Jamie's Blog

In order to give you, my beloved audience, a break from my daily
ramblings, here’s a doodle worth as many words as any of my other
entries.

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The first of several…

Spain has become the third EU nation to allow same sex marriages the
same rights as heterosexual marriages. It’s incredibly surprising
to me, considering that Spain is largely Catholic. In what must
have been joyful news to the gay and lesbian rights lobbyists and
groups of Spain, lawmakers also gave gay couples the right to adopt
children.

In this country, I don’t think we’ll see similar legislation in under
couple decades, and definitely not while a Republican is
president. Although I understand the reasoning and fear behind
this sort of legislation–that it condones what God has forbidden, it’s
sad that some states bar homosexual partners from adopting
children. When you have overcrowding in orphanages and poor
foster families taking in many children, it seems ludicrous to disallow
wealthy professionals (who happen to be gay) from adopting.

For those of you who wonder about some of the animosity that
worshippers of the God of Abraham have towards homosexuals, recall that
homosexuals and those who practice divergent sexual practices
(including oral sex) are traditionally known as sodomites. The
term originates with the story of the city of Sodom and Gomorrah,
cities that were destroyed (by God) for the rampant sexual perversions
and immodesty of their populace–according to many
interpretations. For more information on why the sons of Adam
oppose homosexuality, ask your friendly neighborhood zealot. =D

References
BBC – Spain Paves Way For Gay Marriage
Wikipedia – Sodom and Gomorrah

*Disclaimer: I check my facts as well as I can with the limited time I
have. If you notice any errors in fact then please let me know.

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How did i do better in the expert level than the intermediate level I need to go read Holt’s…

English Genius You scored 92% Beginner, 85% Intermediate, 93% Advanced, and 86% Expert!

You did so extremely well, even Ican’t find a word to describe your excellence! You have the uncommonintelligence necessary to understand things that most people don’t. Youhave an extensive vocabulary, and you’re not afraid to use it properly!Way to go!Thank you so much for taking my test. I hope you enjoyed it! For the complete Answer Key, visit my blog: http://shortredhead78.blogspot.com/.

My test tracked 4 variables How you compared to other people your age and gender: You scored higher than 36% on Beginner You scored higher than 13% on Intermediate You scored higher than 53% on Advanced You scored higher than 90% on Expert

Link: The Commonly Confused Words Test written by shortredhead78 on Ok Cupid

There is news that Toshiba and Sony are cooperating to combine their next-generation dvd formats: HD-DVD and Blu-Ray, respectively. This is great news for technophiles and standard consumers alike, as unified media means unified hardware, which translates to less money you’ll have to spend to enjoy the media you purchase.

In the early 90s, IBM spearheaded the initiative that resulted in a standard format for DVD. Although its adoption has not been as revolutionary as the CD-ROM, which changed the way PCs were used, DVD media has become the de facto standard for delivery of motion picture entertainment. Unforunately for the consumer DVD writing community, since then, the field of DVD standards has diverged to formats such as DVD-R, DVD+R, and DVD-RAM. Ask any pirater you know, and they’ll tell you that the different formats are a bane to their continued existence, because DVD players may support any combination of the formats, and hence may not play a DVD that was privately burned.

These next-generation formats are capable of storing anywhere from 15 GB to 50 GB. That’s 51,200 MB, or roughly 10,240 good quality mp3s. It seems as if every five to ten years, we get new media. Although some consumers dread this as it means purchasing new equipment, the increase in capacity lights the fuse for an explosion of media. If there is one thing that the ubiquity of the Internet and the increased availability of high-speed access has showed, it is that people can’t get enough media. With each year, as we strive to meet Moore’s Law, more and more media will be available to us in newer forms. ‘Do we need more media’ is not the question, and neither is ‘Will it be consumed’. The problem is, ‘Do we have enough time’

References:
Reuters
Wikipedia – Blu-Ray Disc
Wikipedia – HD-DVD
Wikipedia – DVD

What if your mom was diagnosed with cancer? Brian Files
chronicled his family’s experience through this award-winning comic, Mom’s Cancer. The comic will only be available for a short time online as it is being published in book form. Check it out for free, while you can.

I thought I was a hero once, but it turned out I was a pretender. My most potent actions were selfish, vandalizing acts–the antithesis of heroism.