THIS BLOG WILL BE SAVED!

Okay, I promised I wouldn't let this die. And I've promised that like five times already. Well, now I'm here to promise again that this blog will return very shortly. This time, I actually have a few series of articles that I'm currently working on and will be publishing interchangeably over the next few weeks. Here's a brief preview:

Canned Activism: If you haven't heard of "Kony 2012," you probably will soon enough. It's a marketing campaign aimed at increasing awareness of the Lord's Resistance Army, a militant group in Uganda known for forcing children to join its ranks. What I find very interesting about this campaign is that I've known about the LRA for several years now. I know people (some of you are probably reading this) who have been trying to build awareness of child soldiers, including those taken by the LRA, since the mid 2000s, with little to no success. Why now? And will the increased attention to the LRA and child soldiers last? In "Canned Activism," I will explore the sudden rise of this awareness campaign while at the same time looking at similar "awareness" movements that rise rapidly and seemingly disappear - think Occupy Wall Street, Darfur, Haiti earthquake relief, the Jena Six. Is our attention span really that short?

Dances with Reflux: This series will focus on my increasingly difficult battle with acid reflux and indigestion. I am nearing the one-year anniversary of the sudden onset of symptoms that has pretty much quashed my culinary exploits, severaly curtailed my enjoyment of physical activity, and greatly aggravated my mental health. In "Dances with Reflux," I will talk about challenges with changing my diet and returning to my previously active lifestyle

Now, That's What I Don't Call Music! Since I have moved to Virginia Beach, my knowledge of music has dramatically increased. However, I often find myself slightly bothered by the egregiously poor grammar, cacophonous instrumentals, and overall horrendous quality of much of today's "popular" music. This series will focus on my dabbling into the world of today's music, from Skrillex to Nicki Minaj, and why I don't like it.

In addition to these series, you should expect all sorts of random content that my blog used to be filled with. I've got thousands of wildlife pictures from work nobody has ever seen but myself, as well as hundreds of untouched snapshots from travels to such interesting places as Berlin, Annapolis, and West Virginia. Maybe I'll even throw in few recipes, poems, and other things, too.

Thanks for reading, here's to a productive 2012!