I’ve discussed ways to overcome addiction to the World of Warcraft, but in that article I only briefly touched on the reasons why people become addicted. I will look into that further here.
Different people get addicted for different reasons, but there are some common causes that exist in the appeal of the game.
Because first-hand knowledge and experience are most valuable, I will begin by relating my own experience.
I recently discussed an incident where a Mormon couple accidentally left their child to die in a hot car for 17 hours.
Did you notice that I mentioned their religion?
Why do writers of such stories feel the need to attach a person’s religion to a tragedy in order to somehow make it seem more poignant? We hear it all the time.
“So-and-so was an active member of his church before he was gunned down.” Awww, he must have been a good guy then, right?
Why does this happen? Why are people who attend church automatically hailed as the good guys?
Does being religious make a person’s death - or their life - more meaningful? And does it have to be a Christian here in America in order to get maximum impact? How would the response be if it were a Muslim couple that left their child in a car? Oh that’s a little better because those Muslims are so weird anyway, right? Or what about an atheist couple? That’s OK too because they have no morals.
I’m every bit the father Ward Cleaver was. Perhaps even better because I had no June Cleaver by my side to assist me. My kids are my life and I teach them what’s right and wrong. They’re good kids, and I’m all they’ve had for most of their lives. I spend quality time with them, I talk to them, and I’m raising them to be good, honest, respectful, and productive members of society.
And I’m an atheist. I have always told them that it is their choice to believe or not to believe in God. In no way to I ever try to persuade them to believe anything. How many religious parents do that?
If I were gunned down, the media story wouldn’t read, “An atheist father was murdered.” If they did say that, it would somehow present my death as less of a loss than a “Christian father” being murdered.
This is offensive on a level of epic proportions.
Sure, many churches are filled with good, honest people. But so is every other segment of society. And as with every segment of society, churches are also filled with phonies, wife beaters, pedophiles, and murderers.
Not convinced? Let’s take religion out of it.
Let’s say there’s a serial killer in the news and he’s killed 6 people in the last 6 days, right around your neighborhood. You’d be scared as hell. Then you find out those 6 people were all prostitutes. Not only would you breathe a sigh of relief (unless you were a prostitute), but you’d also somehow feel relieved that it was “only” hookers being killed.
When you hear that a prostitute is killed, more than likely you don’t feel as bad as if you hear a “Christian mother” is killed. Prostitutes sometimes have children, too. And yes, some prostitutes are even Christian mothers as well. And of course it’s not a safe or wise career, but these are humans with feelings as real as the rest of us.
Race is also a factor. Perhaps you’ve heard of Missing White Woman Syndrome, an obvious media bias toward sensationalizing missing white females who are cute, and virtually ignoring similar cases of missing non-white females.
If you are missing and you’re Elizabeth Smart, you have everything going for you: white, religious, wealthy, cute, and female.
If you’re a non-Christian non-white male and you’re missing, good luck ever getting any interest.
There’s a stereotype of those who practice Western religions as being holy, righteous, and good. Living in a religious society, it’s not surprising that these stereotypes are inserted at every opportunity by the media.
But when you get people who do nutty things in the name of religion (Jim Jones, Branch Davidians, Heaven’s Gate), or hide behind the veil of it (Dennis Rader, the BTK killer), the media brushes over the fact that these are not isolated anomalies.
How is it that religion, and especially Christianity in America, can have its cake and eat it too? They present themselves as persecuted victims, yet they are the ones holding all the cards. It’s impossible to hold a political office without belonging to a major religion. Atheists and those belonging to minor or fringe religions are the truly persecuted and ignored.
Religion doesn’t affect the value of a human life and should not be reported as part of a news story unless it’s directly relevant to the case.
In a country where people won’t even protest gasoline well over $4 a gallon and rising daily, it’s hard to imagine anyone ever protesting something as “trivial” as media manipulation of religion.
Among the self-help and instructional material here on wafflesatnoon.com, there are moments when an angry commentary is appropriate. Like now.
One of the unfortunate aspects of living in Las Vegas is hearing stories of parents who accidentally leave their children in hot cars during the summer. I’ve heard one too many of these, so here is my take on the subject.
Even if you don’t live in the desert, try out this little test. Get into your car on a very hot day. Make sure the windows are up and there is no air flow. Now sit there. See if you can last one minute. I’ve done it, and after only seconds I feel an unbearable need to get out or start the car and put the air on.
Now imagine being a child strapped into a car seat. From your silent perspective you see Mom and siblings walking away from the car. It immediately starts to get hot. Your movement is restricted and no one can hear your screams.
Scary movies can’t surpass the horror.
Just recently here in Vegas there was another tragic story of a 4-year-old boy left in a car for 17 hours before he was discovered dead.
17 hours?
How many meals passed over that time period without this child’s absence being noticed? What about bath time or bedtime?
The media noted that it was a large Mormon family, so somehow having too many kids excuses completely forgetting about one? The parents did the unthinkable and passed the blame onto their older children who were supposed to be watching this child because both parents were sick.
If parents are unable to even keep track of their kids, how can they possibly tend to their needs? For this reason, several of the children were removed and placed in temporary custody pending a hearing.
I’m not saying they meant to kill their son (unlike some of the angry comments I’ve read on this story). Of course it was a mistake. Punishing the parents will not bring the child back, nor will it send a message and prevent further incidences.
But they still must be punished.
A family spokesman said, “It can happen to anyone..” I find this offensive. There are millions of responsible parents who know where their kids are at all times. Even parents with many children.
Sure it can happen to anyone… Any parents too distracted to focus on their children. And yes there are many of those around. We’ve all seen them: The work-a-holic parent who shuffles their kids around from daycare to sitters to relatives. Or those parents who think they need to produce as many children as they can, then find themselves unable to cope.
It’s a sad commentary on our society to see couples who would rather have both parents working to pay for their SUV and 4000 square foot house than to have a more modest lifestyle with one parent at home with the kids.
I would rather be poor and happy than rich and miserable.
So sure it can happen to anyone who holds their own interests higher than their children. Apparently this is the perspective from which their lawyer spoke. I know people who are more aware of their pets’ whereabouts than some parents are about their children.
It has nothing to do with their religion and it has nothing to do with the number of kids in the family.
It boils down to irresponsible parents.
And these parents should be punished. It should be no different than if they forgot to feed their child and he died of malnutrition. Whether it was too many kids or being sick and delegating improperly, it doesn’t matter why they were distracted. This child died from their neglect.
Every parent can leave their child unattended for a few moments, and even during those few moments something can happen. Kids can even drown in a pool with a party going on. But there must be a limit to which leaving a child unattended becomes criminal.
And I’m quite sure that 17 hours would be over that limit.
You can read about the story here.
I’ve had the privilege of working from home for the past 7 years. My twins, who are nearly 10, have virtually grown up seeing me at my computer with CorelDraw on the screen.
And the older they get, the more technically capable they get every day.
Lately they have both taken more of an interest in my work and in CorelDraw. So I’ve started to let them experiment with the program. My daughter created a colorful image of her name, warped slightly with an envelope. My son created a sports-looking image with a manually-drawn baseball on it.
I signed up for service for Preventive Pest Control and the service was fine until late 2006, when my normally appointed serviceman was apparently replaced by a substitute.
I work at home and was always there to receive their house call. They also typically called the day before to verify that service was to be delivered the following day. They called that late 2006 day and confirmed that they would be arriving the next day.
In the past, if they had shown up to my door and no one answered, they would leave an invoice stuck in my screen door to show they had been there.
On that day, no one showed up. I was home and working all day. No one came to my door and my dogs never barked to alert me of anyone outside. There was nothing stuck in my door either. A few days later I received a receipt in the mail. That had never happened before and I thought it was very odd. Why mail it if the serviceman was there and could have left it on the door?
Of course I knew no one had actually come to my door. They mailed the receipt because no one showed up to put it on my door or have me sign for it. I called and told them I wouldn’t pay it unless someone else showed up and re-sprayed. No one did.
Then I started receiving late notices, which I refused to pay.
And then I started receiving bills for future services that were never even rendered. They were billing me for subsequent months, even though they weren’t showing up for those services either. They wanted me to pay my past balance before showing up again, yet continued to bill me!
A few times, salesmen came to my door, not realizing I already had issues with the company - trying to sell me their service. I told them my problem and they said they’d try to help. No one did. At one point I even offered to pay the balance if they would just come and spray again. The salesman agreed and said someone would be there the next day… but they never showed up.
In each case, these salesmen admitted they were “having problems” with some of the servicemen. One salesman even told me he knew of cases of servicemen submitting invoices for jobs he did not actually do.
So now I have over $350 on my credit because one substitute employee was too lazy to do his job, and no one at the company bothered to step up, admit their mistake, and make things right. And I remind you that this is $350 for services that were never rendered at all.
For this reason, I recommend avoiding Preventive Pest Control in the Las Vegas area. They might be fine for you, but you could find yourself with a negative item on your credit if you happen get the wrong guy assigned to you, or a bad substitute. It’s not worth the risk.
I would rather live with the bugs and avoid the real pests… Preventive Pest Control in Las Vegas.
I will also be posting this blog entry on ripoffreport.com and will link to it when it is there.
I have a very nice Kinetico water system that I financed nearly 4 years ago. My financing was through Aqua Finance. I’ve been paying on this Aqua Finance account for nearly 4 years. I’ve paid faithfully and regularly. Sure maybe a couple of late payments over the years, but nothing significant.
I received a letter stating that they were going to raise my interest rate from 17.99% to 21.00%. No reason was given. The end of the notice reads as follows:
“If you cancel your Agreement you must return any charge cards and pay your entire balance due under the terms of the Agreement.”
I called them and they said I had to pay my entire balance immediately. I stated that the final line could be interpreted differently. I pointed out my interpretation, that I could pay my balance due under the original terms, which was $73 a month at 17.99% interest. I could tell my education level was considerably higher than the customer service rep and her even less-educated supervisor. I knew it was a losing battle, so I said it was unethical and unfair. I called them “scumbags” and hung up. OK, the “scumbags” part may have been a bit too far out of frustration, but still…
Even if my interpretation of that line of the new agreement is incorrect (I still attest it is not, but they shouldn’t leave something so important up to interpretation), I still feel that changing the terms 4 years into an agreement is unfair, and the rude treatment I received by customer service was salt in the wound.
Since I can’t even fight this war, I owe it to everyone out there to issue the following warning:
If you are considering doing business with Aqua Finance, I highly urge you to reconsider. This company has kicked a loyal customer to the curb with an insulting and misleading form letter and shoddy customer service. It is my opinion that this company is dishonest for the reasons stated above.
Until we as consumers stand up and refuse to be treated this way, unfair and uncaring businesses such as this will continue to take advantage of hard-working and honest people.
It seems that most graphic artists can be categorized in two ways. (Yes, I’m already generalizing, and yes there are always exceptions - let’s get that out of the way upfront). There are the schooled artists and the non-schooled.
I don’t know if I’ve ever met a schooled graphic artist who wasn’t deeply embedded in the Adobe school. Many schooled artists don’t even consider other software.
Is it too soon for an aside already? Yes? Well bear with me.
I always thought it ironic that so many graphic artists used a Mac and Adobe products. They complain about how the Mac is superior to Windows yet it’s far behind in sales and popularity. And how those unenlightened Windows users would be convinced of the Mac’s superiority if only they’d give it a serious chance. Then they sit down and use Adobe products and ignore similar complaints from the CorelDraw community. If only they’d give it a serious chance.
Anyway.
When I was hired at my current job 12 years ago, I was using PageMaker for page layout, Illustrator for vector, and Photoshop for bitmap editing. As most of you know, this was (and in many cases still is) the de facto setup for DTP: Edit images in Photoshop, create the vector images in Illustrator, and place them all along with text in Quark or InDesign. Three applications… all expensive.
That’s how I did it… 12 years ago.
Until I was shown CorelDraw.
The ability to combine a page layout application with a vector illustration program had obvious and immediate appeal. The fact that CorelDraw alone was far cheaper than Illustrator or Quark made it even more appealing. Once I took a look at PhotoPaint’s integration with CorelDraw, and found that it was a viable alternative to Photoshop, I knew my reliance on Adobe products had ended. Once I realized I could create and output multi-page documents within my vector illustration program, I knew I had found a better way. Yet here I am 12 years later, still enlightening people who had no idea.
I worked prepress many years ago, before becoming a professional graphic artist. I recall seeing then (just as I’m sure it is still being done now) Quark or PageMaker documents sent over that really looked like an Illustrator file plopped into a .qxd document and sent over.
I still see this sometimes, and it seems rather silly now. Too many times people hang onto the things they are familiar with, even to the exclusion of better, faster, cheaper, and easier methods.
Fortunately with the rise of the PDF format, graphic artists are now allowed more freedom to choose which application they feel best suited to their abilities. I’ve heard some old-school Illustrator apologists who still claim to be able to tell when something has a “Draw” look to it. But besides these misguided fringe thinkers, many newer generation pre-press workers don’t even care anymore. If the file is in a format they can work with and lacking any major issues, they don’t care if it was created in CorelDraw, Illustrator, Freehand, or Windows Paint.
So in the 1990’s, when CorelDraw was being beat up by the schooled establishment, those of us who discovered that this fantastic product more than met our needs continued to use it. Reports of Corel’s death were greatly exaggerated.
Which leads back to my initial aside above.
Apple was pronounced dead continuously during the 90’s and early 2000’s, but its loyal base of users refused to let it die. I am not an Apple user, but I salute and respect those people who stood by a product they believed in.
Sometimes a product doesn’t become the most popular, but its fan base keeps it alive. Apple remained on life support for several years and is actually gaining popularity now. It was kept alive by zealous users and openings in niche markets, such as the graphic arts industries.
Ironically, mainstream graphics industries are what CorelDraw had to avoid in order to make its own comeback. The product found its way into other niches, such as signage, slot glass, clothing design, and overseas markets.
Macs and CorelDraw have clawed their way back onto the radar and can no longer be ignored.
Perhaps most ironic is that these two products have never found much love for each other. Apple embraces almighty Adobe, while Corel only has eyes for ubiquitous Microsoft.
Alas, it’s perhaps best this way. Chances are that if it were the other way around, and Corel/Apple and Adobe/Microsoft had taken sides, I’d still be using Illustrator, you wouldn’t own an iPod, and Corel would reside only memory of a few loyal fans.
This was originally posted on my other blog on CorelDraw.com.