Barack Obama, President of the United States

Joe Biden, Vice President of the United States

How some saw the Inauguration and how we saw it

There, there Matt… don’t be upset if things get better

Firstly, I didn't want to update anything here until I've returned all my messages and comments but this matter is urgent and I can't postpone it any longer. I usually restrict my political journals\rants to my Livejournal but I believe this one particular issue needs to be addressed loudly so that everyone is aware of it. This is part of what I, as a human being, can do for fellow human beings in Gaza who've been deprived of their basic human needs, dignity, any minute sense of safety and warmth in the heart of winter.

From my experince in dA, I'm pretty sure half of the members are oblivious to what's going on in the world they live in, let alone anything related to the Middle East since it's the place where people still ride camels to schools and all of it's men, women and children are terrorists common stereostype. But for the other half of you who care enough to follow the international news and keep yourselves aware of what's going on on the other side of the world, I hope you'll join me in spreading the word about the current huminatarian crises taking place in Gaza in your journals, LJs, bloggers or where ever you can reach your audience.

For those who are not up to date with the world affairs, here is a summary:

On December 26th, the Israeli military have launched 60 jets to bombard innocent civilians in Gaza strip. It claimed the lives of 300+ innocent civilians including women and children and severely wounded 1000+ others. The death toll is still rising and the attacks are still on-going to date. These air strikes come after a murderous siege against Gaza blocking international humanitarian aid from reaching to the needy, cutting the Gazans off water, electricity, medicine and food in winter last year. Some of you might go like “but they allowed some caravans and such”. It's true that through international efforts, the inhumane sanctions on Gaza were temporary lifted at times but these measures are not worth applauding since it's has no justification to begin with. This is a form of a completely unjustifiable collective punishment. It's ineffectual and a violation of human rights according to the Geneva Conventions.

I know some of you might think that frequent sieges and bombarding innocent lives isn't something new to Palestinian people. But imagine yourself in the place of those courageous people who put up with these outrageous attacks on daily basis, living their lives unsure whether they'll see their family or loved ones again when they return home or whether they'll wake up in the first place. It's horrible the feeling of insecurity. I've felt it. Anyone who has lived a war can understand it.

No matter what justifications are provided by the Israeli government or you, whoever supports Israel, there are no words that can justify this bloodshed. You just need to take a look at the ratios; 3000 innocent civilians, men, women and children were killed in Lebanon for 2 armed Israeli soldiers & now more than 300 Palestinians killed & thrice as many injured for Hamas's rockets that killed 1 Israeli & barely injured few others. Such a disproportionate response of collective punishment committed by the Israeli government against innocent non combatants civilians is an act of terrorism yet no one is asking why Hamas needed to fire the rockets in the first place! Self defense, does it even mean anything to anyone anymore ?

I'm sure the biased Western media never shows real images of what's happening in Gaza or the Middle East in general but click on the links below, look, read, understand and then tell me who are the ones suffering the most ? The people in Gaza without food, electricity or gas and little employment are an easy target. This is a humanitarian crisis. The least you could do is to boycott all products from Israel and spread the word around where you live. If not spoken, then at least do it online.

I find it sad that in today's world, people can't distinguish the real victims from the actual terrorists. Now suddenly, defending your own right to exist labels you as a terrorist !!!

I am no defending Hamas in this journal. I find them as responsible for this blood bath as the actual criminals. There is no difference between Hamas and the Israeli government. They are both not bothered by collateral damage done to any of the civilian in this war.

The Western democratic countries, though condemning some of the Israeli actions through occasional press releases, do nothing significant to stop the attacks *If this is not a disguised support and an ugly face of hypocrisy, I don't know what is it called* Arab governments are no better than their Western partners. None care about what's going on for their own political reasons.

If I were American or a citizen of the EU, I'd be embarrassed to be a part of a country that claims they do not support terrorism but when it comes to making allies *such as Israel* majority of these countries seems to have no problem with the murder of innocents. Such acts are condemned if the religion of the attacker is Islam but not otherwise ? Why ? What do the world expect the Palestinians to do ? Sit back and watch everything fall apart and do nothing ? Is defending yourself an act of terrorism ? What an upside down world we live in !

In the news

To read more about the current crises, please view the following links or google if you'd like to find your own news.

» Al-Jazeera English – Israel resumes Gaza bombardment
» Reuters – Israel mounts third day of Gaza raids
» In pictures: Gaza attack aftermath
» Haitham Sabbah – Photos of the Gaza attack aftermath
» Maan News – Israeli airstrikes continue on Gaza; 235 Palestinians dead, 700 injured

So, what can I do ?

I've written so much and I perfectly understand that words won't do much to ease the suffering people in Gaza but there is still a lot that people like us can do.

» For those who are aware of the world happenings, your next step is to write about it, raise the attention of those living on the other end of the world in front of a similar screen that does not show them what is it like to be in Gaza.

» If you've got some spare cash, please consider making a donation at any of the following sites;

UNRWA – Emergency activities in WestBank and Gaza
Human Appeal International
FreeGaza.org
American Near East Refugee Aid.

You can also donate at The red crescent or The red cross websites. Even a 1 dollar donation can make a difference so be charitable and help out.

» If you don't know much about what's going on, you can start educating yourself from reliable unbiased sources.

» If you already know the correct history of the Arab\Israel conflict, educate others and help eradicate the ignorance.

» Understand the difference between self defense and terrorism. Defending your own rightfully owned land, home, family does not make you a terrorist when you are the one with the legitimate argument. And please, don't come at me with the “one mans terrorist is another's freedom fighter”. We all know where Israel came from. It never existed until last century while the people of Palestine, Muslims and Jews have always lived in that land for hundreds of years without any problems.

» Leave a prayer for your fellow human beings who are going through so much hardships.

My thoughts and prayers are with the Palestinian people. I hope there'll be an end to this senseless murdering soon. Amen.

Sorry for the long journal and sorry if my thoughts sound incoherent. Revising long entries is such a headache but I hope you've read it. To those who did read it, thank you very much. May God bless you all.

p.s.: Thank you for all the comments on my previous journal entry and my frontpage. I'll get back to you as soon as I can orzllll|||||

Happy New Year.

Now things like this happen every year I’m sure, people get hurt, don’t know about being killed, but this is this year so I’ll reflect on it (while others were quick to assign blame): the store, the company, or the people who actually were so self indulged that they didn’t notice someone on the ground or that they were walking through a police scene.

Clearly Wal-Mart wanted people to be at the store to buy things; they put out the ads and say come, it’s what they do, sell things.

Of course the store should have had people lined up or had something in place to stop the rush of people, but they didn’t, which is something Wal-Mart might be responsible for in the future.

And then there are the masses that actually showed up to Wal-Mart in the early morning just to get great deals. These are the hard working, real Americans who are just trying to get by and save a couple of bucks. Well guess what, fuck you, fuck you and the lives that you lead, self motivated and self serving, an example to the world as to the cause of America’s problems.

I hope that those great deals on useless and meaningless gifts let you sleep at night knowing that someone was killed while you rushed in to the stores on Friday like maniacs.

Now I know not every Black Friday shopper acts like the same people who caused this tragedy, and of course this didn’t happen anywhere else, but the fact that it did happen should be enough for every American to pause and reflect on what happened: someone died, doing their job, that isn’t a job that carries some risk, at all.

Of course this only happened at one store, one store too many, but people were also hurt too because of the people rushing into these stores. Think about that, hurt trying to do some shopping; sure they might have help caused their injuries by running but it could have easily been caused by people pushing from behind.

Consider that yes, companies should have procedures in place for these kinds of events; stores should be allowed to operate with some regard for their own safety and the safety of the customers and say, get back, no bum rushing into the store. And the shoppers who went out on Black Friday, if someone was knocked down and was being trampled by shoppers at the store you were at would you have behaved any differently?

Maybe those deals can wait and everyone needs to slow down, nothing you buy or no amount of money you save is worth people being hurt or killed. Likewise there is no deal or savings that is worth hurting yourself over either.

There have been other moments where the behavior of Americans’ seemed worthy of being called out for a lack of decency or greed, or logic, but I didn’t actually post anything, but this one seemed to be one of the most disgusting things I have ever heard on the news with regard to Americans and their behavior.

I’m sure that this can happen anywhere, but seeing as I am an American and because this happened in America I simply have to say, fuck you Americans. Slow down and get a grip on what’s important; as an American I’m embarrassed to call myself an American, to be associated with people who had a total lack of judgment and regard, and revolted as a person that it happened at all.

Note the title. I said “Fuck Americans,” not “Fuck America;” I don’t believe it’s written down that America has granted its people the right to great deals on or after certain holidays.

Video

There’s nothing like something boring and repetitive to help raise the blood pressure and blemish a great game, but Gears of War 2 features more than it’s far share of die, replay the thing you just did, re-watch the same cutscene again, then die a few minutes later only to repeat.

Why can’t they just checkpoint before every firefight? Anything big or impressive that wows the gamer or at least me, is lost after the first time seeing it and becomes the spark to the fire that is starting to rage inside me: just let me start playing the game!

Gears of War 2, like the first, features a boss battle, maybe more, where once you died after the tenth time makes the game very boring and annoying.

Instead of keeping players on their toes with a fight that isn’t predictable, Epic decided to go old school with a boss that has four moves that are repeated in order until you reach an interactive cutscene, which has three outcomes, win, tie or die, all based on how fast you can jam the ‘B’ button on the controller.

And of course it’s the old school three hits deal on the boss to win, which got to the point where if I didn’t pull off a “win” move at the very beginning: reload.

At least in the old days you didn’t have to wait for the game to reload, so wait, wait, wait, game loads, interactive cutscene and start the process over.

If there was some way to loss a duel without simply dying right away, because getting 2/3 of the battle over to just die and have to repeat to get to the same point is just wrong.

Or if there was a way to beat this boss that didn’t involve the chainsaw duel, like RAAM and the turret that would have been just great.

By the way, I wonder why there’s no rumble when chainsaw dueling? (I guess it makes it easier to jam the button but come on, I’m fighting for my life and I feel nothing?)

It’s just a predictable, boring, die and repeat process that causes problems. Sure I’m playing on the Hard difficulty and I expect to die, but to have experience the same game play over and over with no variation is just wrong.

Start (Potential) Spoilers!

P.S. I finished the game before posting this… what kind of end boss battle was that? RAAM was hard and required work to beat, I beat that boss without dying. It was something of a let down.

Video, Spoilers I’m Sure!

Based only on pictures (and video) and only on the layout of the center console and changes to the dash and steering wheel, do I think that the new Fit just isn’t as good as last year’s model.

Honda seems to have added space for a “Satellite-Linked Navigation System with voice recognition” which also seems to double for the audio controls as well.

I guess the problem is that when you don’t get one of those fancy GPS systems you are left with a lot of space to fill. Unfortunately Honda filled the space with tiny buttons with lots of space between them.

Looking at my 2008 Honda Fit Sport you can see that the buttons and knobs are all large, which are easy to find while driving compared to the new Fit’s buttons, which I would think would be harder to find and use.

And the other thing Honda did with the 2009 Fit was to disrupt the overall downward flow of the console with pushing air control knobs to the left and putting them on a downward curve and they made them different sizes.

Last year’s Fit on the other hand simply flows, with everything situated below each other.

The volume/power knob for the audio system is huge, and around it you have big buttons for audio source and options. Then there is the big old display for the player that has its own big buttons for presets, with large buttons below those for seek and tune.

Then you start your air controls with a big slider for air flow and two more big buttons for simple reach, hit, forgot action. Sure the slider is still on the new model but the other air controls are not near it, compared to the 2008 model.

Now it ends with the temperature, air speed, and air output controls with more big knobs – easy to find and use while driving.

Everything is centered and flows down with nice big buttons and knobs while the 2009 Fit has small buttons and disorganized layout.

They also added another display to the driver’s dash, I’m guessing it might be the same display that is found on the right side under the fuel gauge on the 2008 model – seems bigger and out of place. And of course I have no idea what they were thinking with that steering wheel layout, buttons crammed into the nooks and crannies of the wheel, blah!

Now granted if you drive a car everyday I’m sure that you can get used to the layout and being able to use the controls but I can’t get used to the fact that the size of the buttons and downward flow has been broken.

Images from Honda.com and PopularMechanics.com.

Is this over? All of this wasn’t for nothing, even if Barack Obama lost, a good portion of the country was motivated behind a cause. And it isn’t over, not yet, the real work is still to come.

Plenty of people have worked so hard to help make this happen. Let’s not let all of this work and effort lead to nothing. New Senators and Congresspeople, returning Senators and Congresspeople, and the newly elected Vice President and President: get things done and make Washington work, make this country better.

Clippings in the Digital Age

The Current Map at 9:50 p.m.

Give John McCain Every Toss Up State

And he still can’t win…

What’s great is that I live in the state of Pennsylvania, a state that John McCain has to win if he in fact loses other states to Barack Obama. Obama can lose Florida and Ohio, and even Pennsylvania depending on what else he wins, but McCain really needs to win Pennsylvania.

I think that’s a great motivator – to live in a state that could decide the Election, from donating, to attending a rally or two, to even making some phone calls in the days before the election. How would I feel if John McCain wins Pennsylvania and I didn’t make a little more effort to help Obama? It would suck!

But I said I would make calls when I filled out a slip of paper at the Biden-Clinton rally in Scranton and I’m a person of my word, especially after the fact that McCain and Sarah Palin are throwing everything into my state.

If doing anything helps Barack Obama win Pennsylvania and deny a win to John McCain I’ll feel pretty good.

So all that’s left now is to vote. So all that’s left is for everyone else to vote.

Vote.

(I’ll predict that maybe there is a call by 9:30p.m. I called Obama would win the primary fight, after seeing his Iowa victory, and after seeing how fiery Joe Biden is that Biden would be his VP pick, and within a few hours, Barack Obama will win the Presidency. Don’t screw it up!)

Can’t wait to spend the night watching the election unfold.

But come on, no Joe Biden or John McCain?

No word on price or if it is free, and no hard release date, except sometime in November.

Right now there is a gas company or something occupying the back of the building, with Commercial Color still in the middle and front office, and Advance Website now occupies the majority of the front of the building.

We dragged all of stuff out the basement of our employer’s house: desks, chairs, computers and all manner of stuff, loaded into a U-Haul, said goodbye to the dogs and headed out and unloaded it all at our new office – piece of cake.

There were new desks to set up, computers to rewire and cardboard to toss in a special ‘cardboard only’ dumpster.

The desk I had at Imirage in the Janus room was a half circle with a straight piece in a corner, looking out across the room, which I have reinvented at Farm Bureau road. I picked up a Galant desk set from Ikea: the curved corner and a long straight piece that makes it so people would have to walk around to see my monitors; it’s like a fortress.

Overall the move was an easy success that brings up good memories of days gone by and great hopes for the future with Advance Website.

I said in an earlier post that we were ‘Gonna roll up into the hood, set up shop and bring the fight to the homies!‘ Foreshadowing, word.

Enjoy these pictures from my Flickr!