Thoughts, Rants, and Other Stuff @nickgreyden - Tumblr Blog

2893071298743-deactivated202104

andy dwyer’s reaction to sexual harassment is exactly what it should be

Are we allowed to just ask you questions? Like... What does your job actually mean? Are you meant to increase curiousity or answer it or experience it to the max and share your findings or....?

I am in the professional business of Making People Give A Flying Faucet About Our Planet.

I do that in whatever way I can. Sometimes that means making Internet videos. Sometimes it means going to schools and giving talks. Sometimes it means radio or television interviews talking about our world and the awesome things it has to offer.

I’m thrilled to be alive, I’m arrested with feeling as though this world is an incredible impossibility, I’m overcome with the beauty around us and the unlikelihood of our existence, I’m a new person every day, I’m a storyteller and an artist and a pseudo-scientist and a questioner and a seeker and a finder. I’m a parasitic infection that insists you open your eyes and take a good, hard look at your surroundings and help me start figuring out how we can ensure that one hundred, two hundred, five thousand years from now, that whatever societies are around can still be around, can uncover a buried artifact from our time and look at it and think Wow, These People Really, Really Cared About Being Alive.

edwardspoonhands

Some Questions I'm Not Going to Ask

Here are three kinds of questions I’m avoiding:

Puff Questions: “What kind of smart phone do you use?” or “What is the best part of being president?” I actually really want to know stuff like that, but when you’re talking to The President, you want to get at something interesting.

Softballs: “Higher education is so expensive in this country, what are some things your administration is doing to fix that?” These are different than puff questions because they’re just an opportunity for the President to talk about some existing project that he’s already talked about (free community college for two years for everyone!)

Attacks: “How do you feel about having killed thousands of innocent Afghani civilians?” A lot of people are asking me to ask questions like that, and those aren’t questions, they’re statements.

I may do a bit of puff at the beginning, but softballs and attacks can always be phrased in ways that actually lead to discussion and understanding.

"Can we justify the use of drones when civilian casualties are unavoidable, and give extremists a recruiting tool?"

"I’m excited that community college might soon be free for two years, but many college graduates still have a hard time finding work out of school. Do you think this a problem with the economy, or with education?"

But in reading the responses thus far, I’m getting the impression that questions are coming from those who are most politically active. So now, in response to this post, I’d like to see some replies from people who are less politically active. Why do so few young people vote? Do you feel like it doesn’t affect you? Or that you can’t affect it? Both? Do you just not feel informed enough? Are there practical issues you care about that I should bring up?

I’m not saying I won’t ask questions from those who are politically involved (I definitely will) but if I get anything out of this, I want it to be more people who feel like government matters, because it really doesn’t work if people don’t vote.

nickgreyden

Where exactly is the greater drone strike transparency program as promised, and how can we, as citizens of the the US, be ok with attacks in sovereign nations under the ideology of protecting ourselves. I don't want Iraq or Saudi Arabia launching unmaned air attacks against our citizenry to protect themselves. These are the reasons for laws and the UN as a buffer to protect human rights from infringement. Why do we get a pass? --I leave it to you on how to ask this question in a manner that is probably more thoughtfully prepared than I am able to make it sound.

tiavision

today my anthro professor said something kindof really beautiful:

"you all have a little bit of ‘I want to save the world’ in you, that’s why you’re here, in college. I want you to know that it’s okay if you only save one person, and it’s okay if that person is you"

stickybumps-deactivated20160321

Oh my god. That was incredible.

tkingfisher

Smashing Pots

Every now and then, people ask me if I should go to art school, and I usually say something like “Do you want to go to art school?” and if they say “Yes,” then I say “Yes,” and if they say “No,” then I say “Don’t.” This is why I am a crappy source of career advice.

However.

There is ONE class that I think nearly every writer, artist, and creative type out there would benefit from, and as it happens, it’s ceramics. Preferably with a strong wheel-throwing component.

No, really.

Back in ceramics class, in college, at the end of the year we would gather up all our dishes and pots and sculptures that we had labored over for weeks—and you really do labor for weeks, because you’re sculpting and drying and firing and glazing and firing again—and we would look at them. And what we generally realized was that we had created a lot of things that sucked. There is just a point where you hold this lumpy-ass thing in your hand and you realize that it has not added to the sum total of awesome in the universe—and that you don’t have to keep it. And then you wind up and fling it into the massive dumpster behind the ceramics studio and it smashes against the bottom and a demented exhilaration surges through you and you grab the next one and smash it and it is glorious. Now, there are people who do not smash their failed work, who cannot bear to do it, and so there was always a shelf full of sad lumpy clay things with a little “free to good home” sign on it. Some of them possibly were adopted eventually. Mostly, though, we learned to smash. Pottery, particularly wheel-throwing, is wonderful for this, incidentally. You fail over and over and you fail fast and you are creating quantity to lead to quality. You throw and throw and throw and things die on the wheel and things die when you take them off the wheel and things explode in the kiln and after you have made a dozen or two dozen or a thousand, none of them are precious any more. There is always more clay.

It breaks you of preciousness and perfectionism. You can’t fiddle for two hours with wet clay on the wheel getting it perfect. It’ll be an over-saturated lump of mud long before then. If the walls are thrown too thin, they are too thin. It’s not worth fixing. Start over. Do it again. Finish, don’t fiddle. I can’t do pottery any more because if I tried to hunch over a wheel these days, my back would go out so hard that I would never walk upright again. But I still think it was one of the most valuable classes I ever took, because it taught me to acknowledge failure, not to fear it, and then smash the hell out of it.

To me, justice means that the innocent should be found innocent. It means that those who do wrong should get their due punishment. Ultimately it means fair treatment. So a call for justice shouldn't offend or disrespect anybody. A call for justice shouldn't warrant an apology. -- Andrew Hawkins of the Cleveland Browns

laralfield-deactivated20160827

This is why Silicon Valley is fucked up. Because it’s built and run by some of the most privileged people in the world who are convinced that they are among the least.

Nerd Entitlement Lets Men Ignore Racism and Sexism | The New Republic (via laralfield)

Examine your assumptions.

(via kenyatta) Point taken. Position changed.

projectunbreakable

nine photographs portraying quotes said to sexual assault survivors by police officers, attorneys, and other authority figures

more info about project unbreakable here

original tumblr here

previously: nine photographs portraying quotes said to sexual assault survivors by their friends/family

nickgreyden

what the actual fuck is wrong with people >:-(

theguilteaparty

reindeerplaydate:

forfuturereferenceonly:

kowka:

haraii:

christmas eve what about christmas adam

happy christmas adam to all men’s rights activists

Please stop pestering us with things like this. This has nothing to do with men fighting for their rights. Eve is short for ‘evening’. Please don’t turn activism into a joke. Thanks.

Someone isn’t having a good christmas adam

Christmas Adam: December 23rd. Comes before Christmas Eve and is generally unsatisfying.

nickgreyden

I had to... because I laughed WAYYYY too hard at this. #notalladams

edwardspoonhands

From what I've seen Hank, you support the "affordable care act" aka Obamacare. Why? Healthcare is not a right, it is a privilege. People should not be forced to pay there hard earned money for someone else who takes these handouts. If you want to pay for someone else's doctor visit, go ahead, but don't force the American taxpayer to.

Before the Affordable Care Act I could literally not get insurance. I have a chronic disease, ulcerative colitis, which causes me a lot of pain, about $300 in prescription drug bills per month, and will probably give me cancer.

The treatment for the cancer that I hope won’t kill me is a surgery that costs hundreds of thousands of dollars and it will be followed by a lifetime of medical bills to help me live without a colon.

Do you want to know why I didn’t have health insurance? Because I was diagnosed in college…and when I graduated I had to get off the University’s plan and when I applied for new coverage I was denied. I was denied by every insurance company that operates in the state of Montana. Apparently this was my fault?

So now we have the Affordable Care Act. I pay full price for health insurance, and if I get in a car accident (which might happen) or get cancer (which probably will) I can avoid bankruptcy. I can continue running my business that employs 30 people and not dissolve all of the assets of the thing I have built in order to pay for the luxury of not dying.

And what is the price to you? To the average citizen? Oh, y’know, nothing. No increase in your taxes, and you’re more likely to see your insurance bill go down than you were before the ACA was passed. Fucking Horrible. I’m so sorry that the sustainability of our nation’s economy and the freedom of average citizens to not live in constant fear take precedence over your bullshit ideology.

nickgreyden

I’m glad you are able to get and afford health insurance now, Hank. That is great. I’m glad you are wealthy enough to have started a business and now employ people. You have benefited from this, as have others. But there is also a large section whom it has harmed. America has continued to lose medium to high paying manufacturing jobs to places overseas while increasing the number of low paying service jobs. This work more often than not pays low wages and can afford, with a limited staff, to keep hours below 30 so they don’t have to provide healthcare. Thus these people are forced to look to the marketplace for healthcare. I cannot tell you how horrible this situation is in the South. Medicaid was not expanded in most southern states so they can’t be covered. The hoops to jump through to get subsidized insurance is enough to make you pull your hair out. Even if/when you get the subsidized insurance, it is still taking away from a meager paycheck toward insurance that, get this, you can’t use. That’s right. You call a doctor, and all of them say the exact same thing. “I’d have to check with the doctor to know if he is taking any new patients. What type of insurance do you have?” If it is anything other than a major, well known carrier you get the polite, “I’m sorry, the doctor isn’t taking any new patients.” Couple this with the fact that the low level insurance that the poor are forced into get don’t even begin to cover expenses until you pay deducible that would already force one into bankruptcy in the first place and what you have is a capitalist tax on the poor, forcing them to buy a service that they cannot use. THIS. IS. UNACCEPTABLE! While I can be happy for you and others who have seen an improvement in their situation, I cannot, in good conscious, promote a thing that so injuries the poor so much for the benefit of those better off. Edit: So I decided to remove this snarky bit at the bottom of this post. Your snark was aimed at someone who was using ideology against you and I get that. However, it doesn't change my anger at the fact you are forgetting four million people who are getting royally screwed even more than they are already by the system you are advocating for and seem to dismiss because "haha I have coverage now".

robb-stark

It really is crazy that the word “feminist” can have negative connotations in 2014. It upsets me that the younger generation of women think it’s a dirty word, and associate it with a kind of militantism or a sense of female superiority. It’s not. It just means liberation, and equality.

Natalie Dormer on feminism (x) And gamer gate is all about ethics in journalism....

nerdology

The Millennium Falcon Satellite Dish

Here’s a thing I noticed while watching the Star Wars trailer yesterday. The Falcon has a new satellite dish. Below you can see what it used to look like (taken from A New Hope) and what it looks like in The Force Awakens.

It’s completely different. At first I thought “that’s a weird thing to change, but OK, the Falcon got an upgrade since Return of the Jedi.” And then I remembered:

Oh right. It needed a new satellite dish.

edwardspoonhands

I like how Han was like, “Well, since that last one almost killed me, maybe I’ll try one with a lower profile.”

somebody said it

Not all muslims are terrorists, but almost all of the terrorists are muslim. Because the shoe must fit to wear it.

brucesterling

*Well, if you amend that to “clutching the Old Testament and consulting the Koch Brothers,” it’s pretty spot-on, Carl

wilwheaton

The scary thing is, Carl Sagan predicted this *decades* ago.

leepacey

male celebrities for Emma Watson’s #heforshe

nickgreyden

"All these dudes [...] should be made into a sexy calendar" - Not the equality for which we were looking I hope.

melissaanelli

So it seems stalker might get off lightly. How would you feel about that, silly little idiot.

How I feel has nothing to do with it. I immediately sent this message to the NZ police and directly to the FBI and directly to the victims’ assistance counsel who has been keeping me up to date on everything, informing them that you, my stalker, have now broken the terms of your arrest.

The terms, as a refresher, were:

No using the Internet

No using post

No contacting Melissa Anelli or any of her family and friends

No contacting anyone in North America.

No one but my stalker would have had any information about the severity or lack thereof of her sentence. And after 6.5 years I can spot a sentence she has written from a mile away without reading glasses. I am publishing this so that it is well known that she has broken the terms of her bail. Because the last time I wasn’t silent about one of her messages, it led to her arrest. I don’t want this break of her bail conditions - while awaiting sentencing no less! - to go unnoted.

The Melissa of a year ago would not have published this. But I am so done. I have done everything everyone has asked. I have written the letters to the judges going over the whole thing in excruciating and personally painful detail. I have saved evidence with the organization of a librarian. I have answered every question and waited through every deferment and delay, and I am done just doing what is usually done in these instances. This is endless, and it is harmful, and it must stop, and “getting off lightly” would be a complete travesty. As is the fact that no one is monitoring her well enough to see how she is breaking the terms of her bail, and that no one is convinced she should be incarcerated in some fashion.

You know what I’m not done with, and can’t just decide to be done with? Being a victim. That is up to the people who work for the legal system of New Zealand. My being a victim. Up to them. How I deal with being a victim? Up to me. Whether I am continually victimized? Them.

And maybe making this public will make me less sympathetic to some judge down there and that will lessen her sentence for some completely non-sensical reason, I don’t know. But I am so beyond done with it being everyone else's call.

This is life with a serious stalker. Everyone who is worried about harassment on the Internet needs to see and know and understand this. This goes beyond getting hordes of hateful or threatening YouTube comments: this is about when someone gets in. We are talking about 6.5 years of constant threats and abuse that go offline and into the physical realm, stalking and harassment that touch everyone I know, that has not yet been deterred by TWO ARRESTS and the threat of jail. If you aren’t sure what this post is about, read this for a reminder.

Excuse me. I must now go and undo all of the small victories from the past few months, starting with the allowing of asks.

It was nice there, for a while, feeling normal.

maureenjohnsonbooks

I share this, because this story has been such a horror. 6.5 years. Hundreds—is it thousands? it must be well into the thousands now—of graphic rape and death threats coming from one clearly identified (self-identified, even) person. An FBI investigation. Two arrests. And still, even during sentencing, the stalker tries to taunt Melissa.

This is the reality of online stalking.

Here’s my wish: that this case is a precedent for justice and action taken. If the New Zealand courts fail now, then they really fail. Please share this—because it’s real. I’ve seen this, what’s it’s done to Melissa. I’ve gotten notes from the stalker myself. Press, victim services, whatever you can reach, please reach. Please reblog. This one has to end. They all have to end.

nickgreyden

Pardon the language, but this is fucking disgusting and I hope you get caught, convicted, and buried under the prison you little freak.

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