Rants

All posts in the Rants category

Facebook’s Timeline

Published February 11, 2012 by Ashley Pariseau

It seems that a few of the major social media that most of us use are changing their designs lately. Most of us are aware of Timeline. If we haven’t switched our facebook profiles to it yet, many of us are awaiting the day that it becomes mandatory for all users. I haven’t changed mine yet. I was not a happy camper when I was first introduced to timeline either. I thought it looked too busy and I saw nothing wrong with how facebook profiles have looked before. Then I decided that this was probably going to be the beginning of the end of facebook, because this is exactly how myspace went down…when all these changes came about to the site’s design. I know of a lot of people who have timeline or have seen it and they hate it, and I mean I personally know at least lots of people who claim they will delete their accounts on the day it becomes mandatory.

Not only this, youtube has changed their site’s design as well. I changed it for a day, realized I hated it, and switched it back to the old version, but like facebook this new design will be mandatory for all users on a certain day. I have also noticed that google is playing around with different looks too.

Now let me go on a personal rant here for a second.  I am starting to get irritated because they seem to paint it up like these changes are for the purpose for making it user friendly, but is it? Highly doubtful. In the past week, I started noticing youtube being plastered with flashing and moving ads all over the place, as if ads and commercials in the videos aren’t bad enough. I started digging and sure enough I found articles about how the changes are really because they are trying to figure out ways for better ad placement (more in your face ad placement, easier for them to make money).

Reading the comments in these articles are usually never surprising with comments like “Do we really have a right to complain when these sites are still free? Running ads are what keeps it all free for us.”  And yeah, I totally get that. I’m not saying that should be completely done away with, but sometimes I honestly feel I would rather pay a small fee to browse a clean page free of ads than to have to fish for the content I am looking for  in a pool of ads. They can only go so far before people will stop using the site all together.

What do you think of the changes being made to facebook and youtube? Do you like the changes and do you care about the ads they run? 

 

 

Taking responsibility for your happiness.

Published December 17, 2011 by Ashley Pariseau

I have a serious issue with people who will not or cannot seem to take responsibility for themselves. I understand that no one is perfect and people will make mistakes, but it seems like most people I encounter who make mistakes or have some kind of misfortune, won’t admit to being at least partially to blame. They play the victim. They will often find something or someone else to blame or find fault in to take the heat off of their own possible role in the situation. It’s like people are afraid to death of being at fault for something. I used to be the same way. I never wanted to be at fault, at blame, or corrected. I would argue anyone into the ground, even if I was proven wrong. But then one day I just let go of my ego and realized that it is not that bad to be wrong or at fault. It’t really not that painful to say out loud or even just to yourself, “Hey I screwed up. I made my bed, now I get to lay in it. But I’ll move on. I learned a valuable lesson from this.” Actually it’s pretty relieving.

Unfortunately, I rarely hear people muster up the gull to that kind of thinking. I don’t know why. It’s not going to kill them! Maybe it’s denial. Maybe it’s ego. Maybe it’s something else. But whatever it is, it has to stop. People around you don’t want to be blamed for your mistake. They don’t want you to take your anger out on them. They don’t want you to pull their attitudes and moods down with your own. They don’t want to feel screwed over when you do stupid things, and they aren’t always going to be there to help bail you out after they repeatedly try to warn you about things.

(Note that when I say YOU, I am talking in general, not to someone specific).

You think your life sucks? Well fine. Did it ever occur to you to stop and think about what *you* could have done to contribute to it and what *you* can do to maybe fix it? You have a lot more power to change your life than what you are willing to accept. I for one am tired of people expecting happiness and good fortune to just fall in their laps and never take responsibility for their own unhappiness. You won’t ever be happy if you think you are nothing but a victim of life’s bad karma. There is no magical fairy that is going to come swoop down and give you the life you think you so rightfully deserve.

No one is holding you back but yourself!
No one is keeping you where you are but yourself!
No one can pull you out of your misery but yourself!

You have to stop and realize the bad choices you are making (and I’m sure there are quite a few if you are the average person), and fix those choices and turn it around to your advantage. I think I have touched on a similar idea to this before, and again, I’m not saying that bad things don’t happen to good people once in a while. They do of course, but not with everything.

Own up to your mistakes. Learn from them and move on. Just something to think about.

Tumblr Is Not A Blog

Published August 30, 2011 by Ashley Pariseau

Everywhere I go I see people referring to their blogs. Now when I think of a blog, I think of well planned out and constructed ideas written out, usually with a word count of more than 8, and usually with an option for commentary and discussion. I have to admit that I am often disappointed when I hover over their link and discover that it is a tumblr account. Giving them the benefit of a doubt, I click the link and I see the expected: Hardly any text, and if there is any it will be quotes from their favorite celeb, song lyrics, youtube  links, animated gifs, photography and other graphics. To me this is not what I consider a blog. These are micro-blogs if anything, because they often take less than 2 minutes to compose. And most of it is just reblogged from other blogs. Actually when you think about it, how different is most tumblr entries than your average twitter account? Not that much different. Ok now I know there are exceptions. I may have seen a couple of tumblr pages that were wordy like a real blog, but these are few and far between. For a long time, I didn’t really “get” tumblr. Maybe I had a reason for finding it pointless because why make an account there and posts photos, links, and internet trends there when I can just do it here, which is what I sometimes do, but not every day.

Don’t get me wrong, I am not trying to hate on tumblr users. Do your thing, it’s cool. I’m just saying that I don’t consider it real blogging. Then again, maybe I am just being picky because I am an aspiring writer and more about words. And I get that not everyone is internet savvy. I myself once had a xanga page, livejournal, freewebs, angelfire, and all those little beginner sites that sweeped the internet. This is most likely the same type of idea.

What are your thoughts on tumblr?

Vaguebooking, Drama Queens, & Attention Seekers

Published June 15, 2011 by Ashley Pariseau

Last night I was on one of the message board I go to, and someone mentioned the term vaguebooking (on facebook). Having never heard that word before, I did a little google search. According to most of the urban dictionary definitions and blog posts from around the world, vaguebooking means  when someone leaves a vague status message on their facebook to which most people don’t know what they are talking about, creating an element of mystery and prompting friends to wonder and ask what’s going on. Example: “How can someone be so heartless?” Most of you can right now either recall a number of irritating posts made by your friends, or recall that you have been guilty of this yourself.

I’m not going to lie that I have done this a few times (few, meaning less than what I can count on my hands) back when myspace was cooler than facebook, but I quickly ordered myself to knock it off after I saw friends making nearly the same posts and finding myself laughing at how attention desperate they were being. Now I hate myself for doing that, ever. Ick. But attention seeking is exactly what it is. And what pisses me off more than anything is that with many of the offenders, when you ask them what’s wrong, they will say they can’t talk about it or they complain about people getting into their business. Wtf? If you can’t talk about it or don’t want people to ask you about it, then don’t post it. At all! Don’t even hint about it. You cannot post hints about something and then demand your personal life to be kept private because that is so hypocritical.

These people are often the drama queens in real life too. They always seem to be arguing with someone, or in some sort of crisis at all times, and then they see facebook as a perfect opportunity to maximize on the drama and attention they need. I’ve seen arguments within statuses and comments about pretty much everything personal you can think of, when they could have been sending the messages privately, they chose to make it public. It’s pretty ridiculous.  I’m so sick of it, and this is why I have a love/hate relationship with facebook, because I can’t stand the drama and the attention pleas, and many times the friends of theirs who enable their bull too.

“I’m going to delete my facebook forever!” (Yeah, until tomorrow)

“I hate men! I’m done with them.” No, you’re not. Two hours laters “I luuuuv my bf 4eva!” (God shut up!)

Single, in a relationship, single, engaged, married, single…from one person all in one week…is just fucking stupid. Just pick one and keep it there.

The fighting within status messages…just text them privately please.

…… If you are under 18, this behavior is expected in my opinion. But if you are older than that, it’s unacceptable.

And many people say,” Just hide that person.” Well that’s a good point. Yeah I can, and I probably will. But if I have to hide someone from seeing their updates, it’s because they are being god damned annoying, and they need to stop. It takes a lot for me to be annoyed by people, and even more for me to say something about it. The point is, why should I have to hide them from my news feed? No one should be made to feel annoyed enough to have to hide a that person. People need to just stop  living their roller coaster soap opera through facebook. That is all.

Opinions are welcome, as always.

Omg that’s racist!

Published May 24, 2011 by Ashley Pariseau

Alright so there is this Dove ad that has been making it ways round the internet and people are freaking out saying it’s racist. I’ve already came across it on 4 different blogs I read regularly. It’s an ad for Dove Visible Care that is supposed to turn cracked skin into smooth skin. Here it is.

Apparently it’s been seen as racist because the black woman is standing under the before and the white woman is under the after, as in dark skin is bad and white is good.

Really? I mean, really???? When I first saw this ad, I did NOT see anything racist with it until I started reading comments as to why it *could* be interpreted that way. I saw it as three young women with different ethnicities all modeling as the “after” photo, since all of them seem to have smooth skin. So did I see it as racist? Nope. In fact, it kinda pisses me off that people are freaking out about this because some people seriously seem to look for racism in everything.

Indiana’s Defunding to Planned Parenthood

Published May 3, 2011 by Ashley Pariseau

Indiana governor Mitch Daniels is the latest soldier in the crusade against Planned Parenthood. The Indiana bill is particular important because Indiana is the first state to cut off Medicaid financing for women’s health clinics. This sets a horrible precedent for other right-leaning states, and threatens access to health care for millions of women nationwide. It’s also targeted directly at low-income women who rely on Medicaid for their health coverage:

Planned Parenthood says the bill could leave as many as 22,000 patients without access to Pap tests, birth control and treatment for sexually transmitted diseases.

The governor’s office said the law will affect 7 entities in Indiana that have a total of 34 locations in 21 counties.

These seemingly small state issues often fly below the radar, and then we’re all surprised when cutting Planned Parenthood is #1 on the national GOP’s agenda. So let’s do something, yeah?

1. Contact Mitch Daniels. If you’re in Indiana, contact your state rep and urge them to vote against this bill.
2. Spread the word. Retweet, reblog, tumbl, post to your Facebook wall, whatever.
3. Donate to Planned Parenthood of Indiana — and do it under Mitch Daniels’ name.

Let’s stop this in its tracks.

Chris Brown & His Temper Tantrums

Published April 13, 2011 by Ashley Pariseau

Alright so we all know what he did to Rihanna two years ago. Well, he’s back and (not) better than ever. He went on Good Morning America some week or so ago to peform, do an interview, and to promote his new album. The interview started off well and worked towards a question about the restraining order which he then became visibly irritated and tried to dodge that particular topic all together. What happened after the show, is another thing. Here is the video that pretty much sums it all up.

Mmmmkay. Here’s what I think. Woman beating aside, he is still acting out violently to express his emotions and there is NO excuse for it. He can apologize all he wants, it’s falling on deaf ears at this point. That type of behavior is not ok or normal, especially not for a grown ass man who has supposedly been through anger managment, which seems to be unsuccessful so far. This was the second offense of irrational emotional outbursts from him since his comeback, the other involved a homophobic slur he posted via twitter.

It really disturbs me that some people seem to think that it’s ok to destroy a room, throw a chair through a window, or punch walls. It’s really, really not. I used to think it was normal for most men to be that way, but my eyes have opened to the reality of it all. Maybe when a boy is 16 and he is pissed off at the world like a lot of little boys are, and you know his hormones are like a roller coaster, it guess it’s bound to happen once or twice. But after a certain age and it’s happening repeatedly, it’s just simply unacceptable. That’s when it stop becoming male hormones and it becomes a serious issue. And then they say, “Oh well he’s just taking his anger out on objects, not people, so it’s not as bad.” Yes, it IS still bad. Don’t people realize that the men who beat their wifes, girlfriends, and children are exactly the ones who start off by throwing furniture around and breaking stuff? If a man gets angry for whatever reason and takes it out like Chris Brown did in his dressing room, he is likely to hit his woman as well. He is no better than that! It is the number one red flag of a man who is a wife beater.

The point is, Chris Brown is not acting like a man and he obviously needs a lot more help. A real man can control his anger. A real man can find a better way to deal with his emotions. It doesn’t matter what he is angry about. There’s nothing in the world that could have heppened to him for him to justifably act out that way.

A man is not defined by his testosterone, muscles, or his ability to destruct, but by his ability to rise above violence.

Hopefully be gets the help that he needs.

Hmmm…

Published January 20, 2011 by Ashley Pariseau

I don’t understand why some people don’t recognize a truly good thing when it’s right in front of them. Or maybe they do, but they don’t just go for it for some reason or another. All I know is, I don’t want to live my life wondering what if.  When there’s an opportunity that I am interested in, I don’t pass it up. Even if I get rejected or make a fool of myself, at least I can walk away saying I gave it a shot. I also know what if you are not 100% into your relationship, then you probably shouldn’t be in it. If you are with someone, be with them. If you aren’t happy then get out. Just sayin, that’s all.

What Happened To Good TV?

Published January 3, 2011 by Ashley Pariseau

I know I can’t be the only one who thinks TV sucks anymore. I’m tired of all of these terrible shows – shows like Gossip Girl and Jersey Shore all about teenagers running around trying to act like they are 30, shows about teen moms, shows all about weight, shows trying to rip off the Twilight series, and don’t even get me started on that show about brides getting plastic surgery. Seriously, how dumb can it get? And what I really don’t understand is…that people actually watch this crap. I don’t know who I want to slap more, the producers of such shows or the people that eat it up.

What happened to the likes of good shows from the old days. Seinfeld, Home Improvement, Fresh Prince, the whole TGIF lineup, Roseanne, Married With Children, Unsolved Mysteries, I Love Lucy, etc. There are pretty much none to hardly shows like that being made anymore. Tragic.

What were some of your old favorite shows?

Twitter, Hacked?!

Published May 2, 2010 by Ashley Pariseau

So I’m thinking that my twitter account was hacked. I went to login as usual, and I got this message saying that my account has been suspended and in being investigated for suspicious activity. But I haven’t been doing anything on there besides my usual tweets. It also said that I will receive an email regarding the situation, but so far I have received no such email. I tried to contact them last night before I went to bed, but I haven’t heard back since. I have no idea what’s going on! Ugh!

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