Monday, September 27, 2010

Stupidity, stupidity, stupidity.

RANT

I just had the most horrible experience where there is a wave of stupidity going on all at once. There must be an alien in orbit bombarding the earth with stupidity ray or something.

There is a thread of messages where I had a discussion with a CEO of some kind (who shall remain nameless), where he insisted that communication skill is very important. I mentioned how people nowadays are failing basic skills such as Show and Tell, Reading, Writing, Arithmetic, and Looking from the Opposite Point of View. He replied that 2 of those things, Show and Tell and Writing, are part of communication skill. Huh?

Wait a minute. Reading is not a communication skill? Communication is defined by speaker and listener. In written form, that means Writer and Reader. Therefore, Reading is part of communication skill. Furthermore, I did mention that Opposite Point of View is a basic skill. What is opposite Writing? Reading, of course!

So, he failed in Reading. He failed in Opposite Point of View. And so he failed in Writing accurately. And it's not really Arithmetic, but still math. I mentioned that a student can get a second degree faster by transferring his college credit. He countered that getting another 4 year degree will take 4 years. Ummm... I just told him that college credit can be transfered. If the degree is close enough, you don't need more than 2 years. In fact, in this case, it can be minored, so I'm guessing just 1 year. It's not Arithmetic, but failing Algebra isn't too good, either.

You know, these kind of mistakes do happen, but I certainly didn't expect it to come from a highly skilled, highly experienced CEO! Especially one who insisted that communication skill is paramount. I will make extra effort to avoid his products in the future.

There was a letter to a newspaper, saying that a child was asking whether Grandma is related to Mother. Such a thing is to be expected from a five year old. Unfortunately, the child in question happens to be a soldier about to be deployed to Iraq! Whatever happened to common sense?

So, I had a discussion about the importance of college degree. Somebody went off tangent saying that school is important. For proof? He mentioned how he got his job BEFORE getting his degree! What's his job? Musician. What's his degree? English. I don't know about you, but that doesn't look like a school endorsement to me. Worse, when I asked for clarification, there's a mention of how a lot of his classmates went jobless after graduation! That is certainly not an endorsement, but a condemnation! So, why does he go around telling people to go to school? Is he stupid or something?

And I should tell you that his writing level, and intelligence for that matter, is only at high school level. Run-on sentences! Very coarse vocabulary intermingled with a few uppity, high noggin words (a few of which are rather off tangent). Yet, he didn't really say anything of substance. Just a bunch of opinions, packaged in poor diction. Sigh. Is that guy really an English major graduate? Please tell me where he went to school so I can tell people to NOT go there. Run-on sentences and English major are NOT compatible!

I mean, come on, don't you have a sense of responsibility to uphold the reputation of the group you belong to? Do you think that just because you joined a highly reputable organization, you automaticcally, without any effort on your part, become highly respectable? That's not the way it works. If you do that, the organization will die a slow death.

Witness the decline of quality TV show. It used to be that I can watch a few shows. Murphy Brown and Home Improvement are the two I like to watch. I can tolerate Everybody Loves Raymond. But now? It's all junk in there. I don't bother watching TV anymore. I pretty much just gave my TV away. I couldn't stand to watch any of it. The only non-news show I can watch is infomercial, where they show shapely ladies shaping away their buns in some exercise program. Sigh.

I guess that means I won't be working in TV anytime soon. I also probably won't be working in computer game anytime soon, as their quality has universally steadily declined. There used to be some great games out there. Lucas Arts used to make fantastic Star Wars games. Their last Star Wars game was an absolute pain. I couldn't believe it! Ditto for World at War series. Id Software used to make Doom, which I played endlessly. Their last Quake game? Rather annoying. I actually prefer the old Doom, what with pixelated graphics and all. Sigh.

You are who you are with. It doesn't matter if you're good. If the group you are in are terrible, then you are terrible by association. The commodity entertaiment industry has be in steady decline, and I'm very disheartened about it, since I plan to enter that industry. The way it is now, the computer game companies are so abusive that newcomers are expected to work 100+ hours per week without extra pay. Huh? Is there no one in the industry who sees something terribly wrong with that? Of course there are. Many of them, in fact. Unfortunately, a few big bad apples paints the picture. Now tell me, if you are smart, would you work for such punishing industry where early burnouts are so common, they are expected? Or would you work on normal job with better pay, respect, and balanced family life? No contest. The computer gaming industry is slowly commiting suicide, and as I try to be successful, I will avoid such industry until they get better. After all, the way it is now, only soon-to-burn-out-and-lose-their-job losers work there.

I haven't watched TV in a long time. I have curtailed my PC computer game purchase due to incredible amount of buggy junk out there. I will probably curtail my DS games purchase soon because, frankly, their quality is going down the drain there as well. Would you believe that my last dsiware download game froze on me? That never happened before! Well, it shows you how bad DS games has become. And that's not counting bad music you cannot turn off, which is 90% of the time, so that I end up playing the game mute, losing all sound effects. Sigh.

So, if any of you happen to look up to the sky, and see a flying saucer with green skinned alien waving around their stupidity ray gun, then please do me a favor and SHOOT THEM DOWN!

Tuesday, September 14, 2010

KFC vs Popeye's chicken

REVIEW

I just can't help myself. When Popeye claims that their chicken beat KFC, I couldn't believe it! So, I tried it myself. I like KFC original recipe chicken, but comparing it with Popeye chicken is unfair, since Popeye chicken has crispy skin. So, I decided to try KFC crispy.

I prefer KFC crispy to Popeye's chicken. I think KFC tastes better, and they have better, softer skin than Popeye's. Popeye's skin is too dry for my taste. However, Popeye's cajun chicken is better than KFC crispy. In that view, Popeye is better than KFC. However, I do prefer KFC original to Popeye's. So in my view, KFC wins the taste contest. Better taste, better cooking, better chicken.

Nutritionally wise, KFC has less sodium and fat than Popeye's, which surprised me. OTOH, eating KFC reminds me of MSG. So, I don't usually eat chicken dinner. I usually eat rice dinner, with chicken on the side.

Kindle for PC

COOL TECH

I downloaded Kindle for PC from Amazon. Looks nice. It has all the features I want, none of the extras I don't want. It makes it very convenient to purchase books, and carry them. Delivery is extremely quick! So far, I have been able to confine myself to just freebies book, but I am sorely tempted by some of the offerings out there, so most likely, I will break down later and will start downloading books like crazy.

The book samples pleased me. It's not just a single chapter, but a whole lot of them. My criteria to buy is simple: If I finished the sample, and still want more, then buy! If I finish the sample and not want to buy, then don't buy! Too many good books out there for me not to buy, though. Now I'm tempted to buy the actual Kindle device. Oh, dear.