Grand theft Auto

I am not a player of video games, if you catch me playing one it is Tetris, which I can play for hours, or maybe a racing game like Need For Speed Underground. Anyone with 20 something men in their life will probably be familier with most games and I am sure most have witnessed the game Grand Theft Auto being played somewhere. I once played it myself but gave up after a few minutes when I came to the realization that I was no better at directions in this game than I am in real life. How do you guys follow that arrow to the right place anyways? :) In this day and age of information is a video game that promotes this much violance really needed? I know that just because a person plays this game does not mean that he/she will committ these acts of violence in the real world. I learned a long time ago that Marilynn Manson's music does not make people commit suicide just as other rock bands in previous genrations did not cause suicide. I would defiantly agree that any person that commits violence to others or themselves is lacking something somewhere, proper upbringng and influences, or just love from parents/friends/husbands/wives etc. But I have to know what the appeal is...why we need games that let violence seep into young peoples minds so that when real violence occurs it does not have as hard of a blow? Just like nudity, as a nurse I see the exposed nude bodies of others on a daily bases, so much so that nudity is so common to me that a naked man in the local walmart would probably get no more then a quick glance before I continued my shopping unfazed. I have found that personal privacy of others is an afterthought. I remember the day it hit me that it is common to me and less shocking, I walked right in on my father in the bathroom, proceded to grab a hairbrush without a thought and only when I realized he had a deer in the headlights look as he was attempting to hide behind a towel that maybe I had just over stepped some kind of personal boundry. So what will the world be like if we accept this violence as ok to see and imagine. Yes, I know there are more violent games than Grand Theft Auto I am just thinking about that one right now so please do not feel the need to list games for that are worse because really I don't care. I find most video games to be a horrific waste of time, just as some find my hours on the net a horrific waste of time. The thought of future generations becoming even more accepting of violence is a disturbing thought to me. Maybe because in 50 years or so I will be the little gray haired lady with the five locks on my door and the buzzer around my neck in case I fall and can't get up.

Things would be easier if...

People would just tell you what they really mean from the beginning of your experiences with them. I have sworn over and over again that I would never ever go back to a "salon" that cuts hair on a first come first serve basis, your stylist depends on who comes to your name first on the list. My experience with these types of "salons" like Fantastic Sams has never yeilded a good experience for me. The first time I walked into one asking for a simple highlights I got three blonde streaks, for $100. My brother who in his teenage punk phase took a notion of dying his hair blue and then quickly decided that this was a poor decision walked into one of these "salons" and asked if they could simply take the blue out, leaving his hair bleached if need be. All the stylists looked him over and stated "There is no way we can do that, even if we tried it would cost at least $40". I looked at him and told him I would fix it with the "stylists" warning us that we would mess it up and a wish of good luck. We bought a low cost bleaching kit at Walmart and had all the blue gone in a matter of 20 minutes. I once went in for a trim and told the stylist that I wanted a trim to take off the dead ends and the least amount of length as possible. I walked out $12 later with less then a centimeter of hair trimmed off. Today, after much thought I decided what the hell I need a cut and a perm and today is the day. I called ahead to make sure it was a possibility since I have very long hair.Upon arriving I signed in and waited two hours for "my turn". More than once I got the feeling that maybe I was being avoided but then calmed my over zealous lack of self esteem and social anxiety emotions to make myself aware that people were going pretty much in their "turn" of signing in. After finally being called I met my "stylist" and proceeded with that a I wanted a lot of my hair cut to about mid back and permed. During the shampoo, I was told that my hair was breaking off and would not be suitable for a perm. The reccomendation of the "stylist" would be a conditioning treatment "to help with strentgh" and after all "it was cheaper then a perm, at $24.95" Now this irritated me because I got the impression that for some reason I could not afford salon services. Maybe that assumption was based on the fact that I have one day off out of 6 and on this day a comfortable tee shirt and my jogging pants, no makeup and the why bother to do anything but wash my hair and comb it attitude that I woke up with seemed logical to me. So at this point I had concluded that since it was now one hour before closing time even though I had arrived four hours before closing time that I was not getting a perm today, even if I didn't care that my dead ends were breaking off. So I agreed to the conditioning and decided after a four wait I was not leaving without something! My thinking is well I will go ahead with the haircut so that when I take the time to sced. an appointment with my regular stylist then that will be one less step. I had decided that my very long hair had to go months ago so I asked for 3 inches to be cut off, with some layers added in. I do not understand why to some stylists use a diffrent measurment for an inch then the general public because somewhere along the way I remember agreeing to five and walked out with at least seven gone. Now my very long hair is short and the first hour of life with short hair was an emotional breakdown. Now 8 hours later I have taken some liking to it.
Now back to the original reason of this post, if I would have simply been told when I walked into the door that time was a factor and with the amount of customers in line in front of me that a perm for long hair was not possible, I would have said thank you and went on my way, maybe got something else done that needs doing like my taxes, and still have long hair.

Implicit Association Test

These tests are pretty neat, I was quite suprised that I had a preference to younger people rather then older, since I have chosen a career with older people. But then again maybe the stress involved in taking care of the elderly has affected my preferences as well. I am quite proud that my racial test showed that I have "little to no preference" to white or black people. Take some tests of your own-Implicit Association Test

A little more my own.

After typing into this blog, and looking at the same design everywhere else I took a moment to become a little more unique. Not too uniqure of course, I got the template over at Miz Graphics, so I am sure there are other blogs out there with the same look, I am so lazy I even changed the name of my blog to match that of the template! But I kinda liked it and it suits my personality a little. So here it is.
In other news, I am sure I am working my way into being fired at work. There were five mandetory meetings posted and so far I have missed two. If I miss tomorrow that will make three. I am strongly leaning towards missing three since tomorrow is my day off and I really need to get a haircut and attend a birthday party for my grandmother. I would think that if these meetings are so essential then there will be a repeat. I mean to post a notice two days before the five day session starts then what is to be expected of the employees? It is very easy for anyone in the management to not consider five days worth of meetings a big deal, since they are conviently held on thurs, fri, mon, tues and wens. What if they were sced. for sat and sun? I mean if management came in on their days off to attend a meeting I might find it a little more encouraging to drag myself into work on MINE.

Ripguard

Macrovision entertainment have introduced a new technology to prevent piracy of DVD's.Ripguard is supposed to prevent piracy. Maybe living in America I may have a biased opinion on this issue. But I feel like these new technoligies is an attempt to curtail this in America. These companies always fail to mention the worldwide problems of piracy. A friend who visited over seas brought home Troy, bought for a couple dollars when the movie was still in theatres here. The DVD was a perfect copy menu and all. When I inquired about how this is possible that he bought this, he said that where he was the movie pirates have shops in the malls. They sell their pirated material there without interference from these companies that work so hard to prevent piracy in America. Usually there are several shops and if the police come through and shut one down, not of course by taking their merchandise, but by giving them a fine (which I cannot remember the amount he said, but it was very modest) by the time one place is fined the others have already closed thier shop for a couple of hours to avoid the fine. Within two hours all will be open for business again. While there is region codes on DVD's and Dvd players to prevent us from buying cheaper DVD's from across seas, these pirated know exactly how to get around this also. Is these over sea countries not a concern? I guess not.

The Gates

In a lot of ways I enjoy art, all types of art. Although most consider art to be a way of expressing themselves or expressing a point, I had to chuckle loudly when I seen this! So a couple of "artists" wanted to basically put up curtains around central park, at a cost of 20 million? At what price does art become not art, just a ridiculous amount of wasted money? My guess would have been somewhere around a couple thousand! So, what did you buy with your 20mil? "I got a bunch of orange tent poles with some fabric!" What a deal! For 20 mil these defiantly not starving artists could have made a much bigger impact on New York City. Clothe feed and provide homes for some homeless families, pay some folks heat bills, pay for several disadvantaged children college tuition. Stupidity amazes me.

There has to be an end!

Wow work is unimaginable right now, everyones sick. This is causing me overtime and a great big attitude problem. When I feel overworked (and underpaid) it affects me in everything in my life. If only I could find a way to seperate myself from the stress involved at work so that I could rest when I finally do get to go home. I guess the flu season can't last forever, and actully it has been somewhat mild despite the scare of no flu vaccines, but gosh I am ready to get it myself. Just to get a week of rest :0)