"I am only one, but I am one. I cannot do everything, but I can do
something. And I will not let what I cannot do interfere with what I
can do." ~Edward Everett Hale
This has been my mantra for the majority of my life. What is yours?
"Unless someone like you cares an awful lot, nothing is going to get better. It's not." -Dr Seuss
How have you helped someone else out today?
"This is the true joy in life - being used for a purpose recognized by
yourself as a mighty one; being thoroughly worn out before you are
thrown on the scrap heap; being a force of nature instead of a feverish
selfish little clod of ailments and grievances complaining that the
world will not devote itself to making you happy." ~George Bernard Shaw
Love love love.
(it's the most you can give)
Friday, March 27, 2009
Thursday, February 26, 2009
Internet Rights via Facebook
Facebook just did something genius...they created a declaration of rights for Facebook users that could very easily be applied to all internet users. A document that each user can be made aware of, can refer back to, and use for enforcing violations could be potentially huge for information rights, among other law areas...
It is probably about time for something like this to be thought about. Our global (internet) community needs a declaration. It seems like our friends at Facebook have created a framework of sorts.
This is exciting.
It is probably about time for something like this to be thought about. Our global (internet) community needs a declaration. It seems like our friends at Facebook have created a framework of sorts.
This is exciting.
Friday, February 13, 2009
tweets
SO yesterday this posted on my Twitter page:
"People choose the paths that grant them the greatest rewards for the least amount of effort." - David Shore
and then this posted:
"A Continental plane has crashed into a house in Buffalo, New York. " -CNN newsbreak
I know it shouldn't strike me as funny, but it did.
Happy Friday the 13th.
"People choose the paths that grant them the greatest rewards for the least amount of effort." - David Shore
and then this posted:
"A Continental plane has crashed into a house in Buffalo, New York. " -CNN newsbreak
I know it shouldn't strike me as funny, but it did.
Happy Friday the 13th.
Wednesday, January 28, 2009
routines and pushy people
I am being productive again, now that I a back in the routine of school and work. It's a bit bizarre probably, but I really only enjoy the school breaks for the first couple of days, then I begin to miss my little routines.
I like reading while waiting for the Orbit in the early crispness of the morning. Tempe doesn't seem to really wake up till 10am, I love the angle of light and I like the stillness. I like watching the birds in scatter while they fight over tiny bits of food and bugs on the sidewalk. I like getting to campus early(-ish) in the mornings before all of the free on campus New York times are gone. I like getting a cup of coffee from the only place on campus who knows how to make it-Einstein's Bagels. I even like going to class and fighting for the seat farthest away from the door and close to the windows so I can watch the birds swoop and not listen. At the end of the day I like seeing the palm trees silhouetted against the amazing pastel sunset. I like that the birds all sit up on the telephone wires and squawk like in the movies. I like the way I feel happy when I walk in the door to the casita and it smells like fried onion because Karima is already cooking dinner.
All of that may sound pretty mundane to you. But it is the simple beauty in all of those basic things that make me love life. My life is pretty good, and I am constantly in awe of the One who created me and my mundane but beautiful surroundings.
love love love.
(how could you not?)
I like reading while waiting for the Orbit in the early crispness of the morning. Tempe doesn't seem to really wake up till 10am, I love the angle of light and I like the stillness. I like watching the birds in scatter while they fight over tiny bits of food and bugs on the sidewalk. I like getting to campus early(-ish) in the mornings before all of the free on campus New York times are gone. I like getting a cup of coffee from the only place on campus who knows how to make it-Einstein's Bagels. I even like going to class and fighting for the seat farthest away from the door and close to the windows so I can watch the birds swoop and not listen. At the end of the day I like seeing the palm trees silhouetted against the amazing pastel sunset. I like that the birds all sit up on the telephone wires and squawk like in the movies. I like the way I feel happy when I walk in the door to the casita and it smells like fried onion because Karima is already cooking dinner.
All of that may sound pretty mundane to you. But it is the simple beauty in all of those basic things that make me love life. My life is pretty good, and I am constantly in awe of the One who created me and my mundane but beautiful surroundings.
love love love.
(how could you not?)
Tuesday, December 16, 2008
My new favorite quote
"But if you wanna leave, you can. I'll remember you though, just like I remember everyone that leaves."
From a Disney movie, no less.
Finals are over. I am hungry. I miss some people. Some I do not.
Basically, life is the same as the last time I posted.
"There is nothing new under the sun"
or
"Everything you did has already been done"
hmm...if this sounds very blah it's because it is genuinely blah outside in Tempe...grey, rainy and overcast. ick.
MOre later, when either the weather or I am more sunny.
From a Disney movie, no less.
Finals are over. I am hungry. I miss some people. Some I do not.
Basically, life is the same as the last time I posted.
"There is nothing new under the sun"
or
"Everything you did has already been done"
hmm...if this sounds very blah it's because it is genuinely blah outside in Tempe...grey, rainy and overcast. ick.
MOre later, when either the weather or I am more sunny.
Friday, December 5, 2008
International Decisions
I am a Global Studies major, and included in the program requirements is an international internship. I need to do an internship of some kind this summer, and have been researching some options.
One organization is a non-profit, based in India, and is fairly new. The idea is working with women in the smaller towns and communities to help them learn to make goods that can then be marketed at fair wage prices in the global community. It would be an awesome opportunity to learn in a new environment, a great way to really do some work.
Another organization is one based out of Florida that focuses on creating awareness about self harming, depression and suicide. It is an organization that is so full of heart that the writings coming out of it make me cry regularly. It is so creative and in tune with the artistic community that artists all over the world are coming together to help support it. It would be a really good fit for my skills and personality, and an awesome opportunity for contacts.
A last opportunity would be to work in South America, with a program that ASU puts together for their students. It is structured, and there are opportunities for learning about architecture, history, and more Espanol. (And LOTS of photography!)
This is going to be a hard decision for me, but I am so thankful for the choice.
It’s a pretty good time in my life right now.
One organization is a non-profit, based in India, and is fairly new. The idea is working with women in the smaller towns and communities to help them learn to make goods that can then be marketed at fair wage prices in the global community. It would be an awesome opportunity to learn in a new environment, a great way to really do some work.
Another organization is one based out of Florida that focuses on creating awareness about self harming, depression and suicide. It is an organization that is so full of heart that the writings coming out of it make me cry regularly. It is so creative and in tune with the artistic community that artists all over the world are coming together to help support it. It would be a really good fit for my skills and personality, and an awesome opportunity for contacts.
A last opportunity would be to work in South America, with a program that ASU puts together for their students. It is structured, and there are opportunities for learning about architecture, history, and more Espanol. (And LOTS of photography!)
This is going to be a hard decision for me, but I am so thankful for the choice.
It’s a pretty good time in my life right now.
Wednesday, November 12, 2008
Cloudy thoughts and injustice
I just left my Violence, Conflict and Human Rights class where we watched a documentary on the methods of information retrieval used in Abu Ghraib. I usually go straight home after, but it’s not likely I’ll be home for a while. I need to process some things that should not be dismissed, and eat some of my favorite comfort food, Chic-fil-a fries. The documentary was not as graphic as you might think, and despite our teacher’s warnings of visual intensity I saw nothing that I had not seen in many blockbuster movies.
There were soldiers that gave their account of the casual decline and orders that led to the less than human treatment of the prisoners. While some of those in the classroom with me might vehemently disagree, I cannot see them as the villainy in the story of those prisoners. I do not condone the decisions made, and I abhor the lack of accountability standards that the soldiers or “guards” held each other to. But I can understand how the slow decline of standards can happen that lead (whether intentionally or not) to grievous outcomes. I can sympathize with a soldier trying to do his or her job, trying to follow orders, and only being privy to information that is deemed useful to him or her. I think I was most disturbed by the soldiers’ description of the numbness that they experienced as they were gradually conditioned to be able to cause pain to a person that they might see daily, and were in some capacity the caretakers of. The psychological effects of this conditioning are equally fascinating and disturbing to me.
There were also prisoners’ accounts of what happened inside the prison. I didn’t expect it, and it didn’t bother me much as far as their description of the torture to themselves was concerned. I believe it was because of the way that they described their own torture. It was as if they were describing a dream that was upsetting, but not quite real. The brave face they put on about their own physical abuse was only unsettled when they spoke of the abuse of others. About the torture of family, of neighbors, of fellow prison mates even, they could not speak without emotion. Each prisoner had an account of someone they knew or knew of who they couldn’t bear to speak of in terms of the pain that they went through. One prisoner, when talking about the physical torture spoke of the inhumanity of being forced to listen to others being tortured. He said during an interview that while sitting in a cell near a prison mate who was being tortured,
“We listened as his soul cracked.”
It speaks to the core of humanity, to the innermost of our beings, they way helpless concern for peers can be more torturous than physical pain. In this same way, the numbness that must occur as a defense mechanism for a mentally healthy person to torture another individual on a regular basis speaks to the core of humanity as well.
This is why I am such a defender of basic constitutionally recognized rights. It is easy to see how a Hobbesian way of dealing with government and large amounts of people in general is such a slippery slope. The Hobbesian way, trading a few rights for the promise of safety or greater good has many ideological flaws. A fundamental problem that arises when you give up rights for safety or greater good is that you are allowing someone else to determine what is safety. How safe is safe enough? How many rights/fundamental ideals must be bent or broken in order to reach that safety? Can we ever expect our government (or anyone else for that matter) to truly keep us safe?
Small perpetrations against humanity for the safety of humanity seems like a circular way of thought, and one of which the human spirit can only survive a finite amount of revolutions.
I think I could write about this topic for pages and pages. The idea of Justice and Injustice is what drives me, and this is a parallel argument I think. I’d better finish my fries and head home, watch some mindless TV and sleep off this heavy cloud.
There were soldiers that gave their account of the casual decline and orders that led to the less than human treatment of the prisoners. While some of those in the classroom with me might vehemently disagree, I cannot see them as the villainy in the story of those prisoners. I do not condone the decisions made, and I abhor the lack of accountability standards that the soldiers or “guards” held each other to. But I can understand how the slow decline of standards can happen that lead (whether intentionally or not) to grievous outcomes. I can sympathize with a soldier trying to do his or her job, trying to follow orders, and only being privy to information that is deemed useful to him or her. I think I was most disturbed by the soldiers’ description of the numbness that they experienced as they were gradually conditioned to be able to cause pain to a person that they might see daily, and were in some capacity the caretakers of. The psychological effects of this conditioning are equally fascinating and disturbing to me.
There were also prisoners’ accounts of what happened inside the prison. I didn’t expect it, and it didn’t bother me much as far as their description of the torture to themselves was concerned. I believe it was because of the way that they described their own torture. It was as if they were describing a dream that was upsetting, but not quite real. The brave face they put on about their own physical abuse was only unsettled when they spoke of the abuse of others. About the torture of family, of neighbors, of fellow prison mates even, they could not speak without emotion. Each prisoner had an account of someone they knew or knew of who they couldn’t bear to speak of in terms of the pain that they went through. One prisoner, when talking about the physical torture spoke of the inhumanity of being forced to listen to others being tortured. He said during an interview that while sitting in a cell near a prison mate who was being tortured,
“We listened as his soul cracked.”
It speaks to the core of humanity, to the innermost of our beings, they way helpless concern for peers can be more torturous than physical pain. In this same way, the numbness that must occur as a defense mechanism for a mentally healthy person to torture another individual on a regular basis speaks to the core of humanity as well.
This is why I am such a defender of basic constitutionally recognized rights. It is easy to see how a Hobbesian way of dealing with government and large amounts of people in general is such a slippery slope. The Hobbesian way, trading a few rights for the promise of safety or greater good has many ideological flaws. A fundamental problem that arises when you give up rights for safety or greater good is that you are allowing someone else to determine what is safety. How safe is safe enough? How many rights/fundamental ideals must be bent or broken in order to reach that safety? Can we ever expect our government (or anyone else for that matter) to truly keep us safe?
Small perpetrations against humanity for the safety of humanity seems like a circular way of thought, and one of which the human spirit can only survive a finite amount of revolutions.
I think I could write about this topic for pages and pages. The idea of Justice and Injustice is what drives me, and this is a parallel argument I think. I’d better finish my fries and head home, watch some mindless TV and sleep off this heavy cloud.
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