riisa's blog

Confessions of a Voyeur

Tue, 31 May 2005 09:55:09 -0700

Warning: This post has nothing to do with politics.

I read about PostSecret today in The New York Times. It is one of many "confession blogs" out there and I have to admit, although my better judgement told me it was narcissistic and mostly pointless...I could not stop reading them until I had scrolled through the whole bunch.

If there are other voyeurs out there who like to peek into other people's windows, check out the simple expression of PostSecret.

Organic Radio is Cooool

Mon, 30 May 2005 22:04:13 -0700

I was just zoning out after way too many "nice things" (che420) at Sasquatch this weekend when my brain tuned in to NPR in the background and I was able to hear Open Source Radio make its debut from my old home town, Boston MA.

It is the brain child of Chris Lydon and his producer Mary McGrath and basically aims to broadcast the wonderful world of blogging, letting the community determine the topics of discussion as well as the "experts" to participate on each show. For example: I am an expert on Procrastination and would gladly reccommend myself to join Chris on air to discuss the topic.

KUOW describes Open Source as:

...the first radio program truly fused to the Internet. It reflects the sound and sensibility of the Web — embracing the freedom, speed, democracy, links, global reach, and individual "authenticity" that have become standards of Web discourse. The show is dedicated to sorting, sifting, and decoding the digital universe for an audience of terrestrial radio listeners and bloggers, and sophisticated netizens as well. People who worry about the unedited chaos, the near-infinite babble of the Internet hear, finally, that it can be skillfully threaded — night after night, month after month — into an organic conversation.

No Child Left Unrecruited

Thu, 19 May 2005 10:11:58 -0700

As part of the No Child Left Behind Act, all schools recieving federal funds are required to allow military recruiters access to their student's personal information. Since there has been a surge in unethinical behavior by recruiters, I wonder what educational merits the miltary has in this new landscape of "America at War".

Leading the fight against recruitment in public schools is our very own Garfield High. Go Bulldogs! And today the Seattle PI has a good article on Garfield's PTSA who came out yesterday with their fists up to debate with recruiters.

As today marks the day when recruitment is brought to a one day hault in order to train all 7,500 recruiters on proper conduct, I think we should talk about how we can help Garfield and other schools continue this fight.

Blue Velvet and Inflatable Penises - oh my!

Sun, 15 May 2005 13:45:31 -0700

Riisa and Amy are at it again! After a Movie Night of Infinite Radness at the Rendezvous, these two BetterDonkey lovelies sat down to recap the movie, reveal their fetishes, and speculate on what BetterDonkey has in store for all our fabulous friends.

Riisa: I felt like such a movie star when we walked into the Jewel Box Theatre at the Rendezvous. They really pulled out the red carpet to make our First Ever Better Donkey Movie Night super special! I love sitting on anything that is blue velvet. Is that a fetish? I don't care.

I always love our events Amy. Why? Because they give me time to socialize like a butterfly. It makes all this business worthwhile. It was great to just to sit back and relax, sip on a cocktail, enjoy the ambiance and shoot the shit with all of our fabulous members.

Amy: Oooh and don't you just love the name Jewel Box? It's so sparkly!!

Who knew a Church Basement could be so fun?

Wed, 20 Apr 2005 16:55:34 -0700

On April 14, Better Donkey graced the League of Women Voters-sponsored King County Election Reform Town Hall with our super-fun presence. Elections Director Dean Logan gave us the scoop on the past year of elections in King County, and a couple of days later, Riisa and Amy had a little chit-chat about how it all went.

Amy:

So Riisa, I don't know about you, but maybe my favorite favorite part of the whole Better Donkey Does King County experience was walking into the church as a huge Donkey posse and getting all of those crazy looks from people!! I could tell they were excited to see us but at the same time, totally shocked at our extreme lack of blue haired old ladyness.

Riisa:

We totally walked in with a lot of energy and the church crowd took notice! And the Posse Presence continued throughout the whole meeting. We paid close attention AND asked really good questions. But let's not overlook the abundant spread of FREE cookies and Starbuck’s coffee Yum yum in my tum tum. Chocolate and caffeine is the best fuel-combo for a night of Election Reform discussion!

Seek out the small revolutions…in your coffee or your mailbox.

Thu, 17 Mar 2005 15:13:17 -0800

This recommendation may not be that unique but I think it’s important to remind ourselves to rethink our daily routines, challenge the norms and take pleasure in disrupting the system. Ian Urbina brought these thoughts to mind in a very nice little article he wrote for the New York Times about creative ways to deal with small annoyances.

Why do we have to say “grande” when we just want a fucking medium coffee?
Why not just press “0” immediately and waste no time talking to a computer when there are real people with real ears who can understand you even when there is minimal back ground noise?
What would happen if you made a little stack of the subscription cards that fall out of your magazine and send them back blank to the manufacturer so they pay the postage without gaining a subscriber?