Being grateful - 20120422

I am grateful for social activism and Apple.

So Cover The Night was two days ago and for the past two days, I've been seeing Kony 2012 paraphernalia up in various parts of the city. There wasn't too much to see considering I live in the burbs, but it was nice to see posters up at main intersections and main roads. On Friday, someone even stopped me to ask me about my shirt and it turned out she was actually planning to do some covering of the night herself.

Also, today was a fun day. Even though our initial plans didn't plan out, we decided to do something fun today, something outside to celebrate Earth Day (Happy Earth Day) and decided to become connected. After much research, rationalizing and number crunching over the past few weeks, Mr.S and I finally decided to join most of the world and get smartphones. We are now proud iPhone owners (I know, I know, iPhones aren't really considered to be in the smartphone category) and since then, our marriage has gotten quiet. Too quiet. But we do facetime sometimes. Just kidding. But really, we now understand why we go places and kids are on their phones during dinner or people are on their phones when out with their friends. We're not saying we'll do that nor that it's okay, we just get it now. They're hard to put down.

Being grateful - 20120308

I am grateful for social media and collective efforts.

Kony2012. Maybe that's all I have to write because you already know what I'm talking about.

Today, the campaign was launched and well, it took the world by storm. Many supporters, but also many critics, which is to be expected because well, not everybody supports everything. No plan is flawless and they're not claiming to be perfect. But in my mind, I've been wanting to know what it is that I can do to help this problem, and this came as an answer to me. I know that there are many similar efforts out there to stop these things from happening in various places in Africa, but this one was the one that yelled out to me, as I'm sure it did for many others. I did my research though, and read up on both sides of the campaign and decided that this was something I could take part in. It's not the answer and won't solve the problem completely nor indefinitely, but it's a start, and everything needs a start. Yesterday, I didn't know who Kony was and today I do. And since I know who he is and more about what's happening, I can't sit around and ignore it. I've become part of the movement and I've become part of the beginning of what, I'm sure, will be a long journey.