Here I was listening to the radio last night on my way home from grocery shopping. One of the bands I like to listen — Lady Antebellum — came on the radio with their song “Just Looking For A Good Time”. Now, I have a fairly decent memory and I happened to remember the lyrics for this song. There are two particular lines of interest to my point:

1. “But would you get the wrong impression / If I called us a cab right now”
2. “Go ahead and lie to me and pull me close / Tell me that you love me even if you don’t”

Keeping this in mind, the song I heard on the radio changed the first line of lyrics to:

• “But would you get the wrong impression / If I asked you to dance right now”

This is quite silly. I assume the lyrics were censored because of the not-so-subtle jab at a one night stand. Somewhat understandable, aside from the fact that the second set of lyrics I quoted above remained the same. To me, the censor is basically saying, “Don’t insinuate ‘let’s go fuck’, but it’s okay to lie about loving someone.”

That’s just not right, in many ways. It particularly bothers me that the radio station — or whomever makes these censorship calls — decided that the song should be changed, but only changed one portion of it. Are we that bad off that our children (and ourselves) need to be saved from one line in a song that insinuates having a one night stand?

If this had been a different song and had said something more explicit, then I could have understood the censorship. But what happened in this particular song is just ludicrous.

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My wife and I went to see the new Bond move over the weekend. We both greatly enjoyed it, partially for different reasons. I was not a fan of the Bond movies growing up, but I am definitely a fan of them now.

The reason I was never a fan was because of the non-sensicality of the movies. First, we have an unlikely protagonist. He looks rich, well-to-do, and definitely not lonely at night. But, on the side, he goes on “covert” missions — where everyone just happens to know his name — and kills people. He also gets lots of science fictional gadgets, thanks to Q, and uses them as a deus ex machina when the writers put him in a tough spot in the script.

Not exactly my cup of tea. As my wife says, I have a distrubing facination with science fiction b-movies, but to me, at least, they make sense. I can suspend my belief, sometimes, and enjoy the movie and its concepts for what they are. But with Bond and his gadgets, it always felt different. They weren’t trying to tell a story, nor present a concept like a science fiction movie might. It was all about the good looking hero getting the girl with the coolest gadgets ever.

With the new Bond, however, I find myself coming back to the franchise with a different viewpoint. Daniel Craig brings a life to James Bond that I don’t think we’ve seen before. Rather than Pierce Brosnan’s empty eyes and never changing personality, Craig makes Bond feel real. You can feel the pain of lose and a hard life coming from Craig’s portrayal of Bond. And he does it all without any cool gadgets.

Spoilers follow after this break!

The only thing that bothered me about Quantam was that the story ended rather abruptly. Bond catches up to his nemesis, in the end, as usual. However, we don’t learn the whole plot. We learn that all of Bond’s questions get answered about the secret organization that has infiltrated MI6 and the CIA. But we don’t learn those answers. We also see Bond finally beat the hell out of the man who seduced and caused the death of Vesper in the last movie, but it’s left to our imaginations to link the fact that the nemesis character told Bond about him.

I realize this is a way for the studio to put butts in chairs for the next movie, but it left me feeling like there was still a lot of story left to go. If this movie had been something like “Lord of the Rings”, where I knew another sequel was coming next year, I might feel better about not knowing everything that, I feel, the movie should have told me.

Overall, despite the complaint, I really enjoyed the movie. Definitely a must see for anyone who enjoys action movies, Daniel Craig, or James Bond.

Rating: 9/10

I always come to the beginning of the week wondering where all the time went. I didn’t realize until late last night that NaNoWriMo started. I had intended to participate fully this year. And now I’m stuck ten days shy of the full month.

I’m also taking on some consulting work, which is great. It’s a good foot-in-the-door situation where I can make the most out of working from home. But, at the same time, it is difficult because I have a hard time breaking the sit-around-and-watch-TV-or-play-WoW cycle that I get myself in.

I’ve got a couple of programming books that I’m working my way through. Trying to pick up Java programming and Mac OS X programming. I’ve got an idea for a slick, cross-platform program, but I don’t have the means to fully realize it yet. Hence the homework.

And yet, everything comes full circle when I realize that we have only three days, or rather two full days and a night, until the next WoW expansion comes out. At which point, I become obsessed with figuring out what race my Death Knight is going to be and what the fastest way to level is.

Addiction. The first step is admitting it, right? Though, knowing that I’m addicted, I still want to play. It gets me out of the world for a little while, at least. As does reading. As does writing, though I get so little of that done these days that it is depressing to think about.

So, to wrap this post up, I always end up wondering where the time went. I see these other people out there, who are my age, that seem to have the time to do lots of things. But maybe, just maybe, it’s that they spend the time doing these things that I want to do being rather than the things that I *am* doing.

Until next time,

Tim

So I’m changing jobs. I officially gave my two weeks notice yesterday and, wow, what a change in the attitudes of my co-workers. One of them whom I felt friendly with  has suddenly stopped speaking to me beyond that required to perform her job. Others are just silent around me, which is par for the course, really.

And, you know what I’ll miss the most about this job? My MacBook Pro.

That’s right. I’ve grown attached to having that little powerhouse as my sidekick and I’m not looking forward to using this iBook (which I’m currently typing this on). The iBook isn’t so bad — it’ll be nice mainly for writing and emailing, but no programming or video games.

Caroline may be purchasing a new MacBook (so jealous!) with some funding that came through on some stock photography. So I may get my old MacBook back, which would be cool. That will at least run WoW, allow me to do some programming, and a few other things that this iBook won’t allow.

Such as running Skype. Skype won’t run on this iBook. It meets every requirement, except for being a G4 processor. Gah!

Anyway, I found out that Vim has a Mac interface build, so I’m trying that out for awhile as a replacement for Textwrangler. I also need to get a copy of FrontPage and start getting used to that (damned Microsoft software).

As defined by Merriam-Webster  Online Dictionary, terrorism is: the systematic use of terror especially as a means of coercion.

Terror is:

1: a state of intense fear
2 a: one that inspires fear : scourge b: a frightening aspect c: a cause of anxiety : worry d: an appalling person or thing ; especially : brat
3: reign of terror
4: violent or destructive acts (as bombing) committed by groups in order to intimidate a population or government into granting their demands

Now take a moment and think about these definitions. Now think about the campaign tactics of one of our notorious Senators — Senator McCain — who is running for President.

McCain has been in the news recently — more specifically, his campaign has been — with regards to the fact that Senator McCain’s campaign has been trying to spread a cause of anxiety. How? Well, Senator McCain’s campaign has been trying to label Senator Obama as distinctly “un-American”. Here are the reasons given:

1. Senator Obama is a practicing Muslim, which makes him something less than an American. (since when? Wasn’t this country founded on religious freedom?)
2. Senator Obama and that Ayers fellow somehow knew each other. And Ayers blew things up. (An obvious ploy to somehow link the destruction on 9/11 with Obama. Nice try. The man in command at that time was President Bush. If anyone should carry blame, it is him.)
3. Senator Obama is a black man. And therefore not American nor President material. (I haven’t heard this come out of Senator McCain’s camp directly, but since they don’t bother to quash the white supremacists when they say things like, “Kill that nigger” or other racist things, they may as well have said it.)
4. Senator Obama is a terrorist! Because he knew that Ayers fellow! (see point 2).

So, taking into account the definitions of terror and terrorism I provided above, what does it look like the McCain campaign is doing?

Well, they are using the tactics of terrorists to try and win an American Presidential Campaign. Which, I must say, is quite ironic. Spreading fear and anxiety is the entire goal of a terrorist organization. They could care less about toppling the economy or killing a whole swath of people. Doing those things are just a means to an end for them. The terrorist organizations in the world are probably sitting back right now and thanking McCain’s campaign for doing their work for them.

If you truly want to end terrorism in this country, your dreaming. Terrorism will always exist because, in large groups, human beings are an anxious lot. They are easily cowed; fear is an easy feeling to install.

However, a good start towards making this country less fearful is to elect Senator Obama and let him stabilize the economy; get Wall Street back up and running; and get the health care and education issues fixed.

For anyone looking for a hilarious run-down, D&D style, of American politics, look no further:

HILARY: C’mon you guys, I’ve been playing this shit since Gygax was in eighth grade.  Why can’t I be the party leader with the magic sword for once?

MCCAIN: Because no one wants to see you in a bronze bra.

OBAMA: Oh dude, BURRRRRNNNN.

Get the whole thing here.

Haven’t had a blog post in awhile. Not really a lot going on.

Work is busy as usual. Still haven’t had time to start setting up any of the new software the place needs, but that doesn’t really have much to do with me. Rolling some of the other stuff in like they have has made it very difficult for me.

I also have a job interview on Tuesday for a PHP programming position. I’m looking forward to this. Its with a local company and, hopefully, will be more flexible scheduling than the job I have right now. I’m going to talk with them briefly during the interview about partial/full telecommuting — considering I live less than two miles, I’m hoping it won’t be too much of an issue with them.

I’m also taking an interest in Mac OS X programming. I’ve got a few ideas for applications bouncing around in my head, so hopefully I can teach myself how to do it.

Ellie is also doing well. She’s considered breach right now, but we’re hoping that we can convince her to turn and allow for the homebirth we have been planning.

Cheers,

T

Seriously. America has some serious flaws, especially when things like this can happen. I don’t believe abandoning a child — at any age — is an appropriate disciplinary action. I honestly thing that those parents (or grandparents) should have been lawfully disciplined. They abused the law, but still took the child back. How are the grandparents going to learn that they did something wrong? What kind of example is that setting for the girl?