Funny Video

I just thought this video was funny and, since I have completed my required 20 posts, I feel safe in putting it up.

Trust me, you'll like it:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nrlSkU0TFLs

I don't know if anybody still looks at these blogs, though...

Google Me

As many of you may have suspected, my name Googles extremely well. There are exactly 25 hits for my name and each and every one of them is actually me. I have no googlegangers whatsoever.

I really liked the Wall Street Journal article because it makes me seem like I will be able to be more successful because of my unique name. People will be able to learn about me quickly and easily and therefore network with me more efficiently because I am apparently the only Cairna Bode in the entire world.

So at least there are a few perks for having a weird name...

I Learn Best Angry

iSpy has been described as the most dense book we've read yet this semester. People have complained about the author's lofty vocabulary and lengthy diatribes. In spite of all this (or maybe because of it), I have actually enjoyed reading this book more than any other.

The reason I like this book is because it is so controversial. I find myself reading on so that I can pick holes in his arguments. And, in fact, I have solidified my own ideas by constructing them in opposition to Andrejevic's.

We've had the very best discussions as a result of this book. We've gotten very passionate and engaged to the point that it's difficult to make us stop talking at the end of class time. (Heck! We even talked about this book during break.)

Many of the other books we've read are difficult to disagree with. I mean, how can I say that design and symphony aren't good things? But I really have enjoyed trying to understand another point of view and then coming up with a persuasive argument against it.

Please keep the book in the class. It's worth our read. Just don't expect anyone under the age of 25 to agree with it on any level (after all, we're already brainwashed--haha).

I <3 Politics

I'm just going to throw it out there--the political blog I most frequently look at is wonkette. it's just so friggin' funny. But for the purposes of this blog, I chose to engage with a political blog that was a bit more scholarly and serious. That's right, I'm talking about the Daily Kos.

When I googled "Daily Kos", the blurb that came up about the website said, "Daily weblog with political analysis on US current events from a liberal perspective." So, in case there was any doubt, this website is left of center. And, indeed, it seems to favor Obama heavily.

Lots of people keep diaries on the Daily Kos website, but the people who contribute to the main blog (the one you see when you first go to the website) are basically a group of people who are unhappy with the current administration and are looking for a more liberal solution.

The blog discusses politics. The posts I looked at seem focused a lot on polls and demographics (which makes sense because today is the much-anticipated Pennsylvania primary).

The people who comment on the blogs seem to be pretty liberal as well. In fact, the comments I read were extremely liberal and unabashedly elitist.

I liked the blog. It had a witty, fun-to-read style and raised intelligent points. I also liked that it steered clear of wonkette-ish dribble (like OMG! Obama to Die of Syphillis). So that's refreshing.

How to Keep Your facebook Clean

I read this article in Reader's Digest about how to clean up your online profile. What I really appreciate about the article is that it gives really good tips for people (like me) who think that they have done nothing questionable online.

My though on the whole iSpy issue is that I really have done nothing I am ashamed of. I mean, I'm a pretty clean-cut kid. The article brings up a few little things, though, that potential employers could be find questionable about my online profile.

For example, people have not been hired in the past because of things they've written on other people's walls. I know, I know, it's their own dumb fault, but some of the comments are things that we wouldn't normally think of as being vocationally harmful.

So, that is all to say that my profile is now limited only to actual friends.

Political Identity

The fact that I have only voted Democrat on rare occasions does not mean that I have a whole lot of party loyalty. I have a few issues that are the most important to me--most of them socially conservative. Ideally, I would like to vote for a candidate that is socially conservative and fiscally liberal--an independent thinker who refuses to toe the party line. These candidates are few and far between, however. Usually, I just vote for the lesser of two evils.

I basically consider myself a crunchy con--an unusual combination of the two basic stages of my life. From birth to age 18, I was raised on conservative political media (and this Fall I plan on attending Focus on the Family Institute) Though I also consumed more mainstream media (like NPR, The Washington Post, and CBS News), I was very very far right. College, however, has made me more liberal on some issues. Now my media diet also includes The New York Times and the Daily Show. I'm open-minded and a hodgepodge of ideas having been influenced by both my family and my teachers.

The Right to Bash?

I just wanted to draw everybody's attention to a recent UMBC Underground piece entitled "4 Professors Not To Take."

There has been a recent backlash from the teachers mentioned calling the piece a form of backlisting--especially since it is published on a sorta school sponsored blog.

So the question that many teachers are raising (both on the blog and in other media) is whether or not this is permittable or ethical.

Is this a freedom of speech issue? Is it harmless fun? Should the mysterious "short" have the right to say whatever he/she wants about anybody? And even if "short" doesn't have the right, what recourse do we have against a nameless virtual entity?

This issue is coming up more and more these days. Knowing that potential employers will Google our names, how can we protect ourselves from anonymous cyber-slanderers?

Dystopian internet, anyone?