Stores I Can Never Visit Again

I'm only 22 years old, but that's still old enough to have visited places that no longer exist. As I've grown up, my home town and the surrounding towns have changed. There are a number of places I visited as a child - some very frequently - that closed their doors later, and I genuinely miss some of them.

New England Video
This was a local video rental store that was a very popular destination for me and my brother from the mid-90s up until the early 2000s. While I enjoyed renting the occasional VHS tape from the kid's section (most frequently a Disney film or Garfield cartoon), the main reason for me to visit New England Video was the extensive collection of video games for the Sega Genesis system. I grew up with the Genesis, and it was a big part of my childhood. There are a number of games for it that I closely associate with New England Video because I rented them so frequently. Later, around 1999, my family got a Nintendo 64, and we rented games for that very frequently as well.

In the mid-2000s, New England Video began to falter from my perspective. They started selling off their collections of Genesis and N64 games, and my brother and I took advantage to pick up some of our old favorites. However, their selection of games for the next set of video game systems was lacking. It was a stark contrast to the all-star lineup of awesome games they had for older systems, and it was worrying. Another problem was that I wasn't and have never been a huge movie buff, so their VHS collection and their new DVDs weren't attracting me either. Without game rentals, I cared little for the store, and we stopped visiting around 2005. New England Video technically still exists (although they've moved twice, once when I was still visiting and once after), but I haven't been inside in years and it's not the store I grew up with anymore. I have, however, passed by it frequently, and it has one of those signs out front with the interchangeable letters that talks about movies you "won't find at RedBox". Exclusivity or not, RedBox and NetFlix are killing the video rental store, and I can't imagine New England Video hanging on much longer.

BlockBuster
Another video rental store. Blockbuster was late to the game, showing up around 2006, just in time for the launch of the latest wave of video game systems (The PlayStation 3, Xbox 360, and Wii). Like New England Video, game rentals were what I cared about. I rented from Blockbuster a few times and discovered some good games, but I never got into it as much as I had New England Video. Within a couple years, the Blockbuster franchise was sold and renamed the incredibly silly "Moose Mountain", which sounds more like a mini-golf course or a hunting supply store than it does a video rental shop. Predictably, Moose Mountain folded in under a year.

Ames
This is the big one. This is the greatest shopping tragedy of my childhood. I loved Ames. Loved it like you wouldn't believe. It was the only full-fledged department store in town, and it was the de facto destination whenever my family needed something. Clothes? Go to Ames. Toys? Stop by Ames. Holiday decorations? Ames again. They had just about everything. This was the place my family bought a lot of things that were near and dear to me. I remember the time my brother and I came here with our savings and bought the Nintendo 64. I remember walking through the holiday aisles around Christmas time, seeing the displays of those little Christmas town figurines. I remember reading a Pokemon comic book while relaxing on a chair in the furniture section. And speaking of Pokemon, I remember buying pack after pack of Pokemon trading cards, eagerly collecting as many as I could.

In my mind, there was always going to be an Ames. It was a constant presence. Tons of people shopped there. It was the biggest fish the the small pond that was my hometown. And it was a chain - there were Ames stores all over the place, in other states, across the country! Truly, it was too big to fail.

It was in 2002 when the news spread. Ames was going out of business. Not scaling back to just the profitable stores (ours had to be profitable, there's no doubt in my mind). Going away forever. I was distraught. Ames was the best place in town for so many things! How could it vanish? Where would we go? There wasn't anywhere else in town that sold video games, and the selections of other merchandise left much to be desired. As it turned out, our town would never see another department store. Fortunately, my family eventually discovered the wonders of buying things online, and we've had little difficulty finding things to buy since.

The liquidation sale was a fun last hurrah. I was able to get a bunch of stuff for cheap. At the time, I was a big Spongebob Squarepants fan, so I got a bunch of Spongebob toys. I also remember getting a Halloween CD and Pac-Man for the Sega Game Gear. A year or two after Ames' demise, the space was filled by a grocery store (Shaw's). I still miss Ames even now, and if I had the chance to go back in time and visit any store again, this is definitely the one I'd pick.

Funny thing. I hadn't realized this until now, but this year is the tenth anniversary of Ames' demise. On August 14, it will have been 10 years since the announcement that every remaining Ames would close. Isn't that something else?

Here's a commercial Ames played to advertise their going-out-of-business sales. I only wish I'd had more money to take even better advantage of the liquidation.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5Yr8fhtM4lk

And here's what Wikipedia has to say about Ames:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ames_Department_Stores_Inc.

Frog Memories

Up here in Vermont, we don't see too many reptiles. Turtles live in some of the lakes, but I never discovered one myself - last year I saw one as roadkill, and when I was a child my grandfather brought over a turtle he'd caught to show me. And, as I mentioned in my post about Edgeworth, snakes are even more elusive. I've never seen a wild lizard at all. But amphibians are another matter entirely, and frogs have been part of my summers since early childhood.

My first experience with a wild frog was at a young age, around five or six. I was outside playing when I wandered over to one of my favorite spots, a water-filled ditch on a dirt road by my house. I had a lot of good times at this ditch, and I'll give it its own blog post later, but for now I'll focus on this one incident. I looked into the puddle and saw, peering back at me, the head of a frog. Just the head. With great excitement I ran into the house to tell my mom, eagerly shouting that I had found... a "turtle".

Yes, thanks partly to only seeing the head, partly being startled by something new, and partly being six years old, I thought the frog was a turtle. My mom told me so when she got a look at it, but my enthusiasm was only slightly diminished (turtles were my favorite animals at the time). This was the first of a number of summers that frogs would populate the ditch, although they weren't there every year.

Another, slightly later, memory of frogs comes from after my brother and I stopped using our kiddy pool but before it was thrown out. The pool was filled with outdoor toys and a few inches of rainwater. At the ditch one day I caught a frog, and around the same time I discovered a small brown toad hopping near our houses' back wall. I decided to try keeping the two amphibians in the kiddy pool. While the frog managed to hop out after a day or two, the toad stuck around for at least a week before finally escaping. I remember he wasn't a very good swimmer, but he certainly tried. I also remember taking him and holding him every day when I checked on him. I was always careful to wash my hands afterward, of course, thanks to reading about how some toads secrete poison.

One summer, I came into possession of a small frog and a larger frog. Aside from their size, they were identical. I kept the two of them in a tall bucket and checked in on them every day, occasionally tossing in bugs. They were always sitting in the same positions. One day I was in my room reading when I suddenly realized I hadn't fed the frogs in quite some time. Dashing to the garage, I saw the big frog in his usual pose, but the little frog was gone. I hurriedly released the larger frog into the ditch, solemnly acknowledging the smaller frog's obvious fate.

I still see frogs every so often, and thanks to childhood memories like these, frogs have a way of taking me back to the nineties, when so many of my fondest memories were made as a kid.

Safety Warning: "Rachel with Cardholder Services" is Dangerous!

You can consider this a sequel to my earlier post about "Tom with Home Protection". For a while now my home has gotten calls from "Rachel with Cardholder Services", and they are similar to Home Protection and just as crooked. I just got another call from Rachel this morning, and was inspired to Google her opening line. When I saw the results, I knew I had to post about it to keep you all informed.

Here's the scoop: Cardholder Services (which starts out by using robocalling - "Rachel" is just as fake as "Tom") claims it can lower your monthly interest rate on your credit card debt. They do this by asking for the phone number on the back of your credit card, whereupon they set up a three-way call between themselves, you, and the credit card company. Cardholder Services then asks for your rate to be lowered.

Do you see the problem?

It's very simple: anyone could do this all by themselves by simply calling the number on the back of their card without getting Cardholder Services involved. Similar to FreeCreditReport.com, Cardholder Services scams the ignorant by charging them for things they can do themselves for free. Cardholder Services will lower your rates, all right - and then you'll be charged as much as 1000 dollars for letting them do something you could've done yourself.

Like Home Protection, Cardholder Services is secretive and nearly impossible to track. And while this sort of scam may technically be legal, robocalling without the consumer's written permission is not, thanks to a law the Obama administration signed in September 2009. The company thought to be responsible, DHC Financial Services Group, was found over two years ago, but they dodged a bullet by settling and making a "promise" not to continue. Of course, they simply dissolved the company and started a new one, and Rachel continued trying to steal people's money.

Do not EVER listen to or believe a robocaller. Because of the 2009 law, all remaining robocallers randomly calling people are working illegally and their products and services cannot be trusted.

http://www.dailyfinance.com/2009/11/17/hanging-up-on-rachel-robo-calls-have-been-banned-yet-the-phone/

Internet Advertising - The Hilarity of Evony

Back in 2009 a series of ads began to make their way across the Internet advertising something called "Evony". Evony is an online video game where you are placed in charge of a medieval village and are tasked with building it into a robust community that can then wage war on other players' towns. But Evony's reputation is not for its gameplay, but rather its advertisements, which are among the most ridiculous attempts to get people (specifically men) to click an ad that I have ever seen.

Evony's ads were originally fairly up-front, depicting a medieval landscape and a knight in armor. The implications were clear - Evony was a medieval fantasy game appealing to people who like that sort of setting. But then, things got strange. Evony's next advertisements featured a girl in medieval dress with the message "Save the Queen!". As it turns out, "the Queen" was wearing a fairly revealing dress. From this point on the ads began sliding into increasingly false and tasteless territory, depicting women that were more and more scantily clad and eventually ditching the medieval theme altogether. Most of the later ads come off as being for a dating site, and certainly not a strategy game. A common phrase (and one the Internet mocked mercilessly) was "Play now, My Lord", which appeared on many of the ads. Further adding to the saucy implications of the ads is the claim that you can "play discreetly". The ads reached their nadir with a banner that consisted of nothing but a closeup of a woman's breasts, covered only by lingerie. It's one of the most ridiculous cases of false advertising I've ever seen, and the resulting widespread mockery they received in the gaming community was fully deserved.

Oh, and to add insult to injury? If you actually play Evony, your computer gets tracked and spied on. Lovely.

Here's a link to a progression of Evony's ads. (contains scantily clad women - think magazine covers)
http://www.lazygamer.net/general-news/a-history-of-evony-ads-the-insanity-continues/

Happy Endings and my Mind's Eye

There are plenty of ways to end a story. Horror stories frequently end poorly, with the looming threat either regrouping in another location or winning outright. Some stories, especially true stories, may end on a sad or downbeat note, such as the documentary Who Killed the Electric Car? But the most common type of ending to a story is the happy ending - the ending where everything turns out all right. I've always liked happy endings, and I gravitate towards them when writing. What is it about them that makes me want them?

One important thing about the happy ending is that most or all of the characters get what they deserve. The heroes are rewarded, the villains are jailed, killed, or otherwise dealt with, and there's a bright future ahead. I have always had a strong sense of truth and equality, so it's important to me that justice is served.

And that's another thing - why is it so important that justice be served when the story is fictional? Easy - another one of my reasons for wanting a happy ending is that I tend to get attached to the story's characters. I have a vivid imagination, and when I read a book I see characters interacting in my mind's eye. My imagination will frequently make things interesting by making the characters into other characters I've seen in movies, cartoons, video games, and so on. It will latch on to certain names or details and craft characters around them from other areas of pop culture, no matter how ridiculous the result is. As an example, I once read a book with a character whose last name was Webber. For some reason my mind went on the following path: Webber > webbed feet > ducks > Daffy Duck. The character was then Daffy Duck, no matter how hard I may have wished he wasn't. That is the sort of imagination I deal with when I read.

So anyway, the point of this is that I'm left with a crazy lineup of characters from both my childhood and recent years interacting every time I read a book - some making more sense than others. But this process has not only allowed the characters to come to life in my mind's eye, it also makes them more endearing and interesting. I grow attached to the characters as they interact throughout the book, and if things end badly for them I tend to get a little upset. I may cry, if it was a hard-hitting enough event.

Now, I talk about all this because I have encountered two books in particular that stuck out at me for being interesting, entertaining, and great reads - until the closing chapters, whereupon they twisted into unhappy endings that completely ruined the entire story for me. I'm going to be spoiling both books' endings, so if anyone here happens to be reading these books, don't finish the paragraphs!

The first book was one I read in class for high school, and I no longer remember the name. It was about a large group of dignitaries from all over the world meeting at a single mansion. The mansion was then taken over by terrorists and all the dignitaries (plus a female singer who was there to perform for them) were taken as hostages. Over the course of the book the hostages and terrorists begin to see eye to eye with each other. They form friendships, and when a couple of the terrorists are found to be female, love even begins to blossom. And then... a SWAT team storms the mansion and kills every single one of the terrorists. And I had really been enjoying it, too, hoping that these teenage soldiers who had never known happiness could be turned around, brought back from the brink, and escape or survive the story. But no. Instead, the story ended with the unceremonious killing off of half the cast, taking away all of the most sympathetic characters and with it, my interest.

The second book was found several years ago at a yard sale. Titled Warriors, it's about a middle-aged former fighter pilot getting called back into service for one last war. Along the way he winds up falling in love with a woman around his age. Their romance grows, and the fighting sequences were exciting. But then, halfway though the story, the woman is murdered by the opposing army when a soldier breaks in and shoots her to death while she's taking a bath. The story took a hit here, but I kept reading... until the final battle ends with the dropping of a tactical nuke, killing the main character as well. The story ends with his goofy best friend (who was also recommissioned) being the most important character to have survived the events of the story. Again, the author thought I would still enjoy the book if all of the most interesting and likable characters were slaughtered. And he was wrong. A bad ending can ruin an entire story for me, and so it was with Warriors, which I bitterly shelved after finishing it, never to read it again, my opinion of it forever poisoned by the terrible ending.

Like many people, I read books and watch movies to "escape" into a fantasy world where I can look into the lives of heroes, villains, and everyday folks as they take on challenges and try to come out on top of each other's plans. That is why I like the happy ending - it is cathartic, it is pleasing, it is what I came for. I know the importance of heroes overcoming difficulties and dealing with setbacks, but if they don't triumph in the end it leaves me wondering what the point was.

Another Day, Another Petition

Here we go again.

http://wh.gov/KxA

I'll have a "real" post up later today.

Two Articles About Technology

I have two worthwhile articles I found today that I'd like to share.

http://pandodaily.com/2012/01/17/confessions-of-a-publisher-were-in-amazons-sights-and-theyre-going-to-kill-us/

The printed book is in trouble. It has been for a while, but I expect things to speed up in the next few years. I posted yesterday about how technology marches on, and that's happening in the world of books right now. Above is a link to an article that includes an email from an anonymous insider in the publishing industry. Their failure to innovate or adapt to new technology has cost them big time, and the company set to steamroll the industry is none other than Amazon, the most popular shopping website in existence.

http://torrentfreak.com/white-house-petitioned-to-investigate-mpaa-bribery-120122/

Some of you may be sick and tired of all the posts I've been making about internet censorship and I apologize if I sound like a broken record, but it's been a very hot topic this week and it's one near and dear to me. If you read the above article you'll find a link to the very cool White House petition site, We The People. One of Barack Obama's neatest ideas, We The People allows users to make petitions that are reviewed directly by White House staff and given public responses. It's a great way to bring issues to national attention, and it played a big part in the fight against SOPA and PIPA. This petition seeks to strike back at Hollywood by getting the MPAA looked into for bribery charges. With the Internet blackout still fresh, it's a good time to get the pendulum swinging the other way and seeing if the Internet can pull off a counterattack. I signed the petition (this whole SOPA mess made me a bit of an advocate, as you may have noticed), and they need just 548 more signatures to meet the minimum 25,000 required to force a response from the White House. The more signatures, the more power the petition has, so feel free to join in!

Technology Marches On

When I was in elementary school, I remember there were a few years where the school "advertised", for lack of a better word, a special event kids were encouraged to take part in. This event consisted of going an entire week without watching television. Looking it up, I've found that it's still being practiced - it's a week in April called "TV Turnoff Week".

The idea behind TV Turnoff Week is simple: If kids don't have television, they'll be more active, or play together, or read, or something else conceived as better than television. But the problem with technology is that it's always changing, and television does not have anywhere near the pull now it did in the nineties - and so, turning it off for a week makes far less of an impact.

As a child, my thoughts of TV Turnoff Week were simple: I felt it was extreme, and believed it unnecessary. I never participated. I was a pretty well-rounded kid (albeit solitary aside from my brother) - sure, I watched Nickelodeon, Cartoon Network, and occasionally the Disney Channel, but I had other pursuits. I played outside. I doodled. I was an avid reader. Toys and video games and coloring books all occupied niches of my time. I didn't feel that television dominated my life enough to be a horrible problem I had to evict - and at the same time, I dearly enjoyed my regular shows and didn't want to miss out on them.

Flash-forward to today. As it turns out, I've been participating in TV Turnoff Week for at least two years now. Back in 2009, after going back and forth between several cable plans, my family made the decision to drop all television. Although we still have four televisions in the house, not a single one is used for actually watching television shows. Two of them have VCRs hooked up to them. All four have a video game system connected. None receive any cable or over-the-air channels. This is what we use television sets for now, and I couldn't be happier with it. In the past, we had the television on for most of the day as background noise, and as I grew older and found fewer and fewer shows I cared about watching, I didn't enjoy it. But now? No commercials, no blaring news or reality shows, and no having to listen to dramatic weigh-in scenes on The Biggest Loser or studio applause on Wheel of Fortune when I'm trying to sleep.

So what happened? We had VCRs and video games in the nineties, and I loved TV then. Why do I no longer care about it? The answer's right in front of you. The Internet absolutely destroys television in terms of user enjoyment, real-world application, practicality, and entertainment value. It's "on-demand" - I don't have to wait till 8 PM to access my favorite websites. They (generally) aren't interrupted by loud, unwanted ads. And if you must have something to watch, there's plenty for free thanks to places like YouTube and Crackle. As a result, the Internet has completely replaced television as one of my entertainment sources, and does things TV could never do. This is why I was so enthusiastic when joining this week's protests against Internet censorship - we can't afford to lose something this valuable.

And don't expect an "Internet Turnoff Week", either - thanks to online schooling, e-textbooks, scholarly articles, social networking and Wikipedia, the Internet and computers in general have proven to be useful in academia as well. Technology marches on, and I'm always interested to see how it develops and changes the world next.

Help Stop Torture in Syria!

While I was helping out in the big Internet censorship protests, I became aware of another, very different issue thanks to Avaaz, an advocacy website. Since I joined their site to protest SOPA and PIPA, I got an email alert about another issue they're fighting for. Avaaz brings the worrying story of a despot in Syria torturing and oppressing innocents.

If you'd like to help, please take a minute to join Avaaz and sign their petition. Help arrest these criminals and make them pay for their crimes!

http://www.avaaz.org/en/arrest_syrias_torturers/?tta

Meet Edgeworth the Garter Snake

In November of 2009 I was walking our family dog, Ginger (an adorable chihuahua I'll share pictures of another time) when I noticed something moving through the nearby grass. To my surprise, it was a garter snake. I knew garter snakes lived in Vermont, but I had not seen one since my elementary school days when a fellow student found one on the school's open field where sports where played. My shock quickly gave way to very pleasant surprise - the snake had been one of my favorite animals for a long time, and for a period of time in elementary school it was my absolute favorite animal (that title, by the way, belongs to a different creature now. I'll write more later).

Needless to say, I couldn't waste this opportunity. I scooped up the snake in a plastic sandwich bag that would have housed Ginger's business if she had done any yet, and after making sure she didn't have to use the bathroom, I brought her - and the snake - inside.

Step One on the road to snake ownership was complete - I had a snake. And fortunately, I had a place to put him - albeit a temporary one. As I mentioned in my story of the monarch butterfly, I like to keep insects and spiders in a plastic container. Step Two of snake ownership - naming the snake - was easy. After a bit of thought, I decided to name him "Edgeworth". I selected this name (which I got from a video game character) because I thought taking a stuffy, pretentious, and high-class name like that and applying it to a tiny, harmless snake would be funny. Step Three was going to be difficult, though - convincing my mom.

She wasn't exactly in favor.

For the next couple days, the snake (and the entire bug container) was quarantined on the porch. Every so often I'd take him out and hold him. Aside from his fearful reaction of vacating his bowels on my hands, Edgeworth accepted the holding. However, it was November, and although we were in a fairly warm period, I knew Edgeworth wouldn't be able to keep this up. A conversation with my mom made things clear.

"So what happens if we leave it out here?", Mom asked.

"He'll die." I replied matter-of-factly.

My mom may hate snakes, but it's pretty hard for her to outright let an animal die. She relented and allowed Edgeworth back inside, and the container went back in its correct place in my room.

Next, I had to figure out how to feed Edgeworth (garter snakes have varied diets depending on species and even individuals). After some trial-and-error including buying him mealworms and crickets at the pet shop, I hit upon earthworms as Edgeworth's favorite food - he refused everything else I tried. After that, I needed to find him a better home - although he was only eight inches long, that was still a bit big for the bug container, and he also seemed very antsy about being exposed - I needed some decorations for him. For Christmas that year I got a much larger container from the same company that manufactured my bug container called the Reptile Ranch. I decked out the Ranch with a cave, a branch from a tree outside, a water bowl, and the crickets and mealworms came along to give him some company. I'd read that garter snakes enjoy seeing things moving around, and since I couldn't place him somewhere that got a lot of human/pet activity I had to substitute insects.

Now fully tricked out (last year I added fake moss, a fake cactus, and a vinyl rose), Edgeworth is suddenly living a life of comfort - a big change from that November day. He's now over a foot in length, and he's fed store-bought nightcrawlers and requires little else except an occasional litter change and fresh water. He may not be as loving as a dog or cat, or as fulfilling, but he fills a unique niche nonetheless, and I sometimes talk to him (although I don't confide in him). I'm glad I met him, and I'm happy that my mother could, in some small way, overcome her snake phobia. She still likes to insult him jokingly, and refuses to touch him, and insists there will never be another snake in the family, but it's progress all the same.

All of this talking and you still haven't actually MET Edgeworth! There he is below (this photo is roughly a year old, but he hasn't changed much except gotten a bit bigger). Click the photo to enlarge it.

Here's Wikipedia's entry on garter snakes.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Garter_snake

SOPA and PIPA both KOed (For Now)

Splendid news today from the front lines of the Internet - both SOPA and PIPA have been knocked off the current Congress schedule. Both bills have been tabled indefinitely. The Internet has won.

I will most definitely post additional updates on this very important topic should the need rise again - and because the entertainment industry is likely to try some other way in the future of stifling new technology, this is a good possibility.

Here is part of an email I received from Fight For The Future, one of the sites whose petitions I signed on Wednesday. Tiffiniy Cheng, you have the floor...

---------

Hi everyone!

A big hurrah to you!!!!! We’ve won for now -- SOPA and PIPA were dropped by Congress today -- the votes we’ve been scrambling to mobilize against have been cancelled.

The largest online protest in history has fundamentally changed the game. You were heard.

On January 18th, 13 million of us took the time to tell Congress to protect free speech rights on the internet. Hundreds of millions, maybe a billion, people all around the world saw what we did on Wednesday. See the amazing numbers here and tell everyone what you did.

This was unprecedented. Your activism may have changed the way people fight for the public interest and basic rights forever.

The MPAA (the lobby for big movie studios which created these terrible bills) was shocked and seemingly humbled. “‘This was a whole new different game all of a sudden,’ MPAA Chairman and former Senator Chris Dodd told the New York Times. ‘[PIPA and SOPA were] considered by many to be a slam dunk.’”

“'This is altogether a new effect,' Mr. Dodd said, comparing the online movement to the Arab Spring. He could not remember seeing 'an effort that was moving with this degree of support change this dramatically' in the last four decades, he added." We're indebted to everyone who helped in the beginning of this movement -- you, and all the sites that went out on a limb to protest in November -- Boing Boing and Mozilla Foundation (and thank you Tumblr, 4chan)! And the grassroots groups -- Public Knowledge, Electronic Frontier Foundation, Demand Progress, CDT, and many more.

SOPA and PIPA will likely return in some form.  But when they do, we'll be ready. We changed the game this fall, and we're not gonna stop.

P.S. China's internet censorship system reminds us why the fight for democratic principles is so important:

"Fittingly, perhaps, the discussion has unfolded on Weibo, the Twitter-like micro-blogging site that has a team of censors on staff to trim posts with sensitive political content. That is the arrangement that opponents of the bill have suggested would be required of American sites if they are compelled to police their users’ content for copyright violations. On Weibo, joking about SOPA’s similarities to Chinese censorship was sensitive enough that some posts on the subject were almost certainly deleted (though it can be hard to know)."

After Chinese Web users got over the strangeness of hearing Americans debate the merits of screening the Web for objectionable content, they marveled at the American response. Commentator Liu Qingyan wrote:

‘We should learn something from the way these American Internet companies protested against SOPA and PIPA. A free and democratic society depends on every one of us caring about politics and fighting for our rights. We will not achieve it by avoiding talk about politics.’"

 ---------

Again, my thanks to anyone who helped out these last few days, and I hope that we can repeat the performance if needed somewhere down the line. This is what freedom is all about.

All right, enough talk about Internet freedom for now - next post I make is the story of how I found my pet snake!

What exactly IS a Turtle?

Everyone knows turtles - those interesting reptiles with shells on their backs, no teeth, and a reputation for slow speed. But you also hear about tortoises and sometimes terrapins, and looking at pictures of the three animals may have you thinking "What's the difference?". It depends partially on where you live as well as being a matter of taste. Here's a quick guide on how to name your chelonians ("chelonian" is the Latin name for the turtle family).

First, there are the ocean-living chelonians. These animals are generally quite large. They can move on land - just barely - but they are very much aquatic creatures. These animals are often called "turtles" or "sea turtles".

Next are the amphibious chelonians. Frequently kept as pets, these creatures live in freshwater. While generally called "turtles", people living in the UK may call them "terrapins", and some people in the United States will use the term "slider".

The fearsome-looking snapping turtle is always called a turtle, and doesn't fall into the same group as the other freshwater turtles.

 This species is called the diamondback terrapin. This is the only turtle regularly called a terrapin by people outside the UK.

Finally, the family of land-living chelonians is referred to as "tortoises" or "box turtles". The UK generally prefers "tortoise", while most of the USA prefers "box turtle".

In short, if you want to tell the animals apart without just calling them all turtles, use "tortoise" if it has legs and "turtle" if it has flippers or webbed feet.

Here's my personal preferences on this important issue:
Ocean - Turtle
Freshwater - Turtle (exceptions: the red-eared slider and the diamondback terrapin)
Land - Tortoise

Update on the Internet Censorship Bills

Yesterday I joined millions of people in the biggest Internet protest in the history of the world. I hope you did too. By working together, we managed to take what seemed to be a sure-to-pass bill and severely crippled it. Over 4.5 million people signed the petition Google offered yesterday, and millions more signatures came in from Avaaz, PopVox, and other sites. Thanks to the blackouts of sites like Wikipedia, this movement finally hit the mainstream. The situation is clear: The American people overwhelmingly reject the censorship of the Internet, and the entertainment industry is going to have to try something else if they want to rake in more cash.

And Congress is listening. At least 18 politicians have done an about-face on their opinion of the bills, including several who co-sponsored PIPA. And while Lamar Smith of Texas is still standing by SOPA, Patrick Leahy of Vermont is getting wary of his bill, PIPA. And most importantly, just before the protests, an official statement from the White House made it clear that Barack Obama would not support Internet censorship.

If you haven't yet done your part to help, or if you'd like to do more, it's not too late! PIPA is scheduled for a vote on January 24, while SOPA is due for some additional reworking in February. If you haven't yet, please contact your congressmen and let them know that you prefer a free and open Internet.

Here's an article on the effects of the protest.
http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0112/71562.html

This website shows who stands where on the SOPA and PIPA bills. If your congressman is still supporting this dangerous legislation (or is undecided), it's not too late to contact them and voice your disapproval!
http://projects.propublica.org/sopa/

Help Stop Internet Censorship!

Did you want to look up something on Wikipedia today and notice you couldn't?

Did you notice that Google's logo has been censored by a big black box?

Across the Internet, dozens of websites are going offline or changing their front pages today to spread the word about two controversial bills in Congress. The first is SOPA, the Stop Online Piracy Act. The second is PIPA, the Protect IP Act. Both of these bills are supposed to fight Internet piracy, but in reality they wouldn't be able to stop piracy and would only harm law-abiding citizens by censoring websites and content and placing the power of what can stay on the Internet to giant corporations.

Fortunately, the big names of the Internet are aware of how dangerous these bills would be if they passed, and are staging a protest today to fight it. If you care about the Internet you're using right now, please take a moment to sign a few petitions and shoot an email to your state representatives and senators. These bills cannot be allowed to pass, and the message that the Internet will not tolerate censorship must be made clear.

A partial list of today's protestors includes the following websites:

Google - The search engine giant has censored its logo and put up a petition you can sign. As the most popular website in the world, Google will undoubtedly be a huge help in spreading the word of these bills.
Wikipedia - Wikipedia has shut down its entire English-language website today. Wikipedia is by far the largest site to shut down entirely in protest, and some consider it the "leader" of today's fight.
Imgur - This online picture-hosting service has an anti-SOPA message on its front page.
Reddit - A social news website, Reddit has been vocally anti-SOPA and anti-PIPA for quite some time. It's offline until this evening.
Fark - An irreverent site that spreads around links to the latest news, Fark simultaneously parodies and joins the movement by claiming they support SOPA because if it passed they'd get shut down and they wouldn't have to do any more work.
Cheezburger Network - This collection of humor sites is the official site for "LOLCats" - the captioned cat photos that have spread across the Internet. A number of other comedy websites are hosted here as well, including "Oh Internet" and "LOLCelebs".
Mozilla - The official website of the creators of Firefox has gotten in on the act.
Tumblr - This blog network allows every individual blogger to decide for themselves if they'd like to censor their blog today.
Twitpic - Twitpic, which is a special picture-hosting service for Twitter, is against the bills as well.
MoveOn - Of course an advocacy website would join in.
Dozens of other websites - WordPress, Miro, TV Tropes, Newgrounds, Good.is, XKCD, DeviantArt, Destructoid, and more.

And although they aren't joining today's protest, Facebook, Amazon, YouTube, Yahoo, and Twitter have also spoken out against the bill, meaning that all five of the most popular English-language websites (Google, Facebook, Yahoo, YouTube, and Wikipedia) are vocally against the bill.

Visit Google for more information and a petition. Keep the Internet free!

List of petitions to sign:
Google
Avaaz
PopVox

This petition on We the People has already finished with an official response from the White House:
We the People

The Story of a Butterfly - Part Two

About a week after the shadowbox was added to our home's decor, my mom came home from work with a special guest. She had found another monarch butterfly in the parking lot at her place of employment. Thinking of me, she picked it up and stuck it in a little container, and then took it home. I accepted the gift warmly and inspected my latest acquisition. This butterfly was female. She was somehow in even worse condition than the male I had found two weeks before. One of her wings had a patch on it that was bubbly and wavy, like paper that has gotten wet and then dried out. Additionally, my mom had gotten the container from a coworker who smoked, so the butterfly had also been choking down nicotine for the last twenty minutes. I moved her into the same container I had used for the previous butterfly, and like the last "tenant", she spent most of her time clinging to grass and trying to gain strength.

As with the first one, I would take the female monarch out every day to hold in my hand, occasionally feeding it from dandelions. And unlike Mony, Mony The Second was starting to improve. She ignored her damaged wing and began making little fluttery jumps. With my door and window closed, I would take her out of the container each day and watch her attempt to fly. The first day she took off resulted in a clumsy, brief flight not unlike the Wright brothers' maiden voyage. Descending from my hand, she flapped and struggled her way about 3 feet in a downward arc before collapsing on my floor. I scooped her up and returned her to her container.

The next day she fared a bit better, traveling a little farther before landing on my bed. A few days later she took off from my hand, flew a complete circle around me, and came to rest in a perfect landing on my curtains. I applauded her progress. Returning her to her house with a fresh dandelion, I told her that tomorrow could be the big day.

It was a sunny early October morning. I had kept Mony the Second for about a week, and if she was strong enough, today would be her last day with me. My mom and I went outside, I with Mony the Second and she with a camera. My mom took several shots of me holding Mony the Second as she felt the crisp, clean outdoor air for the first time in a week. Mony the Second tested her wings. Open... close. Open... close. She fluttered a little but remained clinging to me. I held my hand up, allowing for a good takeoff point. All of a sudden her wings began to flap, and she leapt from my hand into the sky.

She started strong but began to sink, losing altitude quickly. For one terrible moment I thought she would crash, but Mony the Second regained her composure and began to climb again. She flew in a circle, then moved briefly over our house before changing course and moving off in a different direction. I watched the shrinking orange blur make its way along before she moved behind some trees. For a moment I saw her above the trees, and then she was gone.

"She's gone. She made it." I said. My mom stood next to me, having watched with a sense of wonder just a strong as my own.

And then we hugged each other, and I cried a little. I had done it. I had nursed a sick animal back to health. I wondered if Mony the Second realized that.

Animals may not feel human emotions, especially insects. But I can at least pretend that they do.

The Story of a Butterfly - Part One

It was not a dark and stormy night. Rather, it was an overcast afternoon, September 2007. I was heading home after an afternoon at the library when I felt a wet plop on my head. Suspecting the worst, I paused my MP3 player and held out a hand. Sure enough, my palm was soon splattered by a drop of rain. Just my luck, I grumbled to myself. I picked up my walking speed a bit and resumed my music.

I had only traveled a few dozen more feet when something brightly colored caught my eye. Off to my right, in a patch of tall grass at the side of the road, something orange and black in color was nestled in the reeds. I moved in for a closer look and found it was a monarch butterfly. I'd seen these delicate creatures in the area before – large, handsome animals that flew gracefully and elegantly. I could tell that something was up with this one, though, as it did not flee or even move in my presence. Taking advantage of the situation, I gently scooped up the insect and began carrying it home. It moved a little – it was definitely alive – but remained quite still in my hands. The rain began to fall harder, and I sped up again, practically running now, with my newfound catch in my cupped hands, my fingers over it, shielding it from the rain. I stopped for a moment and messed with my MP3 player again. Once I had some suitably epic-sounding music pumping through my headphones, I resumed running. I’ve always had a flair for the dramatic.

Once home, I placed the butterfly in a small plastic container and added a little grass for it to perch on. There was no way I would allow this butterfly to be added to the often chaotic "main jar" all my other insect pets lived in. No, this sickly butterfly would be quarantined, and released once it felt better. It rained all the rest of that day, but the next day was clear. I ventured outdoors once more, located a dandelion, and took it inside to the butterfly. I opened its container and took it in my hand, then I presented it with the dandelion in my other hand. Slowly, the monarch’s feeding tube uncurled and delicately poked into the head of the plant. Feeding a butterfly was one of my more invigorating experiences that year. When it was done, I gently placed the monarch back in its home, with the dandelion in case it wished for more nectar later.

The next day, I did a little research on monarch butterflies after wondering if the genders could be told apart. I wanted to know what sex my own captive was. A look at my old animal encyclopedias returned an answer: Male butterflies have a black spot on each wing, towards the middle, which contains a chemical used in mating season. Later, I took a look at my own monarch, and sure enough, when it opened its wings I saw the spots. My butterfly was male.

Naming has never been a strong suit of mine, and I called my butterfly simply "Mony" (pronounced moan-ey). For several days I looked Mony over, and every day he acted the same. His condition didn’t appear to be improving or worsening one way or the other.

One morning, before going on another daily excursion to the library, I took out Mony and just looked at him. He looked back, clinging to my finger and slowly opening and closing his wings, making no attempt to fly or flee. Suddenly he raised a foreleg and... waved. I found this little movement quite funny. There was no way an insect could understand human conditions like “waving” and the like - it must have just lost its balance a little. So I laughed it off, and returned Mony to his container.

But that evening, I returned from the library to find him lying on his side in his little plastic house. He was dead. Had Mony been trying to say goodbye? Obviously not, but I didn’t mind imagining that it was so.

The next week, I purchased a shadowbox at the local dollar store, and my mother helped me mount my deceased butterfly to it with pins. Once we were finished, the shadowbox went up on the wall and is still there today – a memory of my former pet, a pet I couldn’t save.

But this story is far from over.

About Social Networking

I understand why social networking is so popular. It can be a great way to connect with friends, relatives, and co-workers, meet new people, and catch up with old acquaintances. It's brought families together, reunited long-lost pals, solved crimes, and allowed for organized protest. Facebook and Twitter aren't two of the most popular sites in the world for nothing. But social networking isn't for everyone, and I'm proof of that.

I am a very private person. When I was a child, I learned a classic lesson: Don't talk to strangers. In elementary school, I got acquainted with computers and the Internet at around the same time they started becoming relevant to the public - the late nineties. There, a variation of stranger danger was made clear: Don't share personal information online. If you give away details about yourself, people can find you. You could get stalked or mugged or have your identity stolen. And that lesson stuck - to this day I am very cautious when it comes to giving personal information of myself away. Only online stores get my address (and I always prefer to give my PO Box). I keep my "real" life and "Internet" life firmly separate. Until I made this account, I never used my real name for a website (with one exception - I had the username "Bryan" on Rate My Kitten, a cat photos website I joined when I was around 11 years old). And I absolutely refuse to post a photo of myself on the Internet, and I will probably never allow it. It's a sticking point for me. I don't like putting myself out there.

Because of my cautiousness and love of privacy, I have managed to avoid a lot of the issues other people may have with social media. I'm not going to be persecuted for voicing a volatile opinion on Twitter. I'm not going to have my personal information stolen by a Facebook hacker. And I won't have my photo get ripped from a personal page and used somewhere else - most likely in an unflattering situation - without my permission.

I don't have a Facebook or a Twitter or a MySpace account, and I only joined Google+ because I accidentally created this account on Google instead of Blogger (Google owns Blogger, for those who don't know). My Google+ page is blank - and blank it shall remain. I have a YouTube account, but I don't mention my name and I certainly don't put up videos of myself. I'm far from the only person who isn't interested in the Internet 2.0 invasion of privacy. It's just not for me.

Here are 13 cases where Facebook made people lose their jobs.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/07/26/fired-over-facebook-posts_n_659170.html#s115707&title=Swiss_Woman_Caught

This Week In Biology

Here's a quick look at some of the latest news in biology and animal studies.

Gonatocerus ovicenatus, a tiny fairyfly related to wasps, has been seen for the first time in 100 years.
http://www.physorg.com/news/2012-01-wasp-rediscovered-years.html

100 baby seals washed up on the coast of the Netherlands. Researchers claim it's because of overfishing and pollution weakening the animals enough for waves to sweep them away.
http://www.physorg.com/news/2012-01-baby-dutch-coast.html

A study has found that some species of fish grow used to certain temperatures, and condition their young to be used to these temperatures as well. Babies raised at the same temperature as their parents grew faster.
http://www.physorg.com/news/2012-01-fish-offspring-temperature-parents.html

A new species of monkey was discovered in 2010, but not photographed alive until this week. The Myanmar snub-nosed monkey lives in forested mountains near China, which is part of why it had gone undiscovered for so long.
http://www.physorg.com/news/2012-01-images-newly-primate.html

Scientists trying to stop the spread of malaria and other mosquito-borne diseases are trying a radically different approach - instead of trying to wipe out mosquitoes (which is well nigh impossible and could disrupt food chains), why not try and make mosquitoes unable to transmit malaria? Scientists are now beginning the previously-unknown task of studying the immune system of the mosquito.
http://www.physorg.com/news/2012-01-anti-viral-immune-pathway-mosquito.html

And finally, a new species of snake (a viper, specifically) was found in Tanzania two years ago and has officially been described and named this week. Researcher Tim Davenport was part of the three-man team that discovered the snake, which grows to 2 feet long. Davenport's 5-year-old daughter Matilda was present as well, and she "became fascinated by it and used to love spending time watching it and helping us look after it", he says. "We called it Matilda's Viper at that stage... and the name stuck." That's right, the species is officially named Matilda's Viper. It is believed to have a poisonous bite, but Matilda's Viper has a surprisingly calm and laid-back disposition. Davenport said he "handled one on a number of occasions". I assume Matilda didn't get to hold it, though!
http://www.foxnews.com/scitech/2012/01/11/new-venomous-snake-species-discovered-in-tanzania/

Safety Warning: "Tom With Home Protection" is Dangerous!

If you ever get a phone call that begins like this:

"Hi, this is Tom with Home Protection. How are you today?"

...then you better hang up! "Home Protection" is a dangerous and illegal telemarketing group. "Tom" himself is a pre-recorded message on a computer. The computer is able to detect certain things you say and change "Tom's" responses (for instance, he'll understand you if you answer him with "Good. And you?").

I got my first call from Tom last year. After a few more, he stopped. However, I received another call from Tom last night, prompting me to look him up and see if anything had changed from last time I researched Tom. Sadly, no - he's still at it, and still hasn't been caught.

Here's the details, as I've heard them: What Home Protection likes to do is attempt to sell you a home security system. If you buy into the pitch, they'll ask for your address. If you comply, they'll send someone over to install your new home security system. Such a deal!

Here comes the scary part. All homes with Home Protection's security systems are kept track of. These homes are then targeted for robbery by Home Protection themselves. And they know they'll have a good chance at getting away with your stuff because their security systems are dummies. It's the perfect crime.

I can't confirm for certain that the burglary aspect is true. What I can confirm is that there is a company named "Home Protection" out there, aggressively pushing poor-quality or fake security alarms and cameras. If you call one of Home Protection's many numbers, You'll hear the following message: "Thanks for calling back. If you are not interested in our promotions and would like to be removed from our calling list, press 1." If you press 1, they'll know they called a number with a real person on the other end, and they'll ramp up their efforts, calling you more frequently. They are also breaking federal laws by calling mobile phones. They'll call anything - unlisted numbers, people on the Do Not Call list, anywhere and everywhere all across the country. But they're very slippery and work from a multitude of different phone numbers. They've been at this for years.

If you get a call from "Home Protection", immediately hang up. Do not talk and do not call back. You aren't ruining the day of some poor guy trying to make a living, you're cutting off the robo-caller of a pack of criminals.

Here are some people's experiences with Tom:
http://800notes.com/Phone.aspx/1-701-625-5444/10

And here is one man's crusade to take down the entire operation once and for all:
http://stoptomwithhomeprotection.wordpress.com/

Amphibians, Big and Small

Let's talk a bit about amphibians.

The word "amphibian" means "double life". This refers to the life cycle of frogs and other amphibians - they start out as aquatic animals (tadpoles) before growing up into animals that can live on land (frogs). Aside from frogs and toads, salamanders and newts are also amphibians, as well as a few rarer and lesser-known creatures.

Scientists are always discovering new species of animals, and frogs are one of the more common creatures to pop up on "Newly Discovered" lists. A new frog has been found in Papua New Guinea, and it's one of the smallest invertebrates ever found. The frog averages 7 millimeters long (that works out to 0.27 of an inch). For comparison, a dime is 18 millimeters across.

In direct contrast to this tiny frog, the largest amphibian has been known for quite some time - the Chinese giant salamander can reach six feet in length. Sadly, this very interesting - if not conventionally attractive - creature is critically endangered and almost never gets to reach that size anymore. Thanks to pollution, habitat loss, and the fact that some Chinese consider it a delicacy, the giant salamander generally only grows to 4 feet on average. It has a relative, the Japanese giant salamander, that is almost exactly the same in appearance and habits, although it is a little smaller.

In prehistoric times, amphibians got even larger than six feet. The all-time largest amphibian known to man is Prionosuchus, a prehistoric creature that looked more like a crocodile than today's amphibians, and could reach a length of thirty feet. It went extinct a very long time ago - even before the dinosaurs first appeared.

World's smallest frog:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-16491477

Photo slideshow dedicated to the giant salamander:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/8500486.stm

The biggest amphibian of all time, the extinct Prionosuchus:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prionosuchus

Insect Photography

Here are some photos I've taken of insects over the last couple years. Click on each image for a larger view.

 Japanese beetles are an invasive pest species that strip plants in great numbers. They've been a bit less common around here in recent years, but there's still plenty to go around in the second half of summer.

 This critter is a type of stinkbug. Stinkbugs are beetles best known for their noxious odor, hence the name. I've encountered stinkbugs several times but never been attacked by their smelly spray, luckily enough. They like to show up in fall.

Crane flies are strange animals - how did evolution decide that this was a good idea? I'm still not sure, myself, but something about these long-legged, ungainly, poor flyers with no working mouthparts is a success because I see plenty of them every August.

The other photos here are all a year or three old, but this one was shot just last fall. It is, of course, a bumblebee. Bumblebees are simultaneously cute and intimidating - they can sting multiple times since their stingers don't have barbs, but if you leave them alone they're generally happy campers and won't try to fight you.

Just a few moments after photographing the above bee, this wasp flew in to visit the same plant. It was a lot more active than the bee, so I was lucky to get a shot this nice.

Out of all my insect photos, this is the one I'm proudest of. This butterfly wasn't feeling too well and so I was able to get a spectacular shot of it by picking it up and letting it sit on these flowers. Later the weather warmed up enough for it to fly away.

Keep Your Computer Safe: RelevantKnowledge

Yesterday afternoon I noticed my computer was running slowly, particularly the Internet, which had slowed to an absolute crawl. Dial-up would have been faster than the speed I was getting. The first step I like to take when it appears something is wrong with my computer is to restart it. After rebooting, I noticed that among the usual programs that appeared on startup was an Internet Explorer window labeled "RelevantKnowledge".

RelevantKnowledge presents itself as a survey, with the goal of helping to improve online shopping experiences by including the thoughts of anonymous survey-takers. In truth, however, agreeing to the survey will allow RelevantKnowledge to get its hooks into your computer. All further Internet browsing you do will go through RK's servers (which is why everything was so slow). In addition, your web history is tracked by RK, as are the details of anything you purchase online.

Fortunately, I knew that something was wrong, and instead of letting RelevantKnowledge work its magic, I quickly looked up how to get rid of it on my iPod Touch (to avoid the slow connection). It turns out that although RelevantKnowledge is difficult for virus scanners to detect, it is fairly easy to wipe out if you can find it. I was able to delete it from the Control Panel with minimal fuss. After restarting again, RelevantKnowledge was gone and my Internet speed back to normal.

How did this program get on my computer in the first place, anyway? It turns out that RK likes to come along for the ride with some free downloadable programs, even safe and trusted ones. There is a very good chance that you will run into a virus like RelevantKnowledge as you use your home computer. Just follow these simple (and no-cost) steps and your computer will be safer.

To prevent from getting viruses in the first place:
-Make sure Windows Defender is on by checking your Control Panel.
-Do not click on suspicious advertisements or check "I Agree" to programs you don't trust.
-Use Mozilla Firefox or Google Chrome to browse the Internet.
-If you have Firefox or Chrome, download the AdBlock addon. This feature disables most advertisements, allowing for safer and less obtrusive browsing.
-If a website, download, or program name looks suspicious or shady, do some research on your favorite search engine and find out more about the questionable item.
-Be very careful on Facebook - this website's very high popularity makes it a great place for hackers to spread their infections. Do not believe claims of things like a "downloadable Dislike button".
-You must be extremely cautious when dealing with websites that require personal information, especially things like your Social Security Number. Don't give away your credit card numbers either unless you are absolutely certain you're on a secure website such as Amazon.

To stop a virus that has already gotten onto your computer:
-If there is another Internet-capable machine in your house (another computer, an iPhone, a 3DS, etc), use that machine to look up instructions to help your computer.
-Try deleting the offending program from the Control Panel or by just browsing through your program list. Most viruses are too smart for this to work, however.
-Restart your computer in Safe Mode. The method of turning on Safe Mode may vary depending on your operating system. In Vista, for example, you access Safe Mode by repeatedly pressing F8 right after turning your computer on, then selecting "Safe Mode" from the list of options. Check and see if the virus is still being an issue in Safe Mode.
-Within Safe Mode, you can do a System Restore. System Restore is one of the easiest and best ways to stop a virus or other significant issue. It basically resets your computer to a time several days earlier - hopefully a time when there was no virus.
-If nothing is working and the Internet cannot provide any further assistance, you may need to take your computer to a professional or even buy a new computer entirely.

http://www.spywareremove.com/removerelevantknowledge.html

http://bertk.mvps.org/html/safemodevista.html

Why Do Some People Fear Snakes and Spiders?

A "phobia" is an irrational fear of something. Someone with a phobia will not only be afraid to confront their fear, but they may get extremely worked up just reading about it, seeing it on TV, or talking about it with someone else. Common phobias include achluophobia (fear of the dark), acrophobia (fear of heights), glossophobia (fear of speaking in public), necrophobia (fear of death or dead things), and coulrophobia (fear of clowns). The two phobias I'm talking about today, however, are arachnophobia and ophidiophobia - the fear of spiders and the fear of snakes, respectively.

While I do have some "fears", of a sort, such as a problem with meeting strangers and, when I was younger, a severe dislike and fear of earthworms, I do not have any true phobias. I count both spiders and snakes as two of my favorite animals - but the opinion isn't shared in my home. I seem to be the only member of my family who can stand snakes - which makes it all the more remarkable that I have one as a pet.

I'll be posting about my pet snake later. First, I've wanted to figure this question out for quite some time - why are so many people afraid of snakes and spiders? Why those two animals? Why not crocodiles or bears or sharks? Mosquitoes kill more people every year than any other animal by spreading disease, so why are they treated with annoyance rather than fear? There must be something in the human psyche that makes spiders and snakes stand out as especially fearsome, even when there are so many harmless members of either animal (especially spiders).

A study reported on in National Geographic back in 2001 claims that recognizing snakes and spiders as dangerous is ingrained in our minds from evolution. Primitive man, who lived in the wild far from today's comforts of enclosed, insulated homes, often had to be on alert for predators. Snakes, which tend to rely on stealth and can hide easily due to their shape, may have been a high priority target to memorize the appearance of. Spiders are harder to explain, thanks to the species that can truly threaten humans being fairly uncommon.

While I understand that some people can have phobias, I grow worried when I hear of prejudice against snakes and spiders just because they are snakes and spiders. A snake may be a far cry from a cat or dog, but it's very possible to own one and bond with it in some fashion. Millions of people are afraid of snakes and spiders, but there are also many folks out there who keep these feared animals as beloved pets. There are cases of people's pet snakes being killed by people who feared them. I've linked to one of the most memorable cases of anti-snake violence below. Even if you don't care for certain animals, you should never hurt or kill someone's pet just because it's a species you don't happen to like.

A list of the many, many phobias that have been coined over the years:
http://phobialist.com/

National Geographic's article on snake and spider fear:
http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2001/10/1004_snakefears.html

The sad story of Popcorn the ten-foot albino python:
http://local.cincinnati.com/share/news/story.aspx?sid=117013&cid=100004

Much Ado About Gift Cards

Having Asperger's Syndrome tends to infuse a bit of extra thought into situations other people don't think much about. One of those things is the gift card. Why do gift cards exist?

Think about it. You give fifty dollars to a store in exchange for a card that can buy fifty dollars worth of merchandise at only that store. And depending on the store and the state you live in, it may expire. Despite the fact that gift cards are objectively worse than paper money, they are a very popular gift item for kids and adults alike.

The Wall Street Journal has reported that about 41 billion dollars has been wasted on gift cards the recipients never use. They may have lost the card. It may have expired. Or maybe they simply forgot the card existed.

Generally, I prefer money to gift cards. As someone who likes to think practically, an all-purpose, guaranteed-useful gift like money is perfect if the giver isn't certain what I would like that I don't already have. Unfortunately, the popularity of gift cards is due to the fact that people generally don't think giving money as a gift is very socially acceptable. It can seem lazy. Honestly, I'd prefer lazy over potentially worthless, but a lot of people don't agree with me.

However, I have found a use for gift cards recently: Shopping online without Paypal. If you use your credit card to buy online, you'll be in debt to the credit card company and have to pay interest. If you use a gift card, you can buy things interest-free. As someone who finds credit cards distasteful, I appreciate this method of dodging them. If you have an Amazon or eBay purchase to make and you don't have any Paypal funds (or don't wish to deal with them for whatever reason), buying yourself a gift card is a unique way to pay for your stuff. As a bonus, eBay gift cards never expire.

 http://blogs.wsj.com/economics/2011/12/24/number-of-the-week-billions-in-gift-cards-go-unspent/?mod=google_news_blog

 http://gothamist.com/2011/12/27/41_billion_in_lousy_gift_cards_will.php

It's Okay for Guys to Like Purple

(In all posts like this where I am discussing a news article, I'll have the article linked at the end of my post so you can research the topic further and draw your own conclusions.)

I just came across this article, and I could not kick off my blog any better. It's perfect. This is the tale of a brave and smart older brother, his special younger brother, and a father with a few things to learn. It's not my tale. But I hope I would have done the same if I had been in the older brother's situation.

Two brothers, one in his mid teens and the other a preteen, are shopping. The older brother is going to buy a game as a present for his younger brother. The younger one is adamant about one thing: The main character of the game must be female. Now, games with female leads are unfortunately difficult to come by, but with the help of an employee they found the game Mirror's Edge. Next, the boy wants to know if there are any "girl controllers" that he could play Mirror's Edge with. He selected a purple controller, excitedly telling the clerk that purple was his favorite.

Enter dad.

The "man of the house" is not impressed with his son being so in touch with his feminine side, and he has a different game idea: Dead Island. Dead Island is one of the many horror zombie games out on the market today, and there's lots of guns and gore. However, the kid was steadfast in his selection, and things began to escalate. The father began threatening his son over his choice of game.

Now, if that wasn't bad enough already, consider this: Mirror's Edge is an action-adventure game. The protagonist can wield weapons (including the guns Dad was so insistent about), although it isn't about shooting all of your enemies into oblivion. In fact, the game congratulates the player if they manage to finish the whole thing without shooting anyone. The important point is that Mirror's Edge is a far cry from, say, Hello Kitty Roller Rescue in terms of "girly games". And it doesn't look like any sort of "barbie game" from the box art. It seems that what Dad was so stuck on was the fact that you play as a girl and that he wanted a purple controller to control her with. That's all.

Fortunately, the older brother didn't feel the same way as his father. He chose this moment to step in. "It's my money, it's my gift to him. If it's what he wants, I'm getting it for him, and if you're going to hit anyone for it, it's going to be me." Little brother was crying now, but the employee (who saw the whole thing and wound up writing the article I've found) helped comfort the child. She said, "I'm a girl, and I like the color blue, and I like shooting games. There's nothing wrong with what you like. Even if it's different than what people think you should."

We have been moving towards a more tolerant future for all types of people for a long time. Incidents like this show that while we may have a ways to go, there is hope for a future free of bigotry - or at least with so little of it that it's no longer a major issue.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/kristen-wolfe/dear-customer-who-stuck-u_b_1190690.html

The Purpose of this Blog

There are several types of posts you can expect to see here on A Slightly Different Take.

Primarily, I'm going to be using this blog to link to various interesting articles I find throughout the Internet. I'll comment, offer my opinions (this would of course be "a slightly different take" on the events), and basically act as a columnist. After all, bloggers are the columnists of the modern age.

Additionally, I'd like to use this blog as a chance to share other fascinating things I find that may not be current events, such as older articles, YouTube videos, and different websites.

Lastly, you will sometimes see posts like the previous one, where I elaborate on Asperger's Syndrome and its intricacies. There may be recollections from my childhood and other such personal stories.

At the moment, I plan for the meat of this blog to consist of the first type of post, and you'll be seeing such a post soon (unless you got here late, in which case you may have already read it).

What is Asperger's Syndrome?

My name is Bryan, and I have Asperger's Syndrome.

Asperger's Syndrome is a form of high-functioning autism. People with Asperger's are generally withdrawn, uncomfortable in social situations, and are not very good at reading body language or understanding nonverbal cues. Their hobbies may border on obsession (the usual term for them is "special interests"), their minds encyclopedias of factoids about their hobbies, and they may become outgoing and cheerful if given a chance to talk (at length) about what moves them.

People with Asperger's frequently misunderstand metaphors and sayings. They think logically and take things literally. They may seem emotionless or cold to outsiders, but they are very close and loyal to friends and family. Last but not least, a lot of people with Asperger's are known for intelligence, displaying skill in fields like writing, engineering, technology, or science.

Everyone with Asperger's is different. Some of the many possible signs, conditions, symptoms, and quirks of Asperger's contradict with each other, and most people with Asperger's have only a small sampling of them.

What about me? I like to write. I love animals. I sometimes follow (and laugh at) politics. I watch Pixar films and giant monster movies. I listen to music and go for walks. I read Stephen King novels and nonfictional books on dinosaurs. I collect toys. I play video games. Sometimes I like to draw. I cry at sad stories.

In short, I'm human. Just one with a slightly different take on life.