Net Neutrality

On my old blog, The Super-Secret Diary of an Earthling, I had a wonderful little link to Save The Internet, a group who advocates Net Neutrality. Sadly, when Blogger started to jerk me around, I lost nearly everything on my sidebar and then some. Today, I got an e-mail from Timothy Karr, the “name” behind net neutrality and SaveTheInternet.com telling me about some dirty dealings in Boston on the part of Comcast, one of the largest U.S. ISPs.

What is Net Neutrality? Simply put, net neutrality is the freedom to surf and use the internet without any sort of bias on the part of your ISP.

When the corporations who provide your internet service dictate which pages you can access, when they automatically send your searches to pages they are affiliated with, when you have no choice but to pay for access to blogger, google or some other unaffiliated site, then net neutrality will be no more.

Why the big deal? Because, as a medium, the Internet is perhaps the last bastion of freedom for all. Anyone with access can share, modify and create content. Due to the proliferation of peer-to-peer software, the music industry was nearly crippled by pirated music and downloading. Instead of “getting with the program,” they chose to be litigious. This is the power of net neutrality, and it’s important to protect, because choice is more important than profits when it comes to media and audiences.

Of course, corporations disagree completely. They want your money, and they want as much of it as possible. The best way for them to do this is to amalgamate and charge you for every little bit of privilege they “grant” you. There is so much more about this issue at this SaveTheInternet.com page, and put in much better ways than I can right now.

Because you see, I am mad. WATCH THE FOLLOWING. it is important.

And Lest we Canadians forget, we have the same problem up here…

Happy Valentine’s Day

I value spontenaity. The best Valentine’s gift or experience I ever had wasn’t the time my high school boyfriend took me to a fancy restaurant and gave me flowers, candy and a silver heart pendant. No, it was when Esso ripped a poster with Calvin from Calvin and Hobbes yelling “Happy Valentine’s Day” off the wall on his way to class. He followed that up with pizza and a movie. None of it was planned, all of it was heartfelt.

Whenever Valentine’s Day comes around now, I can feel him freezing with fear as to what to do for me, or give me.

I long for those days when Esso realized it was never about the gift, but about the (spontaneous) expression of his love for me. I’m not sure when it changed, exactly, although I must have initiated it to a degree, because I’m not dumb enough to say I didn’t have expectations. I think every woman has expectations, whether or not she voices them. One of the guys in my class today told me that women expect too much on Valentine’s Day. I found it hard to argue with him.

But for me, Valentine’s Day is about LOVE: love for each other, love we share in private, love we treasure and explore. It’s not about STUFF.

This year, I have no readily available Valentine, and I feel strange…not quite alone, but not quite connected to the greater world.

I hope your V-day is better.

Grrr.

*this was written during my illness.*

It’s times like these I wish I had a cat curled up on the part of the bed where I would put my feet eventually–to warm it up for me before I go take yet another nap. I hate naps. And I’m cold. Yes, yes, I’m sick again. Grrrr.

Some freakazoid from an energy “company” (I use the term loosely; what they do is set prices, not provide any product or delivery service) banged on the front door to the downstairs unit and waited on the porch for 5 minutes.

I was surprised when I finally did drag my sniffling carcass to the window that the guy was still there. I opened my window and called down, “Can I help you?” whereupon he began trying to give me his best sales pitch. I lied. I told the guy that was up to our landlady, and we don’t pay for it separately. I’m not proud of it (lying), but the last time Esso and I went with some energy plan a guy sold door-to-door, we had to deal with negative billing* and a phone rigamarole for about two years.

*negative billing is where they continue to send you a bill for services you have already cancelled. It’s a scam designed to make you think you hadn’t paid the last bill. As soon as you pay that bill, your cancelled services start up again, under the same ironclad terms you had probably cancelled because of in the first place. In other words, you pay for something you don’t want, and then end up beholden to another agreement without knowing it explicitly.

Happy Birthday to Damian Lewis

No, I haven’t watched Life. See, right now, I am enjoying free cable, thanks to the guys who used to live downstairs. But someday, I am sure the cable company will come and disconnect it, so I haven’t wanted to get too absorbed in ANY TV show.

However, I’ve got my eye on Lewis…he has chops.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY, DAMIAN!

Pobody’s Nerfect

I was sick for some time, about 4-5 days, and for me, that’s a very long time to be sitting up trying to breathe while congested, achy and sore. I was thoroughly miserable, and I’m glad Esso didn’t have to deal with me. On the other hand, if Esso were here, I could have had him go get me meds and groceries, so I probably wouldn’t have been quite so miserable.

Mini-Me will be staying over tonight so we can have a nice day together tomorrow. To be honest, I’m at a loss as to what to do with her. There aren’t too many movies a 13-year old girl can watch out right now, and I don’t have a video card. I love my Zip.ca, but it’s not good for impulse rents as it takes two days to get to you at the fastest. She did want to go skating, but I have ruled that out for two reasons: I don’t have skates, and there are no rails on the two outdoor rinks downtown. Oh, and also the little matter of not wanting to look like a fucking moron on the ice, as I have not skated since I was 25, and then only once.

There are board games, and mini-golf…hey, that gives me an idea….