yesterday was his birthay. happy birthday!
hot. humid. freaking summer. i haven't seen the heron in a while; i wonder if it's as disaffected with 90+F heat and mosquitoes as the rest of us. the heat killed off my herb garden. bah. i was looking forward to fresh rosemary too. we need rain.
going on vacation tomorrow through monday. upstate new york to see my sister. yay vacation! although it still looks as if i'm not going to get to the beach this year.
i need more books to read.
usa today has an interesting article on their website today, containing man-on-the-street type interviews about what it means to be patriotic, or how americans express our patriotism. i am struck by the fact that the first category it opens with is "Activists/critics" and never once includes the "if you're not with us, you're against us" attitude in the whole column. unfortuantely, there's a lack of analysis to the comments. a single sentence from a professor of sociology is not going to do much to deflect anyone who wants to make an accusation of the liberal media conspiracy.
the intersting thing that often gets lost in debate is that the person who burns the stars and stripes can be just as "patriotic" as the person who plasters their house with them. the freedom of speech that is so enshrined in our constitution allows for both. if you can't have one, you can't have the other. when people say "the terrorists" hate us for our freedoms and our ideology, i have a hard time imagining a group of bearded islamists sitting around in a cave cursing the first ammendment. they don't hate us because we allow our citizens to criticize the government; they're engaged in the exact same activity. what they are are religious fanatics who want to wipe us off the planet because we do horrible things like let women drive and work and own property. and we don't allow men to beat their wives or children or hold people in involuntary domestic servitude. they're religious fanatics, and if they're going to rant about anything in the first ammendment, it will be the "no law abridging the freedom of religion" bit, not speech and the press.
i will say that i am, in fact, incredibly grateful to be living in this country, and able to take advantages of such simple things as an uncensored blog, uncoerced voting, and a life relationship with someone of another race. these are the simple choices we are defending, based on principles, if not always practises, that this country has always clung to. somehow, somewhere, the amazing concept behind the rallying cry of the revolution, "no taxation without representation," has been lost.
i do "support our troops," because i think one of the worst things you can do to someone who has already borne the physical pain of war is to reject them at home for decisions that were not theirs. if we haven't learned anything else from vietnam, we've learned not to spit on the people that were sent overseas to dodge shrapnel and hold dying children.
ok, so maybe this post didn't end up quite so full of inconsequentials :) happy independence day.
Wednesday, June 29, 2005
Monday, June 27, 2005
supreme court states the bloody obvious.
pause, for a minute, your obsessive clicking on any and all major media news sites. consider this (warning: pdf).
what that actually says is what everyone ought to know: 1. it is illegal to download copyrighted material for free without the copyright holder's permission. 2. it is illegal to create a "device" that has both infringing and non-infringing uses and then to promote it, specifically emphasizing the infringing uses (i.e. the betamax decision is still 100% safe).
the main key that i see in that decision is that napster was ruled illegal and SCOTUS saw kazaa and grokster promoting themselves as napter replacements, therefore explicitly claiming to enable the same copyright infringement that got napster smacked down.
also, don't forget that all this decision does is throw the case back to the 9th circuit, who ruled in favor of grokster and sharman networks in the first place. this ought to be fun.
what that actually says is what everyone ought to know: 1. it is illegal to download copyrighted material for free without the copyright holder's permission. 2. it is illegal to create a "device" that has both infringing and non-infringing uses and then to promote it, specifically emphasizing the infringing uses (i.e. the betamax decision is still 100% safe).
the main key that i see in that decision is that napster was ruled illegal and SCOTUS saw kazaa and grokster promoting themselves as napter replacements, therefore explicitly claiming to enable the same copyright infringement that got napster smacked down.
also, don't forget that all this decision does is throw the case back to the 9th circuit, who ruled in favor of grokster and sharman networks in the first place. this ought to be fun.
Friday, June 24, 2005
Thursday, June 23, 2005
finally, someone's saying it.
gragh. this was supposed to be monday's post. anyway.
finally, someone has come up and pointed out that identity theft exists because there's a whole industry that depends on the same things that make it possible.
the middle class in this country is drowning in debt, partly because of easily available credit. as he rightly points out, it has never been easier to get a credit card. my question is, however, is this a benefit? how many people use credit cards to live beyond their means? and then the banks make even more money by charging their exorbitant interest rates and fees and so on.
another article offers this viewpoint:
now, my question is, who wakes up one morning and says, "i'm going to finance a car today"? usually, spending upwards of $20,000 isn't exactly an impulse buy. so you know you need a new car, and you give yourself the 3 days to unfreeze your credit report so you can finance that car. yes, i know there are always exceptions to the person who can wait 3 days before buying a car, but is that enough to scuttle a bill that would protect the majority of the population from identity theft?
i am 100% in the camp that says that companies ought to notify you if your information has been compromised. i check my credit card balances online. why, when i went to the websites last night, there was no "by the way, the CardSystems database did/did not include your account"? how hard is it to add that to a website?
everyone, but especially the financial industry, needs to sit up and take responsibility for what their eagerness to turn a buck is doing to this country. once your identity is stolen, you're fucked. it's so easy to get credit because our credit reports are so easily accessed, but it's next to impossible to protect against not only the possible abuses of that system, but also to resurrect one's standing once the abuse is perpetrated. not only do we need to allow credit freezes, but we need to make it easier to clear the customer's name once fraud takes place. if an industry is going to build its business model on something so blatantly abusive to its customers, then they wholly deserve to be forced to curb those abuses.
finally, someone has come up and pointed out that identity theft exists because there's a whole industry that depends on the same things that make it possible.
Why isn't this brutally simple and effective solution more widespread? Simply put, it disrupts the free flow of credit information on which consumer lenders and data sellers depend.
To be fair, big banks and other credit-card issuers, retailers and data peddlers aren't the only ones who thrive on the ready accessibility of information. You benefit too: It's never been easier to get a credit card, find a mortgage or buy a car. ...
This is what no one acknowledges about identity theft: that there's a conflict of interest between the consumer and the system.
the middle class in this country is drowning in debt, partly because of easily available credit. as he rightly points out, it has never been easier to get a credit card. my question is, however, is this a benefit? how many people use credit cards to live beyond their means? and then the banks make even more money by charging their exorbitant interest rates and fees and so on.
another article offers this viewpoint:
In Utah, a credit-freeze bill was defeated on the last day of the legislative session after car dealers argued it would hurt their business, says Laura Polacheck, associate state director of AARP Utah, which lobbied in favor of the bill.
The car dealers "said 90% of their customers decide to buy a car and want to open credit the same day," she says. "It was enough to kill the bill."
now, my question is, who wakes up one morning and says, "i'm going to finance a car today"? usually, spending upwards of $20,000 isn't exactly an impulse buy. so you know you need a new car, and you give yourself the 3 days to unfreeze your credit report so you can finance that car. yes, i know there are always exceptions to the person who can wait 3 days before buying a car, but is that enough to scuttle a bill that would protect the majority of the population from identity theft?
i am 100% in the camp that says that companies ought to notify you if your information has been compromised. i check my credit card balances online. why, when i went to the websites last night, there was no "by the way, the CardSystems database did/did not include your account"? how hard is it to add that to a website?
everyone, but especially the financial industry, needs to sit up and take responsibility for what their eagerness to turn a buck is doing to this country. once your identity is stolen, you're fucked. it's so easy to get credit because our credit reports are so easily accessed, but it's next to impossible to protect against not only the possible abuses of that system, but also to resurrect one's standing once the abuse is perpetrated. not only do we need to allow credit freezes, but we need to make it easier to clear the customer's name once fraud takes place. if an industry is going to build its business model on something so blatantly abusive to its customers, then they wholly deserve to be forced to curb those abuses.
Thursday, June 16, 2005
hell freezes over.
and maybe pigs are flying too.
the republican-controlled congress standing up for civil liberties?
*cough* gee, ya think? as a side note, i'm quite frankly shocked to see that an independent managed to make a change to the patriot act, but i suppose i shouldn't be, because he probably gave it a better shot than if it had been proposed by a democrat.
my goodness. just when we thought things were hopeless, we get some hope. everyone, start writing your senators.
Powers to gather information on the books people buy in US bookshops and rent from libraries should be repealed, the House of Representatives has said.
the republican-controlled congress standing up for civil liberties?
"We can fight terrorism without undermining basic constitutional rights," said Bernie Sanders, an independent representative from the north-eastern state of Vermont, who proposed the measure.
*cough* gee, ya think? as a side note, i'm quite frankly shocked to see that an independent managed to make a change to the patriot act, but i suppose i shouldn't be, because he probably gave it a better shot than if it had been proposed by a democrat.
my goodness. just when we thought things were hopeless, we get some hope. everyone, start writing your senators.
Wednesday, June 15, 2005
frustration.
i started this blog with one major goal in mind: to force myself to find something worth saying every day.
there were roughly two major, though intertwined, purposes behind this. the first was a desire to form a habit of critical and/or creative thinking. since i've graduated from university, i have felt, to some extent, mentally stagnant. with no outside pressure forcing me to think and read and research, i left those habits behind. so instead of "form a habit of," i should probably say, "get back into the habit of."
it was, if i am being perfectly honest with myself, slightly motivated by jealousy. as may be fairly obvious by now, i read a lot of webcomics. and i found myself thinking, well, if they can force themselves to do something creative every day (or every other day), surely i could too. i didn't even insist to myself that it be creative, just that it would be something worth saying. some thoughtful, critical commentary, maybe, on some news event. interspersed with the occasional neat image or wordplay that i tend to come up with on a regular basis. and possibly the occasional dream (i suppose i can at least be proud that that helped to spawn the dreamdump). but the main goal was to make this a daily thing. to exercise my mind at least once a day. just something maybe small and superficial, but something. the long view looked towards eventually being able to serialize a creative work. it would be, i thought, theraputic.
which brings up the second purpose: to stave off depression. although diagnosed while in university, i was lucky enough to come across a therapist who would allow me to insist that i not take drugs for it. i'm doing much better now than i was back then, but it's always there, as if i'm walked along a slippery riverbank, always a step or two away from sliding into a flood of hopelessness, lonliness, apathy, self-destruction. i've found that if i can keep myself busy, if i can keep my mind active and not let it chew itself up in idleness, my path takes me a little further away, maybe, from the slippery rocks (it's my blog, i can extend a metaphor if i want to). hence my voracious reading. i'm always looking for new books. also, why i walk to work, in everything from a sleetstorm to the oppressive heat. and why i started this blog.
and now, as is the way of things, it appears i've pretty much failed. not only am i forced to deal with the frustration of losing my office, but also i have to face the fact that i can't, apparently, get myself into the habit of finding something worth saying once a day. that which was supposed to alleviate my hopelessness is instead feeding it. it's very frustrating.
there were roughly two major, though intertwined, purposes behind this. the first was a desire to form a habit of critical and/or creative thinking. since i've graduated from university, i have felt, to some extent, mentally stagnant. with no outside pressure forcing me to think and read and research, i left those habits behind. so instead of "form a habit of," i should probably say, "get back into the habit of."
it was, if i am being perfectly honest with myself, slightly motivated by jealousy. as may be fairly obvious by now, i read a lot of webcomics. and i found myself thinking, well, if they can force themselves to do something creative every day (or every other day), surely i could too. i didn't even insist to myself that it be creative, just that it would be something worth saying. some thoughtful, critical commentary, maybe, on some news event. interspersed with the occasional neat image or wordplay that i tend to come up with on a regular basis. and possibly the occasional dream (i suppose i can at least be proud that that helped to spawn the dreamdump). but the main goal was to make this a daily thing. to exercise my mind at least once a day. just something maybe small and superficial, but something. the long view looked towards eventually being able to serialize a creative work. it would be, i thought, theraputic.
which brings up the second purpose: to stave off depression. although diagnosed while in university, i was lucky enough to come across a therapist who would allow me to insist that i not take drugs for it. i'm doing much better now than i was back then, but it's always there, as if i'm walked along a slippery riverbank, always a step or two away from sliding into a flood of hopelessness, lonliness, apathy, self-destruction. i've found that if i can keep myself busy, if i can keep my mind active and not let it chew itself up in idleness, my path takes me a little further away, maybe, from the slippery rocks (it's my blog, i can extend a metaphor if i want to). hence my voracious reading. i'm always looking for new books. also, why i walk to work, in everything from a sleetstorm to the oppressive heat. and why i started this blog.
and now, as is the way of things, it appears i've pretty much failed. not only am i forced to deal with the frustration of losing my office, but also i have to face the fact that i can't, apparently, get myself into the habit of finding something worth saying once a day. that which was supposed to alleviate my hopelessness is instead feeding it. it's very frustrating.
Thursday, June 9, 2005
man is a political animal.
i'm not sure i should even be writing about this and its ensuing controversy (?), because i am not a webcomic artist, i am merely a passive consumer of them. on the other hand, i'm pretty much guaranteed that no one with any real stake in the matter (emotional, financial, or otherwise) will ever
read this, so that's ok ;)
*shrug* and i like penny arcade (as well as goats). i respect that webcomic artists need to make money off their art, because they, like everyone else, need to eat and pay for housing and feed their families. and while i can't pay probably as much as they would like, i am the proud owner of a plushy bun-bun and two volumes of the megatokyo manga, and i also once sent a handwritten cheque to penny arcade because i don't believe in paypal, but i don't hold against them the fact that i never got my subscription to Over Easy (ok, so maybe i'm not a passive consumer). webcomic artists are, in many cases, lucky enough to be in the position where they can make money doing what they love. i completely respect those that open up stores or provide extra content to those who can donate on a regular basis.
but i think these guys succeed because they're writing good comics. they're funny, they're well-written, in many, many cases the art is amazing. just because my silly little blog isn't boingboing or time magazine, i'm not going to go sobbing about some evil media conglomerate The Man keeping me down. sure, everyone wants to hit the big time, and while people even say i have talent, and i'm a good writer and researcher, and so forth, i'm not so wrapped up in my own dreams of fame and fortune that i'm going to do anything but say, "thank you" and send my friends some cyber-snuggles (er. or something. i'm not really the snuggling type:) sure the web is a fairly new and different entertainment and information dissemination medium, and sure it's a heck of a lot more democratic than the "traditional" forms previously, but just because you have something on the web doesn't mean it's amazing and is only being kept down because of who you are (or aren't, as the case may be), and where your content is being published.
i guess what all this rambling is bringing me to is that i don't really believe all the hype about the web being this awesome brave new world. i recognize the extremely strong democratic and meritocratic underpinnings and reward system, but when you get down to it, it's the people who have money to advertise, the people who are already People Who Know People who succeed. i probably would have never read, for instance, megatokyo if they hadn't bought ad space on penny arcade. but if you suck, you're still going to suck on the web. maybe writing or comicking or music or whatever just isn't your Thing, as much as you may love it, as much as you may want to succeed at it.
i was just going to ask if there wasn't something better to do than navel-gazing, but then i remembered i'm writing on a blog. even if it is a blog that encourages commentary ;)
i don't know, maybe my ego just isn't big enough. i lack the self-aggrandizement gene. but i think maybe i'll go support the creators of a funny and wonderfully well-done comic by buying some of their stuff.
read this, so that's ok ;)
*shrug* and i like penny arcade (as well as goats). i respect that webcomic artists need to make money off their art, because they, like everyone else, need to eat and pay for housing and feed their families. and while i can't pay probably as much as they would like, i am the proud owner of a plushy bun-bun and two volumes of the megatokyo manga, and i also once sent a handwritten cheque to penny arcade because i don't believe in paypal, but i don't hold against them the fact that i never got my subscription to Over Easy (ok, so maybe i'm not a passive consumer). webcomic artists are, in many cases, lucky enough to be in the position where they can make money doing what they love. i completely respect those that open up stores or provide extra content to those who can donate on a regular basis.
but i think these guys succeed because they're writing good comics. they're funny, they're well-written, in many, many cases the art is amazing. just because my silly little blog isn't boingboing or time magazine, i'm not going to go sobbing about some evil media conglomerate The Man keeping me down. sure, everyone wants to hit the big time, and while people even say i have talent, and i'm a good writer and researcher, and so forth, i'm not so wrapped up in my own dreams of fame and fortune that i'm going to do anything but say, "thank you" and send my friends some cyber-snuggles (er. or something. i'm not really the snuggling type:) sure the web is a fairly new and different entertainment and information dissemination medium, and sure it's a heck of a lot more democratic than the "traditional" forms previously, but just because you have something on the web doesn't mean it's amazing and is only being kept down because of who you are (or aren't, as the case may be), and where your content is being published.
i guess what all this rambling is bringing me to is that i don't really believe all the hype about the web being this awesome brave new world. i recognize the extremely strong democratic and meritocratic underpinnings and reward system, but when you get down to it, it's the people who have money to advertise, the people who are already People Who Know People who succeed. i probably would have never read, for instance, megatokyo if they hadn't bought ad space on penny arcade. but if you suck, you're still going to suck on the web. maybe writing or comicking or music or whatever just isn't your Thing, as much as you may love it, as much as you may want to succeed at it.
i was just going to ask if there wasn't something better to do than navel-gazing, but then i remembered i'm writing on a blog. even if it is a blog that encourages commentary ;)
i don't know, maybe my ego just isn't big enough. i lack the self-aggrandizement gene. but i think maybe i'll go support the creators of a funny and wonderfully well-done comic by buying some of their stuff.
Tuesday, June 7, 2005
overkill.
i don't believe this. i mean, yes, ok, meth is a very dangerous drug, both to consume and to make. i'm not really against meth labs being shut down. but you are going to have to sign a log to buy decongestants? and we need the federal government to dictate this? i'm really just shocked.
personally, i need to be able to buy pseudoephedrine. an antihistamine alone will not cut it during bad allergy attacks, or the flu. and i don't like using the nasal sprays, for a number of reasons. besides rebound congestion, they end up dripping down the back of your throat and getting swallowed, which more or less is counterproductive to the "why treat the whole body when only part has symptoms" philosophy.
i guess this is just one more depressing symptom of the legal state in this country slowly descending to an assumption of guilt. you're a criminal the moment you're born, and the burden of proof is on you to say that you're not.
personally, i need to be able to buy pseudoephedrine. an antihistamine alone will not cut it during bad allergy attacks, or the flu. and i don't like using the nasal sprays, for a number of reasons. besides rebound congestion, they end up dripping down the back of your throat and getting swallowed, which more or less is counterproductive to the "why treat the whole body when only part has symptoms" philosophy.
i guess this is just one more depressing symptom of the legal state in this country slowly descending to an assumption of guilt. you're a criminal the moment you're born, and the burden of proof is on you to say that you're not.
Monday, June 6, 2005
Thursday, June 2, 2005
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