Equality FTW 2014 Campaign - The Harry Potter Alliance

Hello, everyone!

My knowledge of net neutrality wouldn't be as great if it wasn't for the Harry Potter Alliance and their campaign for net neutrality. They work for a better world in Harry's name. We are all essentially the real world Dumbledore's Army fighting against the Dark Arts of our world. Closed internet is one of those evils, and so are other popular issues today. Equality FTW is an annual charity event by the HPA to raise money so that they can fight for other issues such as economic, educational, and LGBTQ equality. Please click on the link below to check out their donations page and also score some awesome perks!! You can even enter to win a signed copy of Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban donated by J.K. Rowling herself!!

https://www.indiegogo.com/projects/equality-ftw-2014/x/1147553

https://www.indiegogo.com/projects/equality-ftw-2014/x/1147553

Also, for my net neutrality blog, please click here and spread the word.

That's all for now!

The issue that no one is talking about, but affects us all

Hello, all! It's been a while since I've posted on my blog, but the school year is raging on. For one of my English classes, we had to write a piece on a hot issue. I chose to write about net neutrality. I thought this would be a great place to share my piece, so please read it and leave any comments or feedback. Thanks!

Sorry, you can’t access this website. No more Netflix. No more Hulu. No more YouTube. Slow internet. How would that make you feel? This is our near future if big companies get what they want. I’m talking about net neutrality, the idea that every internet user should have unrestricted, free access to all of the internet; that is how it is now. Big businesses plan to restrict access or discriminate against users depending on what websites users visit.

Basically, the company that connects you to the internet, Internet Service Providers (ISPs), would be able to control what you do and where you go on the internet. Comcast, for example, wants to block certain customers’ access to websites that take up a lot of bandwidth, such as our favorites, Netflix, Hulu, and YouTube, according to Public Knowledge news source. Big companies want to charge us more to access these bandwidth-heavy websites. And the people who don’t pay the extra fee either can’t access the website, or, if they can, they will be in the “slow lane” instead of the “fast lane.” This creates a two-tiered and unfair internet, according to Michael Weinberg of Public Knowledge. They could even direct users away from a competitor’s website.

This is unacceptable because it means that innovation will be extinguished. Millions of internet users and many internet companies like Google, Kickstarter, Netflix, etc. are coming together to fight for net neutrality. Everyone on the side of net neutrality mutually believes that creating a “closed internet” would stamp out innovation. Startups from years ago like Google or Facebook are absolutely huge today; however, if these proposed regulations were put in place back then, they may have never gotten off the ground. Can you imagine a world without Google? You couldn’t “google” how to ask a guy out, or watch YouTube cat videos, or use Google Drive to keep your life organized.

Without net neutrality, bigger, richer companies could buy priority access from ISPs, which means that they would get the faster, more reliable access for their websites. This leaves competitors in the dust, specifically competitors that are unable to pay what the big names can pay. Not everyone can afford to keep up. Thus, it makes the internet an uneven playing field for the new innovative startups and for us everyday internet users. Not to mention, if companies are able to buy the priority access from ISPs, they get to charge us an additional cost for using the bandwidth-heavy websites we love so much.

What do the big companies get out of doing this? Money. Lots of money. According to Carmel Lobello of The Week, many people have access to the internet and that makes being an ISP a “very lucrative business.” So, they’re making boatloads of money and they want to keep it coming. However, the “internet subscriber growth rate is finally starting to peak,” since most people have internet services already, which means “their profits will start leveling off,” says Lobello. If this isn’t plain enough already, let me make it clear: the big companies are greedy and are trying to find ways to keep the business as lucrative as possible.

While the big companies fight for greed, we, the internet people, fight for freedom. On September 10, thousands of websites and hundreds of thousands of internet users took action for net neutrality; this can be seen on www.battleforthenet.com. Tumblr, Vimeo, Netflix, Kickstarter, and many more websites all donned the #InternetSlowDown banners and infographics on their websites. This was a push against the FCC and the big companies. Everyone is fighting hard for net neutrality, for the reality is that the FCC and big companies, Comcast, Time Warner Cable, AT&T, and Verizon, all have immense power and influence in this argument. Our opinions on net neutrality matter. But these companies have a bigger voice over the rest of us. I don’t want these big companies to erase my internet freedom or terminate all of the creative content I access daily on YouTube. This fight is personal for all of us who love and constantly use the internet. It’s personal yet hardly anyone outside of the tech world knows about it. Therefore, I write this blog to inform others as well as spark a fuse among the passionate internet users out there.

Andrew Slack has sparked a major fuse about net neutrality. Slack, of the nonprofit organization, The Harry Potter Alliance, is an activist for many of the world’s big issues today. He relays the importance of net neutrality by explaining its impact on fighting for other big issues: “Without [net neutrality] your number one issue is dead in the water. Think about that: all of the issues you care about, swallowed by the mouths of a consolidated media hellmouth. LGBTQ equality, ending poverty, stopping war, immigration reform, racial equality, better health care, rights for the disabled, and on and on and on: thanks to the open Internet, we have a fighting chance to decrease [these issues in the world].” Slack gives us all a sense of how vital the internet is, from our antics on social media all the way to our activism on big issues in our world. Whatever our need is to be on the internet, we must all have full and free access to it.

I’m not only fighting to keep Netflix, Hulu, or YouTube, I’m fighting for creation. The content published on the internet daily is astronomical. While much of it may be cat videos and hilarious memes, a lot of it is also really amazing creative content. The open internet allows the everyday person to pursue their innovative ideas and creativity, and share it to the masses with a click of a button. I want this kind of creativity to be accessible for everyone on an equal level. English author Sir Ken Robinson said about creativity: “Creativity is putting your imagination to work, and it's produced the most extraordinary results in human culture.” I value net neutrality for its connection to innovation and creativity. Creativity is why everything around you exists today. It is what makes this world so amazing, and having net neutrality for the internet allows for that creativity and innovation. This is why I fight for net neutrality.

The Chopped Cookbook Review

The Chopped Cookbook
Author: Food Network Kitchen
My rating: 4/5 stars

Summary:

From the hit show on the Food Network, this cookbook is about inspiring the everyday cook in the kitchen to create amazing dishes with what they have around them. Can you make something with potato chips, chicken, and marshmallows? You might say no, but I'm sure the contestants on Chopped can. This cookbook teaches you how to make food from whatever you've got in the kitchen.
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My thoughts:

I really enjoyed reading through this cookbook. I absolutely love Chopped on the Food Network because it's a cooking show that employs creativity and a crazy time limit to make a dish. It's fun to watch and I wish I could taste these crazy things the contestants make. But now, with this cookbook, I can make my own crazy dishes and taste them too.

This cookbook is very accommodating. It is organized into a few main sections and those sections include vegetarian and gluten-free options. There's nothing the average person can't make or eat. Also, it is very educational. It has some really neat tables and charts that explain why blank is used for blank, and it also has substitutions. I love a book that teaches me new things.

The layout of the cookbook is really great. It is organized and clean, so that I completely understand the  recipe and directions. My only criticism is that I wish every single dish came with a photo. Only a select few do have them. Sometimes my eyes are my mouth, and with a cookbook that wants you to prepare weird dishes, I need to see it before I dive in and make it. I understand that it would be a huge cookbook with those added pages, but I'd be all for it.
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Would I recommend The Chopped Cookbook?

Yes, I would absolutely recommend this cookbook. If you love watching Chopped like I do, you will feel like a contestant, but without the time limit....the judges....the whole national television thing. Okay, it's not really like Chopped, but you get to make delicious things from weird ingredients. And that's a boatload of fun! I would recommend this cookbook to anyone who loves cooking, loves a challenge, and especially loves the show Chopped.
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Resources:

For more information about the cookbook, click here.

Information about the author can be found here.
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I received this book from Blogging for Books for this review.

Vacation Video

Hello all!

I just went on a vacation to Door County, Wisconsin for my mom's 40th birthday! It was absolutely beautiful and I made a surprise video for her (and everyone else) to remember the trip!

I love photography, but I'm not the best at making videos, but I gave it a shot!

Check it out here or visit my YouTube page!

Thanks! :)

Link: http://youtu.be/Y1BUeAWkEmQ

William Shakespeare's The Empire Striketh Back Review

William Shakespeare's The Empire Striketh Back
Author: Ian Doescher (and William Shakespeare...kind of...not really)
My rating: 5/5 stars

Summary:

In this sequel, the classic Star Wars characters are on another epic journey in a galaxy far, far away. William Shakespeare's The Empire Striketh Back is the exact plot of The Empire Strikes Back, the fifth (second made) Star Wars film.
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My thoughts:

Ian Doescher has done it again with William Shakespeare's The Empire Striketh Back. This book is so witty and, just like the first book, William Shakespeare's Star Wars: Verily, A New Hope, it follows the story from the films perfectly. Since the fifth film has so many Shakespearean qualities - love, death, epic battles, mentors, a tragic hero's hubris (pride) and hamartia (flaw/downfall), etc. etc., this book fits extremely well (better than the first) in the Shakespearean style.

One aspect I enjoyed even better than the original film was Doescher's Lando. In this book, Lando has his own asides (or monologues) which lets us understand Lando's point of view better than in the film. His character in the film isn't as developed, so we don't see how he handles his emotions in betraying his friend and his dealings with the Empire. It's great to see this in Doescher's version because the book isn't just a Shakespearean replication of the film, it's also his own idea and story.
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Would I recommend William Shakespeare's The Empire Striketh Back?

Yes, I would definitely recommend it. It reminds me of the films so much, but it puts a witty Shakespeare twist on the story. Also, the illustrations are amazing! I would recommend this book to Star Wars fans exclusively. With this book, it's better to have a knowledge of the Star Wars storyline and everything in order to appreciate this book. Though it is basically the same as the film, it just makes it much better being a Star Wars fan and being familiar with the storyline when reading it. However, I would also recommend this to readers of Shakespeare and humor.
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Resources:

For more information about the book, click here.

For information about the author, Ian Doescher, click here.

Also, don't forget to check out this awesome book trailer on YouTube.
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By the way, I had the privilege of meeting Ian Doescher at C2E2, the Chicago Comic & Entertainment Expo, this past Spring. He was very friendly and he even signed my copy!

This book is published by Quirk Books.

Love, Stargirl Review

Love, Stargirl Review
Author: Jerry Spinelli
My rating: 3/5 stars

Summary:

Love, Stargirl is the sequel/companion novel to Stargirl by Jerry Spinelli. The sequel follows the life of Stargirl after leaving Arizona. It's one long letter that Stargirl writes to Leo about her almost everyday life and her new friends in Pennsylvania. While Stargirl reflects on her time with Leo, whom she still has conflicting feelings for, she also has a new life in Pennsylvania with new people that impact her life in ways even Stargirl couldn't imagine.

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My thoughts:

To begin, I didn't even know there was another Stargirl book. I thought the first book ended with enough closure, but also with enough of an open end for the reader to make his/her own decisions. But, alas, a sequel has been written and published, and I could not help but read it.

Love, Stargirl just didn't touch me the same way Stargirl did. It's great that the audience gets to experience Stargirl's thoughts and life from her perspective, which make her more realistic; however, it lacks the wonderment of the first book, which is what originally enticed me the most. And since there was a lack of magic and wonderment, not much else carried me through it besides already being attached to the familiar story and characters and wanting to see it through.

One aspect that sort of bothered me is Stargirl's choice of friends. She ends up with an eclectic group of friends by the end of the novel, which makes sense because she attracts all types of people since she's also very "out there." But, the fact that she is best friends with a six-year-old boggles me. I guess since she's so different from everyone else, that's normal for her, but everyone else is okay with their friendship. When I befriended a girl in my neighborhood who was only a few years younger than me, I was met with concern from others. Not that I was a bad influence, but I was warned that my being older wouldn't be best for someone who was in a different "age group" than me at the time. Note: to keep this already long paragraph short, my feelings about Betty Lou are that I admire her as a character, but am still surprised that Stargirl also befriends someone so much older than her. Besides that, she spends time with a guy that would piss me off far more easily than he does her, and a hot-tempered girl that would anger and annoy me to no end. But, I guess Stargirl being Stargirl can handle all of that.

Characters and lack of wonderment aside, I enjoyed the book as much as a not-so-necessary sequel can be enjoyed. I was happy to spend a little more time with Stargirl, Cinnamon, Archie (my favorite), and also a bit of Leo. All in all, I was pleased with Love, Stargirl.

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Would I recommend Love, Stargirl?

My complicated answer is maybe. Yes, read it if you really enjoyed Stargirl since it's a sequel to it. However, if Stargirl was just okay to you, then maybe don't read it. But it's a short read, so it wouldn't be a huge waste of time either way. For me, I enjoyed it and am glad I read it. Again, this is a YA/middle-schooler-aged book, but I still appreciated it and I'm nearly nineteen!

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Resources:

For more information, visit this sound-effect and color-filled website.

Please help me get to Buffer Festival!

Hello friends! I feel weird making a GoFundMe for something not charitable or something to help others, but here we are. I really want to go to Buffer Festival this year and I am trying to raise some money to help me get there. My goal is a big one, but I hope to start saving some of my own money to contribute. If you are a student or unemployed like me, please don't donate if you can't. If anything, please just share my link. Thank you so so much. And thank you all for checking out my blog. I'm just a girl who likes books (and other things) and sometimes wants to blog about them. I'm happy that even one person has checked it out.

Here's my GoFundMe link: http://www.gofundme.com/bujsjc

If you want to know what Buffer Festival is, check it out! It's a YouTube gathering in Toronto, Canada and it's awesome!