I'm depressed and lonely, the full force of realizing all the people who you thought where friends were actually more of your ex's friends being the cause. It's like the cherry on the top of this whole fucking ordeal.
...at least I can safety go back to college now. -___-
I'm depressed and lonely, the full force of realizing all the people who you thought where friends were actually more of your ex's friends being the cause. It's like the cherry on the top of this whole fucking ordeal.
...at least I can safety go back to college now. -___-
At least there will be lots of people at college. You'll get to meet some cool folks, I'm sure.
Finally assembled my computer after not doing so well on an organic chem test, the past two days' food-borne illness and the vast difference in difficulty between the practice exam the professor compiled and the actual exam. I went to play L4D2 with the new rig, thinking I could blow off some steam playing Survival. Instead, my teammates knocked me into the Horde where a Tank killed me, and then they TK'd me while I was downed.
I'm just going to call my mom or some shit. I feel miserable.
The actions of Hillsong church back home, two of my close friends being involved in it, the horrifying things that hillsong is doing to them, and just....MOTHERFUCKER.
I can barely think, and words are utterly failing me. I am literally shaking with rage right now.
The actions of Hillsong church back home, two of my close friends being involved in it, the horrifying things that hillsong is doing to them, and just....MOTHERFUCKER.
I can barely think, and words are utterly failing me. I am literallyshakingwith rage right now.
What's this story? I did a quick google and I'm not sure I can see what's happening.
What's this story? I did a quick google and I'm not sure I can see what's happening.
They're a cult essentially on par with Scientology, just with a more Christian bent. Notoriously litigious(Both to aggressively silence critics, and to aggressively protect their trademarks, though that often just plays into the first), Notorious for using it's members to stack unrelated events for their own promotion(For one example - They have rigged both Australian Idol, which I don't care about, but is rather unfair to others, and had a big part in the Election of Kevin Rudd, which I really do care about, because it's fucking up the country), they're massive political power(Kevin Rudd has notoriously given them information not available to the public, consulted them on issues that the general public has no say in, they are huge supporters of the internet filter, use political pressure groups for politicians that don't fall in line), their policies against of non-believers and non-Christian religions(they support The Scouts of Australia, but on the condition that they keep the "Athiests are not allowed" rule, though that is much fought against, and often hard to enforce - and has also created somewhat of a "Don't ask Don't Tell" culture about Atheism in the Scouts at all levels), and of course, they use Scientology's tactics(Such as the "Attack the Attacker", "Fair Game", "Dead Agenting" Policies, Disconnection, Classic Brainwashing behaviour, inappropriate use of donations(Which they solicit aggressively and constantly) and grants, and special treatment given to celebrities to recruit them as to promote the cause), Mass coverups of sexual abuse, And targeting children and youth extremely aggressively, and pressuring them to join to the point where they will even punish those who don't. And that's apart from the usual Youth-oriented church bullshit, where they appropriate pop culture to sell Jesus, and essentially try to trick people into coming by pretending to offer certain things, and then suddenly "Whoops, nope, suprise, It's actually this christian band whose name is the same as this popular band, and There is no Call of Duty being played here, that's just what we called the event, and stole the logos and marketing stuff for, and kept referring to gamers and nerds, so you'd think it was a lan party."
My two friends(a brother and sister pair that I've known literally since they were in daipers) said to their Hillsong-run youth group leaders that I had raised concerns about their membership with the church. They were marginalised an excluded within the youth group, and made to go to special counselling sessions(which they had to pay for, despite being non-optional) that were essentially "Yeah, this guy, your friend, he's evil, he's going to hell, and you should cut him out of your lives as much as you can before he drags you down to hell with him."
It nearly worked, but thankfully, a mutual friend(who while christian, isn't part of hillsong) noticed what was happening, got together with my father, and the pair's father, gathering a few others along the way, and essentially hosted an intervention about that particular policy, where they brought up what hillsong had told them to do, and then brought up why that's really, really wrong, along with the long history we have(Ie, "Who taught you to drive, B? Who had your back when a bunch of wiggers kicked the shit outta you, who got involved and both gave and took a beating on your behalf? Who tore down, bought parts for and rebuilt your Ute's engine when it died, and you couldn't afford a mechanic, and fixes your guitar every time it breaks? And E, Who helped you when you broke up with your first boyfriend? Who was it that helped you with your homework every day when you were having trouble, and spoke to your teacher to get you back into the class? Who Ripped into your cadet unit when they were behaving poorly and losing respect for all of you?")
The first I heard about it? When I received apologies from them yesterday for starting to do it.
Comparison time: I'm paying 25 euros for 10/2 and in the Fall I'll move up to 40 euros for 100/10. How much are you guys paying?
EDIT: That's without cable or a phone line, so if you have a package deal mention it. My mobile phone bill is 67 cents a month base fee plus 6.7 cents/(min|txt) data plan would be 10 euros/month unlimited (the mathematical kind of unlimited).
Comparison time: I'm paying 25 euros for 10/2 and in the Fall I'll move up to 40 euros for 100/10. How much are you guys paying?
EDIT: That's without cable or a phone line, so if you have a package deal mention it. My mobile phone bill is 67 cents a month base fee plus 6.7 cents/(min|txt) data plan would be 10 euros/month unlimited (the mathematical kind of unlimited).
I pay $40 a month for "unlimited" cable internet. That's just internet, nothing else. The speed varies pretty wildly, the most I've seen down is around 2MB/sec. If I try to upload in any significant qualities it gets throttled back right quick.
My cell bill is $84 a month. That's 450 minutes, unlimited verizon to verizon minutes, unlimited text, "unlimited" data (5GB), and a 20% discount through my work.
I was paying 85 bucks a month for 1Mbps max(as in, once in a blue moon, maybe, if nobody else on that exchange was using the internet, and you were lucky, It was usually around 250 to 512 Kbps, on a good day) with a 12 gigabyte download cap(which, if you go over, they bring you down to 28-56 Kbps) in Australia. I would have killed for a connection like some of those above. Not the one in the image, though.
My major problem with American internet providers is NOT the current service. It's that they are trying to move over to a European/Australian business model, AND trying to do it while informing customers either as little as possible, or telling them it will be better for them. It's sort of like telling someone that your company will give faster internet speeds and provide internet service for less money...except the 'less money option' cuts your internet speeds and usage ability in half and then they tell you you need to pay more to do what you really waned on the web, which ends up being almost 50% more than you were paying in the first place. AND they also determine what sites you can go to. AND the speed/quantity you pay for is still not as fast or as much as what you had before. AND they're trying to make more money by providing a delivery service, claiming that the data is actually their possession. I understand that companies want profit, but to do something like this that intentionally screws the consumers and allows corporate censorship is ludicrous.
I am going to be with BE internet, £22 a month for 24/2.5meg with unlimited download and 1 static IP, but I have a 12 month contract. They have good uptime and keep to the speeds they offer.
I say it's simple. It should be against federal law for them to claim to offer "unlimited" data when they do not in fact offer unlimited data.
At least in the city, there's decent competition (except where the cable company has bought out entire buildings in order to prevent them from letting Verizon install FIOS, but that's shitty landlords' faults). My FIOS is $70/mo and is wicked, wicked fast. (It took a total of 1:04 to download South Park 201). ^__^
It's that they are trying to move over to a European/Australian business model, AND trying to do it while informing customers either as little as possible, or telling them it will be better for them.
The european model, as best I can tell, is usually pretty good - Fast, cheap(for the currency you're paying for it in, obvously 35 GBP a month is still a bit steep for what you get when you convert to USD), and without download caps on all but the shittiest of plans.
The Australian model has a valid reason, however, though only within Australia, not within the US - ISPs still have to pay for connectivity to other systems, and they pay by volume. Sure, they buy in bulk, and picking up terabytes of data a day, but they still pay, thus making it reasonable to cap downloads as to what you pay, as well as considering the differing infrastructure, regulation, and of course, the fact that more offshore data is accessed from Australia than, say, the US. It doesn't make the way they charge that much better, but at least you know there is some reason for it. More detail at Lifehacker Australia.
@Churba, oh I can understand why the Aussie model seems ludicrous to most Americans. My beef is that American companies are looking at Australia and trying to do the same thing, only they have no reason other than greed to do it. They want to make a more expensive, more restrictive, less versatile system that they can essentially lord over with no oversight and start to charge more for less.
@Churba, oh I can understand why the Aussie model seems ludicrous to most Americans. My beef is that American companies are looking at Australia and trying to do the same thing, only they have no reason other than greed to do it. They want to make a more expensive, more restrictive, less versatile system that they can essentially lord over with no oversight and start to charge more for less.
This is an easy opinion to have when you have no idea what costs a small subset of users incur when they're allowed to torrent unfettered.
I say it's simple. It should be against federal law for them to claim to offer "unlimited" data when they do not in fact offer unlimited data.
Well, if someone sued them for it and could show that they were injured by the lack of actual unlimited data, and that the contract they signed didn't say that "unlimited" actually meant something else (in a reasonable place, not tiny fine print on the back of a page), they could probably get them for Fraud. (That's state, not Federal, but whatever.) The problem is that if paying for expensive internet access is enough of a hardship for you to show injury, you probably don't have the money for a lawsuit.
Inconvenient porn? That's one hell of a fetish. "Oh yeah baby. This checkout line is taking forever because the old lady in front of me is using 50 expired coupons. That makes me so hot."
Comments
...at least I can safety go back to college now. -___-
At least there will be lots of people at college. You'll get to meet some cool folks, I'm sure.
I'm just going to call my mom or some shit. I feel miserable.
I can barely think, and words are utterly failing me. I am literally shaking with rage right now.
*tear
And that's apart from the usual Youth-oriented church bullshit, where they appropriate pop culture to sell Jesus, and essentially try to trick people into coming by pretending to offer certain things, and then suddenly "Whoops, nope, suprise, It's actually this christian band whose name is the same as this popular band, and There is no Call of Duty being played here, that's just what we called the event, and stole the logos and marketing stuff for, and kept referring to gamers and nerds, so you'd think it was a lan party."
My two friends(a brother and sister pair that I've known literally since they were in daipers) said to their Hillsong-run youth group leaders that I had raised concerns about their membership with the church. They were marginalised an excluded within the youth group, and made to go to special counselling sessions(which they had to pay for, despite being non-optional) that were essentially "Yeah, this guy, your friend, he's evil, he's going to hell, and you should cut him out of your lives as much as you can before he drags you down to hell with him."
It nearly worked, but thankfully, a mutual friend(who while christian, isn't part of hillsong) noticed what was happening, got together with my father, and the pair's father, gathering a few others along the way, and essentially hosted an intervention about that particular policy, where they brought up what hillsong had told them to do, and then brought up why that's really, really wrong, along with the long history we have(Ie, "Who taught you to drive, B? Who had your back when a bunch of wiggers kicked the shit outta you, who got involved and both gave and took a beating on your behalf? Who tore down, bought parts for and rebuilt your Ute's engine when it died, and you couldn't afford a mechanic, and fixes your guitar every time it breaks? And E, Who helped you when you broke up with your first boyfriend? Who was it that helped you with your homework every day when you were having trouble, and spoke to your teacher to get you back into the class? Who Ripped into your cadet unit when they were behaving poorly and losing respect for all of you?")
The first I heard about it? When I received apologies from them yesterday for starting to do it.
EDIT: That's without cable or a phone line, so if you have a package deal mention it. My mobile phone bill is 67 cents a month base fee plus 6.7 cents/(min|txt) data plan would be 10 euros/month unlimited (the mathematical kind of unlimited).
My cell bill is $84 a month. That's 450 minutes, unlimited verizon to verizon minutes, unlimited text, "unlimited" data (5GB), and a 20% discount through my work.
I understand that companies want profit, but to do something like this that intentionally screws the consumers and allows corporate censorship is ludicrous.
At least in the city, there's decent competition (except where the cable company has bought out entire buildings in order to prevent them from letting Verizon install FIOS, but that's shitty landlords' faults). My FIOS is $70/mo and is wicked, wicked fast. (It took a total of 1:04 to download South Park 201). ^__^
The Australian model has a valid reason, however, though only within Australia, not within the US - ISPs still have to pay for connectivity to other systems, and they pay by volume. Sure, they buy in bulk, and picking up terabytes of data a day, but they still pay, thus making it reasonable to cap downloads as to what you pay, as well as considering the differing infrastructure, regulation, and of course, the fact that more offshore data is accessed from Australia than, say, the US. It doesn't make the way they charge that much better, but at least you know there is some reason for it. More detail at Lifehacker Australia.
Going through my work computer and deleting the previous teachers old files/bookmarks/etc. Grim task.