Taking Care of the Leaves

The leaves are raked up and it looks like it’s done for the season.  If there is anything about fall that I hate, it is having to deal with leaves.  Depending on where you live there are certain restrictions on how you can get rid of leaves.  When I was living in Niles, we couldn’t burn our leaves.  Instead, we had to rake them to the curb and the city would come by on designated days to suck ‘em up and haul it away.  Other places allow you to burn leaves but they must be done in an enclosed container.  Where I live now, we’re technically allowed to burn open piles but we have to get a permit.  The reality is that we could probably light the whole lawn on fire and it wouldn’t be an issue.  So we burned this year.  Personally I would rather we mulch, but there’s still a bunch of debris left over from last year.  I guess my parents didn’t want to add to it so they picked out  place on the lawn, piled the leaves together and burned away.  I’d say our carbon footprint is sixteen square feet.  Oh… that’s not how to do it?

There IS a Map for That

A while ago Verizon came out with an ad campaign highlighting its 3G Coverage in comparison to AT&T. Watch this ad:

AT&T was PO'd big time and slapped a lawsuit claiming that the ads were deceptive in that they were leading viewers to conclude that AT&T doesn't offer coverage in the non-shaded areas. Apparently Verizon's coverage is so vast that people think that the shaded areas in both maps for Big V and Ma Bell was for cellular coverage period. Oh no, AT&T doesn't dispute the fact that these maps are accurate... just that Verizon's labeling of 3G is not sufficient notice for all the idiots out there who are watching the ad.

AT&T's request for an injunction has been denied but the lawsuit is till going forward. In the meantime, AT&T is hitting back with an ad of their own:

Oh, Luke, what happened to you?

So let's go with why I'm not with AT&T:

Nation's fastest 3G network. Oh that wold be nice if I lived in a 3G area in the first place. But even if I did live in such coverage, AT&T's network is still widely derided as pretty shit. I've seen vloggers from the San Francisco Bay Area just bitching up a storm on how crappy their service is.

Talk and surf at the same time. Hmmm... would be nice except I'm not that talented. Realistically, I'm doing one or the other.

Most popular smartphones. True. But what good is a smartphone when you don't have the network to back it up? Where I work, it'd be fancy brick. Where I live, I might get it to work if I cooed to it first.

Access to over 100,000 apps. Put an asterisk on that baby because the only way someone with AT&T is going to get that is with in iPhone.

Folks, I'm not saying that AT&T is total crap. It just is around here and I'm sure there are plenty of places in the country where Verizon is crap and AT&T is the king of all voice and data. If you are going to choose a network provider, don't choose one because of the bells and whistles with their phones, networks, and plans. Do your homework and choose one that best suits your needs.

Coming to America for Trial

Attorney General Eric Holder announced a little while ago that a number of inmates at Guantanamo Bay would be brought to federal court in New York City to stand trial. One of those that will be standing trial is Khalid Sheik Mohammed, accused of being the mastermind of the 9/11 attacks. Mohammed was captured in Pakistan by that country's authorities with aid by American forces. He was brought to Gitmo where he was tortured with waterboarding and a confession was extracted. Attempts were made to put him on trial in a military commission however, those proceedings weren’t able to move forward because of the Hamdan decision. Even though congress has since found a way around that, Mahammed’s case has not moved forward much until recently.

So I’m sure that many of you have heard the debate raging on whether we should be trying Gitmo detainees like Mohammed here in the US under a civilian court or in Gitmo with the military commissions. I am satisfied with arguments on both sides of the issue but I find myself falling on the side of the military commissions.

President Obama has indicated that he intends to use the military commissions that were started under the Bush administration, although with tweaks. It seems odd then that the DOJ (presumably with Obama blessings) has decided to try only some of the Gitmo detainees in federal court. So why only some and not all? It seems kinda shady right? My first thought was that this was going to be a naked show trial and done more for political posturing than carrying out justice.

The decision on who will be going to federal court and who will be going to military commissions is unclear to me. The best guess that I can come up with is that those that have been caught on the battlefield fighting against the military will be going to the military commissions. Those, like Mohammed that were caught in jurisdictions by other government authorities and then handed over to the America will go to federal court.

A couple of things that have been bothering me though have been that the administration is claiming that those going to federal court have extraordinary evidence is against them. In Mohammed’s case it’s been openly said that he is going to be found guilty. Even when questioned about the remote possibility that he would be acquitted, it has been said that Mohammed will not be let go. Why, then, even bother with a trial if 1.) he’s going to be found guilty, 2.) he’s admitted he’s guilty, 3.) he’s said he wants to die a martyr, and 4.) he’s never going to be released anyways? Sounds like and awful waste of time and money to me.

Also I question the legitimacy of the government’s pursuit of justice because it appears to me that if the government is sure that it has damning evidence, then they are comfortable with convictions in federal court? Yet, if the government doesn’t have the evidence, well… they’ll just go to military commissions where these people do not have the same rights and protections and the level of permissible evidence is lower with an allowance for hearsay or coerced testimony. It’s like if they can’t hit ‘em with the ping pong ball, they’re going to use the kickball. But going before a military commission is probably something that these detainees would rather go before since they have a lower conviction rate than the cases that go to court in the US.

My personal preference is to keep them at Gitmo, and go with military trials (not commissions) which has higher evidentiary requirements and the detainees retain more rights. I think that bringing some to the mainland for trial only muddies up the classifications of these detainees and opens back the questions of what kind of rights these people have.

Really? I just thought they weren't hot.

Cry Republic

After watching an interesting The National episode I read Andrew Coyne’s article and his defense for holding onto the monarchy. It was pretty interesting but I find it amusing that there are people who defend these royal families. I’ve lived all my life in republics where the people are sovereign. The idea of a family who is put on a pedestal, regardless if they hold any real power, is a gross thought. Even the idea of political dynasties here in the United States with Kennedies, Clintons, Daleys and Bushes make me uncomfortable.

Why should countries like Canada or Australia retain their queen? How often is the Queen of Canada actually in Canada? Or Australia? These countries run their own affairs perfectly well and on the surface, it would seem that they should be perfectly fine to transition into republics. But for a political/social system that is tied in with the crown, it may be more difficult I can imagine. Personally, I find a situation in which a parliament remains and is now choosing a head of government and head of state to be another scary thought.

I’m happy with Canada keeping the status quo. But hey, they get to live with the idea of a future King Charles and thankfully, I don’t.

A Meeting of Equals

So here’s the picture of President Obama bowing before Emperor Akihito of Japan. It’s been making the rounds on the blogs. Here’s my take: President Obama should not have bowed. He is the head of state meeting another head of state. This botched bow (when bowing, don’t touch) showed deference so in a sense, America was showing that it was positioning itself in a lower standing to that of Japan. The State Dept. really needs to start briefing the president on proper protocol because he keeps fucking it up. He should have only done what the Emperor could have reciprocated. In this case, a shaking of hands and a head nod would have sufficed.

Upgrade Complete

I upgraded my computer to Windows 7 last night. I had said before that I was going to wait until a Service Pack was issued before upgrading but my dad bought a upgrade bundle pack (Three upgrades for $150). Hmmm, I could either pay him the $50 for one of the copies he got or get my own later for $120. Didn’t really need to think about it.

There were some tech articles that I read that said that the upgrade could take a number of hours. One quoted up to 21 hours. I didn’t think it would take that long. I already knew that my hardware specs were more than adequate. Basically, if your computer was purchased with Vista, it’s good to go for Win 7. What I didn’t know was that since I’ve got a fair amount of shtuff on it, I didn’t know how that would affect the upgrade time. Counting the time it took me to back up my files, uninstall or disable incompatible programs, update the computer, and then reinstall programs, it took a little over five hours.

For anyone who has subscribed to Windows Live One Care, that is incompatible with Windows 7. So kiss it goodbye if you are going to upgrade. You’re going to have to buy new security software elsewhere. If you’re a cheapskate like me, Microsoft does have a free version called Microsoft Security Essentials. I installed it and I don’t have plans to buy security software.

My iTunes program was flagged as being incompatible. Well sorta. I had one site telling me that it was incompatible and to reinstall after upgrade. The actual upgrade program just told me to deauthorize my computer. I did and after the upgrade was complete, iTunes was working fine and all I to do was reauthorize.

Now that I’ve played with it for a while, I’m not that impressed with it. Don’t get me just wrong, I like it but when I see YouTubers practically having an orgasm over how great this new OS is, I think they're nuts. I very rarely had a problem with Vista and while I can see the improvements in Win 7, I don’t think $120 is worth it. Even the $50 that I paid is questionable (considering I could use that to go towards a new starter motor).

If you’re an XP holdout, it’s time to upgrade to Win 7. Uh… don’t upgrade-upgrade. Just buy a new computer.

If you’re a Vista user and it is working fine for you, I honestly think that your money could be best used elsewhere. $120 for an upgrade is just not worth it.

I wouldn’t say it was an unlucky day.

Friday the 13th, for me, has always been a good day. This time, it was shaping up to be an awesome, fun-filled day. Sara and Adam had agreed a while ago to come with me to the gay bar to see the annual drag pageant. One of our classmates, Jon was supposed to be competing and they wanted to see him all decked out. A couple days ago, it looked like they were going to back out as Sara claimed that she could only get a babysitter for her son up to 2300. But then in the morning she texted me saying that she was going so I assumed that she was good to go for an all-nighter. She even asked if I wanted to catch dinner and some bowling. Sounds like fun to me. Also in the plan was to meet Lee and Jamie, who are coworkers of mine, at the bar.

So things went to hell.

I was anticipating meeting up at 1830 for dinner but we had to wait for Adam who didn’t show up until 1945. That was pushing the time since it was would be another half hour to get to Mishawaka for dinner. That wouldn’t leave much time for bowling, so dinner was scrapped for some finger food at a bowling alley in Niles. I believe I have said it before on this blog, but I don’t bowl very often. I’d say more than five, but less than ten, so I can still use my hands to count how any times I’ve done it. We ended up playing three games. I won the first and last but we all suck so that’s not saying too much. I did bowl my best ever. 110. Woo hoo. I finally broke the triple digits.

When we were done, Sara asked me if there was anyone that I was planning to meet up at the gay bar. She needed to know if I had a way to get home. Errr… Sara was my ride home. Turns out that she still had to get her kid by 2300 and that she was planning to just sit there for a few minutes to check out Jon and then go home. I was pissed. It was around 2130 and so I told them we needed to book it back home so I could get my car which would put me at least 45 minutes late to the pageant. So since she had to drive me all the way home, she just thought it best that she not go—but that I should take pictures and send them to her.

Ugh.

By the time I got home, got my car, stopped by the gas station and ATM, I was nearly an hour late. I had estimated that the pageant would only be two hours or less. Really. The ones on television are only about that long and they’ve got like 50+ contestants. This place would have three maybe four. Thankfully I was wrong as it ended up going for almost four.

It turns out that our classmate, Jon, wasn’t in the show as I spotted him in the audience with his friends. I had a little short chat with him. He told me that he was going to do it next year. To be honest, I’m not sure he quite remembers me. He never did use my name and never asked me anything more than my general welfare. I took an empty seat near the side bar but still within earshot of him. I was ignored for the rest of the show. Ass.

While I did see Jon, Lee and Jamie were nowhere to be found. They skipped out and I wasn’t too happy. Jon, the only person that I know, didn’t seem to care that I was there and there was no one else that I knew. The best conversation that I had was with the lesbo next to me while we were making some snarky comments about a contestant (who seem incapable of smiling).

The pageant itself was very entertaining. I think that my only gripe with it was that so much of it was lip-synching and trolling for money. Seeing a drag queen shaking hips, lips, and pointing to people can only last so long before it gets boring. But there were a few numbers that seemed more creative and even artistic. The person that I thought did the best job ended up winning. It was very much deserved.

So this may be my last posting for a while. I am about to upgrade my computer. It’s no spring chicken and it has plenty of programs on it. I heard that it can take up to a day. Geeze, I hope it’s not nearly as bad as that.