So, since I've started the blog, I've gotten quite a few funny looks and questions about my blogging name. T-Town-Tart. "What does it mean?" "Why did you pick that?" "That's a weird screen name..." I thought the meaning of my screen name was fairly obvious, and sort of clever (alliteration anyone? I love my literary devices). Anyways, I was messing around on the internet, and decided to google the word "tart." Here's what I got:

• A promiscuous woman or a woman who dresses in a sexually provocative way, or a prostitute. See also Tart with a heart. (Wikipedia)
• 1 : agreeably sharp or acid to the taste- tart apple. 2: marked by a biting acrimonious or cutting quality. (Merriam-Webster)
• Tart: (Dictionary.com)
• a small pie filled with cooked fruit or other sweetened preparation, usually having no top crust.
• a covered pie containing fruit or the like.
• Slang. a prostitute or promiscuous woman.
• tart up, Slang. to adorn, dress, or decorate, esp. in a flamboyant manner: The old restaurant was tarted up to look like a Viennese café.
• And finally, from UrbanDictionary.com :
  
• A nubile young temptress, who dresses teasingly and provocatively, as in "Man, look at that mini-skirt and those knee-high boots! What a tart!"
• Oh, and this picture which I thought was hilarious:
  

Anyways, obviously I meant the top one. The cutting, biting, sharp, attitude one. I have attitude. I am not a "hooker with a heart of gold" as wikipedia suggests. So, I hope that clears it up for anyone who was wondering. I know my vocabulary words, and I didn't accidently pick the word, not knowing what it means. I just picked the lesser known meaning of the word. Oh, and I live in T-Town, so it makes sense. :)

So, everyone knows I am an animal lover. I volunteer for rescue, grew up showing dogs, etc. I've even gotten funny looks for the way I treat/talk about animals. David rolls his eyes every time he sees me looking at lolcats and loldogs. I can't help it. I love animals and all their silly behavior, and I like taking a break from all the depressing news so that I can smile at this stuff. Anyways, I found this website/blog last week, and I've been checking it every day since then. I give you dogs, upside-down for your viewing pleasure. Come on... You know you think it's funny :)

In class we talked about shopping online. Everyone in the class had bought things online. I think this is a generational thing. I've bought all sorts of things online, but my dad grumbles every time he or my mom need to use a credit card online. He's always worried someone will steal his identity, even from sites he's used in the past. My mom can barely check her email, so I don't even think that online shopping or security even enter her mind. I'm excited at the range of things I can order, most of which I couldn't get by shopping nearby. I feel like hanging out with my boyfriend, David, has given me even more of an appreciation/love for technology than I had before.

I, unlike my dad, have bought all kinds of crap online. I've bought tech gadgets/accessories, books, food, toys, shoes, etc. I LOVE Zappos and their free overnight shoe shipping. I think it is amazing to see a pair of shoes I like at noon on Monday, and have them in the office when I get there he next morning... Almost like magic. I also love that they offer free returns and re-shipping (overnight) if the shoes don't fit. I've used many online merchants to purchase all sorts of things and never had a problem. I was apprehensive (like my dad) at first, but I got over it real quick when I realized it was better than going out to shop. I can see 100 different types of the item I want, and read what people who have used them say. There are no lines and crowds of people, and the variety and prices are usually better. I did probably 1/2-2/3 of my Christmas shopping online last year, and I plan to do the same this year.

I don't do Ebay (I have bought and sold on craigslist though!) because I don't trust other people and their descriptions of items, etc. I also don't like PayPal- I've heard of lots of people having problems with them, losing money, and not being able to contact customer service. I am aware of the small, shady internet merchants, and I usually read reviews of a merchant before I buy from them. Also, I normally stick to merchants I have had good luck with in the past. I've never bought anything I'd want to try first (like a car) online, and I won't buy clothes or shoes unless they have free returns. I don't order groceries online (Safeway does free deliveries) because I don't really do grocery lists- I just shop.

Maybe people my age just use the internet differently? Anytime David and I have a question, we look it up real quick. We google the names of restaurants to get reviews before we go. We read blogs instead of magazines. We research the pros, cons, and prices of products we plan to buy (even if we're not going to order them online). We read reviews of books, movies, recipes, and tv shows online. My boss (who is 26 I think) and her dad (the owner of the business I work for) don't even consider using the internet in these ways. They're always surprised that I use the internet to pick out things for the office, and shocked when I "fix" the computers in the office by looking for people with the same problems online. Since I use technology so much differently than people who are ten or fifteen years older than me, it makes me wonder how my (future) children will use it, and whether or not I will be able to keep up.

So I left Wednesday's TINST207 class horrified at the idea that my age, phone number, address, and other identifying information was on the internet for everybody to see. I tried searching different combinations of my name (with middle initial, without, with quotation marks, etc) and was relieved to find that there isn't much information about me. I tried Google, MSN, and Yahoo, as well as the UW site cause I was curious. Fortunately (probably because I am 20 and don't have home loan history/public records stuff, I am not on intelius.com. It sort of outraged me to think that they can post all that stuff online, and anyone willing to pay for a report could have some very personal information about me or even show up at my house.

Some of what I found was hilarious. There were a bunch of mentions of my name related to dog show stuff. This makes sense as I have owned and co-owned a few dogs, as well as participated in loads of AKC dog shows (see picture of Bastian, RIP, my first show dog and true love :)). I also found my Facebook page (which I haven't checked in probably a year). I was surprised not to find anything myspace related. The best thing I found, however, was this. I was in a circus group that performed all over the place. The newspaper and tv station came out to interview us. I was on the morning news, eight years old, in a neon colored spandex body suit, performing my trapeze routine. Crazy, I know. Good to think that since it happened before the Seattle PI went on the internet, there are no picture records of this event online. I do have the fuzzy VCR recording my parents made somewhere though. I was also a little relieved to see that there were no records of my and my ballroom dancing and sequin days.

I understand that privacy is important, and it really bothers me that there is information about me out there which I cannot really get rid of. It also bothers me that as long as the internet exists in its current form, there will be more and more personal details added. Not sure what to do about this- its sort of like telemarketing. I hate it but there's not really anything I can do that will get it to stop completely. I will stop one site, and two more will pop up.... like a leaky boat or the the moles in my parents yard that drive my dad nuts.

In my tech class we talked about the recent layoffs at the Tacoma News Tribune and other local newspapers. It brought to mind the failure of the King County Journal newspapers in early 2007. The group of small community newspapers (I think there were three papers they published?). Their circulation had fallen, and yet a year or two before they made the decision to build a huge in Kent, WA. Everyone wondered why, when newspapers were not doing well, a newspaper company would spend so much money on a new building. Sure enough, a little bit later they went under.

Personally, I think that unless newspapers find some way to make themselves relevant, on the web or otherwise, they will go under. I had a subscription to the Seattle Times earlier this year, and I just never got around to it. The only paper I usually read was the Sunday edition, and even then, I never got through the whole thing. I continued to get my news online while having the subscription. The paper got delivered to the community foyer in the apartment building and my neighbors stole my paper one too many times. I canceled. The called me a couple times a day, despite requests not to, until I got fed up and angrily called them. Their customer service was enough to make me not want to subscribe again.

Another reason I think that newspapers will adapt or go under is the issue of money. Why would I want to pay for the news I read, when I can get it online from blogs and the local news channel websites? Why would I pay money to post something in the classified ads when I can post to something better (CraigsList) for free? It makes the newspaper subscription seem even more unimportant. I don't know how the print media companies can adapt, other than make good websites (I hate when sites are disorganized and poorly built!) and possibly lower the prices of their product.

One cool thing that I've found online, that I think could help print media, is MagHound. MagHound is a website that is sort of like NetFlix but for magazines. You pay a low fee ($4.95 for two mags/month I think- it goes up depending on how many you want). There are a few weekly mags that are "premium" and you have to pay $1.50 extra/month. You can get a bunch of magazines (they add more every week! and you don't have to send them back) and you can switch around which mags you get each month. I like to read a variety of magazines while I'm at the gym, but I like to mix it up and they can get expensive (People is like $5!). They have a great variety of cooking, news, gossip, health, etc mags. I think this is a business model that can work, and so far I like it a lot. I pay like $10/month for 5 subscriptions (11 magazines! 2 mags are every week, the other three are once per month).

The only thing that scares me about getting news online is credibility. The EPIC movie said something along the lines of "the news people get is the news they want to hear." I worry that with people getting news from opinion blogs, that we lose some of the facts. I don't know how much journalistic integrity is involved with print media right now, but I know that tv can be really bad and the internet can be worse. Think of the "Obama is a MUSLIM!" rumors that were spread by blogs on the internet... I think this aspect of the internet could get very scary.

David and I were talking about the whole trickle down economic philosophy and he described it in a way that I thought was so smart. He said it was like sticking a piece of gum on a brick wall and then trying to pull it off. You grab a piece and it stretches and sort of comes off but the majority stays, stuck on the wall (to the rich people).

Watching the VP debate at the moment.... She just keeps kissing his ASS!!! Sarah Palin scares the hell out of me (and her accent is annoying). I really hope that women aren't fooled into voting for her because she is a woman. David and I have been talking about this almost everyday, and it gets me sooo wound up! She is not a feminist and she does not support women's rights. Abortion is a controversial issue, but what about equal pay for equal work? The right to marry whomever you love is an inherent human right that people deserve. People are not going to marry farm animals! It's not a slippery slope!!! Her and McCain will set us back.

Who was it that said something like "when fascism comes to America it will be wrapped in a flag and wearing a cross?" I keep thinking of this and the presidential election because I just finished reading The Handmaid's Tale by Margaret Atwood. I read it all in one day! It was soo good. It is kind of a dystopia, 1894/Brave New World sort of book. In it, women are demoted to pieces of property owned by their husbands. The religious right has taken over and their is a fertility crisis. Women who oppose the new regime are taken to a school to be re-educated. They become "Handmaids," women who are sent to couples deemed morally worthy. They are to be impregnated by the husbands, then their babies are taken away. All written words are taken away, even on storefronts, because women are not allowed to read, and they definitely aren't allowed around anything that could be dangerous because so many are killing themselves. It was a very interesting, scary book. Turns out that Atwood is a famous feminist and the book is well-known. You should read it.

The scary thing: this is all triggered by tightened government (caused by some Islamic extremists), a failure of the banks, and a war.

Everybody! VOTE! Make your voice heard. Can you handle 4 more years of "nu-cule-er"!?!?!?!