edward fox’s reality

Rated TV-PG for Sexual References. Mild Language. Reality.

You know children are becoming too sexual and too easily manipulated when MySpace has to start taking underhanded action to protect the little ones, but give the others an extra level of privacy which I don’t appreciate… All right, let’s face it– children have always been easily manipulated, so I guess it makes sense. I will just be irritated when half the profiles I attempt to view on MySpace are hidden.

Some of you may not know that I’m a moderator on MySpace, so I get to know about things a little bit in advance, and a little more in detail than what is told to you. So when I found out about this, I know it’s a good idea to protect users, but I also think that it will be abused. I honestly can not see any benefits to this. You post things on the Internet, and how can you expect them to be private? Better yet, why would you want them to be private? Why would you think that by making your page private, someone that wants to see ‘inside your friend world’ would not make another page just to add you as a friend? You think that if someone really wanted to see what was going on, that would stop them? So who are you hiding from? Freaks? Or the people who just want to check out your page and see if you’d be a good friend?

My rant may not make sense to some. I just have always seen the Internet as the place you go to to find out more about things, including people. About their lives, everything.

Did you know employers are using MySpace to see if their potential candidate for that empty spot in their office is a bad one? If they have a habit of doing drugs? If they’re a swinger? Does this make it a good reason to hide your profile? Perhaps… or maybe it’s a valid reason to keep what should be kept private, private, and only tell it to those you trust in the first place. Why post all the things nearest and dearest to you, in a place called MySpace, on a website accessed by more people on the planet than any other site, aside from search engines?

There is a line between sharing things with people that could be friends, and sharing things that you should only share with people you know are your friends. As for anyone under the age of 18 (17 in some states, such as the case is here in Texas, for true legal consent), think about what you are posting online. There are freaks everywhere, and there is no better breeding place for those freaks than on the Internet. You always think, “That could never happen to me”, but… it has to happen to someone. Just be more careful with what you put online, and make your space a public space that everyone can enjoy.

I wish MySpace didn’t have to come to implementing the feature depicted below. [More information on what led up to this can be read by a $30 mil. lawsuit - added 6/23 @ 9:50AM]

Can we say, cliche? Here’s the review of the movie I went to see on Saturday, June 18, 2006. The people who cancelled on us (Cal and me) should be happy with themselves. Glad I didn’t use my free movie pass on this one… or perhaps I should have.

“The Fast and the Furious: Tokyo Drift”

Daniel Feinberg, a Zap2it movie reviewer, said it best, making his tagline replace mine.

Tagline: “Very little in the movie is furious and given Black’s slow Alabama-accented speech patterns, nothing is fast either.”

About the Film: Sean Boswell, who has always been an outsider. A loner at school, his only connection to the indifferent world around him is through illegal street racing — which has made him particularly unpopular with the local authorities. To avoid jail time, Sean is sent out of the country to live with his uncle in the military, in a cramped apartment in a low-rent section of Tokyo. In the land that gave birth to the majority of modified racers on the road, the simple street race has been replaced by the ultimate pedal-to-the-metal, gravity-defying automotive challenge … drift racing, a deadly combination of brutal speed on heart stopping courses of hairpin turns and switchbacks. For his first unsuccessful foray in drift racing, Shean unknowingly takes on D.K., the “Drift King,” with ties to the Yakuza, the Japanese crime machine. The only way he can pay off the debt of his loss is to venture into the deadly realm of the Tokyo underworld, where the stakes are life and death.^[1]

Bottom Line: This was a painful movie for me to watch. If it wasn’t for one stereotypical scene after another, whether in the U.S. or Japan. The cars are impressive, and I mean that while they are parked. The racing scenes in the very beginning and the very end were the only two things were worth watching. Flashy lights were too flashy for me, and that seemed to be what was an attempt to make up for the rest of the movie, or a lack thereof.
Genres: Action, Crime, Thriller, Car Racing

Why I Didn’t Enjoy It: If you want to see this movie because you like cars, I suggest you stay at home. The racing scenes are hardly worth watching. Cinematography was horrible. It was as if they had a limited budget to hire anyone that knew what they were doing, or rushed through it because their time in Tokyo was one day overstayed. This movie was long, but the use of its time was disappointing. The middle consisted of the actors trying to piece together a plot that never seemed to come together. All in all, an immense failure appealing to teens who enjoy rap and fast cars, while not having a brain.

[1] From imdb.com Press Release.

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“Cars”
Rating: Â
(99/100 Gallons of Gas [Points])

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Tagline: Life is a journey. Enjoy the trip.

Bottom Line: No, I’m not easy when it comes to being impressed with movies, but it has all the elements that tend to satisfy me when I go to a movie: true-to-life comedy, a good foundation, and characters that are believable, whether in human or car form. Definitely more emotional than I expected. Great!

About the Film: Lightning McQueen is a cocky, rookie race car. Speeding on his way to a big race, he crashes into Radiator Springs, destroying lots of the inhabitants’ belongings. In order to make up for what he did, the cocky roadster is sentenced to community service. Though he will do anything to get away from the work, McQueen must learn to respect and bond with the Radiator Springs inhabitants in order to get out of the town and back on the racetracks.

Genres: Comedy, Animation, Fantasy, Sports, Racing, CGI, Family

Why I Enjoyed It: I could feel that each character truly was their own, unique person. There were a lot of intense moments that I enjoyed, that were not only emotional but uplifting in and of itself. I am a sucker for emoness, and that’s why this movie rated so high. That, and the admiration I have for small towns, highways, and love and respect, all tied together to make a delicious package anyone can unwrap and enjoy at any movie theater, at any age. And, of course, I went with my favorite boi in the world and the bestest friend anyone could ever ask for.

This isn’t one of my longest, or best reviews, but it will do. Now, go out and see it!

BUY TIX: Fandango | MovieTickets.com | AOL MovieFone

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Rating: Â (99/100 Gallons of Gas [Points])

When I worked at RadioShack, the Hit Rate referred to the number of wireless phones you move out (sell) in a ratio comparable to the number of receipts (tickets) you have sold. Since I was fired from RadioShack, we no longer need to worry about terms like that. And speaking of… I was fired on the devil’s day– 6/6/06, and no, that number does not bring bad luck–just odd luck. (;

How has my week gone? I think it went quite well, though I didn’t get to hang out with at least three people that I wanted to this week, but it’s all good. Sometimes, however, I find that events that happen within a certain period of time are excessive. Simply put, I get sick of when too many things go wrong, or when I’m confused. The latter bothers me more. Let’s go on.

In the new way, hit rate refers to the number of things that go wrong in relation to the number of things that don’t. This week’s hit rate was a bit higher than normal (more things wrong than usual) but not by much, since the positive always outweighs the negative.

Monday: I hung out with Cal, then later on, with Jose. Most of my plans were slashed but all reasons were understandable. Jose and I watched Rough Ride / Bareback (Brokeback) Mountain. I rate it a 4/10 Nuts [Points]. Why? I just like originality is all, and I don’t like watching manly straight men have sex in a tent while still being 90% clothed. Just doesn’t do anything for me. (:

Tuesday: I hung out with Cal again and we went to get few things done later on in the afternoon. It was an all right day.

Tuesday Expanded: Someone told me about me possibly being able to go to Orlando, Florida, and stay at Universal Studios for free. I am interested, intrigued, but already on the inside telling myself I hope I don’t get to go.

Wednesday: I went over to Jose’s house at night, hung out with Cal a little bit during the day. Sense a trend here? I had other plans but those were cancelled on this day as well. Nonetheless, I wouldn’t have replaced the memories I had on any day with other ones. I told Jose, and shortly thereafter, was told my spot was taken by someone else and I could not go to Orlando, FL. YESSSSSSSSS! I would have missed you so much, dude!

Thursday: Hung out with Shaun, went to visit Fry’s, then to go to see the movie Thank You For Smoking, a disturbing little movie revolving around the spokesperson for a major tobacco company. I must say, this was by far the most entertaining comedy movie I have ever seen. I give it 9/10 Cigs [Points]. Kudos! Find it at the Magnolia Theater in “Uptown Dallas” *stares with a confused look on face* I guess if you have a downtown… What goes down, must come up.

“Thank You For Smoking”

Now, time for the things that bug me.

Why can’t people make up their mind? It just causes me to get confused, prevents me from being able to relax. I wish we all thought about our actions and how they would affect other people, and that we thought about what we said before we let it slip out. Sometimes, it seems like people only care about themselves. I find that uncool. Cancellations were abundant this week, with at least four cancellations in total. I understand things happen, I do, but it’s just unfortunate that so many happened in one week. Regardless, however, my hit rate is still not high at all, so I am happy.

Pity. Is that what some people want from me? You’re not getting it. I believe that everyone knows what they deserve. Anyone who is thinking about receiving anything else is delusional.

Equal treatment. Don’t use reverse psychology. Trying to make me feel like shit so that I make you feel better is not going to fly with me.

Now for the things I am most grateful for.

Looking forward, I am content with the friends I have and how they respect me, and even though sometimes, life may be a bit weird, I always know who will really be there for me. You definitely know who you are.

Life is great. Friday will be awesome. That is all for now.

Editor’s Note: This is actually a post by Shaun Ngo, so be sure to pay attention to who is posting so that you don’t get confused. (; — Frederick.

So, today, Frederick and I went to Uptown Dallas to go to the Magnolia theatre. But, not before we decided to go to Fry’s for the hell of it lol. On the way though…we got lost a couple of times, we missed a couple of our exits too. And well when we got to the general area of where the theatre should’ve been….that’s a whole different story. We drove around that area on one-way lanes for about 30 minutes trying to find it, and we made a couple of circles too. Then we went to this gas station to ask people. The first was this one woman who, seemed nice but, looks are decieving. She was snobby and stuck up and gave us this weird look. (let’s name her Miss Snobby CRACK) Then, we went to this other guy and he actually gave us directions…to bad it was for the wrong theatre. (but we shall name him Mr. Nice Man Who Didn’t Look Too Rich BUT Gave us Directions) So, he gave us the directions to the wrong theatre but, after that we just drove around half-assing everything just guess where we should go…and WE FOUND IT! So we went in watched Thank You For Smoking. It was actually really good. After the movie we just drove around until I had to go home.