Drake’s Deception

On 11-1-11, Naughty Dog released their 3rd part of the Uncharted family. Uncharted 3: Drake’s Deception. Uncharted is the story of an American treasure hunter named Nathan Drake who searches for treasures that are over 4000 yrs old. During his search, Drake manages to cheat death in every way imagined by man. His action packed adventures keep you on the edge of your seat.

The plot of Uncharted 3 was too search for a “treasure” that was located in the lost city of Ubar; the Atlantis of the Sands. The story of Drake’s Deception was kind of cool. Just like in its predecessor, Naughty Dog did a godly job of telling a story that was mixed with reality, legend and hear say.

The game play was a little different from Uncharted 2. I found it a harder to aim and shoot. And also I felt there was too much hand to hand combat. It was perfect during some scenes but was rather unrealistic in others. Example: while other’s are shooting at you.

The whole Uncharted catalog is like playing in a Hollywood feature. Play all 3 parts and you will see exactly what I mean.

The Round Peg In A Square Hole

10-5-11 was a very sad day for the computing world. Apple’s CEO & founder of Pixar (the makers of Toy Story) passed away. He was battling cancer the last 10 years of his life. I can recall 2001 when the 1st generation iPod was introduced into the world. I thought the idea was crazy. I remember asking my cousin, “Who would really want to carry a thousand songs in their pocket and whats the logic in that?” The amazing thing about Steve Jobs was he was a visionary. He saw things “normal” people didn’t. He told people what they wanted before they even knew they wanted it.

Steve Jobs really changed my life in 2007 when he introduced the 1st generation iPhone to the world. Even thought the iPhone wasn’t the 1st smart phone on the market, it set standards for the industry. Steve Jobs believed that Apple should be a company NOT to make something 1st, BUT a company to make things right.

After I got my 1st iPhone, was started getting a sweet tooth for an Apple. Microsoft has just released Windows Vista & just toying around with Vista on a work computer made me want to research what MAC had to offer. Stability, security, smooth user interfaces, a store dedicated to selling and teaching Macintosh.

Steve Jobs will always be remember for this dry humor during his keynotes and is awesome quotes.

“Here’s to the crazy ones, the misfits, the rebels, the troublemakers, the round pegs in the square holes… the ones who see things differently — they’re not fond of rules… You can quote them, disagree with them, glorify or vilify them, but the only thing you can’t do is ignore them because they change things… they push the human race forward, and while some may see them as the crazy ones, we see genius, because the ones who are crazy enough to think that they can change the world, are the ones who do.Steve Jobs
US computer engineer & industrialist (1955 – 2011)

You’ll be greatly missed sir!

Relationship Unemployment

When human unemployment starts rising, so does Relationship Unemployment. What is relationship unemployment? Its when relationships simply DO NOT WORK. There are a plethora of reason why relationships end up in an unemployment  line but I’m going to touch on my favorite reason. The art of over-expectations.

Have you ever joined a dating site and ran across a profile where a female who is 380 lbs & states she wants a man who works out and has a six pack? Or a guy who saying he wants a career orientated  female but he works for Dollar Burger. Why would you wait for a guy who has six digits in his savings account and you have -$6 in yours checking account.

Be realistic when pursuing a person of interest. Its not really fair to your self when you say you hate guys with hair on their back but you have a track on your top lip. Save your self the embarrassment and relate to your Bible. The good book tells you about being equally yoked.

iSlang: A New Slanguage

I remember back in 99 when I first stepped foot into a Yahoo Chatroom. There was no videochat. No file transfers to exchange pictures. Hell, we didn’t even have voice chat. All we had was straight character text. The biggest (and most annoying) question we used was a/s/l. Age? Sex? Location? These 3 make or break question was really all we needed to accept or decline an online friendship.

If you were satisfied with the outcome of the a/s/l questionnaire, the second most popular acronym was LOL; laughing out loud (or lots of laughs). That was a simpler time.

A close friend of mine’s nephew started college last year & he was ranting all over is Facebook wall and she immediately took concern. She called me and asked me if I knew what FML meant. I asked her to give me about 30 seconds & I’ll call her right back. After being baffled for about 25 seconds, I turned & asked a higher power for help. Wikipedia.org!

Any parent that have children that chat or text a lot, do me one favor. Before flying off the handle because you texted them a question and their reply was FITFO, Please log into your nearest Mac or PC, open up the fastest browser available and tune into http://www.internetslang.com/list.asp?i=all Do your research & then proceed with the punishment. And for my readers that are still on dial-up & the page is still loading, FITFO means Figure It The F**K Out.

Your Beautiful Ending

Aging and death are two of the things in life no one can run from. It doesn’t matter how healthy you are or how righteous you lead your life, the enviable is we all WILL die. People spend millions of dollars on special bunkers & armored shelters to protect them from things like nuclear attacks or terrorist. Canibus said it best in a song. “Body armor can not protect you from your karma!”

Ever wondered what will happen  on the day of your demise? Who will attend your service? Who’s true colors will come out? Will it tear your family apart or will it produce a tighter bond? Who will gain control or the items you worked so hard to acquire? Will your last wishes be carried out?

My final wishes are if there’s not enough money for a traditional burial, PLEASE cremate me. Someone please make sure my only child leads a life of righteousness & live her life like today is her last. And my final wish, I want this song to be played on the day of my beautiful ending.

This Miscommunication Of Text Messaging

Along with every other technological advance in life, text messaging has its pros and cons. Of course you can message someone in an instant or tell someone something you usually wouldn’t have the clout to say face to face. But texting, along with IM’s & chat rooms, take something away from us as human beings. Texting removes the intimacy of conversing. It makes every day small talk less personal and less endearing.

Have you ever tried debating via mobile text? Once you get back into a corner, you have an easy outlet of not replying. But during a conversation eye to eye, there is no easy way out. This is part of the reason why theres so much unfinished business in the world. We lose sense of communication and get out of touch with friends and family.

Its all great and dandy that we can message our contacts with a press of a button & send it to multiple people but its killing our society. A relationship’s foundation is a mega structure. If you removed communication from the equation, what will you have left? A society of people who can not form a complete sentence to complete a sensible conversation. Without conversation, we are doomed as a whole. Try sending your loved one a little email instead of a tweet. Its a more personal.

Email: Off With It’s Head

 I remember reading an article about 10 years ago or so about how the birth of email meant death to the traditional way of sending letters. The post office raised the price of postage to compensate for the lost revenue of  envelopes, stamps, and other lucritive items and services they offered. That wasn’t enough. The USPS also was rumored to stop delivering mail on Saturday to cut back on fuel cost and salary expenses.

Now here it is. 2011. Who really sits down to write out an email anymore? Everyone is in awes about Social Networking. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Social_network Social Networking is a short hand way to communicating with multitudes of people by posting a short, and most of the time useless, bit of information. In most cases, your networking is someone that you may know personally or someone with a similar interest. On FaceBook you comment on a wall. Twitter, you send a tweet. I’m not too familiar with other sites lol.

The world is getting faster & so is the way we get communicate. Short hand messages have literally killed off letters. No one remembers the beauty of the body of letters. Why draw out a salutation & compose a nice little email for your loved ones when you can simply write WYD on their wall.

The Information Highway Fork In The Road

Before the Immaculate Conception of the internet, entertainers actually had to use their heads, as well as a little elbow grease, to get their talents heard by the masses. People took routes of singing on street corners or subways, selling CD’s out the trunk of their mother’s car, snail mailing demos to major record companies with hopes that their music is heard by someone who was having a good day. Or even heard period.

Now a days, the freeway to stardom is as simple as a click of a mouse. People have become popular from blogs, YouTube videos, becoming online models or even online producers. This over night success could either condemn or exalt a star. Here’s an example of two young stars that were racing down Star Street until they hit a fork in the road. Justin Bieber and Antoine Dodson. If you do not know the story of either two, where have you been hiding the past year or so?

Justin Bieber uploaded a videos to YouTube and was discovered by Usher. Antoine Dodson ran to his sister’s Kelly aid during an attempted intrusion and rape. Both stars have their fan base as well their haters. Call it what you may but I exalt both these young men for taking the correct path down the information highway.

Swiper, NO Swiping!

I know I’m not the sharpest pencil in the school box but  I’m really confused about this sensitive topic called “CREDIT”! In my mind, this mathematical equation just doesn’t add up. Not even with a calculator.

Creditor do not humor us people that are credit stricken. It’s kind of like showing up at the ER and everyone is handing you an assortment of assistance, until they stumble upon the fact that you do not have insurance. Suddenly, that same nurse that was gently applying anti-bacterial gauze  is now tossing you a box of dollar store bandages and tell you to get the hell on.

I’ve contacted car dealerships in the past & they will literally molest your phone until they find out that you credit score is lower than your shoe size. But this is where I’m left baffled. You run my credit & discover I am a high RISK. Either they’ll have you escorted from the premises or they MIGHT give you an High Interest Loan. Ok, what a high interest loan says is “he’s known NOT to pay his bills so we gonna approve him for a loan that’s going to be even harder for him to pay back!’ Have creditor ever took a step back & took an honest inventory of what’s really the issue here?

The issue at hand is this equation is 3 steps past stupid. Wouldn’t it make good ol fashioned horse sense to give a risk a loan that would be a little easier to pay back? 40 Million Americas have sub-par credit scores. Could this be why our economy is so bad? You have 40 millions American’s that have been rejected the chance of upgrading their lives. Imagine if they graded credit scores on a curve. A curve may be what we need to get our credit scores into the ER for some recovery.

Please invest 10 minutes of your time & watch this video. I was like OMG!!

Season Pass (original poetry by me)

This purchase wasn’t brilliant at all.

You shell out $40 to cover Spring, Summer & fall.

Amazed by expectations & fooled by it’s appearance.

But never once do you question why this season pass was on clearance.

Greeted at the ticket gate by the guy who scans you in.

Glad just to have your money he wonders “which promotion scammed her in?”

He can’t even make eye contact as he slides a band on your wrist.

Now off you go into the theme park in hopes to find your gift.

There’s lots to see once you make it past the gates.

Loud music, pretty streamers to detour you of your mistake.

The food’s nutrition has no value and offers nothing to the plate.

The games are impossible to win & annoying just to play.

Step by step you lie to self that you’re having the best of times.

The rides, they jerk & barely work but your season ticket has you blind.

This is common when you follow crowds instead of walking with your mind.

Enjoyment is found in passion, not through society’s eyes.

Exhaustion is the seed planted by depression.

Too busy attempting to fool the masses that you simply miss your lesson.

Merry go Rounds travel at a slow but steady speed.

You progress in the same direction but your life is on repeat.

Roller coasters are just a series of nauseating downs & ups.

One minute you’re happily mountain high, seconds later you are in dwelling low in slumps.

But still you smile because that’s what theme park visitors are required to do.

But in the back of your mind you still replay that bad advice from your friends that wasn’t inspired in truth.

Emotions & adrenaline run high yet your true feelings are hard to contain.

Now you admit you miss the place that your soul was whole heartedly entertained.

You walk away with prizes, tokens & a lifeless stuffed bear.

The warm smile that was worn at admission has blatantly disappeared.

At the exit gate, your teddy bear is your only friend.

The gate keeper smiles at your departure & says “Season Pass owners, tomorrow let’s do this all again!”

Somewhere in the park we lose focus on our theme.

We follow lines of people instead of following our Dreams.

We consume empty calories of processed foods & funnel cakes.

Despite it being sweet, it’s nutritional value is fake.

You think you’re playing games but in reality, the games are playing you.

They play games with your emotions & are actually internally slaying you.

Today you have a different outlook.

You learned you will not have a blast.

But you are stuck in your ferris wheel of a life……

Because you purchased a Season Pass.

Jason Mays

1-25-11