Well, I will start by saying that I have never seen the stupid chihuahua movie, so I don't know if it is any good or not.  Therefore, I will be judging a book by it's cover.  

People enjoy movies not just for entertainment value, but also because there is less thinking involved.  On top of that, people enjoy stupid movies.  The first stupid movie that I recall seeing was "Dude, Where's My Car?"  I believe that so many people saw it because it was so stupid that it was funny.  There are tons of movies like these, but why do people constantly go to see them?

One reason may be because somebody has seen every other movie out in theaters and watches the movie out of boredom.  There are people so boring that instead of living their own life, they go to the movies and design their life according to what happens on the big screen.  In the case of the chihuahua movie I don't think anyone would try to mimic it, but rather adapt it to their own lives.  

Another possibility is that people simply like chihuahuas.  I, on the other hand do not like them.  I think they are ugly.  If you like something, you are more likely to watch a movie about it.

To me, it appears that the movie is a doggy chick flick, and I will now use the phrase "bitch flick" in the rest of the entry.  This bitch flick features dogs that are owned by celebrities and live a much better life than most of the people watching the movie.  Not only that, but these dogs are in love.  A human type of love with an infatuation and all that mushy stuff.  From what I can imagine, the movie is similar to a doggy soap opera.

I will never truly understand people.  Especially ones that pay $10 to see some ugly dog love story musical.

So the other day, while exploring the internet net as I often do, I discovered this video.

I was very impressed.  This guy was doing stuff on his bike that I didn't even know was possible.  I thought that is said a lot about society.  Danny Macaskill was using his bike to perform what he thinks is art.  He used his bike as a tool to perform tricks on all kinds of landscapes.  He uses stairs, sculptures, and even everyday sidewalks.  Normal people would see these things and think nothing of it.  Danny, on the other hand, used them as his canvas.  I always found it impressive when people found uses for objects other than their intended purpose.  What Danny is doing is two-fold.  He is using his bike as a means of an extreme sport instead of a means of transportation, then he is using stairs as his stage.

Most people would frown upon his actions, arguing that he is being destructive and shows no respect for his environment.  I used to skateboard, so I would argue the other way.  Riding a bike is just another sport, all that has changed is where he is doing it.  Not to mention that to do what Danny is doing takes an incredible sense of balance and strength.

From my past experience of visiting Jamaica, I knew that most people there weren't very well off relative to the US.  While doing some research on my topic, I discovered some interesting statistics about Jamaican society and control of wealth.

I discovered that Jamaica is ranked #34 in the Human Poverty Index Rankings.  Compared to the United States, much of Europe and Japan that aren't even ranked.  Some organizations measure poverty as strictly a financial state, while others include factors such as poor drinking water, life expectancy, literacy rate, and underweight children.  Depending on how you measure poverty, about 15-20% of Jamaicans live in poverty.  

As far as social classes and the control of wealth goes, there is almost no middle class.  In Jamaica, either you have it, or you don't.  The highest %20 of Jamaicans with income control 44% of the wealth.  While the lowest 20% controls 7% of the wealth.  This is a huge spread.  This is also exactly what I saw when I was there.  Kingston, Jamaica is located in a bowl.  Around the rim of the bowl is where the wealthy live, with their houses perched above the city.  The lower class live in the middle of the bowl, as if trapped in their social status.

This provides some interesting insight as to why Jamaican society is so different from ours.

Things that Annoy Me 1

There are just some things that I find annoying, often super annoying.  Some of things I have never liked, others may have started as a good idea then turned sharply downhill.  Most of the items in the list are inconsiderate actions.  For example, and in no particular order:

1.  People who walk slowly in the middle of the sidewalk.  I can't tolerate this mostly because I think it is inconsiderate.  There are some common courtesies that I feel our society is missing.  Another similar one would be people not using interstate lanes how they are meant to be used.  (Slower drivers on the right, pass only the left.)  If people understood traffic flow highways would be less congested and I would not mumble curse words under my breath at people.

2.  Inappropriate cell phone use.  For one thing, people should hang up and drive.  Driving used to be an activity done in and of itself.  Now it seems like it is a secondary activity to get you somewhere while performing another task.  People already have way too many distractions in their cars like GPS units, fancy dashboards with way too many complicated buttons and gauges, children, and car stereos.  It is almost as if people are not aware they are even driving.  Whenever I see a bad driver, I do my best to ignore them, but only after mumbling curse words under my breath.  What did people do before cell phones?  Oh yeah, there was something called the pay phone.

3.  Social networking websites.  The internet seems to be making people less social, and in some cases, socially awkward.  I think it all started with email and the IM.  The IM made it possible to have entire conversations with people without having to speak to them.  I remember in middle school, I could be having 5 or 6 conversations at once.  Talking to people on the phone became too much of a hassle.  Why call somebody when I can site in front of my computer and converse with everybody I need to?  Also, the internet is slowing destroying the English language while creating a newer, shorthand version.  Phrases like LOL, GTG, STFU, LMAO, and PWNED are all understood on the internet as entire words or phrases.  No, you stfu.

4.  The "4D" experience at the World of Coca-Cola.  First of all, the 4th dimension is commonly used to represent time, where as the first 3 are used to represent space.  Therefore, no shit it's a 4D experience, your whole life is.  What would be really impressive is a "5D" show, where the audience is taken into alternate realities.  Not to mention, all that make it a '4d' show is the fact that air is sprayed at you, you get poked in the back (which actually hurts), and the chairs move.  

As I come up with more things that piss me off/annoy me I will post them in future updates.

That's all for now.

Memberships.

I always thought memberships were fantastic, especially for places you live nearby and are interested in.  Let me tell you why.

Because I live in a new city, I like to go out and see the sites, do the touristy stuff so I can say that I did it.  There are several reasons why I have a Coke membership and an Aquarium membership though.  The first being that I am a college student, with some free time now and then, with nothing else to do.  This spare time can be used having fun at the aquarium or drinking all the coke I want.  The second, I do not have a car, so any fun things to do that are more than 5 miles away from a Marta Transit Station is pretty much out of the question.  I can easily ride my bike the 1.5 miles on a whim.  The memberships also pay for themselves, usually after 2 of 3 visits.  For example, a day pass at the World of Coke is $15, and an annual pass is $30.  As long as I go twice within the year, that pass pays for itself.  The aquarium is a little more expensive though.  Day passes are $30, annual memberships are like $75 I think.  So as long as I go 3 times (which I definitely will) it pays for itself.  Not to mention that half of the aquarium pass was a gift.    Thank you Markwith Family  :)

The reason that I bring up the topic is because I have this Saturday off, and I plan on spending a good part of my day drifting in and out of The World of Coke and the Georgia Aquarium as often as I please.  I also plan to look at all the fish I please, drink all the coke I please, then go back to look at more fish.  All I need now is an underwater camera for the touch tank.  That would be pretty wicked.

I'm not sure exactly what the worst thing I've ever done is, I may never know.  The worst thing that I think I have ever done still stands out in my mind.  

I forget exactly how old I was, probably around 13.  My family had a black mutt of a dog named "Kelly" who lived in our backyard.  We loved this dog and took good care of her.  At night, though, she would often bark at the darkness for no apparent reason, so we would always let her into the garage for the night.  That is where her bed was anyways.  One night when my parents were out, I went and opened the door, but Kelly just wouldn't stop barking.  She was very aggressive and sounded a bit in distress.  She was barking at an opossum.  The opossum had backed itself up against the fence.  I didn't want to try to separate them myself or get in the middle of their dispute.  Not knowing exactly what to do, I grabbed a shovel to defend myself.  Using the shovel I tried my best to get between Kelly and the beast.  Once in between them, I guess the adrenaline got to me, I went out of control and hit the opossum as hard as I could with the shovel.  But not just once, maybe 4 or 5 times, I honestly don't know how many times I hit that poor thing.  The opossum had stopped moving.  I picked it up with the shovel and threw it over the fence and took Kelly inside.

I felt terrible.  What had I done to this poor opossum.  It didn't do anything wrong.  It was just in the wrong place at the wrong time I guess.  I felt so disgusting that I took a shower.  It was one of those showers where you just stand there and think.  It was probably one of the longest showers I have ever taken.  Even after the shower, I still felt like shit.  I finally was able to fall asleep.

The next morning, the opossum incident was still all I could think about.  Did I kill the animal?  Curious, mostly for peace of mind, I went behind my fence to see if the opossum was still there.  It wasn't.  That made me feel better.  Looking back, I should have just tried to get Kelly under control and leave the poor scared opossum to itself.

That is probably the worst thing I have ever done.

Debate.

The debate to me seemed very one-sided.  This could be either because I'm biased or the debate was very one-sided.

Senator Obama seemed to be better at debating than Senator McCain.  First of all, I feel that Obama responded to the moderator's questions much more effectively, focusing on structuring his answer instead of rambling.  McCain, on the other hand, is a rambler.  Provided he had a few good points during the debate, he never made eye contact with Obama, even when Moderator Jim Lehrer insisted he speak directly to Obama.  Avoiding eye contact made it seem like McCain was trying to cop out of responses or even that he was scared of Obama.  Body language, as well as verbal language, speaks volumes.  Obama was very stable and still during the debate while McCain swayed back and forth at times.  Both candidates did smirk at times while the other was speaking, but I noticed that McCain did it much more often than Obama.  Also, McCain cracked some jokes, which I thought was inappropriate for a debate.

As far as the policies go, I do favor Obama's economic plan.  He plans to cut taxes for people making less that $250,000 annually.  Also, he plans to close loopholes in the corporate tax codes.  McCain seems to know what he is doing from a military standpoint, but he has very openly admitted he is not very strong economically, which is what our country needs at the moment.

In the end, the debate was very informative and boring.  Luckily, I did not have to be present at the debate or I would have been asleep.  Remind me when the next debate is so I can make other plans.