How film has changed

 Prior to the year 2000, if a movie starred a girl and a gay guy, it was pretty much an absolute guarantee that there would be no pornographic content whatsoever. Nowadays, though, you can never be sure.

Surfing on a dinosaur

 I still use an XP computer to get online. I like it because my XP is my fastest computer, unlike my HP windows 7. 

My windows 7 computer is balanced on top of a dresser. The keyboard is awkwardly positioned on top, the mouse inconvenient. It's in a room that's freezing in the winter. Needless to say, I don't like using it much, except with things I can't do with XP, like video editing. Unfortunately, I seem to be forced to use it more and more these days.

I don't like how the new models look. I don't want windows 10 where everything looks like a phone. I do all my art and writing on XP, I like the speed and how it handles my drawing stylus (on 7 it lags) but slowly things are being phased out, one after another.

I can no longer get windows updates or update the scripts on XP. They said my computer is too old. I can't remember if it's flash or java or something else, but they don't want to help XP with it.

Mail.com is requiring that I disable tracking protection. Okcupid always made me disable it. Recently, fanfiction.net is doing the same thing, but a lot worse. It will tell me that it's checking my browser and to wait five seconds, forever. Explorer is pretty much dead for the task, and now I see Firefox is no better. They changed how you handle tracking protection on Firefox so it's done automatically, and fanfiction's server doesn't like it half the time. Today I had to use a windows 7 computer to get in. Of course, I didn't try chrome. I think that might buy my XP a little more time.

I want to use the renpy program and the point and ags studio, but both those things don't work on XP anymore.

Facebook is still kinda working, but with XP a lot of stuff looks bad, and it gets sluggish due to all those flashy features designed for more advanced browsers.

City union mission's donation receipt page comes up blank in Firefox when I'm using XP. The only way I can tell that the charge went through is because there's a box I can click.

My church has a donation page, and I can't even use it with this particular browser and os. 

My bank doesn't accept chrome or Firefox on XP anymore. It used to let me go ahead and get a security code, but now it just gives me a warning message saying that an extra layer of security is required and refuses to move to the security code page.

I'll add more to this when I encounter further problems.

The blandishments of the world

I've had a few heartbreaking disappointments in my life. As a kid, I tried to get into Nintendo, and do comics for Boy's Life, but received rejection letters.

I got an art degree from UMKC, but it didn't give me an art job. I got a prepress certificate, but I only worked in the field a few months before getting let go and never finding work there again.

When Avatar came out, though, I lost all the joy in my life. 

I'd spent years working on a novel that contained a similar concept, and here's a movie that stole my thunder, making me look like I got the whole idea for the novel from watching the movie.

I was utterly crushed. I decided that I wasn't cut out for the entertainment field, and I should get a real job.

It turns out God was protecting me this whole time, by making me blind to the flaws in my novel, making me give up when I incorrectly assumed James Cameron stole my idea, making me afraid of being called unoriginal.

Why is this protection? Because God knew that if I became famous, I would be like everyone else, making stuff that pleases man, but doesn't please God.

If I had become famous, I would have had to cater to the whims of the gay and lesbian community, like every movie and TV show on the market today. 

Even if I got a job in the art field, like graphic design, I would have had to please gay people. I'd have to tell them their lifestyle is okay and even advertise it.

I don't hate gay people. I care for them, but I also care for serial killers and the people who break into my apartment. Am I just supposed to accept what criminals do as okay when they do something wrong? I hope you said no. Why then do I have to accept the sinful practices of gays? 

What the LGBT people are saying online is equivalent to this:

 "I commit fraud on people's bank accounts. I can't help it. You should accept my thieving ways, and if you don't, you're not a true Christian." 

This is why I am not in the entertainment or art industry. I would have to please everyone at the expense of my morals, or lose my job. God has kept me out of this to protect my soul.

I'm glad I have a job where it doesn't matter what people think of me.

Woke television

 I used to be bothered by the "woke" trend in the media, but now that I think about it, television might not have been so crappy for so long if we had more black people in the industry, back in the fifties onward.

I really wish I could have had a black tv show to watch instead of The Monkees, Gilligan's island, Dick Van Dyke and The Honeymooners. 

Although those shows have their moments, I've seen some of those episodes so many times that I want my time refunded, and a lot of them aren't even funny. The world would be better off without the existence of the "Hamlet the musical" episode of Gilligan, or that racist one about the Japanese sailor.

Understand me clearly: I don't want a black version of these "classic" shows. I want to have black people go back in time and come up with something that isn't crappy, to replace those shows. I would have loved to see a black science fiction program instead of enduring the Brady bunch.

For that matter, being more inclusive would have worked, too. 

Mayberry is a monochromatic world, in more ways than one. Putting African Americans in the story would have prevented it from being the most boring sitcom of all time.

  Again please note that I don't mean merely putting them in the cast. I'm sure there's at least one token already, and I'm sick of remakes. What I'd like to see is an honest picture of where black people belong in this wholesome Caucasian dominated universe. If Andy's such a good guy, we could see him maybe resolving a race conflict between the black character and the family of Ernest T Bass. The show was always a bit seriocomic anyway.

Returning to Facebook

 Being in Facebook jail for 30 days taught me a lot. There's no reward for being clever and making clever comments. You got to watch what you say, and not be too clever, or back into jail you go. But you can't post pictures easily on blogger.

Anyway, after scrolling a bit, I realized how much I'd been squandering my time trying to be clever, instead of writing my novel or something constructive. People miss me there, at least a little, so I think I'll just limit most of my action to thumbs up.

7 PM: Already I am angry and seething about something I saw someone post on my friends page. Facebook isn't good for your mental health.

May 6: I'll never be good enough for premium internet curation, so stop being clever.

Crazy People Assignments

 Assignment 559: Once you're on the police force, you can put a siren and flashing lights on anything. Get creative, and try to catch those speeders in a Model T Roadster, an Edsel, a dune buggy, a trash truck, or a riding lawnmower.

Assignment 560: It's time to find out if dog poop tastes as bad as everyone says.

Assignment 561: Write a bunch of death threats to yourself and send them to your house from different addresses. Reference things only you and one other person know about. Report it to the police.

Assignment 553: Cover your chair in feces, then sit down in it and act surprised, horrified, even. Start accusing everyone around you of doing it, even if it is, in fact, your feces.

Assignment 554: Cut your head out of photographs and stick them on pornographic pictures. Make copies and post them all over town, and on the bulletin board at work. Act surprised when you see the pictures, alternating between "And I thought he was supposed to be such a moral, upstanding pillar of the community" and getting outraged that some unknown person would do something like this to ruin your spotless reputation. If someone catches you putting the pictures up, get even more outraged at your damaged reputation, to compensate.

Assignment 555: Dress up a barbie doll to look like you, then stab it and cover it with fake blood and mail it to yourself with no return address. Act horrified and report the threat to the police.

Assignment 556: Get a dead animal head from a butcher or taxidermist, then stick it on your own fence post with a note reading "Your next." Act scared and tell everyone in the neighborhood about the threat.

Assignment 557: If you want to drop live, claw snapping crustaceans, or box turtles on your genitals, no one's judging you.

Cable

 This week I've been cleaning my parents' house, with the tv on. I've been able to watch shows they normally don't watch.

My folks pay for cable, but paradoxically spend most their time watching local channels you don't need cable for. Mostly metv. Time Warner should give them a kickback for all that unused cable.

They went out of town, so I decided to clean up while I can get away with it. Sometimes dad gets real mad when I clear the dining room table.

Anyway, I am tired of metv so I tried the other stations. Daytime TV really sucks. Having cable doesn't really help. I'm glad I don't have it. Plus time Warner keeps freezing up and dropping sound on those hd channels.

I used to watch the history channel nonstop, because I like to be entertained and informed. Unfortunately now it's back to back BS, like ancient aliens and skinwalker ranch. I could feel my brains seeping out my ears when I left the channel on for a couple hours.

Tnt was okay with the supernatural marathon, until I got to a movie I didn't want to watch.

I watched the comedy channel. I discovered there were episodes of Seinfeld that aren't funny. And then I tried to watch the office. Not very funny either.

People talked about castle being a good show. To me it's boring. 

So I watched the forensics files. That's actually some good stuff, but tonight it really creeped me out for some reason. I thought there were people in the house.

The oxford comma

 A case in favor for the oxford comma: I found a devotional that says, "If God created everything good, why do people die and do evil things?" Without the oxford comma, this sentence makes you wonder if zombies exist, or that dead people are knocking over liquor stores. 

I know, technically, you could change "and" to "or" and fix it, but "die, and do evil things" also would work.

Walkers

 We need to brainstorm on how to make better walkers for old people. The rear legs always have skis that get caught on rugs and floor mats. I thought of a design where the back end is like a wiffle ball, and you have rods poking into it to make it stop when you want it not to move, but I don't know how to build that.

Grocery quest

 I couldn't find good kimchi at the roeland park price chopper, just a really bitter tasting one. It's not at the Walmart neighborhood market either. Or hivee. Guess it's either going to be at a health food store or direct from the Korean market on Shawnee mission parkway. 

When I asked a grocer at hivee about kimchi, she didn't know what I was talking about. After explaining it was pickled cabbage, she directed me to the pickle aisle. If they keep it there, they don't respect good kimchi. When I asked the guy behind the sushi desk for kimchi, he just laughed and said no.

I actually found tofu crumbles at hivee. It wasn't at Walmart or price chopper. And only hivee has powdered Gatorade.

Am I vegan? No, just lazy. We can put a man on the moon, and have access to all the world's information by pressing a button on your phone, but you can't go to the grocery store and buy a package of packaged precooked crumbled beef.

Why I'm not fat

 I think the only reason why I'm not fat is because there was never anything good to eat in my house. If I had chips and barbecue in my house all the time, I would have never known when to stop eating. But generally we had salads and stuff. I'd go in the fridge and see cheese and a jar of pickles and ask myself if I were really that hungry. It all depends on what you got in the fridge.