MSM rant

Angry Mob

It’s been bothering me a lot lately that the 24 hour news cycle drives social phenomena the extent that it does.  It’s like once one company started having 24-7 news, everyone had to do it.  Now it’s spiraling out of control.  It’s become this insatiable beast.  No news is no excuse to stop talking!  They just. keep. going.  We all expect there to be multiple news sources that are available at all hours, but having that means that they need something to talk about.  They have to make it worth their while.

“The recession” is a good example.  “Issue number one” on CNN is the economy.  The thing is, there’s only a little bit to say about it.  Gas is expensive, and it’s driving up the cost of a lot of other things.  Our wasteful culture has caught up with us, and it’s time for change.  The market is driving that change.  The poorest people are suffering the most, because they can’t absorb the increase in the cost of basics.  The end.  But since the networks have hours and hours of programming to fill up, and since they need to pander to the common denominator of their viewership, they just keep rattling on and on about the same things, and reifying the worst parts.  Because fear sells.

I am disgusted by the whole thing.  I want to be informed, but I feel forced to find innovative ways to get news without the silliness.  Luckily, I’m resourceful!  I get my news in all sorts of ways, like by subscribing to NPR on Twitter.  Talk about culled down!  The most recent report: “Bush signs revised FISA law.”  (with a  link if I need more info) Sweet. Thanks. Good to know.

I say we boycott the MSM until they get their act together.  It’s time for media reform.  Vote with your eyes and ears - award well-reasoned news sources with your time and attention.  Social media is great, but ultimately we need paid media professionals to go find the news for us.  In order to get paid, they have to do what makes money…. so let’s show them what we like.  It’s like dog training.  Withhold love for bad behavior.

Image uploaded on September 14, 2006 by McBeth

Sarah Haskins

Making feminism funny as hell.

Wall-e’s World Not So Far Away

The Citarum River

Seen Wall-e?  It’s a cute summer movie with amazing animation.  It’s easy to think of the world it depicts - one that is covered in trash - as hyperbole.  For the most part, it is.  But it’s not that extreme or far away from reality.  In fact, it’s uncomfortably close for some people in the world.  This fact is easily obscured for many Americans, myself included.  So let’s take a closer look, shall we?

A couple of videos come to mind.  For instance, how about this one about a village in China that is built both figuratively and literally on (mostly American) electronic waste.  Then there’s this one about the Haitian trash trade, in which people in Haiti find uses for and trade (mostly American) trash.  Then of course there’s the Citarum River in Indonesia, shown at right in a picture from a 2007 Daily Mail Online article about it being possibly the most polluted river in the world (more pictures and info in the article).  These are just a few compelling examples.  There are more that I know of, and probably even more that I don’t.

I’ve been thinking about trash for a long time.  Ever since the time when I was in my early twenties and stayed for a while with a group of radical anti-establishment types in the mountains in southern Colorado.  They lived on a breathtaking cliff in pretty stark circumstances.  One of the most interesting things about the experience for me was that they took such care as to how much waste they generated.  After all, they didn’t have a car, they didn’t have a trash service, and they didn’t make frequent trips to the grocery store.  They generated about one large bag of trash per month which they had to painstakingly remove from their remote home.  Brings a whole new meaning to “taking out the trash,” eh?  There is a lesson here.  I think it is relevant that, for them, the trash didn’t conveniently disappear once a week.  They were very engaged in the process of removing it, and this fact informed their day-to-day behaviors.  So, after seeing Wall-e recently, I’m inspired to start thinking like I’ll have to carry my trash on my back while walking uphill in the snow once a week.  Here’s what I am already doing:

• I’ve cut out bottled water almost entirely (though, ironically, I did buy one at the movie theater when we saw Wall-e!).  I drink tap.
• Also, I donate usable unwanted items.  I try to avoid throwing useful stuff in the trash.
• I buy some stuff used.  I could do this a lot more, so that’ll be part of my commitment list.
• I use reusable shopping bags most of the time.  Always for groceries, but I often fail to remember them for other shopping trips.

Now, here are some ways I can commit to reducing my personal waste generation:

• Carry bags with me where ever I go.  As a dog owner, though, I do use plastic bags for dog waste.  I can’t decide if I should just get grocery bags sometimes or if I should buy some recycled plastic bags just for this purpose.  Austin is pretty good about offering free bags for this purpose around town, too.  Another trick (for yard waste) is using one bag as a mitt and an empty 1/2 gallon milk carton as a receptacle (once a week or so).  Learned that one from my aunt.  I may get me some Envirosax, since I’ve already broken one of the cheapie ones from Whole Foods.
• I’ll carry washables instead of using plastic utensils and disposable cups when I’m out.  I have a coffee cup, but I need to be more consistent about carrying around water, and I can bring my camp silverware too.   It’s easy enough to wipe or rinse them and then wash them later when I’m home.  We did this the whole time in New Zealand.  It’s just not that big of a deal!
• I’ll buy more used and refurbished stuff.  There are a couple of new things I am going to buy this year, but I am really going to try to buckle down and buy less new stuff.  There’s plenty of stuff in the world, and I’m pretty damn good at finding good used stuff.  Homemade stuff is also pretty awesome, and there is a thriving community of makers out there.
• But really, I want to buy less stuff in general and donate lots of stuff I already have.  I kind of feel like stuff breeds stuff.  I want to spend less time maintaining and worrying about and picking up and organizing stuff.  Maybe I’ll do a radical purge this summer before school starts!

Any other ideas?

can we just entertain the notion

That the reason behind Starbucks’ revenue woes is not an economic downturn that’s forcing people to cut back on lattes but that Starbucks overestimated the need for having a location on every street corner?  I’m just sayin’.  Everyone - and by everyone I mean MSM reporters - is acting like this is a stark indication of an ailing economy.  Just one more nail in the coffin, right?  No, no, no.  This is the market correcting itself.  We just don’t need ubiquitous coffee that bad.  I should not be able, for instance, to stand somewhere in Manhattan and have 2 Starbucks in my line of sight.  There was a time in my adult life when coffee shops were a lot more difficult to find (and each had their own character), and people weren’t dropping dead in the street from lack of caffiene.  Endless, unhindered growth is not a realistic business model for a coffee company.  I think they just got carried away.

Awesomely apropos photo Uploaded to Flickr on February 22, 2007 by bitzcelt

firefly fan?

Well then look out, people.  Joss Whedon’s got a bun in the oven.  I’m not sure if it’ll be good, but I know I’ll watch it.

Hee!

[via]

Jeez.

What the hell’s up with Bill?

the cleo chronicles

the vet gave my dog a clean bill of health today! for the first time in 6 weeks, i was able to open the back door and just let her go rather than following behind as she strained the leash. what a relief. it’s been a long, tiring time! i photographed her first excursion into the back yard.

within about 30 seconds, she rooted out the cat that had taken up residence underneath our back shed in her absence. in about 33 seconds, the poor thing was up a tree. i stared at it up there for a while wondering if there was a call to the fire department in my future, but as soon as she left the base of the tree it walked down the trunk like gravity didn’t exist. sweet!

i didn’t realize how much this whole thing has weighed on me until the vet lifted all the restrictions. i suddenly felt lighter. i had gotten used to all the work of taking care of her, so i wasn’t expecting the sudden lightening-of-the-load to feel so freeing. it did, though. i almost let out a whoop in the waiting room.

Baghead

I just had one of the most intense movie-going experiences of my life.  See, a while back I found out that Baghead got 100% on Rottentomatoes.com.  I’ve never seen that happen before.  While I don’t usually trust critics, I find that in the aggregate, they are capable of weeding out the utter crap.  We pretty much won’t spend money on anything below an 80-85% on RottenTomatoes.  Well, 100%?  We had to know what that was all about.  Now, all I knew about this movie was that it was made by the same film-makers as Puffy Chair, which we wanted to see but never did.  I repeat, I had absolutely no idea what to expect.  This lack of priming made the movie more powerful, for sure.  If you haven’t seen it and know nothing about it, I highly recommend that you attempt to insulate yourself against any information, and then go see it!  I don’t want to ruin it for anyone, so if you haven’t seen it, stop reading now.  But if you do go see it, come back and tell me so we can discuss!

******SPOILERS AFTER THE JUMP!*******

anniversary!

We’ve been married for 4 years. Here is the yearly family photo.