My thoughts…on stuff

Hi again folks. It’s glad to be back online, as I lost my Internet connection over the weekend. The bill was long overdue, so it was a hefty sum. Due to some glitch in the system, I had Internet access three months longer than I should have. I would’ve loved to help pay the bill, but I couldn’t. Why? See “Internship” below.

Remember my previous post about Canada’s queer ultimatum? Yeah, I bet you do, as it was quite a popular one. Anyway, our Prime Minister Bruce Golding gave his response a while back. I just found the full interview on where else, YouTube. Like duh?! Anyway, the reason why I posted is that I found something very disturbing while messing around on Facebook. Apparently, there’s a Boycott Jamaica group on there. Gee, they’re taking this thing global aren’t they? Plus they’re pretty brazen too. I mean boycotting an entire nation? I’ve heard of embargoes, trade sanctions but boycotts? What do they think we are? Some little banana republic whose only means of survival is a few white people lounging on our beaches? Did they honestly think that we’d bow to their whims?

Well Jamaica is a lot more than reggae, weed and resorts. It is also home to a proud and extremely adaptable clever people, and trust me, if we lost money ’cause of this stupid boycott, you can bet your bottom dollar that we’d find another way to make money. We likkle but we tallawah! I’m glad this whole effort backfired and they’ve been exposed for the fools that they truly are. Our PM’s appearance on BBC’s HARDtalk should have also shown the world how resolute we are on the matter. And the ironic thing about it is that mostly Jamaicans have joined the group just to bash it. I did as well. You may see one of my comments up there. Plus in response, a group has been created called Facebook MUST SHUT DOWN the group: Boycott Jamaica, and the people there are more vocal than the people on the group they oppose.

I think it’s just an example of cultural imperialism, a throwback to colonial times. Britain set down our laws, and ever since she and countries like her think that they can dictate how we run our affairs. Get it through your head Britain! We’re no longer your bitch! Why don’t they pick on Middle Eastern countries, where they’re tough on homosexuals AND women? Oh right, they’ve got that little thing called OIL, and won’t hesitate to screw them over if they even think of dictating to them. Not to mention Ahmadinejad who wouldn’t hesitate to shove a nuke up their ass (though I know some of them would like that). In closing, violence against homosexuals is wrong, but we also believe in that little right called freedom of speech that the Americans constantly yammer about. And just as we have the right to say yes, we have the right to say no. Dun talk!

I trust that you’re viewing this page with Firefox 3. If not, then what are you waiting for? Get it now! Download Day may be over, but it’s still worth the download. It’s puts IE7 in its place once again.

But enough about browsers. I really wanted to talk about the BMW GINA, a morphable, fabric-covered car. That’s right. Fabric. Polyurethane-coated Lycra in fact. Not metal. As for the morphable part, don’t get too excited. You won’t have your own Optimus Prime in your driveway anytime soon. It allows you to alter a few of its features, such as the spoiler, headlights, headrests, and most noticeably the hood. As I said before, its no Optimus Prime, but he might start making house calls if you owned one of these. Hey, robots need love too, and it does have “GINA” in the title. Here’s a video.

Great stuff, except for that engineer talking down to me, breaking down every single word longer than two syllables. An acronym is a set of letters? Really? Next thing you’ll be telling me that the Earth isn’t flat. It’s a pretty awesome looking car, you have to admit, but not very practical. It would be hell to get a stain out. And it would fold like a bad poker hand in case of a car crash. It’s one of those cars that just belongs in a museum.

I could just kick myself for this. How could I have neglected to post about Fathers’ Day, probably the only day of the year where dads get more praise than moms? I tell you dads are seriously under appreciated by society. Moms are always praised for being able to balance work and home life, for always being there, making constant sacrifices, blah, blah, blah, blah. What do fathers get? To be the subject of their kids’ therapy sessions, to be shouted at, and to be criticised for making the tough decisions and not being there emotionally. (They’re men. What do you expect?) Here in Jamaica, I don’t think I heard three commercials announcing Fathers’ Day specials. But on Mothers’ Day. Heh. That’s quite another story.

There are far too many absentee fathers in our country, and a lot of them get away with it because women allow them to. After all, this doggish behaviour is expected of them. And some mothers are all too willing to take on the task of being single mothers for the praise. I’m not blaming women for deadbeat dads, but they must put more pressure on them to live up to their responsibilities. Society on a whole needs to hold men accountable for their actions as well. Society needs to change the perception that a true man is one that finds his way between the legs of as much women as possible to one that lives up to his responsibilties. This won’t be easy, and probably won’t happen, but I’m just giving my two cents on the issue. But enough dwelling on the negative. Hats off to the real men out there!

Is it me or does everybody have a sex tape nowadays? The first one I could remember is the one with Pam Anderson, and ever since, the sex tape has almost become a mark of celebrity status, almost as much as those stupid couple name fusions. Every week there’s a new one released every week. And that’s a mild estimate. Isn’t it a bit suspicious that people who have their own private security details and live in modern day fortresses have their intimate activities so easily “leaked”. Almost every celebrity (all the major ones anyway) have one.

I believe that they release them just to give themselves a momentary surge but immense surge in popularity, or to break the innocent stigma attached to them. It is estimated that 50%-70% of the Internet is dedicated to pornography. Imagine that amount of traffic targeted to one individual! Unfortunately, as the saying goes, whenever American sneeze, Jamaica ketch cold, and the sex tape phenomenon has hit Jamaica. I think the first one that hit public attention was the “Bluetooth Express“, the story of the little Immaculate girl that could, and did, very well. Since then, there have been about half dozen really popular ones.

Recently, Amelia “Milk” Sewell and her boyfriend ZJ Liquid’s sex tape got leaked. What was she doing? Check the name. To all these people I ask, what the hell were you thinking? Why videotape that? To admire your handywork? To show your children when they ask about the birds and the bees? Or to watch with your beloved 20 years later to remind yourselves how frisky you used to be? Ok fine. You want to tape it. But why do you all tend to leave the most careless places? Phones? Flash Drives? IN PLAIN SIGHT? If I made a tape, I’d lock it in an underground safe, hide the combination under my skin and wipe my memory in case someone tried to torture the information out of me. I tell you if this continues, porn stars will become obsolete.

Finally my 6-week internship is over, and now I’m celebrating! Six weeks of completely free work. Not even a damn stipend. And they had the nerve to say that they were doing “us” (my classmates and I) a service. I don’t normally post about my life, but I simply had to post about this, as blogging is part of my celebration. For the first time I got a true peek into a souless organization, a governmental one at that (the worst kind), whose only motive turn profit at any cost while turning employees into drones.

Now I’m motivated, to not end up in a place like that. I’m a creative person at the core, and those places stifle creativity, as they ruthlessly stick to rules and regulations, and penalize you harshly if you think outside of the box. I’ve also learned how to deal with the office politics that often plague the workplace. So I did learn at lot, though it wasn’t the kind of lesson they wanted me to learn. I thought up a good post today, but quite frankly I’m just kicking back, unwilling to engage my brain with even a blog post. But don’t worry, it’ll be good. And guess what? No more erratic posting! Since my schedule will open up a lot now, expect me to return to my regular posting schedule.

I’m almost tempted my thoughts on The Incredible Hulk movie. But no. The movie opens on Friday, so unless I have some big studio links, which I don’t, that’s has to wait for another day. But before you go to the movies on Friday, I’m gonna give you one more reason to give the big green machine a second chance. I’m gonna talk about the cameos in the movie. Besides from being excellent marketing, they are surprising treat for me, and should be for moviegoers as well.

Turns out Tony Stark’s gonna make a cameo. If you don’t want the surprise ruined, don’t click here! But for the rest of you, go ahead. C’mon. Don’t act like you don’t want to. Surely you can risk a RickRoll for this. But at least you Joining him are Stan Lee, the god of comic books, and Lou Ferrigno, the original Hulk from the TV show. But what pisses me off is the cameos that we WON’T be seen. Spider-Man was supposed to make a cameo, but Sony had to be jackasses about it. They wanted it to happen when Banner meets with Samuel Sterns at Empire State University, and Peter Parker just appears in the shot. I guess Sony doesn’t have much faith in the movie. A-holes.

Captain America’s cameo won’t be in the actual movie, because it deals with the unspeakable issue of *gasp* suicide! In it, Banner gives up on the cure and goes to the Arctic Circle to kill himself. There he meets Captain America, who’ll probably be frozen in ice. Captain America movie in the works? Hopefully. It’ll be put on the DVD because innocent little snowflakes won’t be able to handle the subject, despite being assaulted daily by news reports of people killing themselves, and some of them having experienced it in their own lives. That is all. Thumbs up to Louis Leterrier and the rest of the team for making what seems to be a great movie. If it’s not, then I’ll be angry. And you wouldn’t like me when I’m angry.

First of all I’d like to say, what the hell?! How and why is this movie so damn popular? When I first heard of it, I smiled to myself and thought, “this is going to end well”. But then then buzz grew, and grew, and grew, until all of a sudden the world was consumed by Sex and the City mania. Well, half of the world. The “middle aged woman who wants to feel sexy again” half.

I also heard a rumour that one of them is going to die. Oh, be still my heart. If they all died a tragic and painful death, then I may actually consider spending money to watch it, despite my sexuality being questioned afterwards. I was never a fan of the series. In fact, no straight guy should be, and none should be able to tolerate more than a single episode, and that’s only if you’ve got the hots for Sarah Jessica Parker. Or Kim Catrall, but honestly I don’t see the appeal there.

All the show is about is shopping (especially for overpriced shoes), Carrie’s diary entries (get with the times and start a blog) and well, sex. Lots and lots of it. These girls go at it like freaking rabbits! So much so it makes me uncomfortable seeing women go at it like men. I still have my ideal woman as being a bit of a prude, but I guess I gotta accept that they are a dying breed nowadays. My friend and I were talking about it yesterday and we both agreed that even as men, we wouldn’t screw around like these girls. At least know the last name of your sex partner for God’s sake!

Oh, and Samantha, I’m going to tell you something that all men have wanted to say for a long time. Stop trying so damn hard! Listen. You’ll never, ever be as horny as a man, so don’t even try to compete. But why the appeal? I guess it’s because it touches on the topic of female sexuality, which despite women’s progress, is mostly repressed by society. I guess that’s the reason behind the success of Desperate Housewives. Or it could be the really hot women. Whatever. Thinking about it, it may be my traditional view of women that’s partly to blame for me despising the show.

I loved the Transformers movie. In my view, the translation from cartoon to movie could not have been done better. This week, I learned that Transformers 2 is on the way, and I couldn’t be happier. Still I wasn’t too surprised. This movie made far too much money for Hollywood to just leave the franchise on the shelf like that. I was wondering what kind of sequel they could have without the big boss, Megatron. Then I remembered villains like Unicron are still out there.

The name of the movie will be “Revenge of the Fallen” and is scheduled to be released on June 26, 2009, so don’t hold your breath. In the movie, Sam Witwicky will be in college. Yeah, no one really cares about Sam, but just bringing that to your attention. People are speculating that an old character will make a dramatic return. Signs point to Jazz, Starscream, Megatron or The Fallen. Jazz probably won’t return, as he’s not an important enough character to be the center of a movie. Plus it’s unlikely that a good guy would take revenge. As for Starscream, I don’t think he’s that big of a threat. The Fallen is an actual Transformers villain, and a fearsome one at that, described as a “being of power, darkness, and absolute dedication to Unicron”. Megatron well, you know.

I think it’s between The Fallen and Megatron. They are the only villains that are fearsome enough to be major threat to the Autobots. Michael Bay is putting out misinformation to obscure real leaks (bastard!), so you can’t trust info coming from the movie studio. According to the 2008 ShoWest edition of Dolby News, the film will be in 3-D. That would be cool. Just as long as they give out cool looking 3D glasses and make the 3D scenes more than Transformers poking the screen. The budget will also be bigger and the Transformers will have a larger role and more screen time . Needless to say, I can’t wait to see this movie!

As we all know (we techies anyway) Windows 7 is scheduled for release in the next year or two. Consumers are anxious to see what Micro$oft will dish out next, after the dismal performance of the much over hyped Vista. The most hyped feature to date is its touchscreen (looks like someone’s out to imitate the iPhone), which Bill Gates says will signal the end of the computer mouse. I almost laughed when I heard this. Remember the days when the tech world would hang on ever word Bill said? Back then he was hailed as a visionary, and headlines were made whenever this pioneer of technology spoke. Nowadays there’s more choice, especially more operating systems to choose from, and the many flaws of Microsoft’s products have been made more than obvious. So now, when Bill speaks, people stare for a moment, then go back to typing on their Macs.

The end of the mouse? C’mon Bill. I’m all for innovation, and I know you want to add as much features as you can after disappointing customers with Vista, please, don’t make such silly pronouncements. The mouse feels natural, especially the ergonomic and wireless ones. I like touchscreens, but it feels like an alien interface to me, worse typing on one. I like keyboard because they give me a satisfying *clack* whenever I make contact with a key, which alerts me whenever I may have missed a key.

And how would gaming go? Would you make a head shot by poking your enemy? Kinda takes the challenge out of it don’t ya think? I don’t think the computing world is ready for such a dramatic change. The cost involved would just be too great. And I bet Micro$oft will have proprietary ownership on those touchscreens, and somehow try create another monopoly. I wouldn’t put it past them. Still, technology is ever changing, and who knows, one day Gates’ words will hold true, but in two years? Hell no! I still see the venerable mouse infesting our desktops for many years to come. As for me, I want an iPhone in my pocket, not on my desktop.

If you haven’t already heard, Jamaican Usain Bolt broke his compatriot Asafa Powell’s 100m world record of 9.74 by 0.02 to become the world’s fastest man. I’m glad that Bolt got his glory back and then some, as he was the original king of the track, and been overshadowed by Asafa for quite a while now. sadly, his world record run has not been publicized nearly as much as Powell’s was. Guess it’s not so great the second time around. He’s being surprisingly humble with his victory, as professional athletes are known for being cocky, especially basketball players. And the funniest thing is he wasn’t even going after the record. He just did his best, which was apparently more than enough.

Why am I cheering so much? Because let’s face it, with all the violence in the country nowadays, there is less and less to celebrate. Even further proof that, despite all the hardships, we Jamaicans are a great people. That’s why it pains my heart that we are wasting our potential with illegal activities. People killing each other over painfully trite matters, using their backgrounds to justify their behaviour. Sometimes I think the world is secretly laughing at us. But now Jamaica has the proud privilege of having the two fastest men on the planet, so hopefully this will give our youth something to strive for besides being “area leader”. Needless to say, the world expects big things from us at the upcoming Olympics. Congrats Bolt. Way to make Jamaica proud!