drop = dead phone = new phone = new Apple fan.

Yesterday, I decided to be an idiot and basically ended up with my iPhone dropping off a table and landing screen down on a tile floor. I pick it up afterwards, and it's nothing but a white screen and some lines going down the left half of it. I was ready to cry.

I ended up finding out that the phone was still working, it was just the screen that was fried. I could still answer calls by sliding my finger across the white screen when it rang. Talked on it several times. Making calls out was basically impossible, since you could see nothing on the screen except white though.

24 hours I had to wait with my busted iPhone before I could get an appointment with the Genius Bar at my local Apple store.  I really didn't realize how much I depend on and use the phone until I was forced to be without it. And I was surfing the web looking for fixes, since the suggested idea of running a restore didn't work, not that I really expected it to. I found some people who had successfully traded their phones out after just such an occasion.  However, it seemed like there were just as many who had been told "no" by Apple. I was very nervous.

So tonight I walked into the Apple store hoping I wasn't about to have to shell out another wad of dough for a second iPhone, but basically resigned that I was going to end up throwing a fit, being told no anyway and settling on buying another phone anyway.  However, I walked in, and with minimal questions and in minimal time, I was walking out with a brand new iPhone that looked exactly like my last one.

With customer service being a dying art, I'm now a huge fan of Apple.  I can't say that I'll completely abandon PC however. I still like gaming and Apple is not the system for such a thing. However, I'm pretty sure that the next computer I buy will be a Mac.  I'm sure this will surprise quite a few people, as I've always been completely on the side of PC.  But this really sold me.  That's unbelievable customer service, and I know I'd never get treated like that by most companies.  I'll probably go desktop as PC, and Mac laptops from now on.  Especially that new green MacBook they have, but that's a topic for another time

Hard work equals?

So after much hard work, a whole lot of studying, and putting off of major projects, papers, and study time for tests, I can now say that I am a CompTIA A+ Certified PC Technician.  Sounds fancy, eh?

Unfortunately, that doesn't exactly translate into a job, especially in today's battered economy and job market.  But hey, I passed the certification exams, and in a couple of weeks, I'll have the certificate to hang on the wall.  I'll be spiffy then.

New Era?

Or is this merely a fresh coat of paint on the same old crap we've seen for too long?  November 4th, 2008 had some ups and downs.

Good News:

Obviously, Barack Obama and Joe Biden win the White House over John McCain and Barbie Wannabe... I mean Sarah Palin.  I've ranted enough on this one, and I'll just say:

THANK YOU AMERICA FOR NOT BEING A MINDLESS WASTE OF VOTING PRIVILEGES!

Even though McCain still got way too many votes.  Especially in my home state of the 4Rs (Redneck Retardedism Run Rampant), otherwise known as Tennessee.  One day, I'll make it out of this backwards place.

Kay Hagan defeated Elizabeth Dole in North Carolina.  Dole spent the last couple of weeks smearing Hagan because she "associated with atheists."  I'm seriously thankful that this poor attempt at defining atheists as evil was met with a 9 point win for Hagan.  On the downside of this, Hagan ran from the atheists at full speed when the smear campaign started, instead of insisting that us atheists are people too.  Oh well, at least Hagan was the one meeting with an atheist instead of swearing we're evil people.

Colorado voted down an amendment to define a person as such at the moment of conception.  This was a measure that was made to circumvent Roe v Wade and was despicable at best.  Good job Colorado!

Washington State voted to uphold the legality of Physician-Assisted Suicide.  This isn't something I care deeply about, but it's nice to see freedoms being upheld, and know there is a place I can go when I can't take the pain any longer and want to be put out of the misery.

Michigan voted yes to amend to the state constitution to allow Human Embryonic Stem Cell Research with certain restrictions.  Even with restrictions, this is a great win for science and for the future.

Both South Dakota and (most likely, votes are still being counted) California voted down an Abortion Restricting proposition.  The restrictions are some that I feel comfortable with, but I still feel it's a woman's choice, and if women only had voted this choice in, I might be OK with it.  But I see it also as a starting block for the anti-abortion crowd to stand on, and we don't need to give these loons any of those.

Bad News:

Florida, Arizona, and even (so it appears, votes are still being counted) California all passed bans against gay marriage.  And Arkansas passed an initiative preventing gay couples from adopting children.  Shame on these states and their dedication to promoting intolerance and preventing freedom.

This infuriates me so much.  Why do these people care?  Because some old cryptic book barely implies they should, and their religious official says they should?  How about the fact that these people are preventing the pursuit of the American dream from people they've never met for something that is none of their business to begin with.  Anyone who voted yes to this, or even considered voting yes to this, the following is addressed to you specifically:

You complain that homosexuals are a threat to the American family.  YOU ARE THE THREAT.  You would prevent these people from having the freedoms guaranteed to them in the constitution because of a religious belief.  That violates the 1st Amendment.  You are the one who is unAmerican, not the homosexuals.  They aren't going against the Constitution, which is the heart of America. YOU ARE!  Stop your hate mongering.  Stop your Intolerance.  Stop letting your religion make your political choices for you.  Otherwise, you're basically the same as the people in Iran.  Their religion controls their government too.

Religious Politics

At first, I was almost ashamed to be white.  Then I realized that it wasn't being white that motivated these people and their attitudes, it was ignorance.  I'm truly amazed at the amount of ignorance that lives in the United States.  The racial slurs, the radical views, the ignorant propaganda, and the Religious Politics that fuel all these people are the exact reason for separation of church and state and why we need more emphasis on education.

This just sickens me:

Misconceptions

Sidewalk to Nowhere

The True McCain

Poor Bear Cub

What is wrong with these people?  Mainly, misinformation from FOX News and their other "Conservative" media, which I find to just be a nice way of saying "Extreme Christian Fundamentalist" media.  I'm not saying that Religion is to blame for all of this, just the Extreme Christian Fundamentalist that lead the Political Right now, and all the moderate Christian Enablers that follow in their wake.  This is a religious war on a political campaign that is fueled by racism, bigotry, hatred, and ignorance, which ironically enough, are all things Jesus would not be fond of.

Alzheimers in a Political Setting

If someone has one major point McCain brought up last night, that wasn't Joe the Plumber (which was quite pointless in the first place), I'd like to hear it.  All I heard was the same garbage that has been spewing from McCain's mouth in the first 2 debates, and the same unfounded and downright deceitful claims and statements about Obama's policies and past that his dog (Palin's own words, she claimed to be a pit bull) has been barking for the last 2 or 3 weeks.

William Ayers.  He and Obama didn't really have a close relationship.  In fact, if Ayers wasn't brought up daily by the GOP and Press, I doubt Obama would have thought of him a single time during the entire political campaign. Ayers donated $200 to Obama's campaign fund to be elected the first time into the state senate.  That was in 2001.  Sad that there has been no real links between Ayers and Obama since 2002, and the GOP, McCain, and Palin want to pretend and claim that the 2 men are "close friends" somehow.  Let us also not forget that this man is now a Professor at a University, not a radical bomb-making anti-war activist.

ACORN amuses me greatly.  ACORN is required by law in most states to submit all voter registration forms given to them.  ACORN has a great record of effectively flagging most of the fraudulent registrations for officials to throw out instead of registering them as voters.  Officials many times ignore the flags.  Could be laziness, or it could be they are too busy, we don't know.  Some of ACORN's employees (note, not ACORN itself) get caught turning in far too many fraudulent registrations (ACORN also fires them), and the GOP blows up and claims that ACORN, and Obama by association, are trying to steal the election.  This is just a last minute ploy by the GOP to try to win this election, because McCain has no chance without something catastrophic happening to derail Obama.  This is somewhere along the same lines as blaming a department store if one of it's employees demolished a building across town.  However, in order to get the 2 completely in line for a comparison, you'd also have to make that building condemned and required by law to be demolished. (unfortunately, I don't have time to go site hopping trying to find voter registration laws specific to drives to quote for my info here, but I'm sure you can find it yourself if you have more time than I do.  I'll try to come back later and find and post it in an update, if I can ever remember).

Governor Crist (R) of Florida said this of the GOP claims of "rampant voter registration fraud" in Florida.  Even one of their own is now standing up and saying "what are you people looking at to make these claims?" Fitting.

Teaching Grade Schoolers to be gay?

Or just another overblown load of crap from the hate mongering homophobes of the far Right? I'm going to say the latter.

This makes it sound like they're brainwashing children to be gay in a Massachusetts Elementary School.  Or at least very close.  However, you should read the report from The Boston Globe instead of listening to such dribble from the idiotic community that seeks to persecute and alienate the gay community more than it already is.

They say "Kindergarten" in the first site, while it was actually a second grader.  They also love using quotations from MassResistance, which is just another organization of the Religious Right trying to force their religious doctrine down our throat, as if their opinions lend any weight in this:

"The [Supreme] court did not even bother to notify the Parkers or their attorneys," said Mass Resistance, which said what now will be enforced in the judicial district will be the lower bench rulings that the state has not only the right but "even the obligation … to promote homosexual relationships to young children."

They think it's promoting homosexual relationships to read some fairy tales that involve a homosexual marriage.  I guess if I read Jack & The Bean Stalk to that same class, I'm promoting going against your parents orders, since Jack takes the beans instead of money, as his mother had told him to?  Yeah, that's not far fetched in the least, is it?

Normally, I would say that it's a parents right and freedom to be the one to teach their kids these things, but I somehow doubt these parents (and especially the ones who participate in the protests against gay marriage and the like) would ever teach these children anything but contempt and continued hatred towards the gay community, so I'm not sure I can really stand on their side in this situation, as tolerance and understanding are desperately needed in this country which has become so overwhelmed with religious views of intolerance.

Separation of Church & State was one of the key components in setting up the United States of America and it's Constitution.  It amazes me how the Right wants to say the Left is evil and not patriotic when their religious infusion into politics is directly against one of the key rules the Constitution set down.  And the crap the Religious Right likes to spew that claims "the wall between church and state was not meant that way" is completely false.  If you don't believe it, read the constitution and it's amendments yourself, and do some research on sites that are not Christian in origin (as that would give them a bit of bias).

I personally am grateful to the Supreme Court for putting down this petty attempt at continuing the hate against the gay community.  I do believe Jesus preached tolerance and love, not intolerance and hate.  Read your Bible before you start trying to preach it to the rest of us and make us live by it's outdated warnings and cryptic passages.

Catching up

Well, it's been well over a week, a VP Debate, a Presidential Debate, and a lot of school work since my last post, so I figured I'd chime in (between attempting to get 5 minutes worth of a speech out of the scattered knowledge and the few tidbits I printed on the Knights Templar).

The VP debate:  Palin didn't drool all over herself, and didn't get steamrolled by Biden. Naturally, the GOP is claiming a victory there.  I personally nearly blew my T.V. up while listening to her nasal passages talk.  Her voice, her religious views, and her scowling face just make me want to move to New Zealand immediately if McCain somehow wins this race.

The Presidential Debate:  Obama was on the defensive WAY too much during this debate.  McCain nearly ate him alive, and would have if McCain's policies weren't retarded to begin with.  That said, McCain did an excellent job of selling his garbage and spitting on Obama's policies.  It made me quite sick.

That's about all I have time for, more to come later, hopefully.