Do It For teh Kittehs!

Well. The blackout today certainly got some attention. Some of it was stupid (see @herpderpedia on Twitter for additional amusing and depressing details.) BUT it also showed up on the evening news, and President Obama issued an official statement that the White House will not support any such bill: should SOPA/PIPA pass, they're going to meet a big, fat veto. 

This makes me even more happy today than yesterday, because I have JUST DISCOVERED that my favorite youtube video of all time has apparently met the tragic end that we all fear should censorship laws pass: THIS. 

So here's to you, Literal Version Parody Music Videos Non-Cat-Framed Version to Avoid Automatic Detection. Parody on. 

Interestingly enough, this is a prime example of how censorship laws won't necessarily stop piracy or copyright infringement: it's pretty easy to get around. If no one picked up on how clever Wikipedia is, they also demonstrated this with their blackout. Denied access to a "censored" wikipedia today caused outrage all over the country (mostly, apparently, from students with assignments due...I again refer to you the herpderpedia link above.) However, anyone remotely tech-savvy (as are most hackers and pirates) quickly discovered that wikipedia was easily accessible through Google cache, by disabling javascript or by using the Wiki mobile app. Confusing headache from the masses, easy avoidance by those with the know-how to commit piracy on a large scale? Likely result of SOPA! Hmmmm. 

Anyway, this post is to applaud the vast well of Internet creativity displayed today in favor of free speech and information, and to pay special homage to two of my favorites:

THE DAY THE LOLCATS DIED

(Really, I just love embedding videos. But I also really like this particular video.)

The Oatmeal's DO IT FOR THE KITTENS

I'm pretty sure I've just pirated basically everything on this post.

IF YOU HAVE NOT YET CONTACTED YOUR LOCAL CONGRESSPERSON, DO IT NOW!!

**TITLE CENSORED**

Hey, Internet.

Today, Jan. 18, 2012, is Stop Internet Censorship Day. [SIC] Ha.

This is in response to the pending Protect IP Act (PIPA) and its House sister, the Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA).

From their titles alone, these two pieces of legislation appear a benign and necessary response to a growing problem: piracy and copyright infringement via le Intarwebz. Well. We've all heard that famous old adage: "You can't judge a bill by its pretty title." No, my friends, you must judge a bill by its language.

And the language in PIPA and SOPA is, frankly, dangerous. They are riddled with loose, ambiguous definitions that will enforce new, harsh regulations; the poorly-written nature of the new laws will fail to stop their targeted criminal action and instead stall tech innovation, negatively impact small online businesses and startups, and drastically reverse the free and open nature of the internet and the flow of information and online communication as we know it.

I've been perusing a number of articles the past few days; as of some time today (or recently, at least) the vote on SOPA scheduled for later this month has been "postponed until a consensus is reached." This does not mean the bill is dead.  The entertainment industry has spent many years and millions of dollars lobbying for legislation of this sort. And PIPA is still very much alive in the Senate.

I'd love to discuss all of the intricate details of the implications of these two bills, but plenty of people have already done that for me.

There's an in-depth breakdown of the language from reddit, and you can find more information AND contact your local congresspersons (DO IT!) at http://americancensorship.org/.

One more thing. This isn't the paranoia of some random high-school pirates and unemployed hackers who are pissed that they will no longer be able to access free DVDs online. And organized protest of the Acts isn't a campaign against protecting copyrights, or anything like that. Copyrights protect artists and their work. I love artists! I love art! It needs to be protected. But SOPA and PIPA are not the answer. They are flawed pieces of legislation written with little input by experts in the field and that are ripe for abuse and overbroad interpretation; they will have a highly disproportional impact on Internet culture and freedom without having a significant impact on the problem they try to eliminate. Sites across the Internet from new, startup or small online businesses to blogs to search engines, including many well-known, well-loved, highly successful sites, will be greatly affected should these bills be voted into law.

We can combat piracy. But any new bills need to contain (here I'm quoting the reddit article, just in case you didn't read it for yourself. But seriously, go read it):

1. Airtight, technically sound definitions.
2. Heavy input from the technology sector. Complex technology legislation should not be drafted by someone who barely has a working knowledge of the internet.
3. Checks and balances ensuring that due-process can be invoked before, during, and after any action is taken.
4. Clear repercussions for entities utilizing the legislation in an abusive manner.


Don't believe me that the Internet community is taking this threat seriously?

Trying going to Wikipedia today. or Google. or craigslist.

Yeah.

Walking Into Mordor

I just posted my New Year's Resolution for 2012.

I'm pleased; I jumped on it right away. I'll tell you about it in a sec. Buuuuuut...it's also only taken a few days to reevaluate my goal.

Here it is (the Reevaluation): it's not going to happen. I can't read my bookshelf this year. I mean, maybe if I never read any of my assignments. And never watch Psych or the X Files in the afternoons. And not go outside, ever.  Especially not to the library. (I like the library!) And maybe not eat.

THEREFORE, I'm modifying. I'm going to make a start on my bookshelf. I'm removing any semblance of a time limit; otherwise I'll fall back in to the speed game, and thus defeat my own purpose. I shall embark upon my quest, if you will. And it may not be complete by January 1, 2013. (It won't.) In fact, it may evolve into a twelve-hour extended edition trilogy and lead directly to Mordor.  I just don't know. So there's that.

Additionally, I committed to reading all of my books, including those already read. Wellllll...I don't really want to do that. To explain this, I have to explain something else first. It went unstated in the original post, but all of my books are organized alphabetically by author's last name. To help me avoid Reader's Choice Anxiety, I am just going to read them in order. Ok, or I just want to read them in order. But that means that Little Women is Book #2. And I'm going to be honest: I tried to reread Little Women, just a few weeks ago. It's a classic, haven't read it properly since 5th grade. You know...I couldn't do it. I just don't like it. I'm sorry. I don't want to read it again.

Then, Margaret Atwood's The Handmaid's Tale is Book #5. I read it in August. It was good enough, I enjoyed it. But I don't want to read it again, not this soon. It's no Pride and Prejudice. Which brings me to Pride and Prejudice (Jane Austen). It's Book #7. I read it in September. In July I read the ebook version. I also read it at the end of April, when I needed a finals reprieve. Also last winter break. You get the idea.

An aside: as I'm writing this, I'm also watching Portlandia. If you like sketch comedy and hipsters/Oregon/organic free-range chicken/birds in general, you should watch it too. It's funny. Appropriately, this clip played:

I do not want to be this person. Although I do sort of like her sweater.

My point: in this, its inception, the purpose of this resolution is threefold:

(1) Material: it's to make sure I've gotten my money's worth from the fruits of all of my Amazon/Barnes&Noble/Babbit's Books buying binges. Seriously. My hard-earned dollars are sitting in alcoves in my wall, gathering dust and looking impressively intellectual. I did not buy intellectual wall adornments. I bought books.

(2) Educational: it's about discovery! I want to read new things, learn new things. Maybe that sounds cliche? I don't know. I'm expanding my horizons. I'm questing. I'm seeking wisdom and beauty and suffering and redemption and all of those wonderful things. Along with exciting plot twists and endearing and painful characters and lots of new vocabulary words.

(3) Recreational: I want to enjoy myself. I like to read! And I've fallen out of the habit.  I read textbooks now. I don't enjoy textbooks. Plus, I just bought some new rocking chairs for my porch, so naturally I need to sit in them, perhaps in a patch of sunshine, definitely with a good book, and preferably a glass of wine. It's going to be lovely.

All of that being said, I might fudge on the "alphabetical" rule. I might also fudge on the "all books" rule. Just a little. Full disclosure.

NOW THE EXCITING PART: BOOK #1

Watership Down

Richard Adams

This book is the one that made me realize I'll never do it all in a year. I've been reading a little bit, a few chapters, every night before I go to bed, since my last post (Jan. 9--one week). I'm on page 58. Page 58 of 474. Granted, one evening I skipped my reading and instead watched 7 episodes of Parks and Recreation before they expired on hulu. It's still slow going, at least, it's much slower than I'm used to. But I like it. "It" referring to either the pace or the book. Both. I don't have much to say about it (the book), having not gotten very far. It's about rabbits. But I'm enjoying myself. Mission accomplished.

Resolved: 2012

There are a great many things I would like to accomplish in the New Year. Keep up with my blog more, for one. Lose a few pounds. Completely balance my budget. Exercise at least twice a week. Find a job. Learn how to sew.

Yet, reviewing these, none are quite satisfactory as a New Year's Resolution.

Some (budget, job) are too obvious. I'm an adult. (Sometimes. I do try.) That sort of crap needs to be done anyway, and I can't wait for the New Year every several months to kick-start me into behaving like one; I'd be consistently broke by my birthday.

Others (lose weight, exercise) are too common. EVERYBODY goes on a new diet/exercise plan on January 1. The first two weeks of the year, the YMCA population triples and Jenny Craig makes 45% of her annual profit. I don't want to be one of those 800 new members waiting in line for the treadmill, stuffing my freezer with Lean Cuisine and stocking up on celery. In hipster, it's too M  A  I  N S  T  R  e  a  m . . . . lol. Not that I'm not going to make the attempt to be healthier.


Learning to sew or do something new would be fun, I think, but ultimately, it's superfluous. Not a priority. I realize that that's often the point of a New Year's Resolution; to make time for something that one would like to do but wouldn't ordinarily prioritize. However, I've come up with something better, or at least something I want more.

As I was considering and discarding the above ideas, I was also in the process of shelving a number of cheap (but quality!) paperbacks I'd picked up at a used bookstore over the break. I evaluated the number of (pardon my immodesty) high-quality pieces of literature adorning my bookcase, purchased over the course of years with an earnest, good-faith intent to read every one; an astonishing number of which have never left the shelf except during my brief relocation this fall.

THEREFORE, I hereby resolve, in this year two thousand and twelve, to read my bookshelf.
This is it:

It's built into my bedroom wall. Cool, right? It's one of my favorite features of my new apartment. Along with the stained glass window. And the porch/sunroom. And the massive pantry! Ok, the new apartment is just all-around terrific. Ahem.

It (bookshelf) contains 110 novels, give or take two shelves of poetry compilations, plays, short stories, Icelandic sagas, theological works and Saints' biographies. I want to read them all, even the ones already read. The ratio is about half and half, but of the ones I've read the ones that I truly remember and still affect me are much a much smaller percentage. For this reason, I am not reading for speed. What I really want to do is internalize, think about and remember everything I'm reading, not just browsing words for the sake of putting them into my head just to leak out my ears.

THEREFORE, I further resolve to write about everything I'm reading. This will also help me keep up on my blogging. I'll write at least once about each book. To recommend it one way or the other, or to vocalize whatever comes to my mind when wrestling with the text. My purpose, ultimately, is to constantly seek the answer to the question, why? Why pursue literature? Why do words tantalize me so, draw me in and strike me? Why set a resolution in the first place? Why am I bothering with all this reading, anyway? Why do I want to do it? Maybe I'll know by this time next year.

Signed this day the 9th of January, 2012

I forgot to add, I'll update when I'm reading a new book, anyone that wants to follow along with me, I love discussion!

...who am I kidding, who has time for that??