Warning: mental overload

I'm facing a problem as a writer and activist where there is so much to talk about that I'm not even sure what to focus on. In response, I'm going to write a "greatest hits" blog post on what I've been focusing on for the past month.

Veganism: The legalization of other species as persons has become a fascinating notion to me. A Nat Geo article was shared with my by my friend Blondie (mentioned in very past blog posts) about a woman who calls other species' persons and studies them, and through this I found the Non-human Rights Project which seeks to give animals rights to their bodies and lives.

Bergdahl: This media frenzy has sickened me, as all media frenzies do. Summarily, this soldier was a POW of the Taliban in Afghanistan for five years after he left his post, and what started as a joyous celebration of getting one of our own back (albeit by trading him for 5 top Taliban officials from Guantanamo[which was supposed to be closed by now because the treatment within Guantanamo is inhumane and against basic "American" principles of justice and fair trial{see Patriot Act}]) has turned into doubts about whether is life was WORTH (I repeat, WORTH) trading these men for. You don't want to get me started on placing value on life. The discussion will get ugly.

Net neutrality: My last post was on this. The FCC (Federal Communications Commission) chairman Tom Wheeler, formerly of Comcast (can you say conflict of interest?) is considering allowing service providers such as Comcast and Verizon to fast track some websites loading speeds (like companies that pay them money to ensure they'll load for consumers, while they can slow down the loading speeds of other sites (like free web and communications activist sites such as my personal go-to, Free Press)

Reset the Net: Click this. Click this now. It's so freaking cool. It provides tips and software to prevent government and even private snooping. It's really neat. And important. And it's sponsored by a bunch of cool groups and blogs (all of these, actually): 

There's more stuff, but this post is gonna be too long if I keep rambling. So just think about it. About all of it. 

Adventure Time! Public Transportation Edition.

So sometimes I ride the bus in my town to get to other towns. Because that’s what buses do. Today, I had a bit of an adventure on my bus ride.

I was sitting in my seat, minding my own business, and I had just started The Road by Cormac McCarthy (I’m already sucked in, by the way). We pulled up to the next stop, and a little girl and her mother, laden with bagged victuals, boarded the bus and sat in the seats diagonal from me. I immediately knew I was in trouble. This cute little kid, who’s probably about eight years old, is just staring me down. So, I smile at her. She smiles back.

Her mother quite obviously didn't want her kid talking to random strangers on the bus (because, well, you know, it’s a bus), and so the kid starts pointing and my book and mouthing words to me. I have no idea what she’s saying, and I’m a complete pushover, so I hand her The Road.

Now, I just started this book, and it’s a pretty dark read, so in my head I’m thinking for the love of all that is holy, please tell me this kid won’t find any cuss words in this book.

To my relief, she flips through the book once and then hands it back to me. We ended up discussing James Patterson (sort of). It was pretty awesome.

Next, she wanted to see my phone. Once again, I’m a pushover, so I handed her the phone. I figured she wouldn't be able to turn in on. Usually, when I hand my cell to someone my age or older, they can’t even get the home screen. I thought I’d let her give it a try, and when she failed, I’d be able to pass it off as “oops, looks like it’s broken.”

Lo and behold, she cracked that baby in five seconds flat. What even?

She’s looking for the internet, she’s looking for games, she’s trying to use it like a smartphone; this kid was more advanced than the technology I carry around daily in my pocket!

Sure as hell not bringing out the e Reader  I thought to myself. I’ll never get off the bus!

So, we played twenty questions on my notepad, we took a video and tried to send it to Blondie, and me and this eight year-old became bffls faster than I even learn the name of most adults I’m introduced to.

Public transportation. Who knew?