns of the economy. I look at these games, and all I see is the continuing 'hatred' that is being bred into kids/teenagers/adults, to want to attack and kill a segment of the worlds population, in a realistic scenario... well, realistic, except that the portrayal seems to glorify your part in it. The player himself is in no danger of being harmed, with the possible exception of carpel tunnel or maybe back/neck strain (or their ass falls asleep). These games continue to breed hatred for groups and religious people that, for the action of some small extremist fundamentalists, makes us filled with hatred for them, and these games continue to pour gasoline on this fire.

Personally, I believe that these games should not be continued to be made and released, however I've long come to realize that fighting that would be futile. I also am not trying to point ANY fingers at anyone that plays these games. Those people on my friends list that do, and read this, should please understand that I consider you to (hopefully) be of a mental IQ high enough to both know that I would expect you to not be indoctrinated by the message these games give, that I'm in NO way trying to insult you because you do get entertainment out of them, and to understand my reasons why I can't play these games myself, and will never have any desire to.

War, in ANY way, should NOT be glorified, and that's what I see with these. War is NOT glory, War is NOT honor, War is NOT anything that ANYONE should want. That being said, (as I've said many times in the past), I have absolutely nothing but the UTMOST respect and pride in every single one of my family members and friends that have stepped up to serve in the military, and your sacrifice of your time, and possibly your lives for the sake of the safety of myself and my family is something you will have forever.

I would also ask, please read this article, written by a former soldier, now working as a PMC (private military contractor), who's giving a lot of the same opinions I have above, and his writing has also helped me put into words a lot of what has been in my head.

http://www.mediumdifficulty.com/2012/03/01/call-of-apathy-violent-young-men-and-our-place-in-war/

One of my directed soapbox rants...

Just because I was born to have green eyes, brown hair, and about 6 feet tall does NOT mean I should be prejudiced against those that have black hair and brown eyes.

Because I was born straight, does NOT mean I will be prejudiced against those that are gay, lesbian or transgendered.

if you have ANY hatred or fear against them, this is likely a trait from your parents or your religious teachings. Jesus says love one another, not persecute them. he also said he who is without sin, cast the first stone. Jesus also hung out with the Lepers, who were shunned and outcast from society.

most of my friends on here are open-minded enough to accept those that are born this way. some will even tolerate it, even if they don't believe in it. Remember, Karma is a revolving door, and the more you persecute those around you, the faster that door is going to spin and eventually will smack you in the ass, HARD.

My main point is this: be open minded. be, at the very minimum, TOLERANT. 40 years ago, interracial marriage was illegal. right now, we are going through the same kind of battle for another group of society that has been persecuted and attacked. Today, if you call a black person that famous N word, you can get arrested for racial profiling, however calling someone that's gay/lesbian/transgendered a 'fag' is looked over. This is also used as form of 'hazing' in schools for those that are weaker, so those that have a shitty home life can have a little more control over their own life, and this hatred and fear is then taken into their adulthood.

I was raised as a mormon, where I was taught by my parents that Liberals and Homosexuals are going to destroy this country. My Grandfather refused to watch movies that had certain actors in them because they were democrats/liberals. It was this kind of intolerance that got me to actually look into this, learn things about where this bigotry came from, and I found that for the most part, it was VERY unjustified, more built out of dogma and superstition.

I am not here to rip on or insult anyone's religion. I have no problem if you're Mormon, evangelical christian, catholic, Jewish, pagan, Buddhist, Satanist, etc. my point of this is, within every religion, there is room for TOLERANCE. You do NOT have to accept with open arms something that you personally don't believe in. What you CAN do, is just shut up and move aside. I HIGHLY doubt that if you are not gay, that a group of them will come into your living room and have a massive orgy. They are NOT pushing anything on YOUR children. However, those children that are gay/lesbian/transgendered that are raised in an intolerant atmosphere will grow up with a burning loathing of you harboring hatred against them.

Step back, and realize that what you are doing to persecute these people IS the problem. Spreading hate on a group does nothing but propagate hatred, resentment and ignorance.

to the MPAA and congress about SOPA: seriously?

So, let me see if I remember my recent history:

RIAA got all uppity about Napster. sued to have it shut down. When this happened, 3 new similar programs came around (Kazaa, Morpheus, WinMX). about this time, Bittorrent started taking shape. After the big filesharing programs were shut down, Bittorrent was going strong. Now, they want to filter out and have the authority to shut down file servers that are not located in the US, and are outside their jurisdiction.

You would think that the MPAA would realize that doing this shit is really really stupid. IF they would just suck it the fuck up, and actually provide methods to allow their content to be streamed (instead of giving a finger to the likes of netflix and hulu), they might actually see something in return.

I use bittorrent to get movies that are NOT on any legal streaming services. same with tv series/episodes. I do this because there IS NO VIABLE ALTERNATIVE YET.

To the MPAA, and the politicians they are paying off: FUCK YOU.

Fix for lack of jobs.

I hate watching or listening to the news, because 50%+ is all about the lack of jobs, and the shitty economy.  there needs to be more jobs to put more money back in the economy, and vice versa, so it's a massive catch-22.  However, EVERY side seems to be missing the EASIEST FIX for this issue.

lets put this simply.

For the sake of argument, lets say there are ... 1000 executives in the U.S. with a salary of over 5 million a year in the U.S. (I have no idea on this, just making this up).  lets now imagine that each of these 1000 executives were to cut their salary by 1 million each.  1,000 x 1,000,000 = 1,000,000,000.  That is 1 BILLION dollars.

Now, lets say that this money was then used to hire new employees, say at an average of $50,000 / per.



$1,000,000,000 / $50,000 = 20,000 new jobs.



if even ONE of these greedy douchebags would stop being such a greedy douchebag, and give 1m of his salary back, that would still be 200 new jobs.



One thing to realize is that the lack of jobs is NOT the fault of the president.  IT IS THE FAULT of arrogant, elitist, fat, overpaid, douchebag white executives with far too much money and far too little brains.

Dear MTV: Give up the M, you have nothing to do with Music anymore.

Dear MTV:  your self-deluded state that you have anything to do with music is over.  There is nothing left within you to even ATTEMPT a recovery at this point.  So, at this point, lets just change your name to what it should be.  Here are a few suggestions:

TnA TV.   pretty self explanatory, since what crap you actually do play for 'videos' is nothing more than a bunch of rappers with a bunch of almost naked sluts bouncing their tits and ass in the camera, or rappers showing off their fucking bling, which is the BIGGEST joke in the world.  personally, I think they're trying to make up for the fact that, despite being black, they are lacking in the size of their penis.

SRTV: Shitty 'Reality' TV:  it's ok, you can be honest with yourself.  You make/produce/selectively edit/show really shitty reality shows.  going for the biggest drama punch.  Your current biggest show, 'Jersey shitheads', is absolutely pointless.  a bunch of boy fags and whore-ass drama queen girls, painted up with orange tan gel, trying to act like a bunch of Guido's.  Seriously, you think this is entertainment?  the ONLY people that get any enjoyment out of this, have a lower IQ than the people that are in the show.  which is... what, somewhere in the 60'ish IQ range?

I'm going to tell you the exact moment I lost all respect for you.  about 10 years ago, I was watching the European MTV Music awards, for the sole reason that Depeche Mode was going to be performing live on them.  I sat through 2 hours of absolute SHIT, including that fucking untalented asshat called 'Jay-Z', and couldn't help but notice that 50%+ of the crowd in europe didn't care for him much either.  After 2 said hours, DM's performance was not shown.  I had to go find a Torrent online that actually had them performing.  So you seriously expect me to have ANY respect for you, when you cut out a group that actually has MUSICAL talent, to put someone who 'talks over drums'?  Fuck you.

Tell me something, when was the last time you actually even considered music?  was it back in the mid 90's or so?  You are the primary reason that there's so much pushing behind gang violence.  your shitty ass 'videos' (when they are played), do nothing but cause further escalations between the 2 coastal rapper gangs, and treat women like shit.  

Until you actually shut down and go away, Society is going to be a bowl of shit.  you had your chance, but you did nothing but just fuck up more and more.  Grow up, and move on.