On a more serious note, I just plain hate most social networking sites. I have accounts on some. Not a lot of them, but a few. A couple art sites, Twitter (of course), Fet, YouTube, damn near all the popular social bookmarking sites and… And now?

I want to go retrieve all my information and say, “Fuck internet socializing!” But I can’t. Cause it’s all out there forever, thanks to things like The Wayback Machine and Google archives. And I’m so incredibly glad I’ve been married to a man who specializes in internet security since before social networking sites were so huge. Because compared to some of my friends, I’m an internet ghost.

MySpace, Twitter, Flickr, Tumblr, FetLife, B.com, the five billion and one different dating sites, YouTube, all the hundreds of different ways to save and share your bookmarks, Yahoo, AOL, MSN, GoogleTalk, and Buzz, and Friend Connect, and Reader, and…

Wikipedia lists over 100 different social networking sites, and each of them does exactly the same thing as at least a dozen others. Some people (especially bloggers) have a profile on each and every one. And they re-post what they said on each over, and over, and over again. “Johnny had peanut butter and jelly for lunch!” shows up a hundred times in your inbox if you follow the same people on each site.

But that’s only the beginning.

People put every single tiny detail of their lives on these sites. Their real name. Their address. Their email address, which is often connected to at least one credit card, if only because they use eBay on occasion. What they’re doing, and where, at any given moment, on any given day. Where they’re going on vacation, for how long, and when. What they eat for breakfast, lunch, dinner, and their midnight snack. How often they masturbate and with what. All their favorite things. All the things they hate. All the people they love.

We’re doing the government’s and advertisers’ jobs for them.

Looking at any single average profile on FaceBook links you to that person’s boss, coworkers, any and all companies they work for or with, the vast majority of their extended family, their children, all of their friends local or online, the schools they went to, where they grew up, their age, their birthday, the kind of car they drive, what size they wear, how much they weigh, how often they’re online, when they leave the house…

And I’m really at a loss for words. Why don’t we see the problem with this giving away of one’s anonymity?

People are posting that they’ll be on vacation for X amount of days, and acting surprised when they come home and their house is empty. Allowing sex blogger friends who only have one account (for their sex blog) to add their non-sex-blog FaceBook page to their friends list and acting confused when suddenly their friends’ reblogging of their posts are showing up in their bulletins (Or whatever it shows up in. I am not FaceBook-app savvy.). Using the same email address for their sex-blog, and their mommy blog, and their FaceBook page, and their Twitter, and then can’t figure out how Jessica Fucksalot found them in real life.

While you may think it’s awesome having over a thousand friends, the reality is, it simply means you can look at a web page and find out the names of a thousand people who have computers. I know I don’t know who half the people I follow on Twitter are. I follow most of them because they follow me. Which is probably why I’m so anal about unfollowing everyone who unfollows me. For me, it’s more about exposure, and if I make friends along the way, that rocks! But that is not the reason I chose to join Twitter, or any of the social networking sites I belong to.

People complain about internet stalkers, but we’re perpetuating it with our undying need to tell the whole world who we are, and our overzealous desire to be eFamouser than John Doe in North Dakota. Get-rich-quick schemes –that really only work for those who jumped on them before the social networking site became popular– and hopes of being noticed by some major company or publisher feed our frenzied sharing of information, when the truth is we’re just enabling more people to destroy our lives. And total strangers we’ll probably never meet face-to-face at that!

People are getting fired because they forgot they friended their boss and updated their status to say, “Called out sick. Going to the beach.”, or because their sex blogs have been found through other social networking sites, or because they posted a picture of themselves bombed out of their mind, running down the street naked and peeing in the gutter.

And you wouldn’t do those things in real life. You wouldn’t go to the grocery store and pin up pictures of yourself at last Friday’s “Girls Gone Wild” party, or a letter about how shitty your wife is, or a picture of you with a joint in one hand and a straw in the other surrounded by empty beer bottles and leering frat guys. You wouldn’t stand in the middle of the street screaming, “My name is Jefferey Fitzgerald McCofski. I live at 1617 Applejack Way in Eureka, California. My phone number is 555-867-5309. My email is FitzMcCof@gmail.com. I’m an internet shopping addict, so that email address is attached to at least three credit cards, and I just paid the premium on all of them. By the way, I’m going on vacation this week, and I won’t be back till October. PLEASE COME ROB ME!!!” (Shamelessly stolen from M.)

Or maybe you would. I sure as fuck wouldn’t.

M and I were talking, last night, about how I feel like I should be begging Him to reconsider His adamant “No way, no how!” rule when it comes to most social networking sites. How I’m being bullied into at least setting up a FaceBook page for ID and Mindcryme by the companies I work with, and my friends, and my family, and companies I don’t work with, and people I bump into on the street, and the effing government, for crying out loud.

Yeah, I know those emails I get saying, “Please ‘like’ us on FaceBook! And tell your friends to ‘like’ us, too!” are mass-mailings. I know they don’t really look at me and go, “This chick doesn’t have a FaceBook! What is wrong with her?! We need to get her on board!”

But a couple companies I’d love to work with are only on FaceBook. I miss out on a lot of opportunities by not having a FaceBook. And not just the contests. Some of my friends know that pretty much the same group of friends is following them everywhere, so they try to make each social profile different, which means I miss out on some important events in their lives because they post about them somewhere I’m not allowed to be and don’t mention them to me because they assume I read it.

“I posted about this on Tumblr. Why aren’t you keeping up with me?! Don’t you like me anymore?”

Sure, I like you fine. But not enough to jump on the social networking bandwagon anymore than I already have. Not enough to put my life, my stuff, my job, my family, my privacy (Yes, I see the irony of me, someone who babbles incessantly to anyone who’ll listen about personal aspects of my relationship, bitching about losing my privacy to the internet.), my bank account, my credit cards, my pets, or even my plants in danger.

No, I will not “like” you on FaceBook. “Liking” someone on FaceBook requires me to have a FaceBook, and it’s just not gonna happen. And I’m not gonna tell my friends to “like” you on FaceBook, either. It’s not my job to convince my friends that you, or your company, or your cause, or your campaign are awesome. It’s yours. Do your own legwork. Cause you sure as fuck ain’t doing mine for me. Hell, I’ve considered unfollowing most of you (you meaning companies, not my super cool friends and readers) on Twitter for just that reason.

“You see we all perpetuate this. And whether you realize it or not, you welcome the government, cause we say, ‘Fuck the Patriot Act!’ but we do their job for them.”

Until yesterday there wasn’t a jailbreak for the MC iPods. @comex on Twitter released an “in-device” jailbreak for all devices (except iPad 3.2.1, which apparently is buggy and being worked on). By “in-device” I mean that all you need to do is go to http://jailbreakme.com in Safari on your device to jailbreak it. No fiddling with Windows or Mac apps, and it seems to work for most people.

The iPod Touch 2nd generation devices have multitasking and background support disabled, supposedly for performance reasons. I’ve enabled them both following the instructions I’ll put in this post and I have to say that both multitasking and background support work just fine. I’d even venture to say that the native multitasking is faster than when I was using Backgrounder installed via Cydia.

So, here are the steps to jailbreak your iPod Touch 2g (MC model) and enable multitasking and background support.

For battery percentage support, download the correct file in step 5 and follow the instructions for editing General.plist in Update 3 at the bottom of the post.

IMPORTANT: Plug your iPod into your computer and sync via iTunes. Always take a backup before trying anything like this so you have something to restore to! Also, I think this jailbreak is supposed to be done on an un-jailbroken device. I’m not sure what happens if you try running this on an iPod that’s already jailbroken.

1. On your iPod touch, load Safari and go to http://jailbreakme.com. If that site is overloaded, you can also try http://jailbreakme.modmyi.com.

2. Slide the slider bar on that page to the right to begin the jailbreak process. First it will download some files and then it will apply the jailbreak. This took a few minutes on my iPod, so please be patient. The download servers for the jailbreak have been hammered since yesterday. If you end up at a screen with a purple background and it does nothing else, reboot your iPod and try it again. I did have to do this reboot trick to get the download of the jailbreak to work.

3. When the jailbreak is done, you’ll see a message saying that Cydia has been added to your home screen. At this point, you can exit Safari and reboot your device.

NOTE: When I reboot my iPod after the jailbreak, I get a small line of multicolored pixels on the top of the display. This doesn’t seem to hurt anything, and as soon as everything is booted that line goes away (at least for me). So I’m just ignoring it. I rarely ever reboot my iPod anyways.

4. This step is optional. At this point you have a jailbroken iPod. If you want to be able to install .ipa files, launch Cydia on your iPod, go to Manage and then Sources, hit Edit and then Add and enter http://cydia.hackulo.us. When you’re finished adding that repository, search for AppSync and install it. Make sure you install the AppSync version for 4.0! Once that’s done you can install any .ipa file.

5. To enable multitasking and backgrounds, you’ll need to replace a file on your iPod. Download N72AP.plist by clicking HERE. I got this file from http://devonharvancik.com/plist.html which includes instructions on how to use SSH to replace this file. However, the site appears to be down at the moment, and I’m going to provide instructions on how to use iPhoneExplorer to replace this file, rather than installing and using SSH.

NOTE: The plist file has a different filename on some devices (starting with N8 in the filename). I only have a copy of N72AP.plist for 2nd generation MC model.

NOTE 2: If you would like battery percentage support as well, download THIS copy of N72AP.plist instead. This copy has all 3 options enabled. If you want to enable battery percentages, you’ll also need to edit /var/stash/Applications/Preferences.app/General.plist. Please see Update 3 for instructions on editing the General.plist file.

6. Download and install iPhoneExplorer (http://www.macroplant.com/iphoneexplorer/). I have only used the Windows version, so instructions will be for Windows. I imagine the Mac version is similar.

7. Plug your iPod into your computer and run iPhone Explorer. You should be prompted to select the root directory when you first run iPhone Explorer. If you’re not prompted, you can go to File and Select Root Directory. Since your iPod is now jailbroken, you should choose “/” as your root directory and click OK. You should see your “iPhone Root Directory” listed, with many subdirectories.

NOTE: Be careful what you do here as you’ve now mounted the entire filesystem on your iPod. Random clicking and deleting of files will surely brick your iPod, so use caution!

8. In iPhone Explorer, browse to System->Library->CoreServices->Springboard.app.

9. iPhone Explorer supports dragging and dropping files. So open up an Explorer window and create a backup directory. It doesn’t matter where you put this as long as you remember where it is. This should NOT be the same directory  where you put the downloaded copy of N72AP.plist (because then you’ll overwrite your downloaded copy with the normal version from your iPod). Once you have your newly created backup directory open in Windows Explorer, drag the N72AP.plist file from iPhone Explorer into your backup directory (just so you have it if you ever need it).

We’re also going to delete a few PNG files that will greatly speed up the Home screen once backgrounds are enabled. Drag and drop the following files from iPhone Explorer into your backup directory on your computer:

• WallpaperGradientLandscapeBottomT.png
• WallpaperGradientLandscapeTopT.png
• WallpaperGradientPortraitBottomT.png
• WallpaperGradientPortraitTopT.png
• WallpaperIconDockShadow.png
• WallpaperIconDockShadowT.png
• WallpaperIconShadow.png
• WallpaperIconShadowT.png

This should be all the PNG files that have filenames starting with “Wallpaper”. I have noticed no difference in display quality with these files gone, but I have noticed a huge increase in speed when they’ve been removed.

10. Now in Windows Explorer, browse to the directory where you saved the downloaded copy of N72AP.plist. Drag and drop that downloaded file into the SpringBoard.app directory in iPhone Explorer. Once the file is copied, and iPhone Explorer has finished syncing, delete those PNG files from your iPod by right clicking on each in iPhone Explorer and clicking Delete.

11. Once again reboot your iPod.

At this point you should have a jailbroken iPod Touch 2G that is able to install any .ipa files and has multitasking and backgrounds enabled. To multitask, open an app and double click the Home button. To set a background, use the Photos app.

You should also download TinyUmbrella (http://thefirmwareumbrella.blogspot.com/) and save your 4.0 SHSH blobs. It’s very likely that Apple will fix the bug that’s being used in the latest jailbreak. If you save your SHSH blobs to your computer, you should be able to jailbreak even after Apple fixes the bug.You can also do this from your iPod in Cydia.

Update: If something happens and it looks like your ipod is bricked, try rebooting. If that doesn’t work, you’ll probably have to restore via iTunes and try again. I have no idea why someones iPod would get bricked unless they followed these instructions for something other than an iPod Touch 2nd generation MC model, which is what this guide is written for. I don’t have any other devices, so I can’t say if this would work or not. TRY AT YOUR OWN RISK.

Update 2: When you set a custom lock screen, it only shows up when you don’t have the iPod plugged in. Plugging it in seems to switch it to the standard battery screen. Unplugging it (at least on mine) brings up my custom lock screen. Since I don’t have a newer iPod that natively has backgrounds turned on, I’m not sure if this is normal or not. Doesn’t bug me, as I only plug it in for syncing and charging.

Update 3: Some people have asked how to manually edit the N72AP.plist file and how to enable battery percentages. These plist files are binary, so you need to use a plist editor. If you’re on a Mac, Apple’s PlistEdit Pro is probably the best app to use and can be found HERE. For Windows, I used iPodRobot which can be downloaded HERE. Basically you want to open up iPhone Explorer, drag the N72AP.plist file to your local directory, and then open it with the plist edit. The keys that have been added to the capabilities section to add support for multitasking and backgrounds (and optionally battery percentages) were:

<key>gas-gauge-battery</key>
<true/>

<key>homescreen-wallpaper</key>
<true/>

<key>multitasking</key>
<true/>

To fully enable battery percentages, once again in Iphone Explorer browse to /var/stash/Applications/Preferences.app. Drag and drop the General.plist file to your computer and edit it using one of the editors linked above.  Search for the word cellular-data. That section will look like this:

<array>
<string>cellular-data</string>
</array>

Make that section look like the following instead:

<array>
<dict>
<key>cellular-data</key>
<false/>
</dict>
</array>

Once you’re done, save the file and drag General.plist back into the /var/stash/Applications/Preferences.app directory. If you manually modified the N72AP.plist file, drag it back into System/Library/CoreServices/Springboard.app directory. Then reboot your ipod.

Once you’ve changed both the N72AP.plist and General.plist files for battery percentage support, after your ipod is rebooted  go into Settings and then General. You’ll have a new menu option named Usage which you can use to turn on the battery percentages.

Additional info:

Clayton Braaschs Blog (FAQ on jailbreakme)

There was a post this morning where someone asked what each person has done to “awaken” those around them, to tell the public “the truth”. I responded saying that all I’m personally concerned about is my wife, and close friends. The world, itself, can crash and burn for all I care.

Other than that, running around spouting conspiracy theories isn’t going to get you any positive attention. I still find conspiracy theories fascinating, but I personally believe the majority is complete rubbish.

I try to approach each topic as a skeptic. That’s not because I’m hoping to disprove everything, but because I’m hoping to run into something that actually stands up to logical thought. Something where the proper questions are asked, and the possibility still exists even after the answers are found.

For example, do I believe in aliens? Ya, I’d have to say that I do believe in the possibility. To me, based on the scientific reading that I’ve done, it seems to me that it would be stranger if we are the only life out there. I think the truly amazing thing would be to find that we are the only life in the universe. For me, that would be much harder to swallow. I think this is a logical stance to have based on the information we have right now. Using that to suggest that reptile aliens are controlling our government? Ya, that’s pretty nutty in my mind, and it wouldn’t stand up to even the most basic logical questions, so I reject the idea as ridiculous.

A large problem I have with making people see “the truth” is that truth is somewhat subjective. People want to believe there’s mystery in life so bad that they will see conspiracy in the oddest places. I won’t fault people for wanting the mystery. In fact I think that’s one of the largest problems with the world right now; the lack of mystery. As science makes increasingly far-reaching discoveries, it chips away at some of the mystery that’s surrounded our lives as human beings. I worry what will happen when there’s no mystery left. Honestly, I think we might end up worse off than we are now.

The real way to change the world is to start local. By local I mean yourself, your family and friends. If you choose to “enlighten” someone, make sure you’ve asked those skeptical questions (after all, whoever you tell will ask them and put you on the spot, so better to have already thought about it and be able to respond). If a “truth” can’t hold up to the most basic questions, what you’re believing is probably false, or at least has to be rethought.

Also remember that you are still “sheep” if you blindly believe something regardless of where you learn it. Going along with popular conspiracy theories simply because many other people believe it, when you’ve done no research and asked no questions yourself, is still being a “sheep”.

Neurons, or brain cells, send signals causing electrical activity to different parts of the brain. This electrical activity is what researchers have named brainwaves. Different waves are associated with different mental states and can be stimulated to change a person’s state of mind. Brainwave entrainment is the practice of changing one’s brainwave pattern to a specific frequency by stimulus with the corresponding frequency to adjust mood and concentration levels. This article will discuss and explore the history of brainwave entrainment and the different techniques. 

In 1839 a man named Heinrich Wilhelm Dove noticed that if you play a different tone that blends naturally in each ear it creates a beat that is not actually there. Dove called these perceived beats “Binaural Beats”. When he discovered the beats, they were considered an oddity of the brain and nothing more. Research continued on the potential to use binaural beats as a diagnostic tool for finding auditory and general neurological problems but, because the brainwave wasn’t discovered yet, no one originally considered a side effect of these beats being mood and concentration enhancement.

Hans Berger discovered Alpha brainwaves in 1929 and researchers found the strength of brainwaves could be driven beyond normal frequency using flickering lights. This process is called “Photic Driving”. Less than twenty years later, in 1942, Dempsey and Morrison discovered that repetitive physical stimulation could also affect the brainwaves while in 1959 Dr. Chatrian noticed auditory entrainment in response to fifteen clicks per second administered to the subject.

In the 60s, brainwave synchronization became a tool rather than a strange phenomenon of the brain and in 1973 Dr. Gerald Oster wrote an article for Scientific American called “Auditory Beats in the Brain”. In his paper, Dr. Oster discussed the differences between binaural and monaural beats. He noticed that monaural beats got extremely strong cortical responses (electrical activity in the brain that is responsible for synchronization) though binaural beats produced very little neural response. In conclusion, Dr. Oster stated that binaural beats could be useful in diagnosing neurological disorders while monaural beats would be useful in entrainment of the brainwaves.

Brainwave synchronization, also known as brainwave entrainment, is a way to change one’s state of mind by adjusting the brainwave activity. Stimulus can be aural , visual, a combination of the two or electromagnetic radiation. They are a form of frequency-following response which is a naturally occurring phenomenon where the human brain has a tendency to change its dominant EEG frequency to match the dominant external stimuli applied to it. This can cause changes and, in most cases, improvement in mental state such as increased intelligence, creativity, relaxation, pure energy, temporary pain relief, temporary stress reduction, sleeping disorders and meditation.

So what are these beats? And how do they work?

Binaural beats are the perceived rhythm produced when a slightly different tone is played into each ear simultaneously. For example, if one were to emit a tone of 400 hertz into the subject’s right ear, and another tone of 410 hertz in the subject’s left ear at the same time, the brain produces a beating rhythm of 10 hertz. These beats are only heard if the tones mix naturally and the frequency must be below 1500 hertz. This rhythm causes a number of things to happen in the brain, not the least of which being a change in the frequency at which neurons function. This change in frequency, depending on the brainwave it corresponds with, can change anything in the person’s behavior and mood from how they sleep to how hard they concentrate on tasks given to them.

Binaural beats became of interest to neurophysiologists who were researching hearing and ways to diagnose hearing problems. Dr. Oster, in writing his article, discovered that binaural beats are an excellent tool for cognitive and neurological research. He studied how animals locate sounds and their ability to pick out and focus on specific sounds in the forest of noise. He also discovered that patients with Parkinson’s Disease couldn’t hear binaural beats at first but, with treatment, they eventually could hear them again. And finally, Dr. Oster discovered there was a difference in how men and women perceived the beats. Women have two peaks in perception which possibly coincide with different times in their cycle such as ovulation and menstruation.

Dr. Oster discovered that monaural beats have a higher neurological response than binaural beats do, which makes them better for brainwave synchronization. However, monaural beats, while considered better for entrainment than binaural beats, aren’t used that frequently. The two tones in monaural beats have to be at the exact same volume to work whereas the tones in binaural beats will have the same intensity regardless the amplitude. This makes binaural beats a better choice for someone with hearing loss in one or both ears. Though the tone is heard more quietly, the frequencies are still perceived and the desired result achieved.

Some people find the tones and the beats effective but annoying. With binaural beats, you can mask the tones with white or pink noise. This does not decrease the effectiveness. With monaural beats, however, masking the tones eliminates the perception of beating and does away with the frequency-following response.

Binaural beats are believed to originate in the superior olivary nucleus, a part of the brain stem that responds to input from both ears and makes it possible for animals and humans alike to locate sources of sound and track moving sounds. However, researchers began to notice that these sounds influenced the patient’s brain in ways other than just auditory. When the perceived beat frequency corresponds to delta, theta, alpha, beta or gamma brainwave frequencies, it becomes possible to train the brainwaves to a higher or lower frequency which results in a change in mood or concentration level. This change depends on which wave the frequency is closest to.

In deciding which state of mind you’re trying to alter, you must first know which waves affect each mood. Gamma waves are associated with higher mental activity, including perception, problem solving, fear and consciousness and are perceived at frequencies greater than 40 hertz. Beta waves are usually higher in active people. They are related to busy or anxious thinking, active concentration, arousal and cognition. They are usually at a frequency between 13 and 40 hertz. Alpha waves are correlated with relaxation while awake as well as pre-sleep and pre-waking drowsiness and are measured between 7 and 13 hertz. Theta waves usually control dreams, deep meditation and REM sleep and are perceived between four and seven hertz. Delta waves are associated with deep, dreamless sleep and loss of body awareness and are measured at less than four hertz.

A third method of brainwave entrainment was discovered and studied beginning around 1981 by Arturo Manns. Before this method was discovered, most studies were done on light stimulus rather than auditory. The method was found to be more effective than both binaural and monaural beats and is comprised of a series of evenly spaced tones. It does not require the use of headphones and falls under the category of brainwave entrainment rather than cortical evoked response. This method is known as “Isochronic Tones” or “Isochronic Beats”.

Isochronic tones have been used to treat TMJ and insomnia, among other things. Dentists have found that isochronic beats can be used to prevent a patient from getting TMJ during dental procedures also.

Isochronic tones also have their own shortcomings. Both tones must be the same volume and the volume must be loud enough to detect the difference in tone. But because one can use them without headphones they are found to be easier and more effective.

There are new technologies combining isochronic beats with photic stimulation. This is known as audio-video entrainment. It appears to be more effective because there is more than one source of stimulation to the brain.

In the 80s, Dr. Norman Shealy and Dr. Glen Solomon researched entrainment for headache relief, serotonin and HGH release as well as relaxation and found it to be effective. In 1980 Tsuyoshi Inouye and associates at the Department of Neuropsychiatry at Osaka University Medical School in Japan found photic stimulation produced “cerebral synchronization” in more than five thousand patients. In 1981, Michael Hutchison wrote a book called MegaBrain outlining the possible uses of brainwave entrainment while Arturo Manns published a study showing the effectiveness of isochronic tones which was later confirmed by David Siever.

During the 90s Dr. Russell and Dr. Carter studied the potential use of brainwave entrainment with Attention Deficit Disorder and other learning disorders. They researched its effectiveness on PMS, chronic pain, chronic fatigue, depression and hypertension.

Today there are machines, like the Dream Machine, and computer programs, such as SBaGen, that allow you to build your own entrainment sequence based on what you feel needs to be changed in your own brain. By listening to the beats it’s possible to change your state of mind completely from making it easier for you to concentrate at work to allowing you to calm yourself in periods of high stress. In short, brainwave entrainment can give you a better outlook on life.

One of my dreams, since I was a little girl, has been to see “the city that never sleeps”.  I would imagine the bright lights and tall buildings and constant sirens and hustle and bustle…

But the one thing that never touched my dream world was the complete lack of humanity New Yorkers display on occasion.

I’m not sure I want to go to New York City anymore.  I’ll certainly be calling 911 from a distance, rather than aiding someone in trouble if I do go, now.

Hugo Alfredo Tale-Yax, a homeless man in Queens, was victim to New York’s lack of humanity after saving a woman who was attacked with a knife.  Hugo fell to the ground and lie dying on the sidewalk as more than twenty people walked around him, staring as they passed, and never lifting a finger to help him.  Two people stood beside him chatting.  A man came out of the store to take a picture with his cell phone.  Another person bent and shook him, but continued walking when he didn’t wake.

What’s confusing me the most is police were called to the area and claim to have seen nothing.  While I realize seeing a homeless man lying on the side of the road isn’t an unusual occurrence in New York City, do the police not even ask them to move along anymore?

Maybe the people who weren’t there when it happened can excuse it away by assuming someone called someone already.  Or that he was just passed out drunk.  Maybe.  I mean, he wasn’t moving at all, and he was laid on his face.

But the people who were there when it happened? The girl he saved?! Why did no one call anyone?

Is this what we’re coming to, America? A country so apathetic we don’t even care about the diamonds in the rough anymore?

I cried for Hugo, this morning.  And I cried for our humanity.  I hope you did, too.

Police hunt ‘The Midnight Knitter’ wool graffiti bandit

When I saw the accompanying picture, I laughed out loud.  Someone’s running around my home town putting up colorful knitted pieces everywhere.  That is just the coolest thing.  If I knew how to knit, I’d be doing it here.

Unfortunately, the police are hunting for the people responsible.  It’s a shame, really, because, while I realize it’s technically vandalism, many of the town’s citizens are excited about it.  They think the brightly colored scarves bring a more lighthearted air to the town.  And it’s not as if any permanent damage was done.  A pair of scissors will take these “tags” down if the property owners are that upset by them.

I’m tempted to learn how to knit just so I can do this here.

They have this page, a facebook, and a myspace, so head over to see more of their artwork.

See? There’s still some goodness in this world yet.

Do you live in or around Schenectady, New York? Have you used one of our parks or bike trails or playgrounds? Then you’re darn right I’m talking to you.  So I ask you again, what are you doing Saturday, May 22nd?

This morning we stopped down to the Muddy Cup to grab some coffee, and I noticed a flier taped to the wall for Project SKIP (Schenectady Kids Imagine and Play).  They’re still looking for volunteers.  So far, they’ve got around 150 people getting involved. 

If you live in or around Schenectady, you’ve probably heard of Hamilton Hill and Vale.  Chances are, unless you live there, you avoid these neighborhoods like the plague.  But some of us, here in Schenectady, still see the beauty this city has to offer and are trying to clean it up.

To this end, on Saturday, May 22nd, citizens will gather to revitalize and rebuild Jerry Burrell Park and the spirit of the community.

Here’s what you’ll find in the pamphlet:

The Vision of Project SKIP

The ultimate goal of Project SKIP is to construct, trough the community build model, a new playground in Jerry Burrell Park.

What makes a community-built playground special is that the success of this project relies on the involvement of the local community.

Local citizens, like you, are assisting in designing, fundraising, and will even be constructing (usually in one day) the new play structure.

With its emphasis on community involvement, Project SKIP provides an opportunity to not only revitalize Jerry Burrell Park, but the spirit of the community itself.

Origin of Project SKIP

In December of 2007, several Union College students traveled to New Orleans to help rebuild after Hurricane Katrina.  While there, one of the projects they worked on was a community-built playground.

Struck by how the playground brought the community together to really help better their own community, they thought, “Why not Schenectady?”

How to Accomplish This Dream

Design: Local residents who are mothers, daycare providers, and people just like you worked with a qualified playground vendor to design the new playground.

Fundraising: This project will cost approximately $80,000.  In order to raise the necessary funds, fundraisers will be held throughout the community.

The Build Team: In the months leading up to the build, we will be recruiting volunteers to come out to help construct the playground.

Build Day: The build day will bring together all corners of the city to construct our dream playground.

Why Jerry Burrell Park?

Not only is Jerry burrell Park the most utilized park in the city, but the playground equipment is approximately 15 years old, which is the average lifespan of the type of playground currently installed.

In addition to aging, the play structures in place are increasingly difficult to maintain.

By coming together to build a new playground in Jerry Burrell Park, we will be continuing the current efforts to improve both the park and the neighborhood.

How to Get Involved

On May 22, 2010, the build team made up of over 150 residents from all oer Schenectady, will come together to build the playground of our dreams.  Our volunteers will be doing everything from building to serving food to watching over children.

To get involved call: (518)374-2683 -or- Email: prjctskip (at) gmail (dot) com

If you have a community project you’d like to get the word out about (There is no charge.), please contact the webmaster using this form.

So our only worry was Time Warner.  We don’t owe them a lot.  I think the bill was $163 and change; $107 of it actually past due.  And just like with National Grid, we only needed a few days.  Four, to be exact.  And only two of them were business days.  But we’d already had our one extension every six months, and Time Warner, like National Grid, refused to budge.

Okay.  No big deal.  M could have gone into the office if it got shut off.  It’s not like not having internet for four days would kill us. 

They tell me that, so long as the service wasn’t shut off at the pole, I could pay the $107 and get it turned back on, or save it from being turned off in the office.  If it’s not shut off at the pole, there are no disconnect/reconnect fees, and there’s usually no wait to have it restored.  They can restore it while you’re on the phone with them.  And you can just pay the past due amount.  But if it’s shut off at the pole, they make you pay the full bill and disconnect/reconnect fees.

Cool.  We just have to get together $107 and we can pay it.

M raised $114 just under the wire.  I called to pay the bill.  And the woman says to me, “There’s a five dollar processing fee.  Would you still like to pay the bill?”

Wait… what? Nobody ever told me about a $5 processing fee.

You mean to tell me it costs you $5 worth of resources to process my credit card payment over the phone? And you’re telling me that you, a nationwide company whose net income (or what was left after they paid all their employees and bills) last year was $1.1 billion dollars, really needs that $5 processing fee? Really?

I call bullshit.

And what the fuck is up with you charging me to pay you? No, really… I have to pay you to pay you? What kind of bullshit is that?

So I suppose it’s lucky M was able to raise $114 because the total bill, with this fucking processing fee that shouldn’t even be legal, came to $111 and change.  And that extra $5? Yeah it doesn’t even go toward my bill.

Can you believe this shit?

More importantly, can you believe that we, free Americans, are just sitting on our thumbs and allowing the government to allow this shit? What the fuck is wrong with us?

And I bet you’ll never guess how late I am.

Three days.  Yep.  The bill was due on the 19th.  It’s the 22nd.  And I only wanted them to wait until the 1st, which is five business days.  Hell, I’ve told everyone I’ve spoken with that I’ll cash Melen’s check and pay the bill at the same exact time! You can’t get much better than that short of someone standing over my shoulder every day until then to make sure I do just that.

And at this point, to be honest, I’d do it to keep my power on.  He needs electricity for his occupation.  I need electricity for mine.

I don’t dispute the fact that I owe them a lot of friggin money.  I don’t dispute the fact that I’m usually late.  This is mostly due, in part, to my billing cycle not matching Melen’s payment cycle.  And this time it would have, but something else came up that had to be handled.

Isn’t that always the way?

But I figured I’d better check in with y’all and make sure you’re reading your agreements carefully.  I read mine, today, to find out the NYS government has basically bent me over and held me down while National Grid anally raped me.

I especially like this little gem of a clause proclaiming their right to impale my asshole whether I like it or not:

By law, if we make a field visit to shut off service, this down payment may be up to 50 percent of your outstanding balance or four times your average monthly usage, whichever is greater.  If you contact us prior to a scheduled field visit, the down payment need not exceed 30 percent of the outstanding balance or twice your average monthly usage, whichever is greater.

Whichever is greater? What the fuck, NY? Nothing like shafting the people who pay your bills.  And you all fucking wonder why the vast majority of the state is in poverty.