TWITTER ME SOFTLY

It’s interesting how quickly technology changes today.
I’ve talked about how it’s odd to think that there are
teenagers today who’ve never bought an actual music
CD, all of their music as been downloaded (legally or
otherwise) from online. There are kids today who’ve
never experienced dial-up, they’ve always had DSL or
broadband.

The internet isn’t even that old, as far as being used
worldwide, yet last year when my modem broke for a
couple of days, I was lost without it.

I’m still behind, tech-wise, in some ways. I’ve missed the
texting craze. My cell-phone (only the 2nd one I’ve ever
owned), which I’ve had for maybe 5 years, is rather
old-fashioned. I remember when I bought it I was impressed
with how much smaller it was than my first one. I can fold it
& stick it in my back pocket. But it doesn’t take pictures, or
record videos, or have internet access like so many others
do these days. I’ve never felt the need for it, since I only
have the phone for emergencies. In case my car breaks
down, and I need to call Triple A, or something like that.
So I hardly ever even have it turned on.

Last Jan. an online friend wrote in one of my blogs that
she’d sent me a text message for New Years, which was
a few days earlier, so I turned on my phone & saw it,
& it turned out that there was another text message
from a real-life friend. I had no idea that I could even
receive texts on my phone, nor do I know how to reply
to them. And it’s probably because of this lack of
text-access that I’ve missed the lastest Next Big Thing
of the moment: TWITTER.

In the past couple of weeks I seem to be reading an awful
lot about it on various websites, and I was just listening
to a podcast a few days ago where they were talking about
it. I’ve also gotten a couple of requests recently, from
friends who are on it.

I don’t get it. @ all. I can’t see the point. Now, I am not
going to trash it, or say it’s some big waste of time, or
anything like that. Simply because that’s what I used to
say about Myspace years ago. I thought it was stupid,
and mocked those who were on it, especially those with
huge numbers of “friends.” And then I finally signed up
and quickly became addicted to it. Then a year or so ago
I signed up to Facebook and that became my new addiction.
And I’ve occasionally argued with “civilians” who like to claim
that Myspace & Facebook are a waste of time. So I could
be wrong about this, too.

But, really, what’s the point of Twitter? Let’s say I have
a Blackberry or iPhone. I’m supposed to be signed in to Twitter
constantly so I can read a bunch of “status updates” all day
long? On the podcast they were talking about how it’s great
because you can see people’s thoughts “in real time.”

Yeah, and?

Why do I need to know what you are doing, or what’s on
your mind, RIGHT NOW? Nor does anybody need to know
what I’m doing, or what’s on my mind, RIGHT NOW. My life
is not that interesting. My random thoughts are not that
interesting. And, I’m willing to bet, neither are any of yours.

I mean, Mon-Fri I get up in the morning and spend most
of my day @ work. My random thoughts are usually
something like “I want pizza.” “My feet hurt” “Is it break
time, yet?” “I wish I could have a threesome with
Halle Berry & Angelina Jolie.” “What was the name of
that song I heard this morning?” “Is it break time, yet?”
Etc.  Not exactly Divine Revelations that I must share
with the world immediately.

I saw a notice on this comic-book news website that
I read, telling folks to sign up to their Twitter page. It
said something like “Sign up to get breaking news as
it happens!” And I’m thinking, why does anyone need
news about comic-books, RIGHT NOW? What’s the
rush? I can wait until I get home to check out the
new 5-page preview of the June issue of Wonder
Woman, I don’t need an alert @ 3:27pm telling me
that it’s just been posted.

Again, I won’t say it’s bad, or even that I’ll never sign
up, because of my previous opinions on social networking.
Who knows? By this time next year, I could be a
non-stop twittering maniac. But right now I honestly
can’t conceive of having any interest in it.

THE CRUMBLING U.S. ECONOMY: PUTTING IT INTO PERSPECTIVE

Y’know, sometimes life is all about putting things into perspective. I’m reminded of a scene in one of my favorite books, The Hitchhiker’s Guide To The Galaxy, by Douglas Adams. In this book, Arthur Dent has been rescued from Earth, by his friend who turns out to be an alien, just before the planet is destroyed.

There’s one point early on where Arthur is trying to come to terms with the fact that Earth is gone. He can’t quite grasp it when he thinks of the whole planet. So he tries to think of England (where he’s from). Doesn’t work. Then I think he thinks America, or New York. Doesn’t work. So finally he thinks of something small, I forget exactly, but I think it’s a local park, or a pub. And when he realizes THAT is gone, now it hits him, and he feels sad. He can finally comprehend the magnitude of the situation when he puts it into personal terms.

Well, that’s what’s just hit me with the U.S. economy. Yeah, I knew things were bad. There’s all of this talk of the Stimulus plan, but I just avoid it, because I don’t understand how this stuff works. I’ve got some friends who’ve blogged about it, and seen it discussed on some message boards, but it breaks down into partisan lines. All the liberals think it’s necessary and will make things better, while all the conservatives think it’s horrible and will make things worse. I can’t trust anyone to be Fair and Balanced in their opinion, and I’m no economic expert, so all I can do is sit back & wait & see what happens.

But I read the news, and I’ve been seeing all the reports of massive layoffs, companies going out of business, home forclosures, industry bailouts, stock market dropping, etc. But I’ve been lucky, so far. Had a few hits. For the first time in 8 years my company couldn’t give out X-Mas bonuses. That sucked, because it really would have come in handy. But I’ve still got a steady job, so it didn’t put me in the poorhouse.

Did my taxes last month, got my Federal refund, but my State refund has been delayed, supposedly until sometime next month, because of the California budget crisis. It’s only $243, but it sucks because that’s MY money. But it’s not like I’m starving, in the meantime. So I’m better off than a lot of folks.

But now something much worse as happened. My favorite radio station was a local station, 97.1 fm, which was a talk radio station. It was literally the only radio station I listened to, and had it always tuned to that in my caer. I’d listen to Adam Carolla (who replaced Howard Stern 3 years ago) in the morning on my way to work, and Tom Leykis in the evening on the way home. And if I went out during my first break, or lunch, I’d listen to Frosty, Heidi, & Frank.

But Thursday morning I tuned in and Adam revealed that all of the shows were cancelled, because the station was switching to Top 40 music. Apparently, even though the ratings were good overall, the station needed to save money, and it’s cheaper to play music than pay for talk shows. Just like that. That’s it. They all did their last shows and the station switched Friday @ 5pm.

This sucks! I have nothing to listen to in my car anymore! My drives to work & back Mon-Fri will be silent. I don’t like listening to music on the radio, I don’t need to hear the same songs twice an hour, & all of the other talk stations are political and, Left or Right, they all bore me.

I can’t believe this. I mean, just Wednesday night, Tom Leykis was bragging about how good his rating were, then the next day they’re shutting down. And the other hosts all said the same thing. Ratings were good and, in fact, they’re all still going to be getting paid for the remainder of their contracts but, apparently, it still works out to being cheaper for the station for them to play music instead. The economy must be really bad for CBS to take such a drastic step.

So now that my daily routine has been adversely affected, & I can personalize the situation, it’s really sunk in for me. WE’RE IN TROUBLE!

THE OBAMESSIAH COMPLEX

This blog was partially inspired by some other recent blogs
that I have read.

MULATTO OF THE MONTH

AN HISTORIC INAUGURATION…NOW WHAT?

OBAMA IS MY ACE, BUT, SERIOUSLY, GET OFF THE MAN’S DICK

I’ve always found the constant cries of “messiah,”
“celebrity,” “savior,” etc. to be both amusing and
annoying. First, it’s insulting in that it implies that
everyone who voted for him was just stupid. We
didn’t know what we were doing, didn’t really think
about it, we just heard some nice speeches and
said “Yep, he’s the one!” Like it was an American
Idol contest or something.

And it was amusing how the opposition tried to act
as if the fact that he could draw huge crowds,
throughout this country and foreign countries, was a
bad thing. Being an inspiring figure is not good, for
some reason. How dare he fill out an entire football
stadium for his acceptance speech? One pundit
actually pointed out that “Hitler used to draw huge crowds
too.”

It was classic jealousy, really. With all due respect to
Sen. McCain, whom I admire (& voted for in 2000 primaries),
he wished he could get that many people to come hear
him speak. But the reaction reminded me of a teenage girl
who didn’t get asked to the school dance. So she sits home
crying, and saying “Well, I didn’t want to go to that stupid
party, anyway!”

Right, keep telling yourself that, sweetie, if it makes you
feel better.

Then there’s the ironic fact that once Gov. Palin joined the
ticket, she was immediately treated like a celebrity, by the
Republicans, despite the fact that they didn’t know anything
about her, other than that she was “hot” and had a
bunch of cute little kiddies.

I heard Rush Limbaugh the day after her RNC speech,
gushing about her. It sounded like he was broadcasting
with one hand down his pants.

Nevertheless, that’s all over now, and the real work
begins. Which brings me to the point of this blog.

Now what?

For those reading this whom are old enough to remember
back in the late 1980’s/early 90’s, I was one of those young
Black teenagers that you used to see walking around in a
Malcolm X t-shirt, and caps, and X’s or African medallions
around their necks. But the thing is, unlike many, if not most,
of those young men, it wasn’t just a trendy fashion statement
for me. I really admired the man, and made it a point to learn
as much about him as I could. I must’ve read over a dozen
books about him, & bought video & audio tapes of his speeches
& interviews. When the Spike Lee movie came out, I took
my (White) girlfriend to see it on opening weekend. I had some
friends who smoked weed, and drank alcohol, but I never
touched the stuff, because Malcolm X preached against that.

I’d like to see that attitude regarding Pres. Obama. If you
say that he inspires you, prove it. Turn that adulation into
motivation. To the young Black men who say that he gives
them hope for their future, it’s not enough to just put on a
T-shirt with his picture, or the phrase “My President is Black”
on it. If you’re still wearing baggy pants with your underwear
showing, then don’t even bother wearing the t-shirt. You think
Pres. Obama is “cool,” well, notice how he’s highly educated,
and speaks proper English? Try it, sometime. Put down the malt
liquor & chicken wings, and pick up some books. Y’know what
I’m sayin?

There are rappers with songs out now about Pres. Obama.
That’s nice, but what about your next song? If it’s just going
to be the same “money/guns/b****es” crap that
you were rapping about before, then that was a waste of
time.

In one of the above blogs, there’s an article talking about
how many Blacks like that the Obama’s are an image of a
positive Black family.

You want to see more positive Black families? Then create
one! Let’s stop accepting the “Baby Mama/Baby
Daddy” dynamic as normal. Yes, those Special Edition
Commemorative Plates with Pres. Obama’s face on them would
look very nice on your table, but how about saving that money
to spend on an engagement ring, or pay for a
wedding, instead?

And can we finally disown the N-Word, once & for all?
Just stop using it, no matter what color you are, under
ANY circumstances. Please.

And I know this is coming of very Black-centered, but this
applies to everyone else, too. It wasn’t just Black folks that
put in him in office. He’s talked about encouraging a new spirit
of public service, and got huge applause for it. Well, all of y’all
who cheered for him, did you really mean it? He’s just one
man, he can’t do it all by himself. As he said, “WE are the change
we’ve been waiting for.

This was one of the most expensive Presidential campaigns in history. Pres. Obama himself raised almost $750 million dollars. Think about
that. To all of the people who gave him money (not to mention the millions who gave to Senators McCain and Clinton during the year), I’m sure there are schools, parks, hospitals/free clinics, community centers, and other places in your own neighborhood that could
also use some money. How about donating some money and/or
time to them?

In the immortal words of Michael Jackson “If you want to
make the world a better place, take a look @ yourself, and
then make a CHANGE.”

CINDY ROLDAN, R.I.P.

Last summer I added a new friend on Myspace. Her name was CINDY and she was a singer who performed under the name CIN-CITY.

We didn’t communicate that much, in comparison to some of my other Myspace friends, but when we did she seemed nice. I wrote to her and gave her a full review of the songs that she had posted on her music page, and she said she appreciated my constructive criticism. And we each left a few comments on each other’s pages. Then she seemed to disappear. She used to log in every single day, but her last log in was 11/12/08. I’d leave comments, but she had them set to approval, so no new ones were showing on her page. I wondered if she’d just kind of lost interest in Myspace. Heck, I’m not on as much as I used to be, and went almost 3 months without logging in last year.

Well, I had just remembered that she had some photo slideshows up online, which I had checked out before, and she also had a guest-book set-up. And I noticed a couple of new comments saying R.I.P. So I looked her name up online, and came across this story that one of her other friends had posted in his Myspace blog:

Susan Jacobson Sentinel Staff Writer

November 13, 2008

ORLANDO – A 35-year-old woman was killed Wednesday in a crash in Orlando after her Isuzu Axiom passed a pickup on the right and struck two utility poles, police said. The accident happened in the 1300 block of Division Avenue about 8:40 a.m. Cindy Roldan, who lived in Orlando, passed a northbound Chevrolet Silverado driven by James L. Fleming, 51, also of Orlando, as Fleming slowed to make a right turn into Preferred Materials, Orlando police said. The pickup hit the Axiom on the left side, and the Axiom slid across Division Avenue, then hit the poles, investigators said. Roldan, who was not wearing a seat belt, was pronounced dead at Orlando Regional Medical Center.

That’s truely horrible. What a tragedy. I can only hope that she didn’t suffer too much, before she passed. My heart goes out to her family, whom I know she was very close to. Especially her mother. That has to be the most unnatural experience for a parent to lose a child.

This just goes to show that none of us are promised tomorrow. And we must make the most of every moment that we have.

Resto En Paz, Amiga.