Jen Angel's Blog, page 2
May 25, 2012
On Entrapment, and Protecting Ourselves
Early on May Day, the FBI announced it had foiled a terrorist plot to blow up a bridge in Cleveland, Ohio – my hometown. Then days later, another “terrorist plot” was disrupted at the NATO protests in Chicago. (Arun Gupta has done some excellent on-the-ground reporting from both cities). In the last few weeks, A [...]
March 19, 2012
Why I Said No To Groupon
A few weeks ago, a representative from Groupon called me about offering a coupon through their site for Angel Cakes. We talked for a while and she explained it all to me. I recognize that she is essentially a salesperson and her job is to make it sound like a good deal. She succeeded. You [...]
February 6, 2012
12 Songs
A few weeks ago, my sister Becky asked me to do her a favor. She wanted me to make her a mix CD of 12 songs that I love and tell her why I love them. It's been a totally fun project but also really challenging in a lot of ways. To start with, there's [...]
January 30, 2012
Defending Occupy Oakland
The stated goal of Occupy Oakland's day of action on Saturday January 28 was to take over an abandoned building and repurpose it for the good of the people. I participated in the action for part of the day and feel like I have spent the last two days defending the action to friends over [...]
December 12, 2011
Putting My Money Where My Mouth Is – Who I Am Supporting This Year
This year, as people are becoming more and more aware of how much collective choices about money can impact people and things (think Occupy Wall Street and the Move Your Money project), it's important to understand that giving money to awesome organizations is as important as withholding our money from bad corporations. Every December I [...]
November 19, 2011
Occupy & Police Violence
The video above is of the University of California police spraying pepper spray on students at UC Davis this week. I can't even watch the video all the way through. This follows last week's clubbing of UC Berkeley students, not to mention the scenes of police violence from Oakland, New York, Portland and other cities. [...]
October 10, 2011
Talking about Occupy Wall Street
I've been absolutely thrilled with the amount of talking that has been going on about the Occupy Wall Street actions. When is the last time that so many people were talking so much about class and capitalism? So many people are saying so many smart and interesting things, I wanted to share some of my [...]
October 5, 2011
Steve Jobs, Occupy Wall Street, and Haters
Steve Jobs died today. I have several quick thoughts about this. 1. Steve Jobs should not be held accountable for the faults of capitalism. Many of my friends are posting on Twitter and Facebook that iPhones are made in factories which have deplorable conditions, and they aren't recyclable. I don't have the statistics on this, [...]
September 28, 2011
Slow Food's $5 Meal Challenge
On September 17, Slow Food USA held a national day of action where they challenged people in the US to make meals for less than $5 per person, saying, "The $5 Challenge is a response to the First Lady's challenge to the nation to end the childhood obesity epidemic in a generation. In addition to [...]
August 3, 2011
Four Kickstarter Projects That Need Your Support
Apparently, everyone I know is doing a Kickstarter project. OK, Maybe that's not true, but here are four projects from people I know personally that I am donating to, and I wish you would, too. For the record, I think that Kickstarter is a brilliant idea. Or rather, I think that "crowd-sourcing" is a brilliant [...]
