Real people with real disputes before a real judge
A friends currently has a case in small claims court and they got this in the mail today. It’s probably the best thing I have seen all day!
Tax Day Pick Me Up
Personal Beef Wellington and Creamed Corn. Because this is how I assume Mr Moneybags would celebrate after the government took the GDP of a small country in taxes. Thanks Obama…
A stuning episode of Cosmos
I am a bit behind on the new episodes of Cosmos and took some time to catch up this weekend. Episode 2 is one of the best presentations of evolution, mass extinction, and life that I have seen. It is clear, concise, and factual and (I think) a much watch. This is the type of things we should be use to educate children.
Check Out Cosmos: A Spacetime Odyssey: Some of the Things That Molecules Do on Hulu
Remember the Patriot Act
With the recent Sandy Hook shooting, there has been an increased call for gun control laws. Items such as the assault weapon ban, closing the gun show loophole, and magazine capacity limits are all back on the table. I will not try to argue that what happened at Sandy Hook wasn’t horrible – it was. It is made worse for many people by the fact that so many children were killed.
However we should not allow our outrage, shock and anger to have us make rash decisions.
In the wake of the 9/11 attack, many people – myself included – wanted a solution in terms of legislation. Something that would prevent such an attack from ever happening again regardless of how it affected my life. I admit that I was willing to give up some of my freedoms so that we could catch and punish the terrorists. After all – I wasn’t a terrorist so what did I have to fear?
Sadly, the effects of the Patriot Act do affect me and now there is no going back. I must provide proof of innocence when applying for a mortgage, I must go through x-rays machines at the airport, I must have my email/phone communications monitored. The government uses the Patriot Act as an excuse to harass good Americans but how much has it actually helped to stop terrorism?
Violence is a problem – but before we pass sweeping gun control legislation that turns honest Americans into suspects and criminals we need to step back, take a breath and think rationally. Any decision we make in anger will be the wrong one.
Just Finished “Pirate Cinema” by Cory Doctorow and gave it 3 stars
I got this book as part of the Humble eBook Bundle. I paid $25 for 13 books. (If you don’t know about the HumbleBundle, click here to learn more, its awesome!!) Over all I say its a 3/5 star book.
This book was released 10/2/2012 and you can also get it from Amazon.com. Here is a synopsis:
Trent McCauley is sixteen, brilliant, and obsessed with one thing: making movies on his computer by reassembling footage from popular films he downloads from the net. In the dystopian near-future Britain where Trent is growing up, this is more illegal than ever; the punishment for being caught three times is that your entire household’s access to the internet is cut off for a year, with no appeal.
Trent’s too clever for that too happen. Except it does, and it nearly destroys his family. Shamed and shattered, Trent runs away to London, where he slowly he learns the ways of staying alive on the streets. This brings him in touch with a demimonde of artists and activists who are trying to fight a new bill that will criminalize even more harmless internet creativity, making felons of millions of British citizens at a stroke.
Things look bad. Parliament is in power of a few wealthy media conglomerates. But the powers-that-be haven’t entirely reckoned with the power of a gripping movie to change people’s minds….
So why 3/5 stars? I think the content is appropriate to what is happening in the world now, but I felt the author tried a bit to hard to make it “geeky”. There was a lot of name dropping of actual programs and parts that I felt interrupted the flow of the story. It’s not because I didn’t understand the terms, but it was more a WTF moment on why you would even mention it unless you were trying to prove how computer-savvy you were to your audience. I also did not like the attitude of the main character. To me he felt very one dimensional and I didn’t really care how his story turned out. I didn’t feel he was responsible for any of the successes in the story – it was either luck/chance or the supporting characters turning the events to wins. The last point I will make is that since this story was set in England it was a bit weird for me to follow – mostly the slang terms. I’m sure the author was authentic here but not being familiar with some of the terms had me spending lots of time thinking about them. So much so that I often had to go back and re-read pages to grasp the meaning
Overall I do recommend it. The copyright/piracy/patent laws in the US are bad and they are getting worse as old-media corporations try to put in place laws like SOPA, ACTA, PIPA, etc. These corporations and lobby groups use many of the same arguments that were used in the books to pass the restrictive laws. I’m not sure if this book will spur anyone to action. I think it does a great job of opening your eyes to how people see it – that if it doesn’t affect them directly they don’t care – and why we must continue to spread the word against laws that restrict our freedom online. Give them an inch and they will take a mile
Thank you….
The holiday season for 2010 is done and I am left reflecting on something I never gave much thought before – Thank You Cards. That’s not to say I don’t thank people for my gifts but I don’t know if I ever wrote formal notes. I still don’t now. More importantly, when I was younger, if someone wasn’t in the vicinity when I opened my gift, I wouldn’t say thank you at all.
I remember once when I was younger being scolded for not sending a thank you note to one of my relatives. I was told that if I didn’t start sending thank yous I would stop receiving gifts. After that, fear of being cut off made me to be sure to thank the giver in some manner, although I still saw it as a bit of a unnecessary endeavor.
However, the older I get the more I identify with the tyrannical rule of my elders.
These last few years I have become more and more disgruntled at people who do not acknowledge the gifts I send them. I am not expecting a handwritten note or anything so formal. A text, facebook IM, phone call, email, or any of the other many means of communication would be fine.
I find it interesting that I am now annoyed by the very thing I used to do. Is it because I am older now and see the error of my ways? Is it a biological clock thing? Is it just turning into a crotchety old lady?
After sending a gift and hearing nothing back, my first concern is that you didn’t get the gift at all. The second thought is more selfish – did you like it? Wasn’t it great?
If you didn’t like it that’s ok, but I am still hurt when I don’t hear back. I feel like you don’t like me personally. That your dislike of the gift is a mirror of what you feel toward me. I wonder if my relative felt the same way?
This isn’t just from individuals either, I have donated to many nonprofit organizations both big and small. Some will send a thank you note or email while others just ignore me. I’d like to think the money I give your cause is going to something special – even if I know logically its going into a big fund. I like to receive thank you notes detailing all the items my money will be used for or just thanking me in general for supporting the cause.
This may be selfish, and reading it back it definitely comes off that way. I’m not looking for a gift back, all I’m really looking for is a “Got the gift, thanks!” I think we all want to be recognized for the things we do and as much as I try to fight against it I too need that recognition. I find it interesting that I need something so primal, and I do try to work against it. I mean, in reality I do not know the other side of the story about why thanks wasn’t sent – I am too busy focus on myself and the irrational perception that I have somehow been wronged.
In the end I realize that what I feel is irrational emotion so I don’t act on it. I will not stop sending gifts nor will I require a thank you. I think it’s important to examine our knee-jerk reactions to see how we can better ourselves. Sometimes just looking at something under the microscope highlights just how silly it is.
But what do you guys think? Do you feel bad when you don’t get a thank you note? Does it change how you interact with those people/organization?
The most important question of our lifetime
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