November 2005 Archives
C-Man: You hate Fantasia?
The Princess: I hate it. I especially hate that part with Mickey Mouse, because I hate him more than anything else in the world.
C-Man: Really?
The Princess: Really.
C-Man: How about Eminem?
The Princess: OK, I hate Eminem more.
Eating a big piece of Italian Cream Cake at 10:45 a.m. is not a good idea.
However, eating a carrot with some peanut butter and taking a 15+ minute walk can help restore equilibrium.
Kate Steadman blogs at Healthy Policy, and she has an interesting bit up about health care polling based on a piece by Thomas Bodenheimer in Health Affairs:
It's one thing for people to agree that they want universal insurance. It's a whole other side of the beast when you ask how much they would be willing to pay. And herein lies part of would-be reformers' problem. We rely too heavily on polls examining support for universal insurance. Past efforts suffered severely because, though people want universal insurance in theory, they're unsure how much it means to them once it gets complicated.
I think Kate's right about needing to poll on what people are willing to sacrifice for a particular policy, not just whether they like it in the abstract. But candidates aren't usually elected on one specific position or policy idea, divorced from the rest of their positions and their charisma. If they please enough people with a bare mininum number of positions that it takes to get elected, then they're in, and all they have to do is not alienate those people. They don't necessarily have to do every thing that would please their constituents. (Also, I don't know that they take poll results all that seriously when the polling data is shared by people who would make the same proposal even if the polling data didn't favor it.)
After all, if people are really so supportive of universal health insurance, why don't they elect candidates who support that model? I've seen advocacy organizations try to use polls as clubs when dealing with elected officials. "Polls show that our policy is popular, so you politicians should support it to make your constituents happy!" Then the politicians in question don't support it, but they get re-elected anyway. So is there really a price to pay for "going against" your constituents? If not, then why should they listen to the polls?
Thanks to Carrie's lefty gift guide, it now says "Heifer Bees" next to my mom's name on my shopping list.
And Mom, if you're reading this blog, please stop. It freaks me out.
Slacktivist reminds me of my mom (in a good way) in "A Game For Goats":
I get the gag, and like I said, it's pretty funny. But it's bad theology. "Is this Jesus or is this a homeless street person?" is a misleading question because, as far as we're concerned, a homeless street person is Jesus...
Jeanne D'Arc writes so many good posts, but "Old Jokes" really struck me:
In 1959, a British movie could build a joke on the idea that the most powerful country in the world had standards that limited its power. My daughter still thinks that's funny. Apparently, I've over-protected her, because she still lives in a world in which good guys refuse to do bad things. To me, the joke makes no sense anymore. It comes from a world we no longer live in.
danah boyd posted a party invitation sent out by friends that includes a timetable of events to assist guests with planning their arrival time:
8:00 Jason threatens George with lawsuits for being funnier than him
9:00 George threatens to delete Jason's flickr account
Heather writes about parenting the child she actually has in "You can't always get what you want":
A part of me feels like this is the Universe’s way of putting me in my place. I never thought my kid would be this kid. I used to see kids like Leta and think, “Why don’t they stop her? If I were her parent I would be able to stop her.” I used to think that a good parent would be able to take any type of kid in public and that kid would behave. I used to be an idiot. I used to need a good bat to the head.
Eric Ringham helps out Kansans in "How intelligent is your design?":
Beginning in 2008, public school students in Kansas will be tested under that state's new science standards, which open the door to criticism of evolution. Here are sample questions - some new, some adapted from current biology exams - to help them get ready.
Greg at The Talent Show posted the full text of "Thou Shalt Debate" by M.J. Ellington from the Decatur Daily:
When 25 state senators signed a bill to put protections for Ten Commandment displays in the state constitution, they said they were doing what voters want. Yet a survey of 10 of those senators who backed the measure in the special legislative session that ended Monday found only one, the bill sponsor, who could name all 10 of the commandments.
And finally, as Sour Duck's Link Blog put it, a "shockingly-named" blog had a funny bit on the "See Error Club." I just can't bring myself to use the name of the blog due to my fears about what my search engine referral traffic would look like for the next few months. There aren't many words in this entry, but I'm calling it good writing anyway because they're used so well.
My friend John and his wife Laura recently had twins.
YOU MUST GO LOOK AT THIS PICTURE OF THE BABIES!
I just don't know how I'm not on a plane to Chicago right now to snuggle them all up.
Today is Buy Nothing Day, but since I generally buy nothing on the majority of the days of the year, I'm not skipping the comic book sale.
Instead, I re-took the Ecological Footprint quiz. If everyone lived like me, we would need 1.9 Earths.
The quiz results say that worldwide, there are 4.5 productive acres per person. I only used .7 acres for mobility, since I use the bus for most of my travel and the Honda Civic gets kickin' gas mileage. But I used 4.4 for food, since I don't eat local and I eat dairy and/or eggs every day. I used 1.7 acres for shelter, which I don't know how I could lower in the quiz since I can't make many energy efficiency changes to my apartment. I guess the 1.7 acres for goods and services comes just from living in America. That number I can only change by working on the systems, not by my individual choices.
I'm already thinking about New Year's Resolutions. Perhaps eating more locally will be one of them. If these folks could do a 100-mile diet in northern British Columbia, surely Central Texas offers some possibilities. In theory I'd like to support a CSA, but as a legendarily picky eater it's intimidating.
Activism Blog has posted about a group called Alaska Action that is collecting donations to explain the costs and benefits of drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge:
The most money that drilling the Arctic Refuge would ever save American consumers is one penny per gallon, and that would be almost 20 years from now when oil production out of the Refuge would peak.
The average American would save almost six whole dollars in that year! Wouldn’t that be wonderful? And at the low low cost of one of America’s last pristine places. So…lets start drilling!
Call us crazy, but we think that sounds ridiculous. We’re collecting pennies from every person who wants to tell congress that the Refuge is worth more to America in it’s current state.
On the day before the final vote, we’re gonna give those pennies to congress (even if it takes 200 people to carry them all) and send the clear message that we would rather pay our penny now than see oil rigs in the Refuge.
Click on over to their page on The Penny and PayPal them some love.
Someone painted an Austin building like a Mondrian painting several months ago, and I've been meaning to post these pictures I took for my friend in Montana. She's making a small quilt in this style.
Greg at The Talent Show posted a few days ago about how the words "extremely patriotic" for him had become code for self-righteous nationalism rather than sincere love of country. I got a little freaked out by the strength of my negative reaction just to the word "patriotic," let alone "extremely patriotic." I can't think of the last time I heard anyone I know and like use that word to describe themselves, and I felt...threatened. And slightly morally superior, believing that I must know more about what's really going on than someone who would use that word. Hello, have you checked the papers lately? Have you seen what this country's government is up to? How can you announce you're proud to be one of these people?
Am I just another one of those America-hating liberals?
I don't think so. Like Mike Doughty says, "I love my country so much, like an exasperating friend." We all have friends we love despite the fact that they spend a lot of time screwing up and making life hard for themselves and people around them. These friends have lots of great qualities, and they're full of potential, but every time you hear the phone ring you sigh because you know it's going to be another one of those calls. All you can do is support them and hope they keep growing because you know they have it in them.
We have come so far as a nation since this project began. We do a lot of bad things, but we have come so far. But I spend more time thinking about my exasperation with all the bad choices, self-destructive behaviors, and general stubbornness than I do about the progress. I'm so frustrated that my first reaction when I hear someone say they love America is to freak out, because I know we can do better and I JUST CAN'T UNDERSTAND WHY WE DON'T GO AHEAD AND DO IT!
But there are some truly great things about the people in this country and how we've decided to organize things, and I'm going to try a little harder to remember that next time I hear someone use the word "patriotic."
For example:
- In America, people can throw a pre-election analysis party where guests present information for and against various candidates and propositions without fear of getting arrested.
- American activists in Michigan are getting together, continuing a proud tradition of making noise about injustice.
- Americans stop to help animals even when they're told not to.
- In America, people can go to church and women are allowed to drive. Even though I don't want to do either of those things, I think it would be pretty damn miserable to live somewhere that didn't allow people to make decisions for themselves.
As much as I need to recognize how much work there is left to do and get on with doing some of it, I need to remember how much work has already been done and not take it for granted. I do have something in common with folks who describe themselves as patriotic. I think this country is great for what it is and what it can and will be, and I want to do my part to take care of it.
So America, consider this a love letter. You're damn cool a lot of the time, and I'm lucky to be here. Thanks.
One of the things I am thankful for is that I bought 4 cases of macaroni and cheese and one case of spaghettios from Annie's Homegrown a few months ago, so I have something for dinner tonight even though I refuse to socialize today and C-Man is at his dad's which means there is no one to cook for me.
My friend B. had challenged me to create furniture out of the boxes if I couldn't find enough cabinet space. So I built tiered extensions onto the coffee table and took a picture for her, then completely forgot about it for quite some time. But here it is:
You can see how the spaghettios in particular made a nice platform for the remotes. However, I did eventually store all of the cases, so I am also thankful that I have more cabinet space than I think I do.
The Dog and I wish everyone a good Thanksgiving. I made pumpkin muffins, so we are celebrating by not letting her have any.
I've been a scattered gift-giver in the past few years, due to funding issues and an annual denial about the holidays that lasts until about December 17th. I'm going to try to be better this year. Luckily, Carrie's written up a fabulous gift guide to help me get on with it without troubling my eco-conscience.
One of the more interesting bits she mentions is carbon offsets for travel, which I had seen written up in NRDC's OnEarth. I thought I had done my part by purchasing a Honda Civic, but there's always another small step to take. Mental note: revise budget to include carbon offsets for trips to California and Colorado this year.
Also check out Green House Framing, which uses reclaimed lumber and friendly stains to make picture frames. They have premade, or you can get cusom orders. Very pretty!
Or you could just give everyone one of these.
Abstinence promoters are upset about the HPV vaccine because it will make sex safer, thus undermining their message that premarital sex isn't safe?
I just can't even make that fit together in my head.
Because of course, as Hope at Appalachian Alumni Association points out, safety isn't their real motivation.
Good Works-PAC is an interesting idea:
A Public Service Campaign engages candidates and their volunteers in public service projects that focus on key issues. Just as college fraternities and sororities take on public service projects to highlight the positive effects of their institutions – often competing to see who can log the most volunteer hours, raise the most money, or donate the most blood – candidates can engage in public service ("good works") projects as well. The more candidates, the more volunteers, the more public good, the more voters and attention drawn to Democratic issues.
GoodWorks-PAC.org identifies and supports Democratic candidates who will run for office using a public service style of campaign. These projects provide hands-on organizational training for the campaigns while highlighting for the public the positive effects of the Democratic Party's vision of governance as investment in civic growth.
They actually encourage multiple Democratic candidates in the primaries in heavily Republican districts. Rather than have those candidates compete with each other, they work together to raise awareness of the Democratic Party. Their website is a little scattered, but to find out more about how it works in practice, check out "Our Candidate Calls For More Competitors" about Joe Otterbein's campaign to defeat Rick Santorum in November 2006.
There's also this funny story from an event they organized in Sunbury, PA for Chris Carney, who is running for Congress against Don Sherwood in PA-10, and Deb Saxton, who is running for City Treasurer of Sunbury:
At the nursing home, one of the staff members said that she was a Republican and hated Democrats. When Andrew informed her that in fact he was there (and he was cleaning a door while they spoke) with his boss, the Democratic Congressional candidate, Chris Carney, she was very impressed. She thought she might be able to vote for somebody who would come and do real work... She then went on to tell Andrew that she had thought we were all there doing community service because we'd been busted for drunk driving or something. Lesson learned! While the basic concept is sound (doing real service work can turn the heads of voters who would otherwise pay no attention), we have to advertise what we're doing for it to be effective! Some traditional political work is necessary for the GoodWorks-PAC method to succeed.
Slightly random collection of links:
ae points out the Bad Democracy Awards, which at the very least is satisfying as a venting process.
Via Jill at Feministe, an open blog called Holla Back NYC. Harassed on the street? Snap the offender's picture and post it. (Laina Dawes said at BlogHer that one of the reasons she blogs is to document the racism she encounters, so people don't forget it's still happening. I think this site does that for sexism, in addition to providing some venting space.)
Children are still missing after Katrina. Strangely, "one of the great lessons of the evacuation is that uniform and accurate records need to be kept of evacuees as they move from location to location." Ya think? Oh, I know, why doesn't everybody and their dog start a website to "help" people reunite with missing loved ones? Oh, wait.
Crime at schools is down. Who knew? Not me, from watching the news.
Several months before I went to BlogHer, I had become increasingly uneasy about how the list of blogs I read was basically white. It looked pretty much like my life, in which I interact with very few people of color or people with disabilities.
My new job puts me in a workplace with many more people of color and people with disabilities than I socialize with, but rarely do I interact with many people at work on a personal level. So I see a lot more folks who don't look just like me, which I think is good for me as a daily visual reminder that I am not the only kind of person in the world. However, I don't spend much more time talking in any depth with folks who haven't grown up white and well-off.
Realizing the lack of diversity, I had made a few adjustments to my trusty blog aggregator before the conference, re-adding blogs I read in the past but had wandered away from, checking their blogrolls for additional links. It wasn't a deliberate and well-crafted strategy, but I was trying to pay more attention.
Then I went to BlogHer.
Sometimes I just don't understand why anyone would ever be using Google for some of these things...
- gom jabbar pain
- blind lizard ninja girl
- kung fu and josh and bellingham
- nazi respected love everyone [suuuuure they did.]
- where lizards stay up late: the origins of the internet [yes! we invented the internet! we just share it with you humans because we're nice.]
- television as enlightenment
- free i hate you layouts
- upc barcode theft steal
- machine quilters not receiving credit [I bought a sewing machine for quilting on credit, does that count? oh wait, but that means i received credit...]
- vegetarians are dumb
- crystal meth pipe
- extreme chick fight
- commited relationship but dating online profile
- cd cover lifetime of romance be my love
- who said i think i can i think i can?
- ecard birthday geeky
- doritos commercial with monkey laughing
- kingdom no taxes
- what happen lizard jump in human being a right leg
- life cycle of mud puppy children
- box notecard mammoth
- elevator & mezzanine & zombie
- printer antagonistic
They thought they could get me! But the crazy subject lines gave them away!
- practicalsinistral chilekingbird jukedeer
- Re: biracial, Pop the question!
- hey girl decommission postman (I doubt I have that power.)
- infidel bottle
- Re: antagonism exceptional
- secant krakatoa
- precaution not anglophobia
- But need my petrochemical (Don't we all...)
- many of the most famous brans
- my bsos tinkhs yuor gay
- Those applique why watermelon (I wonder that quite often, actually, but I think it's an occupational hazard of quilting.)
- Hi kumquat little flair
- You leadsman that errant galaxy (Well all right, maybe I will!)
I also received email from Heckler F. Apocrypha and Earnest Arias. I have to admit, those almost got me! It was touch and go for a minute there!
I'm reprinting the whole damn thing, and they can just get a lawyer if they care.
Missing: Possibly pregnant goats, purple car doors
LINCOLN, Nebraska -- Two unhappy owners reported the unusual thefts to officials this week. The owner of the eight South African boer goats told sheriff's deputies the animals were taken from a corral north of Lincoln sometime between November 7 and Monday.
The $200 goats are brown and white and have red heads, an incident report said. Their left ears are pierced, there are red spray-paint spots on their rears and they may be pregnant.
Goat thievery is uncommon in Lancaster County, sheriff's Sgt. Andy Stebbing said.
Not so the theft of Honda Civic auto parts.
The people who stole the driver's side and passenger doors off Joe Ruterbories' purple Honda Civic "seemed to really know what they were doing," he said, when they unscrewed the hinges.
This was the second time someone stole pieces off his ride. The last thief opened the hood and stripped out the cold air intake system.
"Apparently the parts are not easy to find," Ruterbories said, who found that out when he called salvage yards about replacements.
I'm becoming a fan of Cathy Young. Cathy's blog is called The Y Files, and she also writes for Reason and the Boston Globe. I don't always agree with her conclusions, but she discusses political topics without the screaming and demonizing that I see in so many other blogs. Basically, I can read an entire column that I disagree with and I don't feel like the author would hit me in the head with a hammer if given half the chance because I am RUINING AMERICA!
I was particularly struck by her recent post "Bush-hatred and Clinton-hatred," where she draws on a colum she wrote in 2003 and adds some current thoughts about parallels between the two presidents. You can also take a look at "The Christmas Wars."
This is the kind of conservative blog I need to read. I can't just say "I don't agree with that, but that person is an idiot so I don't have to engage with it." Cathy's posts make me think. A lot.
From Chookoolonks, "on raising my kid, and how you can help":
... there will come a day when someone close to me will cave and purchase a Barbie for an enthusiastic Alex. And even though you are all now and forever keenly aware of my Barbie Aversion, I will silently allow said plastic atrocity to enter our home. I will, however, teach my daughter the following phrase, in the same way my sister taught her daughter: "Poor Barbie. She's not very interesting."
From Kurtlow.com, "By George!":
It probably all started in Hong Kong, where every 2 in 5 people are named after some kind of insect species, with the other 3 preferring to stick to mammal groups.
From Peter's Cross Station, "Back to Adoption":
One thing that drives me nuts sometimes, is the assumption that if you are a transracial adopter, you must be a political naif who believes "love has no color" and you've done the world a favor by rescuing a child from its own inferior race.
Um, hell no. I don't think any of that. I don't think as many transracial/transcultural adopters think that as I used to, either. I think that there are plenty of transracial adopters who see their family's origin story as a mandate to be activists about the kind of injustice that led to the adoption in the first place.
From Finslippy, "Three years, one month, and ten days ago":
You know this part if you've had a baby already: everything you read, every doctor you speak to, every hospital orientation you attend, every labor preparation course you take, they all tell you the same thing: don’t go to the hospital right away. We won’t admit you until you’re four centimeters dilated! they say. You’ll probably panic at those first contractions and think you need to go to the hospital! But you won’t! Stay at home and be comfortable and don’t bother the hospital until you’re absolutely certain! Maybe then you can come. Maybe. But until then we don’t want you.
From Bark/Bite, "The Differences Between the Sexes...":
... a 1% difference doesn't mean jack shit when trying to predict the behavior of actual human beings on a daily basis. It doesn't mean jack shit when trying to decide who's better at cooking, and it doesn't mean jack shit when arguing about why women are squeezed out of the top levels of science.
And two short posts that must be read in their entirety to be appreciated:
- From 5ives, "Five terrible fake entrees from the dotcom era"
- From Defective Yeti, "The Suspension of Disbelief Personified"
Before I left for Houston, there was some strange card-switching between the palm-pilot-with-a-camera that UnwiredBen lent me and my happy new Kodak digital camera. (Not to imply that the palm-pilot-with-a-camera, a.k.a. the Zire, is not happy, but since it's not a camera, the pictures it takes are not as good.) This card-switching resulted in a bunch of old photos from the Zire being downloaded to my hard drive. I had quite forgotten about them.
So I present to you one of those photos, taken in early 2005, entitled, for obvious reasons, "David and the Burrito".
That's a refrigerator magnet that someone brought me back from Italy, in case you're wondering.
A while back I posted a commitment to finish all my languishing quilting projects within 100 days, which means January 31. I identified 10 eligible projects. I'm pleased to report that three of these projects are completed, though not without incident.
No, I didn't injure myself with overly sharp scissors. Nor did I puncture my finger with a needle and have to put on a bandaid lest I bleed on the fabric (this time).
This incident began with a simple project, as described in my previous post: "Lightweight flannel that needs to be made into a super-large baby blanket. I made one already for my sister last fall when my nephew couldn't sleep without being swaddled. I had so much trouble with it that I wanted to use starch on the second one, but then it took me forever to buy starch and now I'm afraid of it. Note to self: deal."
The starch in question was a bottle of liquid starch, rather than an aerosol can. I haven't bought anything in an aerosol can since...1998? So why start now?
You can't see it in this picture, but the bottle says it's equivalent to 8 aerosol cans. At no time did I consciously believe that I would have gone through 8 aerosol cans to starch a baby blanket's worth of flannel. But the instructions gave ratios for mixing the starch with water, so I started to measure water into the sink until I got to the amount I needed to cover the fabric. At that point, I had measured enough water that for MEDIUM starch, I was supposed to add the entire bottle.
Medium sounds nice and middle of the road, right? Not too little, not too much?
Though I have never hugged a tree, I do like finding out about cool things I could buy like organic, hand-harvested, free-range alpaca mittens for $15, or recycled stainless steel scissors, or wood stains that won't give you cancer, or recycled rubber stepping stones (which they call "pavers" for some crazy reason).
I also enjoy reading about designer doghouses, dog-powered scooters, and how to recycle a 747 into a house.
It's high-volume, and sometimes the pages take a bit to load because of so many graphics, but I'm enjoying it.
Vegan Lunch Box still reigns supreme as my favorite blog, though.
Dear The People In Cars,
We need to talk.
I really, really appreciate that you want to stop and let me cross the street. I imagine that it must be frustrating for you when I refuse to cross and wave you along.
But honestly, and I say this with love, do you think I can trust you?
You don't use turn signals when you don't think any other cars are around. So I end up waiting to cross streets only to find out that you're going the other way, or starting to cross only to discover that you're going straight through where I was going to walk. Many of you wait until about 5 feet before the intersection to brake, and then pull up into the crosswalk. You're unpredictable, and you don't always see me because I'm not a 3000+ pound metal cage with some plastic bits and colored enamel on the outside.
The fact that you've stopped at an intersection gives me no confidence that your next move won't involve cracking some of my bones, and not in that Eddie Izzard chiropractor sort of way. I'm sorry this hurts your feelings, but it's true. I'd rather wait.
Also, you might want to calm down at the intersection of 49th and Burnet. When I walk down the hill, I'm not the hillfolk coming to beat on your car with a stick, I'm catching a bus. It's coming down the street behind you. Have a little less coffee.
Love,
The Princess
As seen on What if no one's watching?, who got it from Going Dutch.
Instructions: Google "your first name needs" and see what the Internet thinks you need.
- bottle/can donations
- a Home (I am in this case a Siberian Husky/Border Collie)
- to take a CPR course
- to be cared for exactly as you would a real baby (I think C-Man would agree)
- to have a good reason or incentive to participate
- to do her job
- little introduction
- no more than a harsh reprimand to make [her] understand you are displeased
- someone to love
- to be scrutinised by a public inquiry
- a patient, no-nonsense owner, preferably with terrier experience, and a fenced yard
- your feedback
- surgery
- help regaining financial solvency
- a new wardrobe
- to dump Luke like yesterday!
- to look out for her sanity
- to be more active!
- to be docked 2 days at her regular rate
- to learn how to play cooperatively
- emergency treatment after playtime
- to study biology over the summer
- to think what this will do to her self-respect
- a search and rescue team
Make sure you also read the rebuttal, if for no other reason than to enjoy the phrase "deflector beanie technology."
There's a lot of squabbling in the Democrat/liberal/progressive community about single issue groups, and whether they contribute or take away from the goal of winning back power from the Republican Party.
Here's an article from Andy Goodman's Free Range Thinking Newsletter (PDF) that doesn't explicitly address that issue, but which immediately brought it to my mind.
In Kansas City, a children's advocacy organization and a local marketing agency crafted a strategy around one central question used by the Hopi people: "Is it good for the children?" First, they did a poll to see if that question would resonate with people. Next, the president of the children's organization and his colleagues did 400 interviews with civic leaders to build support for the question. They didn't ask for a commitment, just a conversation. Then they lauched a campaign of 15-second television ads using recognizable community leaders to ask the question "and deliver the equally important message: 'It's your decision.'"
Three years into the campaign, over 700 local organizations had officially adopted the question:
These commitments were reflected in many ways: the city council put it on all purchase orders, religious organizations printed it on Sunday bulletins, school districts added it to their stationery. And the question kept popping up at meetings. Westbrook recalls one such meeting in 1998 in which a local CEO announced a summer schedule giving employees a 4-day week in return for working from 7:00 am until 5:30 pm each day. “A grandmother in the back asked, ‘Is it good for the children?’” says Westbrook, “and it absolutely changed the whole meeting.” The discussion turned to issues around daycare and carpools, and the proposed plan - which clearly would not be good for children - was dropped.
There isn't a whole lot in this article on the results, but their methods are striking. Instead of "We need message discipline, everybody get in line!", they took the time to build relationships. Instead of providing an answer, they provided a lens based on their values.
Jory, Lisa, and Elisa recently announced that BlogHer 2006 will be held in the SF Bay Area on July 28th and 29th of 2006. I already requested the appropriate days off at work.
Then they announced there will be a set of BlogHer panels at SXSW. This is actually bad news for me. I really don't want to spend $225 to go to the conference, but I will feel left out if I don't go since it's in my own town.
I have thought about BlogHer almost daily since I attended the first one at the end of July. I thought about it so much that I locked up and couldn't express how much I enjoyed it and why. Now that they've announced BlogHer 2006, I'm trying to organize my thoughts about what I took away from BlogHer 2005.
This post, though, is just a starter for my own reference. One of the major benefits I get from blogging is the ability to look back and remember what I was doing, and yet I posted very little about BlogHer. Yes, Google and Flickr can help me find things that will help me remember. However, they don't (yet) store events from my point of view.
So first, two choice memories:
- Early in one of the big group sessions, some of the audience members weren't speaking directly into the microphone when it was passed to them, so we couldn't hear their comments. Lisa Stone interrupted (politely) one speaker to ask "Would you mind Tina Turnering the mic a little bit?" For the rest of the day, whenever the problem recurred, she would yell (politely) "More Tina!"
- During the panel "Flame, Blame, and Shame" when people were discussing their fears about their kids being harmed due to their blogging, Matthew Holt of The Health Care Blog said (somewhat) quietly "I wonder if Kevin Drum worries about his cats being stalked?" (For those of you who don't follow blogs, Kevin Drum pioneered the practice of Friday Cat Blogging.)
Next, some lists. (Surprise!)
I thought about putting these lists after the jump, so those don't care wouldn't have such a long post taking up front page real estate. But quite a few of these folks are blogging for business reasons, and page rank translates into business opportunities. Technorati only counts links from the front pages of blogs in their page ranks. So whatever smidgen of help I can give those people by linking from the front page, I am going to do it.
People I met and conversed with:
- schoolsmelt
- Sour Duck
- ae of Arse Poetica
- Ping
- Kitt of nags of a similar ilk
- Matthew Homann of LexThink, who blogs at the [non]billable hour
- Susannah Gardner of Hop Studios and Buzz Marketing with Blogs
- Jory Des Jardins, one of the conference organizers, who blogs at Pause
- Lisa Stone, another one of the organizers
Other blogs that came across my radar screen because the authors attended BlogHer 05:
- apophenia by danah boyd, who wears great hats
- Elisa Camahort, the third organizer, has a personal blog and also writes Healthy Concerns, among others
- Sepia Mutiny (One of the authors tracked me down after a group session where I made a few comments and personally invited me to read the blog and ask questions if they ever used any terms I didn't understand, which I thought was lovely of her. It's also a highly entertaining blog, so I'm glad she pointed it out.)
- Culture Kitchen, which has excellent business cards
- Marian's Blog
- Writing is Fighting by Laina Dawes
Blogs I found through via mentions at the conference or on the BlogHer blogroll:
- Woman of Size
- Femme La Guerre
- Fussy (I know, I'm the last person on Earth...)
- Conversations with Dina
- Reznet Blog, part of Reznet News: Native American Student Journalism
- afronetizen
Two even less interesting lists after the jump.
Four quick must-reads this week. The first for its writing quality, the second for its thought provoking quality, the third for that plus fun naming, and the last because it's just the right thing to do. And it's funny.
FIRST
Morbo guest posted on The Carpetbagger Report, starting off strong right up front by using an underappreciated vocabulary word in the title of "Border Ruffians: The Minutemen come to Vermont":
If you're like me, you probably lose a lot of sleep at night over fears that crazed residents of Quebec are going to swoop down into the country and steal your job, abduct your children and run off with your significant other.
The rest of the piece is more toned-down, but equally snarky.
SECOND
Slacktivist makes a point I've often thought about. Why is it that some fundamentalist and other Christians (and similar folks in other religions) spend so much time trying to get the government to protect them from any ideas that aren't identical to theirs? Think about banning books from school libraries. Appropriately, his post is called "Hothouse Flowers":
It almost certainly would be easier for fundamentalist believers to practice their religion freely in a homogenous society in which everyone believed -- or was forced to act as though they believed -- the same thing. But this logic is anathema to the whole idea of religious freedom.
It also presumes that the faith of the fundamentalist hegemonists is extremely fragile. Worse than that, it nurtures and reinforces this fragility -- ensuring that their faith is a flimsy hothouse flower that cannot survive in the outdoor climate of a pluralist society.
THIRD
I have to start reading more foreign and military policy, obviously. Robert Farley at Lawyers, Guns, and Money has a post called "The MacGyver Paradigm" that also references an earlier work by a fellow named Anthony Cordesman called The Buffy Paradigm. Huzzah! Also, it's an interesting piece on military preparedness.
FOURTH
Hope of Appalachia Alumni Association posted a rant from Craigslist that she found via TBOGG. The original post says "Re-post this if you believe love makes a marriage," so here we go:
10 reasons why gay marriage should be illegal
- Being gay is not natural. Real Americans always reject unnatural things like eyeglasses, polyester, and air conditioning.
- Gay marriage will encourage people to be gay, in the same way that hanging around tall people will make you tall.
- Legalizing gay marriage will open the door to all kinds of crazy behavior. People may even wish to marry their pets because a dog has legal standing and can sign a marriage contract.
- Straight marriage has been around a long time and hasn't changed at all; women are still property, blacks still can't marry whites, and divorce is still illegal.
- Straight marriage will be less meaningful if gay marriage were allowed; the sanctity of Britany Spears' 55-hour just-for-fun marriage would be destroyed.
- Straight marriages are valid because they produce children. Gay couples, infertile couples, and old people shouldn't be allowed to marry because our orphanages aren't full yet, and the world needs more children.
- Obviously gay parents will raise gay children, since straight parents only raise straight children.
- Gay marriage is not supported by religion. In a theocracy like ours, the values of one religion are imposed on the entire country. That's why we have only one religion in America.
- Children can never succeed without a male and a female role model at home. That's why we as a society expressly forbid single parents to raise children.
- Gay marriage will change the foundation of society; we could never adapt to new social norms. Just like we haven't adapted to cars, the service-sector economy, or longer life spans.
Hope you're enjoying your weekend.
Cathy Young got perhaps the best bizarre Google search referral ever:
"Does crystal meth eat away at your leg bones?"
I have not been so lucky lately:
- humiliation men's waist down
- lizard in space
- crack pipe
- velociraptor microbes
- subterranean leeches
- to tip the hovering scale
- i am interested in knowing you
- god does not play dice with the universe%3b he plays an ineffable game of his own devising which might be compared from the perspective of any of the other players to being involved in an obscure and complex version of poker in a pitch dark room with blank cards for infinite stakes with a dealer who won't tell you the rules and who smiles all the time site: edu
- how he became your favourite relative
- euthanizing goldfish
- feel great babies everywhere
It's Monday, you're at work, you need something to get your mind off the pain, right?
Lee's Useless Super-Hero Generator
Lost In Translation (not the movie)
Here's a little add-on to the Saturday Morning Must Reads.
From Brownglasses, a photo blog by Rachel James:
Then finish with and then she flew away. It's lovely. I wish the photographer would sell it as a print.
I missed this last week due to my trip to the underwhelming International Quilt Festival in Houston. But here are a few of my favorite things:
"A note on vulnerability and responsibility" by Hugo Schwyzer:
Authentic manhood -- true adulthood -- is about more than "feeling needed". Feminism offers men the chance to be complete, complex, interesting human beings rather than paychecks and stalwart rocks.
Kung Fu Monkey launches "D.A.C.M.A." to save us all:
So how do we stop this cultural plague? Well, we'll never win the fight to just out-and-out outlaw divorce: far too many powerful politicians and pundits depend on it as a way to mark their rise in power and income through progressive wife trade-ins. No, the roundabout solution here is to ban the marriage of celebrities in the first place, to keep them from spreading their disgusting guerilla free-love meme when they eventually, inevitably dissolve these shams perpetrated in the Kabbalah ceremony of their choice. We at Kung Fu Monkey are proud to make the Defense Against Celebrity Marriage Amendment our first political cause.
Dru is doing a fascinating poetry project with her kids. Note to self: give up on The Dog, have kids.
Alice at Finslippy describes a slight preschool problem in "Let's get physical". I went stupid fangirl on her at BlogHer and I don't regret it one bit.
Anyway. So, okay. My child is apparently sad! And tired! That’s not her fault, is it? That doesn’t mean she hates him? Although when he gets home, he’s whirling about the apartment like they gave him crack! Except, whoops, that couldn’t have happened, because according to his teacher he’s a certified snack-hater.
And finally, the post "Affection" at MightyGirl. It's tiny and wonderful. Read it.
The (mostly Democratic) voters in some poor urban areas face long lines to vote because their local elections departments can't afford enough voting machines. One way to fix that is to switch to optical scanning, where the cost is in the counters and marginal voting station is virtually free.
But taking the technology as fixed, how about private or foundation contributions to simply buy more voting machines? Shortening the voting lines in Columbus would be orders of magnitude more cost-effective than running TV spots, and could probably be done on a tax-deductible basis.
Interesting.
UnwiredBen created his a while ago. I just got around to mine.
Kingdom.
Make your own slogan at the Advertising Slogan Generator.
For those of y'all who like your eco-friendliness to be really, really easy, you might want to check out Ideal Bite. They have a daily tip email list that sends out one little tip each day and tells you how to follow through, usually by shopping :). Like wine? There's a tip on organic wine Like chocolate? There's a tip on organic chocolate.
Since I don't like either of those things, here are my faves from the past few months:
- Eco-friendly dry cleaning (in Austin, this means EcoMat on Guadalupe)
- Eco-friendly light bulbs
- Ditch the antibacterial soap and a related tip, Wash your hands in cold water
- How to pick eco-friendly art supplies
- Socially responsible investing
- Recycling tires
The tips can be kind of fluffy, but they're well-written and entertaining. Way better than the email from the American Airlines frequent flyer program.
Hat tip to Joel Makower.
[Update, later that same day...UnwiredBen points out that they also have a blog: http://idealbite.blogs.com/. I don't care for it, so I didn't mention it in my post. It is different from the tip e-mail list.]
Huzzah!
- I really need an MP3 CD for work called "Chill the Fuck Out."
- The worst taste in the world is when the Lunesta pill gets wet and the blue coating starts to flake off, but you take it anyway because you don't realize it's going to be a big deal and hey, these things cost money.
Dear That Guy In That Truck,
It's called a stop line for a reason. I shouldn't have to walk out IN THE MIDDLE of a busy intersection because you parked in the crosswalk to wait for the light to change.
Do it again and you're going to be sorry that I know how to throw a javelin.
Sincerely,
The Princess
