With most of my friends out of work, i’m always humored by any commentary on the unemployed ex-startup tech world. Odd Todd’s “Laid Off: A Day in the Life” definitely cracks a huge smile…
Oscar nominations are out – yippee!! It’s definitely an interesting year for them. My favorite is the quantity of quality nomations for Best Actress and Best Supporting Actress – women are definitely getting more interesting film roles these days (although there are still no Best Director female nominees). In that regard, the Hours was just stunning – strong female roles where the characters were not supporting men, not sex toys, had significant character development that had nothing to do with men and talked about things other then men. Wow.
Of course, the cake of the Oscar nominations has to be Donald Kaufman’s nomination for “Best Adapted Screenplay”… that’s just *great*
I love when wordplays can be so utterly political and hysterical at the same time:
More and more people are making the switch … to Canada.
NYTimes has a neat little article about the comeback of menstrual cups. Oh do i love my Keeper. Well, as much as i can love anything that indicates crampy time. I should say: oh do i love not spending oodles of money because it’s that time of the month! Speaking of that time of the month, i’m reading The Red Tent (so good btw). I wish that my monthly blood was an indication of celebration and rest.
ASH (alt.suicide.holiday) is over 10 years old. It’s evolved into a website, a chatroom and a community by people who believe that suicide is a choice. Yet, over 10 suicides have been linked to ASH and folks are wondering if they are to blame for these deaths. They do have recipes for suicide, funeral arrangement directions, calculators that compare the pain of various methods and a variety of other resources.
I believe the suicide is a choice and expect that one day i’ll be in enough pain to call it quits. All of the blame talk about getting assistance always bugs me because i think that there should be a way to leave this world with some grace and honor rather than as a vegetable. Because of this, i don’t think that providing information about suicide makes you an accomplice (and frankly, i want a kind accomplice who understand my needs over the weird social values of the system). Therefore, how do you help people kill themselves when they feel the need to quit and help them see the point to life when it’s really just not time yet?
Update: While I support the right to die, I do not believe that the decision to kill oneself should be made lightly or alone. Many people choose the path of suicide because the pain exceeds their resources for coping. Pain caused by terminal illness is different from pain caused by depression. The latter can be treated and there are resources out there to help. If you are considering the path of suicide and you are not facing a terminal illness, please consider seeking advice before you make your decision. There are many organizations out there that provide support for people who are facing this decision. Your options include:
To learn more about suicide and to get a valuable perspective on being suicidal, check out
A Nation of Voyeurs: How the Internet search engine Google is changing what we can find out about one another – and raising questions about whether we should
This is another great article on the concerns raised by our past collapsing into the present. The writer uses anecdotes to explain why this can be troublesome, yet it’s so appealing that we wouldn’t want Google to disappear; he even shares the stories of revenge where people get hurt under the powers of Google. Unfortunately, i haven’t really run across anything that suggests what *should* be done to way out the cons with the pros. (They just typically share the scary stories, the good intentions of the Google creators and the legal impressions of Zittrain/Brin/Lessig/Rosen.)
When i was first heard about Columbia today, my heart was filled with so many emotions. Prior to breaking my neck, my life goal was to be an astronaut… i had even gone so far as to applying and getting the nominations necessary to go to the Naval Academy (since so many astronauts came from there). I was obsessed with space in every way. I remember the Challenger and the confusion that i had sitting in that classroom as my teacher completely lost it (his friend from college was on board). So hearing this brought back all of those memories of loss and sadness. Yet, in spite of all of this tragedy, i received a note revealing a quote from Kalpana Chawla that reminds me of why space is so important to so many of us. When asked about her Indian heritage, she said: “When you look at the stars and the galaxy, you feel that you are not just from any particular piece of land, but from the solar system.”
Suprisingly (to me at least), the senate rejects the Total Information Act. Unfortunately, this does not mean that Poindexter has lost since it needs to be rejected by the House and vetoed by the President to truly go away.. ::sigh::
Battle Raper: HYPER REALACTION is a new Japanese fighting game where the user “fights” by raping women in the game.
Defining Moment: Seeing the first grapple attack with the chest rubbing and the first molestation attack with some topless chest rubbing were both certainly eye-openers. However they both pale in comparison to the face rape the first time I experienced it. Each time I pressed a button Zenon forced poor Chihaya’s head down on his invisible penis and tears ran down her cheeks. It, much like the entire game, produced a mixture of shock, revulsion, and shame.
