Fast forward to a few years later; we’ve got Facebook, we’ve got YouTube, we’ve even got Twitter. While that has revolutionized the way people has communicate, it has also revolutionized the way contest providers are able to force extra requirements on people who want to enter the contest. Sure it may work for them but it makes people on the other end look kind of whorish, which brings me to my point. I had entered in a contest that required me to like each of their respective pages, post a comment on their respective posts and share the video on my Facebook page. While other people told me that I had an option otherwise, I had posted too many posts to just throw it all away at this point so I had to do it.

Fast forward to now; the contest is over and I lost. Eh, the most important thing is that I now get to air out my feelings about the whole thing they’re trying to force people to do these steps that in my opinion, feels like a cheap way to get people to know about their Facebook pages. That or it’s something else entirely, I don’t know. What I do know is that Facebook consists mainly of real people and those people have rights to share anything they want and like anything they want, and I get that they have the right to enter a contest and like those respective pages but that doesn’t make it right.

I mean just imagine if you had a lot of friends (because a higher number obviously means much more then the quality of your friends on Facebook, or if you know them on a deeper level.). Now imagine that you did those steps those contest require you to do with some shared content you thought were interesting. Sure, the minority of friends might find it interesting but the majority of your friends might not find it interesting at all, in fact that might be pissed off that you posted an advertisement in your wall, even though it’s supposed to be an interesting contest. See, the wall is mainly for sharing stuff that you find interesting and sharing small details of your life, not primarily for advertising. Sure, liking the pages might be fine but… Wait, there’s a problem with that too.

Another purpose of Facebook is obviously for companies advertising/getting the word out about their brands and/or products, and while it’s okay for you to like products you actually use/like, it’s not okay for us to be forced to like something (even if it is awesome as shit.) We shouldn’t be required to like something just to be entered into a contest, we should be able to choose what we like; and sure, this might help get the word out but it’s a very poor way to get the word out. I mean legitimate fans of the brand will share anything interesting provided, will post on the wall of their brand praising that particular product, if there are thousands of people liking the company just because of a contest and not because they’ve actually tried or purchased the products in general then it doesn’t bode well for potential customers now does it (Hint: Most of these people only want to win.).

Besides, the whole thing just feels dirty as hell. Trust me, once you like their pages, comment on their posts and share their links, then you’ll realize how dirty it is; and all for a chance to win a contest, the odds of which will likely be against you (unless you’re really, really lucky.). How dirty is it, well it just feels like whoring; and I am ashamed that they’re treating the people who sign up for contest as whores. I mean we all think that these companies are interesting but that gives them no right for them to force us to share the content unless we really like the content so much.

I swear they’ve got to find better ways of increasing brand recognition on Facebook; forcing people to go through all these steps is not the way to do it.

You can see just from a picture of Sarah Palin that she’s not fit the country.

This is your future president, a skimpy chick.

In my opinion, she’s underskilled, a convulsive liar and one that’ll use this position for personal gain. In her ongoing days as a Fox News correspondent (which I don’t watch fortunately), she has lied about basically anything in order to support her agenda. While it’s a known fact that everybody has an hidden agenda, she just says anything that she wants and nobody questions it; possibly because now that she has a reality show, she is automatically famous (the Kardashian effect, which has made E! unwatchable white trash.) Not only that but when it comes time for her to sit in that presidents chair and make important choices that’ll change America forever, she’ll just break down and order that we invade some random country that has some high-paying resource that’ll make the rich richer, but not before blowing up the new World Trade Center to make the war justifiable. (No offense to the 9/11 victims, that was a deadly tragedy that no one will ever forget.)

I admit, I’ve never even heard of Sarah Palin until she became a running-mate with John McCain, that’s how obscure she was. Ever since she’s been McCain’s running mate, her popularity has exploded to the point where she resigned as Alaska govenor, written a book and starred in her own reality series on TLC. “Sarah Palin’s Alaska”.

Yup, Sarah Palin’s Alaska consists of 2 hot men, 2 hot chicks and one little girl. Her Alaska has never been more defined then this.

People say this is her political relaunch. I say that it is their attempt to capitalize on Sarah Palin after she became a media darling. I mean why else would you watch this show, to get to know Sarah Palin and her political views? Hell no! You watch it because you like to see people’s weird lives and conflicts (like the Kardashians, who’s fame is unjustified.). I mean if all you get to watch is her cutting down trees and hunting bears and intimate romance then what difference is there at all? We don’t even get to see the kids ambitions and goals and dreams, only their lovelife and their love for their mother. Even Snoop Dogg’s Fatherhood had shown Snoop’s son working for K-EARTH 101, why couldn’t Sarah Palin do the same.

There’s also the possibility that the media could therefore work in her favor and therefore garner her the winning votes. I mean she’s been gaining traction due to a “social media campaign” (reason it’s in quotes because I doubt that it’s a social media campaign at all.) and potentially the media could overlook all of her flaws and just focus on the things that make her so great. I mean forget her policies, focus on Sarah Palin! Who gives a shit about politics when all we’re going to be caring about in 2012 is how good the candidates look. I mean she is going to be running America after all. I swear people should stop listening to the media and just use common sense.

The video above states some of the points that I’m making. She has done some weird shit in the past and she’ll continue to do and say weird shit like this. She’s armed with Facebook and Twitter so she can make all of the comments she wants and no one will question her. Apparently her opinions consist of the regular Republican tirade amplified by 100%. ObamaCare sucks, we need more weapons, we need less taxes, more money for us, more power, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. Her opinions are in full effect with the rejection of START is based on the common republican fact that America must be all rich and all powerful (that means having powerful military with the ability to destroy any country that she wants.). Apparently I didn’t know we were at war with other countries except Iran. Again, Obama isn’t living up to the standards that other people put on him but it’s only a matter of time before she runs out of ammunition, and what can she run to for her political ambitions. Why Fox News, the Tea Party and FreedomWorks. Which brings me to number four.

Since she has the Tea Party and FreedomWorks to fall back on, it’s only a matter of time before she is inducted president. I mean the whole Tea Party thing is due to Americans (mainly rich people and some middle class who earn more then other middle class siblings) wanting lower taxes. Lower taxes meaning that the rich get richer and the poor get poorer. I apologize if I’m sounding like a broken record but that’s the way Republicans (and now some Democrats unfortunately since they basically made them right.) think. I mean the entire purpose to them is to get power and to decide what is best for America. Apparently they’ve taken the whole American spirit thing way too far now.

The people who are in the Tea Party are basically very uneducated masses who willingly believe the lies propagated by them. I mean we live in America but I don’t care whether they’re demanding too much or my healthcare is apparently going in the shitter. I’m not looking forward to amassing huge amounts of money, therefore the taxes don’t bother me at the least bit. However, these people have been tricked to believe that their America is screwing them and it’s all Obama’s fault. How can everything be Obama’s fault? I swear if a tree goes down, it’s Obama’s fault; violence in Egypt, it’s Obama’s fault. How the fuck can violence in Egypt be the fault of Obama when it is the fault of a Muslim dictator? Obama’s just trying to help.

Anyway, enough about the Tea Party, let’s move on to FreedomWorks which I have to remind everyone isn’t really Free. Same issues here, Less Taxes, Spending is out of control… This is where things get different here, they claim that taxes are at fault for hindering technological progress and the energy prices are going up because of the government. As if the government is behind every price increase and fault there is. We live in a country where every state is separate, the President just dictates global laws and looks out for the best interest of Americans. Every state has it’s own laws, it’s own taxes and it’s own government, they decide how education should matter, they decide how power should be priced. I mean Texas has very few gun laws, California has a strict gun law. See the difference? If the government were really in control then we would have guns in every home or the guns would be banned altogether.

The fact that these people mainly care about power and keeping illegals out of our American country proves they’re not out for the best interest of us living in the country. Don’t be fooled by the red & blue star logo. The site tilts primarily to the red, and so does Sarah Palin.

In my opinion, she’ll be a worst president then Barack Obama is. Even George W. Bush has said she isn’t presidential material, I’m going to keep this short and just say that she’ll bring us further into the recession, spend all of our money on the military, tighten up the boarder so that no “illegals” can get through and ruin international relations with countries outside of the US.

So there you go, 5 reasons why Sarah Palin should never become president of the United States. I get that some of you might have a different opinion and I understand that but this is how I feel and these are my opinions. They may not be 100% accurate but most of them is the truth. I swear if Sarah Palin becomes president, I may have to think about moving to a different country.

While I was reading up on the Egypt crisis on Twitter (which was resolved in only 18 days.), I came across an old acquaintance who I have not seen in 3 years (which is a pretty long time). So I clicked her account, clicked follow and I asked her a question. The next thing you know, she blocked me and she provided no explanation as to why. Funny seeing as how I did nothing to offend or alienate her, or maybe I did; or maybe it’s something else entirely. Who knows?

For those of you who don’t know, I have what people call autism which makes it difficult (not impossible) for me to respond to stuff properly. There were some bad (not illegal, just bad, stupid stuff) that I did in the past without regards to the rules (I was 16 at the time, I was in my /b/tard phase also known as the do something stupid to make myself laugh phase.) I know that being autistic is not an excuse for the things I did (the people reading this article might know what I’m talking about.) and I’m now willing to apologize for these things but I don’t know if the general public at large will be accepting of this (nor would I know how they react and how they would think of me afterwards.)

That’s the problem. People think of me as (this person who’s willing to manipulate anybody for a laugh.) but the problem is that there is a lot of stuff that I don’t do intentionally for a laugh. For instance, why would I follow a user I haven’t seen in 3 years? It certainly isn’t to make myself laugh and it certainly isn’t for other reasons. I mean I’m not able to react properly when I’m angry, I sometimes do stuff that I regret later (Dan knows what I mean, and he’s probably right on that one.) but this just makes me very angry, and gives me the feeling that these people don’t give a jack shit whether I’m autistic or not. If they went up and told me how they felt about me and explain to me why I can or can’t do this then I would be accepting of the reason (I’m still a human being you know.) It makes me sad that people would do these types of things (though I’m not sure if they’re aware of it.) It makes me want to get a webcam and start broadcasting myself on the internet 24/7 so I can show the people how I feel.

I may not fare well in chatrooms or forums but I join them so I can feel like I’m part of a community, so I can socalize. I did some stupid stuff there but I managed to get the stupid stuff out of my system before I could further cause damage to myself (the /b/tard shit, not the other shit.) I may not have much of a social life in real life (due to many factors such as the fact that I don’t have a drivers license or a car yet, but that will change within the month.) but I feel the need to interact with others. If people are going to think of me as that person instead of the one who wants a conversation (and yes, I still remember the outbursts) then they’re not my acquaintances/friends at all.

I know I may not change much to please all of you but I am not this emotionless person who lurks on the computer trying to make a laugh or disrupt anything. I may understand where some people are coming from but for acquaintances who think that, it’s just plain ridiculous. People should not have to block me thinking that “oh, I don’t want to deal with this person anymore cause he has autism, screw him”. No, if anything they should at least say something about the damn situation instead of ignoring it. I feel that if people are going to treat me like this then the autistic race might as well die out. I do not want to live this way, I don’t want to hold onto the anger that I’m having right now and I certainly don’t want to break out and do something stupid that I’ll regret later (I have learned my lesson.) This is hard for me to deal with but if people would just explain themselves and be open instead of assuming that I know this in my head when clearly I don’t then it would solve a lot of problems that I have. Thank You.

I’m sure that the issue will resolve myself with or without my participation. What I’m going to write about however is, “What if they decided to shut down the internet in China or Europe or maybe even Here?” Any country is capable of blocking their access to the internet on a country/government level, meaning nothing gets in or out unless for local IP’s I’m guessing. Let’s face it, the internet allows for anybody (including me) to post how we feel (in about any way) and to discover information about stuff they don’t want you to see. I may be sounding a bit crazy now but hey, if Egypt can do it, why can’t anybody else. This scares me, what if the government here (due to some crazy president the people unwittingly elected) in the US decided to just shut off the Internet and Cell Phones. People would Riot, People would demand an election or at least an explanation. Then the military comes in, I don’t know how many people in the military would protest but I’m guessing all of them would be serving for their country and they’ve got to do their duty. So after the military comes in then we’re forced to live in a police country (not a police state, a police country). Where all our actions are monitored, our lives controlled and our rights abolished.

Shown above is the sign of terror in the entire world.

Of course, it’ll never happen in a million years but this kind of situation makes someone think. If anybody can turn off the internet on a government level then why don’t we do something about it, why don’t we stop another one from happening anywhere else. Egypt turning off the internet is descriptive of the Presidents need to cut them off from the flow of information and keep them controlled but I guess they’ve failed at controlling them. Other countries however have far stronger military forces then Egypt has so enforcing the rule will probably be a whole lot easier now that fear & dominance is established. Unless some sort of “V for Vendetta” figure comes up and liberates everyone or we prevent it from happening in the first place. No government is supposed to have the power to control the internet, but they do. Free speech is an impotent component in every culture and society, it ranges not just on the internet, it ranges from books, art (especially grafitti), movies, TV shows (well not the ones on the big four of course) and general discussion. But if they can block the internet, they can certainly block all those forms of free speech that exists today. While the political situation in Egypt looks like it’ll likely be resolved, we’ve got to start thinking about what can happen to any country at any time, the blocking of our internet.

UPDATE 1/30/2011: The threat seems to be heating up this time around. According to this article, Egypt has shut down Al Jazeera in their country as an attempt to quell the rebellion and apparently this is more than just them having the power to shut down the internet, this is about trying to quell the rebellion and get it to stop, and that means shutting down anything that the Egyptian government considers a resource to the rioters. Now, I haven’t lived in Egypt nor have I read much about what has happened prior to the riots but I do sympathize with them. They’re trying hard to address all these issues that the government have been ignoring but instead they just try to block any means of communication (I wonder if they’ll find ways to intercept common letters.). Things are quickly looking worse then I initially predicted. This is going to be even worse and even tougher then that “green avatars on twitter” election that happened. If they decide to bring out their military forces (which I have recently discovered to be about 1,000,000 strong. Sorry about the error I made about them earlier, guess I should of done the research) then things will just get worse to the point where we are not even sure if the protest will succeed or not. Still, go egyptians go

“Since we started GeekBrief.TV, I’ve studied media successes to learn techniques for growing an audience and keeping them interested. Publicly writing something controversial is usually a very good thing to do. You don’t loose as many people as seems logical because people want to stick around to see what you’ll do or say next.” -Neal Campbell

Really… controversy… I guess it works for the people who actually know what they are talking about, people who usually have a good theory that will cause controversy because it clashes with the common watered-down stuff that the people have heard. Also people don’t stick around due to the controversy, they stick around because they light what the guy is saying and they want to hear more. I suspect this is the guy who used to watch “Rikki Lake” and “Jerry Springer” because they’re “controversial.”; I suspect he stopped this because he wanted to look more “smart” than he really is.

“When Cali found out what I did, it obviously it made her angry.  To her, politics is private and divisive. She doesn’t enjoy it in the least. I apologized, but also argued my case about the benefits of the controversy. We had recently had dinner with John C. Dvorak and he explained how he has used controversy in his long career as a tech writer to keep people paying attention. I thought Cali bought-in to the idea of creating controversy, but I was wrong.” -Neal Campbell

Well you’ve been married to her for like, I don’t know, 11 YEARS!!! You should know Cali at the time you impersonated her and posted that tweet about global warming. Not only does it show that you do not respect your wife’s wishes, it also shows that you’re 100% intent on controlling her career. Here’s what I think Neal Campbell was thinking in his head.

“Hmmm… If I impersonate Cali Lewis and if I post a controversial tweet then it will make my wife more famous! And it will also make me “Neal Campbell”, recognizable as the husband of a famous celebrity!” -The Thoughts of Neal Campbell

You seriously couldn’t consult Cali before you did this? Maybe she would do it, maybe she would say not; the point is, you impersonated her without consent for personal gain. And when you realized that Leo banned her from TWiT, then you realized you were wrong; because with that, your business opportunities started to go down the drain.

“She was deeply hurt by what I did. She is the kindest person in the world and she didn’t want to embarrass me. She’s lived with letting everyone believe it came from her because of our relationship.”-Neal Campbell

This is what also angers me. You hurt her, you posted that tweet and after all of that, she defended you… Woman should not have to defend Men from their mistakes; if Men never experiences the consequences brought on by their mistakes then they should not deserve to be called Men, just cowards. Worst of all; instead of apologizing for what you have done, you have instead let Cali take the blame. Not once did she feel obligated to say that it was you who did it; she let many business opportunities slip and it’s all because of you.

“The only way I can make it right is to publicly apologize.  A private apology is utterly insufficient because what I did pushed her into a public, political battle she didn’t want to fight. She lost friends and business opportunities because of what I did. I hope this blog post will mend some of those relationships. I also want to apologize to friends of GeekBrief.TV and followers of Cali’s tweets. The controversy experiment just wasn’t worth it, especially without her participation. I’m sorry.” -Neal Campbell

You know what’s even more insufficient, not apologizing at all… and now you apologize for placing her in a battle she didn’t want to fight in the first place. You know what, you’re not sorry; you did this “experiment” without consulting her, you did this because you thought this would help her career, but mainly you did this entirely for yourself. What surprised me is that Leo Laporte posted the first comment, and after reading that comment I found some words of text which really proves that you’re a shallow person. Note the highlighted words around a big red circle.

According to the highlighted text, he apologized way back then. Which means that Leo had at least enough emotion to contact Cali and apologize to her. You, you waited a year after the incident you caused and then you posted your “public apology”. While some people may hate Leo for his views on Global Warming and his views on the then 2008 presidential campaign. He is at least more human and less shallow then you will ever be in your lifetime. The conclusion, well it’s obvious. Cali divorces you; seriously. In my personal opinion, she does not deserve scum like you. While you guys used to love each other back then, I think it’s different now. When Cali became a micro-celebrity, it made you think “I’m going to make her into a celebrity, and then I shall bask in the fame and move to Hollywood as the husband of a celebrity.” If you were truly in love with her then you should not let the ideas of fame and success affect your head. Continuing on, it’s a “well known fact” that he produces the show… I’m wondering, isn’t this the reason why the show looks unprofessional.

I remember a time when I found a music video for Geoff Smith’s “Hello, Hello” and it was just, horrible. During the duration of the song, he focused on Cali buying the iPhone. While I do admit that the song was good, he could of done a few things; adjust the contrast of the video, shot it at a slower framerate and at least took the effort to make it a proper music video. This is the same for the video podcast itself; I read around the web that “GeekBrief.TV” has a certain “professional” element to it, I found myself to be more wrong. No offense to Cali Lewis on the more recent episodes but the ones she did with her husband in 2009 are in my opinion campy, unprofessional, cheap-looking and horrible. Not once did the guys even consider getting the lighting right, the obvious production errors fixed up or even the presentation right. Now while I’m mainly interested in the news when I’m looking at a podcast, I consider the presentation to be the most important thing I look for. Whether the host is likable, relatable or knowledgeable, and whether it will make me want to come back for more. I should not have to be focusing on obvious errors such as the ones found in your special you produced on “Leo Laporte”.

I just loved how you overlayed a title over another title, and I absolutely loved how you did not take more then 1 camera into the cottage. I swear that as I watched the videos you produced, I saw Leo suddenly get less clear and muddy throughout the video. I don’t know, you did not have the skill to have a camera directly facing Leo? Superproducer my bottom, you are the tech version of Solar, a guy who claims to care about her only to use and abuse Guru for his own personal gain; and Guru was lead to believe that there was nothing he could do to stop him, he was even forced to perform on stage despite Guru’s health, all for his own benefit. And the quality of the product, there was no effort put into the product; it was all rushed just to cash in. Sure the music’s good but the product feels like there hasn’t been any care put into it.

Also, his political views aren’t really the ones anybody political would recommend. Sure he’s against Obama but for one reason, what he’s going to do to his wallet. Not universal healthcare, not the fact that he isn’t really all that different from George W. Bush, but money. In this world, the rich control everything while the poor have to survive off of scraps. The world loves people who can make money in an economy like this and continue to make money, they are the ones who will survive into the future because they can afford all of the life extension technology. If his political views consist of only what he’s trying to do to his wallet then that’s pretty shallow in my book. I mean just because banks aren’t accepting mortgage offers like they used to after George W. Bush ruined the economy, that is no reason why you should start going all political. I mean just because they denied you for the mortgage (which could be for many reasons; bad credit score, history of underpayments, the fact that they think you will not pay it back in full) does not mean that the world is going to end, in fact it should of made you do things like get more sponsors for your tour or at least rent the damn bus; not go all political just because someone denied your mortgage application.

And closing out my argument is how he tried to save his marriage. Apparently he has gone to 2 support groups because Christians don’t believe in psychology. My advice; they should of just saw a psychologist to at least try to resolve their issues instead of a support group. Which leads me to my next issue; he should of just admitted her love for her instead of trying to find out what’s wrong and fixing it. You couldn’t of just walked up to Cali Lewis and say “I love you with all my heart, I know that I shouldn’t of placed you into a battle based on a hunch, but everybody learns from mistakes and we, we could overcome any mistakes if we stick together.” He couldn’t even do that? I thought you were a Christian… Which Christian represses their feelings of love for trying to find out what’s wrong with the marriage. Additionally, he even claims that he realizes that he has been reborn and now realizes that the marriage he had was magical… During the 11 years he was married to her, did you ever think that you think the marriage was magical? I guess he doesn’t know what he got until it got up and walked away from her, now he’s talking about how he’s reborn, how he wants his wife back and spiritual BS which I just plain don’t believe in (sorry believers of religion.). Neal, the day you started becoming a bad husband was when in my opinion, you started to use her for your own personal gain and when you started to subconsciously think you were bigger than god. Neal Campbell you are a shallow, ignorant, pathetic piece of human flesh and you should of never gone onto her Twitter in the first place and posted that message in the first place, and that is why you fail.