Computerjargon.com

People ask me for advice. It’s not that I’m some sort of intellect when it comes to making life choices, it just so happens that I am the person there at that particular moment. I’m not quite sure, though, that I’m the most appropriate person to be asking advice from. Let me give you a few examples. This is a handful of advice I’ve handed out in the last month or so. I won’t provide context of the advice because, as you will see, it doesn’t really matter.

Advice #1: Shit happens - That’s right, it happens and it happens to you

Advice #2: Deal with it - Follows #1 frequently.

Advice #3: Tough - If you feel like I may understand, I probably don’t. It would be like me asking you the best method for checking my kid’s temp. (The answer to that one is: the butt).

Advice #4: Get over it - The advice most often given to my son.

You’re probably thinking that I’m a true artist of the asshole attitude. But the fact of the matter is, I’m very black and white. If something is wrong, make it right. If it’s not broke, don’t fix it. In many situations I think there are definite right and wrong answers. People just need to be able to evaluate the decisions without letting emotion get involved.

By the way - I don’t follow my own advice. I may be asking for your help in the near future…

Earlier this week a local radio station was discussing the movie Brokeback Mountain . The morning show consists of 2 men and 2 women. One of the men (We’ll call him #1 for the sake of argument) on the show had seen the movie. The other male host (male guy #2) began ranting about how he wouldn’t be caught dead going to see a movie about gay men. #1 argued that there was no more than 60 seconds of actual homosexual sexual content and referred to the straight dude’s guide to Brokeback Mountain.

#2 continued to rant, stating, “Even 60 seconds is too much.” His commentary seemed a little excessive, then he opened up the phone lines. Soon, it had turned into an all out gay-bashing segment.

I was stunned that I was actually hearing this on the radio. I understand that some radio stations want an edge to their content but this is not typically one of those stations. I tried to keep my liberal opinions in check. But I still felt their comments crossed the line.

I sent the following letter:

Hello -

I was more than a little put off by your commentary about the movie Brokeback Mountain this morning. I thought it was quite disrespectful of gays. Taking calls was inviting the ignorant out to showcase their stupidity.

I don’t think you would have had the same type of conversation if it were a movie involving black people. Try this next time you want to talk about homosexuals, replace the word “gay” with the word “black” and see if you’re still willing to say the same thing. Would you come out on the air and state you will not see a movie about black people? If you are a decent and respectful person you wouldn’t.

You are doing nothing more than perpetuating inequality and creating barriers between people. Shame on you.

Jason.

P.S. I’m straight.

Just to be fair, their form-letter response:

Thank you for your comments, and I’m sorry if you found our positions offensive.

Courtney pointed out that I felt I needed to tell them I was not gay. I was trying to make the point that if I was offended as a straight man, imagine how a gay person must feel. Does being straight make my argument stronger or weaker? I don’t know for certain.

A City Pages’ columnist recently ranted about Best Buy’s holiday gift guide being more male focused. The editorial rags on the company for the lack of content for women in the audience. The article concludes that Best Buy thinks less of women because their fliers included very little content for women. And because of this Best Buy must believe that women are only good for buyin gadgets for men.

I quote, “The lesson here? According to Best Buy, women love shopping for and pleasing their man.”

I’m all for equality between genders. I think there are major issues society needs to address when it comes to gender-bias (equal pay, anyone?) But please people, this is ridiculous. The truth of the matter is the majority of shoppers at an electronics store will be male. Just like the majority of shoppers at a make-up store will be female.

The columnist’s rant focuses on the point that these fliers were not sent to a subset of existing Best Buy customers, but to the “CURRENT RESIDENT” that lives at every house. When I check my mail today I can almost gurantee that there will be something in it that I’m not interested in. Do you know what I’m going to do with it? I’m going to throw it away.

Is it ironic that 4 hours after I ranted in Removing Words from the Dictionary the power in my house died, killing my web server?

*Puts tin foil hat on*

The following words should be removed from the dictionary and our daily vocabulary effective immmediately:

bomb

death
threat
kill
die

Over the last couple of days I have heard 3 stories of kids being criminally charged in school for writing dark poems about killing and death, planes being diverted because someone heard someone else on the phone say bomb. Drastic measures are taken all in the name of Homeland Security.

I’m tired of feeling vulnderable and frieghtened. The bad guys have won. Our government is quickly stripping us of our rights guaranteed by the Constitution (Except for that 2nd amendment. We’ll need that one to fight the terrorists). And all in the name of safety. Right.
Right?
Is that why we’re in Iraq too? Safety? Homeland Security?
How about teaching our children not to hate. We should be treating those children who are depressed. Those kids aren’t the real terrorists. Go fight the good fight somewhere else. Stop making us all feel like we’re the terrorists.

“If you are going to be weird, be confident about it.”

Two good sites for some RIAA spitefullness:

WhatACrappyPresent.com

DownhillBattle.org

I need to get me some of those stickers…