White watching the series premiere of Bionic Woman there was a commercial for Veramyst, a new allergy medicine.  What was funny about it was the warning that comes with it: The way VERAMYST works is not entirely understood.  Whoa!  It’s like magic dude! 

What a weekend.  (Not because the in-laws were in town)  The Terps gave up a 21-point lead and lost.  And then the Redskins blew a 14-point lead and lose.  ugh.

The World Wide Web is an interesting place.  The ability to do so much without thinking about what one is doing.  It seems like the great old WWW has opened up the flood gates for these things.  If you haven’t heard a 16 year old girl who posted her photo on Flickr.com had the image used in an Australian print ad for Virgin Mobile.  The parents got wind of it and are suing for libel and invasion of  privacy.  Now does posting a picture on the web remove the “libel and invasion of privacy”?  A place where billions of people can view (unless of course there is some access control involved which there doesn’t seem to be) the picture?  From what I heard Texas has a law about fair compensation for commercial use but that’s not what the lawsuit is about.  Without reading Fickr’s EULA I’ve only heard that there are privacy settings when posting pictures.  The poster of the picture opted for the a “shared license” which means anyone can use as long as they site where the got the picture from. 

From where I sit, it sounds like Virgin Mobile is in the right and this should be a lesson learned that the World Wide Web is not a totally safe place with all the rights you think you have. (How many people actually read all the EULA’s that we all agree too?)  The Web is a great place to share your thoughts, pictures and other stuff but do people really know about proper copyright protection or fair use laws?

Chewy’s parents were in town.  Sharka was in hiding because Chewy’s dad likes shark fin soup.

Several interesting things to note …

• For those following the potential sale of WGTS (91.9 FM) in the Washington D.C. area it looks like Columbia Union College will not be selling the Christian radio station.  Definitely good news and prayers answered for those that listen to the station and realistically for this metropolitan area.
• Wal-Mart will be selling their own brand of Compact Florescent Light (CFL) bulbs.  Good news for those energy efficient-minded folk out there.  I just hope they are of decent quality.  Nonetheless, it’s still a good idea.  For all the Cons of supporting Wal-Mart, anything they put their mitts on usually does well and their whole “Going Green” movement is a good thing.
• Is it art, freedom of speech or a potential bomb threat?  So typically I “stink eye” those that do things in the name of “art expression” or shout “freedom of speech” for various idiotic things.  Though this one, I’m not too sure about.  Mostly because the items used can be found in any modern electronic gadget.  What happens if I drop my cellphone and it breaks in half?  Is it a bomb?  Will I be accused of bringing a “hoax device” to the airport?  This isn’t about people loosing up or being over uptight.  This is about a lack of training and awareness.  What this really shows is that things that are obviously not bombs are easily found to be bombs by the TSA and whereas those that are not easily found, constantly go undetected. And then there’s the general TSA mental power trips.
• To end on a happy note … BACON CHOCOLATE BARS!!!! 

With several people leaving at work that meant a few coworkers got to move to better window offices.  In a sorta funny way, the two guys that moved to those offices (which happened to be close to my office) are both Asian.  Now all the Asians in my section are huddled together in one corner of the floor.  We were talking about constructing some sort of arch to denote the area. 

Wow.  Maryland’s football program got compared to Notre Dame.  Though I’m not sure if that’s a good thing or not in this situation. 

Too bad for the Chung’s.  Why does the legal system seem so whacked?

Look, Richard Lui of CNN has a model!  Just like Sharka has a model.  (What we really suspect is that the model is from Richard’s own collection of movie Transformer toys.)

Whoa.  She actually said that?  I wonder when the mob with pitchforks and torches goes to storm the Post.  That’s pretty much blaspheme these days. 

And this is what our government does (well at least in California). Protecting ourselves from ourselves. 

On a happy note, something to look forward to next year … Iron Man the movie!

A day to remember …

For some it’s a day they can’t forget.  For others it’s a day they want to forget.  Then there are others who wish they could go back to the times when they felt the world was safer because they were ignorant of the hatred of the United States by those around the world.  As a person who has a hard time remember dates I still vividly remember that day, six years ago.  Just like how I remember my first car accident on July 19; which happens to coincide with the first time I met Chewie.  I also remember the day Chewie and I got married and how in a split second I got extremely nervous as she was walking down the aisle.  (For the record, the nervousness subsided when we first held hands at the front.) 

Whether one wants to remember, ignore or move on this is the world that we live in.  This is a day our generation should never forget but also not wallow in it.  We’ve been given an opportunity to go beyond our nations selfish attitudes and seek to better help this world through God’s grace and compassion.  I almost want to compare 9/11 as this generations Pearl Harbor Day.  Studying history we saw the people of the United States wanted to stay out of the world war.  Being content on being isolated and unaffected by it.  It wasn’t until we were attacked that the people rallied together to end the atrocities of the Axis powers of World War II.  Do you really think that generation decided to forget about December 7th?  (That’s the day the Japanese attacked.)  What would happen if they did.  What type of world would we be living in today? 

Pearl Harbor was the initiator for the United States to enter the Second World War.  Just as 9/11 has vaulted us into the global war on terror.  We can no longer be ignorant of the world events.  There are many people who hate the United States because this country was built upon Christian beliefs (even if most of the country is in a moral and spiritual downward spiral).  We have freedom of religion, freedom of speech and basically freedom to do many things these other countries can’t. 

Yet, what will this country do six years after 9/11?  Will we remember?  Will we forget?  Will we sit on our overly obese, Type-2 diabetic selves and become self indulgent again?  What will we do? 

What will I do?