Thursday, July 17, 2008

Everything's Gonna Be... All... Right

  • What I'm Watching/Listening To/Reading:
    • Finally caught the season finale of "30 Days", where Morgan Spurlock goes to live in the Navajo Nation. I actually wish the show could have been longer since Spurlock could only touch briefly on certain issues. Two things astounded me: the size of the reservation and the extraordinary poverty. Many people lack running water and the unemployment rate averages around 53%. Sickening to think about that going on inside our borders, especially with a population whose historical abuse is one of the dark facts we don't like to think about.
    • Good to have Olbermann back on "Countdown".
  • Random Thoughts/Links:
    • This site, walkscore.com, is fantastic. You type in an address and it will tell you how walkable your neighborhood is, by looking at the distance to various shops, schools, and entertainment options. Besides being enlightening about where you live or work, it's a lot of fun to just check out various places. The White House area is "very walkable".
    • McCain referenced Czechoslovakia twice within the last few days. He's not out of touch at all. In fact, he's going to embark on a tour of the globe to show how in touch he is. Stops will include: Abyssinia, Ceylon, Persia, Rhodesia, Siam, Yugoslavia, and Zaire.
    • Brett, just quit it, dude. We're all sick of you. Here's hoping you end up with Oakland or Arizona.
  • Daily Rave:
    • The new Scrabble app for Facebook is out of private BETA and it's great. It's much more fluid than the broke-down Scrabulous and it has a lot of features that the copyright-infringing old one doesn't have, like a graphical look at current games, better statistics, and better move-by-move recounts. And, hey, it doesn't infringe upon any copyrights since it's licensed by Hasbro. Have I mentioned that? Compared to the new Scrabble app, Scrabulous looks like it was made circa 1952 (the year John McCain would have been eligible to get his driver's license if cars had been invented by then). Just take a look at the picture below to see how pretty it looks. This message brought to you by Getting To Try Out Cool Stuff Because I Have A Blog.


1 comment:

Shtetl Fabulous said...

One of my first college roommates was a Navajo girl who grew up on "the Rez." You could tell that she was one of the best and brightest and she definitely had trouble adjusting to life away from other Navajo people. They actually have a dorm at UA for Navajo kids so they can be with each other and transition easier.

I didn't see the episode, but I know that all the Reservations in Arizona suffer from oppressive poverty and yet the people are rarely bitter. It's tough to walk the line between modernity and tradition, especially when you had little control over the whole situation.

If you Tivo'd it - maybe I'll watch on my next trip down.