On MTV from the 1980s and the good 'ole days...

I must be getting old. This night, Christopher Cross' name suddenly came to me. So, I went to YouTube to check. Lo and behold, there he is, Christopher Cross live with Sailing. It's such a great treat. Music from the 80's still sound fresh to me, and it brings me back fond memories. (Yes, that's what hubbie said of me tonight...to ride down the memory lane.) So, I searched for more, like Best That You Can Do (God, I love this song), Think Of Laura, and other artists like Simple Minds' Don't You Forget About Me, Rick Astley's Never Gonna Give You Up, China Crisis' Wishful Thinking, Black Man Ray, Spandau Ballet's True, Depeche Mode's Master And Servant, Tears For Fears' Shout, America's You Can Do Magic (I love it), Michael McDonald's Yah Mo Be There, James Ingram's Just Once, Toto's I'll Be Over You, Soft Cell's Tainted Love, Rita Coolidge's All Time High, Enigma's Sadeness, ... ... ...

A few things struck me:

(1) I grew up with the MTV in the 80's, but I've since given up TV for a long time. I have not expected that I would come face-to-face with these familiar MTV's again in my lifetime. I must say, watching these MTV's and listening to these songs again bring back such great memories. I had not realized I had missed those days so sorely.

(2) Songs back then (and not just the 80s, but even those from the 70s) were really songs. Great music and lyrics. I have not listened to music for a long time now, precisely because I've lost interests in the so-called music these days which oftentimes comprise of sick words and nothing but rap.

(3) There had been such great variety of music in the 80s, from the new romance, to the rise of techno, to conventional rock 'n roll, and more. I'm sick of the monotonous monologue of rap that is so pervasive in the music scene these days.

(4) And, I'm not alone in longing for those better days in music. There are hundreds of thousands of viewings of the 80's MTV's that I've come to enjoy, and viewer comments were overwhelmingly positive and grateful that the music and MTV's are still around for us to watch, again and again.

I remember my younger sister and I used to religiously watch (and tape) all MTV's. We would listen to the billboard songs, and alternative music. We would track each artist, and who was cool. We even befriended the late night DJ on the radio station. We would call in to the station, play their games, and win stuffs like LP's and movie tickets (and we would be so proud of our "achievements"). We would sleep late on Friday nights since there's no school on Saturdays, and we would listen to older songs on late-night programs. I even put down the list of songs that I would play and things I would say/share with my audience, should I become a DJ myself one day! :) And I did went for an audition of a DJ position once. Silly silly stuffs - we did nothing more than read one sentence. (I remember that sentence specifically includes Spandau Ballet's name since quite some kids pronounced it wrong.) Hundreds of kids like me went for the audition after our resumes were screened, but I heard the couple of vacancies all went to insiders who knew people in the station already. The public interviews and auditions were just window-dressing.

I'm sure my kids will do the same thing, when their time comes. My parents had been very lenient towards us, primarily because we would do all our homework first before anything else.
We grew out of it (watching music/sport) pretty much after high school finished. Or, maybe we had become so busy, we never found the time. My sister moved overseas for studies, and I was busy with both work and studies.

I have never looked back to those days. Now that I think back, it's almost like a loss of innocence, that the music (and MTV) had seemed almost juvenile to me after high school. I had a great time growing up, and nothing but fond memories of those days. But I'm not sure if I would want to go back in time. Perhaps it's because I'm quite content with what and where I am now. It's good enough for me, to have that reservoir of memories to pick on and have a laugh about.

On the stumbling of Obama...

By now, I'm sure you've heard it, of the stumblings by Obama, from the shady real estate deal, to his association (and now dissociation) to his pastor, Jeremiah Wright.

What was it that alot of people say? That when a black man cries foul, he's crying for justice; when a white man cries foul, it's racism? Don't get me wrong, I'm neither black or white, so I'm entitled to certain impartiality on the issue. While it's undeniable that the blacks had suffered much wrongs in the past centuries. There's no doubt about that. But I've always been troubled by black liberation theology, and how easy it can be hijacked by some black folk who cries foul. If I were a someone in power, and I am to give a sermon on fellow countrymen on how to rise up to the occasion, I would not have started out by recounting how I'm being stepped on. I would focus on the opportunities that I could get and how to seize upon them.

I have no doubts though, that Wright has touched on those in the past 20 years that Obama has been in his flocks. In view of the controversy that Wright's sermons generate, for Obama now to come out and denounce his own pastor, and to deny that he hasn't heard him in those sermons, over the PAST 20 YEARS, is flat-out lying. I'm very unimpressed by Obama. I couldn't comprehend how main media can say that he handles himself well.

And then, there was the real estate deal by an indicted developer friend of Obama, who was a long time personal friend, contributes much to his campaign, involves in shady practice, and helped Obama in securing land for extending Obama's backyard. If you tell me that Obama, being an adult, and a senator and a professor no less, that he does not that any of those smells conflict of interests, he again is flat-out lying. After much ado, now he would admit it's a mistake.

Oh, and he has the thick skin to tell us, in yet another speech, that we should move pass all those. That, after he's suffered all those racial stuffs, he's decided that we shouldn't be talking about race...because really, his pastor was talking about it. Of course, he always tries to position himself to be above all fray, and that he's NOT about race. But as Geraldine Ferraro rightly pointed out, he's ALL about race. If he's not black, he would NOT have all those black votes. Afterall, blacks always vote one of their own, even a convicted felon (case in point: Marion Barry), no matter how hard Clintons have worked with/for them, and how much they have loved the Clintons. (Though Bill Clinton's remarks during his campaigning in South Carolina came across as pretty patronizing, but really I very much doubt if that's the galvanizing factor for the blacks to turn.)

On the passing of Arthur C Clarke...

I've been so busy for the past few weeks that I could hardly find time to write. (Yes, reading and the occasional DVD's have been skimming my time for this online journal.)

But I have to write it, since today marks the passing of Arthur C Clarke, the author who gave us such great novels as 2001: A Space Odyssey, and whose personal technical achievement marks him a legend above mostly all others. I'm grateful Clarke left behind such legacies, not only in the literary world, but in the technical world as well, and whose view and vision would continue to inspire generations to come.

On rating panels for metrics companies...

There's report that Nielsen is having trouble trying to expand its ratings coverage of their existing 5000 households of the TV panels to cover other media like web surfing and mobile devices. Although I'm not on the Nielsen's panels, I'm not surprised since I have rejected the request from comScore for much the same privacy concerns.

I've been on the comScore panels for a number of years. It's pretty painless and easy. You install a pretty lightweight software on the machine, and it tracks your web activities (where you go, what you do, how long do you stay, etc). I mostly let it do its job, and I go about my own things. This has been for a few years now. Every three months, they cut me a check of $15. I thought, that's not too bad, for doing nothing. But of course, I've been doing _all_ the things that are being monitored (login to check bank balance, web purchases, etc).

And then, I install the personal firewall. I had not expected my machine to be attacked on such regular intervals, but indeed there are at least 5-7 intrusion attempts every single day, including virus attacks and port scans. While it shouldn't be of surprise to me, I'm still very troubled by the frequency of it, and that simply by leaving my machine online, I'm inviting hackers in.

It begins to dawn on me that by installing comSore's software, I'm emitting all my activities back to them to track as well. And I mean ALL of my life details. Well, I did agree to it, and for a modest sum of $15 every 3 months, I had been effectively selling my life away on the cheap. So, I stopped with comScore. The firewall now wouldn't even allow their software to be installed. It's been close to a year now.

ComSore does try to lure me back with a $25 check for reactivation. But I don't think I'll go back. Being on a TV panel is entirely different from online monitoring. Watching TV is such a passive act (you do nothing much other than eye movements), but online activities on the web is a whole new ballgame.

Perhaps one day, if I use another computer which does nothing other than simple stuffs (just surfing, no login or anything), I might consider installing comScore again. But I don't think I'll ever use a machine without at least a firewall which would disallow spywares. So much for comScore or any other online panels.

On more plagiarizing by Obama...

Man, it's embarrassing to read so many words and phrases from Obama that had been lifted from others' speeches (including Deval Patrick's and John Edwards'). Yet, as expected, those stupid cult-fans of his would hear none of it. As long as they're from Obama's mouth, they would not care if this professor has plagiarized from someone else, word for word. As Washington Post has it, this guy is so light in substance, and built on nothing much but words, it's surprising that voters now would not care if the words really are his own words, or if he really means it, or if he really can walk the walk (not just talk the talk).

And now, it's his wife's turn to put her foot in her mouth, for having this big chip on her shoulder. We'll see if the people in Texas and Ohio can see through smoke and fluff of the Obama campaign. I hope they do.

On Obama plagiarizing speeches and others...

How ironic, that for Barack Obama the Dem candidate who runs on nothing much other than fancy words, speeches, and his "movement", to now find himself trying to explain away how he could have lifted from a speech from his fellow black politician Deval Patrick, the Massachusetts governor, without giving credit to Patrick. In other words, Prof Obama plagiarizes. That's the word John McCain and Hilary Clinton have for Obama, in his copying of Clinton's economic plans.

I have no doubts that those young Obama supporters would hear nothing of these. Afterall, their support and belief of Obama require shallow examination at best, of his records, accounts, and plans. So, to tell them that their "hero" is nothing more than a mirage and an empty-talker, I'm sure they would have none of that.

But for those "undecided" voters, and those who really care about the real ability of the candidate, I hope this serves as a wake-up call to them, at least to get them aware of the fact that relying on rhetoric itself can be a dangerous thing, and with Obama, his words are not even authentic.

On the inherent sexism and Clinton as a candidate...

It is exhilarating to see the Letters to Editors on New York Times to speak out for Hilary Clinton, against the sexism from Maureen Dowd, one of her own gender. I find it very disturbing every time when I hear people who intend to trash and talk down Clinton would throw at her all the "auxiliary" thing that one precisely shouldn't be looking at in a candidate. How she does her hair (as that stupid would-be voter before the New Hampshire primary)? How she sound like when she laughs. Her husband being the president (and a popular one too). Is she pimping Chelsea?

Why didn't I hear people complaining about Michelle Obama coming out on the campaign trail? Or Elizabeth Edwards (before her husband dropped out)? I didn't hear anyone complained that any of these other women are too ambitious. So, why complaining that Hilary Clinton is too ambitious and aggressive for her own good, for her (and failed) attempt in bringing us universal health care back then?

All these inherent sexism really gets at me. It's bad enough to hear men's disparaging remarks on Clinton. But to hear it from a woman, saying all the things that we as women would and should bring to steer others' attention away from when it comes to career, is very troubling and depressing. I, as a woman and a mother, would not want that for myself or my daughter in the future. Women like Dowd remind me of those bitchy girls in high school, who would gossip of the non-essential details of others simply because they don't know and don't have other better things to do. Remarks like this are enough to turn me off, and away from any of the articles and writings from Maureen Dowd in the future.