Ganymeder

What really did it was the cat, but I think it started before that.  I remember, when I was little, asking my parents why we ate animals.  When you are really small, you just see food, but as you get older you start to wonder about all the cute little farm animals you learn about in elementary school.  I remember making the connection between the burger on my plate and cute cows.  My parents assured me that people were meant to eat animals, that’s why they were here, and it was just the way it had to be.  People needed to eat meat in order to be healthy.  I believed what I was told, just as my parents did, and quickly pushed the question from my mind.

Later on, my friend went vegetarian, and I was worried about her health.  She later went vegan and continued to thrive on the diet.  I still worried and wondered what on earth she could possibly eat if she didn’t eat animal products.  What was left?  Grass?  I certainly could never do that.  I didn’t even like tofu.

She later lent me some of her Animal Rights newsletters, but I didn’t believe them.  After all, everyone knew that AR groups were biased.  They obviously took the very worst cases of animal agriculture, the exceptions to the rule, and published those as if they were the norm.  They had an agenda and couldn’t be trusted.

So I continued to eat whatever I wanted.  I worked hard.  I deserved it; right?  My friend went out to the food court with me, and I remember eating a chocolate chip cookie.  I asked her if she “could have” one, and she said it wasn’t vegan.  So I ate it in front of her.  I thoroughly enjoyed it.  I thought she was a little self righteous.

When I went home, I complained to my husband about how annoying I found her veganism.  After all, I reasoned, people didn’t WANT to hurt animals, but sometimes it was necessary.  No one wanted to be cruel, but people obviously needed to eat animal products.  Animal testing was a necessary evil, because we needed to test on animals in order to develop cures for human diseases.  My husband, playing devil’s advocate, said that was the same reasoning the Nazis used to justify vivisecting the Jews.  I told him, “That’s different.  They didn’t have the right.”  My husband said, “Do we?”  I poo-pooed him and promptly “forgot” about it.

Later that same night, I flipped through the channels and stopped on a story about a cat.  THE cat.  Her name was Scarlet. Books have been written about her, but her story that night was really very simple.  She was burned badly in the fire, but despite that, she went back in for her kittens.  Again.  And again.  Her paws were hurt, her fur singed, and her ears were practically burned off.  But she kept going back until she brought every single kitten to safety.  She was a hero.

So I ate my dinner while watching tv and wondered.  Why was it okay to hurt animals for the good of humans?  Didn’t Scarlet prove that animals could be just as heroic?  I thought about what my husband had said about rights but quickly put it out of my mind.

After that night, I couldn’t eat meat anymore without getting sick.  When I’d take a bite, I’d see a vision of burned and bleeding Scarlet.  I was eating the dismembered body of an animal.  It was disgusting.

I still didn’t want to give up meat.  All my life, I’d wanted to fit in.  I never wanted to be different or stand out.  I didn’t WANT to be vegetarian.  I LIKED eating meat.  To my everlasting shame, I tried to ignore my conscience and continue eating meat.  Fortunately, my body had more ethics than my mind, and I was forced to stop.

I looked up animal agriculture on the Internet.  I researched what happened to the animals we use for food.  I tried to find nonbiased sources.  The AR sites all said that the animals were horribly treated in “factory farms” but I wanted to find out what the animal farmers themselves said.  I wanted to hear their side of the story.  Sadly, most animals were raised intensively and treated as “tools of production” instead of living creatures.  Profit almost ALWAYS came before compassion.

I gave up eating flesh, but I continued to use eggs, honey, and dairy.  After all, those things didn’t require that an animal die to produce them.  Technically that was correct, but really it was a lie.  Egg laying chickens lived in tiny cages in long metal sheds by the hundreds.  Their bones became brittle from intensive egg laying.  Their bones broke.  They died, but more chickens just replaced them.  How could anyone say an egg was NOT meat?

Dairy cows only produce milk if they have a baby, and if the baby is male it’s sold for veal.  In order to continue making milk, cows must be kept continuously pregnant, doomed to have their babies taken from them.  If they have female babies, they’re still separated early so that humans can drink their mother’s milk.  The veal industry wasn’t possible without the dairy industry.  Every glass of milk had blood in it.

So I stopped consuming those things: eggs, dairy- even honey.  Why take the bee’s foodsource for myself when it was easy enough to simply use other sweeteners?  I wasn’t against the use of animals as long as they were treated humanely, but that obviously didn’t happen as often as I wanted to believe.

Most animal foods came from intensive farming methods (factory farming), but even small family farms killed animals for profit.  That was the whole point.  Animals were sold for meat.  Dairy cows were impregnated only to have their babies and the products of their bodies taken from them.  After their bodies start to decay or their profitability goes down, their final degradation is to be killed and sold for their skin and low quality hamburger meat.

I began seeing things in a different light.  All that death and suffering, and for what?  Just because humans think animals taste good?  I started going on the Internet, sharing recipes, blogging, and trying to raise awareness.  I started seeing the correlation between our attitude toward non human animals and our attitude towards other human beings.  I became more aware of Human Rights because of my research into Animal Rights.

Today, I blog weekly, write, and distribute literature about veganism, Animal Rights, and Modern Human Slavery.  I read labels.  I try to do what I think is right in every aspect of my life. I make mistakes every day, but I do the best that I can.  I certainly can’t hold myself up as a perfect example, but I do feel like I’m a better person today than I was before I went vegan.  It’s not difficult to stop eating meat.  I thought it would be.  I was a self professed “carnivore,” but it wasn’t hard.  Leaving out other animal products was just one more step.

Unless you have some extreme dibilitating disease or iive somewhere with a food scarcity, there is no reason to eat animal products except for taste.  Most of us have loved an animal, whether it was a dog, cat, or bird.  We’ve recognized individuality in someone of another species.  Including non human animals in our circle of compassion isn’t just “a nice thing to do.”  It’s a moral imperative.  And that means we need to stop eating them.  We need to stop wearing their skins, testing our products on them, or breeding them for profit while killing millions of them for not being profitable enough.

Most of us say we are against animal cruelty. We need to live our values in our everyday lives, with everything we say, everything we buy, everything we don’t, and every action we take. If we truly believe it’s wrong to harm animals, we need to say it with more than words.  We need to live it.

An online friend pointed out this latest article about slavery in the U.S. Please follow the link.

http://www.kansascity.com/637/story/1220197.html

Sadly, this illustrates a common method of luring people into slavery worldwide, not just in the U.S. Other examples can be found in books about modern day slavery such as Enslaved (put out by the AASG) and Not For Sale (by David Batstone of the Not for Sale campaign).

Please read this and spread the word. Thank you.

Well, it finally happened. J.J. Abrams brought us a newer Big Screen version of the original series Star Trek so that we could boldly go were we’d never gone before. Or where we’d gone 8 or 9 times before? I’ve lost count.

Let that go. As it stood, I was pretty ambivalent about the impending movie. On the one hand, I really wanted to see the continuation of the series I’d loved as a child. I liked that the special effects would be better (the preview alone illustrates that), and the movie makers were actually willing to put some money into the production. But from what I’d heard and seen in different reviews, commentaries, and trailers prior to the release, I was afraid that they would completely botch the job.

For one thing, aside from great special effects, the trailers looked incredibly, stupifyingly lame. I’m sorry. I know a lot of people loved them, but they did. Little punk boy drives a car over a cliff; then when a policeman asks his name, he huffily declares, “James Tiberious KIRK!” Um, lame. Whiny beat-up bar guy telling Captain Pike in a bar, “Why you talking to me, man?” Again, lame. Oh, and the best one? The trailer that shows the Enterprise has no Captain or First Officer and then announces something about “deciding your destiny” as Kirk just DECIDES to sit in the Captain’s chair? MAJORLY LAME. I still don’t understand Star Fleet’s advancement program, even after seeing the movie, though I grant it wasn’t quite as bad as the trailer made it look.

So, with some (okay, A LOT) of trepidation, I went to see this movie last Monday. It was good. I wouldn’t say it was the best movie I’d ever seen (Star Trek or otherwise), but it was fun. If I wasn’t a Star Trek follower and fan, I might even say great, though I did have a problem with some of the plot flaws and some scenes where people acted out of character. If I wasn’t a fan, those things might not have bothered me as much. But I am, so they really bugged me, though I still recommend people go see the movie. The scene where old Spock talks to Sylar Spock at the end…that alone makes the entire movie worth watching.

So, what did I like and not like about this movie? I could talk about this for hours, but I’ll narrow it down to my opinion of the movie’s top few Pros and Cons.

PRO: Incredible Special Effects.

I mean,we get to see an entire planet destroyed! That was awesome in a way I cannot put into words.

CON: The physics.

Parts of the movie I didn’t mind this so much (like noises in space), but the planet being sucked into a black hole was problematic. Still, it was so much fun to watch that I didn’t really mind that.

Red matter? I had no idea what they were talking about. I assumed it was some backstory issue that I hadn’t been told. I think there are Star Trek (prequel?) comics that are supposed to explain this, but why should I have to do extra reading to understand the movie? I love reading, but I shouldn’t have to study to be able to understand what’s going on. Especially since I’m already a fan of the series that the movie is based on! Still, I was willing to let that slide.

PRO: The characters.

The movie was cast very well. For the most part, the cast acted like their characters and not like imitations of the t.v. cast. I especially enjoyed Sylar Spock with one EXTREME exception. I’ll get to that later in the following Con.

Scotty was fun, given his limited screen time. And I LOVED Bones. I know he sort of broke the rule and imitated DeForrest Kelley, but I liked that. To be honest, the original McCoy always annoyed the hell out of me. He was always going off yelling at people and making offhand remarks for no apparent reason. His facial expressions were just weird. But the new Bones managed to say all his classic McCoy-isms and yet not be annoying. I know some people think his imitation was a bit over the top, but he wasn’t nearly as frenetically emotional as Original Series Bones.

I’ll admit that about halfway through the movie, even Kirk grew on me. Uhura was given a bigger role. You got more of her backstory, and it emphasized just how brilliant she really was. Chekhov had a couple of funny lines, throwback jokes to the previous movies. Sulu looked like he was doing a good job, but neither Chekhov nor Sulu had many lines. At least Sulu got to sword fight though. How cool was that? I really enjoyed getting more backstory on young (little boy) Spock.

Leonard Nimoy as older Spock was incredible. There’s simply nothing else to say.

CON: The characters.

My number one problem with this movie was the whole Spock/Uhura love affair. It’s not the actors’ faults. They did the best they could with the script, but come on!

Uhura was fine, EXCEPT for all the scenes where she’s throwing herself at Spock. In the turbolift, she comes and keeps kissing him after his personal tragedy while he’s standing there like a statue. You think maybe she could take a hint? He’s a Vulcan! He doesn’t like to show emotion, especially in public. Okay, maybe they had a relationship and in private he showed more, but the turbolift? I thought that was stupid, but okay, I’ll suspend my disbelief.

And then, what? - they’re MAKING OUT ON THE TRANSPORTER PAD! In front of Kirk, no less! I’m sorry, but that’s the most uncharacteristic Spock moment in the entire movie. Even I couldn’t suspend my disbelief THAT much! I understand maybe they were going for a humorous moment to offset the Vulcan tragedy, especially since Kirk had been hitting on Uhura throughout the entire movie. I understand that Vulcans have intense emotions and that watching your planet blow up might make you reconsider how much you suppress them. But only a few minutes earlier, in relative privacy on the turbolift he hardly moved. And now we’re expected to believe that he has no problem making out in front of another officer? PULLEASE.

CON: The music.

I know a ton of people loved the music. There was a new, rock n’ roll type soundtrack instead of the traditional Star Trek themes that we’d come to know and love. It felt like the focus was so concentrated on attracting newer younger viewers that they were slighting the loyal longtime fans. They did play the theme at the very, very end during the end credits, but it felt like a token gesture.

PRO: Cannon.

Specifically using Cannon to discount Cannon. The Time travel debate.

If you are a big budget director, how do you reinvent an old series in a way that would be acceptable to loyal fans while giving you the freedom to take the series in a new, unpredictable direction? Time travel.

Time travel, apparently, solves all your problems. At least in the Star Trek Universe.

It can’t be faulted for not being cannon, because it’s been done many times before in the many incarnations of the series as well as the movies. They didn’t slingshot around the sun, but red matter filled the gap nicely. It was equally implausible and dumb (unless they explain it better in the prequel comics), yet it allowed the story to progress in a new and excitingly complicated direction. Since it had been done before I had no problem with it.

The difficulties arise in our interpretation of what the new and excitingly complicated time line means. Is it one time line? Is there a primary time line or do multiple timelines exist in equally valid ways? When I saw Vulcan implode, intrasucked, or whatever that was, I was concerned about the timeline. If there was only one, did they just NEGATE the entire original series? Because that would have really sucked. It would have sucked in a way that was consistent with cannon, but still. Sorry I’m not more eloquent, but so be it.

After some reflection (and a conversation with my husband), I reconsidered this view. I’d failed to consider something (or rather someone) fairly obvious- Older Spock. At first, I thought that Older Spock might have been exempt from any changes in the timeline once he was taken out of his own. But then would he still have memories of a timeline that no longer existed? Or would he disappear?

It makes more sense to think of both timelines as being equally valid. That explains why Spock is still there in a less complicated (lol) way, yet allows them to blow up Vulcan without violating cannon. I thought the time travel solution was rather clever. The only potential con is the ambiguity about what happens to the original timeline. Sylar Spock even addressed this with a line about how they were living a different timeline, which I interpreted as “Don’t worry fans. We’re still respecting cannon. Anything we’ve done is explained in a way that you can accept.” And I did. Again, I thought it was clever. The fact that they respected the cannon made up for a lot.

Also, the potential with the new timeline is awe inspiring. I can’t even imagine where they’ll go with Vulcan out of the picture and their entire civilization condensed to a small displaced people. It opens up a whole new universe of possibilities.

PRO: Action packed fun.

From the very first scene, the action is virtually continuous. From the scene with Kirk’s father to the destruction of Vulcan. There’s planet destruction, a sword fight with Sulu, and space battles. The effects were top notch.
So, overall, my review leans in favor of watching the movie. There were plot flaws, but they gave nods to the fans, they respected cannon, and above all they featured Leonard Nimoy. The fact that he actually had a real role, not just a courtesy cameo, made this movie worthwhile. All the rest is just garnish. So if you don’t care about spoilers and read this review anyway, go see this movie. Maybe there’ll be a new series!

Science Fiction, the misunderstood bastion of the nerd, is more than space battles and futuristic technology.  It’s the ideal medium for social commentary in a world that doesn’t welcome astute observation.  Where else could the evils of our everyday lives be addressed in a socially acceptable manner?  Modern Westerners might be bored to tears studying Greek morality plays, but many will happily while away the hours debating the morality of Star Trek’s transporter or speciesm in Planet of the Apes.

The authors, the best ones imo, act as gadflies of our time, but long after their initial warnings their voices are still heard.  And many of them are warnings, whether it’s to watch out for the dangers of too much government, the erosion of personal liberties, or simply our own prejudices and weaknesses.  There’s nothing so disturbing as to see our foibles through the eyes of another.

Physicist’s and Philosopher’s alike have written non-fiction books about Star Trek.  Star Wars mythology deals with the Buddhist philosophy of non attachment.  Joss Whedon’s Dollhouse tells the story of modern day slavery with a technological twist.  The Puppet Masters (by Heinlein) addresses the Red Scare; Alien Nation - racial prejudice.

Our language has been enriched by the genre as well.  Heinlein’s Stranger in a Strange Land introduced the term “grok.”  “Doublethink,” “Big Brother ,” and even “cyberspace” owe their existance in the English language to genre literature.

The ability to transcend time, whether a novel or other media, is the hallmark of a truly great scifi storyline.  Certainly, the same claim could be made for any classic, but the genre lends itself especially well to this criteria.  Many of today’s classic novels were written as science fiction, from George Orwell’s 1984 to (a soon to be classic imo) Corey Doctorow’s Little Brother.

So why does popular media seek to stupefy us with a continual barrage of inane nonsense?  Why do network producers air great shows like Firefly only to sabotage them?  Why tell creators that they shouldn’t spend too much time on character development?  Why insist on more violence and less plot?  Hasn’t it already been shown that the lasting appeal lies just as much in the plot and characters as well as the technology and special effects? Where is their respect for the aesthetic and intellectual taste of the masses?

Indeed, there is plenty of bad scifi to go around.  But just as you shouldn’t judge the merit of English lit by a dime romance novel, neither should the merits of Scifi be judged by cheap special effects and sexy green skinned women.  Producers, publishers, and network execs should, if nothing else, respect the interests of a segment of the population that spends an incredible amount of money on anything related to SciFi - namely NERDS.

Nerds typically come across as socially awkward though rather intelligent people, or, in the words of Merriam-Webster: an unstylish, unattractive, or socially inept person ; especially : one slavishly devoted to intellectual or academic pursuit.  The social awkwardness may be true in many cases, but intelligence is nothing to be ashamed of.  The pursuits of technological prowess or academic excellence are worthwhile ways to spend time.  Despite network producers and movie makers that seek to dumb down our entertainment choices, scifi continues to bring in some of the biggest money too.  Just ask George Lucas or Joss Whedon.

Let’s face it.  People want a story that entertains AND makes them think.

There’s one more point I’d like to make.  Scifi is relevant to ANYONE who’s interested in stimulating their mind as well as their satisfying their thirst for action and adventure.  And if you are a nerd, so much the better. Nerds, despite the pencil-protector-glasses-wearing image, are in.  So grab a Heinlein novel and wear your pointy ears with pride.  Nerds rule the world.

While perusing the shelves of the closest used bookstore, I was lucky enough to find this little treasure.  The edition I read was about 30 years old, the pages yellowed, and when I’d read about halfway through the book the spine split.  Nevertheless, I count this as one of my best lucky finds.

The book hooks you from page one.  Asimov drops you into the middle of a far distant and unfamiliar future, and you are left to figure out the situation from the protagonist’s activities and thoughts.  At first I was reading sheerly to figure out what was going on.  But the more I found out about the situation, the more I thought I understood as I attempted to unravel newer tangles in the web.

I have to admit, I didn’t find Technician Harlan to be a very sympathetic protagonist. He starts off as very stoic and committed to his work as an Eternal, but very quickly reveals himself to be an emotional idiot.  I know that his love for a woman and desire to save her might excuse some of his behavior, but I found him consistently irrational and overly emotional.  He jumped to so many conclusions that it made me dizzy.  Nevertheless, I wanted things to work out for him.  Hell, I wanted things to work out for everyone.

The basic premise was that Technician Harlan was an Eternal, a member of an elite organization that time travels to maintain the greatest good for mankind.  They make small changes at critical points along the time line to affect history in a beneficial way for humanity.  However, the price for this power is that they are personally cut off from their own times as well as any others.  They belong no-when.  So I suppose it’s to be expected that Technician Harlan, when he does connect with a “Timed” woman, goes a little over the edge.  In fact, he has to choose.  Will he break his Eternal’s oath and manipulate time, possibly damning humanity in the process, in order to save the woman he loves?

Despite Harlan’s roller coaster emotions, the story progresses at an unbelievable rate.  A quarter of the way through the book, I thought I knew what was happening.  A quarter more I realized that I had been completely wrong, but now I had a better grasp of the plot.  The third quarter of the book I just kept reading because I couldn’t help myself; twists and turns every other page.  Did I really understand what was happening?  And the final 40 pages?  Forget it.  I would never in a million years guessed where the story was heading, though Asimov doesn’t cheat when it comes to plot twists.  The clues are there.  But you don’t realize until the very last few pages what the ultimate struggle was REALLY about.  I didn’t even know who to root for until the very end!  But I couldn’t wait to find out.

I realize this is a very old book, and my review is redundant for most die hard scifi fans.  But since this was a new discovery for me, I just had to share what a pleasure it turned out to be.  If you love scifi, time travel, adventure, or love stories, I’m sure you’ll love The End of Eternity as much as I did.

Please watch this video about sexual slavery and abuse from the European Women’s Lobby.  It’s not really short, maybe 30 minutes, but it’s powerful.  Thank you.

http://www.womenlobby.org/site/video_en.asp

According to Merriam-Webster, etiquette is “the conduct or procedure required by good breeding or prescribed by authority to be observed in social or official life.” Netiquette, the online extension of that philosophy, is “etiquette governing communication on the Internet.”

Or…

To sum it up even more simply - Politeness.

It seems lately that a lot of times we forget the simple courtesies. Of course there are reasons for that. We are in a hurry so we sometimes say things off the cuff, without thinking. Online, things become a little more complicated, since we are denied the benefit of tone of voice and body language. People try to offset this deficiency by using emoticons to suggest in which tone the message should be taken, whether it’s an email, webpage, or posting on a forum. There are also ways to type out your message (without the emoticon) to suggest emotion, such as typing in all capital letters. Typing an All Caps message is the Net-speak equivalent of shouting at the top of your lungs.

Certainly newbies to the information superhighway are going to make mistakes. It’s expected that people joining a membership Internet community (such as certain membership websites with forums) read the rules and the FAQ (Frequently Asked Questions). It’s common courtesy to become acquainted with the “rules of the house” in order to avoid common mistakes. However, even long standing members might accidentally step on someone’s toes, in which case a warning will be issued. Sometimes its just pointing something out, sometimes it’s more “official” such as a moderator banning someone from a particular thread for being troublesome.

This is all pretty obvious to most people who have spent any amount of time on the web, so I won’t waste any more of your time discussing it.

However…

There is one breach of Netiquette in particular that really bothers me. It’s becoming more than a simple pet peeve of mine, because it points to a particularly annoying attitude. It’s assumptions.

Let me explain. Everyone makes assumptions. I know that. The fact that you don’t realize you are making an assumption isn’t the point. We make assumptions in our everyday lives. However, imo, when it comes to courtesy, you should always assume that the person who posted “X” remark did so because they made a mistake or were unaware of a certain policy. Ignorance of the rules is no excuse, but, as Hamlet so eloquently says, “Use every man after his desert, and who shall scape whipping? Use them after your own honor and dignity.” In other words, give them the benefit of the doubt. If someone makes a mistake, point it out and give them the chance to make it right or apologize.

I’ll give a couple examples illustrating this. Since I’m by no means perfect, they are personal examples - both as a newbie to one forum and a long standing member of another (I’ll exclude names because that would be rude).

I joined a free membership forum and posted frequently as a new member. Generally, this isn’t a good idea, because you usually want to get a feel for the way people treat each other and phrase things before you do this, but I did. I made a mistake. I felt very comfortable because it reminded me a great deal of another forum I knew very well. If I have some experience that someone is asking for help with, I try to answer their question. So, when someone posted a question on the forum asking for help weaning themselves from a certain addiction, I answered the question. I told them to think of product X a certain way so that they would be so disgusted by it they wouldn’t want to consume it (this method has worked well for me). I was afraid that my post would sound obnoxious, so I suggested some alternate websites that might help and prefaced the rest of my post with “Not trying to sound obnoxious, but…” Not the best choice of words, but I couldn’t think how to phrase my post properly.

Nineteen posts later, after we’ve discussed several other things, someone posts a very harsh critique of my response. The original poster (whose question I was addressing) took no offense. Neither did anyone else on the thread. One person did. Fine. They could have emailed me a response saying they thought my answer was inappropriate. I could have apologized or rephrased my response on the relevant thread, but they chose to verbally attack me in the thread itself. It’s not really polite to derail a thread from its topic that way, so I answered the post with an apology to the original poster (who was not offended) and any further exchange with the other person was through private messages.

I made several mistakes there. One, I felt too comfortable there because the forum was so similar to another one I had frequented. I obviously should have phrased my post differently. The other posters did not take offense, but I should have taken more time to word the post. I hesitate to say that I should not have posted my response at all, since the person did find it helpful. An emoticon might have helped, and while I normally go smiley-crazy, a smiley didn’t seem appropriate to the subject matter so I left it out. That was probably a mistake too.

However, the majority of the problem could have been avoided by simply sending me a private message (pm through the forums or email) calling my attention to any possible misunderstanding. Instead of ASSUMING that I was simply being a jerk, they could have reread my post and ASSUMED I made a mistake. By privately messaging me, I could have rephrased my response without derailing the topic of the thread. There would have been no (or little) unpleasantness.

This hearkens back to the whole issue of tone. Emoticons help. Carefully phrasing your words helps. But sometimes people will just misunderstand you. If someone calls you on something you’ve done, you can also make the ASSUMPTION that they are genuinely trying to help. If they are addressing your actions and refrain from personal attacks, most differences can be resolved.

As I remember back to past emails, posts, and chats, I would say 99.9% of misunderstandings are about tone. Do yourself and the other person a favor. Assume that people mean well, and be polite when pointing out errors of judgment. Please, do it privately.

Another instance was as a long standing member on another forum. I’d read the rules, felt comfortable, and knew many on line friends there. I phrased most of my responses pretty carefully and went out of my way to be polite. I tried to stay away from explosive threads that dealt in politics or religion, but I would occasionally pop in if I felt I could learn or contribute something.

This particular breach on my part, I’m still unsure of. As a member of this community for a long time, I knew that some threads could get pretty heated, but also lots of times people would joke around. I’d witnessed people attacking others (myself included) on some occasions, but then the mods would step in. Overall, it was a nice community, and I felt confident I wouldn’t step on anyone’s toes. I had even been offended by the person in charge of the community, and as a result I went somewhere else for a bit til I thought about it some more. I decided that maybe I was overreacting, so I went back. No harsh words on my part.

After a few more months, I was on a particular thread and it was getting pretty heated. It really didn’t seem like there was any reason for it, so to lighten the tension I posted a joke (*gany whistles nonchalantly*). A couple people thanked me for the post (they had a “thank you” button), and the thread continued. I posted a second joke, and immediately found an official warning in my Control Panel informing me that I was banned from the thread for “Peanut gallery idiocy.” Was that REALLY necessary? Couldn’t they, after my first joke, have simply emailed me without the ban and said, “Please don’t do that?” Of course, it’s their forum, so it’s their rules. That’s totally within their rights. What was particularly upsetting was that I didn’t see it coming. It felt like a slap in the face.

What happened, when I look back, was that I stepped on the moderator’s toes. They were warning the poster, and my joke they took as an attempt to do their job for them. Fine. I can understand them taking it that way, though it’s not what I intended at all. It was obviously a misunderstanding. But given the fact that I’d been a long standing member for years and all my other posts had been polite (I had NEVER been warned for any breach of behavior), it seems like they could have used a bit more tact. They could have given me the benefit of the doubt. Given the fact that I had been offended (by the founder) before on this forum, I felt foolish and wrote a polite letter back. I said that I thanked them for all their past support but for that and other reasons I would like to unsubscribe from their forums. That’s it. No harsh words (I can’t remember if I told them I was bothered by the ban). I expected them to simply unsubscribe me. When I checked back, I found a message saying that I was “banned- no reason specified” and it would be lifted NEVER.

I’m not going to lie about it. That bothered me. What bothered me mostly was the implied rudeness. And I’m fully ready to admit that perhaps I got it wrong. Maybe when you unsubscribe from the forums, they don’t have an unsubscribe feature so it automatically becomes a ban. I don’t know. I have no intention of going back, so it really doesn’t matter. But given the pattern of behavior prior to the Forum Ban, I can’t help feeling slighted.

So, while I realize that my post here regarding my own experiences is going to come across a bit harsh, there is one overwhelming point to this entire post. Give people the benefit of the doubt and use a little politeness when dealing with others. It should be common courtesy.

For anyone who isn’t familiar with the term, a vegan avoids the use of animal products (or items tested on animals) to the best of their ability. That includes meat, fish, eggs, dairy, silk, fur, and leather.

In the time of chocolate eggs, colored eggs, chicks and bunnies… what is a beleagered vegan to do?

Don’t worry. It’s not as big a deal as it seems. While it’s disturbing to see eggs and slave chocolate in virtually every store - never fear. There are vegan alternatives to the animal product deluge of the holiday. Your Easter basket and Easter egg hunt can still go on - but cruelty free!

What I do for my little guy is buy hollow plastic eggs and fill them with small toys (like Hotwheels) or candies like (vegan) jellybeans. For his Easter basket, I usually load it up with a book (or two) and toys. Stuffed animals and games work nicely. Themes are a good idea too if your child loves cars, Tech decks, or Shrek. This year, my son’s basket will be filled with puzzles and projects. I’m making his candy eggs myself.

For the holidays, I’ve recently discovered that you can get a mold for pretty much anything. For Easter, the stores carry molds for eggs and Easter bunnies! Just check your local kitchenwares store or craft store.

As stated earlier, you can still have your Easter egg hunt, but use the plastic eggs that you fill yourself! A scavenger hunt for the Easter basket is another fun idea. Just write clues and hide them around the house. Your child has to follow the clues from point A, B, and C to figure out where the basket is hidden. It makes everything much more exciting!

And, a gentle reminder, animals do not make good gifts for the holidays. That cute bunny or chick is a long term commitment that a child (and many adults) may not be ready for. Also, buying animals (instead of adopting) is not vegan because it supports the industry that exploits them. If you are planning to adopt an animal from a shelter, please consider the responsibility carefully. It is a lifetime commitement.

So go have an Easter EGG-stravaganza… but use vegan “eggs”! You’ll have a blast!

My wonderful husband recently introduced me to the joys of the online website called “Hulu.” Basically, you log on and can pick tv shows that you want to watch either by individual episodes or by subscribing to the series. The website is completely free. Currently airing shows might only list the 5 most current, while older shows vary from the first few seasons to the entire series.

This has been an incredible sci fi boon for me, especially since we haven’t had cable in years. I know what you’re thinking, and you’re right. There are a ton of great scifi shows on network channels right now, but the problem is that without cable my tv reception is virtually nil.

Listening to Casta Blasta (almost continuously since the podcast started) only exacerbated my cravings. I mean, they talk about all the great scifi shows airing, and I wait for the videos to be available at the library. How lame is that?

Imagine my esctasy when I realized that there was actually a brand new show by Joss Whedon (of Buffy and Firefly fame) called Dollhouse. When I first heard the name, I thought it sounded like a trashy evening soap. But it’s actually a great new scifi show airing Friday nights.

The show follows the exploits of “Echo” (Eliza Dushku), an active at the Dollhouse - a secret, illegal organization that caters to the ultrawealthy. Their specialty? Programmable people. The “dolls” are people who have had their entire memories wiped. Their old lives, who they were before they came to the dollhouse, are gone.  They exist, while in the dollhouse, in a state of blank personality and complete innocence. However, when they are activated for a particlular job, they are implanted with the required memories and skills… Programmable people, custom tailored to fit the client’s needs.

And no, those needs aren’t always sex.  Honest.  The very first episode, Echo was a hostage negotiator.  Her assignments range from backup singer (bodyguard) to blind hitchhiker (infiltrating and gathering information on a cult).  The dolls have no will of their own.  They are simply programmed.

I just have to say that I’m completely in love with the premise for this show.  It’s one of the things I’ve always loved about scifi… how it can tackle deeper philosophical and political problems and still just be a whole lot of fun.  Are the dolls still people?  Do they have rights or are they just shells?  Did they volunteer or were they coerced and trafficked? Keep watching to find out, and if you haven’t seen it yet - watch it now!

I honestly never gave much thought to Esperanto until a little over two weeks ago. I might have wondered why the signs on Red Dwarf were written in both English and Esperanto, but other than that…nothing. I knew nothing about it. If anything, I thought it might be a dialect of Spanish.

But an online friend asked me to view a short video about Esperanto and consider spending ten minutes a day trying to learn it. I’ll admit - my first thought was, Yeah, right! Why would I want to do that? But by the end of the video I was convinced.

Now, I’m not telling anyone that they NEED to learn Esperanto. No one does, obviously. BUT it is very useful and really a lot of fun! Not only are there tons of free courses, music, puzzles, games, and literature available on the internet, but it seems that whenever you mention that you are learning this amazing language you immediately start communicating with people from different linguistic backgrounds!

That’s not at all surprising. Esperanto was designed to be a supplementary language to foster international communication. That’s why it was created to be intuitive, making it the world’s easiest language. Depending on the person’s native language, Esperanto is four to eight times easier to learn than any other. Students of Esperanto can become relatively fluent in three to four months, whereas comparative proficiency in another language would take years.

So after viewing the video, I thought, What the hell? Why not? I don’t have a terrific track record when it comes to foreign languages. Like many others, I passed one year of High School Spanish - a course that I took mostly because it was supposedly easy and I lived near Miami. I also managed to live in Germany for over three years while never mastering the German language. I knew a few phrases by speaking but was never able to write even those phrases. I also found some of the sounds hard to pronounce.

Esperanto has been the easiest and most enjoyable learning experience that I’ve ever had. Pronunciation is pretty simple - each letter has only one sound and every letter in a word is pronounced. The only slight difficulty for English speakers might be rolling the “r”s, but that is not a hard-and-fast rule so it’s not really a big deal.

Most languages have hundreds or more grammatical rules, exceptions to rules, and redundancies. Esperanto has 16 rules. That’s it. SIXTEEN. Because the language was designed rather than evolving naturally, there are no redundancies or exceptions, which accounts for the difficulty of other languages.

Because Esperanto was designed to be learned easily and quickly, the ordinary Joe (or Jane) on the street can begin conversing with people in Esperanto in a short period of time. My personal experience shows this to be true. Plus Esperantists typically love to share their knowledge of the language and help any newbies (such as myself).

It’s common for people who learn Esperanto to develop the confidence and desire to acquire other languages. Developing an understanding of the basic rules of grammar while becoming proficient fosters the confidence to explore other tongues.

Last, but not least, it’s really fun! In the past two weeks or so, I’ve made a bunch of online friends, downloaded Esperanto rock music and heavy metal, listened to mp3 lessons, and played Esperanto themed games with my eight year old son (We’re learning together). I’ve even started an Esperanto blog to practice writing and show our progress with our lessons. I’m sure it contains grammatical errors, but hey- I’m learning.

I’m not anyone special. If someone like me can pick up that much of a feel and love for the language in just a couple weeks, just imagine what someone who actually has a knack for languages can do!

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If you are interested:

Lernu.net - A huge Esperanto site aimed at promoting the International language. They have free lessons available in many different languages. Members (free) of this site have access to lesson plans, free audio and text lessons, online forums, and more.

Music - This site has downloadable songs in Esperanto from different musical styles from the Blues to Heavy Metal.

Literature and Podcasts - It’s self explanatory. Get free books and podcasts in Esperanto. It’s fun!