Tuesday, October 16, 2007
A Continuation of Sorts
Have you noticed that reddit is posting more stories through my blog within the past few days? From five it's jumped to twenty-five. It's great because I don't have to bop over to reddit to check their site. The news comes right to me.
Today, there was a story posted about a six-year-old getting a notice from her city telling her to clean up her graffiti or pay a $300 fine. The graffiti? A mere chalk drawing someone called to complain about. How's that for being uptight? Hide your chalk, kiddies!
Today, there was a story posted about a six-year-old getting a notice from her city telling her to clean up her graffiti or pay a $300 fine. The graffiti? A mere chalk drawing someone called to complain about. How's that for being uptight? Hide your chalk, kiddies!
Labels: children, graffiti, reddit, uptight people
Monday, October 08, 2007
Too Funny Not to Pass Along
This gem of a post from CRACKED.com came through on my reddit feed on the Filter & Splice sidebar. It is simply too funny not to pass along.
The 9 Manliest Names in the World
Go ahead, have yourselves a giggle. No, wait! That's not manly enough. Have yourself a chortle, followed by a snort.
The 9 Manliest Names in the World
Go ahead, have yourselves a giggle. No, wait! That's not manly enough. Have yourself a chortle, followed by a snort.
Labels: cracked, filter and splice, humor, manliest names, reddit
Friday, October 05, 2007
Minnesota News
Just found a couple of pieces of Minnesota news on Reddit. Both have wider implications. I'll let you read them and form your own judgments. (Of course, that's not gonna stop me from having an opinion.)
National Guard Troops Denied Benefits After Longest Deployment of Iraq War - The soldiers' orders were written for service one day short of that needed to get full benefits. After reading this, tell me that our President and this White House Administration supports our troops.
24 Illegal Song Downloads Cost U.S. Woman 220,000 - The "U.S. Woman" was actually a Minnesota woman and she lost in her court battle against the Recording Industry of America. I think it's time we support musicians who work outside of the mega-music recording and publishing industry.
National Guard Troops Denied Benefits After Longest Deployment of Iraq War - The soldiers' orders were written for service one day short of that needed to get full benefits. After reading this, tell me that our President and this White House Administration supports our troops.
24 Illegal Song Downloads Cost U.S. Woman 220,000 - The "U.S. Woman" was actually a Minnesota woman and she lost in her court battle against the Recording Industry of America. I think it's time we support musicians who work outside of the mega-music recording and publishing industry.
Labels: illegal downloads, iraq war, minnesota, music, national guard, reddit
Monday, September 03, 2007
Waiting for the Rapture
I found three articles through Reddit yesterday that scared the bejesus out of me. Two were about the U.S. government's plans to attack Iran. One of these was a story on Daily Kos about a woman in the Navy who reported that the military has been given orders to line up their Tomahawk missiles. Unfortunately, the story seems to be gone now. It was under the heading:
The other story is at the Times Online out of London.
The third story, which has now been flagged for removal and no longer appears, was on Craigslist out of Boston. It was a set of instructions for how to survive if the United States bombs the crap out of your country. The whole thing made me want to go hide in the woods and create my own self-sustaining settlement.
What is this world coming to? Oh, wait. Let me answer that on behalf of the President. He wants us to undergo the Apocalypse so that he can have his Rapture. If this is what the Rapture is all about, count me out.
P.S. This communication is probably being monitored by our government - you know, the one that says we have all this freedom. Humph!
Daily Kos: "We Are Going To Hit Iran. Bigtime"
Link: openthread.dailykos.com/storyonly/2007/9/1/183018/1527The other story is at the Times Online out of London.
The third story, which has now been flagged for removal and no longer appears, was on Craigslist out of Boston. It was a set of instructions for how to survive if the United States bombs the crap out of your country. The whole thing made me want to go hide in the woods and create my own self-sustaining settlement.
What is this world coming to? Oh, wait. Let me answer that on behalf of the President. He wants us to undergo the Apocalypse so that he can have his Rapture. If this is what the Rapture is all about, count me out.
P.S. This communication is probably being monitored by our government - you know, the one that says we have all this freedom. Humph!
Labels: apocalypse, craigslist, daily kos, george w. bush, hiding in the woods, iran, london, rapture, reddit, united states
Tuesday, February 13, 2007
Superhuman Abilities
Several of my writer friends are aware that I have written a story where synesthesia figures prominently. I just found this posting via reddit that shows 8 Diseases That Give You Superhuman Powers. One of those listed is synesthesia. The post details a couple of the ways it can manifest. The list also mentions epilepsy. Epilepsy has been linked to a high artistic ability. Strangely enough, my grandpa had petit mal epilepsy through a portion of his life and was a prolific landscape artist. The final disorder listed is hypergraphia, something you writers out there might wish for. It's the overwhelming urge to write. Of course, to have this disorder, you'd also have to put up with mania and epilepsy.
Labels: artist, disease, epilepsy, grandpa, hypergraphia, reddit, story, superhuman powers, synesthesia, writing
Thursday, December 21, 2006
Recycled Fabric
As a fabric artist, I have often wondered what to do with those little scraps of fabric left over from a sewing project. Too small to use, too large to make me feel good about throwing them away. While we donate clothing that's still usable to the Epilepsy Foundation, I never know what to do about clothing that is ripped or has holes. Into the garbage it generally goes. Fabric recycling seems to be the answer for these fabric bits and ragged clothes, but I have yet to find a place that takes anything but the good stuff. The good news is that there IS fabric recycling for the good stuff, but it comes at a price for Africans. Did you do a double-take at that last word? Yes, our clothing recycling doesn't exactly leave a rosy picture for Africans, which I discovered in an article posted on Reddit. It's an ABC News report on what really happens to clothing Americans donate to charity. It still doesn't answer the question about what to do with the crappy stuff. (Sigh . . . .)
Labels: africa, art, charity, clothing, epilepsy foundation, fabric, garbage, recycling, reddit
Monday, October 23, 2006
I Got the Consumption, Arrrrgh!
I posted my Noble Africa blog entry on reddit.com because I thought it might be of interest to a general audience. I got one comment back through reddit and two (from the same person) to my blog. Here's what Cypherx had to say on reddit:
It is not consumerism per se that I have a problem with. Every living thing on earth, humans, animals, plants, consume. That's part of life. It's consumption for the sake of consumption, rather than for need, that bothers me. It's George W. telling us to not worry our pretty heads and just go shopping after 9/11.
I came of age with Reduce, Reuse, Recycle. American consumption is ravenous and doesn't fit with the Reduce part of the equation. The more we (individually and as a country) ramp up our consumption, the more others feel they have to buy to keep up. When there are people in the world without a roof over their heads, how many immodest houses can some of us justify having? How many cars? How many baubles collecting dust in the backs of our closets? I'm as guilty as anyone in a well-off country of over-consumption. I try to curb it where I can, difficult as that is. I don't think I'll ever reach the point of owning only 55 personal items like Dan Ho.
Of course, Cypherx is right about Africa. The continent can become the equal of America through making appealing consumer products (if I need a T-shirt or tennies, I'll consider the attractive ones offered through the (RED) campaign), but a deeper, human equality does not rest on materialism. Does someone become less human because he doesn't have the proper clothing, the right car, impressive shelter? It's the inherent humanity, and the basic goodness housed within, that I wanted people to recognize about Africa.
Flightless posted two links showing another, more positive, side to Africa, specifically the country of South Africa:
A video on YouTube called Today I Woke Up in a Country. This gave me shivers. And, the website for the International Marketing Council of South Africa.
The question for today: Would you be willing to take less so that someone with less can have more?
It is not consumerism per se that I have a problem with. Every living thing on earth, humans, animals, plants, consume. That's part of life. It's consumption for the sake of consumption, rather than for need, that bothers me. It's George W. telling us to not worry our pretty heads and just go shopping after 9/11.
I came of age with Reduce, Reuse, Recycle. American consumption is ravenous and doesn't fit with the Reduce part of the equation. The more we (individually and as a country) ramp up our consumption, the more others feel they have to buy to keep up. When there are people in the world without a roof over their heads, how many immodest houses can some of us justify having? How many cars? How many baubles collecting dust in the backs of our closets? I'm as guilty as anyone in a well-off country of over-consumption. I try to curb it where I can, difficult as that is. I don't think I'll ever reach the point of owning only 55 personal items like Dan Ho.
Of course, Cypherx is right about Africa. The continent can become the equal of America through making appealing consumer products (if I need a T-shirt or tennies, I'll consider the attractive ones offered through the (RED) campaign), but a deeper, human equality does not rest on materialism. Does someone become less human because he doesn't have the proper clothing, the right car, impressive shelter? It's the inherent humanity, and the basic goodness housed within, that I wanted people to recognize about Africa.
Flightless posted two links showing another, more positive, side to Africa, specifically the country of South Africa:
A video on YouTube called Today I Woke Up in a Country. This gave me shivers. And, the website for the International Marketing Council of South Africa.
The question for today: Would you be willing to take less so that someone with less can have more?
Labels: africa, clothing, consumption, recycling, red, reddit
Sunday, October 15, 2006
Entropy
I wrote a story not long ago about entropy. It's called As Above, Not So Below. I love the idea of human constructions falling into entropy with the forces of nature doing the work. There was an illustration of this idea posted on reddit.com a few days ago. It definitely gives one hope that nature will eventually win out.
Labels: entropy, nature, reddit, story
Saturday, October 07, 2006
I hate to say I told you so . . .
I just found this post on reddit.com. What was I just saying about our freedom of speech being taken away by the Bush Administration no more than 4 posts ago? A guy in Colorado was arrested in June for simply telling Vice President Cheney that he didn't like the administration's policies. Read the article at The Progressive. I was afraid I was being a little alarmist, but it seems I wasn't at all.
Labels: freedom of speech, george w. bush, reddit
I agree with most of the post except this silly bit:
Leave the consumers alone! They get something they want, they contribute to something good. It's the best arrangement possible and well intended anti-consumerism can only muck things up.
In fact, I think the consumerism the author loathes is also the cure for his chief complaint. Africa can become the "equal" of the rich Northern countries...if it makes lots of products that appeal to our consumers (either by style, quality or price). Until then, most of the continent will remain a sad charity case.