YET ANOTHER REASON TO SAY NO TO APPLE!

As many of you know, I owned an iPhone made by Apple for a little over 4 months...it was the worse piece of shit that I had ever purchased in my life! I never liked Apple to begin with (which was my first mistake in purchasing an iPhone), I hated the company even more once I was done with the 24 hour process of getting a full refund on the device.

Anyhow, the shit company is at it still with "apps" (iPhone applications)...even on the newest released iPhone. Many people, such as myself have been anxiously awaiting the release of the invite only Google Voice, a single phone number with a mobile app that allows you to choose to where to ring! i.e. home, office, mobile and even all three at once! You can SMS from your Google Voice phone number, listen in on calls before accepting them, and even read your voice mail, transcribed...ALL FOR FREE! Sadly but not surprisingly, Apple rejected the Google Voice app. So those who own the second most expensive piece of shit on earth (first being a Ford) have no access to this free and fabulously convenient technology.

But this isn't where the story ends...several months ago Apple did approve and accept some apps for the iPhone. Here are two examples...

1) BABY SHAKER - A purchasable game (finally now pulled) for iPhone which used the device motion sensors. A crying baby appears on the screen and you shake your iPhone until a red "X" appears over the baby's eyes, thus telling you that you killed the baby. Society knows this as "Shaken Baby Syndrome".

2) iFARTED - Yes, a purchasable app that meters and rates your flatulence and allows you to share and compare results with other users.

So obviously there's a motive behind Apple rejecting the Google Voice app. Perhaps they will mimic the technology and charge iPhone owners a fee to download and use it. It's ridiculous. Now if you want to be able to download all the apps other device owners are able to such as Blackberry, HTC, Nokia, Palm, etc...you can pay someone (who may or may not know what they're doing) to "jailbreak" your iPhone, which then unlocks it to do things other phones have been able to do for years... unfortunately there is no guarantee to how this will effect your phone and it does void your Apple warranty.

MAXIMUM SECURITY PRISONERS TAKE STAGE?

In Volterra, Italy maximum security prison inmates are doing time for offenses such as armed robbery and murder. Now you may think they're working hard at producing license plates, or cooking up prison meals...and perhaps some of the prison population are, but the others are doing time in totally different way!

About half of Italy's prison have a theater program! That's right...plays and musicals, performed by Italian convicts, and in many cases...performed quite exratodinarily. Supposedly one prison program, "Compagnia della Fortezza" is quite the act, winner of several Italian theater awards, the prestigious kind. Right now the more popular program is working on production for "Alice in Wonderland, a Theatrical Essay on the End of a Civilization" which is partially based on Lewis Carroll's popular book.

Many of these theatrical permanences have toured Italy, but not everyone gets to participate. For an inmate to go on tour, consideration is taken in regards to the remaining time left to serve, potential risk of danger to society as well as the inmate's psyhcological condition.

Read more about this here

ONE RINGY DINGY...TWO RINGY DINGY

….continued from the last post, “IT’S ALL BECAUSE OF HIM”

3-4 days after that first MySpace message, I asked Paul in one of our AIM chats if it was ok to call him, he said indeed it was. He gave me his number and told me to ask for Humphrey…because that was his real name. “Humphrey?”, I though. In a way I felt awful for the 26 year old with such a hideous name. But I immediately stopped what I was doing and grabbed my phone. After the second ring I was greeted by a hello so I reply, “Humphrey?”…he starts laughing. I then find out he has his first experience of pulling one over on this blonde…which so many people do, because sometimes I just don’t catch on to little jokes like that so quickly.

Emails, AIM chats and MySpace messages between Paul and I have almost entirely died down…because we spend so much time on the phone. We had both taken a liking to conversing with each other in what most people would consider VERY LONG PHONE CALLS. I remember I would start out in the early evening on my cell phone, then when that battery was drained I would call him (or he would call me back) on the LAN line…without actually disconnecting. During this time, my cell phone was charging because inevitably I would drain the LAN line and need to re-transition back over to my cell phone. I remember one of our conversations being slightly over 8 hours….and not to mention there was a considerable 3 hour time difference in between us, so we ended a call when the sun was coming up in California, which meant the sun had been out for quite a while in Virginia!

Phone conversations with Paul were like nothing else I can explain. Day by day we were finding out so much about each other. We we’re also finding out so much that we both have in common, such as: we’re both avid Roseanne show fans, we both have an agreeable dislike for drag queens, we both LOVE chocolate milk, we both love music, and we both…most definitely have a witty and at times, twisted sense of humor.

Every conversation on the phone would end with a “I so don’t want to get off the phone with you” or the “it doesn’t feel like we’ve been on the phone for 6 hours”. I believe it was the 3rd phone conversation where Paul actually fell asleep on me! Was I insulted? Of course not…it was adorable, but I made him think I was the next day in an email.

After each phone call, I always looked forward to the next one more and more. I was finding myself during the middle of the day laughing at something Paul had said, and then of course I would quickly look around me so I didn’t look like a lone idiot, laughing out loud at nothing. I would also think of a lot of things to as Paul later that night. I would see things, eat things, drink things, listen to things…and always wonder, “Would Paul like this?”

Stay tuned for more posts that lead up to August 5, 2008....the beginning of our relationship!

IT"S ALL BECAUSE OF HIM!

1 year ago today, I was sitting at home in Victorville, CA flustered, depressed and unknowing. I ran a group on the MySpace network for Gay and Lesbian Roman Catholics. It was a group giving an open space and opportunity for people gay catholics, such as myself to network, rant, rave, express their feelings (often feelings of disgust towards our Church)within our circle. Whenever time would allow, I would sit down and do a MySpace user search. The search criteria would be made open to gender, age, location but I would specify "gay" for sexual orientation and "Catholic" for religious preference. I also would select, "most recent online users" so that I would encounter new individuals each time I conducted a search. Every time I did so, thousands upon thousands of MySpace users would pop up. I wouldn't really pay much attention to their profile details or even their profile photo. I would simply open their profile in a new window, and paste a generic message that I had used for months, then send it off. The message introduced myself...telling people a little bit about myself, my goal and quick summary of the group. I extended an open invitation to the everyone. Now that I think about it, I probably sent that message to certain people multiple times!

Not everyone joined the group, understandably. Sometimes I would receive a message back in response, often times I wouldn't. If I did, it was typically a brief praise for taking the time out to promote and moderate such a group and other times it was people telling me to "suck a fat dick" or "I hate the Church and everything "it" stand for". My favorite actually was the, "How can you be Gay and Catholics...that's pathetic". But on Monday July 14, 2008 I got quite a different response. It read something along the lines of

"Thank you for taking the time to invite me to your group. Unfortunately I don't think it would be right for me to join but I think it's awesome that you have such a group and if you ever need my support, holla at me".

That's not exactly what it said, but somewhere along the lines. Typically I wouldn't reply back to a message along that lines, but that day I did. I replied back saying something along the lines of, "Thank you so much for your recognition, it helps to know that my time doesn't go unnoticed. Sorry to hear the group isn't for you and I hope I didn't cause you any insult by my mass email. If you ever want to chat, or have any questions I can answer, please don't hesitate to contact me. My name is Eddie...what's yours?"

At this time, I had just gotten out of a 7 year relationship and by all means WAS NOT LOOKING. Truth be told, at this point I still hadn't opened up this guy's profile to read his details or look at his photo album...little did I know I was talking to a beautiful, funny, creative, and Mariah Carey and Good Charlotte loving, 26 year old named Paul who lived in Virginia Beach, VA.

Several more emails were sent over the next 24 hours. Paul was just getting ready to start a new job. I was just starting of a Catholic charismatic prayer group, it was a busy summer, I was living with my ex....but somehow something was starting to develop as the emails transitioned to phone calls....long....all night phone calls.

Stay tuned for more posts that lead up to August 5, 2008....the beginning of our relationship!