CBrajkovich Ramblings

You can always count on Reddit for their weird and utterly addicting sense of humor. I for one visit and follow just to find those unimaginables that can turn around a rocky day. Not that today is a rocky day, but it does deserve this hilarious masterpiece courtesy of…. FEEEENNNNTTTOOOONNN. Yes, Fenton is obviously a dog who seems to think that he’s a deer herder (basically a sheep herder, but braver). This short clip was shared and has been viewed almost 6 million times since it was uploaded last year (for obvious reasons). If you have a pet, then you probably recognize the exasperation of this dog’s owner. If you don’t (like me), then you can apply it to any number of frustrating episodes in your life that were directly related to the actions of family or friend. Because, there’s always going to be a Fenton, and you’ll love them for who they are…no matter what crazy things they might do.

Yep, this is what you could be doing instead of what you are doing. Feel better? ohh, my stomach hurts from laughing too much…

Here’s more of the story on YouTube.

I was launched (by @mathewi) into an incredibly smart post about the ramifications that those in charge don’t seem to see when they make public policy that clearly steps on the rights of the people. But the important part of the post wasn’t that rights were being threatened, but that our leaders are not seeing the pitfalls that will come into being when you take broad actions that can not take into account the important details that affect the true image and the final outcome.

Read “I hereby resign” on Raganwald’s posterus to see what I mean. Continue reading →

My Inbox has been exploding since I started to voice my opinions out loud in the form of petition support and editorial writing. Somehow my actions have given so many other groups the impression that it is now ok to target and (try to) use me for their own personal campaigns, as they do the rest of the citizens of the world. Well, as one of those people, I’m saying that ENOUGH IS ENOUGH. First, it was all of those marketers out there with a product or service to sell (which, by the way, have continue unabated, despite my spam blocks). Now that we’re in another political season, it is reaching a point of absolute horror. We try to block you, and you change methods. We unsubscribe, but it continues as though we never even wrote. We write scathing letters that just fly over your heads. Seriously, what is it going to take to get you to understand??? Yeah, the lack of engagement from the public (or flat out ignoring you) just leads to this…

So, let me make this clear in a public way: Continue reading →

Wikileaks – The Secret Life of A Superpower by the BBC (part 1). Watch Part 2 here.

http://youtu.be/nu98q1WmP_M

I saw this video forwarded this weekend by @zephoria (aka Danah Boyd), and she is absolutely correct that this is a tremendously fascinating two-part documentary BBC series about the big Wikileaks haul provided by Bradley Manning. We all know that he’s been convicted by the US military of being a traitor, and yet this story tells of a two-headed coin that clearly shows that international diplomacy really isn’t clean, patriotic, or even as democratic as we’ve been led to believe.

People who work in our governments, and the people who view them from the outside, live in two separate worlds that barely understand one another. Their motivations are beyond different. While both believe in loving their country, their actions diverge so drastically that it takes something like Wikileaks to allow us all to understand how our world really operates. Diplomacy is about the changing of hands of favors, sometimes unpalatable to all participants involved. And this is where the true nature of it diverges from the ideals of the common man and woman. Continue reading →