Apple, I would like to smother you in peanut butter.

iTunes raised their prices in early April. Being behind on all the news like I am, I didn't know this until I tried to buy "Clocks" by Coldplay. I'm considering installing LimeWire on my computer. Why the hell does Apple have to raise their prices?! $.99 is quite a reasonable price and it keeps customers happy. Last time I checked, Apple wasn't exactly very bad off considering the economic recession. They can't make that much money off iTunes compared to their other products. They think that it's a reasonable trade-off to give us songs free of anti-piracy stuff and have the crappy songs only $0.69. What the hell? I am boycotting iTunes, this isn't fair. I'm going to start illegally download---I mean buying CDs.

Another Question:

What do these terms mean:

RSS
URL
Digg
Mini-feed

Seriously. I have no clue what URL stands for, I only know what a hyperlink is. Even then I'm pretty sure I only know it's the thing that turns purple and brings up a new window when you click on it. I think the Internet should come with a disclaimer: "Warning. This is too complex for you. Get away now while you still can."

Why am I even asking questions? Nobody reads this blog anyway. Doesn't hurt to dream....

Move Over, Bill Gates: Steve Jobs is Here.

So I'm thinking Steve Jobs is going to take over the world. Wouldn't that make a great anime fight scene? Steve Jobs v. Bill Gates? I can picture it now. But that's not why I dragged myself to the computer.

Apple is going to dominate the world. Microsoft is going to burn to a crisp under the reign of ol' Steve Jobs. Think about it. Would you buy a regular mp3 player without the letter "i" in front of it? Things are just cooler with the letter "i" in front of it. iRantingQueen. Hmm, maybe that doesn't exactly fit, but still. Who doesn't have an Apple product, whether it be an mp3 player or a computer? Apple earbuds are just better. Having a Mac basically exempts you from most viruses.

Not that I have anything against Microsoft. I use Microsoft, it's the only software I'll ever be able to use. I don't know if I'll ever be able to get used to another operating system. Everybody says Dells and Microsoft suck--what's wrong with either of those two reliable products? iWant a list.

Now to play Devil's Advocate: what's so great about Apple products and why are they so much better? Except for the obvious exemption to 97% of all computer viruses, what's so great about Macbook Pros and anything with an apple on it?

I like apples. I think that with every Apple product purchase you should get a free apple. Maybe that's why America is fat. Not enough stores have healthy promotions.

Just tell me: what's so great about Apple?

iWanna be a vlogger.

I'd so much rather be a vlogger than a blogger, but sadly, I'm restricted to print. Cameras are...what's the word...expensive. I looked. A nice Sony HD camera was $400. I've only got $400 in my savings account and my dad is taking $100 out so he can buy me an iTouch. Oh, yeah. By the way, I'm getting an iTouch for Easter this year.

If I wanted to be serious, being in print is so 2005. I wish I could enter a contest to win a camera. But hello, all of the contests require you to have a camera to shoot a video of you doing something stupid. I wish I was Timmy from Fairly Odd Parents and my own Cosmo or Wanda could just poof me an HD waterproof camera.

Starstruck: Figuratively and Literally

I'm so happy over a comment I recieved on my first post. :) Butterflies in my stomach? Check. Random acts of laughter? Check. Very happy thoughts? Check. Inability to be unhappy? Check.

On another note, I did a lot of thinking last night. I went onto the Goddard Space and Flight Center's website and I started looking at their photo gallery. I saw pictures of the space center (which is my desktop wallpaper), pictures of different galaxies taken by the Hubble, and images taken by the Mars rover. I started thinking about where we are as a human race, and where we are physically. Are we just a speck of dust in another creature's domain? Or are we in an endless game of "The Sims"? I had a good idea for a science fiction book: What if we're controlled by another race, only their world is coming crashing down because humans are starting to figure it out? However, my dream was quickly crushed when I found out that it had already been done.

Think about it. If the sun exploded tomorrow and there was no light, humans are completely unprepared for what might befall them. We have nothing to keep us living in endless darkness. The human race would decline exponentially until there were none left and the Earth would be left rid of humans. Which, to some degree, would be good for the planet. Major, sudden climate changes will eventually hit the Earth by surprise and humans will be wiped out.

Global warming? Nothing that we need to be concerned about. I'm 100% positive we aren't the first forms of civilized life that has ever existed. I strongly believe we are the future that people wondered about a million years ago. I strongly believe we are not the only civilized union of humans (or other form of civilized life) that is currently inhabiting something, somewhere. Scientific evidence proves that we are emerging from an Ice Age. Global warming is just part of Earth's natural cycle and we need not be concerned with it. Is the Earth warming up? Yes. Because with each passing second, we're getting closer to the next ice age. It's a cycle, and one that I am 100% positive has happened numerous times before. We just need to learn to live with it. Each time the Earth goes through this part of the cycle, the warming process gets shorter and shorter until the entire planet is coated in water. Then, the cycle begins again. Then, people start repopulating the planet and in a couple thousand years, we come back and start worrying about it. Then there's an ice age and it starts over again and again and again. I'm not saying it's a good cycle, but it's one that we have absolutely no control over whatsoever.

So who are we? Are we a speck of dust in another's galaxy? Are we the only forms of life? Is there another civilized society that has the things we dream about: hovercars, slidewalks, solar power running entire cities, equality? Or are we just a foreign union of rocks and dust accidentally created and run amok?

These are the things that keep me up at night.

Stupid YouTube.

YouTube is gradually deteriorating in quality. They are such Nazis about copyrights and they've started running ads on the bottom of videos. Whatever happened to just plain old watching a video and be able to post what you want on it? I understand the adult content censoring because it's not a place for that type of content, but honestly, ads? Google Ads are useless. Most of the time, the ads don't have anything to do with the content of the video you're watching. I watched one earlier today, a RhettandLink video about Ghost Riding, and the ad that appeared was "Click here to find out how I got rid of all my wrinkles in 2 weeks!" The ads appear numerous times if you're watching a longer video. I've seen this is happening on UStream, as well, and it's worse. The ads are completely unrelated to the video content and something needs to be done about it.



Also, YouTube is being completely unreasonable about what they think is copyright infringement (and Facebook does it too, only worse). YouTube just won't process the video, and if it does happen to get past their system, they'll remove the audio but keep the video. It makes the user who posted the video look like an idiot, and it's just plain infuriating. Facebook, on the other hand, will allow your video to be posted, and when they do their little video scan a few days after the post, they remove it. This really makes me mad--especially since it's happened twice. When I make videos, I take songs from other artists (giving them FULL CREDIT at the end) and put pictures/videos to them. I don't act like I own them. I never have. Facebook seems to believe that even the slightest hint of another person's song on your video is illegal. I took a song from the Twilight album, "Bella's Lullaby" by Carter Burwell, and they removed it. I've heard that Mr. Burwell is being anal about his music being posted on the Internet. This is understandable to some degree, but come on. Not even background music? On an innocent video? My first video was removed from Facebook because they said it had music in it I didn't own. I used some crap song that was on my computer when I bought it. I have no idea who sang it. Here's Wintry Lullaby, which was removed from Facebook and never even processed on YouTube:

On Facebook, when they remove a video, in order to get it back, you have to fill out a form and electronically sign it. They make you put in your full name, address, phone number, and you have to explain why you think they should put it back. It's ridiculous and I don't like giving them my address. I always think, "Are they going to report me? Will I get in trouble?". It sounds like some political scam and they're just protecting themselves from getting sued by music artists. I thought the point of posting videos and making them was to express yourself. That's what Facebook and YouTube are for. To express yourself. You shouldn't have to worry about whether or not the Facebook Nazis and YouTube Confederates will remove your video. Here's my lone surviving YouTube video, "Outside the Festival of Trees":

Facebook actually threatens you when they remove your video. When you fill out the form, they say that "if this information is not correct, or you attempt to upload your video without filling out this form, your access to Facebook Video or your Facebook account itself will be removed." What? Where is this coming from?!

And yet, I'm still perpetually addicted to Facebook.

Hypochondriac TV

Discovery Health is now officially called "Hypochondriac TV". Why? Because the people who watch it will find the tiniest thing that relates to them and then say they have some rare, undetected disease. My mother watches Mystery Diagnosis. I hate it. She came up to me and said, "Your face looks yellow. I should take you to the doctor, you could have liver disease." Wait a minute here! I'm the one with disease? Right.

I hate the narrators of shows like Dr. G: Medical Examiner, Mystery Diagnosis, and Diagnosis: Unknown (which, in my opinion, is Mystery Diagnosis just with a different name). They speak slowly and with feeling, and pause A LOT. "And then...she was shocked to find...that her symptoms...unveiled...so many...more secrets." And so on and so forth. It's ridiculous, and the people who watch those shows just eat it right up!

The prescription drug commercials are the worst of the whole hypochondriac fiasco. There are so many new drugs that supposedly "cure" some freak disease. The testimonials from the people that allegedly use these drugs probably have never even seen the medicine. The side-effects are typically worse than the condition it's trying to cure. A medicine designed for psoriasis might have upwards of fifteen side effects, none of them related to the condition. "Side effects may include: nausea, vomiting, blood loss, dehydration, gallstones, severe hemorrhaging, fingernail loss, and dry, itchy skin." Sometimes, it seems like the side effects include the symptoms of the condition. Why do drug manufacturers do these commercials, in the first place? To fill their greedy little medicated pockets.