Wednesday, June 18, 2008

yes, i am still harping on the issue


the wonk room has the rundown of why mccain is just like those very serious anti-contraception folks:

•Voted to end "the Title X family planning program, credited with helping prevent over 9 million abortions."
•Voted against funding teen-pregnancy-prevention programs and ensuring that "abstinence-only" programs are medically accurate.
•Voted for the domestic gag rule, which would have prohibited federally funded family-planning clinics from providing women with access to full information about their reproductive-health options.
•Voted to take $75 million from the Maternal and Child Health Block Grant to establish a new "abstinence-only" program that censors information about birth control.
•Declined to help reduce the need for abortion and improve maternal health by opposing effort to require insurance coverage for prescription birth control, improve access to emergency contraception, and provide more women with prenatal health care.
•Voted against legislation that would have prevented unintended pregnancy by investing in insurance coverage for prescription birth control, promoting family-planning services, implementing teen-pregnancy-prevention programs, and developing programs to increase awareness about emergency contraception

Tuesday, June 17, 2008

"here's that document you requested"


someone just handed me one of these relics as a joke.

the lion's share

because i clearly suck at sitting down and doing the necessary after a long, fantastic vacation (by writing an account of the trip and putting together a nice slide show of photos), i am going to submit to the fact that it will come at its own pace. and because i had such a long hiatus, i've been storing up links to share like crazy. so in no particular theme or order, here are some early week treats:

  • future me: e-time capsule a note to yourself.

  • stickk: this site helps you commit to your personal goals by helping you create a timeline to reach them and if you fail to, you forfeit an amount of money to a good cause. participating organizations include american red cross, CARE, doctors without borders, feed the children, freedom from hunger, multiple sclerosis society, UNICEF, and united way. i haven't tried this, mostly because i'm short on the dough lately after my big trip. but i like the element of credible threat it provides. and the threat just happens to include good-doery.

  • original oregon trail: i don't think i need to say a lot about this program. oregon trail is fun and even though facebook has an OT application, it just isn't the same. so, whenever you get that itch for the real OT experience, see the link above.

  • quizlet: quizlet was started in 2005 by a fifteen year-old. makes me feel unaccomplished. anyway, the site is great because it's basically a web-based program that helps you create digital flashcards. you make a list of words, and the site teaches them to you. you can also browse other existing sets of cards.

  • metremade: free, pretty wallpaper designs for your desktop.

  • nine months of free credit monitoring: transunion, one of the three major credit bureaus, apparently lost a class-action lawsuit and the settlement involves offering up to nine months of free credit monitoring service to anyone who has ever held a credit card over the last 20 years (i.e. lots of people). this includes free access to your credit score in addition to the report, as well as e-mail alerts when something changes. you don’t need to supply your full social security number (needs last four digits) or a credit card number, and you won’t be automatically signed up for any paid subscriptions after the free period. see this website for more details.

  • fivethrityeight: developed by nathaniel read silver, this site features a system for tracking and forecasting the outcome of the 2008 US presidential election. the site is highly regarded, as forecasts based on demographic analysis proved to be substantially more accurate than those of the professional pollsters.

Monday, June 16, 2008

look at this

i'm voting republican


today is share tongue-in-cheek support for the republican party day. aside from the video above, here's an additionally funny (yet more depressing) stab: a loyalty oath for clinton supporters who turn to mccain instead of obama

in my opinion, women's reproductive health is the number one reason to vote democratic this election. with the strong likelihood of an open supreme court seat in the next four years, mccain's openly anti-abortion stance, and the nomination he's suspected to make that will change roe v. wade, i really hope that all of you urge your friends and family to vote, and vote specifically obama. for more on the kind of evil we're facing that we've got to get proactive against (from the article i linked above):
And amidst these obstacles, anti-contraceptive activists attack women's access to contraception on every other level: President George W. Bush's Deficit Reduction Act (DRA) of 2006 bars pharmaceutical companies from selling birth control at a discounted price to university health centers and safety-net clinics, leaving low-income and college women paying full price for birth control.

why? there's really little actual reasoning behind that kind of policy. i hate using the word "evil" when talking about politics, but i can't think of a more fitting word in this instance.

Tuesday, June 10, 2008

cheap trick(s)


i recently came across three free photo editing links that i thought might be of interest:

photoshop express
  • free uploading, 2GB
  • crop, rotate, edit images
  • has most basic features used by most photoshop users
  • display albums in 3D, grids, or "crop circles"

    picnik
  • crop, resize, and rotate images
  • special effects
  • special fonts with top-quality type tool
  • works on mac, windows, and linux
  • no download required, nothing to install

    ez rounded corners
  • quick one time uploads
  • fast edit: rounded corners
  • see top of page for more options: ezresize, ezsendlargefiles

    i was excited to see these, because my eee is limited on space and i am happy to use these free, bare-bones, no-download options when possible. basically, i think the photoshop one has more bells and whistles for more elaborate projects, but picnik is just more ideal for easy, quick jobs. ez rounded corners is just that, a fast way to nicely round image corners. enjoy!

    **image thanks to iiiijjjj (edited with ezroundedcorners.com)
  • you know you're in arkansas when...


    student accounts desk sent this around last week.

    Wednesday, June 4, 2008

    election '08: the collective mega (lady) boner


    so, i am excited about the finalization (at least it seems so) of the primaries for the democrats. my "man" won. but i wasn't like a lot of obama's voters who seemed to grow increasingly bitter over the rival clinton camp. in fact, when it came to their respective platforms, neither one was so markedly different from the other that i was able to choose a candidate based on policies alone.

    instead, i ultimately chose obama because in my lifetime, i have never heard people so excited about politics as those who support obama have been. and i guess, after the last seven years, i think that's one of the things i've been most concerned about: a collective disillusionment. and i think, when americans are active and excited about politics, remarkable things happen in american history: the civil rights movement, women's suffrage, the end of slavery, etc. to name a few. i want to see that within my lifetime.

    but i want to speak very quickly about clinton. she still has my respect. and i get excited when i think about her campaign and how it has done really positive things for women in politics and other professional fields. i read this today originally from feministing.org and wanted to share the discussion:


    Over the course of this historic, thrilling, aggressive primary election, we've seen more female pundits than ever before writing and speaking about presidential politics. We've experienced unprecedented interest from male politicos in women's participation in the electoral process. And demands for women's leadership have been given their fairest hearing to date in the United States, with Democrats nationwide expecting Obama to give close consideration to female vice presidential prospects -- not only because there are a few wildly successful and talented women who would be great at the job, but also as a gesture of good will toward the feminist energy that animated so many Clinton supporters.


    who did YOU vote for and why? what are your thoughts about the primaries?

    youngme - nowme

    Color Wars 2008, a site I only found today, seems to have closed shop, much to my disappointment. They describe the site as a home to "an internet-wide game in which players from a number of self created teams compete for prizes and medals." One such "game" was the youngme - nowme. See some of my favorites below: