My controversial two cents.

So, there's this thing going around the internet called the ALS ice bucket challenge.

This seems to be a controversial topic. Let's look at it. :D

So, the challenge is basically intended to raise awareness about a really awful disease called ALS. Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, or ALS for short, is a degenerative disease that affects the nerve cells in the spinal chord and the brain. It essentially renders the body motionless. All in all, the campaign has a good intention.

The controversy comes with, in my opinion, the popularity that the campaign has gained. Let's be honest, watching someone get ice water dumped on their head is kind of funny. But it seems like this challenge has become just an ice bucket ordeal instead of an awareness raising campaign. In most of the videos going up, you're lucky if the person mentions what the campaign is for outsie of "it's the ALS ice bucket challenge", or where you can go to learn more about the disease. They are more excited to get to the part where they can list off their friends who they want to see get soaked in ice water.

I'm not saying this is a bad thing per se. Any and all awareness that is gained from this campaign is infinitely more awareness than there was before about ALS, and any money raised to help fund research for a way to end ALS is more than there was before that donation.

I've seen both sides of this whole thing about the campaign in comments and posts all over the internet. Some people have said that the campaign is a disgraceful stunt (I'm not sure I would go that far), others have said that it is a creative way to bring awareness about a terrible disease. I've also heard that other countries around the world want us noisy Americans to just be quiet and make our donations silently. I kind of lean in the middle of these opinions. I think that the campaign is really creative and makes the best use of social media's ability to spread word like wildfire, and it has spread the word about ALS effectively- the only people I had ever met before this campaign in real life or on the internet who had any clue as to what ALS was were the family I know who is dealing with it. But I think that a lot of people miss the point of it and just make noise and throw ice on themselves and each other for the fun of it, missing the whole point of the campaign and thus causing skepticism of the campaign and it's effectiveness/worth.

OK, my two big issues with this whole mess are- 

1. I don't understand why people have to go as far as to actually argue  with people and hurt each other's feelings over a virtual campaign that they don't have to take part in if they don't want to. You are in control of you. Plain and simple. If you don't want to do something, that's great; don't do it. No one can make you do something you don't want to do. Likewise, if you want to do something and the opportunity arises, great! Go ahead and do it. Why are people getting so upset at those who are willingly choosing to take part in this campaign.

2. If you're going to do something to raise awareness about a cause, at least find out a little bit about what you are supporting! I'm really glad that ALS is finally getting some publicity, but I don't want it to be something only known about because of baseball greats and ice buckets. I want people to have a more common knowledge of ALS,  because it is just as deadly, if not more so, than diseases like cancer. We all have some idea of what cancer is and what it does to the body, why not ALS? It isn't that hard when we have all the information we could ever ask for at our fingertips.

So, in conclusion, I just plain don't understand why people are putting so much energy into cutting down a campaign that is really just intended to help out a field of research that is vastly under-funded, and that could potentially make the lives of those living with ALS so much better. If it's not for you, then don''t worry about it. If it's something you want to take part in, go ahead. All this comes down to personal choice, not "the majority doesn't care so be quiet."

Here is another perspective on the campaign from an ALS family.

And for the curious reader, yes, I did do the ice bucket challenge. And I dedicated it to Kepler Nigh, who I and my family have watched lose strength and mobility in his body to the point where only his eyes can still move. And he continues to keep hope. He is one of my heroes.

I'm terrible at this whole blog thing

Many, MANY times now I have said that I want to post more regularly on my blog here about language learning and stuff like that.

Truth is I'm terrible at remembering to get on here and write.

So, I will write on here, but there will be no guarantee on consistency, frequency, length of posts, or anything like that. Because I'm just kind of bad at that.

I guess I can give an update on language learning while I'm here:
Since it's been summer I have had more free time to work on projects. I also seem to have had a lot more projects than I had planned.
My family and I have been remodeling our back porch, my brother has come to visit from out of town, I've had work, I've had art projects and music projects and video projects, and those got pushed into the limelight of my life this summer. Which means that language was pushed out a bit.
The Fall semester is starting again at the end of this month, though, and with the structure of classes comes an easy way to structure my time to fit in everything I want to. I will be in my third semester of German at my University, so I will most certainly have time to work on that. I'd like to find time to review my Japanese as well at some point. I feel like it has been so long since I've reviewed anything and I don't remember a lot of the vocabulary I was working on. Unfortunate.

So, all in all, life happens and we  just get back to doing what we do. I can't guarantee posts, but I'll certainly be here.

Until next time, tschüß, meine freunden!