Lee McKusick

“Women are objects.”

I can’t decide whether my roommate was being serious when he said this, or just being sarcastic.

On one hand, it wouldn’t be a far stretch given what I’ve seen so far, but on the other, it’s hard for me to believe that someone can look at a woman and see anything less than a living, breathing human being complete with a heart, a mind, and a soul. Then again, maybe it’s not hard to believe, considering I am at fault of doing the same thing from time to time.

The objectification of women is nothing new, women have commonly been seen as playthings, mere flesh to be owned and ogled, for millennia. What I find interesting is that even given the advances in feminism over the past decades, and the gain of so-called equality, this has not changed. If anything, women are now more ready participants! How many advertisements do you see everyday that use sex and sex appeal to sell the product?

It saddens me to see beautiful creations of God treated in such a way that diminishes their value. It’s a disgusting and perverted practice that far too many men participate in. We are called to love and care for them, not to use and manipulate them.

I know my concerns have been echoed elsewhere, but after hearing it in my own home, I am appalled and distressed at just how far we have fallen, when we see our own sisters as slaves.

From the guys over at Office Offline comes this gem:

So a bunch of new stuff has been going on lately.Hopefully I’ll be able to cover it all in a clear, concise manner. Here goes:

Year 1 at RIT. It’s finally over. No more homework, hallelujah! =)   Came out with 3 A’s and a B. So no more 4.0. Thank you Professor, and here’s some advice to everyone who has to take Interactive Digital Media (4002-330): be prepared to accept a mediocre return for working your ass off. I’m not bitter…

Basileia. InterVarsity’s annual spring retreat, held at the Young Life camp on Saranac Lake in the Adirondacks. Simply amazing. So much fun, and an incredible experience. I don’t even know where to start talking about this, and even if I did it would take way too much time, so just ask me about it if you want to know. And check out the pictures on Facebook. Amazing. =)

Cape Cod. Started my new job on Monday as the assistant IT person for a company out there. It’s a pretty sweet gig, and I’m learning a lot. So, for the summer and fall, I am in Osterville, Massachusetts, out on Cape Cod, just a few miles from the beach. For those of you who are growing envious, I expect my friends to come visit me…

Apple. Recently I’ve been dealing with Apple products. This has been both weird and totally awesome for me. On the weird side, I’m dealing with Macs, which I’ve never really had to do before, and it’s been interesting learning all about them. On the other hand, I’m dealing with Macs, and am learning how inherently superior they are. Now, before you get your feathers all ruffled, let me make my case.

Especially coming straight from a full class on design principles, it’s clear to see that the MacBook Pro, which is what I’m typing this out on, is an amazing machine. There are so many things that are just like “Why is this not in every computer?!” Case in point, the magnetic power adapter: easy to attach, reasonably difficult to detach by accident, but if it needs to come out, it does. Or the backlit keyboard. Or the touchpad (1 finger tap is single click, 2 finger tap is double-click, 2-finger slide scrolls the page). C’mon people. I’m not an Apple fanboy or anything, but they’re just beautiful machines, inside and out. And no, I’m not getting paid to say that, unless Steve Jobs wants to change that. =D

Well, that’s about it, I’d say.

Later days.

EDIT: Changed some of the details from the post. Small things, you can ask me if you care.

Mahalo is a company that has made a [very good] human-powered search engine. Check it out at Mahalo.com

One of the things they also do is a daily podcast called, you guessed it, Mahalo Daily. It’s a short 5 minute video podcast about a ton of different topics, most of which are pretty interesting, informative, or entertaining. It used to be hosted by Veronica Belmont (@veronica on Twitter), but she recently left to go to Revision3, and now they’re looking for a new co-host. They decided to have a competition and play it American Idol style, and they’ve narrowed it down to 6 people. Each of those 6 put together their own episode of Mahalo Daily for review.

Here are the 6, in order of my most to least favorite.

1. Kristina Allison

I originally wasn’t too fond of Kristina in her early interviews. She had no real experience, but she pulled through as the “dark horse” as Mahalo CEO (and Idol judge) Jason Calacanis put it. That said, this girl knows what she’s doing. Her questions were fantastic, and her interview skills were great. The energy level was a little flat in this one, but I doubt that will be a problem once she does a couple more, given her previous stuff.

2. Nadine Heimann

I have no strong feelings either way about Nadine, really. Would she make a good host? Sure. This video reminds me a lot of what Mahalo Daily has been in the past. Would I be sad if she wasn’t picked? Probably not, it was good; not fantastically wonderful, but entertaining.

3. Leah D’Emilio

One of the things I like about Leah is her professionalism. Even just by the quality of the narration, I feel like I’m learning something. While I think it’s a great quality, it’s probably a weakness in this arena. One of the things about Mahalo Daily, especially with a guy like Lon Harris as co-host (check out some of the earlier MDs), is that it can be very light and funny. Not to say that she can’t be funny, but I think the contract would be a bit too distinct. If she doesn’t make it here, I think she’d be great on a “real” news program.

4. Michelle Hummel

Michelle started out as one of my favorites. She nailed the first audition, she’s a techie-in-disguise, as it were, and overall she seemed like a great choice. After watching this though, I have the same issue as with Nadine: it wasn’t bad in any way, but it didn’t really shine in any way either.

5. Andrea Rene

I have mixed feelings about Andrea. She’s enthusiastic about the show, and the topic was a good pick, but I have to agree with one of the commenters. Every time she started to turn around with the loaded gun, I winced. If it was just once, not a huge deal, she’s a newbie; forgivable. But she kept doing it, and it gives a very unprofessional vibe.

6. Sarah Atwood

To be honest, I never really liked Sarah, and this video reinforces my position. I think it was a great topic, fitting for Mahalo Daily (”Mahalo” is Hawaiian for “Thank you.”), but the video just did not sit well with me. For one, the use of the Hawaiian music was alright, but when it switched to “Gonna Make You Sweat”, that was a horrible transition, and that song really had no place in this video.
I really don’t mean to be so harsh, but I just can’t see any reason why she deserves to be any higher on my list.

Well, there are my picks for Mahalo Vlog Idol, based on their Mahalo Daily videos. I really wasn’t expecting to put Kristina on top, but a “dark horse” she is, and I think she’d make a great co-host.

Mahalo everybody!

I just finished reading Star Wars: Legacy of the Force: Invincible.

AMAZING!

1. Troy Denning, you’re my hero. Well done, sir.
2. That said, it was a little short. For being the final wrap-up to a great series, not to mention the fact that it was a hardcover, 299 pages seems a tad low. Whatever, it was still good.
3. I liked what they did with most of the characters. I won’t give any spoilers (the books are definitely worth the read. Go read them. I’ll wait.), but I will say that there were some characters that died that should have lived, and even vice versa to some extent. Ask me about it sometime.

I’m excited that they set it up for two things. The first and main one being the Legacy comic series. Although I have not read them, I’ve read some things about them, and they sound like they’ll be great. Reading this series has really made me want to read them.

The second thing is this: Star Wars: Millennium Falcon! The next Star Wars book, due out December 30th and set after the Legacy book series, follows Han and Leia as they trace the origins of the Millennium Falcon. We all know Han won it from Lando in a sabacc game, but no one really knows too much before that. The preview in the back of Invincible sounds like it will continue the whole Legacy tie-in plot, but it should be an awesome look into the backstory of one of the most beloved hunks of junk in the galaxy.

I <3 Star Wars. Thank you, George Lucas. Thank you very much.

Once upon a time there was a little boy with a bad temper. His father gave him a bag of nails and told him that every time he lost his temper, he should hammer a nail in the fence. The first day the boy had driven 37 nails into the fence. But gradually, the number of daily nails dwindled down. He discovered it was easier to hold his temper than to drive those nails into the fence.

Finally the first day came when the boy didn’t lose his temper at all. He proudly told his father about it and the father suggested that the boy now pull out one nail for each day that he was able to hold his temper. The days passed and the young boy was finally able to tell his father that all the nails were gone. The father took his son by the hand and led him to the fence.

“You have done well, my son, but look at the holes in the fence. The fence will never be the same. When you say things in anger, they leave a scar just like this one. You can put a knife in a man and draw it out, it won’t matter how many times you say ‘I’m sorry’, the wound is still there.”

 - Unknown Author

I tend to read a lot of so-called “lifehack” blogs: Lifehacker, 43Folders, ZenHabits, etc. One of my favorites is The Art of Manliness, which has a ton of great articles that are useful and informative for men, from “Talk Like Frank Sinatra” to “Lessons in Manliness: Theodore Roosevelt and the Spanish-American War” to one of my favorites: “Bringing Back The Hat“.

AoM, along with similar blogs, has started something called the “Manival.” Oddly named as it is, it’s pretty awesome, as it brings together many great blog posts and articles that are useful for men.

The first Manival was hosted at AoM.
The second and latest one is hosted at AGoodHusband.net.

Go check ‘em out.

Today was a day of exceptional oddness.

I think I’ll preface it by saying that yesterday was sweet. Small group is one of the highlights of my week, and this week’s, for some inexplicable reason, was above average. Maybe it’s just the fact that I get to hang out afterwards and chat with some awesome people. Who knows. =)

After returning from small group, I read for a while and fell asleep on the couch. I woke up around 3:30 and dragged myself into bed. Woke up again an hour later to Ryan and Evan talking in the hallway. Groggy and disoriented, I just fell back asleep.

When I woke up later on, I went to take a shower…

and noticed our stove in the middle of our living room.

Right from the get-go, I knew this was going to be a weird day. Apparently, in the hour window that they had, somebody had pranked us by moving our stove into the hallway, blocking it, and spreading our pots and pans all over the furniture. I have to give whoever it was props for doing it so efficiently and silently. How they moved the entire stove without waking any of the three of us up is astounding…

Looks like we’re going to have to make sure we lock our doors at night…

The other thing that was really weird was the fact that when I came home to change after fencing, my key didn’t work. It seems that I had the key for the exterior door (which is supposed to have a lock, but non of the exterior doors in Perkins have them…). The question is though: why didn’t it work then when it had been working all the time before?

Thus, most of my day was plagued by an intangible sense of confusion and of being unfocused. It wasn’t until late afternoon after I talked to Evan and got the full stove story, and after I finished my Flash project that has dominated my attention and spiked my stress levels, that I finally started getting a handle on the day.

It was then that I started enjoying the day, and everything it brought with it. The rain, the new knowledge from classes, the company of friends, and the little (and big) victories that came through the day.

Tags: stove, confusion, weird, odd, day

Have I mentioned I love Desktoptopia?

This is the image it just gave me:

I thought the HDR (High Dynamic Range, it’s what gives it the illustrated look) effect was really cool, so I decided to play my luck and see if they gave a link to the photographer. Sure enough, they did, and the guy, Trey Ratcliff, has a ton of beautiful HDR images.

His site, Stuck in Customs, has both his official portfolio, and a photoblog. It’s definitely worth a look.

Plus, most of his stuff is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike license. Props to him for that!

Tags: photography, hdr

U.C. Berkeley student’s Twitter messages alerted world to his arrest in Egypt

A U.C Berkeley graduate journalism student was arrested while photographing a public demonstration. Fortunately for him, he was able to text the word “ARRESTED” to his Twitter account from his phone. By the next day, he had an Egyptian lawyer hired by UCB, and was out of jail.

His friends on Twitter saw the message and contacted the U.S. Embassy and the AP and other media. Unfortunately his interpreter is still being held, but the Internet is working to get him out too.

It’s this kind of thing that makes me love technology. This is its true purpose: to help people.

Tags: egypt, journalist, arrested, Twitter