Blogger vs. Myspace, etc.

I know it seems like that's all I've posted about on this blog for a short while at least, but this bit is at least semi-interesting to me.
True, I much prefer MySpace because of it's many different features: various forms of comments (profile, blog, picture), bulletins, private messages, easily used picture galleries, the media database for the blogs, the email notifications of all actions...
However, there is, as I realized early in the school year, one thing which might place blogger above the rest: its accessibility.
With the advent (however old that advent may be) of MySpace and Facebook (I don't know anything about Xanga, if that's even still around) and all of the problems occurring with minors being stupid and falling victim to child predators, a blind eye has been cast to the site which, correct me if I'm wrong, I believe, started it all. At school, as well as in most places of repute (businesses, libraries, etc.) MySpace is blocked (I don't know about Facebook--I don't use it). However, all firewalls blocking Blogger have been lifted, it seems. How many people remember the days before MySpace, when we used to want to check Blogger at school, and did so successfully until it was blocked? Well, I discovered this year, in the midst of the masses using all those proxy sites and "myspaceunblockers", that you could still access Blogger the normal way: by typing www.blogger.com in the address bar. It was completely open. You could view blogs, view comments, sign in, post, do everything.
Plus, I'm now realizing that Blogger has included an autosave function to ist's posting page, which fixes one of the major problems I had while using Blogger exclusively, which was that entirely too often a post would be lost while attempting to publish it to my blog. It looks like that might not happen anymore, as it autosaves every minute.
Maybe Blogger is stepping up to the challenge now that its entire market is switching to other networking sites.

Let me just say

That I HATE compuers.

Good day.

WTF Blogger?! WTF!?!

I'm all for improving things, but there are some screwy things that should have been sorted out. I avoided my blog for a while for no particular reason. The fact that they were switching everything over to google accounts kind of helped me avoid it, but that wasn't the only reason. MySpace was just a better venue at the time. Every once in a while, however, I feel obligated to check on the blogs of people who stil blog in the traditional sense. (I'm also getting really fucking fed up with all of the spam messages I'm getting from people named "Angel" and "Par!s" and "Kitty" and the like. And the bogus friend requests. It's more annoying than when we were all getting those soliciting comments about insurance and such on blogger.
Anyway, while I was looking at Chris's blog, I decided to comment. The comment page said I could log in with my google account, or using my old blogger info. I typed my old username and old password, did the word verification thing, and it said I had the wrong password. I tried every password I've ever used for anything, even though I was absolutely sure I had the right one the first time. I tried at least 20 times to no avail. So I tried to sign in straight through blogger.com and, guess what, my password worked. Thank you for wasting my life blogger. So anyway, after that it prompted me to switch to a google account, which I did (obviously) and then successfully commented on Chris's blog. This is too much work.
Sooooo...maybe I'll use the blog more, maybe I won't. Aside from the spam, MySpace isn't giving me any problems. I'm sure I could fix it all by making my profile private, but I didn't want to have to do that. I might end up having to sometime soon, though. I have decided, however, not to jump in with the facebook crowd, because I've already gone through one transition and there's no need for a second. I don't need a facebook on top of everything else. What's the point. Yay groups. Guess what, MySpace has groups, among other things. And Blogger and MySpace both offer much more privacy, if that's your thing.
In conclusion, life is a pain sometimes, and I hate technology occasionally.

And now to that bone

Well, maybe it's not that bone, but it is a bone that I meant to pick a week or two ago. I don't really remember which bone I was referring to in the previous post, but I'm sure it was good and valid, and if I remember it, oh, you'll hear about it. But now, to a humorous and sad story about when Becky, Mark, and I went to see a movie Night at the Museum, which was surprisingly good.

It's only sad in that the stupidity of man is pathetic.

We stopped at the McDonald's in Frisco south of the first main intersection, by where Brookshire's used to be, to eat before the movie. First, there was a misunderstanding and error in Mark's order, but that's not important. He was confused. What is important, however, is that after we finished eating, I had to use the restroom. I've already gone off about people pissing on the seat, so obviously I'm not going to hit on that again. As anyone knows who's been to this particular McDonald's, there is only one stall and one urinal. In the stall there was no paper. I needed paper. I had seen the janitor-person before I entered the restroom, but when I exited, unserviced, I could not find said person. So I went up to the counter and asked, figuring that the people working the register and in the "kitchen", the people handling the food, would not leave the food area to go service the restroom, "Who do I need to talk to to get some toilet paper in the bathroom?"

The people, there were two or three standing there when I asked, looked at me blankly. One guy, who looked very awkward - that's the only way I can describe him; he was just an awkward person - finally got this shocked expression and exclaimed/asked "Some kid threw up in the bathroom?!"

"No" says I, "I need toilet paper in the bathroom."

Then that same guy gave the hesitant, drawn out "O------kay" that people give when they don't understand but don't want the other person to go on any further.

I just left the counter and stood leaning against the wall they have set up for the booths, waiting. I turned around and saw this guy talking to some of the other people behind the counter, relaying what had just happened. He said, "This guy needs 'toilet paper'," and I swear he did the finger quotes thing and changed his voice when he said the words "toilet paper". Everyone knows the voice change and the finger thing I'm talking about. This guy did it on "toilet paper".

I couldn't believe it. I walked back up to the counter and said the following: "No, there's no [I did the finger quote thing] about it. In the bathroom, on the wall next to the toilet, there is a thing that holds paper that you use. It's called toilet paper. That's what it's called. And there is none of it in your bathroom."

Then he gave this stupid little "Oh" and a manager-looking Mexican came out from the kitchen with a big roll of toilet paper. I pointed to it and said "That stuff." The manager-looking guy took the roll to the bathroom, did his thing, and everyone was happy.

What I don't get is how anybody could be as stupid as that guy I happened to get behind the counter. I don't understand how somebody could not understand the statement, "You need more toilet paper in your bathroom." And if you're going to choose part of that to not understand, it shouldn't be the words "toilet paper". It's not like I walked up there and said, "Excuse me, your hygenic tissue dispenser requires attendance, as there is a lack of tissue to dispense." It's not as if I was speaking a different language. The guy obviously spoke English. He was just stupid. Grrrrf.

If I remember that other societal bone, I shall expound on it later.

Happy new year!

December 24, 10:00 pm, Eastern Standard Time,

I can’t believe a year went by so fast
(to finish the quote/reference I started last year).

Honestly, the end of last school year went by really quickly, and this year…well…I’m glad it’s over.

I’ve got yet another bone to pick with society right now, but I’ll leave that for another day.

Merry Christmas everyone!

I've been meaning to post this for a while

While I don't regularly post preachy things (like some of the end of this), just because I don't feel a need. Reading those things annoy me a little bit for some reason, if only because it seems like stating the obvious, and it makes everyone feel guilty even if they aren't. But Ben really did make some excellent points and I agree with him completely, and it goes hand-in-hand with several things I've posted in the past, and, given the current trend of world society, will again in the future. Enjoy.

The following was written by Ben Stein and recited by him
on CBS Sunday Morning Commentary:

Herewith a few confessions from my beating heart: I have no
freaking clue who Nick and Jessica are. I see them on the cover of
People, Us and The Enquirer constantly when I am buying my dog
biscuits and kitty litter. I often ask the checkers at the grocery
stores. They never know who Nick and Jessica are either. Who are they? Will it
change my life if I know who they are and why they have broken up? Why are they
so important?

I don't know who Lindsay Lohan is either, and I do not
care at all about Tom Cruise's wife.

Am I going to be called before a Senate committee and asked
if I am a subversive? Maybe, but I just have no clue who Nick and Jessica are.

If this is what it means to be no longer young, It's not so bad.

Next confession:
I am a Jew, and every single one of my ancestors was Jewish.
And it does not bother me even a little bit when people call those
beautiful lit up, bejeweled trees Christmas trees. I don't feel threatened. I
don't feel discriminated against. That's what they are: Christmas trees.

It doesn't bother me a bit when people say, "Merry Christmas"
to me. I don't think they are slighting me or getting ready to put me in
a ghetto. In fact, I kind of like it. It shows that we are all
brothers and sisters celebrating this happy time of year. It doesn't
bother me at all that there is a manger scene on display at a key
intersection near my beach house in Malibu. If people want a crèche, it's
just as fine with me as is the Menorah a few hundred yards away.

I don't like getting pushed around for being a Jew, and I
don't think Christians like getting pushed around for being
Christians. I think people who believe in God are sick and tired of
getting pushed around, period I have no idea where the concept came
from that America is an explicitly atheist country. I can't find it
in the Constitution, and I don't like it being shoved down my throat.

Or maybe I can put it another way: where did the idea come
from that we should worship Nick and Jessica and we aren't allowed to
worship God as we understand Him?

I guess that's a sign that I'm getting old, too.

But there are a lot of us who are wondering where Nick and
Jessica came from and where the America we knew went to.

In light of the many jokes we send to one another for a
laugh this is a little different: This is not intended to be a joke;
it's not funny, it's intended to get you thinking.

Billy Graham's daughter was interviewed on the Early Show
and Jane Clayson asked her "How God could let something like this Happen?"
(Regarding Katrina)

Anne Graham gave an extremely profound and insightful response.
She said, "I believe God is deeply saddened by this, just as we are,
but for years we've been telling God to get out of our schools, to get out of
our government and to get out of our lives.

And being the gentleman He is, I believe He has calmly
backed out. How can we expect God to give us His blessing and His
protection if we demand He leave us alone?"

In light of recent events...terrorists attack, school
shootings, etc. I think it started when Madeleine Murray O'Hare (she was
murdered, her body found recently) complained she didn't want prayer in our
schools, and we said OK.

Then someone said you better not read the Bible in school.
The Bible says thou shalt not kill; thou shalt not steal, and love
your neighbor as yourself. And we said OK.

Then Dr. Benjamin Spock said we shouldn't spank our
children when they misbehave because their little personalities would be
warped and we might damage their self-esteem (Dr. Spock's son committed
suicide).
We said an expert should know what he's talking about. And we said OK.

Now we're asking ourselves why our children have no
conscience, why they don't know right from wrong, and why it doesn't
bother them to kill strangers, their classmates, and themselves.

Probably, if we think about it long and hard enough, we can
figure it out. I think it has a great deal to do with "WE REAP WHAT WE
SOW."

Funny how simple it is for people to trash God and then
wonder why the world's going to hell.

Funny how we believe what the newspapers say, but question
what the Bible says.

Funny how you can send 'jokes' through e-mail and they
spread like wildfire but when you start sending messages regarding the
Lord, people think twice about sharing.

Funny how lewd, crude, vulgar and obscene articles pass
freely through cyberspace, but public discussion of God is suppressed
in the school and workplace.

Are you laughing?

Funny how we can be more worried about what other people
think of us than what God thinks of us.

Pass it on if you think it has merit. If not then just
discard it... no one will know you did. But, if you discard this
thought process, don't sit back and complain about what bad shape the world is
in.

My Best Regards... honestly and respectfully,
Ben Stein

Sad, Sad Little Blog

My poor little blog, how I've neglected you, left you so barren for so long. Working on three months. It's pathetic. What's even more pathetic is that I still don't have something substantial to post. Everyone knows (or I think they know) what I would post, so I won't.

I will however suggest that everyone who likes this type of music to buy the new Meat Loaf album (but not from Target), Bat Out of Hell III. I only say not to get it at Target because it much much cheaper at, say, Wal-Mart. Either way though, it's good and pretty much worth the money. It sounds, overall, more like Couldn't Have Said It Better than the other Bat albums, which isn't bad, but it's a little different. I like Couldn't Have Said It Better a lot, but I do miss the old sound and subtle, odd humor of the original Steinman Bat songs. I do like the fact that some older Steinman songs, like "Bad for Good", which went previously unrecorded by Meat Loaf, were included, because I can't find that Steinman solo album Bad for Good anywhere. I mean anywhere. I do also really like the return of the sinister theme from "Good Girls Go to Heaven (Bad Girls Go Everywhere)" (Bat Out of Hell II), and the reference to "Everything Is Permitted" in "Seize the Night". That and the intro to "The Future Ain't What It Used to Be" sounds a lot like "Lost Boys and Golden Girls", also from Bat II. It seems to try to tie together all of the Steinman/Meat Loaf collaborations into a single, really long thought. I'm sure there was some Bat Out of Hell reference that I just didn't catch yet. It's also cool that there's some Spanish on the CD for no apparent reason.

I'm sure all of you normal, non-Meat-fans find all of this very interesting, but at least I know Chris will enjoy reading it. I really just felt bad for not posting anything for so long.