February 21, 2005
Blogging Activism or creation of a Trolldom?
I fully support the fact that VFW/NAACP are getting online and putting their voice out in the open where millions can read it. Promoting blogging activism is wonderful. But do your homework before you start slandering pioneers of the technology you're promoting.
Some members of the CAM Mafia such as Dave Winer just might find that traditional political bases start counting more than who has the latest and greatest technology or the best connections at Ivy League campuses.
I find that such attacks on Dave Winer obviously very amusing. If the author bothered to speak to Dave at the latest conference in the Triangle and read Dave's work, they would know that he is more cynical about MSM "getting it." Did I mention that Dave Winer has not been a part of the Cambridge crowd for quite a few years now?
Another flaw lies with your theory of best-connections based argument. Greensboro has fiber running straight into downtown right under the Guilford Building. DukeNet leases the bandwidth as do some local ISPs. While Ivy leagues also run fiber, this little southern city is pretty high up on the technological factors when it comes to bandwidth.
I'm also surprised with the blogging activism comments that there wasn't a mention for Downhill Battle, Public Knowledge, Civic Space Labs, and others whom have paved the way for your current movement.
Personally, I feel sorry for those associated with this comment since I know they're doing a great work for the community and they are being associated with an article with some issues on fact-checking. Keep up the good work: Tara, Dan and Ross.
Blogging activism. heh. Call it cynicism, but seems like a great start on creating a trolldom. And that is so 1997, just like the technology.
Posted by darkmoon at 10:21 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
February 19, 2005
G4TechTV at a new low
I never cared for TechTV. The Screensavers were the closest to geekdom that it got and while Leo Laporte sometimes incorrectly stated some issues and Kevin Rose looked like one of the punks from high school, they actually had a vast array of knowledge that definitely hit home for non-digerati.
Lately, I figured that I would try it again. So I turned on Filter. They plug devices that ThinkGeek has had for almost six months. The previous show was a game review show that paled compared to X-Play. They were plugging Getaway: Black Monday as a good game when the graphics were terrible and other review sites have given thumbs down for that game. Amusing. Perhaps paid off reviews?
I'm not saying that TechTV did not have some Microsoft plugging before the switch. For similar games, XBOX would almost always rate higher than PS2. Same game, different console.
But this is outrageous. Half of the people that I know who used to watch the old TechTV now have switched to other things. I'm sure the ratings on TechTV have dropped. The producers need to get a clue and get rid of the VH1/MTV style look and go back to what worked.
Geeky might be in, but obviously interviewing geeks isn't the same as being geek.
Posted by darkmoon at 01:04 PM | Comments (2) | TrackBack
February 15, 2005
N&R's Front Pew: Is it matters of faith, or actually matters of Christianity?
It has almost been a month since the launch of The Front Pew. A bit of what's been nipping me in the back of my mind is that I have been following this blog since the beginning and commented here on SR's rant back in January. The issue being?
"Welcome to the Front Pew, our blog on faith, religion and matters of the spirit."
As I responded before, religion encompasses more than just Christianity. Yet, the only issues that have been covered are purely Christian beliefs. Nothing wrong with that being that we are entrenched in the Bible Belt, but if religion is the topic to be covered, then there is Buddhism, Jewish, Islam, and others to be encompassed.
Why do I bring this up? I think Nancy Mclaughlin is doing a fabulous job at blogging about Christian issues and faith and I applaud her for doing a great job there. But even a slight quibble on Chinese New Year that has come and gone, or other non-Christian posts would be nice.
I suppose I'm asking too much want other religious aspects to be at least represented somewhat when the first post claimed such. Then again, it is called The Front Pew and if I'm not mistaken, a pew is only found in a church, which in turn is a building for Christian worship.
The moral of this story? Annoying people like me can get you on semantics. Maybe there will be corrections, maybe there won't. But I'll continue to read The Front Pew hoping for at least one single sliver of other religious content.
Posted by darkmoon at 04:07 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
February 14, 2005
Triangle Bloggerfest aftermath
Just a word before I head to bed after a grueling night of work.
I was reflecting on the Triangle Bloggers Conference and I realized a little something that I never got to say. Thanks Ed!
Why you might ask. While I was sitting there patiently with my hand half in the air, waiting my turn, it seemed like Dan Gillmor and Paul Jones were looking anywhere but the first row. (Strange since usually you look to the students in the first row when you teach). In any case, Ed whispered that I should raise my hand higher. While it might not seem like a big deal, I was about to be exasperated enough to just move to the steps to where Dave Winer was sitting and raise my hand there, just for laughs. Needless to say, I did get my turn and hopefully it actually hit home somewhere for someone.
I think that while Ed says that everyone blogs for fifteen people, I probably blog for about 0.15 people.
It's strange how the little things in life make such biggest impacts upon your life.
Posted by darkmoon at 06:33 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
February 12, 2005
Blogging and Flow
In regards to the Triangle Bloggers Conference, many questions were asked about how to generate readership and flow. Ed Cone talked about how he builds upon his community instead of concentrating on actual linkage.
Why everyone is concerned about flow is beyond me. Dave Winer and BigWig had a brief conversation during the break about it. I agree with Dave on the topic of doing it for the blogger. Everyone is so concerned about being in the sweet spot of the longtail. There was even talks about how to put your About section so that you can be more easily found in Google.
My response is: I write for myself. Dave Beckwith knows that I rarely comment on my blog with my real name, and yet I comment on other blogs with my real name. Just be yourself and comment on subjects you care about.
Posted by darkmoon at 02:15 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
February 11, 2005
Southern utilities don't make any sense
melinama of Pratie Place stirred up some old annoyances when I moved here from the West Coast. She talks about plans for consumer's to feed power into the power grid so that the consumer is only charged for the net power that is taken from the grid. Makes perfect sense.
Unfortunately Duke Power didn't think so. To have her initiate her project under their pilot "residential" system, you have to insure ANY line worker in anywhere. Thus, it was denied.
This amused me to no end. Besides my annually rising bill due to fees, and them putting in wireless meter readers that turned off my electricity for a week (I didn't realize since I was on a business trip) and not paying for the damages to all the spoiled food. This was about a year ago. More recently, I realized that the so called efficiency of the wireless meters were pushed back onto the consumer. Joy. But what are you going to do?
Duke Power also does NO maintenance work on trees on the power lines or poles. How I know this? A certain someone I know has called a multitude of times complaining about the trees behind her apartment. The power pole had the safety light out for over six months, even after complaint after complaint. This is the service we have to deal with in the Piedmont area.
On the flip side, Duke Power helps in many disasters and getting Floridians up with power when hurricanes strike. That brings up another brilliant concept for power companies in general. If you know geographically, that area has hurricanes, why don't you move your lines underground? What a waste of federal disaster funds to pay these corporate people their bonuses.
However, it's not all in vain for I'd like to see utility corporations look after the community and perhaps champion efforts to make the area a better place. Why? If there is ever a smaller power company that begins to serve the Piedmont community, Duke as a whole is going to regret screwing with their customers.
You know what's even more amusing than my personal rant above? I haven't even begun to talk about BellSouth.
Posted by darkmoon at 03:08 PM | Comments (2) | TrackBack
January 23, 2005
Money is in print? Better look to the future
I'm am amused with the couple of posts that originated from Jim Capo's conversation with Willy Hammer of the Rhino Times. Shu and Hogg weigh in also.
The amusement does not come from the fact that the money IS in the print. Notice the tense of the word. Current. No offense to the older generations, but give it another five years.
I have the right to say that I have been with the Internet, practically from conception. Not as long as Sue, who was on ARPANet a bit before I played with it, but I know things that most people would designate me "old fart" online.
My conversation with N&R on Friday with their public square model (relax, it was business model talk) lead to some more interesting conversation. The N&R representative that I was speaking to mentioned that her son had the same opinions as I did. And he did not read the print. Online, all the way.
My parents read news from Asia online. Sure, they get the paper and satellite television, but nothing beats the Internet and the broadcast advantage, just as the latest tsunami disaster has proven.
So the question is: if the readers are moving towards the online content, will advertising soon follow.
So while I am thoroughly amused at the fact that oldtimers hold fast to their thinking, but soon, oh very soon, the advertising world will be ready for the shift.
Posted by darkmoon at 11:17 AM | Comments (1) | TrackBack
January 15, 2005
Do you really know what you just got tattooed with?
I found this extremely amusing. Many Americans love tattoos with Asian characters on them. Unfortunately, they have no clue what they're getting. The story itself covers a sitcom actor's tattoo. Brings me back to this one time a net friend got a tattoo of what she thought said "ANGEL" in chinese. I told her "ANGEL" was two words and I had no clue what she got on the small of her back. She became defensive and I left it at that, but I was thoroughly amused.
Posted by darkmoon at 11:41 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
January 09, 2005
For whom do the editors serve?
Interesting piece that Jeff Jarvis put out on for whom do the editors really work? Interestingly enough, it sparked a thought that John Robinson (editor of the N&R) really does work for us.
With the recent inquiries to the blogging community and taking into account everyone's thoughts on the subject matter of turning the paper (online edition) into a public town square, we are definitely very lucky to have someone that serves the community itself.
As Jeff puts it:
An editor must believe that he works for the public he serves.He must also believe he belongs to that public. That is especially true today in an era of citizen colleagues and interactivity. But it has always been true.
John, kudos to you and your staff for belonging to the public and encouraging media to change with the times.
Posted by darkmoon at 04:47 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
January 04, 2005
Trackback pings
Obviously no one bothers to link my posts, BUT IN CASE you did... trackback pings now work. We wrestled a bit, but I came out the victor. Ahh... the pains of Movable Type.
Posted by darkmoon at 03:32 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
January 03, 2005
Would you tell if you had the cure for cancer?
"Would you tell if you had the cure for cancer?"
The reason I ask this question is because of two reasons. The first, David Hoggard's wife Jinni has been battling it out with the big C. While she is courageously fighting with the help of modern medicine, there are personal questions on how it [the fight] could be better if it was not for corporate greed. Big Pharma capitalizes in a billion dollar industry by keeping people alive and prolonging their symptoms to get them to use their drugs as much as possible. Singapore and Thailand have cheaper solutions for the HIV cocktail by about 10 fold, which leads me to believe that U.S. pharmaceuticals probably would not release the information even if they knew the cure.
Second, with the amount of research being done in genetics and biotechnology, there are research discoveries that academia cannot even begin to grasp. In the last fifty years, we (Americans) have left every other country in the dust with technological advancements (excluding Japan perhaps) and yet much of the technology is hidden away behind patents, intellectual property rights, and other IP protections. Even the defense technology such as the Mobile/Tactical High Energy Laser (M-THEL) was kept in the dark for a number of years while testing was being performed.
So the question remains, while our family, and friends fight off disease and mishap, would corporations tell if they had the cure? Perhaps it's a cynic's nature to say that corporations would not do things to benefit mankind instead of lining their own pockets. But if you sat on the top of a pharmaceutical ladder, would you want your #1 seller to die out? I would think not.
To Dave and Jinni, fight on. We're all behind you.
Posted by darkmoon at 02:33 PM | Comments (2) | TrackBack
December 29, 2004
A snow white winter
While the Christmas season has passed, and the new year is just around the corner, I am feeling somewhat empty. I have everything I could ever want in my life: a beautiful loving woman that means the world to me as I do to her, a career, a place to sleep, and food on the table. My manager is kind, wonderful, understanding and my employer allows me to participate in community works at all times of the day as long as my work is done. I even get to purchase gadgets every once in a while and play those wonderful video games. But poor Yuki is going to another home.
Yuki was the family dog back home. He was named Yuki after some cousins kept calling him "Snowy" and we felt that it was a poor name for such a beautiful little puppy. My sister bought him after our family had a crisis and it was something that she thought would hold our family together again. Yuki was a mischievous little dog, who got into everything and was the "HOUND"ini of his breed. He could open doors, unlock gates, do all sorts of things when he knew you couldn't pay attention to him. Unfortunately, my sister plans to give him up since she's too busy at law school. I think there are other things that are taking up her time, but that's a whole other story.
So poor Yuki is looking to be with another family. I've heard that they're a wonderful family, and the kids are excited to have him while the father is even going to take the day off when he gets there.
When I think of Yuki, I feel empty inside and my eyes blur with moisture. My mother called to tell me that she couldn't talk about him without crying. I only met him once when I visited home, but he was one of us. The rambunctious little thing knew not to bark at me, one of his family. I hope you have a wonderful life, little doggy and don't forget us, because I sure will miss you.
Posted by darkmoon at 03:42 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
December 28, 2004
Dial-Up... it still exists? Why?
Fair Warning: This has been on my mind for a long time, and it's not meant to demean or offend anyone. If you easily take offense to this topic, don't read my rant. Otherwise, continue on...
Personal rant:
Amusingly enough, I woke up this morning to read about how a nonprofit service provider added "national" dial-up services to their arsenal of product lines. As a technologist, I have to wonder where this is going.
Before I get into much detail, I have to proceed with a side-bar story. More than a year ago, I had this great idea of bringing broadband to low-income and rural areas via WiFi. Similar to the community wireless in greater neighborhoods like Seattle, Portland, and other great cities, I saw an opportunity to bring forth something to North Carolina to bring those that cannot afford the fifty dollars a month cable coverage or are out in the rural areas of who knows where.
Needless to say, there was no response from any nonprofit player that I seeked out and frustrated with the disappointment in others, I set out with new-found effort to set up my own nonprofit.
A year later, we're waiting on our 501c3 status and waiting patiently to get started here in the Gate City to help low income families get connected. Key to education these days is broadband service, no matter how it's distributed. I aim to serve.
My first gripe:dial-up accelerator. Do people know what this is? Let me enlighten the non-techies. When you request a website, your images are sent to a server first and downgraded in resolution. Thus, you feel like you're achieving 5x the speed, but in all reality, you're getting images that you can't read.
My second gripe: While I am trying to provide to low-income families what everyone else has available, people are still trying to find money in old technology by reinforcing how secure it is. I can tell you that whether you're on dial-up or broadband, you're just as likely to attract intruders onto your platform. Let me raise another perspective. I'm aiming at broadband for $10-15 per month for these families with grant support for the equipment and have peaked local foundations' interests with my project.
So the point? Why is it that we're trying to push dial-up? Broadband is cheap, and there are plenty of players with a vast percentage of technologies to pursue this dream. Achieving the digital divide is extremely simplistic if you've gained support of people that care about people. In 2005, the nonprofit I founded is expected to be lighting up some communities locally into the broadband age. So the question is: why are you not doing this also?
End rant.
Posted by darkmoon at 10:09 AM | Comments (2) | TrackBack
December 27, 2004
State of Emergent Democracy
Joichi Ito is heading off to Berlin for the 21st Chaos Communications Congress to speak about the State of Emergent Democracy.
Emergent democracy refers to the internet phenomenon of web-based communications platforms to change the geopolitical landscape to increasingly reflect more democratic principles. It is used in the context of defining a political rift in the current world order between the interests of corporate-run business and the public, and to describe the new abilities of the public to organize as ('at long last') realistically capable of trancending the preexisting and established order.
Background information on speaker:
Joichi Ito is someone that I have come to admire greatly for he is one of the few non-corrupted individuals in the corporate world that still fights for what should be in the cyber realm of the Internet. Joi is associated with ICANN, Creative Commons, and other organizations and founder of Neoteny, Infoseek Japan, Digital Garage, and other major players in the communications industry.
With the state of the current Greensboro blogging sphere, I would well-recommend everyone read Joi's paper on Emergent Democracy. In it, he writes that blogs are evolving beyond the interests of the author. The role of media is to incorporate these ideas and philosophies into their every day practice to initiate a more alternative media.
The balance between what’s relevant and what’s not relevant is culturally biased and difficult to sustain. We need mechanisms to check filters for corruption and weighted perspectives. A variety of checks and balances and a diversity of methods and media can provide the perspectives we need for a balanced view of current events.
Interestingly enough, this is exactly what has happened with the current tragedy in south east Asia with tsunamis that have caused upwards of 21,000 in deaths and bloggers everywhere are gathering to help those in need and keep people informed.
Whether a system is democratic or otherwise, people or groups with power or wealth often see no benefit in keeping the general population well informed, truly educated, their privacy ensured or their discourse uninhibited. Those are the very things that power and wealth fear most. Old forms of government have every reason to operate in secret, while denying just that privilege to subjects. The people are minutely scrutinized while the powerful are exempt from scrutiny.[5] (Dee Hock) We can’t expect support where power and wealth are concentrated, beyond lip service, for greater, truly meaningful citizen participation in governance. Greater democracy requires that we work constantly to build and sustain structures for effective democratic participation.
Simply put, democratic involvement should not require the wealth nor should there be "secret" meetings where certain individuals are slandered. The immersion of blogging should provide a more well informed perspective to whatever event or subject matter.
I find that the concept of emergent democracy should not be foreign to Greensboro since we have been a piece of the pie all along. We have all been fighting for the same cause [blogging community], the same goals [growth of the Triad blogosphere], agreeing with and/or challenging the same bureaucracy that binds this nation together but also allows us to participate in the governance of our society. Strangely enough, different perspectives as shown in the latest of discussions between Greensboro's finest has shown emergent democracy at work. This is the next step in which all of us will play a part, however significant. Perhaps it is time to show the world that we are a prime example of emergent democracy within the fair Gate City.
Posted by darkmoon at 10:54 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
This is your brain on cellular phones?
Fair Warning: This has been on my mind for a long time, and it's not meant to demean or offend anyone. If you easily take offense to this topic, don't read my rant. Otherwise, continue on...
Personal rant:
Engadget wrote about Christmas stupidity with cell phones. My question is, "Where is the common sense?!" The digest version: SFGate reported that the California Highway Patrol and 911 dispatchers are getting numerous phone calls from people who are getting cell phones as Christmas presents.
What next? Blaming those 1-900 calls as "testing" your cell phone? Working in the telecommunications business, I have been authorized in the past to test phones with 911 infrastructure. Even authorized testing is an annoyance, when you are technically taking up a precious line that could be needed for emergency use. I also happen to know that 1-900 calls are blocked from those test phases (yes it was for work, and no, I didn't hear anything).
Strangely enough, everyone knows that 911 is for "emergency" use. It wasn't too long ago that a thirteen year old boy thought it would be amusing to prank call 911 with his cellular phone and was arrested off of his school bus after the authorities traced it by the GPS locator. Yes, big brother can track you if you dial 911.
While my friend has always told me, "common sense is the rarest sense," it is still difficult for me to understand where these people get the idea to dial those particular three numbers. Perhaps dialing information, or even your own house number? Perhaps a friend's cell phone to gloat at finally being part of the cellular age? What really goes on in people's heads when they dial 911 for testing is beyond all the infinite wisdom of the Dali Lama. Perhaps the devil coerced them into dialing those three little numbers, whispering... 9...1...1... You must dial....9...1...1...
End rant.
Posted by darkmoon at 09:02 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
December 17, 2004
Dell and the Tri.... Three Kingdoms
Fair Warning: This has been on my mind for a long time, and it's not meant to demean or offend anyone. If you easily take offense to this topic, don't read my rant. Otherwise, continue on...
Personal rant:
Dell, I applaude you. In coming to the Piedmont region, you have picked three cities that have fierce competition for your plant operations. As for the three cities that I love so dearly, we need to work on the whole "TRIAD" concept.
After going to the State of the Triad dinner, which was sponsored by all three Chambers of Commerce, I started to get agitated with the whole Dell thing. It's great that they (Dell) are coming to the Triad, and great that we are finally getting an economic growth booster shot from this and FedEx, but really folks. It's not rocket science nor is it research labs.
Steve Little (INC Magazine) told us to band together, as one cohesive community. Yet, it's only been two weeks and we're already back to the fierce competition for the Dell plant. Whatever happened to One Triad? Too little, too late I suppose. Truthfully, it won't make any difference to the people, since a forty minute commute either way will still be feasible.
I love this city that I live in, and want to make it a better place. But if all of those that participated at the function have such short-term memory that they could not stop the brutal onslaught of "nyah nyah, I have a better offer" ordeal.
Perhaps Dell will pick Greensboro because of the airport, or pick Winston-Salem because of their free land offer. Who really knows what High Point is giving up since they've been mum about their bid for the plant. In the end, Dell wins the most, from the tax incentives, to the great employee pool from three different cities. Bravo, on the play, Dell. It's the ninth inning and the visiting team just hit a grand slam.
Remember. Those that play together, stay together. For the community, please try to remember that we're still one region, one Triad.
End rant.
Posted by darkmoon at 05:08 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
December 16, 2004
Weaver kids brighten technological future
Fair Warning: This has been on my mind for a long time, and it's not meant to demean or offend anyone. If you easily take offense to this topic, don't read my rant. Otherwise, continue on...
Personal rant:
I had the pleasure of meeting a few of the students from Weaver Academy, when I guest lectured for the CYBERGUARD Project. Apparently, the Project is well-taken by the school in beta, and they're asking for Phase II to be guest-lectured once a month also (details are sketchy right now). I now understand why my good friend Sue got RedHat Academy for this kids. They're A-M-A-Z-I-N-G.
I've been reading a couple of the student blogs, and you would not believe the depth and perception that these kids have and the ability to write. The technology kids are also so bright that they remind me of myself when I was that age. I wanted to learn everything, break everything, and rebuild it again. Makes me feel old when I remember learning Pascal in two weeks and teaching my middle school teacher how to write certain functions.
I get a chance to speak to Adam Wenner every so often and believe me folks. I would trust this senior with any secure network I own, without batting an eyelash. There are others out there also, but these are the kids you have to throw your hopes and dreams at and hope they can run with them. These are the kids that you want in your businesses to drive forth technological innovations.
Technology is slowly dying. Computer Science isn't what it used be back in the nineties. Information Technology is also dwindling with people that haven't a clue about how to defend networks if you gave them a firewall without a GUI interface. You want tragedy? In an age where the United States is slowly dying of computer technology to Asia, all we have left is the Yankee ingenuity. Fortunately, kids like the Weaver students shine in the vast sea of darkness.
Adam and company, I wish you the best when you hit the collegiate level or wherever you're going in a few years. The rest of you out there that have businesses, look out in a couple years. These kids will be your hirees or perhaps even competitors.
End Rant.
Posted by darkmoon at 05:47 PM | Comments (3) | TrackBack
December 14, 2004
Movies holding audiences hostages
Fair Warning: This has been on my mind for a long time, and it's not meant to demean or offend anyone. If you easily take offense to this topic, don't read my rant. Otherwise, continue on...
Personal rant:
When was the last time you saw a movie and remember that there wasn't a television commercial, and only ten minutes of previews? I bet it was at least in my lifetime. Yet, while the MPAA chases after pirating, claiming that it's one of the biggest reasons behind their loss of money (and I support their cause in this matter), they are losing their audiences because of something that THEY implemented.
To clarify, this DOESN'T mean that piracy is the key or the answer to this matter. In fact, I dislike the movie piracy (cams, telesyncs, telecines, or screeners) for all of the obvious reasons. No, I'm miffed that if I pay a full ticket price ($8.25-$8.75 these days) at a theater and am expected to sit there and pay for concessions, there is no reason for me to watch television commercials before a 2-3 hour long movie. Did I mention that usually the theater plays a 330 line res commercial that was made for television so it doesn't even look right at the high resolution? Someone even wonders if they'll attack BitTorrent, a prominent swarm technology that has revolutionized the Internet in the last couple of years.
Thus, this is one of the reasons why I'm renting movies now instead of going to them. You would not believe the amount of movies I've watched and rented from Netflix. And to add to their services, they charge me less and boosted their turn-around time. Now that's customer service.
What makes me even more angry is the IPPA (Intellectual Property Protection Act) almost passed through in the lame duck session of the Senate if it wasn't for some brilliant individuals picking up on things like "not being able to fast forward through previews" on media, where I assume DVDs.
MPPA, please get a grip. To fight piracy, put more money into education, than the bullying tactics. All you do is gain a lot of annoyed geeks and nerds. Believe me when I say, as one of them, I don't appreciate you holding me hostage at the theater and then hurting open-source technology that has revolutionized your lives. Go find something better to do instead of putting a "gun to my head" to watch some stupid Levi's commercial.
End rant.
Posted by darkmoon at 09:18 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
December 12, 2004
The Streets of Greensboro
Fair Warning: This has been on my mind for a long time, and it's not meant to demean or offend anyone. If you easily take offense to this topic, don't read my rant. Otherwise, continue on...
Personal rant:
When I moved to Greensboro, there has been a couple things that have driven me nuts in the last couple years. One of them is the countless number of times that people shift without using their turn signals. The other is the tinting on cars. Last and but not least, is the fact that new roads have no reflectors.
The turn signal thing drives me nuts. To drive here, you have to pay attention to everything around you at all times since you're never sure if the guy right to you decides it's his time to shift into your lane. I have no clue why people don't like to give fair warning with the signal, but obviously they've never taken defensive driving classes. I could swear up and down that it's illegal to do also (although a minor infraction) but no cop in the South will ever get you for turn signals.
Speaking of cops in the South, they also won't pull you over and ticket you for dark tint. Countless number of cars on the street are registered in Guilford county (the little red and blue sticker) and yet they have tint that would never be legal in this state. "What are you talking about, you ask?" When I moved here, I spent approximately $250 getting my car re-tinted since I had approximately 49 degree tinting for the Arizona sun. Law here states that cars can only have less than 35 degrees and I couldn't pass my emissions until that happened. Weird thing is, trucks/SUVs can go as far as mirror tinting, but a car has to follow this law. What kind of stupid law is that?
In any case, it would definitely be prudent to chase after cars that don't have legal tinting. In February of 2002, I had a minor accident. When I was getting my car door re-built, the lady at the place told me that there was a car they were doing where the driver was charged with negligence because the tinting was too dark and they hit someone else and caused some bodily injury. It's too bad that there is a tint law, but only a few emission stations actually follow the rules and no one bothers to enforce it.
Last of all, the reflectors. I noticed a while back that all the new paved roads don't have reflectors down even when there was some before on the old road. Why? I have no clue. Unfortunately when it rains in Greensboro, the painted lines reflect the headlights of cars and you can't tell which side of the road you're on. To add insult to injury, a lot of people have no clue how to drive in... yes.. rain. Mostly SUVs are at fault, just like in snow season where they think 4-wheel drive means you can drive 70mph. Not always, but usually. What gives me the right to say this? Please. I grew up in Seattle.
Oh well. I don't believe this will ever be changed. Yet I can't help but speak up about it. Perhaps maybe some with the local media contacts would be interested, but I doubt it. Too bad.
End rant.
Posted by darkmoon at 09:45 AM | Comments (2) | TrackBack
December 11, 2004
We don't want to hear about you and your...
Fair Warning: This has been on my mind for a long time, and it's not meant to demean or offend anyone. If you easily take offense to this topic, don't read my rant. Otherwise, continue on...
Personal rant:
While in the business world, you have to talk on the phone twenty-four seven. I covered some of this in an earlier posting. Unfortunately, there are some that have no mind for courtesy in certain establishments.
Of all people, I should be heeding my own advice. Yet sometimes, I forget and with my voice carrying, you could probably hear some low-voiced Chinese guy bellowing out a stream of who-knows-what to the other end of the cell phone. Yet, I ALWAYS put my phone on vibrate when I enter an eating establishment or other places that require quiet.
Having been around cellular phones enough (I used to average about twenty two hundred minutes a month) I could tell what type of phone by the ring. What makes me even more insane is when someone has their phone blaring while I'm trying to eat and they start talking to their boyfriend, mother, friend, girlfriend, or whomever as loudly as possible as if trying to broadcast to the rest of the world, "HERE'S MY LIFE AND IF YOU DON'T WANT TO LISTEN, TOUGH."
Come on. How difficult is it to at least have a little bit of sense to put it on vibrate in certain situations. Maybe speak with a quieter tone of voice would help also, unless you really want everyone to know that "so-and-so knocked up your daughter" or whatever.
Again, it's your life and your phone. Do with it what you wish. I just find it really annoying that people can't respect other people in a public environment.
End rant.
Posted by darkmoon at 11:18 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
Can you spell?
Fair Warning: This has been on my mind for a long time, and it's not meant to demean or offend anyone. If you easily take offense to this topic, don't read my rant. Otherwise, continue on...
Personal rant:
Spelling has always been a pet peeve of mine. No I don't ever use spell check. Why? It's a tool of which I have no use for usually. Now before someone goes off and spouts the greatness of Microsoft spell check made the world what it is, I must say, what did people do before spell check? Also, I'm not saying that I've never spelled a word incorrectly. It happens, get over it.
I find that while those with only a high school education MIGHT have a reason to not know, there is no reason why one with a higher educational background NOT to know. For example in the corporate world where I receive plenty of e-mails:
Receive ( i before e except after c), lose ( not loose), and so on so forth.
While the English language has more exceptions than any other language I know, I was never hot and heavy over it, and could only write average English papers throughout school. This scares me, when I (self-proclaimed techie) can see errors in spelling and grammar that a "SENIOR Management" person writes out. You could put that up as everyone makes mistakes, but not day in day out.
Perhaps it's just my little pet peeve, the same as people not knowing when to use "there" or "they're" or "their".
But really. Would you rather learn this, or memorize 3000-5000+ unique characters just so you can read the paper and write a letter ( exaggeration on unique, there is a tie in Chinese, but they don't teach that in the United States collegiate level courses).
I suppose it's too much to ask. With half the world starving, and the other half ripping each other's throats out for the sake of money, the last thing people care about is spelling. Like I said before. Pet Peeve.
End Rant.
Posted by darkmoon at 11:00 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
December 09, 2004
There is no free lunch - The American Education Paradox
Fair Warning: This has been on my mind for a long time, and it's not meant to demean or offend anyone. If you easily take offense to this topic, don't read my rant. Otherwise, continue on...
Personal rant:
My parents always told me, "There is no free lunch."
I wrote about American education back in college for a personal writing exam. The question asked why American education(K-12) is one of the most well funded projects in the world, yet international test scores show that Americans are closer to lower tiers when it comes to testing. If so, how would you approach this problem and what would be one of the solutions.
This is where I pick up on my cultural background. In my parents' age, Asian graduate students would only be allowed visas if they were the cream of the crop. So the stereotype of hardworking, studious types were all true since the people coming over were the top students. This in addition to the cultural motivation of educating yourself in a practical application proved to be the backbone of American stereotypes of Asians. Yes, my daddy was special and I'm damn proud of it.
When I went to grade school, I was nicknamed "Whiz" short for Wizard. This was given to me after I did some long division on paper quicker than the teacher punching it into a calculator. Nothing to it really, since my parents made me do mathematic problems over the summer during the mornings. Eventually, I got accepted into gifted programs and went on to do the usual honors, and AP and the like.
So what made me any better at math than the rest of my friends? The drive by my culture for practical environments. Uniformity. I questioned my mother about this and I received the answer that: "Americans don't do enough homework." And I thought I had it rough. She explained that typical high school students in Taiwan (in her time) would be in class from 8-5, and do homework until 11-12 consistently.
This brings me back to the topic, what's wrong with schools here? Emphasis on recess instead of studies. Emphasis on individualism instead of promoting educational well-being. Year-round schooling would improve studies drastically in my opinion. The world runs on a 24x7 clock, with no stopping. Why would schooling be any different? The other is the division of testing. The most major test I ever took were my SATs. My parents took equivalents to get from grade school to middle school, from middle school to high school, and so on.
So why do we have low test scores still in the United States? The push for education is different here. I still believe that "No Child Left Behind" is a crock. You drag down the brightest kids so that the whole class is as educationally-challenged as the one on the bottom of the barrel. Figures that this comes from a President that was the governor of a state that ranks on the bottom of the educational scale.
Locally, I've seen some very interesting achievements. Weaver Academy probably has some of the brightest kids that I've seen in a long time. Unfortunately, the push still hasn't changed, and it's still the same ol' thing. Perhaps from here, we can strive for other goals that help the kids achieve bigger and better things. I am envious that Weaver kids get to take classes that are way better than anything I ever had for computer classes (and I went to one of the top public schools in Washington State). There also needs to be more applicable and hands-on activities that will drive students to learn (similar process at Weaver) formalized in all types of classrooms. For example, Spanish class can go work with Hispanic community efforts, or home economics can cook meals for Urban Ministries, etc.
How can we change the perspective? Do stress activities to help SAT scores. Basic mathematic skills is not difficult to achieve. English is a bit more long term, but with practice, correct grammar and spelling can also be added to the arsenal. Quit stressing individualistic tutoring, and have the kids push themselves. If they struggle and can't swim with the rest of the fish, then they should find help on their own to help them keep up. This isn't a job for the teachers, nor should it be. If you want to better yourself, spend the effort and time to do so. If not, then don't be crying and complaining when you drop out of high school and can't land anything else besides minimum wage.
Like my parents always said, "There is no free lunch."
End rant.
Posted by darkmoon at 12:31 PM | Comments (2) | TrackBack
Americans bastardizing Feng Shui
Fair Warning: This has been on my mind for a long time, and it's not meant to demean or offend anyone. If you easily take offense to this topic, don't read my rant. Otherwise, continue on...
Personal rant:
For more than two decades, I've had to deal with American incompetence with the asian culture. My friends in middle school told me how much they loved "chinese food". So I start asking them about my favorite dim sum dishes as a child - chicken feet, eggrolls, thousand year old egg congee, etc. and the only responses back were "Eww, gross." and jawdroppers. I'm sorry to disappoint you, but "sweet and sour pork" was never a Chinese dish, neither was "chop suey". The literal translation for chop suey is "left overs" in Cantonese.
In college, I met kids that were part of "Asian Pride". Yet these kids couldn't speak their native language, nor did they want to learn, couldn't tell me
Now older, and not much wiser, I'm baffled by the push for Feng Shui lead by Hollywood's finest. Last month, Columbus Business First wrote an article about how even Donald Trump uses Feng Shui in his offices. They call it the interaction between human beings and their environment. In all reality, feng shui is a lot deeper than the orientation of your furniture and your house. This is an article written by Jane Alexander. It is a little more accurate, but I want to elaborate on it.
Jane says that feng shui is healing ofthe environment. Realistically, the chinese think that everything is as a whole, thus there is ying and yang, black and white, good and evil. You cannot have one without the other, and there must be a balance for a person or their environment or else you get sick, or whatever happens. If anything, you have to have the belief in chi, ying and yang, and the rest of the connection. While Buddhism absorbed Feng Shui when it reached China, it really stemmed I Ching. The basic history can be found here.
In the end, I know that as a Chinese American, we (Asians) are bastardizing the Western culture also. Look to Japan, Shanghai, Beijing, and you find that youth take the Westernization to the extreme and almost laughable at times.
People will always love their chicken fried rice, and their egg rolls that are large enough to beat a person across the face with, but next time remember, you don't "LOVE" the chinese culture. You love the screwed up Western version of it.
End of rant.
Posted by darkmoon at 10:07 AM | Comments (2) | TrackBack