News. My brain.
I have trouble writing about news stories. I don't know what to say. Especially on this blog that was created mostly as a place for me as an exercise in writing (no offense to you, if you are reading). Let us face it. This is not one of those "useful" blogs where you come away from it feeling like you have learned something valuable. This is just where I sometimes go to dump my brain. That is why writing about news or social happenings are hard for me--I want to write something worthwhile, but writing with a message feels inauthentic to me--that is not something I am practiced in. This blog post took me 2 days just to figure out how I was going to talk about very simple news stories I heard. What a lot of hoo-ha.
So. Without further ado--here are two news stories and an observation on advertising that I am going to give you--backed with very little commentary because when it comes to what I should say about them, I seem to be at a loss:
1) States Fail in Fight Against Sex Trafficking - Share Hope International, a non-profit fighting to eradicate child trafficking, released State Report Cards for the legal framework for protection against child-trafficking. How did your State do? TX and WA (my home states!) are the top two. Because there is a need for strict laws or just because they are proactive and aware? I don't have the stats to answer that question. It is frightening to think of sex trafficking being so prevalent in the states. From the victims to the perpetrators this is definitely a worthy cause to fight against.
2) Ray Bradbury agrees to have Fahrenheit 451 released as an ebook. What you won't find in this NPR article (but they did say on the radio) is that basically his old publishing contract was up and his agent told him he wouldn't get a publishing deal without consenting to have the book e-published. This website says the 91 year old author finally crumbled. Crumbled! And we are supposed to be happy about this? Here is a man who wrote one of the most beloved books of all time, who vehemently opposes the Internet, and the great technologically dependant youth and media market finally cornered him by threatening to not publish his book again unless he succumbed to e-publishing and we are happy about it? We consider it a victory? I get the irony of posting this post on the Internet...go ahead and have a good chuckle about it. But please, take a moment to remember how magical it is to hold a book in your hands. To physically flip through the pages and circle any word you want. To notice the tea stains, tear stains, coffee stains, dead bug stains. The magic of a picture book. Curling up in a corner with your favorite book and a blanket on a rainy day and getting lost. I've got to wave my tiny flag in support of Bradbury and his statement that the Internet is a "distraction" that is "just in the air."
3) Over at a friends house today to watch their kiddo. I am flipping through an Urban Outfitters catalogue. If anybody has gotten a recent one, please join me in being disturbed that the models are 13 or 14 year old girls dressed and made up to look 19 or 20. How is that a fair visual standard for what a person is supposed to look like? They haven't even hit puberty yet! They might, some day, even have some T&A while the rest of us stop eating to achieve that "ideal" slim, curve-less figure. And what about just being 13 or 14? Seems to me that was the age we all went through when we were too young to be old, but did it anyway, and too old to be young...but did that anyway too. I don't know what my point is. Just that I was disturbed.
Until next time!
So. Without further ado--here are two news stories and an observation on advertising that I am going to give you--backed with very little commentary because when it comes to what I should say about them, I seem to be at a loss:
1) States Fail in Fight Against Sex Trafficking - Share Hope International, a non-profit fighting to eradicate child trafficking, released State Report Cards for the legal framework for protection against child-trafficking. How did your State do? TX and WA (my home states!) are the top two. Because there is a need for strict laws or just because they are proactive and aware? I don't have the stats to answer that question. It is frightening to think of sex trafficking being so prevalent in the states. From the victims to the perpetrators this is definitely a worthy cause to fight against.
2) Ray Bradbury agrees to have Fahrenheit 451 released as an ebook. What you won't find in this NPR article (but they did say on the radio) is that basically his old publishing contract was up and his agent told him he wouldn't get a publishing deal without consenting to have the book e-published. This website says the 91 year old author finally crumbled. Crumbled! And we are supposed to be happy about this? Here is a man who wrote one of the most beloved books of all time, who vehemently opposes the Internet, and the great technologically dependant youth and media market finally cornered him by threatening to not publish his book again unless he succumbed to e-publishing and we are happy about it? We consider it a victory? I get the irony of posting this post on the Internet...go ahead and have a good chuckle about it. But please, take a moment to remember how magical it is to hold a book in your hands. To physically flip through the pages and circle any word you want. To notice the tea stains, tear stains, coffee stains, dead bug stains. The magic of a picture book. Curling up in a corner with your favorite book and a blanket on a rainy day and getting lost. I've got to wave my tiny flag in support of Bradbury and his statement that the Internet is a "distraction" that is "just in the air."
3) Over at a friends house today to watch their kiddo. I am flipping through an Urban Outfitters catalogue. If anybody has gotten a recent one, please join me in being disturbed that the models are 13 or 14 year old girls dressed and made up to look 19 or 20. How is that a fair visual standard for what a person is supposed to look like? They haven't even hit puberty yet! They might, some day, even have some T&A while the rest of us stop eating to achieve that "ideal" slim, curve-less figure. And what about just being 13 or 14? Seems to me that was the age we all went through when we were too young to be old, but did it anyway, and too old to be young...but did that anyway too. I don't know what my point is. Just that I was disturbed.
Until next time!
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