The Trans-Pacific Partnership is like NAFTA on steroids!

Courtesy of Wikimedia.org

“The TPP was written in secret by industry insiders who care more about corporate profits than working Americans! Fast tracking the TPP would railroad this bad bill through Congress, with limited debate, before Congress can even read the fine print.”

– WorkingFamilies.org

ANNOUNCEMENT For “League of Bloggers for a Better World”

Hey everyone! I’ve got an update for our blog group. I consulted with WordPress’s Help section and it sounds like it would be best if we use an outside website for our blog home. We will still have our individual blogs, but we’ll also be connected to the group blog site. I’m working out the details now. If you have any suggestions let me know. We’re almost there! We’ve got some great members so far.

So for now, we’ll discontinue the current group WordPress blog. We’ll still keep the group title and the logo.

For anyone else interested in joining our blog group, please see this post. 

Here a brief description of the group:

An online group/league of bloggers who blog about societal issues, be it racism, injustice, global warming, animal rights, politics and the like, and are interested in progress to create a better world.

Some bloggers already write about this stuff. But since we are currently not organized or connected in a formal way, it feels as if each blogger is on his or her own. I think that if we formed some kind of group, we may feel more united in our efforts, and can therefore be more effective in creating the change we want to see happen.

Thanks and take care! 🙂

Cluster – Ajaytao

Celebrating nature : )

The New World (Award) Order

Ferntree Gully National Park, Australia – by Frans Lanting

After thinking about the award system on WordPress and having great discussions with fellow bloggers about it, I’ve decided that I am going to BREAK all the award rules!

— I’ll no longer have mega large award logos displayed on my blog posts for accepting awards. So the posts displaying the awards will come down.

— I’ll only nominate as many people as I feel like! I don’t think it’s necessary to have a required amount of people to nominate- people shouldn’t feel forced to nominate anyone. Nominate who you feel deserves it,  and nominate as little or as many people you want. Don’t do it because you feel forced. That’s ridiculous! Also, when it is forced, the awards lose some of their meaning.

— If I nominate someone, I will let them know privately on their blog, instead of having a list of nominees displayed on my blog. No sense in hurting anyone’s feelings. That’s not the point.

— I like Green Cathedral of South Africa’s idea. He simply dedicates a blog post to a blogger he really likes, rather than nominating an award. I may start doing that instead of using awards.

— Finally, I really, really appreciate the awards I’ve been given because it lets me know that I’m really connecting with people. I’m only taking down the award posts because I don’t want to seem like I’m motivated primarily by awards. I write about stuff I really care about. As my About page says, I’m studying to become a journalist who won’t be afraid to speak the truth and inform the public about what they need to know. Knowledge is power, and I want to empower myself and the public so that we can change the things we see that we  don’t like.

Whether or not I’ll find a newspaper that will want someone as “opinionated” as myself is another story! But we’ll see. One step at a time.

Thoughts on Award Nomination Process…

Photo courtesy of public-domain-image.com

As I read over the rules for the award process, I realized that a few of the rules bother me a bit.

One rule is one which states that in order to accept a nomination, you have to choose a certain number of other bloggers to nominate. In the case of the Very Inspiring Blogger Award, you have to nominate 7 other bloggers. For the Liebster Award, you have to nominate 11. I don’t like this rule for 2 reasons:

– I don’t think that there should be a set number of bloggers to nominate, especially not 11! That’s too many because its too much work to have to find and contact so many people. What if I only want to nominate 8 people? What if I want to nominate 11 people, but don’t have the time and energy to contact  them all at once? What if I need time to think about it and read over people’s blogs before deciding?

– What if I don’t want to display those bloggers’ names on my post? I sometimes wonder if it hurts people’s feeling if they don’t see their name on the list, so I’ve decided to contact each person separately rather than have a prominently displayed list. Some bloggers will find out who’s nominated anyway when people accept their awards, but it’s better than having one big list. Without a list, it’s less likely that everyone will know every person who I nominated.

Another thing I don’t like is the amount of questions you have to answer and ask other nominees in order to accept the Liebster Award. In total, it’s about 33! Who has the time?! I suggest that there just be less questions, or that bloggers pick how many questions they want to do. Or be a rebel like me and do whatever you want! I only did about 22 questions, and even that’s a lot.

So I guess I’m a rule breaker! As I said in both my posts on being nominated for these awards, I am extremely flattered and appreciate these awards, especially since I’ve only started blogging a few months ago. I’m glad that people are getting something out of my blog, whether it’s inspiration or information, or both. My rule-changing is just a suggestion on how to make the rules make more sense.

Take care, all!

Why Do You Blog?

Hey everyone! I started blogging about two months ago. Since, then, I’ve noticed that there seem to be several reasons people blog. Some use their blogs as a sort of online diary or journal. Some use it to show off talents in cooking and recipes, photography, clothing design, etc. Some use it to discuss religious beliefs and ideas. And then there are those, such as myself, who use blogging as a way to communicate, educate, inform, and spread ideas that we feel are important to society and culture.

Recently, I’ve come across a different sort- blogs that are geared towards profit, as well as offering training/advice for those who wish to do the same. These blogs tend to have a corporate feel, and usually feature several advertisements.

So what do you guys think? No doubt you’ve seen these blogs- how do you feel about them? Do you read them?

How to Shop Securely Online

Photo courtesy of News.com.au

Hi everyone! The company that makes the anti-virus software I use on my PC sent this email to all its customers. This advice is really good, so I want to share it with my readers.

I don’t want it to seem like I’m advertising for them, so I didn’t include the link. I copied and pasted it here:

Here are some tips for online shopping to help keep you (and your finances) safe when you fire up the Internet.