Monthly Archive for May, 2007

You Can’t Win ‘Em All…

So, obviously I lost the elections yesterday. Honestly, I was kind of surprised…almost everybody that I had talked to it about had voted for me, but apparently I talked to the wrong group of people!

I’m not too crushed over this, though. It’s just one election, and if I’m not president than I can focus on drama and academic work next year. I guess that’s a fair trade-off.

The hardest thing about this whole ordeal, though, hasn’t really been accepting the fact that I’ve lost, but more coping with it. Simply put: I’m not a loser. I work very hard and I am usually able to come out on top (luckily, lol). I’ve had unsurpassable success in recent years, so not winning is sort of a new sensation. It feels strange.

But, remember there’s always junior and senior year. I’ve got those in the bag, I’ve decided.

The Election Results Are In…

I lost.

Venezuela Accuses CNN en Español and Globovision of Anti-Chavez Sentiments

The Venezuelan government is now shifting its focus to getting Globovision and CNN off the air in Venezuela.

Chavez reportedly referred to Globovision as an “enemy of the state” ((Second opposition TV channel is public enemy – ABC News)) after the station allegedly aired footage of Venezuelans protesting the shutdown of RCTV for the fourth consecutive day. Apparently, they were trying to incite assassination attempts on Chavez. I have not seen the footage personally, but I highly doubt that a globally-respected news agency such as Globovision would do something of that manner. Even in the face of adversity, it is the job of the news media to report unbiased information and not try to sway the opinion of the people.

CNN (en español), however, seems to have angered Chavez due to a programming error, juxtaposing footage of Chavez with incorrect stories pertaining to al Qaeda. Normally, I would be able to understand their agitation, but CNN quickly issued an apology, denying that “any intention of associating President Chavez with al Qaeda or the China story”. ((TV station accused of trying to incite hit on Chavez – CNN)) He also does not agree with them showing footage of the protest, even though it’s one of the big news stories right now.

And television stations are not the only news outlets at risk- radio stations are also discouraged from trying to incite ill feelings of any kind towards the government. Chavez went on to tell everybody to “take a tranquilizer” ((‘Take a tranquilizer’, Chavez warns TV execs – MSNBC)). Maybe it’s just me, but, um, is it medically safe for humans to take tranquilizers? I believe we give tranquilizers to rabid animals, and humans take sedatives…but that’s just me.

Thousands are protesting the shutdown/threatened shutdowns and apparent lack of free speech in Caracas, and Chavez is saying that they are trying to “justify violence” and telling his supporters to “defend the revolution”. ((Chavez Threatens Second TV Shutdown as Protests Mount - Bloomberg)) If anybody is sending the wrong message to the people, it seems Hugo Chavez, not the news outlets.

Venezuelan Government Shuts Down Radio Caracas Television

Being a (future) journalist, I find it very upsetting that governments have the power to do things such as this.

In case you don’t know what’s going on, Hugo Chavez declined to renew RCTV’s broadcasting licence back in December, meaning that the station had to cease operations once its licence expired. In shutting down the station, Chavez cited that the station was overly-critical of his government and accused them of sponsoring the 2002 coup de’teat against him.

First off, I think the idea of a ‘broadcasting licence’ is garbage. The point of concepts such as television and radio are that the broadcasters can express themselves! Nobody’s personal expression should have to be approved by the government. That would be like me having to submit all my posts to the government for approval before I could publish them. The US, along with Canada, Iran, Luxembourg, and Liechtenstein ((Television licence – Wikipedia)), have never required broadcasters to obtain broadcasting licences. You can see a list of nations which have previously have required broadcasting licences but have since abolished them here.

Second, the government shouldn’t have the power to shut anything down without substantial evidence. In all of the research that I’ve done about this topic, not once have I read anywhere about some sort of trial, or at least a mention of any sort of evidence that the station was, in fact, behind the coup. If you’re approaching this from a literal standpoint, this station was shut down ‘just because’; there was no evidence or anything to prove that the station has done anything wrong.

Finally, this station is a part of Venezuela’s history! It’s been on the air since 1953, and has repeatedly been the most popular television stations amongst Venezuelans. This may sound odd, but this station is part of their culture. How can you take away somebody’s culture? Then again, the U.S. had no problem doing that with the American Indians during the 1800’s (see Dawes Act and Indian Removal Act of 1830).

In conclusion, I completely condemn the refusal to renew the licence. RCTV still deserves to be on air, and hopefully it will be allowed back on air in the near future. ¡ALARMA POR LA LIBERTDAD DE EXPRESIÓN!

Sources: Chavez closes opposition TV station; thousands protest (CNN), Venezuelan TV Station Goes Off the Air (ABC News), Descargue la alarma aquí (El Observador/RCTV Online)

Oh, Really? Then What Else is it For?

One of the greatest things about having your own domain is that you have the ability to customize your email address and have email delivered to your domain, meaning that you can have a you@your-domain.com email address instead of you@yahoo.com or you@aol.com etc.

When I registered the-madness.net in January, one of the first things that I did was install webmail on my server (That’s what the tiny webmail link that hides at the bottom of the pages is for!).   I created danny [at] the-madness [dot] net as my personalized address, but hesitated to announce it: Gmail is an awesome service, and I love the web interface!  I decided to keep using Gmail as my primary email address and use my the-madness.net address for…other stuff.  Blog-related things.

I published that address once in a post, and ever since then, I’ve been receiving an onslaught of spam in my inbox.  The majority of the messages pertain to sex drive and pharmacies, so I don’t even open them anymore (sometimes I liked to read them because they were funny).

Yesterday, however, I received a particularly disturbing message:

 Your dick is not just for pissing anymore!

“…And this Girl Came Up and Grabbed My Boob!”

I’m pretty sick of most of the people at school. I won’t name names, but those people are getting on my last nerve. After a particularly stressful day of dealing with idiots, I couldn’t take it any more. I called Cara to see if she was free, and we set off to the movies for some friend therapy.

We decided to go see Pirates of the Caribbean 3: At World’s End. Lemme start off by saying that I never was a huge Pirates fan. I saw most of the first movie, and wasn’t thrilled, but I liked it. I never got around to seeing the second movie, but the third one looked pretty cool. So, basically, I walked into the movie not really knowing anything about the movie.

Since it was opening day, we anticipated HUGE crowds. We decided to see the 6:15 showing, and to avoid any long lines or possible sell-outs we ordered advance tickets online (amazingly, they were still available at 3:00!). We got to the theater at 5:30, knowing that we would need to get there early to get decent seats/seats together. We got to the actual theater (#8) at around 5:40 (after loading up on snacks), and, surprisingly, the line was pretty short! They opened the doors almost immediately, and we got in and got awesome seats. Since it was a three-hour movie, we decided to prepare ourselves accordingly: two cokes, nachos, popcorn, pretzels, and Reese’s Pieces constituted our smorgasbord of snacks.

We eagerly awaited the movie for 45 minutes. Actually, it was a great movie! The plot was great, the visual effects were stunning, and I was hooked! I really want to go back and see the first and second movies now.

The best part, however, happened after the movie. Cara drove me home in her awesome new car! But…I kind of got us lost. :P We left the mall parking lot, and you know how you go through two intersections and turn left onto Little Patuxent and follow that back to the lakefront? Well I accidentally told her to turn at the first intersection and totally screwed us. We drove around for a second while I tried to re-orient myself, but when we ended up at the exits for Route 29, we realized that we had no idea where we were, so we turned around and attempted to make it back to the mall. Thankfully, Columbia is laid out kind of like a big circle, so whichever direction you go in, you’ll always end up near the town center.

We passed Hickory Ridge, Cedar Lane, and some other random streets until we came to Howard County General. I had a feeling that we were getting closer, but still wasn’t very sure. We drove around Howard Community College (yes, completely around! We passed both entrances) until we finally ended up on Little Patuxent. We passed my mom’s office, and I was able to get us home without ending up in Upper Marlboro or Baltimore or somewhere completely not where I live (we gave Long Reach the finger on the way :D). I’m sorry Briana, but I think this takes the cake for worst misdirection getting out of the mall.

So basically, I had the most fun that I’ve had in a very long time. It was great to see Cara again! I recommend the movie to anybody who hasn’t seen it yet…you’ll love it!

(In case you’re wondering, the title is a reference to the people who sat next to us in the theater.)

I’m Lost.

Last night’s episode of Lost =

WTF

I am totally confused now! First off, I hated the idea of a “flash-forward”. Not only was it completely confusing, but it added nothing to the plot! There was nothing that was revealed last night in the flash-forward sequence that had an impact on the storyline, so what was the point? And I’m sick of Jack-centric episodes. How much more is there to know about him? I’ve been Jacked-out.

The episode started off phenomenally…I loved the first hour. The blowing up and capturing and stuff was awesome…I was on the edge of my seat, and it felt like my heart was about to pop out of me. It was crazy! But after that….

Some of the most memorable moments:

Hurley = amazing. It was awesome how he stormed the beach with the Dharma van. I felt bad, though….everybody was being so mean to him! And his “warning” to the Others was hilarious.

John Locke, you are an IDIOT. I hate you now. You flipped your lid after the hiatus…randomly throwing knives into people’s backs, pushing them into supersonic barriers, and all that other crap. You need to cut it out, drama queen.

Jack loves Kate?! That was very out of character for him to just come out and say it like that, but I still don’t really believe it. Sawyer is a (seemingly) clinically depressed loose cannon, and Jack is just a mess. Kate needs a real man (*cough*me*cough).

So, I’m utterly disappointed. This season really let me down…it definitely DID have it’s moments, however there was too much fluff (Nicki and Paulo) and too many new questions, as well as a lack of answers. I hope next season works out a little better…

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Qdoba Taco Salad

Qdoba Taco Salad

Crispy flour tortilla bowl filled with shredded romaine, black bean corn salsa, picante ranch dressing, lite sour cream and choice of salsa

I’m addicted.