Believe the Answer

It amazes me how one person can start a controversy. Imagine, to Miss California’s Carrie Prejean’s surprise, how one answer can kick-start the hottest controversy in the past year. Shall we start at the beginning?

During last year’s election, most liberal state in the Union decided to ban on Gay Marriage when they passed Proposition 8 with 7 million people voting for it. Whether it was right, or wrong doesn’t matter (you can also apply this to the 18th Amendment). It was passed into law. There was a huge uproar when this happened, but it did happen.

Fast forward five months. As one friend of mine called him, “The tool Perez Hilton” asked Miss California, during the Miss USA pageant, a question about Gay Marriage.

Watch it for yourself here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZYV1aBDH7cA

Now, Perez Hilton is furious about this. Why did he ask that question? The reason: he asked it to create a national controversy if the contestant answered it the way he thought it would have been answered. Now, the country is divided once again.

What was so wrong with Miss California’s answer? I couldn’t find an issue with it. Was it right? That is an answer that will vary from person to person, but to Miss Prejean’s credit, she answered it with conviction, knowing that her answer could cost her the crown. In other words, I think she did the right thing. Not for the answer that she gave, but because of the conviction in which she answered it. She didn’t lie. She didn’t try and be political. She formed an opinion and answered the question.

Did she lose? In one way: Yes. She was named First-Runner Up, and didn’t win. She could have lied and won the pageant, but by not doing that, I think she is more of a winner than Miss North Carolina (I don’t know what her name is). But she has also won in the eyes of the people who want their role models to tell the truth. She is a winner in my eyes because of that.

Now the after affects of this are not fully known, but I can say one thing. If you become a fan of hers on Facebook: you’re a homophobe. If you disagree with her, then you’re pro-gay marriage. What does one do in this instance? For one, I agree that her sticking with her beliefs is admirable. I think this will cost her fame and money in the long run, but at least she can keep her head held high.

Now for “that tool”: Perez Hilton. He knew what he was doing. He knew that by asking that question, he was taking a competition that was meant to be about beauty and turned it into a political circus (and probably gave him the highest ratings he has ever had on his blog). Calling Carrie Prejean a “stuipd b****” was also wrong. She’s not stupid, she just has conviction and is willing to stand by it. I think someone who stands up for their beliefs has more moral character than a person that will lie to me to make me like them. Do I sometimes not want to hear the “truth”? Yeah, but I respect a person more for sticking to their beliefs.

Shame on you Mrs. Hilton. SHAME!

When the Cat Is Away

My wife is leaving town for a few days, and I can’t help but say “YES!!!!” It’s back to the bachelor’s lifestyle for me. And I know that some of you our there say, “How could you be happy your wife is leaving?” Well, it’s sometimes good to be away from the one you love just to get a refresher of how much you enjoy time by yourself. You know, “Absence makes the heart grow fonder” saying and all that. So, in that spirit, I will list the top things that I am looking forward to as a bachelor from tonight through Monday night.

• Mix orange juice, milk and grape juice into one drink and start gulping, while keeping the toilet in close range
• Did anyone see “Risky Business” and the Tom Cruise dancing scene? I’m just saying...
• Watching horror movies without worrying about scaring the wife to death
• Having a full bathroom sink to myself
• Not having to worry about whether the bathroom seat is up or down
• Falling asleep with pizza on my stomach
• Not having to worry about chocolate magically disappearing

Check back in with me next week to see if I actually did any of these things.

The Marriage Laws

I have only been married for a couple of years now, but I have come to learn that there are several undisputable/incorruptible rules. I will list them here:

1. When an agreement is made between the husband and wife, only the wife is allowed to break said rule in light of the fact that they are always right.
2. The wife is allowed and encouraged to by her friends to pass out contact information for the husband on any whim that they receive. This whim may include the need of a friend or family member that needs someone to fix cars, computers and/or the laws of physics. The fact that the husband is qualified or willing to do such a task is immaterial.
3. When a wife makes a mistake, a simple “oops” will suffice as an apology. The husband, on the other hand, is required by law to buy flowers, chocolate and wine (if he did a really bad thing like leave the cap off the toothpaste) to seek forgiveness, but that is only after he has apologized for three straight days and groveled on the floor and possibly a couple of nights of sleeping on the couch.
4. The old axiom of whoever controls the finances, controls the household is only true when the wife is in control of the household finances.
5. When eating a dinner prepared by the wife, the husband is only allowed to admit that it might have been a mistake to cook after the wife first admits to it. If the husband is the first to admit it, see rule 3. If a husband fails to cook a good meal, it is immediately tossed out and never allowed to be made again.
6. A husband is never allowed to say the wife looks fine. In his eyes, no matter how bad she dressed, the wife is the most beautiful woman on the earth and that is how it should be stated to the wife. If it is stated otherwise, see rule 3. The converse of this is that the wife can repeatedly tell the husband that they look fat, ugly and sloppy when dressed in certain ways. The husband’s only course of action is to change.
7. When both parties in a marriage have to use the restroom at the same time, it’s always ladies first. When a house is burning to the ground, it is always ladies first. When its time for TV, its ladies first. You get the idea that it is always ladies first, except for one instance: when someone dies, then usually it’s the husband that goes first...and we like it that way!

Fear the Purchase

Has anyone out there wanted to buy something, but didn’t knowing that a newer more advanced product will be released in the future. Take the iPhone, for example. In 2007, the iPhone was released and the collective masses went wild. They bought them up like there was no tomorrow. Well, wouldn’t you know it, a year later, the New and Improved iPhone was released with 3G. The people who bought the original iPhone now had to plop down more money for a second phone if they wanted the 3G (I think that was the case and may be otherwise and if so, please comment and let me know).

Now, comes little old me, who wants a Kindle. I think the Kindle would benefit both me and my wife. Actually, I think it would benefit my wife more with the text to speech option (if it is included for the books she wants). But right now, the Kindle is in Generation 2, and only has a black and white screen. Although I want one, I would be willing to wait for one that has a color screen, if that version is not that far off. Should we buy one, knowing that there will be a better version a year from then?

I like innovation and I love that the customer can push the make of devices to put new things, but I am always wary of buying something if it might mean buying it again a year later.

Because It Works

A lot of people, who know me well, think that I am a ball of negativity when it comes to moving to something new, well, I can agree and disagree with that statement. Let me give you an example of that.

Let’s use the Xbox 360 versus the PS3 online service as a good example. Xbox Live is one of the easiest and most worry free services that I have ever used (now I will admit that I don’t do a lot of them) and I am very pleased with the ease of use that is associated with that service. Want to see what your friends are doing? Just login and look. Want to join their party, click B (or is it Y?). Want to send them a message, again very easy. But you can do that pretty easily on the PS3 online also. But then you go to the next level and join someone game. On Xbox Live (XBL), it’s sometimes as easy as clicking “Join Game”. On the PS3, though, you have to jump through several hoops because unlike Xbox Live, the developers of the games determine what features you have in regards to multiplayer. It’s not a universal standard like XBL.

Now this applies to a lot of other things. Take Facebook, for example, I hated the MySpace layout, but absolutely LOVE the layout of Facebook. Simple, easy to understand and works nearly all the time. When someone hates something, it’s not always because of a bias, it’s because they sometimes prefer to have it a different way...because it works!

My Trip To Seattle

For anyone who had not figured it out, I was never in Seattle, and it was an APRIL FOOLS JOKE!!! I was in Richmond, VA for the whole day…

How it all started. I posted the news about the latest episode of Geezer Radio and then thought that I’d give a logical reason why I posted it that early. I was on a trip to Seattle. No one said anything, so I just continued on with it. At one point, I felt really bad that I was tricking you, but then I thought, “It’s April 1st. You should be expecting it.”

At one point, I even had my wife thinking I was in Seattle when we were chatting online at each others office.

The tools I used to perpetrate the hoax...Twitter, Google Maps, time and one very understanding wife that wanted to know why I didn't tell her I was going to Seattle... :~P

So thank you to the following people who participated in my joke. If it wasn't for you, I'd have felt pretty stupid (like I don't already).

My wife, JedisPadme
SparkStalker
Kiko Derderian
King Wulfgar
Furgus
Jeff MacMichael
Mrs. SlapShotSal
Th3Gunsl1ng3r

Delivery Man

I find it funny that once something goes bad enough, everyone knows about it. Case in point, my Xbox 360 died last week (thank you for your concern everyone), and I called in to 1-800-4MY-XBOX. I must say that I was pleasantly surprised in how good the customer service was. Yes, they had to have me sit in front of my 360 in order to properly test it, and yes they made me go through each individual steps designed only to test my patience, but after it was determined that I had a defective 360, they immediately took action. It was fast, easy and very efficient.

Now comes the very laughable part. They asked me if I had been shipped a “coffin (mailing box that MS sends out)” before. I responded yes, and they immediately shipped it to me. Fine. What bothers me the most about these “coffins” is that EVERYONE knows what they are for. In fact, this exchange happened to me just a few minutes ago.

The UPS man came through the door of my office to deliver the packages. He wheeled them in the systems helpdesk room, had someone sign for them and then started to hand them out. He called my name and handed the box. As soon as I had the box in my hands, the man looked at me and said, “If you didn’t play it that much, it wouldn’t blow out.” It really bothers me that the UPS man knows that the contents (or lack there of) of a package, the shape and size can tell him what the box is for. Not only is this a privacy issue, but what about security? What if my replacement box comes and it is immediately identified and stolen? Microsoft, could you please find a new box to ship things in?

Better yet, can you make a console without a HUGE hardware issue like this?

Too Tired

I’ve gotten to the point where writing a blog everyday is just getting too tiresome and it is now beginning to feel like a chore, instead of something fun and enjoyable. So, going forward, I think that I will not be publishing an article everyday, and instead just posting when I have something that I really want to talk about, which might be five days a week, or just one day a week.

I would like the comments to continue. Also, I am on Twitter and Facebook. I also have my Twitter status carry over to my Facebook status. Twitter has also allowed me to just put up random thoughts for the whole world to see instead of holding them all for one blog post. So, peace-out and keep rubbing the some dirt on it.

I don't know how often I will post, but I'm not going anywhere, just saying less.

...Will Happen Again

When I saw the ending (SPOILER ALERT) I was shocked. Not at the fact that some of them survived, but after that, during the scene’s where Head Six and Head Baltar were seen on Earth 150,000 later debating whether or not the human race (the ones that they started anew) would repeat the same mistakes. It became really eerie when they showed robots that were in development and how Human they looked and it just begs the question. Will we suffer the same fate as the twelve colonies?

Think about it. There are dozens of pop-culture movies about the destruction of humanity by the means of robots. There are reasons. Robots are a relatively new concept. We use them now, but not to the extent that they could be used. Imagine a world where “Terminator’s” do rebel. Terminators = Cylons. If that is a stretch, and you think that this is just a modern concept, then look back a few years before then.

“I, Robot” was written back in the fifties and it revolutionized the way people imagined robots. It also came up with the “Three Laws”. I would like to believe that if the three laws are followed, then we might be able to prevent anything like this. (And with all due respect to Ronald D Moore, the Excutive Producer of the re-imaged Battlestar Galacitca, I think he made a glaring lack of use of the three laws.) (Also, there is some debate as to whether the three laws would be effective in today's world, and I never really want to find out.)

What I am saying, though, is that although the ending of Battlestar Galactica implies that humanity is based off of their story, I do think that we are headed towards a day when Robots will be taking a greater responsibility in regards to what they handle on a day to day basis. In order not to end up like the John Connor and friends or Admiral Adama, or even worse to end up in a Grey Goo scenerio, we need to cover our basis and decide, "How much or what do we want computers and Robots to control?"

What Has Happened Before...

I am a HUGE fan of Battlestar Galactica and am now heartbroken since the final episode was shown on Friday. It’s hard to say goodbye to characters that you have come to grow and love for five+ years (for me and the wife it was only three+ years). Even still, the wife and I made an emotional investment in these characters, and now, they’re gone. Forever! Yes, we will see some of them in the upcoming series Caprica, but it won’t be the same. No where near the same. I guess I feel like a guy who is watching his friend leaving on a plane, hoping to see them again, but knowing that he never will. Sad, but that’s life.