I <3 corporations! Wait…what?!
I have never really been a fan of big corporations, and have liked the recent movement to support small, local businesses.
When I was a kid, Starbucks Coffee was a small, local business and I loved going there. By there, I mean the ONE Starbucks coffee shop that was located at the Pike Place Market. We would go to the Market sometimes on Saturdays, to go to the butcher shop and the Three Girls Bakery, and often (if not always) we would stop in that Starbucks. Although I’m sure I got a lot of hot chocolates there, I was that kid who actually liked coffee, so I’m sure I also had plenty of mochas and whatever other fancy, specialty drinks were available way back then.
As a teenager in high school and a young adult, I discovered other coffee shops furthering the coffee culture. After school or in the evenings, we’d go to Mr Ed’s Coffeehouse, which was just an older, diner-y coffeehouse where we mostly got plain, black, drip coffee. If we were feeling fancy, we’d got to Angelina’s Trattoria for the small cups of strong espresso that made us feel so cool and grown-up and European.
I discovered The Last Exit on Brooklyn when I was 15, and from that point on made pretty much a career of going there. I spent countless hours in there drinking not only coffee, but also tea, and eating sandwiches – oh, such delicious sandwiches. That place was one of a kind, and like a second home to MANY of us, even if we actually lived in West Seattle, Bellevue or Kent – people would drive there and back home again (or ride the bus like I did!) more than once a day sometimes. There was also the Espresso Roma, B&O Espresso, and what became a later favorite of mine, Cafe Paradiso.
All of those small, local coffee shops that I spent SO MUCH TIME in. I completely forgot that old Starbucks existed. Until sometime in 1994, when I was living in Santa Cruz, CA. I remember that I was out doing errands, perhaps driving to the grocery store, when I saw that first new Starbucks. I probably almost ran into something, so great was my surprise at seeing a Starbucks popping up in the middle of a small town along the California coastline. And then…THEY WERE EVERYWHERE.
The Starbucks grew so rapidly as to seem monstrous. In the 1990′s a new store opened somewhere EVERY WORKDAY.
I never stopped going to Starbuck’s entirely – it’s not as if I grew to hate them for their size, although seeing two Starbucks’ franchises open directly across the street from each other was a completely ridiculous and not uncommon sight.
In recent years, I’ve mostly had my coffee at home, more often than not just plain, black drip – but I do own a little espresso maker that I used to make lattes with pretty frequently. As time goes on, I visit coffee shops less and less – the expense of coffee out is too great, and fancy coffee drinks have way more calories than I’d like to consume. Every now and then, someone will give me a Starbuck’s gift card, and I’ll go on a little binge, and that’s the end of that.
On January 24th, 2012, Starbucks publicly announced that it supports marriage equality for same-sex couples.
I realize now that Starbucks has offered domestic partner benefits for 20 years.
I support Starbucks. And as much I prefer to support small, local businesses there are other corporations I support too.
Similarly to how I never minded Starbucks, but preferred to support smaller businesses, I’ve always kind of liked JC Penney. They’ve always had some stylish clothes that are inexpensive – just the thing for a frugal woman.
Recently, JC Penney decided to make Ellen DeGeneres their spokesperson. Everything else aside, I can see why this was a great idea on their part – Ellen is great! She’s very popular, has a very popular talk show, and is just a really appealing person that pretty much everybody likes!
Everyone except the One Million Moms, that is.
As soon as I heard that the One Million Moms had it out for JC Penney and Ellen, I simultaneously groaned and laughed. You may remember a few months back that they got all in a huff over a new Ben and Jerry’s ice cream flavor called “Schweddy Balls“, which is a reference to the very funny series of Saturday Night Live skits featuring Alec Baldwin as Pete Schweddy.
So while I can’t imagine anyone being anti-Ellen, at least it was the ridiculous One Million Moms on another of their ridiculous crusades against what amounts to nothing.
The point of all of this is that JC Penney is every bit as awesome for sticking with Ellen as their spokesperson as Starbucks is for publicly supporting same-sex marriage equality. As much as I get frustrated with the fact that we still don’t have same-sex marriage equality, little things like this make me realize that things ARE getting better. Bit by bit, day by day.
Today, I watched this fantastic video that Ellen made, and I hope that everyone watches it!
Oh, and on a side note? Schweddy Balls ice cream is delicious!
ETA: I haven’t listened to this whole segment, but what I did have time to listen to is great and it gets a lovely endorsement by Dan Savage, So I give you Howard Stern defending Ellen DeGeneres (and LGBT people in general) to the end.
Me, me, Meme!
This is a post I wrote for MilkandCookies. Since the blog there has been moved from WordPress to tumblr, the posts I wrote are no longer available on MilkandCookies, so I decided to move them here.
Memes are really important to MilkandCookies because, as you may or may not know, the original purpose of the site was simply to create an archive of memes for Jaxon’s own personal reference. When he first told me this, I really didn’t get what he meant by that, which I didn’t realize until just now when I actually started researching memes on the site itself.
Jaxon and I talked about this post the other day, and then when I started writing it, I had one meme stuck in my head that was blotting all the other ones (see below!). So I started poking around MilkandCookies to see what other memes there were. I discovered that the list that comes up when you just search for “memes” does not really contain a lot of embedded videos, such as we are used to seeing all the time now. Instead, when you click on what you think would be a video, you simply get a link. Most of those links AREN’T to videos, either. Most of them are to websites.
So, what IS a meme, anyway? Well, the word meme was created by Richard Dawkins back in the 1970s to help illustrate how an idea spreads in much the same way that a virus does. But we’re talking about the Internet here, not science. Simply put, a meme is “a piece of thought copied from person to person”. What? Right. A little less simply put, a meme is basically anything that anyone happens to think up, that when they pass it on to someone else, it, for whatever reason, catches on in such a way that it is repeated over and over again. On the Internet, memes really take on a life of their own
.
The first Internet meme I really remember taking notice of in about 2000, is one that may not be remembered at all by anyone under the age of 30: “All your base are belong to us“. (This is the one I was talking about that was stuck in my head). Again, REALLY?!?! WTF does that even mean?!? The truth is, most people probably that were aware of it didn’t even know that it was simply poorly translated English (well, maybe that much was obvious) from a video game from 1991, and popularized by a website that I don’t hear much about anymore - Something Awful.
If you bother looking at the “meme” search result page, you’ll find that old link to Something Awful on it, along with many other links to websites, and a few helpful resources, such as “Know Your Meme:All Your Base“. If you watch the video, you’ll learn things like: “All Your Base” originally arrived on the internet waaaay back in 1998, well before I remember seeing it in 200o; that “Engrish” is basis for “LOLSpeak”; and that I wasn’t kidding when I said only people over 30 probably know about “All Your Base” – it is an endangered meme. Nowadays, we’ve got memes that are far more interactive and all inclusive than even “All Your Base” was. The LOLCats is one of the best examples. I can’t remember a day in my life in the last several years that hasn’t referenced cheezburgers, or something else I should haz. Another meme that Jaxon and I talked about fairly recently is the “Playing Dead/Lying Down Game” meme. “Playing Dead” and “Lying Down Game” are two different but similar memes with very different origins. This is actually one of my favorite memes right now, probably because “Playing Dead” meme reminds me not of a cartoon, but of the Hal Ashby film,”Harold and Maude“.
New memes pop up every day and spread like wildfire, most of them for seemingly no good reason. You all know about Antoine the Rapist Hunter, right? Antoine Dodson’s video is one of the best example of this I’ve ever seen. Tomorrow, it’ll be something else. Hopefully NOT the video that I saw a link to earlier today, that even I couldn’t watch. We are just not even going to talk about that. I could go on and on and on for days about memes because they’re funny and interesting and we all love them. There’s also a million of them with more catching on every day. But I think I’ll wait for the next time one catches my eye, and then we’ll talk about memes some more : )
Stuff that works
I love new gadgets, technology, cool stuff. Even better, though, I like stuff that WORKS.
I still use my old iPhone 3GS – I use it as my work phone. I use it as my work phone because I don’t need much more than: the ability to make and receive phone calls; ditto texts and emails; my credit card processing app. For my actual, personal phone, I prefer my Droid. It is the PC of phones. I know that people love Apple products and Macs – I just read a blog post from someone who was very pleased that a six year old Mac product was still working. I can beat that. I’ve got a Compaq – a Compaq, fer chrissakes – that is at least 7 years old (maybe 8!) that is still going strong.
My husband and I have been discussing ditching cable, for a GOOD, LONG WHILE now.
It is expensive – we have digital extended basic and DVR service. Nothing more. It’s really the digital (required to have the DVR) and the DVR that really jack the price up. Buuuuuttttt….I watch a lot of tv. I actually watch a ton of stuff that I actually sit down and WATCH, like really pay attention to, but I also watch a ton of stuff while I do stuff like write blog posts. I am currently watching “Portlandia” as I write this.
So I’m not really totally fine with the idea of ditching television altogether. Especially not in the dead of winter, especially not while my husband is working and in his last year of school, and therefore, I’ve got a lot of “free” time on my hands. I am too totally on top of all the shows I am invested in to just go fully Netflix for tv, especially right now (see above) as I’d have a year or so of lag time until the season that is current right now would be available (if it was at all). Nevertheless, Netflix streaming gets a lot of use from me. (See “Portlandia”).
I’m not opposed to downloading shows – except for the fact that it is, apparently, a far worse offense than say…MURDER. Not to mention, it’s unreliable and time consuming. Nope.
Earlier this month we decided to try out Hulu. It’s new! It’s exciting! Technology! I hear people talk about it all the time! And, truth be told, it serves about 2/3 of the shows I watch. But only about half of those can be watched on my actual television (not a plasma or an LCD, but damn is it a nice, big, DLP that gets a LOT of compliments from guests – see “better yet, stuff that WORKS”) and the rest can only be watched online. Wah-waaahhh. Some of them aren’t even available as whole episodes, only clips. And worst of all? It took forever to log in today (I really didn’t think it was going to let me), it often doesn’t stream smoothly and the real killer? It still has commercials. That I can’t.even.fast.forward.through.
I have Hulu plus, mind you. I pay to watch. Yes, it’s cheap. So cheap, in fact, that I’d be willing to pay TWICE AS MUCH to not have commercials. It would still be cheaper than cable. But that isn’t an option, and there is still the little issue of the shows that I love that just aren’t available at all. (I really wanted to just fall in love with Hulu, I really did. I wanted it to sweep me off my feet and forget regular cable forever.)
So what’s a girl to do? I researched other cable companies, most of which are actually a little cheaper than what I have and offer a little more, but in the end, I don’t think it’s worth it. I searched for other online services, that might provide some streaming programming. Nothing.
Then, yesterday, I think, maybe, I figured it out. I think we need to go out and purchase a DVR unit (not one that is attached to Tivo or anything) with a digital tuner, because most of the stuff I’m missing from Hulu is network programming anyway – I don’t NEED cable to receive it. The solution is so simple as to almost feel like it is taking a step backwards. No new fangled streaming programming needed. Just stuff that actually works.
And can you imagine? Not paying $100 a month for cable anymore? Ever again? Sounds almost to good to be true. Let’s hope it’s not.
Even in death…
Call me insensitive, but I may be the only person on the face of the planet who ISN’T actively upset that Steve Jobs has died.
Aside from the fact that the one thing we all do is die, death isn’t sad, it is a fact of life, or a consequence of it, you might say. Yes, cancer is terrible, AGREED, but Steve Jobs beat that cancer for SEVEN YEARS. There is no sadness in the fact that he has passed away – where is the celebration of the fact that he lived so much longer than he should have?
Surely his death did not come as a surprise, either. Not only did he live MUCH longer than expected, but his recent resignation was as much an announcement of his impending demise as the actual announcement that the day had come yesterday. The only thing sad about that is that he didn’t really allow himself a lot of time to spend exclusively with his family before he was gone for good.
Will everyone also be shocked if we ultimately learn that his passing actually occurred BEFORE the release of the iPhone 4s? Those rumors are already going around, and I totally believe them – that’s far easier to believe than that he actually died the day after.
Call me a cynic or a jerk for not feeling sad, but if I felt sad for every productive and valuable person who left this mortal coil, I wouldn’t have time for happiness. Jobs may have “touched my life” in a peripheral way via the products his company sold me, but so many other things have touched my life in ways that are far more important.
I’ll save my grief for my own family and friends – hopefully, I’ll be saving it for a very long time – and in the meantime, I’ll be happy that those people are healthy and happy and should have many long years in front of them.
Google 4ever.
I’ve had Gmail accounts for as long as they’ve been around – long enough that I’ve actually forgotten some of the usernames and probably all of the passwords for the several accounts that I got when Gmail was new.
Last year, I got a new Gmail account, just my name, thank you very much. That was followed by an Android phone earlier this year, which is pretty wrapped up in Google and Gmail. Then came G+, which I am fully hoping will kill Facebook.
Then, yesterday, I received in the mail what I’d really been wanting all along, since I first read about it a year or so ago – the Chromebook.
Funny thing, the Chromebook. At it’s essence, it really isn’t that exciting. It’s really just a little netbook with nothing on it. But that right there is what IS so exciting. There is no desktop, no software to bog it down. It’s tiny and light – I think it weighs less than my iPad. I haven’t fully explored its functionality yet – I’ve been too busy just USING it, in every room of the house, as it is easily the most transportable “computing device” I’ve ever owned. It is also the only one I’ve ever had that I was able to begin USING pretty much instantly. There was no setup, no installation, no nothing. Just pick it up and go with it. I don’t even think I actually had to push the power button – it just turned itself on.
I’ve always been a PC person myself – some people are obsessed with Apple products and despite having had an iBook, an iPod an iPad and a few iPhones, I’ve just never been THAT into Apple. I think it is safe to say at this point that I am THAT into Google, thanks to the Chromebook. Sure, I’ll be keeping my desktop PC, as I’m sure I’ll still need it for photos and photoprocessing and Word and Excel – for now. We’ll just see how long it takes me to get around those things on the Chromebook.
Whatever works.
In our lives, I think we do tend to do things the way we do things. Whatever works. We continue doing whatever it is that works until it doesn’t anymore. Actually, more often than not, we continue doing what used to work, long after it stopped working.
When dealing with others, we often don’t know if it is what we ourselves are doing that isn’t working, and in fact, we often assume that it is the other party who is “doing it wrong”. Then, we try to get them to change how they are doing it. It doesn’t seem to matter whether or not the other party is actually really “doing it wrong” – it’s very difficult to get others to change, whether it’s a co-worker, an acquaintance, or a family member.
It doesn’t even seem to matter if you present your case for the change they should make in a totally logical, reasonable, rational fashion. Even when the other party agrees with you, more often than not, nothing changes.
So then what do you do?
Sometimes the only thing TO do, is to make a change yourself, no matter how little sense it may seem to make, or how much you don’t want to, or how much it may hurt you to do so.
Usually, when things are working, people work in concert. You push, I pull, and together, our combined strengths move the mountain. Until for whatever reason, you push so much harder than usual, that if I continue to pull (do whatever it is I’ve been doing that worked all along) I’m going to fall over and you’re going to mow me down.
In a perfect world, you’d realize that you pushed too hard, and that didn’t work, and you’d help me up, brush me off, apologize, and not push so damn hard in the future. All too often though, we don’t see that we pushed too hard. Sometimes we don’t know our own strength. And so we keep pushing.
It’s hard to realize that when someone keeps pushing too hard, sometimes you have to push back. It can be scary to push back. If it’s your co-worker, and they don’t like you pushing back, it can make things tough at work. If it’s a family member, it can make things tough at home. Both of those things sound extremely unpleasant.
But what if… me pushing back made you realize how it felt? What if, even though you could “understand” when I tell you how it feels, you really need me to show you? Sometimes I think that actions speak louder than words, and when it comes right down to it, no matter how intellectual we may be, deep down inside we’re really still just animals.
This week, I’m going to try pushing back a little. I’ll let you know how that goes.
Are American roads just like American playgrounds?
While reading another blog post on cars vs. bikes (essentially), I discovered a link to this article, which not only makes a LOT of great points (and I agree wholeheartedly), but also reminds me of this article about children’s playgrounds.
Wait, what? No, really. Both articles make the point that the implementation of TOO MANY safety features creates a false sense of security, which in turn, causes MORE RISKS to be taken.
Or you could look at it as simply: American drivers are really just children who have a lot to learn and could use a lot more common sense.
Just sayin’.
There is a middle ground: I call it walking.
There is a war going on in Seattle.
A lot of people who drive motor vehicles call it “The War on Cars”.
A lot of people who ride bikes call it “The War on Bikes”.
Sadly, there have been a lot of traffic fatalities and injuries here in Seattle – 2,336 between 2000 and 2009.
I can’t imagine anyone not agreeing that this is terrible. What we can’t seem to agree on is whose fault it is. Ultimately, after each accident, a police report is completed (presumably) which would then lead to the determination of fault in that accident. Unfortunately, people on one side will always blame whoever is on the other side, with seemingly no regard for whose fault it actually was determined to be.
This has created a climate of hatred so raw, that every time another accident happens, cyclists start spewing venom at drivers (because it must have been the driver’s fault) and drivers spew right back (because it had to have been the cyclists fault). It’s actually gotten pretty scary, for a lot of reasons.
Even though I myself own TWO bicycles, I do not ride them.
I got the first one while I was living in California. It is a lovely beach cruiser, perfectly well suited for riding around in the suburb I lived in there, where there really were a lot less cars, and the streets were wide and flat. Absolutely terrible for riding here, where there is a hill in every direction, and the streets are narrow and crowded.
A few years ago, someone gave me a pretty decent Diamondback bike, which would be much better suited for riding around here, but to be perfectly honest, I don’t like riding under any conditions except the ones I bought that beach cruiser for.
Not to mention, Seattle’s streets simply aren’t made for it. I can’t think of a single route I’d take that I would feel completely safe riding on, and that has ABSOLUTELY NOTHING to do with the skill level of Seattle drivers.
It has everything to do with streets that are narrow, hilly, windy, and in poor condition. It also has to do with weather conditions which are less than perfect for bike riding about 275 days out of the year.
Those things create circumstances which could cause even the most skillful, cautious and law abiding cyclist to have a tragic accident, whether a car was involved or not.
The best reason I have for not riding a bike is that I have a VERY strong sense of self preservation. It wouldn’t matter how much I want to do it, because I have determined it to be the LEAST safe mode of transportation for me. I have a husband and a son. I have pets. I have friends and parents. I do not want to die.
Everyone assesses risk differently, and everyone has a different level of risk they are willing to take.
I’m sure that many (or even most, maybe all) people who ride bicycles do not want to die any more than I do.
People who ride their bikes for recreation probably have a pretty low level of risk. People who commute on the streets, in traffic, have a much higher level of risk. How high they themselves assess that risk to be is certainly up for debate. I’m sure that many of them would say that the risk of having some sort of accident, whether it resulted in even injury or not, is pretty high. Some of them probably take this into account very much, and are very cautious as a result, which is awesome.
There is no arguing the fact, though, that many people who bike in Seattle ride as if they either think there is no risk, or they just don’t care.
Most of the time, I fully support people taking whatever risks they choose to take, even if it is taking their lives into their own hands. Most people know perfectly well how much it matters if they die today. In many cases, if you are not someone’s spouse or parent, or if your parents have passed away, maybe it doesn’t matter that much. Especially if it happens in a fashion in which no one else gets hurt – say, if you are sky diving, or downhill skiing. Or maybe your family would be okay with the fact that at least you died while you are doing something you love.
If you are commuting on a bike in traffic, on busy city streets, and a car hits you, not only is it tragic for your friends and family, someone else IS hurt. Even if the driver of the car is protected by his or her big steel box, that accident is going to adversely affect them for the rest of their lives, in so many ways, whether it was their fault or not.
I would never try to argue that most people who operate motor vehicles are fantastic drivers. My car has been hit by other drivers more times than I’d care to list, and I myself have been struck as a pedestrian (fortunately, very low impact as I was only travelling at about 2 mph because I was on foot, so, no damage done).
What I will say is that: NO ONE WANTS TO HIT ANYONE OR ANYTHING WITH THEIR CAR.
Sure, maybe in a moment of anger, or while making a really tasteless joke, someone may express that they do, indeed, wish to strike someone with their car. In reality? No one actually wants this.
Car accidents, even when they are minor, and between two cars, are messy. They are a huge hassle, and expensive, even with insurance. I myself spend most of the time that I am in my car doing everything in my power to make sure I don’t hit anything or anyone. I don’t talk on my cell phone, I don’t put on makeup. I obey traffic rules and pay attention, and while getting where I am going is important, NOT HITTING ANYTHING on the way is much more important than just getting there.
I know that I can only speak for myself. Plenty of people talk on their cellphones and eat or put on makeup while they drive. Too many of them are in a hurry or simply distracted, or perhaps just don’t have the sense of responsibility they should. But I can almost guarantee that no one wants to strike a cyclist with their car. Or a pedestrian, or another car, or a tree, or anything.
In most cases in which a car strikes something else, and especially in cases in which a car strikes a pedestrian or a cyclist, the driver of the car is probably at fault. Yet, I find it amazing and sad that very few people will take into account that sometimes pedestrians dart out into traffic from places in which they could not be seen. And cyclists do run stop signs.
Even the most law-abiding driver who is using the utmost caution might make a mistake. They are called “accidents” for a reason.
One of the biggest difficulties I find in my attempts to not strike cyclists with my vehicle is that they are VERY unpredictable. At least when cars are driven poorly, you can usually see the accident coming a mile away. In almost every case in which I’ve been hit, I’ve had plenty of time to think something like “Oh no, that car is going to hit me, I really hope it doesn’t hit me, oh dammit, it really IS going to hit me”.
Even when cars are moving fast, they are large and their movements take a little more time. Usually, you can totally tell when a car will swerve into your lane, and you have plenty of time to honk or correct in some fashion. Bikes are not in your lane one second, and in it the next, because they are small and quick and highly maneuverable. They terrify me.
I see signs all the time that suggest that I stay at least 3′ away from bikes. I myself would prefer to stay at least 300′ away. I have seen enough cyclists wobbling as they ride, or swerving to the left, or completely across traffic enough times that I don’t even want to be on the same street as they are, much less get within 3′.
Finally, a few people are suggesting that there be dedicated streets for cyclists. I wholeheartedly support this, it is one of the best ideas I’ve heard on the subject yet. While I do not think that cars are being pushed off of roads, I do not think that cars and bicycles belong on the roads together.
All of this sounds, if not “anti-bike”, pretty “pro-car”. It’s not. Cars are expensive. I do not love my car, as I am unable to afford a car that I would indeed LOVE. I would really LOVE to not have a car, and I can almost do that. Today, I will walk to work, and either walk home, or my husband will give me a ride. Most of the time, I really do not need my car anymore.
Except when I do. Yes, if it disappeared tomorrow, I could live without it. I would figure out how to make it work, as I have done for many years of my life when I didn’t have a car at all, or shared ONE with another person. Now that I am approaching 40, and having spent so many years of my life walking, biking and riding the bus, yes, I do feel like I deserve to have a car. I can afford it, and being able to go where I need to, when I need to go there, is a privilege I feel that I have earned.
Still, I think about getting rid of the car more and more every day. If I do though, there is no way that I would start riding one of my bikes everywhere. At least not until there are dedicated roads on which I can ride without riding along with cars. Even then, I still would only ride a bike to places in which I could actually get without having to ride with cars, and it just doesn’t seem feasible that I could ever get everywhere without having to ride with cars for at least a short distance. If by some miracle, that were possible? I still would not ride in bad weather, or any circumstances that increased the likelihood of my having an accident anyway. The last thing I need is to fall off of a bike at my age, and I am sure that it would happen.
Therefore, if I do get rid of my car, I will simply walk where I need to go, except when I use my husband’s vehicle to go places which are too far to walk, or if I would have too much to carry or whatever. For someone with a strong sense of self-preservation, biking just isn’t practical. It is an accident waiting to happen.
