I've been trying out Google Plus [commonly referred to as Google+ or G+] and it's okay. I like the circles, how everyone's +1's show up as one feed so I don't have to go site-hopping in order to comment, and the photo albums.
I don't like and I seriously object to the idea that we are supposed to use our given legal names in order to use Google + . There is no anonymity on the internet anyways. That I know. Why I find Google +'s policy on this to be pigheaded [in my opinion] is for several reasons.
(1). Google has a ton of personal information on us, its' users. Any information we provide is theirs for as long as they exist.
(2). There is no allowance for the use of a pen name. Folks who operate on the internet under an alias for
whatever reason-- folks who have been stalked, folks who are hiding from abusive partners or family members, folks who don't want an ex-boyfriend to find them, folks who are writers (as I am), folks who are members of Anonymous and who need to network in that fashion) can be kicked off of Google Plus. Anyone whose name is not believable to the Google employee or committee who goes through "the name people used to sign up list" also risks being kicked off of Google Plus and will have to prove their identity in order to be reinstated. Google + is not a service that we pay for with money (yet?) or credit card (yet?) which is the only reason why I can understand the demand for a legal name.
(3). If Google has decided this on the basis of "a kinder gentler internet" or some such rubbish that folks who use their real names will somehow not be (gasp) cyberbullies-- that's just stupid. If Google has decided this on the basis of their marketing needs, desire to sell our names to mailing lists (hey, the V.A. does it) then we should have the option to opt out.
(4). If someone is looking for my legal name, I want them to have to think about it first for at least a minute.
So Google Plus, you fail.
so saith sapphoq reviews books and more
Friday, January 27, 2012
Thursday, January 19, 2012
Thursday, December 22, 2011
Crazy River: Exploration and Folly in East Africa, Richard Grant
Crazy River: Exploration and Folly in East Africa, Richard Grant. New York: Free Press, 2011. paperback, 336 pps., incl. index.
I first encountered Richard Grant through an earlier book of his called God's Middle Finger which narrated his trip through the Sierra Madres. I was delighted to find Crazy River on the shelves of my local bookstore. Although different in tone from his earlier work, Crazy River immediately drew me in. I haven't been to Africa (yet) but this book transported me to a very different world.
The Malagarasi River, dotted with small fishing villages between the wild places, is full of pissed off hippos and crocodiles and bandits. Grant skillfully interweaves the stories that the river has for him into the histories of other adventurers, politicians, and the East African peoples. The crew that Grant hires in Tanzania is composed of men who each have their own story to tell. Crazy River carried me away from my reading chair to a place I had never been. I was there as Grant made his way through checkpoints and red tape, as prostitutes tried to pick him up, as children demanded money. I was also there on the river itself with the tsetse flies and passages of choking weeds. And there as Grant actually got to view the source of the Nile itself.
By the end of Crazy River, I had a visceral sense of the horror of genocide and specifically the genocide that took place in Rwanda. Grant tells the story of some two thousand people that took refuge in a Catholic Church in Nyange. The priest there, one "Reverend" Athanase Seromba, was more than compliant in the slaughter of those seeking sanctuary in his church building. He arranged to have his church building bulldozed. He let the drunken militia in with their grenades. He then pointed out any survivors who were then killed off with bayonets. The priest did this because the folks hiding in his church building were the wrong tribe. The priest himself belonged to the other tribe.
Crazy River is a most excellent book eluding a real sense of place. This book is a definite keeper and the finest example of the modern travel essay.
sapphoq reviews says: Highly Recommended.
I first encountered Richard Grant through an earlier book of his called God's Middle Finger which narrated his trip through the Sierra Madres. I was delighted to find Crazy River on the shelves of my local bookstore. Although different in tone from his earlier work, Crazy River immediately drew me in. I haven't been to Africa (yet) but this book transported me to a very different world.
The Malagarasi River, dotted with small fishing villages between the wild places, is full of pissed off hippos and crocodiles and bandits. Grant skillfully interweaves the stories that the river has for him into the histories of other adventurers, politicians, and the East African peoples. The crew that Grant hires in Tanzania is composed of men who each have their own story to tell. Crazy River carried me away from my reading chair to a place I had never been. I was there as Grant made his way through checkpoints and red tape, as prostitutes tried to pick him up, as children demanded money. I was also there on the river itself with the tsetse flies and passages of choking weeds. And there as Grant actually got to view the source of the Nile itself.
By the end of Crazy River, I had a visceral sense of the horror of genocide and specifically the genocide that took place in Rwanda. Grant tells the story of some two thousand people that took refuge in a Catholic Church in Nyange. The priest there, one "Reverend" Athanase Seromba, was more than compliant in the slaughter of those seeking sanctuary in his church building. He arranged to have his church building bulldozed. He let the drunken militia in with their grenades. He then pointed out any survivors who were then killed off with bayonets. The priest did this because the folks hiding in his church building were the wrong tribe. The priest himself belonged to the other tribe.
Crazy River is a most excellent book eluding a real sense of place. This book is a definite keeper and the finest example of the modern travel essay.
sapphoq reviews says: Highly Recommended.
Thursday, September 15, 2011
fundies say the darndest things webiste
No matter how many of you DEFEND anime/manga, you NEED to realize that this genre of entertainment is nothing short of witchcraft...Creation has been unanimously proven...Registering [the poor] to vote is like handing out burglary tools to criminals...Most knowledge cutters the mind anyway...
Those are just a few of the more recent quotes culled from the fstdt website. Folks can submit a quote; and also comment on the quotes if they sign up for an account. Each quotation is identified by who said it and the website where the original can be found.
sapphoq reviews says: A winner!
Those are just a few of the more recent quotes culled from the fstdt website. Folks can submit a quote; and also comment on the quotes if they sign up for an account. Each quotation is identified by who said it and the website where the original can be found.
sapphoq reviews says: A winner!
Sunday, August 28, 2011
Children of Dust, by Ali Eteraz
Ali Eteraz, Children of Dust. New York: Harper One, 2009. hard cover, 337 pps.
Ali Eteraz was born Abir ul Islam in a small village in Pakistan. He built his identity around having been promised to serve Islam. He attended madrassa and was beaten. Beatings were routine during lessons if a boy made too many mistakes in his recitation of a portion of the Koran which was set for his memorization that day. And sometimes for other things.
He migrated to the United States with his family, finally settling in the Bible Belt. Abir then became Amir. The young Amir experimented with sex and the secular, then settling into a routine of super-Islam-dude. His idealized self fell short when presented with the responsibility of running a student Muslim organization in college.
He became a lawyer, lost his practice, reinvented himself as Ali Eteraz and went to Kuwait to seek converts to his idea of Islamic reform. A friend enlightens him. He returns to the United States.
This book was not as satisfying to me as A Thousand Splendid Suns was, but still good and worth reading. Ali's name changes seemed to be a bit more than the reinvention of his self. To me there were whispers of fragmented selves rather than an integrated personality. I may be wrong about that. That is the impression the book left with me.
sapphoq reviews says: recommended to those who are curious about life in a small Pakistani village.
Ali Eteraz was born Abir ul Islam in a small village in Pakistan. He built his identity around having been promised to serve Islam. He attended madrassa and was beaten. Beatings were routine during lessons if a boy made too many mistakes in his recitation of a portion of the Koran which was set for his memorization that day. And sometimes for other things.
He migrated to the United States with his family, finally settling in the Bible Belt. Abir then became Amir. The young Amir experimented with sex and the secular, then settling into a routine of super-Islam-dude. His idealized self fell short when presented with the responsibility of running a student Muslim organization in college.
He became a lawyer, lost his practice, reinvented himself as Ali Eteraz and went to Kuwait to seek converts to his idea of Islamic reform. A friend enlightens him. He returns to the United States.
This book was not as satisfying to me as A Thousand Splendid Suns was, but still good and worth reading. Ali's name changes seemed to be a bit more than the reinvention of his self. To me there were whispers of fragmented selves rather than an integrated personality. I may be wrong about that. That is the impression the book left with me.
sapphoq reviews says: recommended to those who are curious about life in a small Pakistani village.
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