Sep
1

Trig is a person first. Not a political ‘choice’

Posted in politics at 3:04 pm with tags: • • • • •

From the MinnPost:

The national surge in affection for Palin among Christian conservatives is typically credited by pundits to her support for teaching creationism in public schools, her recent decision to have a baby she and her husband knew to have Down syndrome, and a staunch pro-life stance.

[emphasis mine]

Cara, writing at The Curvature, finally voices something that’s been bugging me since coverage of Palin began this weekend:

You know, it’s the anti-choicers who use “it’s not a choice, it’s a child” as a rallying cry to force women to give birth. And yet here I am, as pro-choice as can be, really fucking annoyed that conservative assholes are portraying this very real, actual child as a political choice rather than the human being that he is.

Seriously. Trig is a person first, and just happens to have Down’s Syndrome. As someone who worked with teenagers and kids with developmental disabilities for a few years, the narrative about Palin’s brave “choice” to keep her child was really starting to piss me off. His having Down’s should have had no influence whatsoever on her choice to keep the child, unless you’re someone that believes a child with down’s is somehow ‘worse’ than a normal child.

And painting her child as a sacrifice specifically because of his disability treats him as a less worthy and valuable human being.

Exactly. Saying her choice was more honorable just because he was diagnosed with Down’s immediately implies that there’s something less human about him.

Trig may have Down’s, but he’s a child first! I have no doubt he’ll grow up to be a radiant and amazing child with all the usual lovable eccentricities and personality quirks that ANY child has. Her choice isn’t anymore heroic just because he was born with a developmental disability, and claiming so is insulting to Trig as a human being that has just as good a chance at leading a long, full, and meaningful life as any other child.

Rant over. Best to Palin and her growing family.

Popularity: 99% [?]

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Aug
11

A Perfect Short

Posted in Media at 11:58 am with tags: • • • •

Short films, like short stories or poems, don’t have the luxury of length and exposition. The necessity of brevity often creates the purest, simplest, and often the best stories. Witness, The Lunch Date, Oscar winner in 1990 for best short film.

Saw this sometime during my film school days and it always stuck with me. Thanks to YouTube and the net, gems like this no longer get lost in time.

Popularity: 65% [?]

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Jul
31

Pretty Fireplay Video

Posted in Media at 5:14 pm with tags: • • • • •

This is pretty awesome.


Fireplays from Jon Thomas on Vimeo.

Popularity: 43% [?]

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Jul
29

What Would You Do for a Klondike Bar?

Posted in Challenge '08, Media, politics at 3:26 pm with tags: • • • • • •

Would you vote for our video and enter yourself to win $25k? I hope so!

Watch here: http://tinyurl.com/59bcyk

Popularity: 50% [?]

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Jul
15

Universal Web ID & accountability

Posted in random thoughts at 2:47 pm with tags: • • • • • • • • •

Jerkface and I were talking the other day about how people are just total assholes on the internet, be it message board, craigslist, or xbox live. We both agree its because there is a lack of ‘accountability’ on the web (great article). Being anonymous and not having face to face interactions drastically reduces ‘risk’. Call someone a gay ass hole, and maybe they’ll flame you back, but that’s about it. Do that in the real world, and you might get the crap beat out of you or be fired from your job.

Attempts are being made now to include some ‘accountability’ in the web, Ebay’s User Feedback is one of the longest standing, Xbox Live has player rep, you can block people on facebook, etc. Unfortunately, the distributed nature of all these databases means that this info is pretty much useless.

However, with the oncoming wave of Friend Connect, OpenID, and whatever else develops, a truly universal online identity may be just around the corner. Other that not having to create a new damned account for every service, I think one of the nice potentials of this is universal accountability. If you’re act like a dick in a game of halo and I provide feedback, that should totally affect how likely your comments are to get DUGG. Now I know people will always find ways to create multiple accounts and that a universal ID does eliminate anonymity on the net, which in many ways is one of its great strengths.

But god damn it would be nice to have less assholes filling up the web-o-sphere.

Popularity: 37% [?]

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Jul
8

Good Stuff

Posted in Media at 3:47 pm with tags: • • • •

Makes me want to travel again.


Where the Hell is Matt? (2008) from Matthew Harding on Vimeo.

Popularity: 28% [?]

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Jul
1

Sexytie.com Redesign!

Posted in life at 7:56 am with tags: • •

Checkout Sexytie.com’s new look and feel! http://www.sexytie.com

Show your support and digg us here!
http://digg.com/educational/4_Beautiful_Women_Teach_You_How_to_Tie_a_Tie

Popularity: 25% [?]

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Jun
18

I’m in my Montage

Posted in life at 10:18 pm with tags: • • • • • • • • •

During check in at my men’s group the other night, I at some point uttered that I felt like I was in “the montage” portion of my current life story. While lifetimes are likely montages in themselves, on a more minute level I think it’s useful to look at how montages and transformation relate. In cinema, montages are nearly always ellipses for transformations over time. Training sequences, makeovers, climbing the corporate ladder, falling in love – they’re all just transformations over time that are the result of a continuous practice of some sort. All the ‘hardwork’ generally occurs in the montage in the movies, the sheer monotony and repetition of perfecting anything, the struggle of not feeling progress, the regressions and off days. Then there’s a sequence/climax that proves said transformation has occurred and is now a permanent trait and rewards are reaped.

The small glory moments and payoffs get a huge share of the story, while the stuff that takes the longest gets the least screen-time! And that’s because change and growth itself are boring!

While granted state experiences and occasional monumental ‘break-thrus’ do occur, in my experience the great majority of transformation is extremely minute over time. Day to day, extraordinary things don’t happen: you may be slightly better or worse in your practice, but overall you kinda feel the same as you did yesterday. Then, suddenly, one day seemingly out of the blue you either see or feel a drastic difference. For me its often by experiencing a bit of how I used to be, whether via image, sound, or a deeply triggered memory…..

Time always turns up the ‘contrast’, making the differences/results between the old and new clearly discernible. Day by day you can’t see any differences and suddenly one little shift and all the details of the radical differences become immediately visible

So anyway, I’m in a montage now. I’m still pretty much the same small self I’ve been, and day to day not much feels different. There aren’t glorious triumphs or big wins. At best, I find a few moments of a more authentic self flashing thru here and there, most usually in touching in with some deep sadness I’ve held at bay for far too long. Like any transformation, it’s not easy and it’s not fun. It’s often tedious, redundant, painful, and sometimes makes me wonder why I’m doing it.

But, I have to remind myself that progress is being made, and that one day I might wake up and suddenly the contrast will be apparent, and I’ll be amazed at how I never saw all the changes that’ve happened.

End of incoherent rant. This explains it much better:

Popularity: 34% [?]

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Jun
12

The new Indiana Jones that could have been…

Posted in Media at 9:21 pm with tags: • • • • •

Anyone that has followed the saga that was the lead up to Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull probably already knows this, but for those that don’t. Frank Darabont (Writer of The Shawshank Redemption & The Green Mile, director of other films) wrote a complete script for the new film called Indiana Jones and the City of Gods. EVERYONE associated with the new film loved it and immediately signed off on it, except the one and only GEORGE LUCAS. In fact, Spielberg’s even quoting say it was “The best Indiana Jones screenplay since Raiders.”

Since seeing the film in May, I’ve thought it’s only going to be a matter of time before Darabont’s original script was leaked, and last weekend it apparently was! Sadly I missed it, but it’s getting really solid reviews.

So instead of what could have been the best indiana adventure ever, we get fucking monkeys, ants, and all the other crap that just didn’t work in the latest film. You fucked up again George Lucas. Always, always, always go with good writing over childish effects.

This almost pisses me off as much as Avi Arad ruining Spiderman 3 by forcing Raimi to put Venom in it thus turning it into an overcrowded shit fest.

Anyways, read Mystery Man’s excellent 50 Flaws of Indy IV and check back in monday for his 50 Strength’s of Darabont’s Draft next week.

Popularity: 30% [?]

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Jun
10

Training: Yuck

Posted in fitness at 9:36 am with tags: •

I’ve not missed a gym day since I tried to restart my training last week, but I’ve not been been able to get myself up to go and run in the morning. I’m a bit less leaner that I was last fall, and am convinced my lack of interval training the last 8 months has contributed to that. Having a hard time accessing the sheer force of will that used to get me up. So its big accountability time, for all 5 of you that read this, I’m running thursday morning, and ya can ask me about it then!

Popularity: 23% [?]

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