Suboptimist

A belated fatwa.

So, the Friday Fatwa didn’t last very long as a Friday-specific feature. Frankly, I’ve had too much to deal with the last week or so to bother writing in my blog. Get over it.

I’m having trouble deciding which of the two local newspapers in Salt Lake frustrate me more. Not the newspapers themselves, really, but the the comment boards. The people who frequent the comment boards occupy the extremes only, though each board tends more toward one. The Tribune has more annoyingly angry liberals who think they’re funny and smart, while the Deseret News has more self-righteous gasbags who think they’re rational. Today, I am only giving one example from the Deseret News:

Hollywood’s morals are reflected in the works it produces, and it’s always been that way. That’s why law enforcement officers are often portrayed as idiots, family men as morons, and stay-at-home housewives as stupid subordinates, while sexually promiscuous and irresponsible characters are shown to be adventurous, open-minded, kind and virtuous. Many people locally were upset by the nudity in Titanic, while I think they should have been more upset by the unfaithfulness of the woman who ditched her fiance and bedded a shipmate during the journey. If you want to see Hollywood continue to spread its brand of morality, continue patronizing movies that show decadence as good and chastity as evil.

Rich

I’m going to leave the subtle misogyny aside. Are law enforcement officers portrayed as idiots? Probably no more than some already are, and they are often also portrayed as heroes. Just watch any crime drama or buddy-cop show. Family men are hardly portrayed as morons, housewives aren’t all portrayed as subordinate, and if you’ve seen Desperate Housewives, for example, sexually promiscuous, unfaithful people aren’t shown in the most positive light. I don’t understand the paranoia some people have about Hollywood. This is the kind of attitude you hear from people who hear a lot about the supposed moral degeneracy of Hollywood, but don’t actually watch much of its product.

Alright, time for less frustrating topics: cell phones.

I’m kind of a cell phone geek. I’m always interested in the newest phone out there (though I rarely have the money to blow on it). Currently I am using my dad’s old iPhone (he acquired an AT&T 8925). I intend to hang on to the iPhone until a viable Android-based handset is available and my current contract allows for an upgrade. Here are my preliminary views of the iPhone.

Pros: The interface is sleek and intuitive. It doesn’t beep at me for unknown reasons, and the phone syncs seemlessly with iTunes. Having a full HTML browser is a nice thing to have. The applications are all very well designed and thought out.

Cons: EDGE network. You would think that Apple’s revolutionary phone would operate on the revolutionary 3G network. If there are various Wi-Fi networks in the area, the phone gets confused about how to connect to the internet leading to very slow downloads. Also, the phone is black. WTF? Sorry, but tech manufacturers should be shot for making black devices. I have to clean my screen twice a day and every little scratch and smudge is noticeable. I ordered a Zagg invisible shield/screen guard for the phone, but now I have to find a free 12 hours to let the phone sit.