Communism and Courtney...

As most of you know our good friend Courtney Keefe will be going to China for a year to teach little pings. I'm not sure exactly why she will be doing this, but if she wants to be adventurous I wish her all the luck in the world. Before me and Lou sent her off last night some interesting things were brought to my attention about China. Me, being me never had the desire to really learn anything about China other than I know that they're a bunch of commie bastards, and I really like their chicken wings so I decided I would take a little time to "google" China and see if I can learn anything interesting, for Courtney's sake.


First of all, the people of China don't have the freedom of expression. In other words this means that they can't lie, show anything against the government, spread rumors, or openly insult people. Can you imagine that? I love to gossip. When I worked for BHC it was like my thing. There was a tight group of us that knew everything about everyone that worked there, and made sure we kept everyone updated. I have even started this at the new job. I mean why wouldn't I, it makes the day go by a hell of a lot faster. A lot of the times when I "gossip", I may tend to embellish a bit. So without even thinking about it I have already broken two laws. I also constantly insult people, it's not always malicious, but it's downright funny. And, in the past 5 and 1/2 years I have developed a hatred for our president(purposely not capitalized). Who in their right mind can like that guy? Have you heard him talk? Hey GW, Vietnam was in the 70's, it wasn't cool then, and it's not cool now. And because the Chinese people don't have the freedom of expression the internet in China is severely regulated. Anyone who breaks any of the laws are SEVERELY punished. I wonder if they have MySpace.....


Secondly, they don't have the freedom of speech. This simply means that they cannot speak their minds if it is something that the Chinese gov't doesn't want to hear. So if I want to say that I don't like the President, or I think he is a terrible public speaker I can't say it. That's just crazy. Courtney actually told me that music is completely different there because of the inability to speak freely. I would assume so. I'm also not entirely sure that Eminem would make/sell too many records in China.


The Chinese People's way of life seems so different to me. I can't imagine visiting there, and not being able to comment on all of those damn communists walking around, nevermind living there for a year. So, good luck to you Courtney, watch what you say, and whatever you do, stay away from the Bird Flu.

Blogs and iPods...

So, since I've gotten a job in an office I've gotten somewhat addicted to blogs. I constantly find myself reading about peoples lives I've never met before. I've joked with the boo about creating one before, but never actually did it. Well today is a day of change. My first "blogging" was Kevin Smith's. For those of you who have been living under a rock for the past ten years he wrote and directed Clerks, Chasing Amy, Dogma, etc. It was actually pretty interesting and funny. He also went into a detailed story of Jason Mewes' heroin/OC addiction. This is it: http://silentbobspeaks.com/?m=20060328 definately check it out. So, I guess he is the one who got me into this.
About a year ago I bought an ipod. At the time I thought it was one of the greatest things ever invented. I mean how couldn't it have been? They are pretty amazing. They hold like 10,000 songs, and they don't skip. For someone who grew up in a generation with discman's, this is an amazing feat. So I proceeded to illegally download every song I had ever expressed interest in and load it up onto the thing. About 3 months ago I took a trip up to UMass Lowell and hooked my "trendPod" up to Hanley's computer. I uploaded about a thousand songs, and left there feeling a sense of accomplishment. One day me and Meg were driving somewhere and it began to act extremely funny. After it refused to go to the next track an unhappy face popped up on the screen. I'm not joking a legitimate unhappy face just rolled up onto my ipod. I was pissed. Under the unhappy face was a link to a website to "troubleshoot" the problem. I go to the website, and it takes me into steps to completely reset the damn thing. I couldn't believe it. After 9 months of piracy I was going to have to start all over again. So, I began the reset process(which is a pain in the behind), and the next thing I know all of my songs are back, and it's working perfectly again. I give myself a patt on the back, and think nothing of it. So I go back to my download/upload process and put the unhappy face behind me. Well, to make a long story short this problem reoccurs about once a month, and it gets harder to reset it each time. I constantly hear praises of ipods when people are first buying them, but had never heard about any problems. When I asked around I hear of constant problems. But it's now 4 o'clock, and I have to leave. So, screw Apple, I'm going home ......


-the term "trendPod" is a Chris Gibbons' original....