In the modern world video has taken over.  YouTube, Television, camera phones, etc have taken over our visual news and experiences.   They allow people to experience things that are happening or have happened.  They brought to the American people troops, experiences, stories, and horror in Iraq.  They stir emotions and bring calls of action.  This week, many have seen what has happened  with the Olympic Torch relay protests.

Still photos only capture a moment in time.  By freezing that moment, you can look and absorb the instant.  Even with videos from previous wars, photos capture something that video seems to miss.  Even with video of the same period, photos from Vietnam and WWII are still in people’s consciousness.  News casts on television also use still images from stories they’re covering.  By seeing a still picture, the image stays with people.

Which format makes a bigger impact?  Which holds the bigger emotional impact?  Which stays with people more?

This makes no sense to me.   I hate credit cards.  Hate them with a passion.  But in today’s world having at least 1 for emergencies, online purchasing, or age verification basically makes them a neccessity.  I use mine as LITTLE as I possibly can.  Unfortunately, with car breakdowns, roommates that can’t pay their share of the bills/rent, etc I’ve had to use them a bit over the past few years.  Originally I had 3 cards from 3 different companies.  Only ever used 2.  Since then my credit line on them has continuously increased so my need for multiple cards has diminished, but I’m now stuck unable to combine them because since I got them all 3 have been bought out by the same company….. Bank of America.  Yet, they kept the cards seperate even though they are all under 1 account in my name.  So I’m stuck paying 2 minimum balances and interest on 2 cards from 1 company.  I’m currently trying to convince them to cancel all 3 cards and move the balances onto just 1 card with 1 payment that I can pay off easier, quicker, and while saving myself some money monthly that can be put aside to my other bills.  We’ll see how this goes…

What I hate more than credit cards….   Credit Card Companies.

So I get home yesterday from work, and a recent install has been bugging me that I need to restart my computer.  So I decide before doing anything I’ll just restart my computer.  Or so I thought.  Windows wouldn’t load back up.  In the end I ended up losing everything on my C: Drive.  It’s not 10:25 PM the next day, and I’m finally re-installing Civilization 4.  Hopefully it’s stable now.  Earlier today, while messing with the hard drive issue my 2nd monitor decided to (literally) go up in smoke.   Smoking monitors smell BAD.  So I’m out a monitor, data, save games, and time.  I could have done without this mess, and the headache that came with it.