Tuesday, May 22, 2012

Assumptions Can Be Great Tools

I'm in a subway car with the following:
2 black men in suits
1 black man dressed thuggishly (oversized pants hangin past his ass, hoodie, holding a hip hop magazine)
1 black man wearing sweats
1 black man in a best buy uniform
1 black man in slacks and a hoodie (slacks are on properly)

Where do I sit? Next to the thuggish looking one. He got annoyed that I sat next to him, forcing him to close his legs (as if he's carrying gold bullion down there).

Since I have few stops to go, I start mentally judging who was up in up and who were not. I know judging is wrong. It's merely a tool for me to flush out characters in my head.

The 2 black suits. One was tired and one wasn't. I assumed the tired one put his 150% of his energy at work. Needless to say it could be possible he went partying until late the night before. The suit who wasn't so tired was an average worker. He didn't go above and beyond. At least the 2 are working. Well that I assumed. It could be that both were job hunting. I would never know.

Sweat suit man was a lazy one. He's comfortable in sweats but has no ambition out of his norm. He's comfortable hanging out at a liquor store or a park playing dominos.

Best buy guy was heading home from work. He was wearing a grin which could mean he was about go see his girl or he's about hang with his boys; who could be into some mischief.

Slacks hoodie guy could be a guy working in the mail room at a company. Had a long day. He looked kind of defeated. So maybe he had a long day. He was probably getting abused at work. People talking down to him as if he was nothing. Or he could just be really tired.

Last but not least is Mr Thug. He's the one that screams a lot to me. He is the dude who is hustling on the street. Puts up this hard demeanor. Self centered with a chip on his shoulder. It's all about what pleases him and never vice versa. He doesn't even respect his family, not even his mother. He probably sees them as potential new clients. He also loves his hop hop. If he wasn't hustling, he'd be a rapper. He can debate all day long whether Gucci Mane is sick with his game compared to Wiz Kalifa. He ride or die for his hustle. Proud of it too. Never believed an education and hard work could get you fast money. So he didn't waste his time. He doesn't look at his future because there probably isn't one. I could go on and on about this guy. My assumption can be wrong too. He could be a teddy bear who just likes the thug style.

Mr thug gives me more ammo to building and fleshing through a character. However, I do not write about ghetto life. It's not something I know and I refuse to immerse myself into it to learn. Maybe I could refine character to be out of his norm in a story.

Mentally judging people gives me characters. I don't really base any real life judgements on some of the people I observe. I am a woman and I do think about my safety when traveling to and from work by myself. I have to make quick assumptions about people for protection. I would never walk near mr thug. I would avoid him like the plague. But I would also avoid the others if I could too. One thing my mother taught me that I still retain is to never walk thru a group of guys. You are asking for trouble when you do so.

We all judge people when we look at them. We all assume different things. So why don't we use some of the assumptions in a creative way instead of harboring them and make useless stereotypes to classify them. We are all guilty of that. Most don't want to admit it.

Do you judge people? What does it bring you?

Monday, May 14, 2012

Review: Deadlocked


Deadlocked
Deadlocked by Charlaine Harris

My rating: 5 of 5 stars



I've been a Sookie fan for years. See my review here . This is the 2nd to last book in the series. I've read the reviews on GoodReads and I don't find them very positive. I may rate a book vastly different than others. I don't go into detail on grammar and all that technical and critical stuff. I base my reviews on my feelings on what I have read. Did the story have like able characters? Did the story grab my attention? You know, the organic stuff.

The Sookie books weren't written to be contemporary literature. It's considered in my mom's term, smut. It's not teaching you any lessons. It's a good easy read.

Now my review that may have spoilers.

So Sookie is still caught up in vampire bullshit. Her relationship with Eric is on the rocks. What she really needs is peace and quiet. Can she have it? No. Who can she trust? Not her family. She's been hit on both sides. Then her best friend's girl wants her out of the way, permanently. Sookie's life is just getting harder. Yet she's having baby fever. She's envious of her friends normal relationships. Sookie at this point in her life has been a jump off. Her relationships always caused her danger and the concerns weren't really about her but her gift.

This book was the beginning of a wind down to the final book I am looking forward to read. The series has been long run and I've enjoyed it. My life was not wasted for 12 years as one reviewer has said. I got to experience a world with sexy men and adventure. This book did have me guessing, but some of the plot wasn't strung as perfectly as previous books. I could live with that.

That being said, this book was 5 stars to me, for keeping me entertained.



View all my reviews

Draw Something

Well I've been playing Draw Something by OMGPOP for the past month. In the time I've been playing, OMGPOP was purchased by Zynga.


























Draw Something is a social multiplayer mini version of Pictionary. You draw a word you see in the list and your opponent has to guess what you draw. If you succeed, you get gold coins. As you progress you increase your coins and turns. However, if you can't guess the word and you pass, you lose all the turns and start back at one. You also don't get the coins from that turn. the gold coins allows you to purchase more colors or bombs. Bombs eliminate useless letters on a given turn. Once you deplete them, you would have purchase more.




















































This game requires you to wait for your opponent to make your move. So if you are impatient, then this game is not for you. You can also find friends/link game to FaceBook. If you don't have FaceBook, you can do random games and/or giving people you OMGPOP username to a fellow player. I do not have my games linked to FB and I have 9 games going. It really is a fun game. If you have a stylus, you can use it to draw better pictures. Writing with your figures is horrible. There is also, as usual, in app purchasing. In order to get some bombs you need a minimum of 400 gold coins. Getting new colors is cheaper. So you can buy gold coins.

Overall this game gets an A- from me. If the prices of bombs Drops, I'd be in heaven.

Found in Apple iTunes Store for free

[iOS]

People Today Are Way Beyond Cruel

People today are so horrible it is upsetting. Why can't people move on from hurt and upsets without inflicting harm on someone?

You accidentally step on someone's shoe. Today it's can be a life or death situation. On the wrong person's shoe can get you killed.

You break up from a relationship can cost you numerous injustices. You can be blacklisted from jobs, your health could be in danger or worse you could be dead.

I've been noticing these trends more and more often these days. This is sad. People can't resolve conflicts without violence. Don't people realize life is precious and shouldn't be taken because of frivolous situation? What are parents teaching their children? What are teachers teaching our kids? Why is movies and television the dictator of what's right and what's wrong. Who should be accountable for all of this? Parents want to blame TV. Politicians want to blame the Internet. Everyone wants to point fingers, but they don't want to do anything about it.

What started me on this post was this article. The man was a fool for going to his ex for dental work. However, no matter how hurt you are, one should not mess with a person's health. She was hurt yes. But removing all of his teeth was incredulous. There is no reason for that. Yes he hurt your feelings. So do you have to ruin his life?

Sometimes I wonder why I want to be a part of this society. It's just getting worse and worse. It will not be a natural disaster that will make humans extinct. It will be a human to do so. I've been hurt in y life too. I've moved on and found a great guy. If things don't work out between us and we would have to divorce, I would soul crushingly hurt. However, I wouldn't want to inflict revenge that can cost him his lively hood or his life. I would probably find the nearest pool of despair and wallow in it. I'll eventually emerge and move on with my life.

As for this dentist, I wish her nothing but the worst for using her profession to cause evil. I hope she has to pay the man for all his surgeries and new teeth and the maintenance of them for the rest of her and his life. Disgraciado.

Laters..

What do you think should be the outcome of the dentist situation?

I am 20/20

I have decided to do LASIK. I was tired of the glasses and contacts were a pain in the ass to try and learn. JH decided to do it first. My guinea pig. I got to see what happens and upkeep after the procedure.

Did I tell you that I am usually petrified of anyone messing with my eyes? What possessed me to even attempt such a procedure? JH, of course. He gives me courage.

Today is day 3 after the procedure and my vision is clear. I did have a slight issue after surgery that required me to wear a bandaid lens. That was a bit annoying. What's really annoying is the having to put medicated drops in and regular saline solution to keep my eyes moist. Another thing to keep me annoyed.

Before the procedure they gave me up to 10 mg of Valium. I don't think it worked. The minute they brought me into the procedure room, I was ready to bolt. However, the Jew in me said not to waste a large deposit. I did happen to have a mild panic attack. It could've been worse. Would have loved if they knocked me out, but they needed me awake. The whole procedure was less than a minute, but it felt like 4 minutes per eye. I wanted it over with the minute I laid down.

The procedure is not that bad as your mind makes it out to be. You don't feel any pain. You really don't see anything. Your mind does put more fear into it. When JH went thru it, his anxieties came after the procedure was done as we thought. We found out that he was exhibiting more because he has bruises on his eyes. I don't really have any visible bruises. He didn't have to wear a bandaid lens. We all heal and react differently.

Do I think this is for everyone? I don't know. Would I do it again? I don't think so. My anxiety level is still a bit high when it comes to my eyes. Read about the procedure. Get testimonials. Research. Get recommendations from your eye doctor. Do not refer to ads you see in papers that offer huge discounts on the procedure. This is your vision. You don't want just any Tom Dock or Harry messing with your eyes. My doctor who's a well respected eye surgeon recommended this doctor.

If you in NYC area check out www.ny2020.com. I am no way endorsing him by getting a discount. Nor is he paying me for me to promote his link. I just believe you will get good information about the procedure and what to expect.

As for now I'm okay and my vision will continue to improve as inflammation goes down. I will also have the please of walking down the isle without my glasses! That I can't wait to do.

Saturday, May 5, 2012

The Ultimate Avengers

So JH, my bro, his girlfriend and I went to the Ultimate Marvel movie marathon. This marathon consisted of us sitting thru the following:

Iron Man
The Incredible Hulk
Iron Man 2
Thor (3D)
Captain America (3D)
The Avengers (3D) - Midnight Premier






























We were in the theater from 10 am and left around 3 am the next day. It's a very long time sitting in a theater. They did give us breaks between each movie. It was awesome. I have never done a movie marathon before. I felt like we were at comic-con. People were dressed up as their favorite hero from the series. There weren't any fights or arguments at all. It was a peaceful and exciting times.

It was great. You got a refresher of the movies that was paving the way for the Avengers movie; eggs and all. The theater they used was nice and actually comfortable. Only bad side of he night was the lack of air conditioning. It really made it feel like a comic-con. You know, all misty and male b.o..

Here's my spoiler:

Avengers movie was OMFG absolutely f'n awesome with a side of wholly shit, I have died and went to heaven. Can you tell how much I loved this movie? I must go see it again!!!!!! This is not a review, but my opinion of a movie that made me spend a whole day in a movie theater. And it was so worth it!!!!

How do you get 5 super heroes to cooperate? Blackmail them. But I must say the Hulk stole the whole movie. I loved him. He had the best lines. He did an awesome job. I must say I like this Banner/Hulk a bit better than Norton's. This one has a bit more humanity than Norton's. Many will disagree with me but we all have our own opinions. This is mine. One of the best scene with Banner was when Black Widow went to request his presence. He was totally f'in with her.

The infighting within the team was fun too. Loki was enjoying himself with that. But it was cool how equal they were to each other. The Thor and Hulk fight was funny. There fight paused and concluded at Stark Tower when both were taking on a villain. After the villain succumbed Hulk punched Thor out of the blue and sent him flying.

The next best scene is when Hulk again arrives at Stark tower when Loki's there. Loki talks to him saying he should bow down to God like him, then in mid sentence Hulk flung Loki in semi circles like a rag doll, walked off and said, "puny God". I laughed my ass off on that scene and still laughing about it as I type this paragraph.

The best scene of the movie was the whole movie. My favorite line scene is when Thor, Black Widow, Hawk eye, and Captain America was regrouping and Banner shows up. They notify Iron Man and he says he's bringing the party to them. Then they see the creature coming, Captain says to Banner: "ok. You can get mad". Banner replies, "...I'm always mad!" He automatically turns into the Hulk. Then when Captain start assigning roles, he tells Hulk' "you smash" You should see the joy in the Hulks face. He likes to smash.

This movie was so awesome. I know I'm being redundant right now. But seriously, I haven't been this excited over a movie in a while. I was eagerly awaiting this movie for a year. It could've been a let down. It was fanfuckingtastic as this reviewer stated. OMG I so want to see sequel and all. If you haven't seen this movie, go do that right now. I will give you a note to your boss. My fiancé and I will babysit. Just get out and go watch this movie. You just have to.

Wednesday, May 2, 2012

The Closer I Get To I Do

As I get closer to my weddings weird things have happened or happening. People I haven't spoken to in years are popping up. People I barely talk to want to talk. I even had a weird dream. I guess the time is getting closer people are trying to make their move, I guess. Maybe they should have said or did something before I got involved with JH. At this point my heart belongs to JH. I can't picture my life now without him. Yes yes, I'm all mushy and in lurve, lol. However, I want to discuss 2 conversations in this post. It's gonna be a long on with all the pictures (screenshots) of the conversation.

First conversation is with my ex from nearly 8 years ago. Let's call him Baby Momma Drama, BMD for short. The reason we broke up is that he moved down south. I've spoken about him on this blog numerous times already. Click here for past references. Anyway, so Zi deleted him off of my Facebook. There wasn't any reason to keep him on there. He wasn't communicating with me on there. As I dropped him I get a text from him. Here's the conversation.











































This whole conversation is weird. Haven't spoken to BMD in years. But I did tell him I was engaged on Facebook when it happened. So he wasn't in the dark. Thank God I have a functioning brain. Imaginee with his kid and dealing with him for support. He has 6 children!!!! One of them had him locked up for a year. I'm very happy to be over this man's drama, even though it didn't effect me directly. Why did he text me? Was it because of Facebook? I don't know but I don't expect to hear from him again. But the out of the blue text is weird especially when he really didn't have much to say. I may have read too much into this.

Second conversation is with an ex 4 to 5 years removed. Let's call him Super Tall, ST for short. ST and I met at a lounge that a coworker took me too. Coworker's BFF happened to be dating ST's BFF. We ended talking during the whole excursion. Our relationship was brief. We were just in 2 different places at the time. We are still cool. He even started to date another woman. We were texting he other day. The conversation went as follows.








































I didn't really know how to respond to his confession so I just switched subjects. I really don't see what I can do to make the situation better for him. He is moving on with his life as he should. He's not posing any issues for me. He's a genuinely nice person. I wish him the best.

Is there anything I can do to stave off these weird conversations? I doubt it. I can't and won't entertain any ex or friend being inappropriate. I want all my exes or friends to be honest with. I don't want them to make confessions to me as a strategic offense. If they do, they will lose a friendship.

I tease JH all the time saying he's breaking hearts all over the place. It's a running joke with us. When we met I was single and ready to mingle. JH saw what he wanted, worked his voodoo, and got what he wanted. Which was me. I'm happy he did. I haven't been happier. However, he blindsided everyone in my life. They had no clue about him and all of a sudden here he is. So I guess some figured they would see where it went with JH. Now they no longer have time. I'm getting married in a month and a half. I am able to talk about this stuff with JH and I am glad. He's very secure with us and I'm not going anywhere. We are a good fit for each other. Now let's see what else will pop up before we say I do.

mSecure


This day and age we have accumulated dozens of logins. You have personal ones such as Facebook, Twitter, even your banks require a login. You also have logins at your job; whether you are a work from homer or you commute to your workplace. Sometimes you wonder how can you keep track of all your logins and passwords. It's a tricky area. You don't want your logins in the wrong hands.

Back in the day, you really didn't need a login and password. The most sensitive thing you had was your Social Security Number and your bank card PIN. It was enough to memorize. Today there are way too many. If my grandmother was alive, she would probably tell you to write them down in a journal. How safe is a journal? How practical is having a journal with you everywhere you go so you can find your login? It is not. It is not very safe. You can lose the journal (major disaster there). It can burn up in a fire (safest way to lose your sensitive information). Or someone can steal it (this is just as bad as losing it). With new technology came software where you can store your logins. They are pretty handy. They also have risks too. The software is usually password protected. That's a benefit where no one can access it. However, you can forget your login to the software. That way your data is even protected from yourself. Your computer could have been hacked, received a Trojan or a virus. Hacking and Trojans are the worse of the three. There are keystroke Trojans that can get access to the software after you access it once. The same with the hacking. Virus usually just uses your computer to do its bidding, like sending out massive spam and replicating itself on other computers. Viruses requires you townie your drives clean. They also leave it vulnerable for hackers to get the information.

I have gotten so many passwords that I needed a program to help me memorize them. I do try to use the same everywhere, but each site has their own login password requirements. When I used a Windows mobile phone nearly 3 years ago(feels like 4 or more), I had this app called Password Keeper. Once I switched to my iPhone, I use this app called mSecure. I absolutely love this app. You can customize it and you can create passwords straight from the app. Password Keeper is also on iOS, but the app was poorly reviewed when I was looking. I love mSecure and I even got my mother to purchase the app. I actually shelled out $2.99 for the app. That was big for me because I never paid more than $0.99 for any app. The app now costs $9.99. I'm glad I purchased when I did.

Since I purchased, the app has been upgraded numerous times, adding new functionalities. In the beginning you could only back up app by emailing the back up. You got an email that looked like gibberish. Now you can update/sync with Dropbox. I do this because it allows me to access the same data from my iPhone and iPad. You can also Group and Tag by Type your passwords. You can customize and create your own Types. I really like this app. It's going to take me a while to get my job's passwords in it. You should see how many passwords are involved there. I just had to fight to get my password reset on a site. It took them 2 weeks to get it. If I just remembered my password or put it in mSecure, I wouldn't have been in such a bind.

Remember, your passwords are only safe as to the effort you put in it to keep it safe. Make sure whatever you use, you feel secure and it's easily accessible to you. We all wish we had the perfect photographic memory, but we don't. With the economy the way it is, crooks are getting more desperate in finding ways to access your data so they can steal your life. So please protect yourselves as much as possible.

Gallery of mSecure app pictures:

Opening Screen
Groups
Sort By Type
Sort By Name
New Item
Types






























[iOS]

Passwords & You

This day and age we have accumulated dozens of logins. You have personal ones such as Facebook, Twitter, even your banks require a login. You also have logins at your job; whether you are a work from homer or you commute to your workplace. Sometimes you wonder how can you keep track of all your logins and passwords. It's a tricky area. You don't want your logins in the wrong hands.

Back in the day, you really didn't need a login and password. The most sensitive thing you had was your Social Security Number and your bank card PIN. It was enough to memorize. Today there are way too many. If my grandmother was alive, she would probably tell you to write them down in a journal. How safe is a journal? How practical is having a journal with you everywhere you go so you can find your login? It is not. It is not very safe. You can lose the journal (major disaster there). It can burn up in a fire (safest way to lose your sensitive information). Or someone can steal it (this is just as bad as losing it). With new technology came software where you can store your logins. They are pretty handy. They also have risks too. The software is usually password protected. That's a benefit where no one can access it. However, you can forget your login to the software. That way your data is even protected from yourself. Your computer could have been hacked, received a Trojan or a virus. Hacking and Trojans are the worse of the three. There are keystroke Trojans that can get access to the software after you access it once. The same with the hacking. Virus usually just uses your computer to do its bidding, like sending out massive spam and replicating itself on other computers. Viruses requires you townie your drives clean. They also leave it vulnerable for hackers to get the information.

I have gotten so many passwords that I needed a program to help me memorize them. I do try to use the same everywhere, but each site has their own login password requirements. When I used a Windows mobile phone nearly 3 years ago(feels like 4 or more), I had this app called Password Keeper. Once I switched to my iPhone, I use this app called mSecure. I absolutely love this app. You can customize it and you can create passwords straight from the app. Password Keeper is also on iOS, but the app was poorly reviewed when I was looking. I love mSecure and I even got my mother to purchase the app. I actually shelled out $2.99 for the app. That was big for me because I never paid more than $0.99 for any app. The app now costs $9.99. I'm glad I purchased when I did.

Since I purchased, the app has been upgraded numerous times, adding new functionalities. In the beginning you could only back up app by emailing the back up. You got an email that looked like gibberish. Now you can update/sync with Dropbox. I do this because it allows me to access the same data from my iPhone and iPad. You can also Group and Tag by Type your passwords. You can customize and create your own Types. I really like this app. It's going to take me a while to get my job's passwords in it. You should see how many passwords are involved there. I just had to fight to get my password reset on a site. It took them 2 weeks to get it. If I just remembered my password or put it in mSecure, I wouldn't have been in such a bind.

Remember, your passwords are only safe as to the effort you put in it to keep it safe. Make sure whatever you use, you feel secure and it's easily accessible to you. We all wish we had the perfect photographic memory, but we don't. With the economy the way it is, crooks are getting more desperate in finding ways to access your data so they can steal your life. So please protect yourselves as much as possible.

Gallery of mSecure app pictures:

Opening Screen
Groups
Sort By Type
Sort By Name
New Item
Types