NRA Spokesman LaPierre - You are a fool.

Let me first start off by stating this...

Mr. LaPierre. You are a fool.

While I am 40 years old, single, and probably a recluse in the most common sense... Let me point out a few things that you should be aware of before you make another foolish statement with regards to 'who is to blame' for the shooting a week ago.

I spent most of my young life in trouble. In elementary school, I was teased, and I lashed out. I was sent to the Principal's office at least once or twice a year.

I grew up watching shows featuring violence, ranging from Batman Live Action, while it was fake, it was still violent. I watched cartoons like Looney Tunes which also featured violence, while it was slapstick, it was still violent.
When I went to Junior High School, I managed to almost avoid having to deal with a principal, out of my OWN wish to do so.

In High School, I never visited the Principal or got suspended to my recollection. But I will admit, during my years in High School, I did get in a scuffle at times, had desires to be violent, but kept it in. I also had my first time firing a weapon. It was also during that time, I was playing a lot of violent video games, such as Castle Wolfenstein 3D, Doom, Wing Commander, Battle over Britain and the like.

The 80s and 90s, there were violent movies, like Highlander, Terminator, Terminator 2, horror movies, one of which I recall when I was younger, still had issues with... But in the times of my violent youth... I have NEVER entertained the idea of taking a gun and shooting people up. Even when I was in my twenties or even thirties... And even in the time when I was let go and had the ability to get a firearm on my own... I never, ever felt the need to get a gun and take my grievances with another human being with a gun.

Now I may only be one person... But I find that your statement that it is because of violent games, because of violent media that school shootings happen, by far, the most foolish, most irresponsible thing to come from the NRA.

I am not advocating Gun Control. I also find that your statement of putting an armed person at school is not necessarily going to solve the problem.
You want reasons?

Here is a few I can list off:

1) There is a likely chance you place the crazed person there that you want to prevent. No human is immune to going crazy, not even the person you put there to protect the innocent.
2) The chances that the person can stop the other person can be drastically dropped further by the fact that fore-knowledge of an armed person will also be the most likely to be taken down first.
3) One armed person cannot cover all the possible ways onto a school campus and reduce or stop the loss of life at any location.
4) An armed security person is as likely to cause a loss of innocent life as much as a crazed person by accident. Just note that we have had accidental shootings by police officers to civilians at times as well as to other officers due to situations that put said officers on the edge.
5) It puts one more weapon reachable to someone to misuse should said armed security person is rendered incapacitated by one means or another, which can happen.
6) Your likening of Israel to our situation... I find most foolish as well. Given that at this time, Israel is also in a situation where the country is at odds with several countries around it, such as Lebanon, Egypt, Syria and Jordan as well as the more extreme Muslims. While I may not know enough about Israel persay about their people, we know that they are, embroiled with conflicts that has put them on the defensive more than anything else, that it is no surprise they have the need for more stringent needs.

Lastly... I call for you to realize something. You want people to look at violent games and violent media to be the reason for the shootings. I want you to look at something. I want you to look up the reason why the ESRB was needed. It came about when Mortal Kombat, a violent video game, was released to the public. The public outcry was about how graphic the violence was being sold. The public, being parents, who bought the game for their kids, ignoring the simple, most effective parenting method out there... Looking and seeing what the game was about. Movies are rated PG-13 and R for their content, which again, should be due to Parental Guidance.

Do you see a 'theme' here, Mr. LaPierre. The issue is not about the violence in games and media, it is how the generations of parenting is slowly eroding in handling children. Again, I am 40 years old, and yes, I am no parent. But I had parents, one I hate, one I love dearly, but they helped guide me not to be a sociopath or a murderer... And I still play violent games, I still watch violent movies... Hell, I have a knife on me at almost all times, but I never entertained the idea of killing a human being with it unless my life was in danger. I never entertained the idea of getting any sort of gun to kill another human being or a lot of them. But god help us all if you still want to play the violent video games and violent media is the reason for school shootings... Cause I should definitely be locked up, since I technically fit that profile, yet... Here I am, one of the more SANER people with regards to that.

It's Been a While...

Busy life does that when you have little time and playing other things.

But today, I put some time on the side to point out something that I think is important to know about... Especially the tragedy that has happened in Connetitcut that involved a number of children being killed.

A few too many times people claim that the rash of killings come from the fact that our society is desensitized to Violence because of violent video games, violent movies and the like.

That people are becoming deranged by supporting such things.

The sad thing about it all, it isn't JUST the media in question that sets people off.

People have such short term memories. They assume the 'here and now', forgetting history of the world, that people have been killing people in masses and it has nothing to do with violent media.

Mankind, through out the centuries, have been killing each other and committing atrocities since we first learned how to use tools. Our history is rife with man killing man for food, for love, for revenge, for land, for everything. And we have done it far longer than 100 years, we have done it for thousands of years.

We like to believe we are above it all, but to be honest, we are still animals, creatures with base desires and needs.

People say, what kind of monster would shoot children... Innocent beings.

I am afraid to say, "Look in the mirror."

I know the statement is insulting, unbelieveable and simply impossible.

But again... Mankind is a sort of monster in and of itself.

We pollute the air and water we need to breath and drink.

We spread across the land, consuming resources and making large wastes.

We pass our problems to the next generation, demanding to keep things the same despite the knowledge that to do so is still creating the problem.

We ignore that we are responsible for things, passing it on to someone else to bear it.

To be fair... We are monsters... Every one of us. We have no excuse for what is happening now. Our only explanation is simply that WE need to actually accept the fact that we are monsters in our own world. We have to help each other and accept the fact that we all need help and we should help others. We create the problems in this world that affect us, in one way or another. The blame is never to point it at "It's the media's fault." or "It's the system's fault..." In the end, it is OUR fault.

The Dark Knight Rises and the Shooting in Colorado.

I will be the first to admit... I am a violence type person. I enjoy movies with guns, explosions and violence.

What happen in Colorado is a tragedy. But there is one thing I found a bit galling.

On facebook, someone posted an image that makes me question how 'smart' it is

The image suggests that the 'Response' time of a handgun is the speed of the round. Problem with this:

1) Speed of a round is not the response time of a weapon.
2) Anyone with a gun will not react any faster than their own natural ability to react.
3) We have learned from the bank robbery in LA, a man wearing body armor meant to resist bullets, will be difficult to stop with most hand guns.
4) People armed with guns are not any better than people without guns in a situation that happened.
5) Not everyone armed with a gun would be as effective in the situation.
6) Not everyone is harden to react to the situation save the military, mercenaries or cops who have been under fire.

I don't believe in banning guns, nor am I an advocate. But I do find people who think that this is a license to own a gun for protection, is doing it for the wrong reasons. I find that unless you actually know how to use a gun properly, it will not be any better than waiting for the cops. I feel that a gun can provide protection under the right circumstances, but you will never prevent the shooting in Aurora, Colorado, or in Viginia Tech just being armed.

Seeing it on TV or in a Movie, yes, guns are easy to use, but at the same time, when you use a gun, your life is not in danger. A person who has seen combat will tell you that shooting another person, while your life is in danger, is not the same as just firing a gun at a target or firing a gun in a game.

Have I ever fired a gun under fire? No. But to be honest, neither has most of us who have played games.

Another thing I heard, someone is boycotting this movie because of the shooting. I must say, how is boycotting a movie going to stop violence? Human history is full of violence. We have been here for well over 8000 years. Even Batman does not like using guns, yet he has an arsenal that can be used in that way. While he does not follow the law 100% in how to handle criminals, he tries not to cross the line with trying to kill the criminals. But like all human beings, he is also not perfect.

What people should carry with them is that the title is aptly named. The Dark Knight Rises. A man who is considered a pariah to the people, but still tries to do what is right in general. Our heroes have never been perfect, even in our oldest stories, our heroes are fallible, imperfect. Our real heroes, from 9/11, being Firemen and Cops... Are fallible. We have to remember everyone is human, even the people we consider to be monsters for heinous acts... Are human.

There is no black and white situations, or pure good and pure evil. I do not excuse or pity the man who has caused the death of 12 people, some who are kids. Or thousands of people like in 9/11. But we must all realize that in the end, people will do both good and evil things.

Damn Gold Spammers.

So my new rant is about gold spammers. For those of you who have never played an MMORPG or the more recent issue, Diablo 3... Gold spammers are basically companies that offer to sell you in-Game gold for $xx.xx. Now some of you are going to go, "Why the hell would you want pay money to get virtual money?" Well, for gamers, money == better gear. Better gear means 'more fun'. Which, I think, is a bad idea. These companies also are not necessarily... Honest. Some of them will want account information, which means, access to your game account, which can lead to you losing your in game work because some of that gold is generated by... Hacking accounts and selling off stuff the character as and transfering the virtual money to another account. In the past, it has been discouraged, but doesn't stop the companies from getting a bunch of the free accounts, creating characters and then spamming various channels to sell their illgotten gains. Personally, I've gotten annoyed with it in Diablo 3, mostly cause I am trying to just have fun in the game and then watching several lines of "Buy gold from ...... Safe, honest..." And what makes it worse, is that Diablo 3 does have a 'real currency exchange' auction house, which means, people can, literally make money off of playing the game and selling virtual stuff to other players. While Blizzard gets a small percentage of the sale, the thing I just don't like is the simple fact that it just encourages these gold spammers to constantly make the damn spamming bots to the point that playing for an hour, I send at least 15 minutes blocking the spam bots and reporting them cause I want a chat channel that isn't full of crap. While some of the people in the channel might not be mature... To be honest, it is EASIER to deal with immature idiots than watching like 5 to 10 lines of selling crap on a game I already paid a right to play in. Even in-game 'ads' like those used in Planetside, I can tune out, but when I do want to read a chat section, and all I see is ad crap I can't tune out without block and reporting it several times, it becomes a real nuisance.

So the FBI thinks they have Anon/Lulzsec by the balls...

I will flat out state, I am no hacker... Not even a part of either group... But to be honest, if the FBI thinks they got Anonymous/Lulzsec by the balls because of Sadu outting several people, I think they are sadly mistaken. While Anonymous is by no means a solidarity group, they are much like a 'cell' group over time. Thinktank wise on my part, the smarter hackers would not be so readily sharing some of their information with others. From what was mentioned also is that one of the Anon types was approached by Sadu to do something with a bounty attached. While I am sure there are many hackers who would love to do it for the money, the fact that some of the tactics have been announced and even more so, this information is leaked out, it will further make said groups to do the following: 1) Distrust people - less collaboration, which would be a plus in making it harder for cooperative efforts of hackers. 2) Make it harder to locate dangerous hackers - With any 'hunt', you have people going to ground or finding more illicit ways to make sure that they are harder to find. This news will encourage smarter ones to dig in and wait it out. During that time, find better ways to return their style of justice in another way, most likely a more destructive way. 3) The old Hydra Motto, 'Cut one head, 2 more grow in its place' - The concept of cutting the 'head' off any organization is an old one, but it seems people also forget that while it would be ideal, some groups and organizations do create 'fallback' plans. And while Anon or Lulzsec is not a defined 'organization'... The typical power vacuum has always been filled with others.

About the saying "The customer is always right..."

So in my checking to see how someone can dig himself deeper in his own stupidity, this being Mr. Christoforo, I ran across this comment that made me stop for a second...

WTF is wrong with this guy? He doesn't think he is deserving of the backlash and all the hate that came from HIS inability to realize that the customer is always right. Never mind the fact that the customer is either handicapped or is buying the controller for someone who is.

This is a comment referencing the fail that Christoforo has done. But one thing I have to say, the customer isn't necessarily always right. I never really 100% agreed with this statement, since there are dozens, if not hundreds of times where the customer uses this as their soapbox to rant and rave about something they don't know in the face of people with the knowledge. Now in Christoforo's case... He was never right on his side. The customer may not have all the facts, but the way he treated the customer was well past the line of 'good common sense'. But enough of focusing on the failure of Paul Christoforo... That's a dead horse beating there. One thing to note is that there will be a fair share of the time the customer is NOT right. It is, however, important to help the customer as best you can. At the same time, this is a good time to help educate the customer in some things they may be misunderstanding. While I rant about how I find the customer being foolish or much stronger words, the thing is, I try also not to let the customer know that they are such unless we are on really good terms or literally facing me. The reason for this is so both of us can see what is going on and also gauge the frustration level. The problem with phone support is that often times, you can't really 'see' the person and judge beyond their voice. The other thing is, that sometimes people will speak in a tone that will often be confused as something else. For Example: I know of a couple of Chinese people, worked with them a few times, however, when you just 'hear' them, at first, you think they are very abrasive. The thing is, that is not the case, it is how they learned to speak in english as well as their dialect of Chinese tends to sound abrasive, when in fact, that is just normal. You would not know they were joking until you saw their face, the expression showing whether or not they are angry or just joking with you because you can't get that from just the tone. Now while some will cite the same thing with e-mails, this is true... Text shows no means of expression short of the typed emoticons like :) or ^_^ type stuff. But it is also important, regardless of being a customer or a service rep to not take the message personally, but try to reach a compromise. A customer should never always 'take take take'... You have to relent a little because not everything works exactly as you expect it.

Digging a deeper hole...

Yes, back to the same rant about Mr. Christoforo again... Just listened to his 'interview' with Gametrailers from Spike TV. One thing I have to say about the interview, is that Mr. Christoforo still proves that sometimes, even telling his side still proves he shouldn't be employed. Let me give you some tidbits that makes the case: The interview, obviously focuses on the event that got him into trouble. His statement, "I got a little a bit out of line..." It wasn't just 'a little bit'. He also stated this: "I had no idea who (Mike from Penny Arcade) was. I didn't even know what Penny Arcade was, to be honest with ya." Yet, in his e-mail to Mike, he said he loved Penny Arcade. So he is lying on the air or lying to Mike, being a condescending person. He further comments how it was not a well put together site. The sad thing is... Not all sites are not going to look 'flashy'. There are several comic websites people follow that are NOT flashy at all, some are down right 'plain', yet have popular followings. Again, a man who is suppose to be in Marketing, making comments about a website from his own view that is from a limited perspective and he is the PRESIDENT of his own Marketing company. But it gets better... When he is quoted something from his own e-mail... You see on his face, "Oops..." But then you hear him say this: "Like I said, I don't even know some of the stuff that came out when I said it, I wasn't even thinking about it..." For the love of god... You are creating an e-mail... Hell, I am creating a blog posting that will probably be read by the public. I take a moment to replay that section over and over again to make sure I have the words, in context, properly, to be reasonably fair, even with my biased attitude to the situation. I even stopped a few times before posting this, looking over what I am about to post, editing my own message to make sure it comes across carefully. While I may not be under pressure, even at work, I try to send DRAFTS of what will be an official communication to the place of work, to make sure it comes off reasonable and people can understand the message. The failure here, is Mr. Christoforo not doing his job properly once again. What I find interesting is when the interviewer talks about PR and marketing, the very thing that Ocean Marketing is 'suppose' to be about... Here is the response we hear from Mr. Christoforo: "Let's be clear about one thing... I'm not in PR and Marketing..." Wait... He's NOT a PR and Marketing... THEN WHY THE HELL ARE YOU RESPONDING TO PUBLIC RELATION BASED EMAILS? WHY WERE YOU IMITATING OTHER PEOPLE USING A COMPANY'S DOMAIN? Obviously, the answer that this response gives is, grifting the public. I've talked to some of the REAL marketing people or people who do what Paul is SUPPOSE to be doing. I even showed them this failure of a person's foolishness and most of them shook their head. What does he do with Ocean Marketing? "Sales... That's what I do... From cars to real estate..." Again... Why is a person who is doing sales, responding to customer service e-mails? He shouldn't be. What really gets me riled is this, the interviewer asks, "If this hadn't gotten viral, would you have changed your tactics?" His answer: "No, no I think that ultimately, that if this stayed between me and Dave... We would have worked it out..." He commented that he would have gone back and re-read his e-mails and asked himself, "Why did you do that dude?" When the third person walked into the whole thing... It should have pinged right away that it was handled wrong. The sad thing is... This is NOT the first time he has handled the customer inappropriately, with already one noted entry. http://www.natesnetwork.com/Poor-customer-service What more, Nate pointed out that this didn't change until AFTER he posted his issue as well. The problem I see here, is that I do not believe that, ultimately, he would have worked it out. The way it was handled, and the fact that he used the 'bad day' excuse for Dave... Is the same problem he used back in JUNE with Nate. What more, the time in which this went out of control... He should have realized his 'habits' about this situation and not proceeded the way he did with his responses in general. When they talk about the memes... Even Christoforo didn't recognize his situation at the time. Again, Mr. Christoforo didn't take the time to look at anything, like the source of it or even looking back in his OWN emails. Didn't take the time to actually follow Mike's suggestion to GOOGLE him. His comments on Twitter, as posted before, about taking a swing at an undeclared mixed martial artist in a bar (His own analogy)... The problem I see here, is a man who is not a 'people' person. At best, a schister. Or in most cases, the stereotypical used car sales man trying to pull the wool over your eyes. What makes me twitch even more is he states he doesn't remember any of the things he wrote. While I admit, there are many things I would not commit to memory, he has HOTMAIL, GMAIL accounts... Accounts that have 'sent items' and the fact it is reposted by people, verbatim, back onto the internet. When people single you out, they will point to what was written, just as this interview, I replay sections over again to get it down RIGHT. Now when he goes on about how it isn't fair to him to be hated... Here's something you have to consider. The reason why there is so much hate for Christoforo, at least, why I hate him, is that I know roughly where he comes from. There are times I feel the customer isn't right. Hell, I wrote this blog and I enjoy reading the 'The Customer is Not Always Right' website for that reason. But at the same time, when I engage with techs, or deal with customer service reps, I try to be nice to them, and even when I am frustrated, I try not to take out my anger with them, because I know that they deal with some unreasonable customers. Dave, in this case, wasn't being unreasonable at the beginning, but got pissed off because of the dismissive attitude towards him about the situation and vague responses. And the times that I dealt with the Customer Service reps, showing my irritation and almost getting to the level of using stronger language with them, in majority of the times I have been dealt with, they tried their best to appease me, but in all accounts, they were NEVER condescending or insulting. I find myself agreeing with Mike that while Mike may have become a bigger bully to Christoforo in some eyes, the simple fact of it is, Christoforo should be genuinely sorry about how he handled anything regardless of who he is dealing with. Not just Mike, but the simple fact that his name dropping and brow beating responses in e-mail will always come back to haunt them. There is a reason why companies are very hesitant to put out information and Paul Christoforo is a prime example of what happens when a person goes off on the customer. In the end... My ranting about Paul Christoforo is basically to etch just another mark for when someone does a Google Search on him. Eventually, it shows up that people are talking about him and at the same time, understand parts of the reasons why some of us rant about him. I have to say, his 'ethics' and 'work' are questionable when it comes to Social Media... His 'sales' are questionable as well. His reputation is definitely not something I would trust, and with the way he tried to handle his termination from N-Control and how they have to keep paying for it in the long run... I would not trust him with much beyond manual labor under major supervision.

Christoforo again...

As much as some people want to defend Paul Christoforo, the saddest thing of it all... It is undeserved. The reason I state this is by looking into two things:

This is a screenshot of a tweet he sent out... Second, is this: http://www.escapistmagazine.com/news/view/114994-UPDATE-Ocean-Marketing-Attempts-To-Extort-Former-Client Now some of this is old news for people, but I have to say to people who want to defend Paul about this situation to consider this... In the tweet he put up, his analogy is the WORST excuse for his situation for a few reasons. 1) Most civilized people will not go into a bar to throw a punch at anyone, regardless of whether or not the other person is or is not a martial artist. 2) His analogy fails again at the fact that he claims Mike K. is a martial artist champion that didn't tell him he was. Apparently, the fact of the matter is, Mike literally told him, "Google my name... I run PAX and Penny Arcade." 3) He makes Mike out to be a bully looking for trouble. That he intentionally wanted Paul to punch in him the face... Except when you READ the series of e-mails, you see Mike didn't really go into it until the end. Another thing to consider, when you read the Escapist Magazine entry, Christoforo was literally holding his client's digital assets hostage. Demanding a CONTRACT and pay from the company that fired him due to his own bad faith. If anything, this is a prime example of the man getting what is coming to him. He treated others with contempt and now he is reaping the karma he had coming to him. Needless to say, those who wish to keep defending him, go right on ahead. However, those with any common sense, consider this man a pariah with regards to employment for anything Customer or Public Relations in mind. I will also leave one last thing to consider. A man who is 38 and does not like to 'write' being in a position of Public Relations is NOT a good idea. As you can see, this man has already torn down one company's business with his practices and with his unwillingness to see what he did as being wrong in general, only sorry for picking the wrong kind of fight and then even extort his former clients... This is one person who is more likely to cause ruin and destruction than actually be 'helpful' for a company.