Slacktivism*

*i did not coin this term.

The "campaign" to change your Facebook profile picture to "raise awareness about child abuse" is incredibly flawed/pointless for the following reasons...

1. It's not actually connected to a real cause http://blogs.babble.com/famecrawler/2010/12/05/cartoon-characters-on-facebook-is-the-facebook-cartoon-campaign-a-hoax/ (via Wendy Chandler)

2. Raise your hand if you didn't already know child abuse existed - the one guy raising his hand was born and raised in a cave on a desert island isolated from civilization...and he doesn't have a Facebook account anyway.

3. If you want to change your profile picture, fine...just don't congratulate yourself on making the world a better place until you've actually done something tangible for abused kids. Those children don't care that you changed your profile picture until that act is accompanied with real action.

4. Social media is a fantastic tool for effecting some real change for a cause. This "campaign" does not qualify in the least for that category.

This isn't the first and won't be the last instance of slacktivism gone pointless. i'd just encourage everyone (myself included) to be discerning and intentional when it comes to real issues that need real action, before we jump on any bandwagons.

Kindle: Furthering My Literacy

With the help of my new Kindle (compliments of my dad) and some relaxing free time during Thanksgiving break, I recently read:

• The Twelfth Imam by Joel Rosenberg - The writing is weak in a few places, but his ability to weave an engrossing story is alive and well. He's definitely got another great series started.
• Sense and Sensibility - I like the Emma Thompson movie better.
• A Christmas Carol - For some reason and for all the film and theater versions I've seen, this story is always framed in my mind through the lens of the Muppet adaptation. As I read I kept converting all the characters to their Muppet versions.
• Heart of Darkness - Man, that Conrad guy can write! Like Lord of the Flies, I'll keep revisiting this book because of the depth of story and the worlds created in my mind through the writing.
• Dracula - I just started this one and so far it's pretty entertaining.

I've decided to make my way through classic literature included on all those "Books Everyone Should Read" lists. I had the opportunities to read such classics in high school and college, but let's be honest, I never actually read those books in their entirety. I also figure this can only help my vocabulary and writing, plus most of the older classics are FREE Kindle books. A sidenote, if you get a Kindle you might want to hold off on buying the ESV Study Bible Kindle version. It's only $10 and definitely better than nothing, but in its current state it's pretty tedious to use. You're probably better off waiting until they come out with a more user-friendly version.

I would definitely recommend the Kindle to anyone who enjoys reading even a little. It's such an efficient way to read and store books (3,500 of them!), it's very easy to figure out, the battery lasts forever (I've read all the above and the battery hasn't even gone down to 50% yet), and at this point they're not that expensive. Granted mine was a gift, but this new version with wireless is only $139. I love that it's much less cumbersome than a book to hold and turn pages. And those skeptics who think reading from a screen will hurt their heads and/or eyes probably just haven't seen a Kindle and held it in their hands. It truly is like reading pages in a book - no glare, no backlight. There are also a bunch of features I haven't even used yet, including highlighting and note taking capabilities within the text. All in all it's definitely worth the investment!

"Reading is to the mind what exercise is to the body." -Joseph Addison

Alaska Day 2 - Drive to Denali National Park

Okay Blogger is giving me drama, so i've only uploaded 4 pictures for this post. i've posted more pictures on Facebook http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2524804&id=6007285&l=ece321ab45

In the morning we headed to church with the Sims. After an encouraging morning of worship and a message from Acts, Michael and I headed off toward Denali. On the way we stopped to get groceries at this store called Fred Meyer. It's such a great store! It's like a super Wal-Mart in that it has EVERYTHING (groceries, clothes, electronics, etc.), but the quality of all the stuff is a lot better, plus they have a really nice health/organic food section. Not like we eat that stuff all the time, but it was nice to have the option since Houston gets a D+ for grocery options that carry anything beyond the basics. Anyway we hit the road and made the 4 hour trek from Anchorage to our motel 13 miles south of the Denali National Park entrance. The drive was beautiful. The weather was amazing and we saw a pretty clear view of Mount McKinley along the way. Sadly we both were stupid and didn't stop to get better pictures. In the back of my mind I knew it was a really rare thing to see Mount McKinley (usually it's covered by clouds), but for some reason I thought, “We'll see it later.” Too bad we didn't see it the rest of the time. Anyway like I said the drive was amazing. Here are some pictures from along the way.

Mount Denali/Mount McKinley This was taken from the car and you can only barely see it. It looks like a cloud but you can see the peak.

i love this photo, it turned out really good. We pulled off the road for a bit to walk around. These tracks were near where we pulled off the main road.

Taken from the car.

We arrived at McKinley Creekside Cabins (13 miles south of the Denali National Park entrance) in the late afternoon. The accomodations were very spartan, but the place was clean. There was also a nice creek running next to our cabins. We took a walk along the creek and took some pictures.

At McKinley Creekside Cabins

The rest of the evening we just chilled and finished watching Syriana. Still a bit confused by some things, but I have a higher opinion of it then I did before.

Alaska Day 1 - Arriving in Anchorage

Well since i'm sitting here in the airport i thought i'd start my blog entries for the trip. i accidentally deleted the only picture i have from Day 1, so this will be all text. i'll have pictures up for the other entries though.

We were up early and left from Houston Interncontinental on Saturday morning. We had a layover in Seattle and started watching "Syriana". I'd seen it before but didn't really remember it. It was still a bit confusing the second time around. Moving on, we got into Anchorage in the afternoon. The rental car agency we used turned out to be a little ghetto, but we ended up getting a discount and free upgrade to a truck because they didn't have any economy cars. It worked out because the truck got really good gas mileage all things considered. After a quick stop at Wally World, we headed to meet the Sims. They are friends of friends who graciously offered to let us stay with them at their home in Anchorage. We had a lovely evening getting to know them. After dinner, part of the family took us on a driving tour around Anchorage. It's a really beautiful city, one of those rare ones with both ocean and mountains. We learned a lot about Alaska, Anchorage, and how they're different than “the lower 48.” We also searched for some “moosen” but only saw one real fast in the brush. We also experienced our first night of extra daylight. There's about 21 hours of daylight in Alaska right now, and it was so strange to be going to sleep around 11 with the sun out like it's early evening. All in all, a great first day!

Alaska Itinerary

Well i thought i'd revive this thing with posts about our Alaska trip. Some people have asked about what we'll be doing so here's our tentative itinerary.

Day 1
-Fly into Anchorage and explore a bit
-Stay the night with some friends of friends. Thanks to the wonderful Sims family who is graciously hosting us for the night!

Day 2
-Church with the Sims
-Leisurely drive up to Denali National Park

Day 3
-Explore Denali

Day 4
-Leisurely drive back down to Anchorage
-More Anchorage exploring and another stay at the Sims house

Day 5
-Leisurely drive to Valdez, AK

Days 6 & 7
-Spend time in Valdez with Michael's friend Leonard
-Glacier day cruise or kayaking

Day 8
-Leisurely drive back to Anchorage
-Depart on red eye back to Texas

i'm REALLY excited for this trip! Alaska has always looked so beautiful in pictures, and Michael and i would usually rather see gorgeous nature than city stuff for vacation.

Everything ended up happening really fast. i had mapped out and researched this trip weeks ago when we first thought of going to Alaska, but things were uncertain with Michael's job situation. We decided to wait until he got a job offer to take the trip. Then by God's grace, he was offered a driving job yesterday. We're unsure as to how the job will work out and whether the schedule will be decent (i.e. not taking him away from home and church stuff too often) but for now, we're grateful to God for His amazing provision!

More pictures and blog entries to come!*

*if i make an effort to not be lazy...

p.s. Any of you photographers out there have any last minute photography advice? Right about now i'm wishing i knew more about photography and my Rebel. Hopefully i'll get some good shots anyway...