The Internet is with you or against you

Today I happened to be witness to the power of the Internet and social media.  Mostly it was liberating and worthy of a fist pump as the "little guy" emerged victorious, but it also hinted at how devastating it would be if this power were directed wrongly.

VS 



Allow me to set the scene.

There are 2 entities with the word "honest" in them: "Honest Company" (the natural diaper and household product company founded by Jessica Alba) and "Honest Toddler" (the pseudonym of a writer/Facebook'er/Tweeter who creates funny and truthful observations from a toddler's perspective.)  I subscribe to both of them, in that one sends me diapers on a monthly basis and the other entertains me on a daily basis.  They could not be more different.

But evidently Honest Company's lawyers thought it would be a smart thing to call Honest Toddler's sole proprietor and writer, Bunmi Laditan, and threaten her with a cease and desist order.  This is because they thought her brand might "cause confusion" between the two which would "get expensive" for her if she didn't delete her blog, Facebook page and Twitter account.  How scary and unreasonable.

However the power of the Internet should not be taken lightly.  Who needs a lawyer when you can exact "intervengeance" (internet vengeance--I just made up a new word!) on someone who done ya' wrong?  Keep in mind Honest Company has 193K Facebook followers & 37K Twitter followers but Honest Toddler has 113K Facebook followers & 221K Twitter followers.  Also keep in mind the demographic both of these companies play to is THE SAME (aka parents especially moms with wallets).  All the writer of Honest Toddler had to do was write a 3-4 sentence update on her Facebook page explaining what Honest Company had said.  *BOOM*  Like kicking a bees' nest, outraged fans swarmed the Honest Company's Facebook site and started calling them out on their bullying tactics and really sticking it to them by swearing they'd never buy Honest Company diapers or products again.  And that got their attention.

The content of the outraged comments ranged from shaming to out-and-out insults of the products or Ms. Alba herself.  I've seen these kind of angry mob convergence before with The Oatmeal vs. the lawyer.  It's awesome that individuals or small operations who have loyal fan bases can overcome corporate jackassery and threats with the power of individuals who wish to defend them but it's also rather scary how fast it moves on the Internet and what collateral damage can be done. In some cases, reputations are ruined, privacy violated and safety threatened not to mention commerce lost.

I don't think it took more than 30 minutes until the original alerting message on Honest Toddler's FB page disappeared and was replaced by one that said Honest Company had called her and was working out the "misunderstanding."  Ultimately they backed away from that cease and desist idea as fast as they could and then decided to make amends to the Honest Toddler legion by offering a contest to win a whole year of diapers.  Disaster averted, right?  Probably not, the damage was done if the messages on the Honest Company FB page are to be believed.  That's sad but more stupid.  Whomever thought going after Honest Toddler like that was a good idea was really kidding themselves.  Take that as a lesson of Internet Justice.

And Honest Company apologized...

Can the fans of Honest Toddler be bought?  Can grievances be redacted?  Can lawyers learn from their mistakes?  Stay tuned.

And I'd like to thank... (Oscar reactions)

Despite not really caring, I watched the Oscars this year.  (Thank you Wallers for a lovely evening.)  I even won the Oscar Pool--that never happens!  The dresses were okay but at this point in my life, the speeches are what really interest me.  I used to think how glamorous that whole affair was but now just imagining how much effort goes into getting ready--aggh, no thank you.

Generally the speeches were sincere but they threatened to play folks off with the Jaws theme if they went long--rather ominous.  The weirdest thing was that the Orchestra wasn't even in the auditorium; they were offsite in some studio.  Whatevs.

Two things about the speeches: One, the British do it best: brief, sincere and not just rattling off names. And two, class acts showed humility and honoring their fellow noms, cast/crew and family because those people all deserve an Oscar themselves for helping any given award winner to the stage.

Question: What's with all the blond, long-haired dudes winning awards tonight?

Q Tarantino: you're a greasy, self-centered jackass.  What you said sounds like a compliment to the writing pool you somehow managed to emerge from but it was really a self-congratulatory ego stroke.  Done with you.

Shirley Bassey: Was the upper part of the dress supposed to look like "skin"?  That was weird but I love that song Goldfinger.

Adele: I'm late to the party about appreciating you but I adore every time I see you accept an award.

Barbra Streisand: The entire gathering laughed when your light revealed you.  A bit too over the top but I guess that's just your style.  Shine on you crazy diamond.

Ang Lee: In all seriousness, I love how you said that you weren't going to waste time naming all the actors but you did have to mention your lawyer and your agent.  You said you HAD to.  Honesty--I don't think that gets lost in translation.  It was funny and you didn't even mean to be.

Ben Affleck: Nice acknowledgement of not holding grudges and the fact that a good marriage takes work.  You have definitely matured and I am very compelled to see your movie.

Daniel Day Lewis: Such a touching interplay with Meryl Streep.  Very humble and sweet.

Jennifer Lawrence: When you tripped, I'm yelling at the TV, "Somebody help her!"  Of course, Hugh Jackman, who just displaced Tom Hanks as the nicest guy in Hollywood, popped up to assist but you already were having another go at the stairs.  Good for you, girlfriend.  That's a really big, pouffy dress you're wearing.  Glad you won.  I like you and your sense of humor.  Never change.

Michelle Obama: I adore you as First Lady and for mom dancing, but what were you doing at the Oscars?

Jack Nicholson: They saved the best for the end and you are still crazy.

Six Months

I remember when Sidney hit 6 months, we took our first airplane ride with her for our first major family vacation: Hawaii.  So now that Calvin has crossed that line, I suppose we ought to start thinking about exotic destinations, right?  (I laugh maniacally then stop.)

No matter how you slice it, six months is a major milestone.  Calvin is sleeping through the night (mostly), sitting up (with the occasional teeter) and eating pureed foods.  He can hold a bottle himself, roll over, scoot on his tummy backwards and stay standing up while holding onto the coffee table.  Ken can't wait for him to start "exploring" but I can already tell he is going to get into everything in his quest for discovery.  I was secretly hoping we could delay it as long as possible but resistance seems futile.

He started out on the round colorful mat and moved himself to where he's pictured.

Biohazard!

On Monday this house lay in the cross-hairs of epic contagion as (1) I contracted some kind of stomach virus, (2) Sidney spiked a high temp + cough and (3) Calvin kept exploding out of his diapers with regrettable diarrhea.  Ken just bunkered down in his man cave hoping to make it through.  Turns out, my stomach illness was just a 24-hour thing and Calvin's deal was the unfortunate confluence of outgrowing size 3 diapers and trying new solid foods.  

But Sidney looked like a wet noodle, poor thing, and I began to have flashbacks of last November when we lost a whole month to the flu with the bonus of infecting members of my extended family at Thanksgiving.  After that, I vowed that I would not let illness-via-germ-hoarding-children ruin our lives for the next 10 to 15 years.  

Say what you will about homeopathy and naturopaths, but I say it can't hurt.  I consulted mine in early January and loaded up.  Western medicine is pragmatic about "wash your hands, take Vitamin C, don't rub your eyes" which is great and everything.  But what it doesn't do is pull you back from the brink or give you any defense after your 3-year-old coughs right in your face just as you are wiping her butt and you can't use your hands to shield yourself.  This week especially though, I felt like a broken record saying to Sidney: "Stay away from your brother!" "Don't touch his hands!" "Use a tissue!"   I went so far as to separate the kids on different floors so that she could cough, snot and watch her Disney movies on loop in the basement while Calvin bounced in his Jumperoo uninfected.  A 5-month-old can't take anything for colds other than saline spray and that's pretty ineffective.

Alarmingly, I felt myself starting to slip into the clutch of cold-land.  But with a combo of astragalus and echinacea in forms of a tincture, throat spray and chewables, plus extra Vitamin C, Gypsy Cold Care Tea and lots of OCD hand washing, that did the trick.  Per the naturopath, I also gave Sidney some special drops and she recovered much more quickly than last time (intra-week in fact)--she's been fever-free for over 48 hours and much less nasal drainage & coughing than before.  She even went to school today.  So BRAVO Eastern Medicine--don't let anyone give you any crap.