Cultural Enlightenment

Posted on July 22, 2007 by mmunson

I am getting addicted to metal music again. I got introduced to the band Stuck Mojo. Their music is fresh and unapologetically patriotic at times take a look at the video of their song “Open Season“. Man does not live on electronic music alone, one needs guitars to level out their musical appetites. Its amazing what a visit to Free Republic does for you on the issues you agree with the readership.

I was encouraged to take advantage of the American Express Members Project where card members who hold at least one of their credit/charge cards could vote on what worthy lasting project you could do to make the world a better place. A mother with a child with Down’s Syndrome encouraged people to vote for the project to improve awareness of people with the condition. I do believe all life is valuable, even if a human being does not have the full intelligence that the majority have, they can still live a productive life.

Regulations and settlements

Posted on July 11, 2007 by mmunson

Recently the company I work for got sued for not following the meal and rest period regulations of California. Due to a class action lawsuit I am entitled to $8.15 for each thousand dollars I earned from 2001 to January 2007. This does entitle me to a few hundred dollars when the settlement is approved by the courts.

Before my company got sued for $4.3 million, there was a note on the employee handbook that a lunch period was required if you worked over 5 and a half hours, but the old lunch period was in interpretation because management needed us to serve the customers where lunch was needed if you worked over six and a half hours. Before Michaels Stores was sued for meal and rest period violations there have been numerous times where I was not given a lunch period and I feel justified to file for the settlement payment from the lawsuit.

There have been times in the past where I told my supervisors that I am an educated employee where I know pertinent state regulations where I asked for my one hour pay for not receiving my lunch break, but I never received that money, and now I have the opportunity to receive that money.

I find it absurd that half of my co-workers are not taking advantage of this settlement. Particularly the ones who have worked from 2001-2005, where the meal policy regulations were never followed properly by Michaels Stores. How can some say “The company has treated me well and I do not feel like suing them”, the company abused state regulations and think about the numerous lunch periods that were not offered to us in the past.

Taxation is Social Engineering

Posted on July 9, 2007 by mmunson

Recently California State Assemblyman Charles Calderon (D-Industry) decided to increase taxes on sexually explicit night club acts, items sold by sex shops, hard core pornography and explicit acts in a public place. Since the Democratic Party has expended our pocketbooks to death, they have to come up with a new way of making money to fund their addiction to more government.

Its not about morality when the Assemblyman was inquired about his inspiration for making this bill, but it was about easing the impact of pornography on neighborhoods. It was surprising to hear that Republicans even those who are socially conservative would not want to support this bill. Maybe the Republicans realize that adult entertainment providers employ over 50,000 people in our state and they help drive our economy.

We are already being taxed enough in our state, and Republicans are rightfully aware that this piece of legislation is basically political opportunism so the Democratic party could paint Republicans as supporters of pornography. Individuals should have the freedom to consume products for and by consenting adults. Republicans may be against tax increases, but Democrats should also stand for personal liberty too.

When I was taking my Politics and Economic Policy class at UC Riverside, I learned that taxation is absolutely designed to change behaviors like encouraging people to go to college so they make student loan interest tax deductible or interest from the mortgage from your home to encourage you to own a home.

Assemblyman Calderon has designed this piece of legislation to address the impact of adult entertainment on society and families, but how about a tax on the sending of money out of the United States to pay for the cost of illegal immigration where our schools and medical facilities are being over burdened would be a more prudent tax.

A Safari for Windows

Posted on June 14, 2007 by mmunson

I am a big enthusiast for trying out new software for my computer. After Internet Explorer’s reputation for being insecure and resource consuming, I have been using Firefox and Opera regularly for my Internet travels. Apple has recently released their preview edition of Safari for Windows XP and Vista and it seems useful for people who do not want any extra bells and whistles in their web browsing travels.When I am visiting web sites, I just want a browser that consumes less system resources and does not cause other tasks to hang in the process. The best feature in Safari is its feed reader, which rivals Firefox’s feed reader when its only read like a list of bookmarks. Another notable feature in Safari is the go back feature, so you can return to where you came from if the browser or the website redirected you somewhere else.

Safari is a simple browser, that brings the minimalist ethos of Apple to the masses. My sister does own an Apple computer and she uses the browser because it gets the job done. If you are a technologist you may want to stick with Firefox and its hundred’s of extensions you can utilize to customize your browser.

Although being a beta product, Safari may end up becoming Number 3 in the browser market for Windows computer users.

Late Night Imagination

Posted on May 23, 2007 by mmunson

At work Martha Stewart has her own paper crafting accessories sold at my store. Last night the comedian Amy Sedaris was on the Conan O’Brien show on NBC. Amy was talking about her appearance in the Shrek Movie, but the crux of the conversation was about her book “I Like You: Hospitality under the Influence”.

Amy was showcasing some of the crafting excitement you could have with Conan demonstrating some of the fun projects that she designed. The projects that were mentioned are not serious like what Martha would envision, but insane in a good way.

It seemed Amy wanted to promote her book more than the Shrek movie, and I am likely going to buy the book for entertainment value when I move out and end up having to entertain guests. Party planning, crafting, cooking and gift giving are all featured here and seem like a good book to pick up.

Presidential Sweepstakes

Posted on May 23, 2007 by mmunson

I am skeptical about supporting Giuliani in the California primary for president. Even though I agree with him on equality of the GLBT population, his position on immigration makes me want to vote for someone else as a protest vote for the next election. Yes we do need immigration reform, but more reform in line with the 1986 reforms will only cause more problems. We are a generous nation, but in the Border States the cost of providing public services to these undocumented (illegal) residents is busting budgets, increasing the strain in our public schools, hospitals and jails.

I would not mind sacrificing the presidency to prove to all Republican nominees for president that you need to be tough as nails on immigration. I may not care for Duncan Hunter’s views on queer issues, but immigration reform is an issue about national security and our national finances. If a conservative such as Duncan Hunter became our nominee he will likely lose in the general election because his views are not as pragmatic.

It seems that we take an opportunity cost for each individual running for president in either political party. I supported Bush for President in 2004 because of his views on national security, but he was weak on equality issues, energy policy and immigration. However If I supported Senator Kerry he would of probably would have been weaker on more issues than President Bush.

We have until February 5^th to make our final decisions for who the 43^rd congressional district will choose for their presidential choice.

In California its shown that:

Posted on May 23, 2007 by mmunson

FOOD FOR THOUGHT
According to info provided by an LCR member, a Survey USA poll shows that President Bush has the support of 26% of California residents, but that they support gay marriage by 48% (and oppose it by 46% which presumes 6% are undecided at this point.) That means gay marriage is almost twice as popular as President Bush. Food for thought. Share that with your friends and family.

Hello readers

Posted on May 13, 2007 by mmunson

This is the May 2007 update with myself and Inland Utopia.

I renewed the site hosting for another year with the people of Siteground, if you need web hosting click on the link on the bottom of the website so you could help support this website with your new subscription. I am hoping to grow my website and hopefully make some small change to have the website support itself.

I snagged tickets to see the legendary Pet Shop Boys at the Hollywood Bowl in September. I hope to see more fantastic musical acts in 2007, I hope my father is surprised by how well they do their 25 years worth of electronic music.

My sister is moving out for awhile so she could go to the University of Nevada Las Vegas for art studies. She decided to go to that school because it was half the price of a leading private art school in Los Angeles and Las Vegas is exciting at the same time.

I am still enjoying my Nintendo Wii. The Wii is a small unit of entertainment, I am able to browse Youtube on my television, play GameCube games and wait for some promising Wii exclusives such as Smash Brothers and The Sims.

If you have any comments about any of my articles they are appreciated. As long as you are not selling prescription drugs or not overtly vulgar comment on.

T-mobile Rants

Posted on May 11, 2007 by mmunson

T-Mobile has decided to reduce the functionality of their T-Mobile Web data service. I have enjoyed using the Opera Mini alternate phone web browser and the Google Mail Java interface on my phone. I do not use my minutes as often, and using Google Mail on my phone was my path to communication without using much of my plan minutes.

I do not own a Smartphone, I only own a Motorola RAZR V3T phone and I feel the T-Mobile Total Internet plan is overkill for people who own phones such as mine. I think they need to make a nominal plan that does not include the hot spot access. People who own Blackberries or Smart phones could better utilize the Total Internet plan, but T-Mobile needs to be realistic on how they market their data services. I would not mind paying $11.99 a month to have unrestricted access to Opera Mini and Google Mail for people who own phones such as the RAZR, KRZR, and the Nokia 5300 as examples.

Not all of us have exploited the generosity of T-Mobile, I have never tethered my phone with a PDA or laptop. I just want my functionality on my phone back.

Wii the overstatement

Posted on May 2, 2007 by mmunson

I took the gamble for buying a Nintendo Wii, the irony is people are flocking the stores to pick it up and there is no worthy high quality games to go invest your money in until this fall. Right now Twilight Princess, Paper Mario and Excite Truck are the three games worth owning now.

I should of used my original judgment and waited until there was 10 good reasons to own the console. Virtual Console is great, but it has some flaws with how Nintendo uses digital rights management to deal with the downloads and the selection of games avaliable is somewhat lacking now. I would like to see games like Secret of Mana, Earthbound and Vegas Stakes to appear on the Virtual Console.

Right now, the Wii is just an enhanced Gamecube with slightly enhanced processors and graphics. I do understand gameplay helps make the Wii’s games standout from those released for the 360 and PS3, but most of the third party Wii games stink.

I wish I did not shell out the 270 dollars to pick up this system, probably the Xbox 360 would of been my system of choice. However, Microsoft is just unreliable in hardware as in software with the red ring of death and the system’s laser scratching discs.