What a Novel Idea

Yes, welcome to bad pun central.

A series of dreams about societies have prompted me to wish to write a collection of short stories, each featuring one of the societies I have dreamed up. So far there are three, and each can have quite a different story to it. You've already seen one of my dreams. I feel with careful planning and proper words, I can turn these odd societies into a lovely or Hellish image depending on the situation.

Step 1: Setting
I have the setting for what I wish to do, or at least parts of it. There are a solid three good societies that can be used.

Step 2: Storyline
This is the step that I am at as of now. Unfortunately none of the dreams really gave me a clear viewing of plot; just a great view at the landscape. For two of the societies I have a pretty decent idea as to what the stories shall be, however for the last and in my opinion the coolest I haven't the slightest clue as there are so many variables that come with that landscape.

Step 3: Editing
Later on down the road I will ask for people to proofread my piece, so anyone who enjoys being an editor, now/later is your chance!

Step 4: Publishing
A very neat side feature that has come from the entire eBook market is the concept of self-publishing your work. Same concept as publishing an "app" to the App Store, you create something, people go over it, they sell it. This I hope will inspire writers from all over to publish works, also it serves for a great entryway for the author into stardom. Amazon's Kindle Store lets you do this with ease. I have found places for the iBookstore publishing, however most wish to charge you to submit it to Apple's store. Hopefully once I am done there will be some easy way in there, same for the Nook's store.

Step 5: PROFIT
The nice return for the joy of writing.

Anyway, my back is killing me from work and need a massage. Time to go rest/plan a story!

Word Order

Word order can make all of the difference. Typically, unless holding one in suspense, you will go from most important to least important. Another way could be giving some details too, but when people say something they always go for the first thing on their mind and then branch off of that. And this is just how I ended up with sun poisoning, albeit, it was my own fault.

On Saturday I was invited to a friend's house to hang out and maybe go swimming. I took the "maybe go swimming" as we might just go down for a little bit, not 3-4 hours in the middle of the day. Then of course I didn't have sunblock on and well got badly burned, again my fault.

My point is this though, at least for me, I feel the most important of matters should be put out first and then you go from there in whatever it is you do.

Electronic Communication

Does anyone remember the days of AOL Instant Messenger, MSN Messenger, or Yahoo! Messenger? How about ICQ? It seems almost as if today everyone has forgotten those in favor of a rather primitive (if only the chat feature is looked at) version of the once dominant instant messengers?

That's right, I am talking about Facebook Chat. Facebook Chat reminds me a lot about the early days of IM where everyone would be having some issue, back when I was on BigBlueBall.com. However now it seems the only problems you hear about are from Facebook, and really the only problems you experience are on Facebook's Chat. Recently(ish) they have switched over to an XMPP protocol for their chat which improved the experience seven-fold. XMPP is also known as Jabber which Google Talk uses, for those of you who have seen it in Gmail.

Why care about Facebook Chat? Quite simply: People see that as the only instant messenger now. I can not remember the last time I had a conversation on AIM or MSN. It is a shame really as I prefer client based instant messengers, not web based. I like that notification on my desktop and not having to always have that browser window open.

AIM solved this for me as in their latest stuff, as I have probably said before now lets you connect to Facebook Chat. You can also do this with Pidgin, Trillian, and Digsby, although I have had less of a success rate with those.

But is it just me or do you miss the days of AIM/MSN/Y! and desktop IMing?

The 24 Hour Clock

Why do we not use this? I recently switched my blog to display times on a 24 hour clock as it is just what makes sense.

If someone tells you they want to meet you at "8", typically you will have to ask "AM or PM?" Not on my watch (get it?), they just say "20:00" and you instantly know that it is during the night, unless you are not familiar with the 24 hour clock and you have to subtract "12" to find out what time this is. But seriously why do we not use this?

One reason is that in original "clocks" or simple ways to mark times, Egyptians divided the day into 12 hours of daylight and 12 hours of night. Thus you would be counting up to 12 twice a day. However the only reason they used 12 is because of this:

The Eqyptians were fond of counting in base twelve (instead of base 10 which is commonly used today). This is thought to be because they counted finger joints instead of fingers. Each of your fingers has three joints, so if you count by pointing to finger joints with your thumb you can count to twelve on each hand. This might seem arbitrary, but is actually just a strange as counting in base ten simply because we have ten digits. -- Source

There are other theories as well as to why it was simply 12 hours, but at either rate it was 12 hours. In an ancient world it makes sense to know that if it is light there are only up to 12 hours left and that if it is dark the same as before.

But wait a minute! Are we not in a modern world? Why I think we are. This is why we should use a 24-hour clock, people are up at all different times with the invention of lights, computers, tv, etc which keep us up way past when we probably should be up, then have us sleep way past when we should get up. With our technological advances, there is no reason to just count "12 hours of night" or "12 hours of daylight."

Then of course you could wonder why we don't just switch to base 10 time if the world basically runs on a metric system except for the US. Well quite simply it would be a huge change to everyone as you would have to learn brand new units, every clock would have to get replaced, etc. However, a simple switch to a 24 hour clock would be much easier as we already have compatible clocks and it uses a system already in practice.

What is stopping you now? Go out and learn it! Start off by switching your computer's clock to a 24 hour format, you will learn it in no time.

Learn How To Run A Business

While working at McDonald's, I got an idea to write about the wonderful "peace" you go into after about an hour or two of working where you can just quickly take orders, get it all right, and it is a nice relaxing bit. If you have seen in Futurama where Fry drinks 100 cups of coffee then finally gets to this golden zone, that is what I am talking about.

However

Not long after this "golden zone" came did it go. We have a manager that slipped and fell and injured his arm in the freezer about 3 weeks to a month ago. Every day I am working with him he complains and complains about how he can only work with one arm and how everyone else is doing sub par work. In doing this a guy who was just trying to cover his stations ends up getting blamed for not doing his job, and at first he shrugs it off and takes the warning that he didn't deserve. Then he kept getting blamed and they got mad.


Manager and him both go back and forth using strong curse words, and then that gets everyone else rallied up. I however am in the front, only maybe 5 feet from where they are shouting this and I couldn't help but feel sorry for the customers who were subjected to this.

Also, the family friends of the manager who work there were allowed to slack off, use cell phones, etc. All the while I finally found out why the manager is so bitter. He used to work at another McDonald's nearby which according to him was so much better than this one, never getting a rating under 99/100.

Look, I'm not used to the working world so if this really is what it is like everywhere well then as they would say "fuck me." I'm going to go to the "good" manager and bring this issue up with her as that really is not the kind of environment I want to be in, nor associated with. We'll see how the issue goes once I bring it up.

Twitter: The Social Resource

My experiences with Twitter since beginning the blog have been very interesting. I have gotten more and more followers on Twitter simply based on what I have in my blog. Some might think that this is just, "Well you said 'iPhone' in the blog title so a small tech blog will follow you."

For some of my followers it is that, however today I got a notification that The Yosemite Blog was following me. This was interesting as I never posted anything about Yosemite in my blog titles, however I did talk about the place in my posts. And what does this mean? People are actually reading my blog.

Twitter is a semi-decent tool to measure this with. If people reply, retweet, or follow you then you know someone is actually paying attention, assuming that it isn't one of the Twitter spam accounts. What you get with Twitter isn't the typical "You got x number from US, y from Canada, most visited page was z," no, what you get content specific highlighting.

Content specific highlighting is a great way to get the opinion of what people enjoy based on what key words you can grab from their Twitter account and the connections you can make to your own blog, site, service, etc. I had always thought of Twitter as simply s social network, but it could even be a greater resource then one at first thought.

Just another neat way to figure out what the hits and misses are.

Updates

I'll be messing with the design of the blog for a while, so if you notice the difference and it doesn't seem "done," just know I am working on stuff. This won't be posted to Facebook or Twitter.

EDIT:
Blogger's tool is somewhat restricting, so when I feel better I'll seriously dive into it. Until then, you have the current layout, which is better than a lot of the newer ones in my opinion.

Offerings

During my stay in California, which by the way has been pretty cool seeing Sequoias and going to Yosemite, having my butt handed to me on a trail by mother earth, it was great. However once the day was over in the parks, the hotels weren't always completely truthful in their offerings.

Basically all of the places I stayed at offered "Free High Speed Wireless Internet", as is somewhat common now-a-days in destinations around the US of A. However, each one wouldn't really connect to the internet, or maybe it would but then be horribly slow and the connection would drop. I tested the connection on 2 iPods, my Netbook, and my Zune, all having poor results. It isn't until I get to a "classy" hotel like the Sheraton Gateway or Four Points by Sheraton Gateway that I have working internet.

Here is my gripe: If you offer something, please deliver it. If they had said they didn't have Wifi right off of the bat then I wouldn't have been as upset as I was, not that I was terribly upset but I like to wind down on the internet.

By the way, if anyone is good at giving a massage, I would greatly appreciate one.

That Was Just Day Two!?

This post may be a little disturbing to some people after "The Crazy Part," so just a fair warning.

As some of you know I recently started a job at a local McDonald's. It was the only place that called me back but they did it so fast and provided bunches of training, plus there are great benefits so I figured what they heck I'll go for it. Sure enough I got the job.

Fast forward to yesterday: First day and they stick me at counter during a rush. I'll tell you what I learned the names and acronyms for all the food quite quickly however the crew in the back was, as the manager said, doing "HORRIBLE" so our fast food wasn't so fast. Kind of sucked as day one but I figured they were just having a bad day and I would come in fresh tomorrow.

The Crazy Part
I went in for the breakfast shift this morning, meaning tons more acronyms to learn and it is a harder menu to take orders with then the lunch, since there is such limited space for acronyms and so many words to a breakfast meal.

It was pretty calm this morning and then this divorced couple with their kids walk in. I ring their orders up and we get them their food, no problem. Then about 5-10 minutes later there is this hitting and shouting coming from the lobby. "YOU TOOK MY BABIES YOU F***ER! YOU STOLE MY BABIES" and then the guy just kept hitting her, she was getting quite red from all of the blows and clearly very upset. The young child with them just kept saying "Don't touch me, Don't touch me" and was crying. My manager comes running out and calls the cops immediately. Other guests are horrified at the situation and one guy comes up to ask for his money back as he didn't want his kids to see that. Good for him, I wouldn't want my kids watching that either.

The cops rush over and take the woman and child outside as they are quite distressed. Then a cop comes back in for questioning to the guests who were sitting over near the incident.

This was all quite a shock to me and afterward all the crew members were like "I have never seen that before," or "That doesn't ever happen," or "Only once in my entire career with McD's have I seen such a thing." I also apparently looked rather freaked out as they (crew) kept asking if I was okay. It is a real nice crew over there, but I mean my first two days have been rather suckish. I hope it gets better from here on out.

Learn How To Treat Customers

Today was the day that GameStops got the new Xbox 360 S in stock. I called once early today and then a little later to see if it was in stock. I was told it was in stock so I rushed over to GameStop and found out they had just sold out -- or almost.

At first I figured it was just the way of things and I was going to put a reserve on a new Xbox 360 S. Then at the counter next to me there was a guy, we'll call him Jack, and Jack was trading in an old Xbox 360 in order to afford the new one, much like I did a week ago. However, it turned out he didn't have any video cables with his system so they wouldn't take it. The cashier ringing up Jack suggested to my cashier that if Jack didn't have everything they could let me buy the Xbox 360 S.

At this point I was pretty excited knowing their strict policy on trading in systems. However, then my cashier crushed my dreams. He asked Jack, "Can you run to your house and get it in like 10 minutes?", obviously not trying to help me. Jack said "Yeah" (of course), and then my cashier, you know the person is supposed to help you said "Or we could get a used one and pair it up with your system but you would have to buy it."

Well that is just great, all the meanwhile the other cashier was trying to help me and obviously saw that I should be the one who should get the system. It ended up going so they found a cable, Jack had to buy so he could trade in, and I ended up with no system. However I did get a reserved one for July 9th.

Still, that is no way to treat your customers, and on "tellgamestop.com" I left feedback that showed how I felt. I mean, if you have a guy who is ready to purchase the console right now and you have someone who it is very iffy on if they can even get it, are you really going to hold a console, which it was said that they wouldn't do, for some guy who has the possibility of not being able to get it? I wouldn't, I would have given it to the guy who had the cash right then.

People sometimes, you know?

Blog Kindle-Compatible!

With the new Kindle Software Update 2.5 it got me messing around with my Kindle again. Let me tell you how handy the new features of the PDF reader are. You can actually zoom in on your content and span across it. I do not know why this wasn't first included but now that it is reading PDFs will be much easier. I tried this out with a Latin Glossary, worked out pretty well. Everything scaled very nicely.

Other features which sounded more neat on screen then in use was the Twitter and Facebook integration.

How I Understood It:
Full integration with Twitter and Facebook. Update your statuses wherever you go with a nice UI and read friends' posts.

What It Actually Is:
You can select/highlight text and then tweet that passage plus other notes to your friends on Twitter and Facebook. You could simply just give status updates and select like a space or something, but it just isn't what I thought it was at all. Also it took a long time to send the update out, which I wasn't too pleased with, then it gives you this long URL. You can check out my tweet from Kindle here.

A horse of course. Kindle testing http://amzn.com/k/2UTMI7BCLAZIY #Kindle

While playing with my Kindle, I found out that my blog is fully Kindle Compatible, if using Basic Mode. It works okay in Advanced but looks a little weird.

By the way, those of you who clicked on the World Cup link for my blog, you can check out that service and make any web page musically beautiful. 

And to those who didn't see the World Cup link for my blog, well here you go.

Electronic Entertainment Expo

Also known as: e3.

The one big thing for everyone seemed to be "motion." We have to get our gamers up and moving, give them that next element! It actually is a pretty neat concept, and we can debate who started it all. PS2 had EyeToy which was an early idea of how you can use your body to game. Then the Wii came along with its WiiMote and let you really "control" those in the game.

Sony came back with the "PlayStation Move." This instead of having a camera on the end of a controller has a camera on the TV and it tracks a light. In #e3 on Neowin we were joking about how you could just use a lightbulb except it wouldn't have buttons. Sony stressed "buttons" greatly, we got a good laugh out of that. It actually looked like a neat product except for the 1 second lag time in the demos.

Then of course there was Microsoft's Kinect which is like a sophisticated EyeToy. Much more meticulous in tracking of the person and more than just "Oh you moved over here so now this board will bust." This is different, here you can interact with animals, become your character and determine how you move, or even simply use it as a controller free control station for the Xbox.

Can't forget the announcement of the new Xbox either, which I am getting. I figure someday I'll want a Kinect game and may as well have a "Kinect Ready" Xbox. Plus it is quiet and has a much larger hard drive. Now before any of you say, "Kinect works on all forms of the Xbox," yes and I know this, however I would like everything to just work better if it could. Which should happen for the internal wireless as well. If I had Kinect + Wireless N hooked up to the old Xbox Pro I doubt I would have space for much else.

I also got pretty jazzed up about Fable III and Need For Speed: Hot Pursuit. I love the Fable series and then I loved the older NFS games which is what this game seems to go back to.

Anyway, couple of fun things at e3. And I had a great time watching e3 with Neowin, we should do that again sometime!

Personal Space

I am fine with sharing space with people; we do it all the time. Think of on an airplane, on the bus, or even on a family vacation in your car. However, note the keyword here: share.

Today, we are on our way back home and we stopped at a hotel about 2/3 of the way home with a pool. I was so excited for the pool since it was more time with the water. I frantically search for my suit in the suitcase in the car. Then I go to my room and set everything down, put on my trunks, and then head down. I am greeted by about 3 groups in the pool. This normally isn't any problem, except when one of the groups decides they want to take up half of the pool.

Again, I have no problem with sharing, but leave at least some space for people to move about. Not to mention there were many dirty looks from that group as well. There were maybe only 5 of them, but they wanted to pass a ball around and ended up taking up essentially the majority of the pool. I couldn't go to the shallow end to swim since I have long arms and they would smash against the ground. Then other places had small groups together so there was no decent spot to go. These kinds of things can ruin a night.

It is that feeling when you are in a plane that is just a bit too small and you have a real large guy next to you. Or when you are talking to someone and they are standing just a bit too close. You are uncomfortable but what can you do? You can leave, and that is what I just ended up doing.

There is also "personal sound space," where either people have their iPod's/Zune's volume up far too loud, or someone is talking loudly on a phone. It could even be SOMEONE YELLING ON THE COMPUTER USING ALL CAPS. I assume people have common courtesy and really I believe that most people do. However sadly, you don't tend to remember those who do exercise it and you remember those who don't.

 Just a friendly reminder to respect people around you :)

Electrical Beach

On Amazon.com they advertise their Kindle with an image of someone reading it on the beach:

Now there really isn't a problem with this, just that would you really bring your electronic device near all of that water and sand? This is exactly what I see so much now down at the shore. Everyone has an iPod or MP3 player, they have their cell phones and aren't just calling but are using texting functions and other functions. Why would you ever use this in a place that is so bad for your devices?

Maybe it is because people seem to just think they should take their devices with them always and use them anywhere. Maybe it is because they are the types to just sit out and not take part in the water or sand castle building. 

I can understand a junk radio or something, but your nice phone or iPod? Also, I can understand a somewhat junk digital camera as well. That is just the way things are going, but as of today I'm not sure how ready our devices really are for places such as the beach. There have been some water-proof cameras which actually work quite well.

I feel that it would be nice to take that new step in mobile devices to let you really bring it anywhere, on one side it would let you stay connected anywhere. Some might see that as a bad thing, but like it or not that is where we are headed. The first main company to introduce an amazing Earth-proof product will be the new leaders. There is no doubt in my mind.

Advertising

Today on the beach I was just sitting there and in case you aren't familiar with how Myrtle Beach works with advertising, they have planes fly by with some sort of message trailing them. Today I saw one that said "$9 Sunglasses for .01c NO JOKE." 

At first that doesn't look odd, $9 for one cent right? Good deal! Now look a bit closer. 

".01c"

What that actually says is one-tenth of a cent. To write that so it would be correct as "1 cent" it would have been written "$0.01." I'm very tempted to go down to the shop and hand them a dollar and ask for their entire sunglasses stock. 

Anyway, when you advertise anything, have a few trustworthy people read it over to make sure that it says what you want it to say. Other examples are on the LifeAlert commercial where they have the Surgeon General/Whoever saying "And that's why I wear one." However in the quotes on the TV it says "I wear one too." It really is the little things, proofreading is important and there is a reason why teachers pushed that so hard in school.

Ubuntu - It is actually all right.

Ubuntu, most "geeks" know about it. It is a quite popular Linux distribution that has the single aim of becoming user friendly, yet still letting the "geeks" have fun with developing and customization, and well every reason in the past as to why you would get Linux.

I got the Ubuntu Netbook Edition 10.04, and at first, simply not having much Linux experience at all, I removed it. I then went back to Windows 7. However when I woke up the next day I felt I just had to give it another chance. I went and did that and haven't looked back. Now note, I wouldn't use this as a main OS on my main computer, but it is pretty fun once you get into it.

Ubuntu has a few neat features such as a single notification area icon for all of your social needs. Now this is pretty cool and it is customizable. If any of those applications where people are talking to you need your attention the color of the icon changes and you can see who needs you and where. Social networking is very integrated into the OS, which really is a neat way to go. 

Then linked with your login is all of your instant messaging information, kind of like the Windows Live Passport being linked to your Windows account, as well as a service to let other Ubuntu users find you if you are on the same network. 

Anyway, there are bunches of neat things in which just about someone has made an app for it and it is different from Windows so you won't feel this is just a copy. Also, on the Netbook version they have this whole interface geared towards the mobile desktop and works pretty decently. Every application is put into a group such as Office, Accessories, System, WINE, etc. These groups are lined up along the side and it is just a simplified way of getting to what you want quicker. 

I have fell in somewhat of a computer love with Ubuntu.

Social Network Fiend

I have recently realized that social networks have completely changed how I use the internet and how I collaborate with people. After Digsby stopped working with Facebook chat for me I looked elsewhere. During this searching I found, yes I know but bear with me, AIM. The latest version of AIM had two major components integrated with it: Facebook Chat and this service called "Lifestream", which is all of your social networks in one place.

It worked. Getting AIM set up for Facebook was simple and so was Lifestream, everything was good except that I still had to run Digsby for all of my mail accounts, and the built in version of Lifestream didn't work quite as well I wanted, so I had to stick to Digsby for these services.

After realizing that Digsby wasn't working properly with MSN/WLM, I just decided to drop the program entirely. On Neowin there is a thread about "Apps For Windows 7 In Mind." These basically show notifications and support jumplists, something at first I thought was a novelty but really ended up being quite interesting. I downloaded "Gmail Notifier Plus" and it works fantastically. You can preview your messages, go to your inbox, even has support for Google Apps.

So I was set for mail, but what about everything else? AIM's built in lifestream didn't work as I needed it to so I went off searching for a Facebook/Twitter client with Windows 7 in mind. What did I come up with? MetroTwit and Fishbowl. MetroTwit uses the "Metro" look and feel and provides a pretty nice Twitter client, has Windows 7 integration such as notifications, it was great. However no Facebook support, which is where Fishbowl comes in. I really liked the Fishbowl application, it was essentially a more user-friendly version of Facebook built with Silverlight. Only problem is that the notifications in the taskbar didn't show all updates and there were no options to change this.

Back at square one, I decide to download the Official AOL Lifestream client. It is an Adobe AIR application, but this one works much better than the built in one with AIM. When you get new messages it blinks the taskbar icon. Not exactly Windows 7 integration but it at least did what I wanted it too and told me when new items came in.

Somewhat tempted to come up with my own application, I doubt with all of the many programs it is that difficult anyway. We'll see.

Links:
MetroTwit
AIM
Lifestream
Fishbowl
"Apps With Windows 7 In Mind"

It Is b0rked

Yesterday I am called over to a friend's house as she is having a difficult time connecting to the internet on her new laptop. I figure this will be a simple job and then we could just hang out. Boy, was I wrong.

I get to the laptop and as soon as it starts up both cores at the same time skyrocket to 100% in use. Naturally I go look at the processes thinking there is something here doing it, sure enough there wasn't anything. After messing with it some more I decide that it has to be some sort of defect.

They had a "Geek Squad" card, so for poops and giggles I figured I'd call just to see what they would say. Not long after I mentioned the problem he said to take it back to the store to trade in, just as I thought.

We arrive at the store and go to trade it in, then behind the counter there are about 10 other laptops that have been traded in of the exact same model. By the way, this is the ASUS K50.

I couldn't believe it, but more what I couldn't believe was that they tried to sell us another one. I wouldn't keep that model on the floor if there were that many issues. You only end up with pissed off customers and lose business. According to my friends the guy who sold them the laptop had sold 5 others the same day they bought theirs. Horrible.

The ASUS K50 has a Pentium Dual Core processor. I highly suggest to my friends to get an i3, so it was only a matter of time to decide which i3 and they bought it and are happy.

But the main thing here is, they have an obviously broken product and yet still sell it. Guess you can add Best Buy to the list of "Shady" stores. I'm sure generally things are okay, but cheating people out of a good experience and money? Not cool.

Censorship

Anyone who follows South Park will know that there was extreme censorship in the episode "201" due to Muslim extremists threatening Matt and Trey.

Wait a minute, was that threat okayed but simply saying "Muhammad" banned? That is right, a threat is just fine apparently, involving life and death even. However, don't you dare mention anything about Muhammad. I am an avid Christian and I am cool with how South Park generally portrays Jesus. I find it comical and even a little touching. If any of you make Catholic priest jokes then I must ask "really?"

I prefer a world that is free. I prefer a world that lets people express ideas and opinions without restraint. I prefer a world where people put aside differences. I prefer a world where there is no separation based on color. I prefer a world where your religious views don't throw people away from each other. I prefer a world with free information. I prefer a world that serves healthy food in a fast food fashion. I prefer the impossible.

Note, I am not against Muslims here, I have Muslim friends, however I am against extremists. In fact, I am against extremists for just about anything.

Day of Silence

First off don't get me wrong, I am not against homosexuals and I do feel they should be able to marry and have the same rights and be able to express themselves. However, the "Day of Silence" has lost its initial purpose and become a way to simply not conform and basically get a free pass for one day.

The "Day of Silence" is to have everyone who supports homosexuals stay quiet the entire day symbolizing the fact that homosexuals can not openly express themselves. Awareness is good surely? Yes it is, but what I see this day used for loses the value of the day.

Select groups will use this day to try and "separate" themselves from others and show how they are different. Being different isn't bad, however don't go and jump on everything like this for your own personal "needs" to feel different. Show that you are different in the kind of work you do, or simply be a kind individual as everyone knows we need more of them.

The other issue with how the Day of Silence has progressed is kids will use it as a "get out of class-speaking/participation free card." If you show a simple paper to a teacher then they somehow automatically exempt you from everything verbally. That is like using homosexuals as a scapegoat so you don't have to do work. You should be ashamed.

From what I see on TV and hear online, many people are "coming out of the closet" and openly expressing themselves. This is progress, and this day may even be outdated as well pretty much anyone can be gay and it is becoming accepted. Granted, someone will always hate someone else, but that is how it is with any demographic group.

Just please think about why you do what you do. You might just realize the real reason behind something too.