Sunday, January 9, 2011

Cell phones and other toys

There was a story in the local paper today, talking about how Blacks and Hispanics use cell phones and other hand held devices more often than Whites to access the Internet. Percentage wise, they Tweet more often than Whites.
The story suggests that minorities use of the Internet, via cell phones, is primarily one for entertainment purposes.
I don't know what all of this means but my overall feeling about cell phones is that they are toys more than they are useful devices. I look upon them as a form of Bling.
I do own a cell phone but it spends more time on top of my dresser than it does in my pocket. Part of this is due to the fact that cell phone coverage is poor to zero in the area I live. More importantly, I really don't care much for phones in the first place. To me, they are more of an unwanted intrusion in my life. I think a ringing phone is a bit rude. Like I'm supposed to drop everything and respond to that intrusion.
What I really can't figure out about using cell phones and other hand held devices for any form of entertainment is their small size. While TVs become larger and larger, I'm to want to watch a movie or a TV program on a screen about the size of a playing card? Then there is the high cost of doing this. It just doesn't make any sense.
I'll stick to using my computer and carry my cell phone when traveling to use for emergency purposes only. When I'm away from home, the last thing I want is to be bothered by any ringing phone. Sometimes, we really do need to be away from it all. And if Steve Jobs and the wireless phone companies don't like it, they can call me up to complain.
Thank god for caller ID

Saturday, January 8, 2011

Word games

I hear there is a new version of Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain.
What's new about it is substituting the word slave wherever the word negro is used.
Supposedly, this might help with the book not being banned by people who find the word negro to be offensive.
Some people actually refer to negro as the N word. Kind of like pussy footing around the very good word that is often hush hushed at the F word.
People, could we please stop this politically correct stuff?
The word "negro” means "black" in Spanish and Portuguese, from the Latin niger (black) and Greek NĂ©gros (black).
Personally, I've never met a person who was truly black. Just like I have never met a person who was truly white, red or yellow.
Me, I'm kind of a pinkish gray in skin tone and have decide to check "other" when required to admit to a race. It's all rather goofy, especially when you consider more and more people aren't a "pure" anything.
So could we please stop trying not to offend people who really need to take a trip to namby pamby land where maybe they might find some courage?
Same goes for all the offense taken if you say anything about some religion.
God, if you really need to defend a religion, it isn't worth defending. I'm sure God is quite capable of taking care of God without any help from sanctimonius humans.

Friday, January 7, 2011

Get a job

Times are tough but if you are waiting for "Happy Days are Here Again" - forget about it!
We will never again see anything approaching full employment (0% unemployment) or even what passed for full employment (3% unemployment) in the past.
We will be lucky if we can even reach and hold to an unemployment rate of 6%.
The reasons are simple. Business can get much more from fewer workers because of automation and computerization. Also, the world wide economy makes it possible to quickly shift jobs around the world to get the best bang for the buck.