Internet friend saves life

Here's a sad but uplifting story from BBC.com:

A 16-year-old boy in the U.K. who is friends over the internet with a teenage girl from Maryland was suicidal, and he told the girl he planned to kill himself. Not taking his threat lightly, she told her mom what had happened, and they contacted police, who contacted the White House, who contacted the British embassy, who contacted police in England.

They finally narrowed their search down to where the boy would live based on his IP address, and after checking three other houses, they found his. He had overdosed on pils but was still alive, and he is now recovering.

The two are friends on Facebook, which, thankfully, is a much friendlier community than Justin.tv, where a boy followed through with his threat of suicide on webcam as others made fun of him. No authorities were contacted until hours after his dead body remained motionless on webcam for all to see.

Out of curiosity, I had searched the internet for evidence of these people's cruelty, and there was an unfortunate amount. I found cached discussions on message boards (which had been deleted) where he had posted his suicide note, only to have nearly every person make fun of him or urge him to go through with it. I also found recorded video of his dead body laying in the room as the police broke in, along with screen caps and transcripts of the chat room as it all happened.

Needless to say, it was depressing. So after that, it's nice to hear a story like this one, where a person is given a second chance instead of beat into their own grave.

Women in Afghanistan

I can't remember if I blogged about it here or not, but I sponsor a woman in Afghanistan through a charity called Women for Women International. It's kind of like those programs where you send money to poor children, except my money goes to her human rights education, job and skills training, a monthly allowance that she can either spend on necessities or save up, and I also have the option of writing a letter to her once a month that will be translated and read to her.

I don't know anything about her besides the fact her name is Nabiba and she guesses she is in her mid-20s. The information form I was sent explained that she didn't know her exact birth date or year, which is actually not uncommon for women like her.

As for family and children, living conditions, daily life ... I don't know anything, because the form hadn't been filled out. The introduction letter explained that many women don't feel comfortable sharing that information. The program doesn't send pictures, so I don't even know what she looks like.

Anyway, I keep sending letters and donations, keeping hope that she is getting them and that her life is improving somehow. I still haven't gotten a letter, most likely because her life is difficult, or maybe because she doesn't want to talk about things with me. I don't really know.

I've just been in the dark about it since I began my sponsorship with her in July, until I got an e-mail last week from the charity telling me that the school Nabiba is at will be on a PBS special. I don't have television, so I had to wait for the show to be available online.

Well, I just finished watching it, and I feel so emotional right now. I finally got to see the living conditions and hear the stories of these women, I got to see their faces, one of which is hers. The small school they go to ... man, it's just heart breaking. At the same time, though, I feel happy that I can somehow contribute to make a difference in one woman's life.

Here's the link, if you're interested in watching it:
http://www.pbs.org/newshour/bb/asia/jan-june09/afghanwomen_03-20.html
Just click the "stream video" link at the top.

For anyone who can afford an extra $27/month, I highly recommend you give sponsorship a try.
WomenForWomen.org

Living with cats

We all know by now that I have cats. Well, technically kittens, which means they’re both wild little jerks, however cute they may be.

I adopted them both at the Kearney Humane Society after volunteering there for awhile. One of them is a sweet, mostly calm little ball of fuzz, while the other one is psychotic. The crazy one, his name is Butters.

Butters quickly discovered the easiest, fastest way to jump on the kitchen counter/table, completely ignoring being told “no,” being picked up and put down, and even being sprayed in the face with water. I’m not kidding you, I think he actually liked it.

Anyway, I was in a huge rush last week to get one of my art projects mounted. I had five minutes to slather the thing with rubber cement and put it together before the critique. Before getting the glue out, I blocked every path Butters had to getting on the table, but I still tried to keep an eye on him. Sure enough, he just sat at my feet and stared up at me.

Then I noticed a mistake I had made in my painting, and as I took just one second to get a closer look, BAM! Butters had actually jumped from the floor onto the counter, only to have his eye fly right into the rubber cement brush I was holding.

Needless to say, he was in a lot of pain, meowing loudly and running under furniture to hide from me. I eventually grabbed hold of him and tried my best to rinse his eye with water. You can surely imagine how successful that was. I had to wrap him up in a blanket so he couldn't claw my own eyes out.

I took him to the vet the next day to have it checked out, and they gave him eye drops and cut the dried glue out of the fur around his eye, giving him a nice bald spot and upper whiskers on only one side of his face. They said that he could have lost his vision in that eye, but luckily, he hadn't actually gotten too much glue in his eye.

He’s fine now, so it’s ok to laugh.

Also, weirdly enough, I found this picture from LOLcats that looks almost exactly like my two little kittens! Crazy Butters is orange, as is the crazy cat in the photo. Haha!

Who got killed at Walmart last week? Oh yeah, no one!

If you’re a female with a cell phone and text messaging plan, chances are you got a text last week telling you not to go to Walmart because a gang initiation required three women to be killed there.

When I got the text the first time, I immediately had questions, like, “How do you know this is going to happen? Who told you this? Why would a gang choose Kearney, NE?” It seemed weird and quite unbelievable, though I’m sure my friend probably sent it to me thinking, well, better safe than sorry!

But when I got it the fifth time, I wanted to know one thing and one thing only: Are you people serious?

Let’s break it down for a second and think about this logically.

First, how many rumors have you heard about gang initiations supposedly set to happen in your town, and it never plays out? I remember not long after I turned 16 there was an e-mail going around that said gang initiates would hide under a woman’s car while she filled up her gas tank and cut off her foot. They supposedly needed a certain number of feet or some crap like that. Of course, I was young and scared and totally believed it.

Every time after that, though, I became more and more skeptical of the validity of such messages. Years later, I would become a journalism student and learn to dissect these rumors for what they really are: urban legends.

So anyway, I looked up this gang initiation rumor on Snopes.com (your best friend in situations such as these), and it turns out that the text message is just a reincarnation of an e-mail that began circulating in mid-July 2005, warning people around Memphis that a gang was going to kill a mother and young child at Walmart for initiation.

Since then, similar versions have been popping up periodically in different locales until they eventually burned out.

Since texting has grown popular with wide spread use only in recent years, when this old rumor did finally find its way into a text message format, the impact was astounding. Police stations in 43 states (some reports say all 50 states) and the District of Columbia reported receiving warnings from people who had gotten the message, and none of the states experienced initiation of this sort at all.

And just for future reference (and to keep your paranoia at bay), Major Pat Lovett of the Metro Gang Unit in Memphis said that in her 25-year experience, gang initiations have never included murder.

Also, something to keep in mind the next time you receive a similar text and want to pass it along: Mike Smith, director of 911 in Covington-Newton county of Georgia, warns, “Passing along unverified information is reckless and irresponsible.” Or to put it more simply: don’t forward this crap. Kthnx.

To read the entire history of this rumor, go to www.snopes.com/crime/gangs/walmart.asp

One-hour spring break photo horrors

or: Spring break photos haunt the innocent

EDIT: This post was originally the first draft of my column, but it is now the final draft. If you want to read the first draft, you can find it on my zine, The F.Y.I.

Working in a one hour photo lab, I see a lot of things. Spring break pictures are the most developed item at this time of year, and after seeing some truly terrible things, I ask of you this: be careful!

Last year was probably the worst as far as disgusting pictures went. As always, I didn’t have enough money to go on a typical spring break trip, so I worked at the photo lab and developed spring break pictures instead.

The first pictures to come in were from some sort of massive house party in an obviously warm area, as there were palm trees in the yard. The pictures were taken from the ground, looking up at a huge second story balcony overlooking the big back yard full of extremely drunk college-aged kids.

The first picture is of some guys standing on the edge of that balcony, his arms in the air with a beer in his hand, and everyone is cheering. The second picture: a broken arm.

And it wasn’t just any broken arm picture. There was blood all over the guy’s face, and his mangled arm was flopping around by his side. He appeared to be limping through the group, but he still had his beer in his hand, and everyone was still cheering.

The rest of the roll had the typical party pictures of people drinking, laughing and dancing like nothing had happened.


Another guy brought in pictures from a similar setting, except these had guys “relieving” themselves off the balcony. There were multiple shots from on the balcony, above the balcony, and even worse, below the balcony.

Probably the one picture that will stick out the most in my head, though, is less disgusting and more disturbing.

It’s a photo of at least 20 guys on a beach surrounding one girl. Everyone in the picture is obviously sloshed, and the girl is topless with only her bikini bottom. She appears to be in the process of tripping or falling, and there are three guys pulling on one of her arms while three other guys pull her bikini bottoms in the other direction. The guys are smiling. She is not.

Now, I don’t know exactly what was going on when this picture was taken, and I’m sure there could be some weird explanation for what I saw. But I have to admit, the first thing that came to my mind is the worst possible explanation you could think of. Unfortunately, it’s the most likely explanation.

I still remember the day I developed that picture, because right when it showed up on the screen, I immediately felt like I was going to puke. I had to hold my breath and inspect it more closely, trying to look for some sort of clue as to why that girl was being pulled around and stripped down by a huge group of guys.

When no clues presented themselves, I went from feeling horrified to feeling extremely angry. I wanted to simply not develop that picture and just cut the negative from the strip and throw it away. But I couldn’t. It’s not against the rules where I work to develop nudity, and we’re not allowed to “interpret” what we see. Unless it’s pornography or child abuse, it’s private and allowable.

The rest of the pictures from the roll were of people partying on the beach, and there were many where the camera was shoved inches from girls’ cleavage.

I hate to say it, but that guy’s name is burned into my mind, still to this day. Out of curiosity, I once looked him up on Myspace, and sure enough, he was there. I wanted to remember his face so I would be able to avoid him if I ever saw him in public, especially if I saw him at a party.

Girls, guys, please be careful on spring break. Have all the fun you want, but remember, there are people like me who are going to witness everything you wish you never did, thanks to people taking your pictures. Maybe when you’re sober, you’ll be just as horrified.

I <3 Arrested Development

Does anyone else here watch Arrested Development on DVD over and over? Am I the only one? Well, maybe in class I am (let me know if I'm not alone, classmates!), but I know for sure that many people around the country enjoy Arrested Development just as much as I do.

It's great, and there are so many reasons, it's really hard to explain it to someone who hasn't seen it or doesn't get the humor. But my all time favorite reason as to why Arrested Development is super cool is that nearly every single line is part of a joke or alluding to a joke. It's extremely clever, and I've watched every episode at least three or four times to make sure I catch it all.

Unfortunately, the show was canceled after only three seasons because apparently nobody was watching it. Now it's finally being made into a movie, and I have no idea when it's supposed to come out, but I hope it comes to Kearney. I will go as many times as my limited funds will allow me!

My boyfriend and my sister are both huge Arrested Development fans as well, and I never realized how often we make inside jokes from the episodes until I did it to someone who has never seen the show before. I guess I can't expect everyone to get it when I say "very ... handsome ... !" while acting like I'm about to barf. Or if something crappy happens, we say, "Michael!" in a low, vengeful voice. Also, since my last name starts with F, some of my friends who watch the show like to call me "Mr. F" ... if you watch the show, you'll see this is slightly insulting (or flattering, considering Charlize Theron is the actress), but it's all in good laughs.

Below, my favorite clip (explaining the "very handsome" thing) and my favorite episode, courtesy of Hulu.com.

Milk vending is good for everyone involved

For my local editorial, I decided to focus on the issue of adding milk vending machines to the campus. I know, it's not the most exciting subject in the world, but I still think it's important and something UNK should definitely consider.

Campus food services already offer an array of choices to students, but unfortunately, the vending machines on campus have a much more limited selection. To attract dollars and satisfy the needs of all students, it would be in the best interest of the university to expand the selection and include milk vending machines.

Studies began early in the decade with select high schools across the country to assess the market for milk vending machines. At the time, schools and communities were understandably worried about the rising obesity rate of children and teens, and because milk can be a healthy alternative to sugary soft drinks, it became the focus of many parents and principals who wanted a change.

After the school board in Madison, WI dropped its exclusive vending contract with Coca Cola in August 2000 and introduced milk vending machines alongside the pop machines, criticism about loss of funds soon turned to praise at the profits the milk machine was bringing to the schools.

Mona Arneson, the kitchen coordinator at West High School, told the Associated Press that she didn’t believe the milk program would work at first, but she was proven wrong when she began having difficulty keeping the machine stocked. In the first four weeks, students at the school of 2,100 pupils had bought 200 bottles of milk every day.

The Fluid Milk Strategic Thinking Initiative (FMSTI) ran its own studies, which indicated vending milk can be as successful as soda sales. In high schools, an average of 68 percent of students bought milk, and of those, 30 percent purchased milk at least once a week.

No studies have yet been released about the success of milk vending machines on college campuses, but if the success of milk vending machines at the University of Washington is taken into account, it’s not difficult to see that milk is just as popular among college students as high school students. Micheal Meyering, vending manager of the university, told University Week, the student newspaper, the machines sold out during the first couple of days after they were installed, leading him to ask the vendors for more frequent delivery.

The University of Nebraska would make a smart choice by installing milk vending machines on campus. Milk is already available at the Starbucks locations and campus convenience stores, but the hours at every milk-selling location vary from closing as early as 3 p.m. to only being open for lunch and dinner. None of these locations are open past 9 p.m. or during the weekends.

Just as students have the convenience of 24-hour soda, coffee, water and snack machines on campus, milk should have around-the-clock availability as well. Not only is milk a healthy alternative to soda, but many students simply prefer milk over other beverages. If previous studies can be believed, milk machines would also become a source of profit for the university, making them a worthy investment in this time of budget cuts.

Sources:
Wisconsin Milk Marketing Board
"Schools vending machines got milk - and students are getting it, too" - AP
University Week News

Watchmen story is pretty cool; the movie, eh.

So some friends and I went to the Watchmen midnight release last night. The last time we went to one of these things, it was for the Dark Knight, and it was insane with huge crowds of people and many costumed fans running around.

We didn't know what to expect at the Watchmen, but it was nowhere near the crowd or energy of the Dark Knight. Not that it really matters, but I guess I thought this movie has been hyped more than that.

Anyway, for people who don't know about the graphic novel or its multiple failures at becoming a movie in the past, here's a quick synopsis:

The story is set in the 80s, in a reality where Nixon is president and is in his fifth term. The Watchmen are all masked superheros that work for the government, and they are considered normal in culture and society. Dr. Manhattan is the only one who actually has super powers, though, so the U.S. uses him as a sort of military weapon.

The setting is during a cold war with Russia, and basically both the U.S. and Russia are on the verge of nuclear war, which would be so big it would cause the extinction of humanity. To make a very long and complicated story short, one of the rogue Watchmen carries out his own master plan of bombing major cities all across the globe, causing the rest of humanity to believe Earth is under attack from aliens, thus banding together against a common enemy and finding world peace.

If you see the movie, it's a bit different from the main story.

The reason Watchmen has failed multiple times at becoming a movie is because those who got involved felt it was way too complicated for the standard two-hour movie format. Most felt it would do best as a miniseries. Keep in mind, this wasn't a simple comic - it was a graphic novel that was actually on a list of top 100 reads at Time Magazine.

I hate to say it, but critics were right - this really is the movie that can't be made successfully. Don't get me wrong, it's not a bad movie by any means, but it just doesn't stand out in the crowd of comic movies, at least not for me. I'm not a huge comic movie fan anyway, so I don't know how much my opinion might matter, but honestly, I was let down. It's like the movie just doesn't do the story justice. The effects and fight scenes and everything else within the movie are definitely done well, but I can't help but feel like they should have tried to make the movie a trilogy or something. I mean, even Spiderman was a trilogy, and who cares about that guy?

One good thing is the soundtrack, which has some oldies in there like Bob Dylan and Janis Joplin. Another good thing is the strong female character who can fight and kick ass without needing to be saved by teh menz. Also, the beginning of the film is really creative, showing how the Watchmen have permeated culture (think Andy Warhol, Vietnam, JFK, etc). There's also a lot of repeated symbolism, which the novel itself was well-known for.

Also, here's the trailer.

Beware of the cats: all 500 of them!

I realize that I have already blogged about cat topics twice, but I have to admit: I am a cat person. I have two kittens right now who I adopted through the Humane Society, and they are two very different little personalities but equally lovable. So every time I see a story about cats, it makes me think of them, and I smile :)

Anyway, I simply couldn't pass this story over. There's a man in Florida who has built a 30-acre ranch for stray and abandoned cats. It's called Caboodle Ranch, and it has everything from little houses and buildings for the cats (including lake front cabins and a WalMart!), to outdoor trails and dug outs.

Craig Grant, the man who started it all, spent over $100,000 of his own money to build everything on the ranch, and he spends an additional $6000 every month and 14 hours every day to keep the cats well-fed and the ranch well-maintained.

There are over 500 cats that live there, and Grant says he will never turn a cat away who is in need of a home, so I'm sure the numbers will only continue to grow.



Animal abuse is a problem, but from what I've seen, heard and experienced myself, cats seem to be targeted much more than any other pet. The cat I grew up with, I saved from boys putting her in a cardboard box and kicking her around the skate park and a busy street. They called me a cow when I intervened and saved her (I was 16 and barely weighed 100 lbs, what jerks!). She's more my mom's cat now, since she has lived in my parents' house since then and prefers my mom over anyone else. I love to play with her when I go home to visit, though.

Anyway, it's refreshing to see someone with such a love for cats who is doing so much for their well-being. I don't have money now, but I plan to donate to the ranch this summer when I get a second job. It won't be a lot when compared to the expenses the place racks up, but I'll feel good about doing something since I don't have the option of flying down to Florida to volunteer.

In case you missed the linked text above, the website for Caboodle Ranch is http://caboodleranch.com/Index.html. You can see pictures, watch videos, read the blog, donate, and more.

On a side note, I'm destined to be a crazy cat lady by the time I turn 50.

The double dog dare post about campus parking

Quick note: Double dog dare, you say? Well, to quickly explain, Dr. Hanson, the professor of this blogging class, hates anything and everything to do with articles complaining about student parking. He says that no matter how good or bad parking really is, students at every campus across the university will complain unless they all have the ability to park within 5 feet of the door to their building 100% of the time. And, since it's been talked about so much, he says there is nothing more that could possibly be written about it that's new or interesting.

But apparently, people still want to write about it anyway, so he's giving us one chance to write a blog about it, and whoever writes the best or most interesting post will win something on Tuesday. I wasn't going to write about it, but why not try? So this is my daily experience with parking on campus.

To begin with, UNK sells more parking spots than it actually has available. I'm not sure what that ratio is, but I've been told that it's not as bad as some other universities. I think it's crap that universities sell more spots than they have, and I remember having a problem with it when I lived in the dorms. Get back late? Oh, sorry, that $50 parking fee you paid isn't going to help you out this time. I would have to park five blocks or more away and walk to my dorm. It sucked. The university sure makes some good money from it, though.

I moved out of the dorms as soon as possible and lived in the apartments surrounding campus. Because I'm a journalism major, the majority of all my classes are in the library, and I lived in an apartment that was nearly across the street from the building. It was closer than the dorms!

However, as pretty much everyone in Kearney knows, the neighborhoods surrounding campus are party havens, which results in 2 problems: it's too loud to sleep, and parking is even worse than campus if your building doesn't have assigned parking spaces. I couldn't take it anymore, so I moved out. Now I live about 8 blocks from campus in a great apartment (that I should probably blog about later, now that I think about it).

Anyway, now that I'm far enough away to be required to drive to school on days that are cold or when I'm running late (which is pretty much every day, really), I'm a commuter. Mmmm commuter ... I hate that word.

Now, I could once again battle with parking and pay $50 for the opportunity to possibly have a spot after driving around through all the commuter lots ... OR I could be a cheapo and park in the neighborhoods. I chose cheapo. And to prove why I believe being a cheapo works best, let me illustrate my usual morning of parking.

In the picture below, the red tinted area represents campus, the red outlined buildings represent where I go to class this semester, and the red lines at the bottom show the places where I usually have to park.

For this example, let's assume I get stuck with the furthest parking spot I've ever had, and I have to walk to the furthest class, which so happens to be this blogging class. The map below shows the route I would take.

Depending on your lifestyle, that might look like a long walk, and it might not. But here's the truth ... it's a little more than 1/3 of a mile and takes about 4 minutes (5 minutes if traffic is heavy on the highway I have to cross). Don't believe me? Check it out for yourself on google maps:



View Larger Map


I have never thought about this being a problem, mostly because it's free. There are plenty of streets with free parking surrounding campus, and plenty of students take advantage of it. And there are still open spots, always! If I had paid money and was given only a few areas to park that might already be full, I wouldn't be too happy about it. So I don't. There are no expectations for the perfect spot, and therefore no chance for me to feel ripped off.

The trick is to take the first spot you see. Don't drive around the blocks looking for the best spot, it's just as bad as driving around a parking lot. It's a waste of time. In my experience, simply parking as quickly as possible and then getting out to walk saves a lot of time and is much less stressful. If you refer again to the maps above, that furthest parking spot I ever had - that area is always open, even during morning class times. Go there. Then take the alley, which connects to another alley, which comes out by Come n' Get It. You'll be right across the street from the library area. It's magic.

Of course, there are some downsides. I'm now one of those same people who used to piss me off by parking in the neighborhoods, and maybe I'm keeping someone from being able to park close to their own home ... but at least I'm not one of those jerks who parks in the 30-minute parking for 36248632548 hours!

So what's the point I'm making here? Is campus parking a problem or not? Well, the point is that it doesn't bother me because I don't deal with it.

Before I end this post, though, I'd like to share a secret with those who may be upset with the parking, saying it's too far away or what have you. I learned about it from some Japanese students who lived in the same party apartment building as me ... FOLDING BIKES!

They're so weird, huh!? I was fascinated when I first saw one. I bought one for my tiny apartment and I actually went all summer with only using my car maybe twice a week. It was amazing.

Even more amazing is the bike parking on campus. It's as close as ten feet to the door! It's everywhere! There's always an open spot!

If you have a problem with parking, ride a bike. Put this thing in your trunk, pull it out, unfold it in less than a minute, and you're on your way. It even has a flat area to strap on a backpack or books.

Hurray!