i don't necesarily object to this../

San Jose Mercury News - District takes control of Net access at schools - April 30, 2006

On Wednesday, March 15, 2006, the Palo Alto Unified School District began filtering its Internet access in all its school campuses after concerns from parents. This is pretty late, given that most school distrcts nationwide have been filtering their Internets since the dawn of the millenium. So far, it has generated few complaints among it's students. There have been several requests to unblock sites. One was to unblock a site that contained a picture of the character Dutch Schaffer - played by Arnold Schwarzenegger! - from the action movie Predator that a student needed for his foreign policy project. Out of the 100 requests that the school distrit received within the past month, 40 passed, but 60 denied because they were for pornographic sites. As I read the article, I laughed myself to death after reading THIS:

"Sunnyvale middle schoolers using school computers were going to MySpace at least 100 times a day, and an elementary principal discovered fourth-graders who had put profiles on the site. Although users need to be 14, anyone can invent an age and post information."

WTF...FOURTH-GRADERS using MySpace?! That is SO insane! Look, there is a good reason why MySpace has a minnimum age...if you've been following the news lately and seen how teens have been doing bad stuff on MySpace and how sexual predators catch kids on the site, then you know why. Legally, they shouldn't use the site either, because the COPPA prohibits websites from obtaining personal info from people under 13 without parents permission. So if you know anyone under 14 using MySpace, tell them there's a good reason why not. In fact, on an episode of Dateline NBC aired back on April 9, when they visited Middleton, Conn. to do an episode on MySpace, the reporter was interviewing a parent who was mad because her 11-year-old son had established a MySpace without her knowlege.

Personally, I feel that Internet filters on school campuses are not a bad thing; they are so that the school cannot be held liable if the student gets exposed to inappropriate content from a school computer's internet with parental objection. In fact, I've had to live with filtered Internet on school campus since third grade, and I've learned to tolerate it. For example, EVHS has banned MySpace since Dec. 2005 due to students getting in mischif on the site, they do not want to be held liable if students get in trouble or are harrassed on MySpace. In addition, they are so that students do not use the computers to do illegal activity or look up porno...think of it as the PATRIOT Act. For example, the website of the KKK, Al-Qaida, you name it might be banned. So just accept that there are rules on campus and people tend to get in trouble online, and accept the filters.

San Jose Mercury News - District takes control of Net access at schools - April 30, 2006

On Wednesday, March 15, 2006, the Palo Alto Unified School District began filtering its Internet access in all its school campuses after concerns from parents. This is pretty late, given that most school distrcts nationwide have been filtering their Internets since the dawn of the millenium. So far, it has generated few complaints among it's students. There have been several requests to unblock sites. One was to unblock a site that contained a picture of the character Dutch Schaffer - played by Arnold Schwarzenegger! - from the action movie Predator that a student needed for his foreign policy project. Out of the 100 requests that the school distrit received within the past month, 40 passed, but 60 denied because they were for pornographic sites. As I read the article, I laughed myself to death after reading THIS:

"Sunnyvale middle schoolers using school computers were going to MySpace at least 100 times a day, and an elementary principal discovered fourth-graders who had put profiles on the site. Although users need to be 14, anyone can invent an age and post information."

WTF...FOURTH-GRADERS using MySpace?! That is SO insane! Look, there is a good reason why MySpace has a minnimum age...if you've been following the news lately and seen how teens have been doing bad stuff on MySpace and how sexual predators catch kids on the site, then you know why. Legally, they shouldn't use the site either, because the COPPA prohibits websites from obtaining personal info from people under 13 without parents permission. So if you know anyone under 14 using MySpace, tell them there's a good reason why not. In fact, on an episode of Dateline NBC aired back on April 9, when they visited Middleton, Conn. to do an episode on MySpace, the reporter was interviewing a parent who was mad because her 11-year-old son had established a MySpace without her knowlege.

Personally, I feel that Internet filters on school campuses are not a bad thing; they are so that the school cannot be held liable if the student gets exposed to inappropriate content from a school computer's internet with parental objection. In fact, I've had to live with filtered Internet on school campus since third grade, and I've learned to tolerate it. For example, EVHS has banned MySpace since Dec. 2005 due to students getting in mischif on the site, they do not want to be held liable if students get in trouble or are harrassed on MySpace. In addition, they are so that students do not use the computers to do illegal activity or look up porno...think of it as the PATRIOT Act. For example, the website of the KKK, Al-Qaida, you name it might be banned. So just accept that there are rules on campus and people tend to get in trouble online, and accept the filters.

The scandal over the Wikipedia

WikiPedia - the Free Encyclopedia

Most of you reading this post might use WikiPedia, the popular yet controversial open-source, fact-filled encyclopedia. If you wanted to know something about, say, hard drives, for instance, all you had to do was go on the WikiPedia, type in "hard drive" (or whatever you seeked) and up comes an article with pretty much everything you need! Forget lame corporate ad-filled encyclopedias like Britannica, Information Please, or Encyclopedia.com, the WIKIPEDIA is your ULTIMATE SOURCE for everything you wanna learn! In fact, since the WP is open-source, any Internet user can edit it, so more minds get to contribute to articles, making the article more accurate. I am among those who've edited articles on WikiPedia - only if I knew fo shizzle for sure that the information was wrong. If I doubt it, I don't edit it, so I'm safe. The two articles I remember editing best are the ones on 4Kids Entertainment and censorship of anime, you can see that the parts against it were my work, edited by others who feel it's too biased.

But then, WikiPedia has its controversies. In November and December of 2005, controversy had risen over apparant slander over the articles on Robert Kennedy and podcasting - "First, former administrative assistant to Robert Kennedy lambasted Wikipedia for an article that suggested he may have been involved in the assassinations of both Robert Kennedy and John Kennedy. Then, a flurry of attention came when podcasting pioneer and former MTV VJ Adam Curry was accused of anonymously editing out references to other people's seminal podcasting work in an article about the hot digital medium." Because of this, schools around the nation have either restricted use of the Wikipedia or completely banned it from use in students research. Recently, I had in English class a project of the Holocaust, and my English teacher allowed us to do online research from WikiPedia as long as we use other non-Wikipedia resources too. She told us that WikiPedia is not 100% accurate, as neo-Nazis might have been raiding it. However, when I listened to my friend's podcast (attached here), I discovered that the high school HE goes to totally bans the WikiPedia from research, and after he used it as a source in his science project, he got an F. That is just total ignorance, given how WikiPedia has now changed its policies, as of December 2005 only registered users may establish new articles so that they can be held accountable for any sh** that happens. Anonymous users may not establish new articles, but may only edit, their IP address can be banned should their editing be slanderous or libel in any manner.

I think that the WikiPedia is a decent gathering place for information. Given how it's (almost) free to edit, its accuracy just keeps going up every time! Or down if the edits are stupid. I mean, compare WikiPedia to a Britannica/other corporate encyclopedia article, and WikiPedia would scare the p*ssy out of Britanica. I mean, Britanica probably I betcha now could be a few months to almost a year behind WikiPedia now! I've been a Wikipedia user since November 2004 and loved it. Death to corporate encyclopedias!

Now, a message to all Wikiusers to avoid more conflict like this: Realize that once you click "Save Page" your information is available for all Web users to see. Just like Myspace. Think, "will people see this as truth?" If you don't think it's true, DON'T POST IT. Ask a teacher or expert in the field, he/she probably know better. Just THINK BEFORE POSTING ON THE WIKIPEDIA. Don't let their admins ban you. Also, realize that slander and libel on WikiPedia could result in the cops knocking on your door.

You never can be sheltered from it

On Thursday, I watched the episode of the satirical cartoon South Park, "The Return of the Fellowship of the Ring to the Two Towers". It first aired on Comedy Central where SP normally airs on November 13, 2002, but first aired in syndication locally on KBHK-TV (UPN 44) on Thursday, April 13. Of course, the episode parodies J.R.R. Tolkiens Lord of the Rings book series; the story focuses on Stan, Kenny, and Cartman having lent their rented copy of The Fellowship of the Ring to their friend Butters. Butters, however, discovers that in the FOTR case was a porn video, and Stans parents find FOTR in the box for their porn video. Now, the boys are on a mission to return the porn tape to the video store before they are caught by bullying sixth graders who happened to find the porn video in the FOTR case; the sixth graders disalike Lord of the Rings. Similar to Lord of the Rings huh?

Now, those of you whove seen the Super Bowl XXXVIII (38^th for you illiterate people) most likely have seen the part where Justin Timberlake former lead singer for the boy band NSYNC performed his hit "Rock Your Body" with Janet Jackson. A slight mistake from JT causes Jacksons breast to be exposed before the tens of thousands of spectators at the Reliant Stadium in Houston, Texas, where the SB was held, as well as the millions watching the game on television. That led to millions of dollars in fines and much outrage among angered parents, and the incident was played repeatedly in the news for the rest of February and part of March 2004. Please, if youve seen that, dont go brag that youre a virgin blame it on Justin Timberlake.

Going back to the present, on Friday afternoon I was flipping through the channels and on KICU (channel 36, cable 6) was an advertisement for Dish Network Satellite Television. Several satisfied customers expressed their views of the service to persuade customers to subscribe, and one parent featured in the commercial stated that she trusts Dish Networks "Parental controls" to shield her children from inappropriate materials.

This commercial, the South Park episode I watched the day before, and the Janet Jackson breast-exposure incident inspired this thought of mine. Parents should accept that they, no matter what, can never shield their children from inappropriate content. Of course, when their children become 18, their parents dont have to care for them anymore, so they have the right to access what their parents forbade. Then, you have incidents like what happened in the South Park episode, where Stans parents were careless and accidentally put their porn video in the box for The Fellowship of the Ring, which would be lent to one of their childrens friends. In addition, there is the Janet Jackson incident, where the parents who paid about $60-70 for seats at the Reliant Stadium to see the Super Bowl with their family and whoever was watching the Bowl live on CBS saw Jacksons "you know what". No matter what, parents must accept that their children WILL be in situations where their innocence is broken, and they will be exposed to content and values that theyd deem inappropriate for their children. I mean, what are ultra-conservative parents going to do next, go as far as to supervise their children EVERYWHERE to ensure they arent exposed to immorality? Trust me, its real life. If I were a parent, I would do what Tokens dad suggested in the episode of South Park and just explain and context the inappropriate content to my kids, rather than keep them immature and just shelter them. Its just a crazy, loose world out there, and people must be prepared for the worst to come.

Aaron Lewis's birthday; Proof's death

The bad news first...

WDIV-TV (NBC4 Detroit) - Rapper Proof Shot, Killed At Detroit Club

R.I.P. Deshaun "Proof" Holton, a member of the Detroit rap group D12, which also includes the rapstar Eminem. I haven't listened to a lot of D12 in the recent time being, I've been listening to a lot more metal and alternative. But this has shocked me since I'm an Eminem fan, and since this is closely related to Eminem/Shady Records/hip-hop and stuff.

R.I.P. DeShaun Holton, better known as "Proof" to hiphop fans, 10/2/1975-4/11/2006.

Hmm, this has shocked fans in the Midwest way more than in the SF Bay Area, since we're STILL mourning Mac Dre nearly 1 1/2 years after HE died (Dre died on 11/1/2004)

And KITS-FM (Live 105) - the SF Bay's only alt-rock station since Channel 104.9 went off the air back in January, reported this morning on the "Morning Music Co-Op" that it is Staind frontman Aaron Lewis's 34th birthday today. HAPPY BIRTHDAY AARON LEWIS! Tomorrow or Saturday watch for a review on Staind's live acoustic DVD "MTV Unplugged", which was recroded back in summer 2001. Staind's new albums suck, I wouldn't recommend listening to any Staind songs released after 2001's Break The Cycle. It's the fault of that moron Fred Durst, the former lead singer of Limp Bizkit, who produced Staind's music since 2001. I mean, Limp Bizkit was already enough of a joke, Mr. Durst, enough polluting the era of rock music already! Did you seriously know that when I first heard Staind's "Right Here" I thought I was listening to 3 Doors Down, the worst pop-rock band ever? Seriously, after Break The Cycle Staind went downhill from being the next Nirvana to just a plain-assed pop-rock band thanks to Fred Durst.

USA 1.1: Lazy self centered Americans

U.S.A. (Unexcusable Stupidities of America)

Stupidity #1.1 -  "You Stupid Lazy Self-centered Americans"

Originally written: 31 March 2006

Updated: 5 April 2006

Today, in English class my teacher told the class about how we as Americans are too lazy and self-centered to care about other countries. In fact, she showed us photographs of poor starving children over in poverished countries like Sudan to show us how people who don't contribute to the cause to stop the starvation are part of the problem. She even pointed out that Americans are overly greedy in money and food while other countries are starving. One person in class even pointed out how Americans are dying to be so thin (gee thanks Teen People and you bullsh** magazines for contributing to those eating disorders among American teenage girls) while people in imporverished countries are thin because they can't afford even a grain of rice. I admit: I after hearing this found out I am a big sinner. My high school has held several disaster relief efforts: one of them a Hurricane Katrina walkathon, others I don't remmeber, and then tonight at 19:00 a Red Cross Benefit rock concert starring several of the school's rock musicians, and of all of them: I HAVE NOT CONTRIBUTED A PENNY TO ONE OF THEM. That means I'm not going to that rock concert tonight. I found out how stupid I was, how I and many other lazy-a** Americans are being part of the "problem" of the starvation crisis in the Third World by not contributing a bit to relief efforts.

And then I was thinking, many rap/hip-hop music videos - notably "Stay Fly" by Three 6 Mafia and "Still Fly" by Big Tymers - promote bling-bling and riches toward American kids - especially blacks, their target audience. That's the scene over in 'hoods like Memphis, Atlanta, New Orleans, etc. But then go to 'hoods as Darfur, or over in Africa. The black people THERE don't look anything like Mannie Fresh or T.I. In fact, they're starving to death and are struggling for money, while greedy rappers in America get millions of dollars a year for all the airplay they get on MTV and radio and CD sales. I have yet to hear of any rap superstar who's contributed to the relief efforts in Sudan and such, and then I hear of Ludacris contributing to charities in Atlanta, David Banner contributing to Hurrican Katrina relief efforts, and then Kanye West. Remember when he said "George Bush doesn't care about black people"? Well, I think West is kinda being the good boy among all the greedy and dumba** rappers out there. He's making a good point, as (1) Bush was being a jacka** by procrastinating on HurrKat relief efforts, and (2) Bush keeps saying that Sudan is in trouble but hasn't really done anything about it. In fact, did you know that West appeared on the Live 8 benefit concerts in July 2005 to show he really cares about his ancestors homeland? Honestly, read the KW Wikipedia article and see.

So, please, if you want to be seen as a good person, whenever you ehar of a national/international famine/crisis/whatever that puts the people in dire situation, please at least contribute a dollar or two. Think about how we are so greedy we've made the poor people in the Third World unable to live a good life like us. (Politely) write to President Bush to make him take more action about the Darfur crisis. Don't be very rude or angry at him for being a jackass, just make your point politely, especially you Bush-haters out there, because if you sent Bush anything that makes him nervous, the Secret Service will be after you. In the meantime, you should write to Def Jam or G-Unit or (any major hip-hop records label) and encourage their artists to contribute to the crises out in Africa. We as Americans are mistreating our friends outside the country by being greedy and showing we don't care if they're so poor they'll starve to death. Take...action...NOW.

UPDATE 4/5/2006: On Sunday night I was flipping through TV and saw a P.S.A. for the website www.one.org. There were various celebrities on the ad, most being white, and the only blacks being Jamie Foxx, Kanye West (you knew that didn't you?), and someone else who I think is either Wyclef Jean or more likely Nas. Now that emphasizes my point. You see, E-40 and Ludacris care more for their hoods in their USA rather than their ancestors in Africa! Also, notice this is now U.S.A. #1.1 because I pimped it up a bit.

Regarding the Mexican Immigration protests

This morning Mr. McDonough the principal announced to the school that they were aware of how some students ditched school to join in the protests against legislation that would make illegal immigration a felony. Any student in EVHS caught ditching would get disiplinary action. In fact, Friday some students at Huntington Beach, Calif. (near L.A.) ditched school to protest the legislation. Mr. McD said that he's not willing to give a bad rep to the school for letting people commit illegal activity to defend themselves. To anyone who wants to protest this leglislation, please, as Mr. McD said this morning (especially those of you who weren't here today or who don't go to EVHS) act LEGALLY. Join a protest when school isn't in session. Write to an elected official. Write to the newspaper's letters to the editor. In fact, don't be like that starving man in the Elie Wisel book Night - the man, who was desperate for food, runs in the middle of his concentration camp to get to the bowl of soup with the risk of getting shot, only to have his head fall into the hot soup.

UPDATE 4/2/2006: This from the Autodial message from Mr. McD this weekend:

"Finally, once again I was proud of the focus on EDUCATION shown by our students during a tempting "walk out" week.  Education is about "walking in"  and taking advantage of the rights to a free public education.  The issues surrounding current immigration legislation are important.  The decisions made will impact our community and the East Side.  Student voices can play an important part in the debate over legal vs. illegal immigration...those laws will effect the future of THEIR country.  Walk-outs have been effective strategies for protest in our nation's history, but I do not believe now is the time for such action.  I do encourage students to organize groups for discussion and we can provide open forums at Break, Lunch and after school for debate or to initiate petitions to our elected officials.  Those strategies are more appropriate than leaving the school and turning backs on one of the most important rights we have in this country...a free, quality public education!"

Yee! Congradulations for killing your temptations!