March: Boycott RIAA Month

Well, the good-word around the internet these days is that March will be the month to boycott everything RIAA. Basically, if you’re going to buy music, buy albums from artists that are unsigned or are signed under independent labels. Don’t go buying any albums put out by the RIAA.

Of course, this doesn’t mean that it’s ok to hop on the internet and just illegally download songs, that’s not what this is all about. The RIAA is a group of dark-hearted, motherless parasites who live off screwing over not only us, the consumers, but also the people who make the music. While they tell us pirating hurts the artist, it’s really them hurting the average artist with their obscene business practices.

Some sites that may be of use (as found through the article on Gizmodo):

• RIAA-less downloads: emusic
• Check to see if an album is RIAA-tainted: RIAA Radar

I urge you to join in and to spread the word to everyone you know. I know you all gripe about the RIAA and the way they conduct business, so do something about it.

Too tired and too busy

I’ve been neglecting and I’m sorry.  But, I’ve just been really busy lately and, well, quite frankly I’ve been too damned worn out to write whimsical nonsense about things no one reads anyway (i.e. this post!).  I apologize and I feel really badly about all of this.

You’d think that since I’ve graduated I’d have more time and energy to write until my fingertips fall off.  Sadly, it’s been quite the opposite.  I’m working 40 hours a week starting at 7 am and ending at 4 pm.  Once I come home, I’m turning on the tv while I watch bits of Star Trek: TNG and/or  Avatar: The Last Airbender followed by a couple of hours of Star Trek: Voyager (yeah, I’m a bit of a nerd, but you have to admit: that Seven of Nine is smoking hot).

If I’m not working and not watching Star Trek then odds are I’m sleeping or playing a video game (I got meself a 360…I wanted a Wii or even a PS3, but there were none to be found when I felt like wasting a lot of money).  It’s really quite sad how nerdish I’ve become after I’ve finished school for good.

Of course, there are the weekends.  Those days I spend sleeping in and heading out most nights to hang out with my two favorite girls, Brittany and Dannee (had to give the shout out, you know?).  As much of a nerd as I am right now, I can’t resist having some fun with those two (or more, but the core always has those two there).

I just can’t get the creative juices flowing when I’m tired despite the fact that I’ve been finding all sorts of goodies to write and bitch about.  Oh well, I’ll try to try harder, I suppose.  I know you’re all broken up over the fact that I’m being lazy but sometimes life is full of disappointments.

Which reminds me, I need to transfer over some blog comments from the old blog before I become completely shutout…

But, I wanted grape flavor!

I caught a cold this past Saturday night. It was strange, really, I got home around 11 pm and the moment I walked into my room, the symptoms of an on-coming cold hit me. So, for the past few days or so, I’ve been battling it but it’s pretty much won. I’m just trying to limit the damage….you know, trying to get over it sooner rather than later.

I’ve had some co-workers sing the praises of that Airborne stuff, so today, I decided to check it out and see if it was something I wanted to try. While looking over my options (there was some lemon-lime, orange, and grapefruit flavors), I noticed Airborne came in grape flavor and I became quite ecstatic. Well, until I noticed what it said on the front of the package: Airborne, Jr.

Dammit.

Why is it in this day-and-age children get the good choices and we adults get the shitty ones? I like grape flavor more than cherry (cherry flavor medicine tastes nothing like cherries) or any other kind of flavoring and I know plenty of “adults” who are the same way. Nyquil has that terrible, licorice-esque taste to it that makes me wanna puke. Why can’t they come up with alternatives? If they can make the meds grape flavored for the children, why can’t they do the same for us “grownups”? Do these companies seem think that once you hit 18, those things you once thought tasted shitty tasted like an orgasm in your mouth? Things that tasted shitty to me when I was 6 still taste shitty to me now at the age of 24.

C’mon, I’m begging you, please, give us adults some alternatives here. Grape flavor is the only flavor that actually kind of tastes like what they’re advertising. I’m pleading with you, one adult to another, cut me and my fellow kids-at-heart-adults some slack. Hell, I still watch cartoons, why wouldn’t I not still want grape flavor?

Wal-Mart failing at the internet: decides to only support Internet Explorer

Earlier this week, Wal-Mart launched a new video download site to compete with other sites and programs such as iTunes or Netflix. This new site had compatibility issues (by compatible I mean the IT morons published the site with CSS errors) with browsers like Firefox making the site non-functional.

It appears now that Wal-Mart has decided to completely shut out all browsers other than Internet Explorer. If you attempt to access the site with anything but IE, an error message appears pointing out the obvious fact that you are not using IE and providing a link to Microsoft’s website to download it.

“We’re sorry …
Our website requires the browser Internet Explorer version 6 or higher. It appears that you are using Firefox, Safari, or another browser that Wal-Mart Video Downloads doesn’t currently support. Click here to get Internet Explorer for free from Microsoft.

Thank You”

While I still don’t believe the average Firefox user, let alone any other browser users, would pay the trumped up prices to download movies you can only watch on your computer, it’s still a very stupid business move to not allow as many people as possible to use their service. Besides, the average Wal-Mart shopper isn’t going to hop on their high-speed internet to download movies from Wal-Mart’s website at $20-a-pop.

Congratulations, Wal-Mart, not only are you going to get your ass taken through the ringer by the millions of current and ex female employees, you’ve also managed to alienate around 20-30% of internet users.

…not as if I would download a movie from Wal-Mart anyway…

read more | digg story

Digg (or just read) this and then replace just ONE bulb with a Compact Fluorescent

The average light bulb is rated at 100 watts. A comparable compact fluorescent that puts out the same amount of light is rated at 23 watts. If you do the math, that’s a difference of 77 watts. According the Digg user who posted this article, there are approximately 120 million households in the United States. Multiply 77 by 120 million you’ll see that the country would save 9.24 billion watts of electricity per hour if every household switched one bulb to compact fluorescent. That’s equivalent to the emission levels of about 800,000 cars.

So, what’s the problem? Start switching out your old bulbs with the energy efficient kind. Read more at Energy Star’s website.

read more | digg story