Sunday, April 12, 2009
Just Some Sunday Thought...
please be philosophical please be tapped into your femininity please be able to take the wheel from me please be crazy and curious papa love your princess so that she will find loving princes familiar papa cry for your princess so that she will find gentle princes familiar please be a sexaholic please be unpredictably miserable please be self absorbed much (not the good kind) please be addicted to some substance papa listen to your princess so that she will find attentive princes familiar papa hear your princess so that she will find curious princes familiar please be the jerk of my knee I've fit you always you finish my sentences I think I love you what is your name again no matter i'm guessing your thoughts again correctly and I love the way you press my buttons so much sometimes I could strangle you papa laugh with your princess so that she will find funny princes familiar papa respect your princess so that she will find respectful princes familiar papa love your princess so that she will find loving prices familiar papa cry for your princess so that she will find gentle princes familiar please be strangely enigmatic please be just like my
Labels: random
Friday, April 10, 2009
The Name's Müller. John Müller.
Friends, I am livid. Very much so! It has only been 77 days since the first black person was sworn in as the President of the United States and some Texas lawmaker unwound the progress made in minority acceptance. And that Texas lawmaker is no other than Betty Brown, a Republican State Representative.
Representative Betty Brown, during a House testimony on voter identification legislation while questioning Ramey Ko, suggested that Asian-Americans should change their names because they're hard to pronounce.
"Rather than everyone here having to learn Chinese--I understand it's a rather difficult language--do you think that it would behoove you and your citizens to adopt a name that we could deal with more readily here?"
...and later added...
"Can't you see that this is something that would make it a lot easier for you and the people who are poll workers if you could adopt a name just for identification purposes that's easier for Americans to deal with?"
What the...?!?
Let's frame this discussion in the proper light. This question was posed to an Asian American, just like me, who is an American citizen. So, what is up with the "you and your citizens" and "we" separation? Clearly, Rep. Brown has some sort of an inclination towards racial divide, for otherwise she in her mind wouldn't dare use such divisive language. Can you imagine if someone you know tells a Hispanic hired help, "Why don't you people learn more English?"
Now, let's look at the context of the discussion: House testimony on voter identification legislation. Key word on identification.
I'm sure you have heard jokes about going through phonebooks and complaining about how everyone is a "Chang" or "Wong," right? Well, let's flip that around. Have you ever tried looking up someone in the phonebook who is either a "Smith" or "Brown," and how thick that section is? Right...
Let's say, for the sake of argument, poll workers truly have a hard time identifying Americans of Asian descent. And for the expressed goal, all Asian Americans will change their surnames to something like "Smith" or "Brown." Now, do you honestly think that it is easier to identify people at polling stations? Instead of lines for last names beginning with "A-H," "I-P," and "Q-Z," they probably will have to have a line just for "Smith," another for "Brown", and finally a line for "Others."
So really, is it truly "easier?" I don't know, but I'd like to ask poll workers what they think about living in a district where there were many Smiths in the community...
Finally, there's the whole "American" thing. Apparently, for Rep. Brown, an American is defined as someone who is either Caucasian, or someone who has a Caucasian surname. Otherwise, anybody else is not an American. I mean, she addressed the question to an American who happened to be not white, and addressed him as if he wasn't an American!
Like I said, I am livid. Just for that, I might consider changing my surname from "Ho" to "Müller." I mean, it should be easier to pronounce, right? But good luck to the poll workers in trying to write that down correctly, cos you don't want to confuse "John Müller" with "John Mueller" or "John Muller," with the latter two being bastardized by the immigration officer at Ellis Island who didn't know "ü". Maybe Betty Brown is related to those uneducated immigration officers?
Come to think of it... Isn't "Brown" the bastardized version of "Braun"?!?
Anyway, if you are a Texan and find this extremely offensive, voice your complaint to the ignorant representative by emailing Brown. Sorry, my Texan friends, but this is yet another reason why I have a distaste for Texas...
Here are the ongoing articles regarding this dumb person: news.google.com - subject "Betty Brown"
Below is the video of the testimony uploaded by KXAN, an NBC affiliate from Austin (if you want the racial comments, fast forward to the 3:30 mark):
Labels: government, ignorance, racism, stupidity, Texas
Friday, April 03, 2009
I Love You, AT&T! Sort of...
Well… How about that? About eight minutes ago, Engadget received a statement from AT&T, stating:
The language added on March 30 to AT&T's wireless data service Terms and Conditions was done in error. It was brought to our attention and we have since removed it. We apologize for any inconvenience this may have caused.
I guess that's reason to celebrate after just posting a blog about how upset I was. But as my friend Changren pointed out, which I suspect as well, the error wasn't done by AT&T in poor judgment, but rather that the error itself was being discovered by angry users.
How the hell can you write something in error, especially when it was extremely detailed and broad, covering almost everything? Oh well, apologies accepted.
Labels: ATandT, stupidity, technology
AT&T, You've Outdone Yourself!
Congratulations, AT&T! You have yet outdone yourself when it comes to f**king over your customers! It was barely two years ago when you changed your terms and conditions to include a threat to suspend/terminate any customer contract if you think I engage in conduct that you believe "tends to damage the name or reputation of AT&T, or its parents, affiliates and subsidiaries."
Well, thank you very much for not terminating my service with you when I wrote that blog entry criticizing you for that s**tty terms of service. But just so you know, I'm going to criticize you yet again today.
What the f**k is wrong with you?!? Last night, you updated your Terms and Conditions, and I have beef with your 2. WIRELESS DATA SERVICE TERMS AND CONDITIONS chapter, I. 8. Prohibited and Permissible Use section, to effectively disallow "downloading movies using P2P file sharing services, customer initiated redirection of television or other video or audio signals via any technology from a fixed location to a mobile device, web broadcasting, and... any applications that tether the device... to Personal Computers or other equipment."
Seriously, no tethering, even if I don't use more bandwidth than I would otherwise normally use natively on my N95 smartphone?
Seriously, I can't install applications, such as Google Maps or Skype, since these applications are software that "maintain continuous active Internet connections" whenever I'm driving around or VoIP'ing?
Seriously, I can't set up my N95 smartphone's email client to stay connected all the time and check my email every minute?
Seriously, I can't use my N95 smartphone to take a picture, and instantly upload the picture using my "unlimited data plan" to Facebook via Mobile Uploader, or the Flickr application, because "applications, including, but not limited to, Web camera posts" are strictly prohibited?
What the f**k?!?
I love you, but I truly hate you. Really. But I'm going to continue using my N95 as I have always, and if you cut me off, I'll see you in court!
Labels: stupidity, technology