Will Miss You Hannah… Beat it Miley

I’m sure some will see me as harsh, and even suggest things like “look at it from her perspective” or “she is just a kid” but in all honesty, right now I don’t care.  Destiny Hope… excuse me… Miley Ray, I think forgot who put her where she is today, and gave her what she has.  The young teen and tween fans (well really… us, the parents of those fans), the one’s she is now discarding because she “knows who she is” according to her latest write up in Parade Magazine.

’ My job first is to entertain and do what I love, and if you don’t like it, then change the channel. I’m not forcing you to watch me. I’m not forcing you to talk about me. I would do that pole dance a thousand times again, because it was right for the song and that performance. But, dude, if you think dancing on top of an ice-cream cart with a pole is bad, then go check what 90% of the high schoolers are really up to. It’s funny. I don’t know if a lot of parents remember what they were like as kids. But I’m like, ‘Dude, as if you were an angel!’”

She sighs. “I’ve learned I can’t live for what people are going to say. People are so judgmental—especially parents.

That is right Miley, we are judgemental. We are the ones that decide what concerts our children go to see, and what music they buy, and we decide what they watch because we are concerned parents.  And, if you don’t like that… then fine, I am taking my child AND my wallet and going home.

Yes, it is true that you are just a kid (despite what you probably think right now, being a rich, snot nosed teen), and of course you are going to make mistakes.  But, treat the people that spent the Billions of Dollars on you… and make no mistake about this… because Disney packaged you and sold you perfectly, those people are not going to be there after you keep up the “I don’t care about you attitude.”

Now, some of my anger is probably not Miley’s fault really.  I remember sitting with my little girl, excited that a new episode of Hannah Montana was coming on.  The songs didn’t make my ears melt (like Jonas does now), the acting wasn’t awful (unlike That’s so Raven) and I actually liked and felt I understood Billy Ray’s caring and worrying about his little girl.  I was on some level able to connect with the show almost as much as my daughter.  And having those times together is something I will always cherish.

But time does move on.  My daughter outgrew the show… I guess.  Either that or she (like I) realized that the show now stunk and was no longer entertaining.  Of course, I had  placed most of the blame on the writer’s strike thinking it took the show out of its rhythm.  Little did I know, it was thanks to the fact that you had turned into a prima donna that “hated” being a popular actress in a hit television show, because you didn’t like the outfits you had to wear.  It is called acting.  Not all your roles (assuming you get any more), are not going to “allow you to be who you are.”  I had a point.. oh yeah… time moves on, and it was time for the show to say good-bye.  And I will fondly remember the 1st two seasons, and the time I spent with my daughter watching Hannah Montana.  For that I say Thank You, and Hannah… you will be missed.

But Miley, you are now the pompous ass people have been saying you are turning into.  Something I refused to believe originally, when people were comparing some of your indiscretions into the same sort of self-implosion that  marred Britney Spears.  I fought and defended you, certain that your parents would be able to help you navigate your way through and avoid the big headed pompous attitude that ruins so many people that get fame too fast and too early.  But apparently, you know better since your parents “aren’t stoked” about your choices, but you don’t care.

I hope, for your sake I am wrong, but if you are paying attention, you are already starting to fade.  Disney is going to get whatever last bit of juice they can squeeze out of you with this stint as a “mentor” on American Idol.  I know you “don’t care” what people think, but you just might want to take a peek at the Entertainment magazines and just find out how much of a joke the general public and entertainment experts think of this idea.  But Disney might get a quick boost of viewers for Idol like they did with Dancing with the Stars when they milked your fandom multiple times with you, your dad and Cody Linly.

In one of those conversation you have with you dad, you just might want to ask him how fleeting stardom is.  Without Disney, you would just be the best singer at the Tennesee State Fair, and if you don’t mind you business and fans a bit better, that is where you might be again.  Good Riddance Miley… not that you care.

Coming Soon

Hey… I have a blog.  Yeah, I didn’t forget it… but it certainly does look like I did.  However, a new look, new content, and hopefully a new attitude, will be coming this way… uh… soon.  I’ve got a lot of plans for it… just have to get to those darn details.

Android Test

Testing out WP ToGo, so I can blog on the go from Disney. If you are reading this, then everything worked and I am all set.

What you like to do

I have always been lucky in that for the most part I have been able to work doing things that I enjoy doing.  Sometimes it meant getting paid for what I do, other times it meant doing it for fun.  Back in the late 90′s I did a website based on vacationing at the Jersey Shore, purely as a project of love.  As the world of blogging took over my focus, I had given up on the venture promising on day to return to it, and possibly reinvent it as a vaction blog of where to go and what to do when on vacation in New Jersey.

Imagine my surprise, when Whit provided me with the opportunity to do it as part of a project on a much grander scale.  Anyway, due to some slip ups, I am only getting started, but I will be joining a band of most excellent bloggers (check out the About Us page for the list of stars I will be trying to live up to) , writing at UpTake.com.

Yesterday was actually the official launch, and you can check out the official launch of their Travel Network Blog.  For those that like read such things, there is even an official press release of the launch event (that I missed), for everybody else, just go and check out everything they have to offer, because with real reviews and blogs written by real people and not, say… imaginary gnomes, UpTake is … Your first Step to a Great Trip.

TechParent Tuesday: Living in the Cloud

I have been planning for quite some time now to bring back TechParent Tuesday, but I wanted to do something a little more focused than the radom reviews that I had been doing previously.  Now, unless you have been living under a rock for the past year or so, I am sure you are aware or have at least heard of using “the cloud” for your computing, the theory that the OS is becoming irrelevant and that everything you do is or will be available on the web.  

This concept in not new.  In days past, when companies like Sun Micrososystems were touting, “The network is the computer” and Netscape that was talking about a BrowserOS, the idea was half baked.  We didn’t have the tools or the abilities yet actually have a full rewarding experience without the underlying OS doing the heavy lifting.  If you wanted to do “web e-mail” sure many of the same players, Yahoo, Hotmail, etc were around, but you got 2MB of storage, and a slow interface that had to refresh with every click.  Tolerable, but certainly not what you would want to live your life in.  There were also many pieces of the puzzle still missing, so while you could do some things online, you could not do everything.

When the first netbooks started appearing last year, the message that these computer makers were trying to send is that, at least for casual everyday use, that now the web is ready.  Most people are still skeptical, as is shown by how the netbook market has already changed.  The first machines offered you about 2GB of storage, the theory being that you would only install what you needed to get to where you wanted to go and possibly some other small add-ons like an IM client.   Now most machines come with at least 100 GB of storage (because even if you want to live in the cloud, there are just some times unless you have the money to have an aircard from a wireless carrier installed, you will need SOME stuff to work when you are not connected).  

I am going to take my Asus eeePC, and for my personal life and work test out this theory and see if and how well I can live life in the cloud.  At least initially, my only offline access will be provided through Google Gears.  So I will use GMail for mail (which I had been mostly doing anyway) and importing the mail from my other accounts rather than turning to Microsoft Outlook.  I will start out with Google Docs (since it can use Gears as well) for all my documents, spreadsheets, etc.  Though I will test out some of the other online document creation tools as well.  Meebo will serve as my IM client.  Photoshop Express or Aviary will become my image editors, and well… I think you get the idea.  No local applications installed.  If I really start missing interacting with a desktop, I will give DesktopTwo a whirl again (but I wasn’t that thrilled with it the first time around).

So wish me luck, this is as close to “roughing it” as I care to get these days.  I will report back on how these and any other living in the cloud apps work. If you have suggestions of products or sites you think I should try out, then by all means let me know.