> Bakery owners speak out after being shut down. > Daily Mail article covering the story with photos. Two lesbians walk into a bakery... Let's try that again... In January, two lesbians entered a bakery called Sweet Cakes by Melissa, and placed an order for a wedding cake. Simple enough, but once the Christian owners realized that they'd be making a cake to celebrate the marriage of two women, they refused the order citing their strong Christian belief that marriage is a union between a man and a woman. Shortly thereafter, the lesbian couple reported the discrimination to Oregon's bureau of Labor and Industry. They're still reviewing the case and deciding whether a suit should be filed against the bakery. It seems cut and dry to me, so I assume a suit will be filed soon enough. An interesting thing happened while the investigation was taking place. The people of Oregon began to protest the bakery, sending hate mail and death threats to its owners. The protests barred the bakery from obtaining lucrative accounts in the special events industry, which is any bakery's lifeline. If you're not making birthday, bar/bat mitzvah, and wedding cakes, you're not going to be able to pay the rent and overhead that comes standard with operating a bakery in a storefront. Unfortunately for the owners of Sweet Cakes by Melissa, Oregon passed the Oregon Equality Act of 2007, which protects the rights of gays, lesbians, bisexual and transgender people in employment, housing and public accommodations. Had they known that, they would have known they could be sued for declining the two women's order for a wedding cake. If you own and operate a business that serves the public, common sense tells you not to decline ANY order. It's bad for business. I think it's amazing how this town in Oregon banded together to put a bigoted bakery out of business. I think it's even more amazing that there are laws in place to protect us from things like this happening. When they do happen, there are consequences. Sweet Cakes by Melissa is feeling them. For the GLBT community, this revenge is so sweet!
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> New York Times: Debating the Case for Force >Huffington Post: Kerry fumbles over "Boots on the Ground" Boy, John Kerry is looking old these days. Maybe it's due, in part, to all the work he's doing to get us into the Syrian civil war. Everywhere I turn, John Kerry is talking about reasons to strike. If that isn't enough, he's become the president's mouthpiece saying, "He believes we need to move. He’s made his decision. Now it’s up to the Congress of the United States to join him in affirming the international norm with respect to enforcement against the use of chemical weapons.” Good for him, and good for you, John Kerry. This pisses me off. When I'm angry about something, I find it hard to write about, but in this case, I don't believe we need to use force against Syria. It's not going to stop Assad from gassing his own people yet again, and I believe it'll provoke the man into unleashing greater force upon his people and maybe the people who are attacking him--which would be us. America. I don't want bombs falling on Philadelphia, or any other city for that matter. 9/11 was bad enough. Assad's ties with Russia worry me. If we do go ahead with a strike, that is if the houses approve it, are we risking Russian retaliation? Russia is much bigger than Syria, and far more powerful. Is anyone thinking of the consequences here? Or does Kerry just like to see himself on TV acting all important? I am against a war. Are you? Update: 09/07/13 - This New York Times article calls John Kerry "the Obama administration's chief salesman for a punitive strike", which is totally accurate. It describes what Kerry is doing to sway the opinions of European nations. > Huffington Post Article from 9/1/13 > Video - Kerry's Speech and Commentary 8/30/13 > What is Sarin? We learned today, in a speech from Secretary of State John Kerry, that Sarin, a nerve agent, was used on the Syrian people within the last 24 hours. Proof comes from hair and blood test results done on first responders. Kerry says that this is the case they are building to justify military action against Syrian President Assad. There is proof that some citizens were told to don gas masks that are used in the event of a chemical attack. Kerry also says there is proof of when, where, and by whom this chemical attack was launched, it is clear that the intent was to seriously harm or kill innocent Syrians, and there is high confidence that it was launched by the Syrian government. It was made very clear today that although Obama called for Congressional approval to launch an air attack, he has the ultimate approval with or without congress. It seems, if you read between the lines, that Kerry is basically saying that Obama plans to go forward with this even if Congress comes back with the decision not to strike, and this new attack is just fuel for the fire. It's almost certain that another chemical attack will occur, and if so, we may be fighting in the Syrian civil war before Congress even has a chance to decide when they return from recess. Miley Cyrus is a Nuclear Weapon in the War on Robin Thicke According to the New York Times8/31/2013 I was out to dinner with my boyfriend Corey, and we were talking about Syria and the blog I had just written. We said what a shame it was that people were more focused on what Miley Cyrus is doing after her VMA performance than they are on what's going on in Syria. It's a damn shame, but I have to say, I am focused on both.Did you see the VMAs? Well, it was really boring. Everything was soft pop, soft rock, soft R&B, and then there was that weird Lady Gaga performance. She stared at the camera, eyes wide as they could open, for an uncomfortably long time while she sang. She changed into 4 different, stupid outfits, and jumped around half naked while she sang a bomb of a song. This is supposed to be innovative? Come on. I was finally validated when this article came out in the New York Times. Someone who has the same view of things is Jon Caramani, who,in his article wrote, "Still, you think, “Blurred Lines” is a must, a necessary acknowledgment of the sound of the summer. But what to do about Mr. Thicke, an unfettered cornball and, at 36, old enough to possibly be the father of some of the other nominees. He needs to be subverted, minimized, annihilated. Luckily enough, you have a nuclear weapon at your disposal: Miley Cyrus, the perfect antidote for the Thicke contagion. Bring him out after Ms. Cyrus, her spindly limbs and her motorized tongue having already made an indelible mark on the stage, and then allow Ms. Cyrus to sing part of his song while applying various of her body parts to various ones of Mr. Thicke’s. Mr. Thicke, no matter how ludicrous a suit he may choose to wear, will be helpless to overcome her. The show can move on." Brilliant. She saved the VMAs, but Miley, put that fucking tongue away!
Syria
> New York Times Multimedia Look at Syria > New York Times: Experts Fear Strikes Overlook Risks > Huffington Post Syrian News Feed In 2011, locals took to the streets of the city of Deraa after 15 school-aged children were arrested and tortured for spray painting anti-government graffiti on a public wall. Non-violent protests in the beginning turned violent after the Syrian army opened fire on the protesters, killing four innocent people. The next day, the army opened fire again on the mourners at the four victim's funerals, killing another innocent citizen. As news of this spread throughout the country, unrest followed as people became outraged at their government's capacity for senseless violence. The protesters who took to the streets in increasing numbers all throughout Syria simply wanted democracy and freedom of speech. They had had enough of the government's practice of ruling with an iron fist. Several reports of suspected intentional internet outages popped up all over the country after protests and during President Assad's public address. Control of this sort was made possible by the many people who still supported Assad and his party. As the protesting grew to huge numbers, it is suspected that Assad and his cronies took 3 days or so to put together nerve agents for a chemical attack on the protesters in the city of Damascus. When they (supposedly) launched the attack on August 21, 2013, 1,429 men, women, and children were killed. Syrian citizens began fleeing the country to neighboring Turkey, Lebanon, Jordan, and Iraq. The United Nations reported that upwards of two million citizens had become refugees, and nearly one million of them were children. Millions more have been displaced by the fighting within Syria, and have no means of securing help. Regular citizens have formed a rogue army, and are too busy fighting to help their fellow citizens who are without food, water, and shelter. The United Nations can not come to an agreement on how to help the citizen army fight the government army. If they send weapons, the weapons shipment may be intercepted by the government. If they launch an air attack, they risk killing more innocent people. Another issue here is that Putin, the Russian president, has close ties to President Assad's government having supplied them with artillery, so Russia does not support the UN going through with air strikes. Initially, France and the UK were in support of the US air strikes, but the UK has since pulled out of that agreement. It is feared that the disagreement between countries will precipitate a third world war. It is also feared that if the US launches said air strikes, that they will bring us one step closer to sending troops on foot into the Syrian civil war. Neither the Syrian government nor the Syrian citizens have been able to overtake the other, so there seems to be no end in sight, but it's very unlikely that the Syrian government will ever have full control again. As of this afternoon, August 31, 2013, President Obama is letting Congress vote on whether or not we should launch air strikes against Syria. He said, "a lot of people think something should be done, but nobody wants to do it." He has the ability to make the final decision, but said it was important for the people to decide. I was of the belief that we should mind our own business, but as a member of the UN, the United States does have the responsibility to help the Syrian people in their fight for a democracy. It doesn't appear they can do it on their own. While I do think we should help, I don't think our help needs to involve air strikes. I'm in the camp with other people who believe this can ultimately be solved non-violently. At least I hope it can. I do not, I repeat DO NOT want to see world war three in my lifetime. Isaiah 17:1, a bible verse, has been trending because people believe that the fighting in Damascus brings the second coming of Christ and the end of days. A grim outlook if you ask me. I didn't want to blog about Syria, but I wanted people to know what's going on. A lot of my peers had no idea why the fighting began in the first place, so I felt the responsibility to outline it for you simply. I hope this helps in some way, and I'd like to hear everyone's opinion on whether we should help or not, and whether we should launch an attack or do this without weapons. Let me hear your opinion one way or another. For whatever reason, I love Macklemore. He's got a different style, and I think he's sexy. I like his music to a certain extent. It does for me what I think it's meant to do: make you smile. I'm all for happy music, especially if it's supporting the gays. I'm a gay, and while I love the message in "One Love", I don't totally love it as a song. I like an uptempo song, myself. Kudos for standing up for us if you're not gay. That takes balls.
This is a funny clip from Chelsea Lately about how everyone thinks Macklemore and Ryan Lewis are gay. It's true, as he says in the clip, the second thing that comes up in the Google recommendations when you type "Macklemore" is "Macklemore gay". Poor guy. He takes it well, though, and even jokes about it. Watch the clip, it's a good laugh.
Click for Desktop Wallpaper Size
New York Times/NPR articles that I wrote about: > Read the "Facebook Inquiry" article > Read the "Android Security" article > Read the "How to Disappear" article > Read the "White Supremacist" article > Read the "Gay Marriage Tax" article Well, the news is all about Syria, as it should be, and Britain not wanting to be a part of it. That's fine, and I care that it's going on, but I like to leave war politics to politicians. The first thing I want to talk about has nothing to do with Syria, but is definitely a war of sorts. It's the digital information war. The war that government is fighting against our privacy. I'm one of those people who has nothing to hide from the government, but I support freedom of speech and a right to one's privacy. That being said, I was disgusted to see that Facebook released a report the other day, according to this New York Times article, outlining the government's requests for information on specific Facebook accounts linked to specific people. It doesn't list names, obviously, but I couldn't help wondering if I was one of the 37,954 people the requests pertained to. I'm clearly no threat, but what if something I said on Facebook used one or more of the keywords that the National Security Agency is looking for? I sure hope not. Facebook said it didn't honor all of the requests, but didn't specify the criteria it used to approve and deny requests. How do you say no to the government? I guess when you're as big as Facebook, and everyone in the world has an account, you can do pretty much whatever you want. I don't think the agency is poking around in innocent people's information, I think they're looking for very specific people who have committed crimes, or conspired to commit crimes that were terrorist related. Still, what should be off limits, and what is fair game? After Facebook released their report, Microsoft and Google came forward and issued similar reports. I don't want the government accessing private information without my consent. I hope these three companies inform the people whose information is being requested. Otherwise, it would be like Big Brother watching us and tracking our every click. Maybe they're already doing it. Who knows? Meanwhile, the government issued a statement warning against security threats on Android phones. Gee, thanks. NPR just published a humorous article called "How to Disappear if Someone is Spying on You" which is appropriate to mention here.
Tiny Life & Tiny House Movement
Have you ever looked around and thought, "I don't need all of this stuff", or that you could manage to live, even thrive, without all of the excess baggage weighing you down? When you whittle down what you really need, you'll see that all the crap you really wanted and had to have looks a little meaningless. When you've finished whittling and you have a pile of wood shavings all around you, look at what you're left with. A bed, a laptop, a few clothes, something to make food with, something to clean yourself in, etc. I've lived pretty minimally all my life. One of my favorite activities growing up was going through all my stuff and getting rid of or donating what I didn't want. I know, I was a boring little kid. Too much stuff makes me antsy, and to me, there's no excuse for clutter. I don't understand people who want to keep stuff like thousands of old newspapers in piles around their house. What good are they doing? What do you realistically intend to do with them? If they've been sitting there for years, and you haven't had the inclination to read, sell, or donate them, why are they there? People feel comforted by stuff for some reason, and it baffles me. The reason I brought this up is because one of my favorite blogs, Twisted Sifter, posted a link to a project where an architecture student converted an old school bus into a mobile home. As I got to thinking, I realized I could totally do that. I could live in a bus. If you're someone who turns their nose up at the notion, really ask yourself why. What are you afraid to part with? Would you die without it? Probably not. Entertain the thought for awhile and imagine what you'd get rid of and how much lighter your life would be. Not to mention how much money you'd be saving in the future. Make a list: start out with the things you've been meaning to donate or throw away. Life doesn't have to be complicated, we just make it complicated.
EQUALITY!
> Read the article from 08/27/13 > Read the article from 08/28/13 > Read "Is Facebook Making Students Terrible Writers?" (Unrelated) There was an article on a local news website yesterday that caught my attention. The mayor of New Hope, a small, very gay friendly town that hosts a gay pride parade on its main street every year, refused to marry a same sex couple. The couple had obtained a marriage license in neighboring Montgomery County, despite the fact that it is illegal to do so. They then brought the license to New Hope's mayor, Larry Keller, who refused to officiate, citing the the definition of marriage in Pennsylvania being the union of a man and a woman. He defended himself stating, "“If it was legal, I’d be happy to do it. But, it’s not the law yet.” I agree with Keller. How can the mayor of a borough defy the law and marry a same sex couple? If he broke the law and got a DUI, there would be an uproar. I don't see why this situation should be any different. Keller is a public figure who, when sworn into office, took an oath to obey and uphold the law. I had an interesting conversation on Facebook with my friend Brandy after I had posted a link to the article on my timeline. I'm going to re-post it here. I hope she doesn't mind. Here's what was said, including all the bad punctuation, grammar, and syntax that comes with the way everyone writes on Facebook. That's a conversation for another blog. Full conversation after the jump... Click "Read More".
Purchase or download the book.
> Read an excerpt and purchase or download the book from Amazon. > Learn more about "The Immortal Life..." and author Rebecca Skloot. > Read "The Sequel" article in the New York Times from March. You know Henrietta Lacks. What do you mean you don't know her? Do you have polio? No? That's because of Henrietta Lacks. Do you have tuberculosis? No? Again, it's because of Henrietta Lacks. All of the advances made in genome mapping, cancer and AIDS research are all thanks to Henrietta. Henrietta Lacks went to Johns Hopkins Hospital because something that felt like a "knot" in her womb was giving her trouble. She was wrongly given a clean bill of health several times before the doctors found a tumor right where she said it would be--where she felt the knot in her womb. Dr. George Gey (pronounded "GUY") took samples of the tumor, not only to form a diagnosis, but for his research as well. Henrietta was not informed of the research, nor did she give permission for such research to be done with anything that had come from her body. In the early part of the twentieth century, much less attention was paid to the rights of a patient and their rights regarding tissue taken from them. All Henrietta knew was that samples were being taken for diagnostic purposes. She had no idea what would come of the tumor sample. Dr. George Gey discovered that Henrietta's cancer cells, labeled "HeLa" for obvious reasons, were virulent, both in regard to the way they grew in culture and how invasive they were in terms of patient prognosis. Henrietta was diagnosed with cervical cancer and immediately underwent radium treatment, a standard treatment for cancer, that turned her belly as black as coal. The radium didn't work. After a grueling battle, Henrietta Lacks passed away leaving behind too many children for her husband to reasonably care for on his own. Her story is tragic...but the cells...
"Now It's Happening"
I just finished watching "Ayn Rand & The Prophecy of Atlas Shrugged", and am truly frightened, and truly angry. Have you read "Atlas Shrugged"? If not, you should. Every thinking man or woman should read the book. After you have, watch this documentary. There's not much to review here, it's just a handful of Ayn Rand proponents essentially outlining her philosophy, and the how the predictions of "Atlas Shrugged" have come true in the present day economy and society as a whole. If you know what's going on in the world, you'll know that it's alarmingly similar to the plot of "Atlas Shrugged", and that's the crux of the film. Ayn Rand's philosophy of Objectivism states: "My philosophy, in essence, is the concept of man as a heroic being, with his own happiness as the moral purpose of his life, with productive achievement as his noblest activity, and reason as his only absolute." How could you disagree with that? Everywhere I hear that capitalism is failing, or capitalism has failed, but it's not the fault of capitalism that we're hovering on the edge of economic disaster. It's the fault of every politician who makes a new policy to augment or repair the damage done by the policy set in place before it. It's like a snowball rolling down a mountain, collecting size and speed as it rolls. Government better quit while it's ahead, because the next policy it creates may do us all in. You can call me paranoid, but it's so odd that everything Ayn Rand wrote about in Atlas Shrugged is coming true today with astonishing similarity and speed. The first book of Ayn Rand's that I read was "Anthem" in my freshman year of high school. I'll never forget the impact that book had on me. The importance of the individual, the power of the word ego, and the proud use of the tiny word "I". Individualism is the code by which I've lived since then, and I have Ayn Rand to thank for it. Our government needs to take the same cue I did 16 years ago and loosen the hold it has on the productive individual. I pray they do, because I don't want to be around to see the mess politicians will make of America if they don't heed the warning in "Atlas Shrugged". A strike like that will be the end of a nation that was once the greatest in the world.
TED Talks: Ideas worth spreading
> View my TED profile > View Jill's TED profile and video While everyone else was watching the MTV Video Music Awards, I was watching TED Talks online. (Incidentally, the New York Times shares my view on the award show.) I've always found TED Talks to be fascinating, but as my life took a hectic turn, I watched these talks less and less until I eventually stopped altogether. My boyfriend Corey has gotten me back into watching them by recommending a fascinating one: "Jill Bolte Taylor: My Stroke of Insight" about one woman's struggle to survive a stroke. The description on the website is more accurate: "Jill Bolte Taylor got a research opportunity few brain scientists would wish for: She had a massive stroke, and watched as her brain functions -- motion, speech, self-awareness -- shut down one by one. An astonishing story." Truly astonishing. I have a personal tie to this story, a tragic tie. My mother passed away from a brain aneurysm. I don't say she lived with, or suffered with, because she didn't know she had it and died suddenly when a blood vessel ruptured in the frontal cortex of her brain. I was the one who found her, and I've been working with a wonderful therapist since 2012 to try and cope with the trauma. I wish I could've been inside my mother's brain when the aneurysm occurred, much like Jill was observing the deterioration of her mental faculties and motor function. Sometimes, I wish it would've been me having an aneurysm, not my mom. I wonder if she knew it was coming, or that something was going to happen. I wonder if she felt pain, or sadness, or fear. I hope not. I hope she experienced it like Jill did. A beautiful adventure. I'd be a lot less sleep deprived if I had a definite answer. To switch back to a positive note, I'm now obsessively downloading and watching all of these amazing TED Talks. Some on mental illness, sleep, bacteria. My boyfriend Corey tells me that they're also available on Netflix, which is awesome. (I'm a late bloomer just discovering Netflix for the first time.) I'm always craving brain food, and I've been pleasantly surprised at how much of it I've gotten from my boyfriend Corey. I'm really happy and lucky to have him. Thanks, Corey.
Margaret Atwood
I set out looking for my favorite photo of Margaret Atwood, the one to the left, and I figured the easiest thing to do would be to go to MargaretAtwood.com. Not true, because although there is a picture, it's not my favorite; and, oddly enough, typing MargaretAtwood.com takes you to her landing page on amazon.com. Tricky. Turns out she resides at MargaretAtwood.ca instead. After all, she is Canadian. I love Margaret Atwood for many reasons, but 4 primary reasons assert themselves: 1. Her wit, 2. "Oryx and Crake", 3. "The Year of the Flood", and 4. "MaddAddam". The last three reasons are her dystopian "MaddAddam" trilogy. The third book, titled "MaddAddam", is being released in September. I was lucky enough to get my hands on an advance digital copy, and I'm ashamed to say I haven't read it. I'll let you know when I do. I'm a fan of Margaret Atwood on Facebook, and the inspiration for this blog post came from an article she had linked to on her Facebook wall. The article is great, but the video on the site is even better. Please watch it. She's just so well spoken and quick witted. For being 73, she's surprisingly tech savvy and cool. At least read the free excerpts on amazon.com. I transcribed my favorite part of the video: "Dystopias just mean very unpleasant societies. So, you can have a dystopia that's a fantasy world on another planet. You can have a dystopia that is a real possibility for us. You can have a dystopia that's far, far away in a another universe and at a different time like Star Wars. So, everything that happens in dystopias is everything that we don't like. People used to put it underground and call it hell. Just as they used to put everything we like, they used to put it up in the sky and call it heaven. Within every dystopia, there's always a little bit of utopia; and in every utopia, there's always a little dystopia. It's also true that one person's utopia is another person's dystopia."
"OC87" - 2010
> Watch the trailer on YouTube. > Read the New York Times Review. I love documentaries, especially documentaries on or related to mental illness. That being said, I was excited to watch "OC87" last night on Netflix. Upon seeing its tagline, "The Obsessive Compulsive, Major Depression, Bipolar, Asperger's Movie", I began to get the taste of excess drama in my mouth. IMDb users rated it at 6.6 out of 10 stars which isn't bad, so what did I really have to lose? Maybe I wasn't giving it a fair chance. First of all, it's not a movie. I don't know how you can call a very insecure man trying to talk to a camera and sell the world on his problems "a movie", but apparently the "star" Buddy Clayman and many film critics do. I won't be too harsh, at least I'll try really hard not to be, because the man obviously has something wrong with him; however, I am having trouble seeing evidence of all of the illnesses listed in the tag line. Maybe one or two, but not all of them. He clearly had a nervous breakdown in 1987, thus the title, but does that mean he's been chronically ill since then? I think Buddy's major problem is having been so sheltered all of his life. Everyone stroked his ego throughout high school, and as he neared the end of his college preparatory years, he became depressed when he had to face the real world. One thing Buddy said that was paramount to anything else said in the movie was, and I'm just giving you the gist of it here, that when he reached college and began to make films to be viewed by an audience of his professors and peers, they didn't clap and cheer for him anymore like he expected them to. Like they did in high school when he was their brand of funny. College peers and pros didn't like his work, and this sent him spiraling. He doesn't want to make films in fear of being criticized, and perhaps it would reveal that his skill level was that of a high school student and not a film student. Now, he doesn't like people telling him what to do, doesn't like being controlled, and has a general disapproval for people. Ideations of harming the people he thinks may be judging him seem to be the essence of his diagnoses. I realize that his obsession and fear of acting on these thoughts makes it a problem, but is this obsession anything that a few friends and a hobby couldn't cure? Either Buddy has tried never tried either of these two obvious suggestions, or he tried them and failed miserably. Mom and dad can't bail you out of that. I couldn't help but asking aloud to myself, "are you kidding me?" > Product listing on BestBuy.com: http://ow.ly/o0oYS
> Dynex Product Website and Retail Page If you're looking for something simple, portable, and affordable, this is your speaker. I was honestly surprised by the sound quality for $10. It's cool that they come in different colors, and this one is particularly awesome because orange is my favorite color. The set up couldn't be simpler: insert the batteries (which are included - bonus!), close the battery cover, plug into a 35mm (headphone size) jack, and turn it on. It has a nice design to it, one that you wouldn't be embarrassed about having on the table at Starbucks. It's cool looking, it's portable, and it enhances sound on any phone, laptop, or music device. I'm using it right now on my laptop to watch Netflix, and it sounds great. To be honest, I was so surprised at the quality for the money, I registered for an account just to write this review. Highly recommended. > Product listing on Walmart.com: http://ow.ly/nXd9Y
> Note: There are many variations of the Bomb Speaker I was so excited about this little speaker. If it delivered what it promised, it would be a great deal. I picked this up near the checkout at Walmart from a spot with a price sticker that read $4.27. When the cashier scanned it, the display read $6.97. It would still be a good deal if it performed as promised, but as soon as I plugged it in and started playing a documentary on Netflix, the speaker blew out and gave off this "tinny" sound with tons of feedback. The sound quality is awful. The documentary was all speaking and no music. I tried it with music in Spotify, Google Play, and iTunes, all of which had the same "tinny" sound (the sound speakers make when blown out) and feedback. Even if the "tinny" (I use the word tinny for lack of a better word to describe the sound of metal hitting the plastic case surrounding it) sound wasn't present, it sounds like a cheap AM radio at best. I'm returning this product immediately and using the money to buy something else. I'd rather spend more money on a better product. I hope this helps someone else thinking of buying this piece of junk. Some people don't listen to the radio in the car. Some only listen to talk radio. The first thing I do after starting the car, before I put my seat belt on, is to find a music station on the radio. Sometimes I can't find one that doesn't disgust me, and not because they're talking or airing too many commercials.
It's because the radio stations, at least in my area, play the same songs over and over again. Sometimes the same popular song is on as many as 4 different stations at once. This is so aggravating to me. Just give someone else a chance! There are plenty of great new releases that never get to see the light of day because Justin Timberlake and Bruno Mars are dominating the airwaves. I admit that these men are talented, but does that warrant preferential treatment? Most radio stations seem to be a part of Clear Channel, and being part of a corporate conglomerate, they're forced to play everything on the Billboard Top 40. Talk about a catch 22: how can lesser known artists get on the charts if they're not on the radio for people to hear and subsequently purchase their music? Originally published to Facebook on Sunday, August 11:
Dear Bill Gates, What's up with all of these Windows Updates? What if I don't have time to wait a full hour (at least) while they download, install, and then go through a surprise configuration when my laptop restarts. I thought once I got through the download and installation I'd be in the clear, but instead I had to wait another 20 minutes while your software configured things. It's not that I'm impatient--I don't tailgate, run red lights, or throw fits when the postal worker delivers my mail late--I just don't want to watch my hair turn gray and fall out while I wait for my laptop to become usable again. I never had this problem with Apple. Please streamline your updating process. If you use your own software, Bill, I'm sure you'll understand. Sincerely, Not A Fan |
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About Me
My name is Nicholas Emeigh, but everyone calls me Nick, and I prefer it. I'm usually called Nicholas when I'm in trouble. I'm from the Philadelphia area, work in business, and fancy myself as a freelance graphic designer, writer, and artist. I have a passion for art in all its forms including music, but I restrict my singing to the shower and the car for the good of society. If you'd like to know more, just send me an e-mail. I really appreciate you stopping by. Archives
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