nohomophobes.com is calling people out

I recently saw someone sharing this website on Facebook. Nohomophobes.com shows all tweets that say: "#faggot, #NoHomo, #sogay and #dyke."

This is a screen shot of today:

Why am I sharing this? Because I believe this is a good way of making people conscious of how we use homophobic language without noticing. Like the website states, most times when use these words it is not meant to be hurtful. Yet, saying something is "so gay", for example, is using someone's sexuality to refer to something as negative. Sexuality is a part of a person's identity, and it shouldn't be deemed as bad.

Here's a screen shot of all time:

This website has been up for just a few months and so many of these words have been said. Twitter is a great place where we can express our thoughts, ideas and emotions but should there be some sort of ethic to what we can and cannot say? That is up to the person who tweets, yet I hope this makes people more conscious of how their words can affect others.

happy tunes

 

I went to Washington, D.C. to visit my best friend and met Manatho Shumba Masani in the Eastern Market. As soon as he started playing I knew I wanted to film him and make a video. The sounds of the thumb piano are soothing and simply make you feel relaxed and happy. Manatho has no problem playing for anyone and loves to share his happy tunes for anyone who wants to hear. By making a video I can multiply the amount of people that hear him play (assuming I get a lot of views.)

 He's owned the thumb piano he is playing for 25 years and says it is "the oldest piano in the world." All the pictures and video were taken with my iPhone 4S. I edited the video on my way back from DC in the Megabus. I guess it was my own way of not doing homework.

Hope you enjoy this as much as I enjoyed making it.

u can't text here

Making this video for my Ethics in Communications class was a lot of fun. I mean, I rapped to MC Hammer's "U Can't Touch This." (Well, that's something I never expected to do for class.)

Yet, what I learned about this video is how sometimes the best moments happen spontaneously. Such as, running into the University's president and asking him to say, "U Can't Text here" or randomly deciding to dance as I crossed the street.

I hope that besides the video being funny, people realize that the message is important. Texting at lunch, in church or in class is disrespectful. There is a problem within our generation where we are so consumed by our individual media consumption that we disregard everything around us. It makes us lose a little bit of our humaness.

I love texting. Yet, I also love being with people. Connecting with them face-to-face and creating connections outside of my iPhone.

I hope you enjoy this video and learn something from it. I also hope the tune gets stuck on your head for as long as it got stuck on mine.