Is it just me,

...or are typos getting more common in printed publications?

Probably just me.

i can haz burn nao

The other day, someone read part of a passage in a recently published book describing how the internet has impacted the use of "spare" time, and not necessarily in a negative way. As the television became increasingly ubiquitous in the past, watching TV became the typical leisure activity. Now, however, younger generations are spending less time watching TV and more time on the internet actually doing things, sometimes even contributing pro-bono for internet organizations that provide valuable services to the world. People are communicating (sometimes civilly and intelligently) on forum spaces, helping catalogue files or images for organizations like NASA, and much more.

On the other hand, the author cites one internet phenomenon, as an example of many, which he seems to represent as worse than rotting away in front of the tube: the lolcat. The "art" form of taking a cute picture of an animal, typically a cat, and adding an incorrectly-spelled caption to inspire some sort of humor. Anyone can make them (though supposedly there's an unspoken code as to how to "correctly" create these images, such as using phoenetic spelling), and they contribute absolutely nothing to the world with their existence.

Okay, forgive my defensiveness, but I think the hours I've spent laughing over those images, some of which would actually constitute "witty" (like this one), were not useless. Humor's a valuable thing, even what this author might call low-brow. And there's something to be said for adorable pictures of monorail kittehs slumped over banisters, am I right? Is it wrong to not devote all our time to constructive action? What's so horribly wrong about stopping to laugh at pictures of cats?

My crankiness on this point is somewhat elevated by my growing frustration with a laptop that appears to have breathed its last. Perhaps I'll be in a better mood when I figure out a plan for extracting the files from this corpse.

Turdblossom

Just got back from a road trip. Hooray for seeing friends, and hooray for being home again, too.

I'm gonna keep this post quick, but for anyone who has forgotten about the delightful spoonfuls of bullshit we were force-fed over the course of the Bush administration, here's a reminder of the flavor... Karl Rove: My Biggest Mistake in the White House.

I'm still having a hard time imagining how these guys can keep doing what they do, particularly when so many lives are negatively affected by their actions. And, forgive the spoiler, but that Karl Rove has the nerve to say that his worst mistake throughout the Bush administration was to not encourage more active campaigning against the accusations of dishonesty, deceit, and downright treason--the aftertaste never fades.

I've decided that my best choice at this point is to be amused by how delusional modern politicians are. They think, by telling us how much the other party was lying, they can clear their name. All they do is lower trust in the whole government. I think these guys forget that, believe it or not, we elect officials to be governed by the whole representative group, not two warring factions. Some things may never change.

Microfinancing

Ever heard of Professor Muhammad Yunus or Grameen Bank? Whether or not you have, it's always awesome, I've found, to check out more of what this fantastic Nobel Peace Prize winner and the bank he has created are doing. Microfinancing, or giving out small loans without massive interest rates to women living below the poverty line, has been changing many lives since it was first introduced to communities in Bangladesh by Yunus. Now the ideas that started with this single man have grown to an international scale, including branches of Grameen America in Queens, Brooklyn, and Omaha. Recently, my mom has begun to participate in the process of establishing Grameen's presence in Washington State, which is being done very carefully so as to cooperate with other organizations in the area that have adopted a similar model, such as Washington Cash.

The women who receive these loans use them not just to support their family for a little longer, but invest them into profitable appliances and businesses so as to bring in a steady stream of income for the family. For this reason, Grameen America has been able to keep a 99% rate or return on the loans they give.

I really encourage people to look up more about this organization and to keep an eye out for the documentary To Catch A Dollar, which is due to release in select theaters this coming September. I'm really impressed by the work these folks are doing to truly make the world a better place, and my summary here really doesn't do them justice.

For more info, check out
http://www.grameenamerica.com/ and
http://www.grameen-info.org/ ,
And http://www.tocatchadollar.com/ has a good trailer on the opening page. Check it out.

Pride and Shame

The link below is to one of the most beautiful things I've read in a while.

http://naytinalbert.blogspot.com/2010/06/i-hugged-man-in-his-underwear-and-i-am.html

It's the story of a group of Christian "protesters" at the Gay Pride parade in Chicago. I must say that my dad's the one who indirectly showed me the link--goodness, how I love having a father like this one. I felt really bummed that I couldn't make it to the pride march in my area, but I've attended it a number of times and am all too familiar with the kinds of signs and slogans that Christian protesters usually bear at these events. But this group had a very different message: "I'm sorry." Sorry for judging, for being homophobic, for delivering angry words to homosexuals in the past. And the response they got from the paraders was, for the most part, a big and heartfelt "thank you."

It's a really great story. Please read it if you have a few minutes, or the excerpt of it here: http://www.thestranger.com/slog/archives/2010/06/30/christians-protesting-at-pride.