9 out of 10 monkeys believe they are not behind glass

Another 4th come, another 4th gone.

Like most holidays, I think that the 4th is more for the kids than the adults. Sure some goons like getting all liquored up and acting like retarded kids with explosives, but for the most part, its the kids that get the most enjoyment out of seeing high explosives in close proximity.

Fireworks are mfunitions: “Explosives that put the fun in munitions!”

Ok… that was lame.

Seriously though, I can’t believe the year is already half over. Didn’t we just celebrate New Year’s?

Switching gears and staying on topic of explosive things. Two words for you: Network Neutrality.

Net Neutrality is basically a huge arguement that has escalated to Congress in recent months. The huge ISPs (AT&T, Verizon, Qwest, etc) are arguing that since they own all the physical connections that the internet runs on, they should be able to charge more to those companies and parties that use more bandwidth. This has huge reprecussions on every single person and company that uses the internet. Imagine. Since you use Google as your search engine, that means Google has to pay more for their service to be as fast as say, Microsoft’s. By allowing the ISPs to censor and prioritize traffic for specific services, then the net is no longer about commonality and flexibility, undermining the very foundations the net was designed on.

Today Google stepped up to the plate and offered a small threat to the ISPs supporting the end to Net Neutrality… a small thing called an Anti-Trust complaint. (Remember when Microsoft had to deal with it?) And all I have to say is right on! Google is obviously at the heart of the issue, and may be looking after its own interests, but think about where the net is headed. Think about where we were at 10 years ago and where we are today with the internet. Now imagine how life will be different in another 10 years in a connection based society. Many of those services that are always touted as the future, today, will forever be beyond the horizon if neutrality is lost. Now some argue that Net Neutrality is a facade, a misunderstood concept. They argue that it already exists and is already in place. ISPs are already doing it, and doing it for good reason. We pay for a quality of service and to connect to others with that qaulity level. But the issue is so much more than that.

In the end, the whole point of the net is about providing the same services for everyone for the same price. The internet is about interconnectivity. Net neutrality is about preserving those connections.

Gore Verbinski surprised me when the first Pirates was released three years ago. (Wow, three years already?) Heck, the entire Disney team suprised the world with the movie. Can you imagine how huge of a flop it could have been? Especially when you are talking about a movie built around the revamping of a RIDE? How silly it could have turned out? But it turned out to be a pretty decent movie.

So now… the sophomore curse is looming. The sequel is coming Friday (as everyone knows), and my wife is pretty excited. She is a closet movie fan with very limited tastes, so when she gets excited, it is a rare event indeed.

The concept and plot look clean enough. Davy Jones, the baddest of the bad, is set as the main villian and I think that alone will give the movie plenty to dwell on. I hope that it doesn’t sink in its own references to the previous movie and just focuses on the characters. If it turns into a farce of character exploitation and just ends up reveling in the exaggeration of traits, I will be disappointed. Everyone knows Cap. Jack Sparrow and we don’t need to see him just be a parody of himself from the last movie, ya know?

Gore Verbinski suprised us all once… hopefully he can pull it off again. After MI3, X3 and Superman Returns, I need a mind blowing movie this summer. The summer season just hasn’t been delivered yet. Has it?