Tag Archives: SOPA

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Steam…

… I have none.
I think all that self righteous yesterday wore me smooth out. (Yes, I know that sentence was grammatically in correct, assholes.)

Watching the energy and passion yesterday was truly inspiring and made me very proud. I did my tiny bit. I am not going to make this another SOPA/PIPA blog, though, you guys know about it, and anything more right now will be preaching to the choir. I am going to keep up with the news however I can get it since major news sources won’t run much because of corporate greed. (I almost typed that with a straight face.) I might make Wednesday my “Call my senators and bug the living shit out of them about SOPA” day.

So, I made the random decision to eat better and work out. The first several days really sucked. I was going through crazy withdrawals. I knew logically that people like me have addictions to food. I knew that I had the same physical reactions to food that I used to have with cigarettes. I just didn’t know it until I decided to fix my eating, then, oh did I know it. I spent a night having a long conversation in my head with myself about it. Something about realizing it was an addiction made it a lot less scary.

Quitting smoking SUCKED. It was god awful and painful and difficult. Until last March, it was the hardest thing I had done. I got over my addiction, though, and when I was talking to myself the other night, I realized I have dealt with addiction and I can handle it. It might suck, I might fall back, but I can still deal with it. Plus, I am having fun trying new foods in new combinations. Losing three pounds doesn’t hurt either.

Now, if I could put some of motivation and liquid awesome into rewriting the next section of my book, I would be awesome.

I might go play with wookie and try to work up motivation to write. I see it working out well.

 
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I am Going to Break Things, but It Is for a Good Cause

So I had a funny blog planned out in my head. I am still going to write it, but I got caught up reading about the SOPA black out protest tomorrow. That’s right cats and kittens, SOPA and PIPA (a bill much like SOPA) are still in congress.  I’ve ranted and ranted and ranted about the many ways these bills can hurt America.

The White House came out against SOPA/PIPA, so it looks like we are gaining some ground, but I am still keeping an eye on the progress. Our government is bought and paid for, it is true. I makes me sad to say. It is the American people’s fault for letting it happen. I still have to believe we can get it back legally and peacefully, we just have to get mad. We have to care and vote and write. We need to blog and Tweet and Facebook and Tumblr. We need to get active again.

It is OUR government, and we seem to have forgotten that. Why is it uncool to think of our government working for us? Of the people for the people, remember?

Add your voice.

Dr. Gates made his Revolutionary America class read Capitalism and the New Social Order by Dr. Joyce Appleby, which is a fantastic book and changed the way I looked at our country, but the first sixty pages or so are about the importance of pamphlets in the American Revolution. At the time, I was bored to death, but, now as a creature of the internet, I get it. Pamphlets were the 18th century blogs and social media. They allowed for the cheap transmission of ideas among people. We have the much easy venue of the interwebz. Use it.

Tonight, I am going to spend time figuring out how to blackout my website to be a part of this protest. I know my part is small compared to Wikipedia, but I am still going to do it. I would ask all of my friends with a website to do the same. Only one hundred people might see my black out, if I am lucky, but I can at least said I tried to do my part.

I will also probably break my website, but it will be for a good cause.

Again I will link you to this great site that has great information and ideas to add your voice. Also, these folks.

Edit: I found that there are simple WordPress Plugins to censor my site tomorrow. I probably won’t break my site.

 
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-.-

So you cats dodged a bullet when The Bloggess continued to be awesome and donated dollars in the name of true love and the children and managed to make me feel pretty at the same time (I need a flipping life). She did this even those I kinda sorta called her a whore, but, in my defense, I did explain it was ME I was calling a whore. Whatever. So, as agreed, there will be no ranting about Star Wars: The Old Republic ever or discussion of my lady bits until next Thursday. I try to hold up my end of deals. You guys should really go tell her thank you.

I will make a separate gaming blog someday when I have something to say other than, “Holy fucking shit this game is awesome.” I will link it here and then we will never discuss it again. (Renee, this is mostly for you, because I love your preggo ass.)

So, SOPA is still being debated and discussed. I found a cool article on The Washington Post about it. Here is another link that makes protesting super simple. Throw a fit online. Get mad and get loud. New media can make a difference. Do it. I am going to keep writing about it until it is either defeated or I am made to stop. I love my country too much to see one of its most basic and cherished principles sold off to big companies. (Well, more than it has already been, but I am not getting into that.) /steps of soapbox

Hold up

/steps back on soapbox

It’s not that I don’t feel sympathy to artist who get their intellectual property stolen, I honestly do, but we have to question what we are willing to give up to protect our art. Sanctioning a censorship tool is the antithesis of a good idea for artists. I am not one of those purist who believe making money from your art is selling out or soiling the passionate intents of your work. Bollucks. If you can make money with your art, then you have found something that many of us dream about.I do believe, though, that a thriving and uncensored artistic community is essential for freedom, so handing over bits of that freedom in the pursuit of money is dangerous for our entire nation.

I put thought into how I would feel if someone took something of mine and claimed it as their own. Well, first, there are laws currently in place for that. They aren’t as convenient and being able to ask the government to shut down an entire site because they *might* steal your shit, but copyright laws do exist.  Well, okay, I would think this after my initial shock that anyone would want anything from my site.

I am a small fish, though. Small fish should sing the praises of the internet with every breath. The internet allows a vehicle to reach people like us, not only to find customers and fans, but to find people who do and love the things we do so we can learn from each other. I have the albums of four artists because I heard their music online. Three of those artists I would have never heard on an Oklahoma City radio station.

Ugh, too much rant and my brain overloaded. Okay, time to sum up:

  • SOPA Bad. Go fight and be an asshole until it goes away.
  • The internet good because it allows us access to each other
  • If you use stuff from someone else’s site and it isn’t naturally attributed to the original owner, don’t be a douche. Give credit and link. Shit slips through, I know, but try your best.

/steps off soap box for real this time

 

 
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I’m A Sucker

Let’s get two things out of the way first:

1) I have the hormone demons really bad. I am prone to very strong emotions but for only about two minutes at a time. This is an exciting time to be around me.

2) SOPA could get voted on this week. It is a bill that would give congress the right to take down websites at the request at the request of corporations. They are selling it as protecting American jobs and American ideas through fighting piracy. I would rather have my creative property pirated than lose my freedom of speech. I am not down with the Orwellian idea of the world. Google it, get mad, and bitch. Channel your dirty hippie rage for the good of your country.

Okay, now to the real purpose of today’s blog:

Untitled from Justin Valmassoi on Vimeo.

This is the dude from the Animals Talking in All Caps site. If you are my Facebook friend, you know I do a little bit of e-stalkng on this guy and his eyebrows, and I even made a t-shirt. He is my blogging soulmate, much like the Bloggess (even though she has a lot of people who believe she is their blogging soulmate, her blogging soul gets around), and he is in love, and he needs your dollars.

I am a sucker for true love. I believe in it with all my heart. Like I said last post, I try to pretend I am a bit of a grump, but we all know I am a pansy ass. I saw this video the other day, and my heart melted for him and those glorious eyebrows.

Here is the rub:

I have no dollars to give the man. I am a broke ass writer that gave her dollars to other charities. I know that since I have no dollars I should be worried about getting me dollars and not random internet dude dollars, no matter how stupendous his eyebrows are. I’m happy and want for nothing, but he is madly in love. He needs dollars much more than I do. So I will make you cats a deal.

If you just go look at his site (both the talking animals and his author site) and decide whether or not this man deserves your dollars, I will do two things for you:

1) I promise not to bring up my hormones for one week.

2) I am about to start playing a new mmo and I know I will be tempted to blog about it. I promise, if you guys do this thing for me, I will start a tumbler gaming blog and link it here but never mention the game in more than just passing. In effect, I am promising never to bore you guys to death with my nerding out about Star Wars: The Old Republic.

I know some of you guys are thinking to yourself: Well, Selina, if you start rambling about that gorramn game I will just stop reading your blog. That is fine and dandy for you, you selfish prats, but there are people who are forced to read this blog by the mere misfortune of being my friend. They HAVE to read this blog because I am needy and if they don’t tell me how awesome I am, I am insufferably emo. Many of these people are teachers and/or parents, so there is a distinct possibility that they take the horrors of having to read my gaming rants out on the children. So, really, you are thinking about donating your dollars for both true love and the children.

To sum up: go read Animals Talking in all Caps and see how awesome this guy is. If you give him dollars (because you believe in true love and you care about children), I will both not bring up my crazy woman problems for a time span of one week AND I will make a separate gaming blog, thus protecting you from my rants. I would call this money well spent.

As I was writing this, some thoughts struck me. First, it is a strange thought that there are probably atleast three people who read this site that I don’t know and have never said anything to me. I am glad you are lurking out there sharing my world. It is just a strange thought. This lead me to realize that I do the same thing, to the point that I devote most of a blog to some guy’s quest to marry his girlfriend and I designed a t-shirt about his eyebrows, but I have never once commented on his site. I should go do that.

I also realized that I might have implied that Jenny Lawson’s blogging soul is a whore. I did not mean this in anyway. I just meant that many people out there feel connected to her and love her. If anything, it is our souls that are a bit whorish and desperate for connection that we read The Bloggess hoping that she notices us and thinks we are pretty. (It could be just me.) Please, Jenny, on the very slim chance you read this, understand it is me not you.

 
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