A desperate, open letter…
Dear Blogger,
You’ve got a favorite song or songs . Sometimes a whole frickin’ playlist of songs that you absolutely, positively adore and feel the need to share with the world. That’s awesome. We may even share musical tastes which would make it even more awesome.
You know what would make it more awesome? NOT MAKING IT AUTOPLAY ON YOUR BLOG. Just because they make a widget for it DOESN’T mean that you HAVE to include it on your blog.
Please, do your blog readers a favor. Don’t include auto playing music widgets. Give your readers the option of choosing to play the music on their own. Please?
Love,
Me
* *
This PSA was brought to you by someone who frantically had to search for the mute button before searching, fruitlessly, on a blog’s sidebar for the controls to turn off an aforementioned auto playing music widget. Auto playing music widgets are like the auto playing midis of the late 1990s. It wasn’t a good idea then and it isn’t a good idea now. Just sayin’…
Read MoreJapan, 我慢 and Heartless Trolls
Earlier today, I was watching some footage of the tsunami as it hit the Japanese coast. Unknowingly, The Little Empress sidled up to me and watched from my elbow as the water rose and began to sweep cars away.
“Lotta water,” said TLE, her eyes wide as she pointed to the screen.
“Yes, that is a lot of water,” I told TLE.
She watched a bit longer as water began to overtake the buildings. “Mommy, they need help!” she said urgently, pulling at my elbow. “Need help!”
I probably should have shooed her away from the screen at that point as she began to get more distressed. And then, she asked the question I’d been dreading. “Why mommy? Lotta water. Why?”
I could have told her about how, when tectonic plates shift undersea, they displace a lot of water which, due to the displacement, creates a super wave called a tsunami.
Somehow, the scientific explanation just fell flat.
“I don’t know,” I had to answer as she frowned.
“They need help,” TLE repeated.
* *
The Japan disaster is never far from my mind and since I’m always in the Internet, up to date information is always easy to find, too. A friend in Japan reports that the Western media is sensationalizing the situation; I’m not surprised. Yes, it is a crisis situation but so far, people are keeping relatively cool heads, considering what they’ve just been through.
Disasters often show a person’s true character. I would like to think that, in a disaster situation, the character that is revealed would be one of hope and helpfulness.
My minor in college was Asian-American studies and one of the courses I took for minor was called Japanese-American Psychology. During that course, I learned about the incredible attitude the Japanese people have called 我慢 (gaman) which loosely translated, means “to endure” or “to persevere”. This 我慢 attitude is what helped the Japanese-American community survive internment and helped rebuild the war torn Japan after World War II. I have no doubt that the Japanese people will show their 我慢 spirit again through this crisis.
Something that made me cry was reading this translated message from a Chinese immigrant who was stuck in a building in Sendai. Chinese face discrimination in Japan, much in the same way that many Chinese have not yet forgiven Japan for the atrocities of World War II. (Racism — it is alive and well and not just in America. Sad.)
And yet, as the translated message shows, during this time of crisis, this Chinese immigrant was shown kindness, compassion by fellow survivors: given milk powder by a mother with a baby; helped to find water when feeling faint; being allowed to call home first amongst the 80 people trapped because she was Chinese.
Honestly, I can’t help but think that, in the same situation, absolute pandemonium and outright looting would be taking place if a similar situation would happen in California. I’d love for someone to tell me I’m wrong and make me believe them.
But from what I’ve seen on the Internet, some people’s true character is nothing short of disgusting. There have been quite a few people coming out saying that Japan somehow deserved this disaster,saying that it is somehow karmic payback for Pearl Harbor.
Reading those Facebook messages quite frankly made me physically ill. I damn near chucked something at the monitor when I read that.
What disturbs me even more are so-called “Christians” who are praising God for raining these disasters upon Japan. As one of the only practicing Christians in my group of friends, I am constantly defending Christianity and trying, desperately, to show people that Christianity is not a religion of hate or exclusivity. And then morons like this come up, praising and thanking God for teaching people a “lesson.”
The only lesson to be learned from these attitudes are decidedly not Christian. I can only hope that the people who are spreading such foul, disgusting attitudes are doing so to be shocking and not truly believe that this is a punishment to the Japanese people for not being a Christian nation.
Read MoreFreecycle Fail
I’d like to preface this entry by reminding the world at large how much I love Freecycle. I mean, I totally less than 3 (<3) it, j0. I’ve gotten many a wonderful thing from Freecycle including books, clothes and darn near all of The Little Empress’ big a$$ plastic toys that I couldn’t have otherwise afforded in this lifetime. (Did I mention I got a fantastic Step 2 climber for free a few weeks ago? No? How about the sizable addition to my graphic novel library just about a week ago? Didn’t mention that either? Well, let me brag now, then. Okay, I’m done.)
But my love of Freecycle is sometimes trumped by my *headdesking* of Freecycle. I love the concept of Freecycle, keeping things out of landfills and what not, but I think too many people use it as a place to shamelessly beg for stuff. It is one thing to score something because someone is throwing it out; it is another to straight out BEG for something. And I know times are tough but somehow, begging for an iPod because “I really need an iPod with my lifestyle” doesn’t count. (I love my iPod too but no one needs one. Sheesh.)
But whatever, if the mods let it through, eh, at least I got something to snark at. (My life is filled with simple pleasures these days. When you’re broke, you entertain yourself with what you can, right? Right.)
What I don’t appreciate are emails in my inbox like this one I got recently after posting some stuff up for offer. (I always try to offer something in return for either asking or receiving something else. Remember folks, give a little, get a little.)
im due august 18th with a baby girl i have barely any clothes for her because my first doctor said i was having a boy so i spent all my money on boy things do u have any newborn to 3 months clothes socks bibs hats mittens anything that u dont need?
I sat there with my mouth gaping open for a few minutes. My mind was filled with things to retort with.
From the nice…
Babies just warm clothes, a place to sleep and a safe car seat. Your baby girl won’t care that her onesie is blue so long as Mommy loves her.
To the not so nice…
Baby girls can wear boy clothes, too. Or are you afraid it’ll make her a lesbian? (If so, what’s wrong with that?!)
To the flat out snarky…
I’m sorry, but can you repeat your request in English? I don’t speak Dumb*ss.
For the record, I emailed her back asking her to send requests like that to the Freecycle list and not to individual people’s emails, warning her that I would also report her to the mods. She hasn’t posted since.
Gee. I wonder why.
Anyhow, all of this was inspired by finding this gem of a site: FailCycle. A must-read for any Freecycle fanatic who has rolled their eyes at some of the posts that come through their local Freecycle lists. It looks like they haven’t updated in awhile but it is still amusing as heck.
Read MoreWhy yes, we are geeks…
Since The Hubster is at work most of the day, we do a lot of our communicating through IM and we end up sharing a lot of links. Of course, this is standard for most folks so that’s not what makes us geeks.
No, conversations like the following makes us geeks:
The Hubster ™: http://kotaku.com/5585676/double+decker-tvs-perfect-for-his-and-her-gaming
Me: DUDE THAT IS GEEK LOVE.
Me: I want that in the family room.
The Hubster ™: Same
The Hubster ™: Lets plan for it
Me: AWESOME.
Me: But we’ll need dual towers in the family room and some kind of comfortable set up so we can both play Star Wars The Old Republic MMO together.
Me: (… damn, we are geeks, holy crap.)
As well as…
Read MoreThe Hubster ™: Also
The Hubster ™: http://kotaku.com/5585447/this-chun+li-has-tiny-thighs
Me: That is the cutest not-TLE Chun Li EVER.
The Hubster ™: Yup
Me: TLE should be old enough for cosplay next year.
Me: What characters can we dress TLE as :/
Me: I was hoping for (Card Captor) Sakura but she’s no CCSakura.Sakura Kinomoto (from Card Captor Sakura)
Me: Well, maybe (Street Fighter series) Sakura
Sakura Kasugano (from Street Fighter Alpha 2)
The Hubster ™: And yeah, she’s definitely more that Sakura.
Is this what we’ve become??
Okay, so KFC recently introduced the Double Down — a sandwich that uses, amazingly, two deep fried chicken breasts as the “bread”. Not to be outdone, IHOP has introduced a cheesecake stuffed pancake called the “Pancake Stacker”. This filling breakfast will set you back about 1,250 calories.
Aside from the fact that it does look quite tasty — hey, I like pancakes. I like cheesecake. I can admit this — I’m pretty repulsed. I can’t help but wonder if America is so damned gluttonous now that we seek to stuff ourselves unnecessarily for no good reason while folks around the world — hell, people in America – still starve to death.
What a way to set an example.
Read MoreFor moms with mutts…
I find this downright adorable…
Dog Sings To Soothe Crying Baby – Watch more Funny Videos
This dog is a lot more helpful than Miyuki was in the first days! Miyuki would pace back and forth, panicking, until someone got the baby to stop crying. Eventually, she just learned to retreat to the bathroom and cover her ears. 
Read More
Copyright
Text and photographs copyrighted by Michelle N unless otherwise noted.