Category Archives: Media

Reviews of movies, books, music. Lyrics, poems, quotes, etc.

Earth Shaking, Hearts Bleeding

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One of the most striking images I’ve seen of the Haiti earthquake’s aftermath is one of a child sitting on the street with this huge fear in his eyes. He can’t be older than 6 or 7 and the desperation on his face makes me cry every time I see it. I feel what that child feels and I want to run there, carry him on my arms and tell him everything is going to be fine; I want to protect him so much. I haven’t been able to find a photo of that child online, but I keep seeing it on TV news. It’s one of those scenes that will be forever engraved in my mind.

A country like Haiti, already hit not only by political turmoil and violence, but a series of hurricanes in a short period of time… you don’t think it can get any worse for the poorest nation of the western hemisphere. And then the earth shakes like it hasn’t in two centuries. You wonder how those people can be on the streets singing hymns. I for one ask myself (or the universe) why do these things happen? Why do people who are already suffering greatly have to go through something so devastating? I guess I have to follow my mom’s advice and don’t ask why.

Some people don’t seem to care much. Others realize this is just another tragedy in the world and choose not to let it get to them. But for me, this is a reason to stop and think what am I really doing to help the world, especially those in need? Sometimes I dream about joining a humanitarian mission and spending sometime in some place where I can make a difference in people’s life. While that may not be realistic sometimes because my life engagements and setting, I always try to help in other ways.

Mashable.com has a great post on Ways You Can Help. Take a look at it and, please, consider helping the people of Haiti.

On Social Media Etiquette

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I would like to know who creates all these rules about what you should and should not post on social media sites like Facebook and Twitter. I mean, I assume we all have some common sense and know how to use censorship not to make fools of ourselves (probably a wrong assumption), but what is so wrong with telling your friends where you are and what you’re doing. I haven’t seen any of that in the actual TOS of social media sites.

Last week I learned a new word, Twittiquette, which works OK for business-related social media, but leaves the day to day user feeling like his/her life has no transcendence. I quote:

Be interesting. There are far too many people who even if they aren’t tweeting about their diet or the weather are still amazingly boring. Remember, if you have nothing to say it is better to keep your mouth shut.

Sure, we all want to spice in our lives, but some days are just so normally boring. It doesn’t mean we should refrain ourselves from interacting online because we’re being 100% human, right?

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KC Twestival Charity Voting Open

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The KC Twestival Local planning team has tallied the votes from the original list of 18 charities submitted for consideration for KC Twestival Local and we have narrowed down the final list to 6 Kansas City area charities. Now, we need you to submit your vote.

You can submit your vote at: http://kansascitytwestival.uservoice.com.

The entire community will have a say in which charity will receive 100% of the funds raised from this event. Only 1 will be selected.

Voting will be open until Thursday, August 13, 2009 at 11:59PM CST.

Turn your lights OFF for Earth

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From the Google info page:

Earth Hour invites one billion people in more than 2800 cities representing 83 countries to turn off their lights for one hour – tonight, Saturday, March 28 from 8:30pm to 9:30pm in their local time zone. On this day, cities around the world, including Paris, Sydney, London, Cairo, New York, Los Angeles and Cape Town, will join together to demonstrate their commitment to energy conservation and sustainability. [...] Earth Hour is about more than dimming lights for sixty minutes; it’s about making a commitment to reduce energy consumption throughout the year.

It saddens me that some people have made Earth Hour a political issue and think we’re just a bunch of liberals who don’t know better. It saddens me that some people don’t understand what this is really about. It saddens me that some people don’t see climate change is real, and it doesn’t matter if it’s caused by humans or because earth goes through cycles. We all are suffering the consequences, we all need to do something about it.

So tonight I’m turning my lights OFF, just for one hour. Because it DOES make a difference. We all need to stop for a minute and think that this is not about political ideas or who’s right or wrong, but about what means we use to protect this planet that was given to us.

Vote Earth. Switch your lights off, tonight at 8:30.