I'm testing which blog website I like more, Blogger, or Tumblr. I'm leaning towards tumblr because of how cool it is, but really still like blogger because it's more practical.

A question I had a few years ago...

On Friday, the Virginia Supreme Court ruled that a law to outlaw spam sending to email clients was unlawful. Included in this law was a ban to political messages, which is one of the reasons this law was overturned. The Supreme court said, "The law doesn't make any distinction between e-mails or types of speech, and so it was unconstitutional." This law supposedly violates the freedom of speech outlined in the constitution. However, several issues I saw were,

1) Is it really someone's right of speech to send unwanted emails that don't display any opinionated message but advertise?

2) Is the right to personal property, maybe including email, to be overruled by the person who writes the spam's freedom of speech?

3) Is it lawful to get e-mail addresses from people that do not want spam? People do not want spam in their inboxes, and is violating their space not part of the agreement in a privacy policy between the e-mail client and the user?

Movies

Wow

So it's been a while since I wrote anything on this blog... Now it's almost the end of my summer and I realize, IT'S MY LAST REAL SUMMER EVER??!?!?  I realize next summer I'll be preparing for college moving in and everything, and everything after that will be away from home (I'll probably be working). I guess now I take everything fore-granted about summer, about sleeping in, being lazy, basically doing nothing and sometimes I wish I had gotten out more, done something amazing (Although ever summer I have gone on huge trips...). Then again, that's what summer's all about, I can do that stuff later in life when I have more freedom. Never again will I be able to wake up after 12 every single day. This is probably a exaggeration because I will be able to sometimes, but it's not going to happen as often after college.

RANDOM PHOTOS

That's right, AVOCADO ICE CREAM

I just found my dog in the car like this, it was really weird

Relaxing on the Eastern Shore

Wow what a beautiful day! Thank god I don't have allergies!

I got a new phone

I Know...

I haven't posted for a while and that's because I've been busy catching up with school and a lot of AP Exams starting next week. Those are so fun. Anyway I was surfing the web for a little bit and I found that NBC has a gallery of pictures of the week that they maintain throughout the year. I looked at it for a little bit and before I knew it I was already wasting hours on it. I thought it was really interesting. The pictures range from war photos to pictures of the countryside. I warn you, they can get pretty graphic, but definitely check it out.

Week in Pictures

When I first watched Fox News, the first thing that came to mind was honestly that it wasn't news. Rather, it was one person's analysis and opinion on how someone screwed up an issue or something. For every one minute of news, I then saw 15 minutes of what I realized was one sided conservative arguing. Actually, not even arguing, because most of the time Fox is only conservatives agreeing with each other. (Not saying that other news networks are better)

I feel Fox is very hypocritical. Today, I watched a segment where they were playing President Obama in Iowa and he was joking that after he signed the health care bill, "no meteors fell from the sky". I thought it was a simple joke, but the Fox anchors were saying how disrespectful that was it, and it made him look some what informal etc. First I thought, "that's being disrespectful." However then, I saw the real message, that they could not recognize that this was a joke. Who is this disrespecting by placing this joke? The people that fought against the health care? Sure, but he's not calling them fools, not insulting them personally? It is just ironic how one little joke can take up a whole Network's air time, while the rest of the time, they are insulting almost every single thing that Obama does.

Ending on this note, this is another thing that I saw recently.
http://rawstory.com/2009/2009/11/fox-shuts-liberal-bloggers/

Interesting, so I can't have my opinions about Fox news, but they're allowed to use whatever footage, opinions and analysis then want on the liberal media?

I'm not trying to label anyone. I mean, America is polarized enough. I think people, not politicians or media need to have a good honest talk face to face about these issues. Emphasis on face to face because conversations over the internet always end up with someone insulting each other's moms.

Late Writings

I've been a little busy with school so I haven't been able to write about a lot lately. This weekend I'm planning on writing more...

Canada-Part Two-Train Part 1

So you saw the city of Toronto in my last post about Canada. I didn't just go to Canada for the city life, I really went there to take a cross country train trip. So the train trip is provided by Via Rail Canada, starts in Toronto, and ends in Vancouver. Actually there are quite a few train trips you can take, including one that takes you up in the northern end of Canada.

Here we are at Central Station at Toronto. I guess I'm the new bag boy

Since the train left at night, we woke up and I immediately tried to get some pictures. Here I am in the dome car trying to get a picture of the train out front. 

The view of stairs to the dome car...I'm doing some English homework that I would rather not do.

A view inside the dome car, and boy was it cold up there. No heating or anything. But the conductors gave a brief history of locations as we went by....

Here's a view of a dome car when we stopped for a crew change.

A view of the economy cars and the engines up front. 

A view of the inside of a dome car... a little bleak retro if you ask me...

View of the Engines in Winnepeg

A view of the end lounge car. 

This was the most surprising part of the trip. The food was excellent! I'm not even kidding, you know how on Amtrak that you get lousy precooked food like on airplanes? Well here they cook everything fresh and there are new and exciting things. There is Salmon, steak, cheese, fresh produce the works! I'm convinced they stop at night to pick up local produce and meat.....I don't usually get excited about food, but it was surprisingly excellent! more pictures to come. 

The cabins are tiny, but convert into beds at night. You don't spend a whole lot of time in your rooms though. 

As I have always loved trains, I'm biased about the living conditions on the train with restrooms, sleeping etc (But not the food!). However, in the next post I will show you the most exciting part of the train ride, the scenery. Stay tuned!

AT&T VERSUS Verizon (quick)

So, I'm guessing everyone has seen those AT&T and Verizon commercials where they say they are a better company by knocking the other company's faults. AT&T guarantees better speeds and a "better experience", while Verizon says their coverage is more comprehensive.

Here are some Youtube examples

AT&T




VERIZON




I never knew which one to trust, but I have to side with Verizon on this one. What's the use of a faster data service if you don't have coverage at all. Besides, not everyone uses data services and people that do I heard have calls dropped a lot on AT&T. But then again, Luke Wilson's sarcastic voice

Canada-Part One-Toronto

I know that whole thing Ireland was kind of confusing, I probably should've dealt it out in small bits instead. For my next travel destination, I will show you a trip I took last summer to Canada. Here's a fun fact, when I was little I was obsessed with trains, and I probably still am. I always wanted to take a train trip overnight somewhere, and I bugged my parents into promising me we would take a trip across Canada. This was for my 16th birthday, so you can kind of say that it was a sweet-sixteen, but for a guy.

We flew up to Toronto and stayed in the Fairmont, which was originally built as the major railway station hotel for the Canadian National [Railroad] or CN. Man was it luxurious. I really couldn't believe that this was all happening for me.

Here's a picture of the Lobby. We would actually stay at Fairmont hotels the whole way across Canada when not on the train.

Anyway, I got to walk around a little bit of Toronto and my Dad was taking a lot of pictures. Did you know that the CN tower is the largest freestanding structure in North America? 

 I went up the CN tower on my trips to Canada before....

I have to say, Toronto has some very beautiful architecture. I'm not an expert, but ever single building seemed refined and modern yet thoroughly traditional and fitting for the city. You have to admire their audacity, with those grand arches, long halls and sleek lines. The Canadians use glass in their buildings maybe more than anyone. It's almost looking at the future of buildings in the present

I think those pictures speak for themselves. Also, everything is connected because in winter everything is frigid cold. I wouldn't dare go out on the streets in winter. I guess that's the reason for lots a glass to let the light in, and the long hallways to connect buildings. 

I'm not saying everything in Canada is perfect. I saw some very odd things in Toronto such as.....

Look at the yellow sign, good name yes? 

Man, I wish we had Doritos flavors like that. Especially En Francais

And if anyone can explain this to me I will be eternally grateful. 

I had tons of fun in Toronto, but I realized that my journey through Canada had not begun yet. If this was only the beginning, how much more could there be? Stay tuned to find out. 

Ireland

I'm going to start blogging about some of the places I've gone to. I've visited virtually every continent over my lifetime. My parents love to bring me places such as Tokyo, Paris, London, Seoul, Manilla, Dublin, Vancouver, Montreal, Quebec, Hawaii, Guam, Osaka, Kyoto, Hong Kong, Jasper and Toronto.

Last winter, I went to Ireland, specifically in the Dublin area, and boy was it cold. I forgot how far north Ireland actually was. But the food was excellent!! I can't describe how good it was. Of course I didn't go to have a Guinness, but I went to their factory! People are so friendly there, and it was nice to walk around. The city itself is beautiful and when I traveled out of the city into the nearby Counties, I realized how special it really was. Enjoy the pictures.

Trinity College in DublinThat lake was very pretty, the water seemed almost black