• Fuck discrimination

    March 29, 2016 / No Comments

    One thing that drives my crazy more than anything is discrimination of any kind. I’m lucky I don’t have to deal with any since I was born male, middle-class, and white. I totally understand the privilege I’ve been given. I totally despise anyone who discriminates for any reason.

    I’m not a Christian, but I was raised one, and was taught to treat someone the way you wanted to be treated, and not to judge. God will do the judging. Don’t they teach these values in church anymore? It seems like it’s mostly the conservative Christians trying to pass laws to legalize discrimination. I shouldn’t generalize because I know 99% of Christians are great people that don’t discriminate, but the asshole are really assholes.

    What the fuck is North Carolina doing? Give me one case of a transgendered person attacking another person in a bathroom? There isn’t any. This isn’t a problem. The problem actually goes the other way. Transgendered people need protection from idiot assholes. Now in North Carolina you are going to have confusion when what looks like wrong gendered people going in to bathrooms because, you know, people don’t drop their pants before they go in. In fact people only drop them in the stalls, so who gives a fuck. The problem is in the heads of creepy Republicans. They are the ones that dream about sneaking into the women’s bathrooms. For some god awful reason they think peeing and pooping is sexy.

    Then you have Georgia trying to pass another one of those discrimination bills disguised as “religious freedom”. Thankfully it was vetoed because many companies threatened to leave, and when it comes to politics, it’s really only about the money.

    Why can’t we all get along and lean from our differences and don’t discriminate based on them?

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  • Go DuckDuckGo yourself

    March 26, 2016 / No Comments

    My favorite photo managing software is Picasa. I’ve been using it since before Google bought it. Now of course Google is shutting it down and no longer updating it. I love Google, but it’s getting annoying the way they shut products down. They are really making me second guessing about using any of their new products. With the loss of Picasa, I’m starting to learn Lightroom. There is a little bit of a learning curve, but in the end I’ll probably be better off. It’s a pretty powerful program.

    I have a coworker who is one of those people that is afraid of Google. He thinks I’m crazy to use Gmail. He think they read all the emails. I tried to explain to him that it wasn’t people reading your mail, but just a computer scanning it to block your spam, and maybe show you some ads. Big deal. Every email service that fights spam does it. To be online you have to trust some companies with your personal data. There really is no practical way around it. Why be worried about Google? Your ISP knows even more. I guess some people are just more paranoid than others. I’m more worried about my passwords. I use long ass passwords that are randomly generated, so I don’t even know them. I never answer those stupid security questions correctly, and use two factor authentication on every site that has it. So even if you were to get my password, you would also have to get my phone to get into my email. Good luck with that.

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  • So Long, Farewell Motion City Soundtrack

    March 16, 2016 / No Comments

    So a lot of people celebrate 3/11 day because of the band 311. I’m not really a 311 fan, but 3/11/16 is a date I will always remember. It’s the date my favorite band, Motion City Soundtrack, announced that they were calling it quits. I was shocked at first, but I understand how tour life could be a drag, especially since many of the band members have kids now. My sad turned in to glad when I realized all the great music and great times the band has given me. So while I’m sad that it’s over, I’m so glad it happened.

    I’ve read what a lot of people wrote about the band, but this article is the best.

    Trying to remember all the times I’ve seen them, I went through all my ticket stubs. I thought it was 14 time, but I guess I’ve only seen them 13 times. Number 14 will be this June. Here are all the Motion City Soundtrack shows I’ve been to:

    05/23/2004 @ The Alerus Center, Grand Forks, ND
    07/24/2005 @ Vans Warped Tour, Minneapolis, MN
    11/12/2005 @ The Myth, Maplewood, MN
    12/12/2006 @ Roy Wilkins Auditorium, St. Paul, MN
    11/24/2007 @ The Myth, Maplewood, MN
    05/27/2008 @ The Myth, Maplewood, MN
    07/15/2008 @ The Venue, Fargo, ND
    10/28/2010 @ First Avenue, Minneapolis MN
    12/18/2010 @ First Avenue, Minneapolis, MN
    09/3/2011 @ Minnesota State Fair, St. Paul, MN
    11/18/2012 @ Varsity Theater, Minneapolis, MN
    04/21/2013 @ The Vault, Sioux Falls, SD
    10/25/2015 @ First Avenue, Minneapolis, MN

    This past Monday they announced the first leg of their “So Long, Farewell” tour, and Tuesday VIP tickets went on sale. They went on sale at 10:00 am. I started refreshing my browser over and over starting at 9:58. At 10:01 I selected two vip tickets only to discover they were all sold out when I hit enter. I was pretty bummed, but still kept refreshing the page out of disbelief. Then at 10:09 suddenly there were tickets available. I scarfed them up as quick as I could. I couldn’t believe it, I GOT VIP TICKETS. Here is what VIP includes:

    One General Admission Ticket
    A Stripped-down Acoustic Set with Band (two songs)
    One Raffle Entry to Win Prizes*
    A Photo with the Band
    One Exclusive Signed VIP Lithograph
    A Live “Ask-Us-Anything” Session with Band Members
    One Exclusive Wearable Button
    One VIP Laminate and Lanyard
    Priority Merch Shopping
    Early Entry into the Venue with First Dibs on Front Row Access
    *Chance to win relics from the MCS vault. Relics can range from: an exact Realistic/Moog MG–1 synthesizer used on tour and in the studio by the band that may or may not still work, lyric sheets, vinyl test pressings, posters, stage back drops used on tour, and more. One entry per person. Actual prizes may vary based on availability. Winner selected at end of Summer 2016 tour.

    So my 14th time seeing Motion City Soundtrack will be a memorable one, and if I’m lucky, maybe I can catch them one more time when they announce the second leg of the tour.

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