“A Picture Is Worth A Thousand Questions.”

A Homosexual Invention By Alan Turing. Who cares if he cracked the German Enigma Code and won World War II.

It’s A Homo’s Devil Machine!

I saw this photo circulating around the interwebs. It bothered me that there was no information identifying it’s source. So I did a Google image search for the image to find out what, if any, protest this is associated with.

When you look at the full image, as posted on WeWasteTime you’ll notice that she’s carrying a rainbow flag. So I had to wonder from where this image originates and why, if she’s holding a homophobic sign, she is carrying a gay pride flag. (Look closely. They’re ALL carrying rainbow flags.)

The very first link took me to an online video game “Destroy The Computer” (by KibaGames) in which you throw punches at, you guessed it, a desktop computer. But it didn’t explain the anti-gay signage. It’s a stretch to assume punching the computer symbolizes a hate crime in some way. — Though I’ve certainly hated my computer at times, I don’t believe my PC represents ALL computers. That would be OS-ist.

The earliest posting I could find of the image was May 2006 on Barking-Moonbat.com. A watermark on that image led me to StrangePolice.com and that’s where the trail ends.

The fact that there is more than one person in the photo, and that they are closely grouped together, leads me to believe this is a staged photo.

Why anyone would stage such a photo is anyone’s guess. Part of me suspects it’s a promotional stunt to raise LGBT awareness. Not many people know who Alan Turing is, or that the process by which he cracked the German Enigma code led to the modern day computer. Many more are unaware that Turing was a homosexual.

This simple image has been spreading LGBT awareness around the interwebs in it’s own little way for more than seven years. None of the feedback that I’ve seen has been particularly homophobic. That, in itself, is pretty amazing.

The 40 Year Search!

Ever have a tune stuck in the back of your mind that just won’t go away, but you can’t play it because you don’t know the name? So it sits there, and every once in a while rears it’s taunting head.

Carla Morrison – Eres Tú (letra)

I discovered the above tune while searching for a 1973 song, whose title I could not remember.

I searched for what seemed like forever. I tried every variant of “Et Eschtule” and “Edest Tu” and everything in between.

I even tried humming the mystery song to friends, but that only confused them more.

Part of the problem was that I thought it was an Italian song. I was eight years old when the song came out. The only language other than English that I had heard was Italian, so naturally I thought the song was Italian.

Finding this Carla Morrison song was a big break for me. Of course! Eres Tu! Seeing it in print made so much sense.

So I typed Eres Tu into the YouTube search bar and Lo and Behold…

“Eres Tu” by Mocedades

The sad part is, now that I’m hearing Mocedades again, I kinda prefer the Carla Morrison cut better. 🙂

The New Technology Blues

NOTE: I’ve been with Virgin Mobile for about a decade. I resisted cell phones for a long time. The truth is, I don’t like talking on the phone. I never did. So, for me, a cell phone was a waste of money. It was my boss who suggested I get one. My responsibilities had just increased and well, with increased responsibilities come even more responsibilities. I chose Virgin because they were the cheapest. At the time it was $20 a month Vs $80 for the other major carriers. – You do the math.

The old boy on the left is dwarfed by the new improved, I can’t live without it, model.

So I just upgraded my phone…

There was nothing wrong with my old one, really. It was only two years old. It’s got a few dings and scratches, but it works just fine.

Perhaps that was the problem. It only worked “just fine”. It was a fine mid-range smartphone for someone like me, who had not yet immersed himself fully into the Android OS.

I blame my e-reader.

A year before buying my smartphone, I bought a nifty little e-reader tablet for a hundred bucks. It was my very first Android device. This puppy had a resistive touch screen, which meant I had to press it to get it to respond. It was the early days of Android tablets. I didn’t know any better.

Within a year I had had enough of the resistive screen. I was tweeting heavily by then, and a resistive screen is just… no. So I saved my pennies and as luck would have it, Tiger Direct and Amazon were competing to see who could offer me the best deal on a new tablet.

Now I had this sweet tablet, with an operating system that I was slowly getting accustomed to, that was supplementing my PC nicely.

If only my cell phone was just as useful.

I had this little “feature phone” which was fine for texting, email, and even twitter, but I couldn’t follow many of the news feeds I was reading on a regular basis. And forget blogging.

Luck smiled upon me again. Radio Shack offered up a “fine mid-range smartphone for someone like me” at reasonable price.

I really did like this small, unassuming phone. I could read my books, magazines, and most of the news feeds I like. It was a little workhorse. 

Then, about a year ago, I started running out of space. I moved as many of the apps onto the SD card as I could, but I was still finding I had to chose between Angry Birds and Twitter. “Oh, the humanity!”

The writing was on the wall.

So I had this two year old phone that still worked, but I’d outgrown it. I made the decision last April to shop for something a little better. I even considered leaving Virgin. – That lasted all of two days; the length of time it took me to realize that I really didn’t want to spend more than $50 a month.

I started saving my pennies again. Virgin had just lowered the price of one of their smartphones, but a little voice in my head asked if I really wanted to “settle” for something I’d probably outgrow in a year. So I waited. …and kept saving those pennies.

A month later, Virgin added the Galaxy S3 to their line-up. It was twice what I wanted to spend. Should I wait? If I wait, maybe the price will come down. But by then, something better might come along.

What to do.

The deciding factor was Amazon. They dropped the price by $50 AND… if you apply for an Amazon credit card, you get another fifty bucks off. Woohoo! The Gods had smiled down upon me once again. Where do I sign?

So now I have this great new phone. It’s fast. It’s powerful. It’s pretty. I love it!

Do you think I should upgrade my tablet?