I just started typing some examples but realized:  1) I can’t make them funny, even in a sarcastic manner, because it’s just that bad.  And 2) I don’t want to run the risk of that sort of thing getting crawled by a search engine.  All I know is,

• People hate the president.
• People hate congress.
• People hate Muslims.
• People hate Tea Partiers.
• People hate same-sex couples wanting to marry in California (or pretty much anywhere).
• Any of the above are destroying our country, our values, our very way of life!

When did ideological differences boil over into outright hatred?  When did republican vs. democrat, or conservative vs. liberal turn into a shootout at the OK Corral?  Or maybe I should say, “when will…” because as the rhetoric keeps getting cranked up on TV, blogs, et. al., it’s only a matter of time before someone out there takes it out of words and into action.  And it won’t be a protest, it won’t be some sign or t-shirt with an offensive slogan.   It’ll be someone with a gun going after a high profile target.  A politican or pundit, most likely.

We’ll be forced to admit, we saw it coming.  “It’s a horrible tragedy,” they’ll say, “but…”

but…

No more “but” anything, people.  Look at yourself.  Look at the message you’re sending.  The ideas you’re embracing.  Is it full of hate?  Probably not.  Is it full of fear?  You know, from the outside, it’s hard to tell the difference.

Here’s the deal. On my mouse, and indeed most computer mice produced in the last 10 years, I have a scroll wheel. This little wheel allows me to scroll up and down web pages incredibly fast, without regard to where on the page my little mouse pointer might be.

Your slideshow, on the other hand, requires me to find the tiny buttons you’ve set out, click and wait for new content to load, and be mindful of the really clever gits among you who think I’m too lazy to do that much, and so advance their slideshows automatically to some arbitrary timer!

Remember that click wheel? Well, in most modern web-browser, it’s not just a wheel – it’s a button. A magic button which opens links in new tabs or windows. So in my daily browsing, I don’t usually open one web page or web link at a time – I open several. Then I browse through each one in my own arbitrary way, opening new tabs however my whims might dictate.

I guess what I’m trying to say is, I like your content and I appreciate when you deliver it in a clean, efficient manner with a hint of style. I don’t appreciate it when your stylistic impulses take over, and you feel the need to force feed me your content with a mallet.  Please stop.

Especially with the timers.  Half the time, I don’t even remember why I opened that tab, since it’s usually moved on from “Cheerleaders of the National Curling League” or whatever, to “Tree Frogs of Out Mongolia” or something silly like that, and I’m left feeling morally ambiguous towards a bunch of amphibians.  Which reminds me.  Hey, YouTube!  Every other video site has learned not to start downloading/playing web videos until that page becomes the active window (i.e., someone’s looking at it?), when will you?

North Texas has been hit with record snow fall this weekend. More than 12″ in some places, we recorded 11″ on our back porch. This is more snow than has ever fallen in Texas in my lifetime.

I should have made a snowman. Or a snow-dalek. But, instead the missus and I hid indoors and watched the snow fall outside with mugs of hot cocoa in our hands. Oh, and we watched with great interest as the tree in our front yard got lower and lower to the ground. Three major limbs snapped under the weight of the snow – a 20 year old Oak.

Fortunately, that was the only damage we suffered. We also managed not to lose power or Internet the whole weekend, where many in North Texas were not so lucky. The news says over 200,000 homes and businesses were without power, and as of today only 50,000 have had it restored. Yikes! Let’s hope everyone is warm again soon. And that this is the end of the snowfall this year.

This week finds me back at work, settling into my old routine.  I won’t deny, like many I succumb to New Year’s reflections, although it’s been some time since I actually tried making a resolution.  I deeply resent the guilt I feel as December turns to January, and I think of everything I didn’t do over the last year.  I feel bad enough about this stuff on a regular basis, I’ll be damned if I’m going to feel extra guilt just because the last digits on my calendar changed too.

But then, I suppose that’s what we’re doing with our calendars…marking time as our lives go along, noting where we are and want to be.  If I take each day as it comes, and ignore the things in my life I desperately wish to change, maybe I need that extra jolt at New Year’s to make me focus.

So at the risk of being hypocritical (for I have little faith in myself, which is why I normally avoid this), I am actually looking at the new year and figuring out goals for myself.  Things I wish to do, things I wish to change, dare I say it: I’m looking for the resolve within myself to be better.

No, I probably shouldn’t say that, it sounds pretentious.  Still, it’s what I’m doing.  If I’m feeling really brave, I might even post some of it here and hold it out for the world to see.

Until then, take care of yourselves and be good to one another.  I’ll be here.

Oddly, I don’t discuss my own dreams that much.  Few stay with me beyond waking.  But I do love good stories, and in addition to a good book, I love a video game that tells a real story.

Which reminds me, I hope Assassin’s Creed II is out soon…

What I don’t entirely get, however, is this chain of thought: I keep seeing pundits ask, “why did we pay people to buy cars? Why not…” washer/dryers, sofas, pizza, etc.

Call me dense here, but I figured we were going for stimulus, right? Maximum economic impact? So, I buy a new car, saving over $4 grand, I’m pretty happy. I’m going out to drive around my new little car, eating out more, seeing movies, generally being a good little consumer.

You pay me to buy a new washer/dryer? I’m…doing my laundry. Nice and all, especially if I don’t have a washer/dryer now, but the likelihood of it changing my spending habits is pretty low. Oh, I might buy detergent now. The makers of Tide are happy.

Cars are major purchases, and the Cash for Clunkers is a significant rebate…enough that, in my humble opinion, recipients are more likely to redirect that back into the economy than $150 off a washer/dryer or sofa.

I honestly never expected reposting entries back dated to last year would show up in friends lists. I sincerely apologize to everyone affected by this, I hope I fall off your lists soon.

• I actually host all content at my own site: inkernet.com and I’ve just updated said site to the newest Wordpress, and with that, changed to a new LiveJournal crossposting thingie, that also supports…
• Another mirror I’ve created at dreamwidth.org.  It’s a spinoff of LiveJournal, to which some of my friends are already moving.  So, I have a foot in both doors, so to speak.

So….after much loss of brain matter, I’ve merged old comments from LJ over to the “core” website, inkernet.com.  And, I’ve now set it where thats the only place to leave comments.  I hope this doesn’t scare away any LJ or DW people, there’s no registration needed!  Just click the link at the bottom of each post, and you’ll be at my site.  A name, e-mail (which stays hidden), and your comments are all you need. This is all to protect my sanity in the long run, but it may kill comments entirely…I tried this in the past, but had actual user registration running over at inkernet.com and no one posted.  I think it was just too much for anyone to take.  So, I turned that off and I’m relying on akismet to keep the spam off me. I will just have to try and post such witty, such incredible, such wonderful content you won’t have any choice but to come tell me how spiffy I am. Failing that, cute kittens:

A side link on Digg led me to the article Seven (More) Reasons to Ditch Your iPhone.  I’ll point out now, for full disclosure.  I own a cat.  Oh, and an iPhone, too.

So far as I know, the cat is not impressed by my iPhone.

Anyhoo, the author of said article has lined up his reasons why we should be throwing the torches and pitchforks Apple’s way, and abandoning ship for a cheaper, more friendly cell phone & carrier.  Although, he’s directing his ire at Apple, not AT&T, but I digress.  I’ve read the article, and I have to call “crap!”

Let’s look at his points, shall we?

1. They’re anticompetitive.  Here, he points out that the FCC is asking Apple why they rejected Google Voice.  Wow.  One sternly worded letter, and suddenly Apple is the new Microsoft?
2. They’re targets.  Hey, iPhones have an SMS vulnerability!  But we won’t mention it was patched yesterday.  We’ll especially not mention the same vulnerability threatens other smart phone platforms like Symbian, Google’s Android, and Microsoft’s Windows Mobile.  Really, it’s just iPhones we have to worry about.  You know, they one’s who have patched already.
3. They’re dicks.  After Apple pulled Google Voice, they also pulled any other app related to Google Voice, including some paid apps.  After people yelled, Apple said, “sure, you deserve refunds” and threw angry customers at the developers, who were still trying to get a straight answer from Apple as to why their apps were pulled.  For this one, I agree.  Apple, you’re being real dicks about this.
4. Apps are mayhem.  OMG, there are, like, too many apps out there!  About 50,000+ according to the article.  Wah.  I broke down and got an iPhone because I finally decided I wanted decent internet on my phone.  You want to whine about too much variety?  Geez, what do you do with your phone, then?  Organize your recipes?  Stay off the internet, your head will explode.
5. You can’t find anything…in the Apple store.  I’ve heard people complain about iTunes before.   I just don’t get it.  Oh, wait, I use the internet and learned how to use a search engine when I was a teenager.  Doh!  Well, maybe our author can buy a smart phone for his smart phone.
6. Android is beautiful.  No rational here.  He apparantly just likes Android.  Um, yay for him?
7. T-Mobile is cheaper. Yep.  It sure is.  Me and my iPhone (on T-Mobile) are quite happy here.  Whilst it’s a steep barrier for entry, it’s not impossible to take your iPhone to other carriers.  In fact, it’s another reason I bought one – I was tired of phones I had no control over.  I can hack my iPhone any which way I want, and there’s a thriving community out there (in that big, scary internet) that’s happy to show me how.  Now, maybe Android is free and open and easy to port between carriers.  I don’t know…hey, maybe he could have filled out number six with something more objective than, “ooh, shiny!”

Still, at the end of the day it’s all right.  As the author says, some of his best friends are black.  I mean, gay!  I mean, he owns his own iPhone!  Yeah, that’s it.  He can write a poorly thought out article bashing Apple because he owns one himself.  And that justifies it all, right?

It’s a work in progress, so I’d love to hear your thoughts in the comments below.

Rule the First:  Superhero Movies should begin with the origin story. Sounds obvious, right?  To an extent, it is.  Let’s face it, movie studios aren’t catering only to the comic book fans.  They want to draw in everyone who loves a good action hero movie.  More than this, though, that first movie really ought to focus on the origin story.  For most superheroes, that’s the most interesting, most important story there is.  Movies which try to skim over the origin to get to “the good bits” are usually cheating themselves, and us.

Rule the Second: One villian at a time. Please!  Multiple villians crowd the story, especially in the sequels.  You start with one, then the sequel gets two, part three gets four, and on, and on, and…let’s face it, looking at X-Men and Fantastic Four, Hollywood has enough trouble juggling multiple heroes, we don’t need to try throwing in multiple villians.

Actually, it might be fairer to say X-Men is the exception to the rule…sort of.  The X-Men movies were intended to be ensemble pieces, and to that end, their cast of villians didn’t do too bad.  Not as bad as the heroes.  Far too many heroes, particularly big name actors, and the writers just didn’t seem to know what to do with all of them.  That’s not a superhero problem, that’s a “writing for ensemble characters” problem, which is an entirely other post.

Rule the Third: You get one to two sequels, that’s it. Why?  It goes back to the first rule about origin stories.  Past that, your first sequel is usually adressing the fallout of the first.  Our hero accepts their new purpose, and must reconcile it with their pre-hero selves.  The second sequel usually sets up an “ultimate enemy” or other obstacle to overcome.  Some franchises compress these into the same sequel, which can cut yourself quite short.

• Superman I sets up Superman’s origin.  The sequel has Superman fighting to reconcile his dualing personas (at one point choosing Clark over Superman), while also facing his greatest enemy: General Zod.  After this, the franchise goes downhill rapidly as none of the other storylines can compete.
• Spiderman I sets up Spidey’s origin, and the first sequel deals with Peter coping with his new superhero identity.  Good enough.  Spiderman 3 tried to set up “Spidey’s Greatest Enemy,” but broke rule #2 and could decide if it was Venom, Harry Osborn or Mary Jane.  Just kidding on that last one, but really, Sandman wasn’t even in the running.  In fact, why was he even there?
• Batman’s first run had origin story, then flounders with a sequel which doesn’t really do anything.  So the next sequel brings in new villians, a new sidkick, a new main actor, and still accomplishes nothing.  So next up? More villians, more sidekicks, and superhero nipples!  Yeah, let’s stop there.
• Batman’s next run, Batman Begins, starts over with a different look at the origin story.  The sequel introduces an ultimate enemy in the Joker.  To my mind, this limits the next sequel a bit – since I can’t see a villian topping the joker in that one.  They’ll have to put the focus on Bats, either with a “fallout” story featuring a love interest, or some sort of “personal challenge” story where Batman’s greatest enemy is himself.  The comic’s Breaking the Bat story might work, if Venom didn’t look so cheesy on the big screen.  The more recent RIP storyline has some potential, if they can strip out the baggage of the comics, like the alternative bat-men, the sidekicks, etc.
• Iron Man, Hulk and Wolverine have all had their origin stories, even if Wolverine got some screen time in the X-Men movies.  Early reports from Iron Man 2 suggest it’s a fallout story.  Hulk might get a sequel if Marvel works things out with Ed Norton (note to Marvel: DO THIS!), and Wolverine is a shoe-in.

So that’s what I have so far.  Like it? Hate it? Got ideas of your own?  Post, I command thee!