Sprinkles Around the Web: April 15th Edition

Sprinkles from around the web

I decided to add “equality” given that I do read a lot of articles with intersectionality that cover stopping a lot of -isms, and they are all equally important. As always, these are links that I found interesting and you might too.

Me

Books Nominated for 2013 Hugo Awards!
Woohoo! Chicks Unravel Time & Chicks Dig Comics were nominated for The Hugo Awards. Big congratulations to the editors, all the other writers, and everyone else involved in the production and love of these books. 🙂

Cute Animals

Black and White Friendship Story of a 4-Year-old Girl and Her Cat
Yep, pretty sure I was exactly like this with my cat as a child.

Entrepreneurship

The Skills Most Entrepreneurs Lack
Very interesting.

Equality

Donglegate: Why the Tech Community Hates Feminists
One of the best articles I’ve read about the larger messages and lessons from Donglegate.

How to talk about a woman’s looks
Yep, even President Obama messed this one up.

To my daughter (should I have one)
A lovely thought from my friend Susie. Continue reading “Sprinkles Around the Web: April 15th Edition”

Sprinkles Around the Web: April 8th Edition

Sprinkles from around the web

Things that I found that were interesting around the web. Your mileage may vary.

Me

Erica and Jacob in NYC
Jacob and I in NYC at the castle in Central Park.

4 Lesser-Known Conferences That Deserve Your Attention in 2013
Heck, yes, MozCon got a shout-out! 🙂 Plus, quote by me.

Introducing Moz Reader!
I love working for such an amazing company like SEOmoz. I’ve been so bummed about Google Reader shutting down, but guess what, we stepped up and created the Moz Reader! I’m really thrilled. (If you’re wondering where I was, I was in NYC instead of in the video.)

Cute Animals

Adventure Kitten Gear
Okay, REI wins with the adorable as they have all your adventure kitten gear.

Baby hedgehogs
OMG baby hedgehogs have giant ears!

Entrepreneurship

On Not Mourning Your Failures & Overcoming Burn-Out with Brad Feld
On how to think more about your life for the long-term as an entrepreneur.

Fandom

Anything That Loves: Comics Beyond “Gay” and “Straight”
Definitely an awesome Kickstarter for a comic anthology about romantic love that goes beyond “straight” or “gay.”

Continue reading “Sprinkles Around the Web: April 8th Edition”

Sprinkles Around the Web: Big O’ Link-ing

Sprinkles from around the web

So it’s been a while — too long — since I’ve made one of these posts, which means, I’m going to just do a link dump without my usual explanations so I can hurry things along and get to the new stuff. As always, what I like, you may not like.

Me
by me

quoted / photoed me

Continue reading “Sprinkles Around the Web: Big O’ Link-ing”

Sprinkles Around the Web 1/14-1/27/11

Sprinkles from around the web

A collection of interesting links that I found around the web. Read and enjoy.

Me

Erica in her new dress
Because sometimes, I just need to buy and wear a pretty red dress.

Environment

Polar bear swims for nine straight days in search of ice Polar bears swim, but they don’t swim as far as this one. Why did this bear swim so far? It couldn’t find ice. Yep, the real effects of global warming.

Squirrels Around the World There are some freaking adorable squirrels out there.

Fandom

The Rape of Inara: On heroines, consent, and women’s sexuality

I am now gleefully happy that “Firefly” got canceled. Not that I wasn’t before, but now? I can almost forgive FOX for canceling all those TV shows if it means that Inara was never raped. Also, TV, can you stop having the women with sexuality be raped or otherwise punished for having it while pretending to be edgy for having women with ‘unconventional’ sexualities?

Resistance, a Star Trek: The Next Generation fanvid I love this video so much. It’s amazing.

‘Dark Knight Rises’: Anne Hathaway will be Catwoman, Tom Hardy is Bane Okay, she’ll actually be Selina Kyle as who knows if she’ll be Catwoman in this one… Continue reading “Sprinkles Around the Web 1/14-1/27/11”

Sprinkles Around the Web 12/31/10-01/13/11

Sprinkles from around the web

Links from around the web that I enjoyed. Mileage may vary.

Me

Check out me and my new knives.
Check out me and my new knives.

My Amazon.com GeekGirlCon product recommendations

GeekGirlCon

• Come to our all-hands meeting this Saturday from 10am-1pm at the Madison Park Starbucks in Seattle.

We’re throwing Buffy Summers a 30th Birthday Bash in Seattle, San Francisco, and Los Angeles. Come join us.

Environment

BP Disaster was “Avoidable” The commission reports find that it was due to failure on part of all the companies. Which means lazy companies caused on of the worst environmental disasters we’ve seen. And they aren’t properly cleaning it up.

Fandom

David Tennant and Catherine Tate are to appear together on stage in a new West End production of William Shakespeare’s Much Ado About Nothing. OMG, I want to go now!

Superman’s social network nightmare About the destruction moms can do on Facebook.

Diamond Halts All Shipments Of Graphic Novels To Borders. Apocalyptic Wave Of Returns Expected Diamond has a capital on comic book distribution. I’m going to assume that it’s in the best interests of Marvel and DC Comics to make deals directly with Borders. Hopefully, this will help take down Diamond’s monopoly on comic book distribution.

Women and Comics Another letter to publishers and marketers how they are missing a huge part of the world: women.

Wonder Woman TV project officially dead I’m going to be over here crying. Not even television super producer David E. Kelley could get a Wonder Woman project off the ground.

Dinosaur Comics on the likelihood of a real life Batman

7 reasons to give Stephanie Brown a chance as Batgirl Yes. I agree with all of this. Enjoying Stephanie Brown as Batgirl does not mean that one cannot also like Cass Cain. Continue reading “Sprinkles Around the Web 12/31/10-01/13/11”

Sprinkles Around the Web 8/6-8/12/10

Sprinkles from around the web

Links to astound and amazing you, dear reader.

Me

• I went to Social Media Breakfast on Tuesday to see Kira Wampler from Ant’s Eye View/Intuit speak. Here were a couple the tips I tweeted:

Find the sexy about your business, which may not be your product itself.

Don’t stop at just listening to your customers. Do something too.

Employees needs guard rails for rules of online engagement. Want to do right by the company.

Fandom

Runaways Movie Casting Breakdown Racebending brings a summary of the casting for the Runaways movie, and the actor requirements don’t even mention the character being Japanese-America. Instead she’s “Uniquely beautiful, nurturing but guarded.” Worth noting that most casting breakdowns are horribly stereotypical, even if the end result of a film is not. However, after the complete whitewashing of The Last Airbender

Will You Subvert the Dominant Paradigm for a Cookie? The return of the Joss Whedon puppy. Continue reading “Sprinkles Around the Web 8/6-8/12/10”

Sprinkles Around the Web 7/09-7/22/10

Sprinkles from around the web

Links that I enjoyed and shared around the web. Take a gander.

Economy

Times report: The real mortgage deadbeats are the rich. Why does it not surprise me that even in the Great Recession, the rich keep getting richer by hiring their legal team to take advantage of all the loopholes, including ones that are supposed to be helping the middle and working classes.

Fandom

Feminist Hulk SMASH Exclusive Interview with MS.! Awesome.

Tweeting in all-caps, this size-XXXXXXL superhero fights for social justice and breaks down the gender binary–all the while looking “smashing” in purple shorts with a big smile on his face.

Mythbusting Princess Leia’s Hair. Leia had some bizarre hair, even for the 1970s. And some hair that expert cos-players can’t figure out how to replicate. Certainly hair she couldn’t have done by herself, while on the run and fighting a war. Continue reading “Sprinkles Around the Web 7/09-7/22/10”

Save the Earth: Greenwashing or Going Green?

KermitThese days being Green sells. This makes me happy, moreover, this makes my inner nine-year-old happy who was campaigning to save the whales on the local news long before it was cool. However, as Kermit pointed out, being Green isn’t easy, and sometimes, it might not be as profitable as shareholders demand that it be. Especially since being Green has become lumped in with better labor practices and company ethics.

Say I decided that I wanted to start mass selling warming cat beds, I would need:

1. Investors to fund my project
2. Materials to make my cat beds out of
3. A design team to create the product
4. A marketing team to create the packaging and branding messages
5. A factory to produce the product
6. A factory to produce the packaging
7. A warehouse to store my packaged cat beds
8. Shipping to get cat beds to warehouse and then to stores/customers
9. Stores and web site to sell them in

(Okay, I’m sure I forgot something. But this is simplified.)

So, let’s say I make my cat beds out of 100% organic cotton and use an energy saving method to warm the beds. Great, my cat beds are Green, right?

Wrong, when they travel really inefficiently by jet from my factory in China because I have to meet deadlines. Wrong, when I use non-recyclable new plastics in packaging. Wrong, when I mass market them at Wal-Mart and pay my own design team substandard wages so they have to work at Wal-Mart selling my cat beds on the weekends to supplement their income.

While this is a massive simplification of how hard going Green actually is, it’s not an uncommon practice for companies to say they’re Green and then leave some pretty big carbon footprints in other areas or with other products. This is also known as Greenwashing and it all comes down to how much money a company can make by advertising it as Green.

Though my cat warming beds are trying to Green and hopefully getting incentives to become Green in other areas besides materials, they aren’t quite there yet. They aren’t completely Greenwashing, but the packaging needs to be clear that the materials in the product and it’s function are Green while the rest of it may not be.

Traditionally, Greenwashing was associate with more blatant profit mongering or anti-environmental acts being passed off as Green. However, there’s been a move these days to say, “Hey, but what about…” And sites like GoodGuide have popped up to help the prosumer make a decision about how truly Green a product is. Because alone we don’t have the resources to figure it out, but together, we can stand up and say that while being Green isn’t easy, it’s time to start.

The Redneck Vote

Amanda Marcotte on Pandragon.net writes Rednecks and Offense, an article about the changing nature of the word ‘redneck,’ the appeal to rednecks by Republicans, and how she’s not that far from a redneck.

Obviously, I have joked about my mom’s recent redneck wedding on this blog before. It’s no secret that there are a lot of rednecks in my family (on both sides), and yes, they use that word with reclamation and pride. And to be fair, my maternal family is populated with a lot of Vatican II Catholic yellow-dog Democrats and my paternal family is a mix of we-love-guns Libertarians and stereotypical redneck Republicans.

There have been family Christmases were my father’s family all sat around watching the hunting channel and Larry the Cable Guy. Or where my brother and maternal grandpa have changed the station from CNN to the rodeo. All the men in my immediate family drive trucks or jeeps that I, at 5’5″, have to be hoisted into and neither of my grandmas even attempt to climb into on their own. When my brothers go “rock climbing,” what they mean is that they drive their jeeps over rocks or watch their friends do the same.

My mom’s favorite beer is Michelob Ultra Lite that she buys at Wal-Mart; it’s cheap and has 96 calories, and she will hunt down the sales associate to ask him why they don’t stock more than two cases on the store floor. My dad prefers Coolers Light; my 22-year-old brother will drink about anything; my fake!daddy likes Bud Light; and I take lime in my Corona. We all have country and western music on our iPods, except my dad, who I don’t think knows how to work one.

I know how to muck stalls and castrate male lambs. I’ve owned at least one pair of rubber boots from the time I was four until I graduated high school. You do not want to change irrigation or dust chickens with chemicals to kill lice in flip-flops. And I still wear my authentic purple cowboy boots. While I don’t like hunting, I have had a lot of fun at the firing range.

However, I’m one of those latte-drinking big city liberals.

Scratch that.

I don’t like lattes or coffee for that matter. But I will admit that I love Chai tea and I’m a hot tea snob. I like my tea imported from England from Whittard of Chelsea. (Hint, if you ever want to buy me something.)

I do live in the big city. Well, in Seattle, which is the biggest city in the PacificNorthwest. However, my friend Mally from Boston still laughs at me, even if she does fear our traffic after experiencing it herself.

And I am a liberal. I’m very liberal and I pretty much have been. Except when for some reason, as a young child, Ross Perot really entertained me. Probably because he was loud and upset everyone, which is always hilarious.

I’ve always liked to watch the evening news (I blame my maternal grandparents) and listen to NPR, which I guess became a default choice when I couldn’t stand the adult contemporary or modern country stations in my hometown as a preteen. I enjoy being critical of the two-party system, and I’m sure my mom can tell you call about my Bill Clinton paper doll I made, which often said, “I did not have sexual relations with that woman” and wore my Barbie’s skirts. Humor makes me not want to throw up every time I watch or listen to the news.

I’m also part of the liberal elite and went to this really snobby liberal arts university, which I should mention, so did Larry the Cable Guy’s daughter.

But wait, didn’t I state in a previous post, I didn’t know who I’m voting for? That’s right; I don’t. But I never said I didn’t know who I wasn’t voting for.

Like Amanda, I know what both world’s are like. And I also know how far they aren’t apart.

I also know that in order to persuade rednecks to vote for you in next election, you need to speak their language. They need to be included in the branding concept.

The Republicans do a great job at this. Sarah Palin is moose-hunting hockey mom from Alaska; like her or dislike her, she has been a one woman branding force for the McCain campaign. She probably wears puffy coats and is still attractive, while being the type of woman who would drink from a can of beer. This is her image. It doesn’t matter that she raised taxes, even on food, in her hometown and left it $22 million in debt. She’s still campaigning on a smaller government and no tax raises. Palin is telling the redneck contingent what they want to hear because that’s what branding is about.

Obama’s camp, on the other side, might have progressive policies to help the lower and middle classes with taxes, health care, etc. He promises no tax increase if earning under $250K and tax cuts for those making under $75K. However, even taxing the very rich seems to frighten tax-hating rednecks. This is not what they want to hear. And what they really don’t want to hear is the collective head-banging-on-desk of Obama-supporters and the campaign itself, when the redneck voting contingent says they like McCain/Palin better on the issues of taxes than Obama/Biden. No one in my family has ever made over $250k/year. But my paternal grandma is still sending me e-mails about how Obama will ruin the country.

Instead of insulting rednecks for being ignorant, the Democrats need to reach out to them and properly communicate with them. The Democrats need to make a branding campaign that will effect them. I’m not saying Obama should wear a cowboy hat or they have to persuaded a country artist to write a song about them. (Though Toby Keith supports Obama.) But throwing out facts is not working. Obama’s message of Hope and Change is supposed to reach out and effect everyone. That’s one of the reasons why it’s such an effective branding slogan for the liberal-voting choir and why the Republicans have attached themselves to a Change message. (We all agree that Bush sucks.)

If the Democrats want to level the playing field for the redneck vote, they need to direct Hope and Change to that audience. Don’t say, we’ll lower your taxes so you can send your children to college and then they can work white-collar jobs instead of blue ones. Don’t say, are you stupid, there were not weapons of mass destruction in Iraq and global warming is real for the 15th billionth time. Instead, do some homework and get a neighbor, who’s just like them except voting for Obama, to campaign for you or make Biden be the guy who will have a beer in your kitchen with you, make him as VP just as appealing as the Republicans have made Palin. Connect with the youth who use MySpace instead of just Facebook and people (shame time) like my paternal grandma, who really does believe that Obama is Muslim thanks to internet forwards. (I tried to educate her otherwise, trust me.)

If myself and someone who thinks you’re only rich if you make over $5 million knows that this “cultural divide” isn’t as big as it really seems and can market to them, maybe I’ll save a lime or two for Obama and Biden.