As If A Frankenstorm Isn't Enough...

Having read more stories of near-misses by flying debris, homes and businesses lost, millions of dollars of damage, and storm-related disruption of lives than I was able to process properly, I began skimming through other stories in the news...

...and found something to be really annoyed about.

Assuming the effects of Sandy haven't forced some to remain closed, over 30,000 schools across the U.S. are scheduled to participate in "Mix It Up at Lunch Day" today (Tuesday). Sponsored by the Southern Poverty Law Center[1], this program has been running for over a decade and is slowly growing. It encourages -- one might say forces, in some cases -- students to spend their lunch period sitting and hopefully socializing with other students they would normally not socialize with in an effort to break down barriers, promote understanding, reduce bullying, minimize the negative effects of school cliques, create new friendships for students, and generally do some real (and needed) good in the world.

So of course there's a group of idiots opposing it.

It seems that a bunch of bigots based in Tupelo, MS calling themselves the American Family Association have wrapped themselves in the American flag, hoisted the cross of [their perverted version of] Christianity on high, and declared the event "a nationwide push to promote the homosexual lifestyle in public schools."

Say WHAT?

Despite homosexuality barely rating a footnote as one of many hate-related issues the program is trying to address, the myopic AFA leadership -- led by the (in)famous Rev. Donald Wildmon, frequent foe of programs promoting understanding and provision of basic human rights equally to all humans -- warned their membership of the "threat" and the AFA's "Director of Issue Analysis" (how's that for a self-aggrandizing job title?) actually equated the SPLC's anti-bullying program with poisoned Halloween candy in an on-air CNN interview.[2] AFA supporters subsequently barraged the SPLC with over 1000 angry emails and many schools with phone calls protesting the event and demanding it be stopped.

There is, luckily, a silver lining to this distinctly bigoted & distasteful cloud. Although a few schools asked the SPLC to remove their names from their website to avoid further attacks from the AFA (it is unclear as to how many have actually withdrawn from the program as opposed to simply not publicizing their participation), once news of the AFA's hateful stupidity began making the rounds of various mass media and the Internet several hundred new schools signed up for the program.

Nonetheless, this remains a prime example of both the serious chasms separating (some thankfully small, albeit loud) factions of society from intelligent civilization and the power that hate and bigotry continue to hold & wield in American society.

This is the 21st century, folks. We may not have flying cars, weather control, moon bases, and all that cool stuff, but one would have thought that by now we would be free of the kind of hateful, bigoted idiocy personified by the American Family Association.[3]

But we aren't.

And that's damned annoying.

---

[1] You can see the kind of work being done by the SPLC on their website -- I encourage you to click on the "Get Involved" link near the bottom of the home page.

[2] I find it somewhat ironic that part of the leadership of an extreme fundamentalist Christian group is using Halloween as an example of something good that can be perverted...

[3] I've visited the AFA website, and believe I am being exceptionally polite by just calling them hateful, bigoted idiots. Drop them a line to let them know what you feel about them, won't you...?

Proof of Life Off-Planet

I'll keep this one short.

We now have proof there is life on other planets (please note the absence of the word "intelligent").

Check this week's news stories for the names "Mourdock" and "Coulter" and read the comments they've made to get them in the news.

There is no way those two can be from this planet. (Please, God!) Real human beings can't be that frakking stupid...

Well, okay, they can.

But still -- those two just cannot be from this planet.

And they need to be extradited back home ASAP.

'nuf sed.

Semi-Wordless Wednesday

(D'ya get the feeling the communications problem extends beyond just the phone system...?!?)

Upgrade, Downgrade, Passing Grade, Failing Grade...

Aaaand I'm back.

Aside from now having a lot less free space on my laptop's hard drive (long story), my technical problems seem to have become something of the past; all I have to do now is deal with the fallout, the cleanup, and the catching up.

<sigh>

In any case, I have a new annoyance (just one of many) to share with you this evening.

To begin, I have to admit that my family has been sorely remiss in maintaining currency in our technology division. That is to say, we have been using old-fashioned "flip" type cell phones for at least the past five years, with nary an app in sight.

Until this past weekend, when the adults in my immediate family all became iPhone users. The adjustment has been interesting; despite a great deal of reading in advance of the purchase, I have an uncanny ability to forget how to do something just at the moment I want to do it, and then remember later when it's too late. (For example, missing a great photo of a beautiful double rainbow on the way to work one day because by the time I remembered how to access the camera and zoom it in, I was in heavy traffic and could not take the photo until both rainbows had faded from view -- if I had been using my regular camera, I probably would have been able to fire off at least five or six good images.)

Learning curve aside, I have to admit the darn thing is fun to play with... but that teaching my parents how to use their phones is proving a bit more difficult than I had anticipated.

But wait, I hear you say, you haven't used the word "annoying" even once yet! What gives?

The answer is simple: upgrades. Two, in fact, of very different kinds.

The first upgrade was a slightly unpleasant surprise during the actual purchase. I had spent a great deal of time on the Verizon website, picking through their calling plan information with a virtual fine-toothed comb so we could budget for the new phones accurately. Imagine our surprise, then, to be told that there would be an additional $30 "upgrade charge" per phone, a charge I had not found listed anywhere during my online studies. Oh yes, I'm sorry, said our sales representative, they're applying this to everyone who upgrades from an older phone to a new one, or from a regular phone to a smartphone. Okay, Verizon, I get it; the iPhone is heavily subsidized and you need to wring as much cash out of each one as possible... but it would be nice if you warned your customers in advance of this otherwise nearly invisible $30 fee.

The second upgrade was an even bigger surprise, although one that (I hope!) has no direct financial impact on any of us. You see, I spent some time this evening literally sitting between my parents on the family room sofa, walking them through some of their phones' basic operations step-by-step. We covered answering calls, reading and clearing messages, basic camera operation, how to view photos... all the kinds of things smartphone users take for granted but that they had never had to worry about with the older, simpler "dumb" phones. Things were going well (to be honest, better than I had feared at first) when I ran into a bit of a problem.

The subject at the time was ringtones, and once we had established that they should use different ringtones (and that I was going to be spending some time creating new custom ringtones for them), we were having fun comparing all the built-in sounds to the custom tones I was already wasting using my phone's memory for. I told my father he could choose different vibration patterns for the phone as well as different sounds, showed him how to do it, and turned to show my mother.

And simply could not find the setting on her phone. Several minutes of frantic tapping, swiping, and (I have to admit) cussing later, a dim bulb flickered on over my head. My father and I both had black iPhones while my mother and sister had the white models. Could it be...? I tapped my way through the menus on my phone to "Software Update" and very quickly had a message on the screen telling me my iPhone was running iOS6 and there were no further updates available. I then did the same thing on my mother's white iPhone...

...and promptly discovered that it was still running the older version of iOS. Oh, sure, it was offering to download and install the update right then and there (at no cost, thankfully), but we were all so tired by that point that we agreed I would return and do the update tomorrow... and we all now assume that my sister's white iPhone will need the same update.

All four phones were bought together, at the same time, in the same store, and came out of the same inventory stack. Why, Verizon, o why, are they running different versions of the operating system?!?

That is annoying. In fact, I think I can honestly say it is frakking annoying, since I am now guaranteed to have to dedicate another 30-60 minutes of an already busy day to doing what an equipment vendor should have done for me before giving me their equipment.

And now, if you will excuse me, I have another couple of thousand apps to sort through while I try to find some that mimic the functions of my decrepit old PDA that I had not realized I truly do need at work until after belatedly joining the smartphone revolution...

Pot and Kettle

There were many things said (and more than just a few inferred) during the televised debate between Joe Biden and Paul Ryan. It was obvious that there is little love lost between the two men, and far too many words were said for me to analyze the debate here.

Before going any further, let me say this: regardless of how I feel about any of the political parties and/or their candidates, there have been enough zingers and more than enough twisting of facts from ALL of them for me to be actively trying to avoid watching the news these days.

But there was that one moment during the debate where I just could. not. believe. what I had just seen and heard (and yes, where I was thoroughly annoyed by what was said). 

Both men were obviously trying desperately to get in just one more statement to counter each other as the moderator tried her best to rein them in long enough to move on to the next question, long after the alloted time for the particular subject they were chewing to pieces had expired, when Joe Biden made a negative statement about the effects the Republican platform would have on the average American. 

Paul Ryan's response was to shake his head, give the camera a smile, and say something to the effect, "there you go, that's what politicians do, they say things to scare people into voting for them."

Umm... excuse me a moment, Mister Ryan. You are an elected member of the U.S. House of Representatives. You are Chairman of the House Budget Committee. Before becoming an elected government official yourself, you worked as an aide to several other legislators. At the moment, you are the Republican party's official candidate for the office of Vice President of the United States of America.

You, sir, are also... dare I say it?  A POLITICIAN.  Yes, you are. Really. You are a RepRep. You are a Congresscritter. You are A Washington Insider. You are one of Those Guys Who Legislate Things.

So please stop insulting the intelligence of those who intend to vote for you, those who intend to vote against you, and those who have yet to decide how they will cast their votes. YOU are a POLITICIAN too, Mister Ryan, and no amount of theatrics will ever hide that fact.

Pot, meet kettle. Kettle, allow me to introduce pot.

Now stop being so damn annoying and -- all of you guys from all the parties! -- just tell us, honestly and openly, what you intend to do if elected and cut all the, "Oh, he's a politician, so he's slimy, but I'm not, so vote for me" crap.

<sigh>
Now, if you'll all excuse me, I have to surf on over to the Factcheck website and see if they can help me dissect all the verbiage that was flung across the airwaves Thursday evening. (And I encourage everyone else to do the same.)

Wordless Wednesday