Random Thoughts From a Confused Mind

Random Thoughts From a Confused Mind

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( 8:58 AM ) MB
Amuse yourself with the Church Sign Generator. (Found via Badly Declared)
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( 8:54 AM ) MB
The Gender Genie says I write like a girl. (Found via Little Bits of Kitty Litter)
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( 1:06 PM ) MB
I found a link to Let Them Sing It For You via A Small Victory. It's the most fun I've had all day.

OK, so far I've napped all morning, but it still would be the most fun if I'd actually done something.
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( 9:47 AM ) MB
PETA is encouraging people to boycott Procter & Gamble, makers of Iams pet food. The problem comes from a lab that is alleged to have mistreated test animals.

The Iams company unwittingly hired the undercover PETA investigator to enforce humane standards at the lab as an animal-welfare specialist. The lab in question is not owned by Iams but was contracted by the company as a test site. Last March, days after PETA came forward with its information, Iams stopped working with the lab. Iams’ subsequent investigations at the company’s eight other contract laboratories showed those labs are "fully implementing" Iams’ research policy, Vanasse said. The policy mandates the company "will ensure the humane treatment of cats and dogs."

Let me see, P&G does not own the lab. They hired an animal-welfare specialist to make sure that the lab was treating the animals humanely. The stopped doing business with the lab when they were informed of the allegations. What exactly are they doing wrong here?

I guess a protest of the lab that was actually at fault wouldn't garner enough attention.

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( 9:17 AM ) MB
PWEETA - People Who Enjoy Eating Tasty Animals (found via Did you bring the pre-whacked snakes?)

I found those through BlogStreet which has a list of the top 100 blogs and the most influential blogs. I don't think any of the blogs mentioned in Jennifer Howard's article (see below) are in either list.

Not that my blog's ranking is setting off any high altitude warnings.
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( 9:10 AM ) MB
I've already read a couple of posts this morning that comment on Jennifer Howard's article in the Washington Post, It's a Little Too Cozy in the Blogosphere. She says, "A year ago, I barely knew what blogs were. Within a few months, they'd become a staple of my daily media diet. Now I can't live without them, but already I'm feeling betrayed -- and a little bored."

After reading the rest of the article, I have to say she still doesn't know what blogs are. She might know about a small section of blogs that cover literary news and opinion but that's like someone visiting New York City and saying that they now know what the United States is like.

I haven't visited the blogs she talks about and have only heard of one of them (and I spend a lot of time online following links, looking for new blogs and websites to add to JoeAnt.) I do agree with her that ad hominem attacks can be nasty but I see far more blogs that pick apart the logic (or lack thereof) of comments made in the traditional media. What this article really seems to be protesting is that these self-published upstarts can attract attention that once belonged only to the print media.

I disagree with her that interlinking is cronyism (favoritism shown to old friends without regard for their qualifications). Most interlinking is done because of the other blog's content, not who the author is. Of course, if a friend begins a blog, I'll add him/her to my blogroll but the links in the posts go to ones with content that I think is interesting. I'll also jump up and down and get really excited because most of my friends still look at me funny when I talk about blogs.

Blogging means different things to different people. To me it is an open letter to friends*, most of whom I haven't met yet and will probably never meet.

*My daugther Emma considers everyone she talks to a friend. For example, we were in the store and she was about ten feet away, talking to another little girl. I asked her what she had been doing and she told me she said she had been talking to her friend. I'm thinking this must be someone she knows from school so I ask her what her friend's name is. She replies that she doesn't know since they just met. And she wonders why I insist she stays where I can see her whenever we go out.

Emma will talk to anyone, or if no one is around, anything. Trevor used to be like that but grew out of it. One time when he was little I walked into a room and found him talking to a candy bar. He was my first child so this caught me by surprise. I asked if he was talking to his candy bar and he said, "Yes, but it's not talking to me." He hadn't expected it to talk to him, he just thought he had to point out the obvious to me.

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