As many of you in CA know, starting July 1 those who are driving while talking on a cell phone must use some sort of hand’s free device or they will be ticketed. I personally think this is a dumb law. Its not the cell phone that is making people drive bad…its the bad drivers who are making people drive bad. The fact that anyone who wants a driver’s license pretty much gets one is what makes bad drivers.
Here’s what I think. Driving by no means takes 100% of your concentration. Otherwise, every single time you drove, you would put both hands on the wheel and stare straight ahead. You would not listen to the radio, would not talk to anyone in the car, etc. Every single thing you do lowers the percent of your brain focused on driving. If you require 100% of your concentration just to drive a car or 100% of your concentration is still not enough for you to drive safely, then you are either retarded, too stupid, or too paranoid, and you should not be behind the wheel despite whatever driver’s “test” you passed.
The problem is that its way too easy to get a license. So what if driving is “required” for you to function socially or make a living. Because our society is built around driving, these crappy drivers should be allowed to endanger me on the road? Make them taking the freaking bus or something. The test to get a license should be like 10 times harder. Tough luck for those who can’t pass. I can’t be a professional athlete even if I wanted because I suck, so why the hell should you be able to get a driver’s license just cuz you want to if you can’t drive????
Of course, we all know that this won’t happen. Everything is driven by money, as I’ve stated numerous times earlier. You think rich executives would allow lawmakers to pass laws that would make less drivers, and then therefore less cars sold, less gas sold, less work for mechanics, etc. No freaking way. Apparently, once again, money trumps all.
Getting back to my original topic. I think we are just developing too many laws in this society. Lawyers constantly look for loopholes to get their clients out of broken laws. So much so that we have to have tiny, specific laws for everything. Its already against the law to do anything distracting while driving. But, that’s not good enough. Too much interpretation involved. So now, we have to have a specific law that says you can’t talk on the phone unless you are hands free…and oh by the way….speaker phones do not count. Why? I have no clue. But it has to be a hands free device. Maybe the inventors of Bluetooth “donated” some money to CA lawmakers to disallow speaker phones in their definition.
This law will do absolutely nothing except make more money for the government from tickets. Why? There were bad drivers before cell phones, and there will be bad drivers after this law is passed. Cell phones are not the problem. A bad driver is a bad driver no matter what. Can a good driver become bad while talking on the cell phone? I won’t say its out of the realm of possibility. But the same can be said about listening to the radio, singing along with it, talking with a passenger, looking for street signs or landmarks while lost, or even trying to calm an excited kid in the back. Should we make laws against those as well? All this law is doing is giving the public a sense of false safety and hope that their government is looking out for them. But just remember, this same government also gave a license to that Asian woman who almost hit you while changing lanes because she didn’t look.
My friend Yony has told me numerous times in the past that marriage is the absolute worst business contract a man can enter. Once you get married, the wife owns half of everything. If they divorce, she gets half of everything, alimony, and child support. Although, this last part is true most of the time, it doesn’t have to be. Many times, the man does not want the child, or has this misconceived notion that the court is going to award the child to the woman so will not bother fighting anyway. This actually in fact is not true. They both have equal opportunities for custody, and many times it will be shared.
But, regardless. I used to think this was super lame. Why the hell should the woman get half of everything the man owns just because they got married? It made no sense. I guess technically the man owns half of everything the woman owns too. But, that often gets forgotten when guys complain about this law. And alimony? Why the heck does the man have to still take care of the woman after they divorce? She already took half of all his money! And he still has to give her more money every month???
Now, I’m not married, and if I ever do get married, I hope I never have to get a divorce. I’m sure that if I did, I’d complain and bitch about having to give my ex-wife money every month as well. But, as of now, I think I do understand why these laws are in place, despite most guys, including my friend, thinking it’s the worst deal ever for a guy to enter. I just think though, that its a bit too much sometimes.
I think our society is socialized in such a way that the woman, careerwise, takes a backseat to her husband. Even if she was never specifically told while growing up, she is brought up in such a way that if she gets married, she is the one who takes on more of the home maker role. If the man gets a job in another state, then the woman usually moves as well. If the couple has a baby, the woman is the one who takes care of the child, who stops working to do so. With all these added roles/duties, its no wonder that the woman is forced into a lower paying job when she is married.
So, if they were to divorce, and he leaves her with a child (or more) and a low paying job, how the heck is she allowed to get by in life? She now has to take care of a child alone (as if the husband helped all that much in the first place, right?) and still try to work full time to make ends meet? Had she never married, she’d be making a lot more money, never having to sacrifice her career or her earnings to need the ex-husband’s money.
And let’s also be clears that its not in the law books that a woman ALWAYS gets alimony. I’m no student of law, but technically I think it’s the person who’s richer who has to pay the one who is poorer. Most of the time in our society it’s the woman, for the reasons that I stated above. However, that’s not always the case. My neighbor in fact divorced her husband. She got the kids, but had to pay him alimony. She had the choice of giving him a one time lump sum or pay him like every month for 10 years. So, I’m sure he didn’t think it was all that bad a deal…
Now, obviously there are women out there who are gold diggers. It’s the case with any law in which people can take advantage. Its part of the American way of life, try to get the most money and such by doing the smallest amount of work. Why do you think there are so many frivolous lawsuits? People will always try to take advantage of any loopholes or laws if they can make money out of it. Does that mean they should just abolish the law? Don’t really think that’s the solution either.
So what is? Its actually rather complicated and hard for most guys to understand. Either do not get married. Or, marry a woman you really love, not just someone who is hot, or pretty, or whatever. The divorce rate in this country is what, 55%? How ridiculous is that? The real reason guys complain so much about this “bad deal” is because they are way too brash in getting married in the first place, or the couple is just way too easy in deciding to divorce. Its one of those things that they can’t blame themselves, so they have to blame a “bad law”. Just remember, it takes two people to get married people guys. Marry someone you love, or sign a pre-nup!
I got myself a new camera finally. This is the first camera I’ve ever owned. Crazy huh? For each of my last vacations to Tokyo, Hong Kong, and Europe I always just borrowed my sister’s camera. In that last trip to Europe, I broke the LCD screen on her camera, so had to get it replaced for her. And then when Lady passed away, I was kind of upset that I didn’t have any digital pictures of her. I decided I should just get my own camera. They are not all that expensive and I can afford it.
So, what did I get? A Canon 870IS. I would have gotten an SLR, but I’m not a huge photographer so a point and click is good enough for me. My friend told me to get this one and so I just got it. It has a pretty wide angle lens for a point and click camera. Has 3.8 optical zoom. I think it’s an 8 megapixel camera. What do I think? Well, haven’t taken a whole lot of pictures yet. The first ones I took are of Sugar, which you can see in my post a couple days ago. I thought those turned out pretty good. I like the big LCD screen on the back of the camera. I don’t, however, like the fact that there is no viewfinder. Guess they didn’t have room since the screen is so big. This should not be a problem most of the time, but what if I want to take a picture at night when the picture doesn’t show up on the screen? I also bought an 8 GB SD card. At the best image quality, this still gives me more than 3k photos, and that should be plenty. I don’t think I’ll need any more extra memory cards.
I bought this camera on Amazon, and all it came with was pretty much the camera and battery. I also bought a leather case afterwards since it did not come with any case at all and a memory card reader that I just installed in my computer, taking up one of the 3.5 inch bays. I can pretty much read any type of memory card on my computer now, as well as having another USB port.
The leather case pretty much just fits the camera snugly, no room for an extra battery or anything. I think it will suffice. I don’t take enough pictures to warrant getting another, I don’t think. If it dies while I’m on my trip, I guess I’ll just charge it that night and it’ll be all good again the next day. The case has a belt clip on it so I can hook it there instead of in my pocket. I may or may not be doing this. On the one hand, I did break my sister’s LCD by putting it in my pocket in Europe. On the other, I don’t know if I will be wearing a belt in Southeast Asia since I’m guessing I’ll be in shorts and t-shirt the whole time cuz its freaking hot and humid. I will have a few events before that vacation to test out how I want to hold this camera. I’ll be going to the Comic-con this month, as well as the Santa Ana Zoo. After those events, I should get a better feel for the camera, as well as the quality of the pictures it takes.
Happy 4th all. I saw this last night, and just wanted to give my thoughts on it. Firstly, this was not a terrible movie. But, I didn’t think it was good either. The trailers were interesting to me, funny. I mean, seems like a cool idea, to have a superhero who doesn’t care, who is an alcoholic. So, along comes Jason Bateman, a PR person who tries to make Hancock a better person, a true hero. He does this, despite reservations from his wife, played by the always pretty Charlize Theron.
So, this is the movie that was promised during the trailers. However, this is not really the movie that was delivered. There is a point in this movie where the whole plot seems to just change out of the blue, and after that point, I just thought this movie, using tv terms, jumped the shark. Not going to give it away for those who still want to watch the movie. But, I really enjoyed the first half of the movie. It was funny, and it was totally what I was expecting. Afterwards, well, still somewhat entertaining, nice action scenes, some funny lines, but just not the same movie.
Was I disappointed? Somewhat. But, when I watch a Will Smith action movie, I’m not expecting Oscar material, so it wasn’t a total let down. Like I said, it wasn’t a terrible movie. Had its moments and was pretty fun. Its probably more fun to watch these type of movies in a theater than at home since you have the huge screen and the nice sound. But, for most of you out there, I’d suspect that you’d rather rent this movie or wait for it to come out on cable.
I’ve been meaning to write a post about this, but just never got around to it. Either that or I just kept forgetting. Anyway, anyone who knows me knows that I have the worst memory. Ever. I forget names. People. Where I’ve been. Numbers. Its not just that I forget though. The worst part about it is that if I forget, I have absolutely no clue that it ever existed. Seriously. Most people who claim to have bad memories will at least have an inkling of an event happening. For example, my friend will tell me that Angie is going to meet up with us tonight. I’m like who? You know, that person we met last week. Last week? I didn’t meet anyone last week? I have no clue what you are talking about because I did not meet anyone. They could give me photographic proof and MAYBE I’ll remember then. Its pretty bad.
Here’s an example my friends keep telling everyone about me. I’m at V’s house, using his computer to do something. I’m talking out loud while I’m going through my steps for whatever reason. “Ok, hit enter, now delete this file…yada, yada, yada” Couple minutes later, “Oh crap, where’d that file go?”. “You deleted it!”. “What!? When did I delete it?”. “You just told us a minute ago you deleted it!!”. “Oh….” Haha, I still don’t remember deleting it, but guess that’s the point, huh?
I actually worry about this at times. I’m not exactly an old man…I shouldn’t have a memory this bad. The sad thing, and maybe somewhat encouraging thing, is that I used to have a good memory. Before I had a cell phone, I used to call all my friends on a landline. And I knew all their numbers by heart. Really. To this day, I still remember all of my high school friends’ home phone numbers by heart. Literally. You name someone I used to call in high school, and I can give you their number just like that even today, even though I haven’t dialed those numbers in years. However, anyone after high school I have no clue what their number is. I actually don’t know the numbers for any of my friends’ or family’s cell phones either. Ever since I got my cell, there is no longer a need to memorize. If I got rid of my cell, would my memory return?
Which makes me wonder, is memory a skill that if you don’t use it, you lose it? It can’t be just that, can it? I mean, how does me having a cell phone prevent me from remembering what I did last week? Or remembering someone’s name? So, I think skill definitely plays a part, but is not all of it. Another theory I have is that I am not very observant.
My friend V is naturally observant. It just happens, and I don’t even comprehend how it’s possible. He can meet a girl for a couple minutes, and then afterwards, can tell me what color her eyes were, her hair style, shape of her eyes, shape of her face, height, what she was wearing, what color clothes she had on, etc. What would I remember of that? Just that she was a girl. Maybe what race she was if she was Asian? If she was cute or not. That’s it. Its not like I’d not pay attention to her if she was talking to me. But, all the stuff I just mentioned is not something I’d notice. I’m not naturally observant at all. If you told me to describe that girl, I’d have no clue. Just that maybe she had black hair cuz she was Asian. And, I might not even remember her again if I saw her in the street on a random encounter. Pretty sad.
Movie trailers will not work on me either. They can’t spoil me. When I watch it, I might think overall that’s a tight movie. Good action, big star. But, unless it was drop dead obvious, and I mean they’d have to literally shout it out, the trailer will not give away any plot points to me because I will not notice them. I saw Hancock the other day and V was telling me that the trailer gave away a lot. I was like really? He told me what happened in the trailer, and I vaguely remembered that, but it didn’t strike me as a spoiler or giving anything away. I didn’t even notice that Charlize Theron was in the movie until I actually saw the movie! And I think she’s very pretty!
So, is not being observant and memory the same thing? Related? If I paid more attention to small details, would that cause me to remember things more? I could listen to a song a 100 times and I still will not memorize the lyrics. Seriously. Unless I specifically play the song over and over again with the specific and single minded purpose of trying to listen and memorize the lyrics. Or if I had the lyrics in front of me so that I can memorize the words as they played. Another example of my brain not naturally being observant? Is being observant something you have to consciously do or its just who you are? V, is it that you pay more attention to things that I don’t pick up, or its just how your brain functions naturally? All you other observant and good memoried people out there…thoughts? Let me know, before I forget that I have a bad memory and have no clue what you are talking about!
The 4th book by Dennis Lehane about the private investigating duo of Patrick Kenzie and Angela Gennaro. In this one, the two are hired to find a missing 4 year old little girl. The police and surrounding neighborhood have no luck finding her, so the relatives get desperate and decide to hire a private investigator to try to do what the police have not been able to. So, Kenzie and Gennaro work with the detectives on the case, and come across a huge 400 pound drug dealer named Cheese Olamon, who they knew while growing up. Can he be involved? And if so, how? Is the little girl really dead and all this a waste of time? Things get desperate and escalate as they always do in these types of stories/novels.
I really liked this book. It was definitely my favorite of the four books I’ve read involving these characters. It had a great ending, I thought, and one I wasn’t really expecting. I just thought it was a good story over all and it brought up many questions to ponder. I’m not going to bring up those questions because I don’t want to give any spoilers. I’ll just mention some that can be said about many types of books and stories. The missing girl’s mom is a deadbeat. Is this karma for that? Should you always follow the law to the letter or is that not always what’s really best?
You do not really need to read the previous Lehane novels to pick this one up. So, if you just like a good mystery, detective novel, you should read this. They actually made a movie of this novel, directed by Ben Affleck. I can see why they chose this one of the four to make a movie. I don’t think it did great in the box office, but I will watch it when it comes on cable for sure. In my experience, the book is usually better, but I want to check it out. I think Casey Affleck plays Kenzie and Michelle Monaghan plays Gennaro. Go read the book and let me know what you think!
Back in January of 2007, the price of gas here in So Cal was like $2.25. Now, its closer to about $4.50. I used to think that, oh well, its not a big deal. If you couldn’t afford to buy gas, then take the bus or whatever. I know, kind of a selfish and ethnocentric attitude. I can still afford to buy my gas every week, and I don’t ever think twice about driving some place far just cuz of the cost of gas. But, I started thinking about this more. I buy about 15 gallons/week on average. Over the course of a year, that’s close to 800 gallons. Assuming a $2.00 per gallon difference, that’s $1600 bucks more I spend on gas than before over that year. That’s more than what my LCD TV cost!
But, its not just the cost of gas. It goes beyond that. Food prices are going up, shipping costs are going up, plane tickets, etc. It is getting crazy out there, and the only ones profiting from all this are Bush’s oil friends. If oil companies are making record profits quarter after quarter, then why can’t they lower the cost of gas? Will it cut into their record profits? Hmmm.
Regardless, I don’t want to get into another “We have the worst President in the history of Presidents” rant. I used to think that all these people complaining about high gas prices were just whiners. But, I think the prices are sufficiently high now and effectively affect the price of everything else that they actually are correct and have reason to complain. If I actually had to pay rent and crap, I think I’d be whining more too. I really was contemplating taking the bus to work. I’m not like some people I know where I look down on people who do that. Nothing wrong with it at all, but the schedules are just not flexible at all and I refuse to wake up at 6 am every morning if I don’t have to. I can still afford to pay for that extra hour of sleep luxury. I don’t plan on buying a new hybrid car either. That’s not a wise move for anyone unless they were already looking for a new car anyway. I plan on driving my 2002 car until it dies. Have 100k miles on it now, but it still runs great. Maybe if it dies I’ll consider a hybrid.
The sad thing about all this is that the prices will not be going down significantly anytime soon. And what’s worst, there’s really nothing we can do about it in So Cal. Public transportation is just not feasible or convenient as I mentioned earlier. And most of us live too far from work to walk or bike. This area was built around the fact that you have to drive a car to get around. Alternative sources of fuel are years, if not decades away. Telecommuting is becoming more prevalent, as are 4 day work weeks, but I don’t think that helps all that much. The only light ahead of the tunnel is that Bush will be leaving office soon. Perhaps gas prices will go down after that, assuming McCain isn’t voted in and becomes Bush II. But, even if they don’t go down at least we can then say Bush is out of office, and that alone could be joy enough to throw a party.
Its funny how people get used to doing what they do, so much so that when things even deviate slightly, it affects us. Or is it just me? I am a total creature of habit and routine. Every Monday through Thursday I wake up at 7:00 am everyday, get ready to go to work, get to work at 8:00, do my 9 hours and get out at 5:00, then go to gym, work out, get home about 7:00 pm, eat dinner, shower, brush my teeth, then just blog/surf/chat online or read/play video games, then go to sleep at 11:00 pm. Friday, same except after work hang with da guys, eat dinner, maybe watch a movie. Whenever anything ever comes up that might disturb this routine, I always ask myself first if its worth it because I hate straying from my routine. So, if I hang with you on a weeknight or on Friday, then you must be worth it for me to stray, cuz that irritates me. Its one of the reasons I don’t like working too far past 5:00 pm. I totally don’t mind the work at all or the fact that I’m staying late. I just hate not being able to go to gym because I don’t want to get home past 7:00, cuz that’s when I eat!! Usually if I have to work too late, I’ll just skip the gym and go straight home cuz then I reach my routine quicker by skipping a step. Don’t like it!
When I was a little kid, I think I just used to wear shorts and a shirt to sleep. I don’t even remember, but I think that’s what I wore. (Hehe, well, you know how my memory is, so for all I know I could of slept naked). Anyway, when I was in junior high I think, my mom bought a pair of flannel type pajamas for me. Just a long pants and button up top. I thought it looked silly, but I wore it. I never looked back since. Now, I cannot sleep in my bed unless I’m wearing pajamas of some sort. Seriously. When I’m like in Vegas or on vacation, for whatever reason, I can wear shorts and a t-shirt and be fine. But if I’m in bed in my room, it has to be pajamas. I’ve tried shorts and t-shirt because its freaking hot the last few weeks, but no go. Just felt funny. I even tried wearing just my pajama bottoms and wearing no shirt. Nope. Now, it could of been just the fact that it was hot, which in and of itself bothers me, but when I put my pajamas back on, it was still hot but I eventually fell asleep.
What else? I never ever wore any type of jewelry in my life until I graduated. My mom got me a necklace and a pendant. I wore it, and ever since have had it on 24/7. When I take it off now, it feels freaking weird, and I feel more naked then I do if my shirt was just off. I don’t know why, but it just doesn’t feel comfortable when its off. I usually only take it off if I go swimming. Right when I finish, I just have to put it back on. I’ve never worn a ring before. I wonder if I ever get married, it will feel the same way?
Why is it that when I first wore pajamas or I first put my necklace on I was okay with it. Wasn’t I used to not wearing them, and so putting them on would put me out of my comfort zone/routine? Or, maybe I just liked wearing them so much that it became my comfort zone? Who knows. Am I the only creature of habit out there? Does anyone else have any set routines they have to follow or am I just the freak with the weird habits and bad memory????
I finished reading the Memory Keeper’s Daughter, by Kim Edwards and here are my thoughts. Its a book that my friend let me borrow. So, I decided to go ahead and read it. The story starts out in the 1960′s. Its about a doctor, David Henry, who due to uncontrollable circumstances one stormy winter night, is forced to deliver his wife’s baby. The baby turns out to be a healthy little boy. So all is well. Or is it? Surprising to all, another baby is subsequently delivered. This one a little girl. But, David being the doctor that he is, recognizes immediately that this new girl, his daughter, has Down’s Syndrome. During this time period, he knows that children born of this have heart problems, die young, and live a very difficult life because they are mentally and emotionally slow. What does he do? Something that changes the rest of his life, and his new family’s as well. He gives the baby girl to the nurse, named Caroline, and tells her to bring her to an institution, and then telling his wife that their baby girl was stillborn. The nurse is astonished, and does as she is told. But when she gets there, she can’t bear to give the baby up and leaves town and raises her as her own. The novel subsequently follows everyone through the decades to see how everyone’s lives turned out based on that fateful night.
This was a good book, I thought, but its not my type of book. It was very interesting to see how each person’s lives are affected as a result of David’s decision to give the baby away. He bears that secret his entire life, and so it affects both his wife and his son. As for Caroline, she also has her own difficult path in life, raising a baby with Down’s Syndrome in a society that doesn’t readily accept her. This book has sad moments, but I don’t think its a sad story/book per se. I think its more about love than anything, for love does not just encompass happiness and joy, but also pain and heartache. So, like I said, this was a good book to read. Its a story that if your friends read as well, you can have many types of conversations about it. What’s right, what’s wrong? Was it really about love, etc. Did David really give the baby away out of love for his family? Go read it, and maybe you can be one of those people I discuss it with.
I went to watch Coldplay’s concert in Inglewood last night at the Forum. Here are my thoughts as the day progressed starting from when I got off work (since no one wants to hear about that.)
I’m driving to pick up V from his work. I call him to tell him I’m on my way, he gives me directions, which proceed to be wrong. He calls me back, re-gives me new directions, which also proceed to be wrong!! Hello!!?? I know its end of day, but we have a concert to hit!
Drive there is not so bad actually. Took us just over an hour to get there, where we then ate at Carl’s and I had my first ever 6 dollar burger. The burger is aiite. I had cheese on my so wasn’t happy. I like my plain old Famous Star better. Maybe it’d of been better w/o cheese.
We arrive at the Forum, and parking is 22 bucks!!! Are you kidding me??? I know that the Lakers left the Forum 8 years ago, but do you really need to gouge people into paying those prices??!! If 2000 cars park there, that’s a good 40k!!! That’s more than some people make in a year!
We get there at about 7:30, where some guy is playing some weird music with weird animation. Nobody was really into it. If facing the stage, we’re on the left side, about 100 feet from the stage and 3 rows up. I thought the seats were great. Too bad Ticketmaster ripped us off with a 25% surcharge. Damn them. How does the government yell at Microsoft all the time for having a monopoly, but they do shit against Ticketmaster??
Some small group named Sure Water or something then proceeded to play. They were not bad, but they gathered more interest than the first dude. Forum is still only half full. I notice while arriving at my seat that the people who come to watch Coldplay are much, much different than the people I noticed living in Inglewood while driving through the streets to get here. Much different.
Lot of cute Asian girls in crowd….are they a big fan of Coldplay?
Coldplay finally comes out at 9:15ish, and everyone proceeds to stand up and never sit down again. I love their music, and with the sound system playing there, it was awesome. Bass was killer. Lights were done well. They played a nice mix of older and new songs.
As the concert proceeds, here are some things I noticed. There are a lot of people who know all of the words to every single Coldplay song, as you can hear the whole audience singing along.
The 2 girls in front of us were smoking pot and drinking a lot of beer. V told me they were making out too, but I didn’t see that, as I was looking at the stage. They were obviously high/drunk though. Haha.
There was a cute girl behind me. Think she was Korean. No other thoughts there, but that’s always a nice to mention.
Band played maybe 15-20 songs….all were very fun and I enjoyed all of them. At one point they ran off the stage into the crowd….running literally a few feet from us, then performing in the stands above us, maybe 40 feet away. Was kinda cool.
After it was over at about 10:30ish, V and I both agreed it was awesome and we both had a lot of fun.
Walked to our car, where it then took us literally 45 minutes to leave the parking lot! If I’m going to f-ing pay 22 bucks for parking, you’d think they could at least hire some policemen to allow us to exit the premises in a quick and orderly manner!!! Damn them.
When we’re finally leaving the parking lot, notice a cute girl in a Fit. She needs to get into my lane, so being the gentleman that I am, I let her in, and she waves at me and I wave back. Turns out there is another cute girl in the back seat with the window rolled down. Once again, no real comment here, but like I said, always nice to see a cute girl…..
Ok, overall, lots of fun. This was actually the first concert that I’ve ever been to and I was not disappointed. Music was tight, everyone seemed to have a good time. Would I go to another concert? Definitely. Hopefully I can fnd one where Ticketmaster doesn’t rape me. I actually don’t have the Viva la Vida album, so will have to get it. I liked the songs. Finally got home at about 1:00 am, got ready, and then went to sleep. Great time overall
Recent Comments