Alright important things first...


     


If you haven't heard there is this thing called ACTA and it strives to do similar things like SOPA/PIPA only ACTA is much much worse.

ACTA - Anti Counterfeiting Trade Agreement

Stop Acta Website (in English): [link]

Although on the outside ACTA may seem like a good idea it is not. instead of trying to explain myself you should watch these two short videos on youtube found here:

[link] [link]

The gist of ACTA is that say you buy a book. After reading it you think it's amazing and decide to share it with a friend. So you let them borrow it. They then read the book you lent them. Under the laws of ACTA you are now both considered criminals and can be fined and put in jail.

How would anyone know you let your friend borrow the book? Under ACTA it would be legal to put everyone under surveillance. No conversation would be private be it on the phone, an instant message, an e-mail, or especially on a social networking site.

Now, here is another video I also found through another deviants journal:

[link]

In it Neil Gaimen makes some really good points about why file sharing/book lending/etc are BENEFICIAL to everyone. And I'm not talking about things like art theft, or copyright infringement. Those things are completely different. Someone taking your writings, art, music, etc and passing them off as their own or selling them for their own profit isn't what we're talking about here.

What we are talking about is file sharing which, under ACTA, would be illegal.

if you want to see a better explanation of ACTA and why it is so bad, please go read this journal here by *Washu-M. They explain things a lot better: [link]

I definitely suggest watching all the videos I have linked to (and which I got from Washu's journal) as they are the easiest way to understand ACTA and what we need to do to stop it. So Google ACTA, spread the word to your friends on facebook, twitter, word of mouth, sign petitions. ACTA is supposed to be a secret but the more people hear about it the sooner we can put a stop to it.


Now onto more personal matters...

I just needed to put this out there. I am so tired of being hungry. And I'm tired of being cold all the time...Living in my grandmother's house I guess my parents (or at least my mom) thought that my nana would be footing the bill for the oil heating. Today my mom was bitching about the huge bill that's coming because my Aunt won't sign the checks (she is my nana's caregiver now). And honestly I feel it's selfish for my mom to think my nana would be footing the utility bills for this house forever. I mean she no longer lives here. So now the house is just frigid as the heat is generally off most of the time and my radiators don't work (and they never did even though they were brand new and just installed last year) so even when the heat is on it never reaches my room.

We also never have food in the house. This last weekend has been the only exception since my mother bought food for Christmas. Why the exception? My parents were hosting the Halloween make and take at our house so my mom naturally goes all out making food for friends but she won't go shopping to feed her own family.

I wish I could afford to buy my own food but I really can't. Buying anything for myself that needs to be refrigerated is out of the question because everyone just helps themselves to it.

I guess I'm tired of my family's screwed up priorities. ...

In other news I am trying to lose some weight so I have made a tumblr blog to log my food entries into everyday as well as to share any recipes and other food-related topics I might wish to share. I would really love it if anyone here would check it out and give me some support. Leaving comments for me there to encourage me would be really nice.

Check it out here: [link]

I'm out for now.


~Ja ne