Jun 30

An Open Letter To Steve Jobs

Categories:

Apple, Dealing With It, Life, Uncategorized

by admin_Cynth

NB: I was going to send this to Steve Jobs’ email account, but I sent it too late and it bounced.  I guess the account’s quota was filled with crap from flamebots or trolls.  Whatever.  I feel so strongly about the use of conflict minerals (or “blood coltan” as some would say) in Apple’s line of consumer electronics that I chose to share it here.

For years, I have been a solid believer in the things that Jobs has inspired in the field of consumer electronics.  We would not have half of the tools we use were it not for the Macintosh, the iPod/iPhone/iPad.  I really wish their Chinese manufacturers would not use “blood coltan” anymore.  They are taking the “sexy” away from Apple’s products.  Here, then, is what I would love to say to Steve Jobs if I could. The video parts, of course, are to break up the wordiness a bit and were not in the original attempted email..

Dear Steve:


I hope to keep this short as I know that your time is precious.  I would be happy to learn that Apple is committed to using sustainable minerals in the production of your products.  Coltan originating from the Congo is an unsustainable mineral, yet there is plenty of conflict-free coltan in Australia.  I know that coltan is essential for consumer electronics.  However, I would feel more compelled to purchase Apple products made with Australian coltan.

 

I completely understand the irony of using my laptop to write this blog entry

The use of Congolese coltan in Apple products (and in most consumer electronics) manufactured in China is a concern to me as an Apple stakeholder.  For many years, I have been a really big fan of Apple, and I was overjoyed at the 2G Strawberry iMac that I bought after my daughter was born.  I still love all the innovations you have inspired.  While I begrudgingly bought a PC laptop for my graduate studies, I much prefer Apple products.  I want to purchase a new iMac in the next couple of months.  I would feel a lot better about Apple if all of its computers and peripheral components were devoid of Congolese coltan.  The more coltan that Apple gets from Australia, the better I will feel about supporting Apple as I have done for many years.  Only recently have I begun to feel concerned.

I so wanted to be that woman with the sledgehammer

You have a wonderful line of products.  I really want my next desktop to be an iMac–or at least another Mac Mini.  I have had a lot of faith in your vision, for every good idea that you have inspired.  (I am really looking forward to Lion, BTW.) I want to continue to feel good about Apple.  Sometimes, “sexy” just isn’t enough.  But “sexy” with a conscience…I’d buy that in a heartbeat

_______________________________________________

That was serious, I know.  How about some Apple-specific comic relief?

 

And now, a bit of fun. (Courtesy of The Onion News Network)

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Jun 07

Now that it’s all blown over…

Categories:

Karma, Politics

by admin_Cynth

I was mentally prepared to do a full-scale defense of Rep. Anthony Weiner and his indiscreet behavior.  Well, maybe lascivious would be a better word.  I even had my knives sharpened for Andrew Breitbart because, well, he did help to destroy ACORN—an organization that did nothing at all wrong but still got destroyed thanks to his comrade-in-arms, James O’Keefe.  Despite all that, it turns out that the tweeted photo was not only legit but a self-inflicted flesh wound (yeah, I had to go there…we pretty much all did by this point).
Sister Maddow Explains it to Us
However, since I never did write my “Not so Breit, Bart” blog entry, I do not owe that man a single apology.  Okay, maybe such an apology should read, “I’m sorry you’re such a jerk that we thought you set this up.”  He should get the same sort of apology—and the same box of sorry-ass discounted Walgreens chocolate—that he gave to Shirley Sherrod.  Did you ever hear the story “The Boy Who Cried Wolf” when you were a kid, Andrew?  Maybe you didn’t, but in your version of the story—“The Boy Who Cried to Wolf Blitzer”—the boy gets eviscerated by the MSM…particularly a handful of  news commentators  who work for MSNBC.  Let’s just say that I am not going to make nice with the man who killed ACORN.
Proof that Breitbart is still a jerk
Sure, he wasn’t the one who doctored the photo.  I’m wondering though if somehow Rep. Weiner did not develop some mad Photoshop skills of his own.  Or maybe if there still were Adult theaters left in the D.C. area he would have had a more apropos outlet for his middle-age crisis instead of playing ‘follow the leader’ with former House colleague Christopher Lee.  Speaking as a former exotic dancer, I can say that had either of these distinguished gentlemen had access to a peep show, they would have gone about their business and not sent provocative photos of themselves to women through the Internet.
The Confession
Or maybe we will just have to wait with baited breath for an eventual Chat Roulette scandal that will take down the next political leader.  You know that one is just around the bend.  All it takes is for someone to sneeze and it will be ‘game over’ for the next victim of his own lustful activities.  Perhaps the time has finally arrived to revive the Adult Entertainment Industry away from the Internet’s Amateur Hour atmosphere into a brick, mortar and ceramic floor tile environment.  After all, the proper place for a successful and horny man to engage in lewd activity is not the Internet but a peep show.  That, and it will mean jobs for many an unemployed college student just trying to make ends meet.

 

That’s what I call a win-win.  If such a day ever arrives, they need to have a strict “No Smartphone” policy that is enforced by a take-no-shit security guard.  Again, another job provided for the good of America.  You can’t stop men from wanting to show their junk to young men or women.  Even the best guy has that involuntary urge to proudly wave it around.  Just give these dudes a place that is scandal-free (meaning we don’t revive the Vice Squad in the process) where they can pay some young and attractive adult (gay or straight) to sit behind Plexiglas and offer unwarranted praise and this world will be a safer and happier place.

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May 23

Oh, Great…Another “Rapture” Non-Event

Categories:

Karma, Life, Theology

by admin_Cynth

Well, the nerve of some false prophets!  Seems like Harold Camping is saying that his math was off by five months.  And he was nowhere near his mansion—probably due to the risk that the legion camping out on Camping’s lawn would have torn him to shreds.  Some faith he has in Christian forgiveness.

To quote from MSNBC:

Camping, who predicted that 200 million Christians would be taken to heaven Saturday before the Earth was destroyed, said he felt so terrible when his doomsday prediction did not come true that he left home and took refuge in a motel with his wife.

I’ll bet you anything that it wasn’t at a Motel 6.  People would have spotted him at the Waffle House with his wife if he had gone there and pestered them about still being there.  Anyway, I was right about him making the claim that he got the math wrong…again.  Maybe he never quite got to the Cayman Islands…or perhaps he was simply making plans for his exodus to Paraquay right next door to the Bush family’s anti-extradition ranch.  We’ll see…

One thing is for certain: I am not going to hire Camping as a math tutor anytime soon.

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May 22

No Rapture. Sorry…

Categories:

Karma, Life, Theology

by admin_Cynth

First thing I want to say is this: even though I am a Christian, I do not believe in the concept of The Rapture™.  It is one of those weird ideas that could only come from the United States.  You know…sort of like how the corporate agenda was re-worded to make it appear to be some sort of citizen-led uprising against the first African-American President.

Only in America, folks.

I don’t know what’s going to happen to all those who thought (wrongly) that they would be lifted up bodily today.  God only did that sort of thing to one prophet, and that was so long ago that the only record we have of that is in the Old Testament.  No matter…Harold Camping, Family Radio and their stunned followers are going to wonder if God did not see them as worthy of Rapture.  Or Camping will simply say that he got the math wrong.

Anything could happen…except the Rapture.  It really isn’t something that God would do.  Besides, what if it isn’t that sort of “rapture”?  Think about it.  Please, with all your mind and soul think about it.  What’s the worse that can happen if you’re stunned and feeling really guilty because you happened to miss this…or maybe God just missed you.

Or maybe Harold Camping is full of it.

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May 19

Yeah, this is a new look for me…

Categories:

Dealing With It, Life

by admin_Cynth

Since I was having some major bugs dealing with iWeb–no offense, Apple, but that app really sucks–I am choosing to go with the tech support guy’s recommendation and go with Word Press.  So, there you go.

Anyway, I hope I can get this to work for me.  That means that I’m basically having to re-do everything.  Fine.  At least I won’t have to deal with inconsistencies between computers.  (I have a Mac desktop and a Windows laptop, so if that makes me Bi in a computer sense, then I’m guilty as charged.)

Don’t expect much out of me right now.  I’m really making this up as I go along.  Well, I hope this doesn’t get old real quick.

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