I know I just talked about how much my internet was bothering me, you know, yesterday, but I've got another internet related complaint that I want to talk about today: The loss of Google Reader's like and share functions. I didn't use the Share in Reader option too often, only for things I was exceptionally excited/depressed about, but I miss it just the same. Mostly because I could follow other people, and their shares were usually amazing and awesome. And I miss the ability to like things, because I could just press L when I liked something, and my reader would remember it for later, and I had all these requirements for starring something vs. liking it, and Google has messed all that shit up, because now I have to "S" all the things, and that's just not right. (Whatever: doesn't everybody sort their feeds into a million categories?)
Google tells the detractors to the new Reader that there's a +1 button, and that it's almost exactly the same as share and/or like, but there's one big difference: In order to +1, I have to register for Google Buzz. In order to register with Google Buzz (in my experience, and what I've been reading about other's on the web), you have to forgo any shot at internet anonymity. In other words, I have to use my real name. My Google Reader was just initials, and I was able to share stuff with two separate groups of people: People who knew me IRL and knew my initials, and I told them how to find my reader OR people who knew my G-Mail through this website and found me that way. So I could share things with people, without sharing ME with people.
So I'm stuck with not sharing, and not liking, and so I came here to tell you that I don't like the un-liking and un-sharing. It's stupid. But, because this is my blog and I can put anything I want here, here are some things I would have liked or shared, over the past little while.
This AMA Reddit thread, where my favorite astrophysicist, Neil deGrasse Tyson answers questions (Which, technically did not come through my Reader, but my Reddit & Twitter accounts, but still: Is too much awesome not to share.) Example of said awesome? When asked about things that blow his mind:
How cool is that? And how cool is it that I know that now, something about quarks? I won't forget it either, which is why I heart Neil deGrasse Tyson: He makes science relevant and interesting.2) That Quarks come only in pairs: If you try to separate two of them, the energy you sink into the system to accomplish this feat is exactly the energy to spontaneously create two more quarks – one to partner with each of those you pulled apart.
This post by the Smart Bitches, where they're asking for recommendations for books whose main characters have disabilities. Because I am constantly reading these kinds of books, and want MOAR, and because the Bitchery manages not to drag out a lot of tropes that I can't stand (Magical Cures: No, Thank You), or, for the most part, calls out the tropes when they see them... Exception to this rule - some people there have recommended books by Catherine Anderson, because the heroines have disabilities. While that is the truth, they are just... not good. I refer you this recent Goodreads thread, but also, just to common sense: the only thing these books are about is that the character is disabled. So that's all the author has to talk about as far as those characters go. She is "Girl in Wheelchair", "Blind Girl", "Deaf Girl" (and always girl, never woman); it is the sum total of her characterization, and the result is some horrible stuff. Anyways, aside from that, a lot of good recommendations (I've read some, added some to my TBR, and will go back to mine it again.) I can post some of the best, or links to my Goodreads reviews of them, if anybody's interested in some of the better ones.
(And that last item reminds me that I haven't talked about the return of Barbara Gordon as Batgirl. Which I am definitely going to do, as soon as I read the first three issues of Batgirl, to see how I feel her return is being portrayed. But I can say, even though I haven't read them yet, that I already miss Oracle. And what she meant to a lot of readers with disabilities, and specifically me.)
And speaking of comic books, there's this article, regarding what one writer sees as the hypocritically sexist 'neighborhood' of superheroines. She makes some points that I think are valid:
Most of all, what I keep coming back to is that superhero comics are nothing if not aspirational. They are full of heroes that inspire us to be better, to think more things are possible, to imagine a world where we can become something amazing. But this is what comics like this tell me about myself, as a lady: They tell me that I can be beautiful and powerful, but only if I wear as few clothes as possible. They tell me that I can have exciting adventures, as long as I have enormous breasts that I constantly contort to display to the people around me. They tell me I can be sexually adventurous and pursue my physical desires, as long as I do it in ways that feel inauthentic and contrived to appeal to men and kind of creep me out. When I look at these images, that is what I hear, and I don't think I even realized how much until this week.
and others I can't comment on because I'm not an avid comic book reader, but it was definitely something to think about. Comments not recommended, by the way: horrid.
This quote
Those are the best things about having kids, is just those everyday, really funny, weird moments that you could never predict, that completely change your mood and, you know, open up your heart.
and this photoset of Amy Poehler, that sums up exactly why I want to have a family. Why you'd put up with the colic and the clutter and the "oh my sweet jesus, why are you not wearing clothes-we have to leave right now and you are suddenly naked for no reason" and the "holy god you are only eleven years old, you do not get to pretend you know everything already" moments, just for a "My pleasure" every now and then.
On a more serious note, there's this HuffPo piece by Eve Ensler, which sums up pretty much everything I feel about rape and rape culture. I'm over it, too. And neither of us is alone: here's Amalah's post about Penn State (her alma mater); and how over it she is as well.
And two webcomics to round things out. First up, from Cowbirds in love :
Cowbirds in Love is awesome, in case you were wondering.
And lastly, from I don't know where, and I hate it when a backlink disappears: , which basically sums up my entire life right now.
