Boston, pt. 2

This is where I say…

I told you so.

Boston

I said I wasn’t going to make a comment on what is going on in Boston.

I was going to wait, stay calm, not fuel the fire for any side who knows immediately who did what, who is taking blame, who is claiming whatever…

I have travelled all over the United States. I have seen many things, and spoken with many people.

What I am going to say in the next couple of sentences may make quite a few people rather pissed at me. I can’t help that, I am only stating a truth.

In the US, there are few States that everyone pays attention to; New York, Florida, California, Texas and Nevada. Those are the states everyone knows.

The rest… no one really pays attention to. Yes, we know you are there, but your individual state history, state events, state holidays, they are not things we pay attention to.

April 15, 2013: For the state of Massachusetts, Maine and Wisconsin, it was Patriots’ Day.

Patriots’ Day (officially Patriots’ Day in Massachusetts and Wisconsin and Patriot’s Day in Maine) is a civic holiday commemorating the anniversary of the Battles of Lexington and Concord on April 19, 1775. These were the first battles of the American Revolutionary War. It is observed on the third Monday in April in Massachusetts and Maine (which was once part of Massachusetts), and is a public school observance day in Wisconsin. Florida law also encourages people to celebrate it, though it is not treated as a public holiday. Observances and re-enactments of these first battles of the American Revolution occur annually at Lexington Green in Lexington, Massachusetts, (around 6:00 am) and The Old North Bridge in Concord, Massachusetts, (around 9:00 am). In the morning, mounted re-enactors with state police escorts retrace the rides of Paul Revere and William Dawes, calling out warnings the whole way.

Since 1969, the holiday has been observed on the third Monday in April, providing a three-day long weekend, as well as being the first day of public school vacation week in Maine and Massachusetts. Previously, it had been designated as April 19 in observance of the anniversary of the Battles of Lexington and Concord, the first battles of the American Revolutionary War.

It is also a school holiday for many local colleges and universities, both public and private. In addition, as Patriots’ Day is considered a holiday in Maine and Massachusetts, when it falls on a day where United States federal income tax returns would otherwise be due for the remainder of the country, residents of those states are given until midnight of the next day (Tuesday) to submit their return.

What does this mean? Well… have patience. I do have a point.

The Boston Marathon is run on the same weekend, which is a large event. For the state of Massachusetts and the world of runners.

Boston is a historical city. No one will deny that. It has earned every single footnote in the history books, as have it’s citizens.

However, it is not a place that most people take notice of outside of the history classes.

So, what does this mean? Why am I stating this?

There are a hundred different groups out there pointing fingers at everyone. Conspiracy theories are flying at record pace through the internet, the news, the media… everywhere.

So, with that said, and I will only state this once, I will give you my theory. No, I can’t name names. Or groups. What I can say is, that I am 96% sure that the terrorist(s) are domestic. Not only “domestic” as in “from the US”, but domestic as in “lives near the area of the attack”. Why? Because to him/her/them, Boston IS their world.

If it were another terrorist group, even a non-domestic one, you would assume that they would go for a larger event. The Boston Marathon only ranks as fifth largest in the States.

1. New York City Marathon  - 47,000 registered participants in 2012
2. Chicago Marathon  - 37,455 finishers in 2012
3. Honolulu Marathon  - 24,413 finishers in 2012
4. Marine Corps Marathon  - 23,515 finishers in 2012
5. Boston Marathon  - 21,544 finishers in 2012
6. LA Marathon  - 18,729 finishers in 2012
7. Walt Disney World Marathon  - 13,467 finishers in 2012
8. Philadelphia Marathon  -  11,553 finishers in 2012
9. Twin Cities Marathon  - 8781 finishers in 2012
10. Houston Marathon - 7637 finishers in 2012

There is one note of exception to the above list that does make Boston’s Marathon a little different than the rest: It is the world’s oldest annual marathon. It was established in 1897.

Before I end this, let me make one thing perfectly clear: I am not pointing fingers. I am not calling groups out. I am not trying to hurt, harm or belittle any of the victims, or their families with this post.

One last thing… There is one more thing to say: Conspiracy Theories and those that tout them do no one any good. In most cases, a “Conspiracy Theory” is a lie, laid down to push an agenda, to inflate a ego, or to push forward policy that in most instances is not good policy.

Do you hate it cause you don’t like it, or do you hate it cause you are a lemming?

lem·ming

noun

Any of various small, mouse-like rodents of the genera Lemmus, Myopus,  and Dicrostonyx,  of far northern regions, as L. lemmus,  of Norway, Sweden, etc., noted for periodic mass migrations that sometimes result in mass drownings.

So, Patrick Stump was recently in the news for his blog post. In it he was commenting on the issue that “everyone hates Nickelback”. (The Rock band, not the refund.)

This is, amazingly enough, not news to me.

Oh, don’t get me wrong!

I like Nickelback.

No, I really do.

Honest!

Now, you have to ask yourself, “Why the hell does she like Nickelback?”

That is actually a easy question to answer.

For a moment, I won’t say “Cause their music rocks!” Nope. Not saying that just yet. Hear the other reasons first:

1. Chad Kroeger is frickin hot.
2. Ryan Peake is frickin hot.
3. Mike Kroeger is frickin hot
4. Daniel Adair ((**sigh** The Drummer)) is frickin hot!
5. Their songs are good.
6. They have songs that are Metal, Rock or Light Rock.
7. They know their listeners and know what they want.
8. They don’t compromise on their style.
9. Their style of music is what Rock used to be, before Grunge.
10. Rock used to be about sex, drugs and having fun, themes they stick to and reap the benefits from.

Ten reasons good enough for you?

So, why don’t people like their music? Well, a percentage of them say it’s cause the themes of their music are based on strippers, sex, prostitutes, drugs, sex, drinking and sex. (See reason 10.)

Another reason could be that their music is neither rap, pop nor techno. Kind of a good thing, but since most people today fall into the category of lemmings and not individual people with the ability to enjoy what they like or experiment on what is out there. In today’s world, everyone thinks they can rap and make a living out of it. (You can’t and few do.) Techno is just “thump thump thump thump” of recorded music that breeds migraines. Pop is… Pop is the kind of music you like cause your friends like it, and the radio stations repeat their library of Pop every 70 minutes so, you eventually think you like the music cause you know all the words.

Why do people hate them?

Because the haters refuse to try to think for themselves.

The people that don’t hate, but also don’t like Nickelback… They have their own reasons.

To you, the intelligent reader (I know you are intelligent, cause you read my ramblings…) I say, “Never dislike something until you’ve tried it. Then you can use your own mind to determine if you like it, or if you are a lemming. If you are a lemming, please remove yourself from my followers list.”

Wake Up Hollywood!

Greetings fans of the movie industry! (And everyone else.)

Today’s rant is on the stupidity that is Hollywood.

The last two days I have been reading about how “Jack the Giant Slayer” has failed at the box-office. It made in it’s Domestic Release $28 million. Which, apparently now is considered a failure, but in the past, if a movie made $10 million on it’s opening weekend it was considered a success. But, then again, it cost a estimated $200 million to produce.

Before I go further, I want to state clearly that though it “flopped” it’s opening weekend, it WAS the #1 film of the weekend. Second place went to Identity Theft which is on it’s fourth week, and this week it made $9.7 million for a total of $107.4 million.

Now… Back to my thoughts.

Look, here it is, plain and simple:

The movie industry employees a frickin TON of skilled workers, carpenters, electricians, cooks, various staff for cleaning, primping, security etc, not to mention Directors, Writers, Producers, Movie Stars, etc. All of these people need money just like the rest of us, and they need to work to get that money, just like the rest of us.

That said, our economy sucks like a vacuum.

The movie people (the higher ups making the calls) need to take into consideration that a family of four cannot afford to take the kids to see a movie in the movie theater. $9 for ticket, $3 for 3D glasses (which they want returned but don’t want to give you a refund on), $4 for a drink, $8 for popcorn… For one person that is a total of $24. Multiple that times 4 and for a night out for a family of four (not including the gas money to get to the theater) and you are spending $96.

People can’t afford to go to the movies like they used to, but that isn’t stopping Hollywood for churning out film after film.

Hollywood, you need to pull a cue card from the past.

• Don’t release a ton of new films every week.
• Let some films sit in the theater for a few weeks to gain watchers.
• Don’t spend hundreds of millions of dollars on a ton of films.
• Encourage movie theaters to offer “loyalty programs” such as, “Watch 6 movies this year, and come see one for free.”
• Reduce children’s tickets to a MUCH LOWER price. (In some theaters, kids over the age of 2 are almost full price.)

So, there you go. My thoughts.

Also.. on a side note… No. I am not going to mention ANYTHING about my fears of Disney and their ownership of Star Wars, and how badly Disney is failing repeatedly on films lately. Nope. Not going to mention it at all.

Digital Perfection

So… I log onto the internet, and read the few news articles I see, some interesting, some not… But, on a daily account, I almost always see some story about some actor/model that was used in a ad for some product/film, and their image was photoshopped.

Now, first, let me say I am a fan of ARTISTIC PHOTOMANIPULATION.  It’s what I do. (This is Prince. He is a photomanipulated piece that I did for a friend. Before and After.)

Now… If you are going to hire a model/actor for a photo shoot, you are hiring that person not only for their looks, but their name and media power. Therefore, I am quite confused as to why people are photoshopping the images. Okay, I do understand that “such-and-such was used in the shoot, and it was green, but that item wasn’t able to be massed produced, so we went with a different color and changed it from green to burgundy” excuse. Sure. I’ve been there, I understand.

But, seriously? Below you will see a few photo shop “changes” and yes, your eyebrows will rise to the event.

Jennifer Lawrence. I am not a fan of hers… But in the Dior Ads, she seems to have lost weight and had her moles removed…

Darkness, The Recovery

Hello all.

So, I had been engulfed by the Darkness and struggled past it. I am glad to say that it is not as dark as it had been now. Also, I know why I got hit so heavily with it this time around.

My IC flared up and my PCOS was giving me some issues as well. On top of that, my kitties had to find a new home since my residency will be changing. And, not only that… I was suffering through some PMS.

I want to thank everyone who sent me good, warm thoughts, and I know I wasn’t alone in The Darkness.

Yahoo! And how they screwed up.

So, I have been using Yahoo! as my main homepage, news bringer, mailing service, etc.

Yesterday I log in, and, low and behold, it’s “new”. I try to never “panic” when there has been a change to something that really didn’t need updating. So, I inhaled a nice, clean breath, and decided to scroll around and see what it’s like.

How to put how I feel about the new Yahoo! Home page….

IT SUCKS @SS!

You see, on the old Home page, you could chose the types of stories you wanted to know about. Me, I like World News, Local News, Entertainment, Science and Life.

APPARENTLY on this new homepage YOU don’t chose. THEY chose for you based upon what you have clicked on in the past, and what you have “liked” on Facebook.

That is NOT how I roll.

Then, there is another issue… the actual articles.

So, yesterday Office Max and Office Depot merged. (Apparently, though now there is a article saying the press release came out too soon.) Ok, I can deal with this article. Sure it’s kinda interesting… But, to be honest, as I am scrolling down, down, down on my Homepage, why did I come across 12 articles all on the same thing? Oh! I can click the little X in the corner to get rid of the story, and all related stories. But, what if I WANT to know about Office Depot/Office Max merge? If I click off, I wont get any of the news.

Next issue?

The size.

The damn thing is horrendously LARGE PRINT. And, I cannot find any way to adjust it.

Next issue?

Facebook.

I use Facebook.

SPARINGLY.

I do NOT like Facebook, I find it overly intrusive into your private life. They track so much crap that whenever I click on something and it says, “sign in using your Facebook account” I close the page, and search for a different thing.

So… now that Yahoo! has changed, what’s my thoughts? I mean besides the statements above?

Ya know how Walmart is a huge store and has everything you need, but they will only sell you what they want to stock? (Look back to how they carried the number one brand of a item and the Walmart brand only (from the last few years) giving you the grand total of choices between two.) Well, I hate shopping at Walmart and try to not go there. Store is too large, the registers are never open, and I can never find what I want. So, I go to the small town, local grocery store and get the stuff I want.

Yahoo! – Yeah… You just got too big for your britches, and think YOU will make decisions for ME on what I want to read, see or look up?

I don’t think so.

I will still use you to grab my email, but otherwise… Go away. You are done.