I'm a citizen of the Internet

On my post about the news from Mumbai, someone commented that "It's now official - nothing important can happen anywhere in the world without Wendy knowing someone involved".

I've been thinking about that a lot lately, and how I have changed as a person because of how I use the net.

I know it's possible for anyone to post anything, and there is a lot of narrow-focused hate going on in cyberspace. But because of the net and the friendships I have made there I really do make an effort to think more globally now.

The first step in any propaganda campaign is to get people to stop seeing the "other side" as people - to demonize them and create an "us vs them" mindset. But it's different when you actually KNOW someone in that targeted group - someone you've shared recipes with, seen pictures of their kittens and their gardens or listened to stories about their annoying little sisters and drunken fathers-in-law.

On election night I not only got my coverage from CNN but also checked the BBC to see what they had to say about it. I engaged people I barely know in countries all over the world in discussions about how THEY saw our political shenanigans and what they thought it might mean for them.

So now it's not some little squabble halfway around the world - it's people shooting outside Moe's office window, and the Jewish center in the next town over has friends in that center that was targeted (sadly he didn't make it). When the anti-Pakistan rhetoric starts I think of Hashim who is 13 and studying for his exams and terribly worried about what is happening to his country.

So I care. What can I say - I'm an idealist.

Am I blue?

well, I'm slightly flecked with "Chinese Porcelain" (the name is meant to evoke the blue parts of the pattern one supposes).

I made some sloppy bits so I will have to eventually do the woodwork and the ceiling. But i like the color so far.

For those who have been in my place - this darker of the two shades has been applied to the wall behind the bed, to the small wall that is the front of my bedroom closet, and the wall behind the couch. I go back tomorrow (since I have to tape the lines and this coat has to be REALLY dry before that happens) to lay 'Blue Beads" over the bookshelf-wall in the living room(the one with the Indian embroidered piece currently hanging on it) and the remaining bedroom walls. Looking to do that early enough in the day so I can at least put the bed back together for tomorrow night. I'm on the couch tonight.

Pepper is VERY perturbed, as she has to spend the whole weekend penned into the kitchen. She really has quite enough spots as it is and I don't think that blue is her color.