This is the shortest post ever. I'm off to LA for a business trip and also for the Book Expo America. It's not even 5:30 am yet.
life: May 2008 Archives
I attended the graduation ceremonies for UNH today, to see good friend SS throw the cap in the air. After working hard to get through her degree in the face of adversity, she still graduated with honors. Now, I skipped my own graduation ceremony, because by the time I graduated I was so fed up with "the system" that I couldn't bear to sit through a few more stuffy hours of it. If I'd paid attention, I would have realized that I graduated with honors, too. No kiddin' ... a 3.9 GPA and I was too stupid to realize that meant something. So I guess I graduated Summa Cum Huh? Time to update those resumes!
Anyway, the day was perfect, and though it was impossible to actually see SS as she got her degree (either in person or on the big simulcast screen), we were able to snap a few shots afterwords.. I'll update this to add some pics as soon as I'm less tired.
I found this massively entertaining web experiment on the Word of Mouth blog. Take a minute to check this out. Or, if you're like me, take about two hours to check it out.
Feel free to enter "zombie chickens" for "NPR" ... maybe the cosmic psychology of this experiment will leak over to NPR and they'll do a story on Cluck?
It's May 15th, when Bloggers Unite for Human Rights. I had a difficult time deciding what to write about in support of human rights, because there's an awful lot to be fighting for right now. In our "civilized" nation, we're stealing our own constitutional rights on such a regular basis that it's scary. There's Myanmar: a country in need of aid, but the aid is being repressed by the government. There's atrocities in the middle east, where there are so many gun-toting factions fighting for what they think is right (including the US) that it's hard to keep track. The world is falling into a state that depressingly resembles a game of World of Warcraft than any sane person's ideal for society: we fight among ourselves in each other for personal advancement and profit, with no clear goal or purpose other than self gratification.So instead, I'm going back to a universal rule that will help every situation at once. It's a rule that I first discovered while attempting to maintain order in a very small college apartment with two other guys who were as irresponsible as I was. We had a list of rules, in fact, including when to clean the toilet and such, but it's rule #7 that's stuck with me because it trumped all other rules and maintained order in an apartment of chaos:
Rule #7: Don't be a Shit
It's profoundly good advice. To the government of Myanmar, I say "don't be a Shit." Give your people aid, and accept help no what political light you fear that might cast you in. Anything else is just shitty. To the profit-mongering oil companies who are driving old ladies from the homes they grew up in because they can't afford heat, I say "don't be a shit." To the torturers of war, whichever side they might be on, I say "stop being shits," and to the terrorists who started the whole thing -- who I'm sure think they have good reasons for blowing people up -- I say, "you know, if you just step back and look what you're doing, it's pretty shitty. STOP IT!"
Not everyone is being a shit, of course: there are decent groups out there. My favorite is http://www.doctorswithoutborders.org but there are many others. If we all do our part, and if we all stop acting like a-holes, the world will be a better place.
</soapbox>
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