Category: ranting

Someone asked a friend of mine, via social media, to pray for them, as they were trying to get a new job. This poor unsuspecting person got a very Monty Python-esque response:

Any particular variation of prayer? Buddhist (Jane already has the job, she just has to reach out and take it herself), Hindu (Jane needs to meditate more, she is young), Muslim (as long as she covers her hair Jane can do what she likes), Confucian (there is no Jane, only light), Zoroastrian (Jane has not been to the holy tree in 7 cycles, what hope could she have), Protestant (Jane has as much right to the job as anybody else, but she can mark where she likes as along as she’s not flash with her cash), Catholic (Jane… Ah bless… I’d nail myself ecstatically to a cross where she called for an interview and die of holy happiness where she to be saved from her sins by the lord)…. Like what’s the pitch here?

Besides the mixing up of religions (I think that is Zen not Confucian) it’s brilliant!

The other day, I stumbled upon a social network site I was not familiar with, hosting a funny video I wanted to watch. After watching the video I clicked through on the “find contacts” link and without having to create an account or login I was able to enter by email address and password. A few seconds later the site sucked up my address book and presented me with a list of about 10 people I know (or may know as these online email sites seem to think anyone in the To, From or CC list is somehow someone I want to consider a friend… Uh, hardly) who were registered on the site. Most of the people were casual acquaintances and not people I would add to my list of friends on any social network. But… there were two people I do keep in touch with. Where they really using this site? Should I sign up?

Well, in a word; ‘no’. I looked at the profile/home page of both people but they were pretty barren. One had and image and the other had an image and two small items—from 2004!

Which brings us to the subject of this post: The internet never forgets. Well, of course it does forget; somewhere in the deep dark back alleys of the internet—where the light of Google don’t shine—unloved pages are born and die. But most people will never know that world those lonely pages will pass into oblivion without anyone shedding a tear or laughing about ‘what once was.’ But while these uncharted regions of the internet come and go unnoticed the vast majority of pages will be sucked into the black hole that is the Google database—and who knows how many other such databases; Yahoo, Microsoft… the CIA? NSA? I think Microsoft might be the scariest of those, scarier then the CIA, NSA, FSB, or any other government spooks; big brother doesn’t need your drunken after party photos: they have your phone tapped. These pages will never vanish.

But, those drunken after party photos will be of interest to someone… someone important to you:

According to a survey conducted by business social networking site Viadeo, one-fifth of hiring managers have used the Internet to find personal information about potential job candidates, and a quarter of those have rejected candidates based on what they found.

Jacqui Cheng, from “Job Candidates Gone Wild: be careful what you post online” published on Ars Technica [arstechnica.com].

My friends didn’t do anything so embarrassing as all that, their photos were funny in an “oh-my-god, why did I do my hair like that,” way but not embarrassing in a “I would not want my mom to know I did that” kind of way. They were quite amused when I sent them a link to the site.

My own virtual persona’s trail is, I think, free of such amusements, or at least anything in the second category. I’m lucky enough not to have done anything too stupid in the early days of the internet, before phones with cameras, and for some time I have lived my virtual life by words-of-wisdom from one of my former bosses;

“Never commit anything to writing that you would not want read back to you in court.”

J** F****, my former boss.

I heard this several times, in different context, variously appended with “in front of your mom” or “in front of your boss”, etc. as the specific screw up fit the personal or professional context. The first tim I remember hearing this pearl of wisdom it was prompted by my sending an appropriately rude email to a moron. Not that my boss disagreed with anything I said but because the moron in question worked for our company and I was pointing out in a very non-diplomatic way that he was willfully violating a contract.

Not too long after this incident I got on someones bad side by forwarding a portion of an IM conversation to someone else. The IM conversation quoted included an opinion about a product or project (I don’t remember) that apparently the author was not willing to share with others, but I didn’t know that until the someone mentioned the quote in question back to the author. He was not happy, apparently there was much politics between this guy and the person in charge of the disparaged product or project. So the same lesson is applicable here; don’t put it in writing if you don’t want to have to explain it later.

So, remember: The internet never forgets or more generically; never commit anything to writing you would not want read back to you in court (in front of your mom/boss/husband/wife/kids/etc.)

I don’t understand the problem with the milk [wikipedia.org]. Not that I don’t understand the problem but I don’t ‘understand’ the problem—the problem of how to deal with it. After the second or third product containing dairy products sourced from China was found to be contaminated with melamine [wikipedia.org] why didn’t every country ban all imports of Chinese dairy products and all products containing Chinese dairy products? I don’t see the difference between that and banning US or UK beef over mad cow fears. A good idea, agree with it 100%—mad cows are bad, killing babies with industrial plastic in their milk, also bad. Are governments more afraid of pissing off China and greedy Chinese businesses or killing babies and pissing off their own population? Mad moms are not something to be toyed with, I’ve got a mom, I’ve seen mad moms. I’m not saying that there is any kind of endemic problem with greed and cutting corners in China, but given the lack of regulation and enforcement maybe banning all imports might cause enough pain-in-the-wallet to have the problem fix itself.

When I was a child the best toys were Star Wars figures [wikipedia.org]! No arguments from the GI-Joe, He-Man, Thundercats, Transformers, Voltron, or any other fanatics. Kenner Star Wars figures were the best.

And they still are. The picture to the right is a scan of the back of a still-in-the-original-packing Jawa [starwars.wikia.com]. Somehow during my childhood this lone figure got lost in my parents bedroom closet and was not given to me—it still has the “Dart Drug” $2.68 price tag on it. On the other hand I have a large number of the Star Wars figures I was given. Sitting in a Darth Vader case that has seen better days.

The figures I do still have in the Darth Vader case are:

• Prune Face—missing his cape (and gun if he had one.)
• Klaatu (in Skiff Guard Outfit.)—wasn’t the guy in The Day the Earth Stood Still named Klaatu? If so how can Lucasfilm copyright the name? I even still have his staff!
• Nikto—who, for some reason, reminds me of the alien in Enemy Mine and in The Last Starfighter.
• Wicket W. Warrick—who still has his hood but no staff.
• Rancor Keeper—who is missing both his hood and staff.
• Teebo—no hood and no staff.
• AT-ST Driver—no gun.
• Princess Leia Organa (In Combat Poncho)—not so much anymore, no poncho and no gun.
• B-Wing Pilot—no gun.
• Biker Scout—no gun.
• Boushh—no accessories (that’s really Leia in disguise from Jabba’s palace.)
• General Madine—sans accessories.
• Lando Calrissian (Skiff Guard Disguise)—no hood, no staff.
• Gamorrian Guard—no accessories
• Weequay—no staff (but I have two of him!)
• Nien Nunb—no blaster
• Admiral Ackbar—no, um magic wand
• Zuckuss—no blaster (but I have two of him too!)
• Cloud Car Pilot—no accessories
• Darth Vader—no lightsaber, no cape
• Bespin Guard—no blaster (it’s the black one.)
• Two-Onebee (2-1B)—no breathing tube and not medical poke stick either.
• Luke Skywalker (Bespin Fatigues)—no lightsaber or blaster.
• Lando Calrissian—no cape and no blaster
• AT-AT Commander—no blaster
• Chewbacca—no crazy laser crossbow.
• Ben (Obi-Wan) Kenobi—no lightsaber or cape.
• Han Solo—no blaster.
• FX-7—with all his ‘legs’.
• Greedo—no blaster.
• Bossk (Bounty Hunter)—no blaster.

I also have two figures not listed on the the Jawa package pictured:

• Lumat— no accessories (another Ewok.)
• Paploo—with his hood still (yet another Ewok.)

I have one blaster rifle that I don’t know who it belonged to. Looks like the Imperial Stormtrooper (Hoth Battle Gear), but I don’t remember ever having him.

Some figures don’t seem to have survived my childhood;

• Anakin Skywalker—You had to mail order this figure (at least the one I got, Kenner later re-issued it as part of the Power of the Force set with collectors coin, but I don’t remember ever having any of the figures that came with coins. I do remember getting this guy in the mail.) No idea what happened to this guy.
• The Emperor—I know I had him, I could have sworn he was another mail order figure but since he shows up on the back of the ’83 package I guess he was a regular figure. No idea what happened to this guy.
• Princes Liea Organa (Bespin Gown)—Lost this figure in a pile of dirt/pea gravel at my grandpa’s house in Pipestone, Minnesota. My sister and I were playing with some of the figures and she got buried in the dirt/pea gravel pile my grandpa had gotten for us to play in (later he used it to re-gravel some of the tractor paths around the farm.) We spent all the rest of the week digging in the pile and walking around the yard and never found it.
• Luke Skywalker (Jedi Knight Outfit)—I lost Luke playing in the dirt under the sun deck at home with my Tanka trucks. Searched for him all over—no luck. That particular dirt is no longer where it used to be. A few years after I lost Luke my parents had an addition put on the house—a basement bedroom and upstairs kitchen. What used to be under the upstairs sun deck is now under the basement bedroom. Given that they had to cut away the hill and dig out for the foundation I suppose the Luke figure is either somewhere in the back yard where they filled in some of the dirt or wherever they trucked off the rest of the excess dirt.
• Power Droid—I know I had him, don’t know where he is.
• Artoo-Detoo (R2-D2) with Sensorscope—Yep had him. Don’t have him now.
• Jawa—Another one, not the one still in the packaging. Last I saw him he was without his cloak in my parents basement. No idea where he is today.
• Logray (Ewok Medicine Man)—I had all the Ewoks.
• Chief Chirpa—As I saw ‘all the Ewoks.’
• IG-88—Don’t ask, I don’t know.
• Death Star Droid—Can’t remember last time I saw him.
• Luke Skywalker (X-Wing Fighter Pilot)—The last time I can remember him is when he played the skier on a cake my mom decorated for her bosses birthday.

Currently in Singapore the annual “Yellow Ribbon Campaign” [yellowribbon.org.sg] is getting underway. The campaign’s awareness program is based on the ad above, which can be seen on many bus stops, trains and other public ad boards.

The problem with the ad is the man in the picture is completely covered with tattoos. On first glance it appears the ad is trying to say, “just because I have tattoos does not mean I am a criminal.” But that’s not what the Yellow Ribbon Campaign is about. The Yellow Ribbon Campaign is about helping people who are, in-fact, ex-convicts re-integrate into society, the main goal is to remove the stigma that everyone who has been to prison is a bad person to be shunned.

But the ad is re-enforcing one prejudice while trying to change another. The fact that they chose to show a man with a large amount of tattoos to represent an ex-con is confirming the prejudice that anyone with tattoos must be a criminal. I know in many Asian societies the idea that anyone with tattoos is a member of the Yakuza or Triad is deep seeded, but I find it appalling that it is so deep seeded that the people in charge of the Yellow Ribbon Campaign failed to realize their ad was re-enforcing the stereotype.

Stereotypes are often (though not always) based in part on reality and many hardcore criminals who have been to jail have a large number of tattoos. In Russia the tattoos tell a history of your violence, in the US they tell your gang membership and beliefs—and often a history of your violence. So maybe I’m being too PC and the use of the tattooed guy in the ad is justified or harmless, but I think it is either funny or tragic that a group charged with helping to eradicate one prejudice is using another in their ads.