Burning Ones

Did some more work on Alex and Jaclyn’s website. I basically made it fixed width.

Mazel Tov!

Well, I went ahead and opened up a new section in the blog that will contain commentary that I feel like I should make on what other people are saying. So far none of it shows up on the home page but if you want, you can click through to the actual blog and read it. Sorry, but the blog still doesn’t look very good. I still have to learn about smarty templates…

Ahh… Voices of reason in education!

Every once and awhile, it’s refreshing to find a voice of reason in the education business. As one who didn’t get great grades but truly valued intelligence and educating myself, I loathed and despised tests that simply required me to spit back information that I wouldn’t remember in 2 years because the only way I was going to learn it was to memorize a list of facts and figures. The only classes I thrived in (and the only information I remember still) were classes that had me work on creative solutions to problems based on a subset of facts and figures.

Bravo!

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Women in Web Design

Well, this is a really interesting article on how well women are being represented in the Web Design and larger IT work force. It is interesting to me as more of a part timer in the industry that so little data is available in regards to the profession. I wonder what can be done about the said phenomenon…

At Chestnut Hill College, the computer science department is roughly, I would say, 85% male. In High School, I had a total of 2 girls with me in my high computer classes (as in programming, not touch typing). What does all that mean? I don’t know. I certainly wasn’t aware of any gender based discrimination, it just seemed that my female companions were not interested.

hmm…

<p><a href=”http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/6639417.stm”>Facebook fears?</a></p>
<p>Jeeze!  I didn’t know that facebook caused so much of a ruckus!</p>

It’s ok for an Australian Gay bar to ban heterosexual people&8230;

Truly, I’m totally against hate and discrimination of any kind. I’m vehemently anti-racist, anti-sexist, and anti-hate. However, I’m also a Christian and unlike many of my fellow believers I do believe in Universal and Absolute definitions of Sin. One of those sins which I believe is clearly found in the Bible is that of Homosexual sexual relationships. Now, that being said, I do not believe that homosexuals should be treated as second class citizens, I do not believe that the fact that their lifestyle is sinful means that they deserve love any less than I do or deserve judgement any more than I do. We have all fallen short of the glory of God (Romans 3). Therefore, I have to question the wisdom of an Australian Gay Bar (That’s how it describes itself) winning the right to ban heterosexuals from its premises.

As a human being, I am offended when any group is discriminated against, and I find it to be uniquely counter-productive when the majority is repressed due to the minority’s uncomfortableness with how the majority is reacting to it. I think this way because when you repress the majority, it reinforces the thought in their head that the minority is different enough that it needs official protecting and thus it is actually inferior due to the fact that it needs something that we (the majority) do not need. You see this with something like affirmative action which, though a noble effort to solve the problem of officially sanctioned racism, has in fact reinforced in the minds of many people (at least in my sampling of society) that minorities are worse than white americans because they need help.

This is a complicated issue, and I do understand that in any free society it is a responsibility of the society to protect its minorities from the tyranny of the majority. However, I think that when you legally begin to protect aberrant social sectors you almost remove part of their identity. It’s simply a fact that homosexuality, as of this point, is still considered to be somewhat different from the norm. This is something that a homosexual person should be proud of as a member of that minority because it does give them a sense of uniqueness. When I was much more outwardly punk than I am now, I gloried in the fact that society didn’t get me, because I was different. However, I suppose a lot of this comes down to the fact that I still think that homosexuality is something that is mainly the product of environment (a statement that is still hotly debated). I chose to be a punk (even though at the time it didn’t really feel like a choice) and therefore it made it much easier for me to accept when some one didn’t accept me because I knew that I had chosen that path. I suppose a homosexual person who never feels that they made a choice would be deeply hurt by society not accepting who they are&8230;

So, all this boils back down to the inherent backwardness of a faction of society that is attempting to find equality and acceptance with its heterosexual brethren counting it as a victory that it has won the right to ban heterosexuals from its bar. This does not do anything but reinforce the already present differences between the two communities.

Super Charged Signatures in Gmail via Better Gmail Firefox extension

Just a quick note on this, as I haven’t even installed it yet, but this Firefox extension sounds like a bit of a dream come true for me. I used Mail.app for quite some time while I still had my .Mac account (which went bye-bye a few months ago) and got very used to having the ability to insert pretty pictures and other such things into my signature. When I made the switch to Gmail, I felt the hit there quite a bit. Now, if everything works as promised, I should be able to do that via Gmail. Fun fun!

5, yea, 6 ways to live a happy life

Just found this wonderful little list of 5 ways to live a happy life, yea, 6 actions that will help you find that elusive quality of happiness. I would add one more though… Cultivate a relationship with God. Other than that, great tips!

Nice little thought piece on online freedom

With internet social networking services growing daily, it’s interesting to see how governments and societies will begin to react to the unprecedented ability to share information…