Tag Archives: united states

Not a UK customer

Not a UK customerI frequent BoingBoing when I have some spare time, because they post articles that interest me. One of the last times I was there, they had Cory Doctorow‘s review of Heather Brooke‘s The Revolution will be Digitised.

His review intrigued me, so I followed the link to her site for the book. Where I realized that this is a book I should probably read because of its connection to my scholarly interests. So I take the next logical step to buy the book; I follow the link.

This sends me to Amazon’s UK store where they have print copies for a reasonable price, along with a Kindle version. (The UK store completely makes sense as both the author and reviewer reside in the UK.) I don’t particularly want to pay for UK shipping, so I check the US store. They only have copies from authorized sellers, and they are more expensive than the UK edition.

So I head back to the UK store, because I have the Kindle App on my phone, and decide to try a sample of the e-book, just to be sure I want to go through the exchange rate to ultimately purchase said edition.

And that’s where I hit the Catch-22 circular logic of frustration. Continue reading Not a UK customer

Home from a fall

Indiana Huber Farms Trip (155)I’m home again. I didn’t get to write as much on the fly as
I would’ve liked, but the internet connection was persnickety. And I was having
too much fun out an about. This just means you’ll end up with week-old stories.

My current feelings about the trip are best summed up by
this picture. It was beautiful and lovely and full of wonder, and I am more
than a little sad to have to come home.

Life calls, however, and I have much more to do before I can
really rest.

Thank you for participating in security

“Thank you for participating in security.”*

This statement from the TSA is one of the more annoying aspects of flying today.

Because the statement assumes 1.) That what they’re doing is helping avert disasters 2.) That our compliance is in no way coerced 3.) That we have to need of 4 year olds to receive positive affirmation 4.) That we’re players.

And I’m just gonna stop there.

The statement appears on the first signs in the Secure Area (of at least the LAX/Ontario airport in California), which helps to manipulate all of us into compliance by assuming we will be.

The condescension also assists in putting everyone in their place by subtlety demonstrating that whatever power we may think we have disappears upon entry into the line. It’s the tone people who dislike children take when they think the kid’s being smart. Continue reading Thank you for participating in security

An almost existential crisis upon reading “Conservative Pie; Republicans Introduce Legislation Redefining Pi”

The current world bordersThe other morning, I saw a tweet from Chris Hardwick (who is a hilarious human that I don’t know personally because he’s kinda famous). I followed the link because the idea that a Republican Representative from Alabama introducing actual legislation to make pi=3 was almost unbelievable.

So I read through the article on the tiny phone screen and caught just enough in the tone to know research would be required until I was sold. I tend toward skepticism with most information, especially when said info comes from the internets. After I pulled up a laptop, I found, to my relief, that the article was on a comedy section of the main site. A quick search through the U.S. House of Reps (a remarkably user-friendly site, which made me happy for at least some of what my taxes fund) substantiated my credulity – the bill defied discovery through all possible means. Continue reading An almost existential crisis upon reading “Conservative Pie; Republicans Introduce Legislation Redefining Pi”

Westboro Free Speech

If you’ve managed to go this long missing out on who the Westboro Baptist Church in Kansas is, you probably want to stop reading now. Because finding out about them will probably set you on a path toward the nearest hard surface to bash your head against.

They are the church that seems to have entirely missed God’s message of love for all people, regardless of action, national descent, personal belief, skin color, number of tattoos, gender, or sex. In their focus on what God hates, they have lost sight of what God loves, which only matters because they choose to share their understanding of a brutal and vengeful God on signs created to offend whoever sees them. And their favorite place to show off their handy work is at the entry to the funerals of U.S. military men and women. Because, apparently, if you believe that God hates everything except you, then you don’t have to extend compassion to hurting and suffering people.

But why am I writing about a group that so irks me, I degenerate into a twitching heap of rage within 20 minutes of thinking about them? Continue reading Westboro Free Speech