Being Thankful

Life is pretty good. I have good family, good friends, and good food. I also had a $15 beer today. Life is pretty much wonderful.

Thanks to all who made it so.

This was an okay Monday.

I have a little more work to do before I can take most of tomorrow off, so I have to save my writing for places were I get grades.

- I presented the presentation over Saudi Arabia today. For having been so quickly put together it came out quite well.

- I went to the Bear's Den twice today. Once I had a few drinks before my afternoon class. The second time I had a few more drinks right after my afternoon class. There is just a really good felling about drinking with friends that I forget sometimes.

- I saw a foreign film. It was pretty good. Not depressing like so many others.

- I totally disagree with Donna's and Hannah's score for HIMYM tonight. While I might be willing to give it a low B, I don't see how anyone could give it an A. There was something about the pacing of it tonight that just didn't feel right, but I guess that was just me.

Late Night, Early Morning

I often debate with myself over which I should choose. One one side there is the idea of staying up to get things done, but the other side of just sleeping so that I won't be distracted by being tired also seems swell.

This never ends well. No matter what happens I will sleep at some point and I will get the work done. Just whether or not I get done when I wanted to is the thing.

To all of this I decide often that it is just as well that I sleep. At least then I will not have to have the debate anymore because that won't be an option.

Getting Cold Enough?

I always find that my sinuses seem to be much more sensitive to the temperature than I ever am. This creates a period of two or there weeks in which I am in a constant state of confusion as to why my nose does not want me to get that precious, precious oxygen.

I am pretty sure that this could be fixed if I could just stop changing the temperature of my surroundings. If I could know that going from building to building for class and the temperature for the short dashes between buildings would all just be the same I would be happy to take a more extreme temperature even. Just so long as it is the same.

Playing AMUN

Today I got to co-chair the Security Council for simulation involving a bunch of high school kids. I will continue to do so tomorrow.

I started doing this a few years ago as a way to make a few extra points in a class on the UN, but then I found that it was basically something that I really enjoy. It is a role playing game that gets the people playing to play as world leaders. The delegates then get to solve the world's problems by using their powers of coercion and compromise with their fellow delegates. Meanwhile, I make sure Robert looks down upon us and sees order.

For me this is the closest I have ever gotten to playing any kind of table top RPG. Mostly this is because I have never really found anyone that shares the same mix of love and ironic disdain for a game like D&D to play with. But, I love the way that you have a group of players all out for themselves but being forced to work together by a powerful force in the Dungeon Master. If done well everyone involved feels pretty good. The players with a bit of luck and skill have conquered the challenge, and the DM has made a fun story that will be remembered by all who got to be a part of it.

With the AMUN this is hard to do. There are so many people playing that compromise is rarely going to lead to action, but there is always the chance that you can get Russia to at least not disagree with what's going on. Or maybe you can get the France and China to but author a bill about Africa. Sure it might not be totally in character, but it can still be rewarding.

Chuck Klosterman and "the illness"

I was really quite sick last night. So sick that as I lie in bed about to pass out I thought, "I need to blog." But I could not for, you see, I was close to falling apart if I had moved.

Lucky for me Mr. Klosterman had already left the state and I was not being called to attend any kind of events in his honor. I would have gone. I just would have been afraid of passing out or worse.

If anything became clear from his visit, it is that Chuck Klosterman is the most transparent person I can even remotely think of. Everything he says and does, he means. Worse yet, he has probably already written down his feelings about most everything he has experienced. As he was telling a story about his first experience with metal he did not provide any kind of side not, he almost told a story verbatim from his book. Either this is just a mundane story that he has talked about way too much or it is just that he is such a good writer that his written words have not filter.

I did learn from him how to talk about popular culture though. Because we experience each new thing as a part of everything we have seen before we cannot judge anything without bias. This bias is not right or wrong so much as it is simply the baggage that we bring with us from all of our past experiences. This means that we can only talk about things from our own perspective. This turns each of us as selves into part of the dialog itself.

I am also glad that he dislikes Family Guy.

Coffee, Apples, and Clydesdales

Due to Chuck Klosterman sending me on extended personal rants between me and various people I know, I am forced go to sleep without sending out a proper blog post today.

Tomorrow there will hopefully be a much longer one about my interactions with this Gen X hipster and his views on life, the universe, and everything.

What is there to say?

Tomorrow I get to meet one of my all time heroes in terms of success in life. As a writer Chuck Klosterman is not really any different than most other Gen X music critics, but when he branches away from here he becomes interesting.

He looks at pop culture as if it can actually tell us something about ourselves, as if it is more than just the fluff we fill our heads with when we aren't being productive. He writes as if we are actually affected by the music we listen to and the movies we see, and all the celebrity gossip that we listen for. Unlike most other people he doesn't seem to make judgment calls on just how good or bad it is.

Part of this has to do with his ability to look at overall ideas hidden in the way we watch YouTube or root for sports. He is trying to be a fan of the culture unlike so many others who try to cut themselves away from extremely personal subjects they talk about.

As such I try to write in a way that he might see as interesting when I write here on this blog. I try to write a blog that lives up to the spirit of the essays in his masterpiece Sex, Drugs, and Cocoa Puffs. This is an evening blog. This blog is written in the moments before sleep and meant to be understood in context of the world around it.

Obama's Crackberry

One think I always liked about Obama was his use of his communication tools directly. He will probably be our first computer literate president and like so many of us, he is hopelessly dependent on his cell phone to give him his e-mail as soon as it is sent. While the question of whether or not we should hold our phones so close is important, for Barrack there are more pressing concerns.

For instance, he might have to give up his e-mailing. While a scary idea for even me, only mildly addicted, this might seriously destroy the way he works. The way that won his election for president. The way that I and so many others want his government to work.

Now the reason for all of this is the Presidential Records Act. It basically was made in order to preserve everything the president does in order that we might be able to have transparency in government as well as a nice historical record. Instead it has only made the White House all the more insular. Instead of opening up records it has only made the president more protective of what is written down. This is unhealthy.

If Obama really wants to change Washington he will set a new trend of allowing everything that he does to be seen by the public. While it might sound like overly loud language for me to say this, we have the right to his information. Not only that, if we want to have a fully functional government we have the need for it as well.

So Obama, I know you don't read my blog. I am just one voice crying out into the night, but I say keep your Blackberry. Leave a huge (figurative) paper trail. Ensure that we will spend the next 8 years looking at everything you do with a microscope. It will keep you on your toes and it will let us warn you if you start to drift away from what it is that we think is proper for our country.

The Piano Bar, Rules and Guidelines

In my limited experience within piano bars I have come up with this advice on how to enjoy them. This is not really for anyone other than foreign kids and younglings but hopefully it is useful.

1. Get there early. You might think it is cool to not show up anywhere on a Saturday night until after 10, but that doesn't fly when there is limited seating and people who are already too drunk to want to get up in the bar. You want to show up around 7 and get a table near the stage. This way you are able to more easily talk to the players.


2. Don't expect the piano players to play your song unless you tip them properly. Ona a slow night this might be a dollar. On a busy night it will be at least a twenty.


3. Don't expect the players to know your song. I have requested so many b-ranked Abba and Queen songs at piano bars only to get the response, "I know Dancing Queen." These people know hundreds of pop standards though so just request another song.


4. Unless you are the DD, never stop having a drink in your hands. No one at a piano bar likes to think that they are with anyone who wants to actually sing well. The singing is just an easy way to replace that awkward conversation that you have to make at most other bars.


5. Don't be the d-bag that requests Piano Man.

The Weekend

I enjoy my Fridays. I try not to do much work and spend the evening basking in the fact that I don't have to go to class for the next two days. This often involves my girlfriend and a good deal of fun.

The thing is, I have stopped really finding joy in the weekends. I have so much school work that doesn't have time to be done during the week or is just due on Monday that I spend a good deal of my weekend reading and writing on things that I would prefer to ignore for more than barely a day.

Everyday there is something to do. All I can do is wait until the Christmas break for a bit of a breather before I throw myself into the fire again.

The Dismal Science

Stephen Moore was on Colbert tonight to talk about his new book. This guy is, what many like economists refer to them selves as, a neoclassical economist. He wants little to no government intervention to allow markets to make function the way that they can (in theory) work best. The problem is that he is living in a bubble if he really wants to apply his theory to the real world.

Economics is a very interesting school of thought. I hesitate to call it a science because while it tries to make predictions about the world, it more often looks at what outcomes should be based on assumptions about the people making the choices. I was attracted to this study of choice because many of its assumptions about people are actually the way I go about life. I try to be rational about everything. I always choose the path that will most benefit me in my life. And I often like to think that I have perfect information. Unfortunately, neither I nor anyone else has that last one.

Now, perfect information, or at least as close as we will ever get without being able to totally predict the future, is coming. I am sure of that, but as of right now we have to factor in that people are ignorant when talking about economic models. Notice: I say "ignorant," not "stupid."

This is why we still need government intervention in our economy. I know that this sounds paternalistic when I say it alone so let me clarify. Right now we have such a lack of information, in some places that the only way to prevent the most heinous things from happening is to have rules against it. For example, social security, one of the most Big Brotherly things we have in the US. It is a system that forces people to save money. There are many people who would just assume that we get rid of it because it causes some economic inefficiencies. These people would much rather let everyone do exactly what they want with their money in order to save for retirement. There is a problem though. No one saves money! In a culture that has been told that a dollar today is worth more than a dollar tomorrow, we are going to want to spend spend spend. Like our great grandparents who didn't save enough to have money when they needed (thus causing the need for social security), we are to ignorant to be able to see a time when we might need it. We (wrongly) expect to have a constant flow of income, even when we get too old to work, thus we need a mechanism that will not disappoint us, like social security.

Christmas List

At this time of year I like to sit back and look at all the things I have and be thankful. I have my Rock Band set with plenty of downloaded songs. I have an iPhone with which I am always connected to the world. I have Lots of other things that I am happy to have as well, but there is always more. So here now are a list of things that I have not gotten my hands on yet that I would love to have (in no particular order):

• Video Games - Gears of War 2 is about big guns and lots of blood. Fallout 3 this seems like a great vacation and I would love to go. de Blob seems like a cute little game. Little Big Planet might require a PS3 but looks to be one of the best games to come out this year. Dead Space is a scary game that I am sure would be fun to play with my girlfriend on a cold winter's night.


• The Guild Season 1 - While my love for Felicia Day is limited by my inability to get over how much she reminds me of Michael Cera, I think she has made something awesome with The Guild. Season 2 is goinv to start being released at the end of this month, but I still want to see all the extras and commentary on Season 1's DVD.


• Bluetooth Headphones - Specifically those made by Jaybird JB-200i. These will let me wirelessly play music from my iPhone as well as use them for talking on my iPhone. The need for more than one piece of headgear is in the past.


• Shot Glasses - While the nerd in me thinks it would be awesome to shoot Pinky, Blinky, Inky, and Clyde as if I had just swallowed a power pellet there is the other part of me who would love to party hop on New Years taking shoots with people out of easy to transport rubber shooters.


• Seasoning Grinders - After my parents talked about how they longed for a 1-handed pepper grinder I found one. As much as they might like it, I really want it too. After all, it is a bunny!


• Books - I have so many books that I want. Most of them are about popular culture. But what else would you expect from me?

Open Source Goals

(I am sorry if I offend anyone in this post, but my interactions have caused me to think about this.)

I have a group project going on right now. It is in my Strange Communities class, and we must document the way in which a group we know about has changed its goals as it has developed. But that is not the interesting part.

What gets me is that I have no real idea how to communicate with anyone. Beyond just trying to decided if we use Facebook, HCOL, or some other means of messaging is crazy hard. But I think it is only hard because we all come from different backgrounds. Some of the people are regular Facebookers so that is the place to meet... once we are all friends there. I use HCOL because it was the one place where I could find everyone's names and send them messages at one point in time. I am also a fan of using on-line word processors in order to send messages and to write our paper. There are others who seem to be adverse to any of those because they are not connected more than they have to be (very strange).

But the hardest part of communicating with people I think comes in what we see the project as. For some it is just another task to take care of to get done with the class. Others it is a chance to flex our thinking caps. And even others see it as something that doesn't require any thought at all. This means that delegating work will probably cause some to have lighter loads than others even if we all receive the same grade. While I have gotten use to this over the years, I am still troubled by the way that we all wish to take separate paths to our primary goal.

But this is the way open source works. Right? Everyone does a small amount to make something big? This is why without paying many people very much money some versions of Linux are worth more than $10 million. But those projects, even ignoring the idea of motivation, have something I don't. They have time.

A good open source project requires time to really get off the ground. Just look at Songbird. As an open source music player it has been in development for close to three years, and it is just now getting to a usable beta. If I had the time to work with my group and let everyone do a little at a time I would probably be able to produce something really great. Instead I have a little less than a month to put something together that I can only hope is interesting.

The Guild Season 1

As far as the Internet nerd icons go it is pretty much a given that Wil Wheaten is the de facto political leader, but Felicia Day is the de facto sex symbol. I mean, she is pretty much beautiful, went to college at 16 and majored in math, and she play WoW way too much. What more could a nerd as for. I bet she would make a totally awesome DM too.

That mentioned love of WoW she has is very serious. It isn't any kind of girly thing, "Yeah, I play WoW because my boyfriend does." She is an intense player who decided that she needed to make a sitcom out of her experiences being overly connected to her guild while being totally disconnected from the world. Enter The Guild.

As a web sitcom the whole season is over within an hour, but is one of the best hours on the Internet. Day's character is a WoW junkie who feels that her life is being consumed by the game to the point that not even her therapist can help her. The thing is, she is the most normal well-adjusted member of her friends with whom she goes on raids.

The show makes the most of the various stereotypes that populate the game in the real world with its limited cast: from the sheltered nerd to the lonely and unemployed middle aged man to the machisemo/a driven to those just looking to escape into a seemingly more rewarding world. I am sure that you could ask any gamer if they know anyone like any of the characters and they would give you more names than you might care to know. Yet, none of these characters feel overly archetyped. Maybe it is because of our limited interaction with them, but everyone seems to have a back story that while comical is also strangely real.

The writing is also surprisingly good. Even in real life these people think like the avatars they use in the game. Everything to do for someone is a quest that grants you some reward. Every task will give them experience. Every person they encounter is just another PvP battle waiting to happen. I would call the use of in-game jargon cheesy if it wasn't for it being so true to life.

There is going to be a Season 2 soon, and this is a good thing.

As of right now I would really love to get the DVD for all the extras as well as to support the production of this awesome show.

Unproductivity

There are some days in which you just don't want to be productive. On days such as that all that will make you remotely happy is to sit down with someone who is happy to see you and enjoy entertainment put out by our friends at the major networks.

Until you get to this point in the day you are constantly left wondering why you aren't being more productive. Why are you reading your RSS feed instead of reading your books for class? Why are you taking a nap instead of drinking a cup of coffee and writing on your thesis? Why aren't you doing research for any of those other papers that need to be written while you are writing your blog? All of these and so many more make you just feel worthless. You feel like everything around you is caving leaving you unable to do anything but admit total defeat. So yeah you begin to question why you even bother, and what if you just stopped trying to achieve what ever it is you are trying to achieve.

But you keep on going because tomorrow is a new day. And as unlikely as it may seem, you just might wake up and feel awesome and ready to take care of everything you need to do that day and everything you didn't do the day before.

Role Models

This movie is not quite heartwarming, but by the end of it you will be happy to have gotten to enjoy a story whose characters were way more important than their plot.

Paul Rudd, after having a hard day (he hates his job chugging energy drinks and his girlfriend dumps him) ends up being forced to do community service with a Big/Little program. So he gets stuck with a nerdy kid who likes to play fantasy reenactments with the local cosplayers. Oh, and his partner and only friend is a man-child who gets dragged along for the ride and he gets stuck with a foul mouthed little black kid.

Eventually they all learn to like each other and that's when the movie does the most self conscious (or just god awful) thing I have ever seen a movie let itself do. Rudd wins back his girlfriend with the most uninspired written on the fly love song ever. While some might like to think they they were just shoehorning a happy ending on to a story that need to tie of a lose end somehow, I like to think that they were deliberately mocking this sort of thing in other movies. And if this is the case, I might have to watch the whole movie over again just to see if I can catch if they are really mocking the genre of movie that has made this movie's leads stars.

Cool Air

The weather is getting chilly. I have had to keep the house's heater on tonight for fear that the pipes will freeze (they probably wouldn't but I am a worrier).

So because I did actually get a small amount of work done today I am going to treat myself to a good night's rest. Hopefully there will be a new movie review tomorrow.

What To Do?

There are two sides to everything that I want to do in life. On one hand, it seems like i would be totally happy doing close to nothing in the way of work. I would spend the vast majority of my time playing games, reading things I might want to look over myself, and over all live a life with a simple and slow routine. On the other hand, I would love to work hard at something, almost anything, and do something that I can eventually garner fame and pride from. While not totally exclusive, these two things become so as you move to the extremes of each.

Because of this I try to do like so many do in life. Make sure that the very busy days full of things that are hard to do (or you simply don't like to do but feel you must) are offset by a day every so often in which you do nothing but relax and enjoy the day. In thinking about this, I think about how Obama must feel right now. He no longer has to bounce around the country giving speeches every day, so there is some relaxation, but he is also gearing up to spend the next decade of his life never having a real day off.

For me today was a day of peace, I have taken every opportunity I can to be calm and happy and plan to continue to do so until tomorrow morning when I wake up and get to work on the multitude of things I have to get done this weekend.

Playing Games

We have been talking about Second Life and other virtual worlds in my Honors class lately. In fact, one of the assignments has been to go into SL and interact with the world and its inhabitants. This might be all well and good for some, but when it comes to any sort of MMO (massively multiplayer on-line) I just can't seem to get into it. Mostly it is because of two things: the scope and the people.

As a college student, already barely making time for his girlfriend, I find that there is just not enough time to go around learning how to build things in a place that not only has a steep learning curve but also no benefits outside of itself. Maybe if I thought I could gain in any way (even in a intangible way) I would be in these worlds more often, but as it is the job of inserting oneself into a community in a way that encourages the types of things I would want out of such a place... the job is time consuming.

Beyond this, I really just don't care about talking to people. I find that even in communities that I have made myself a part of in my 1st life there are a large number of people with whom I have no reason to interact with. These people do not make me a better person by connecting to them and thus they are but fluff in my social web. The same is true of most people in virtual worlds. Most everyone is friendly and kind, but it is rare that I really find a rapport with anyone. I am lucky to have the friends I have considering how poorly I keep up with any of them.

When I have time to enter a virtual world I like to do it on my own terms. If I have the chance over the Christmas break (ha!) I could see myself getting Fallout 3 and playing it for several days straight. Fallout is a game defined by its large world full of things to discover and do within it, but there is no one else there but you. This means to get the maximum benefit from the game I do not need to join a guild, talk to people to trade goods, or in anyway deal with other players. I can play the game on my terms and my terms alone.

This opposition to multiplayer games probably comes from my development as a gamer. While many of my friends were playing on-line with their Starcraft games, I was sitting at home playing Goldeneye in my room, all by myself. The idea of playing against other real people never really appealed to me until Halo entered my life during my senior year of high school. Being able to play with the few friends I had over two TVs and then talk about how awesome the battles were as we emptied the fridge at whosoever's house we were at gave me some of my favorite memories from that time. I bought a Gold X-box Live account when I first got to college, but playing against random people never really clicked for me. Likewise, playing WoW or any other MMO without anyone I could share some precooked bacon with after we killed a dragon seemed boring somehow.

Maybe I just need to host a kickin' LAN party sometime soon...

The Writing Process

For the past week or so I have had what could best be called writer's block when it comes to my thesis. Part of this is because I have been doing other projects, but most of it comes from an intense need to get it done. I often find that on most projects I can think much more clearly if I know I have a deadline, but it is far away. Right now my thesis needs to be mostly complete by the end of this month.

This is crazy.

I have spent the last year and a half working on this thing. I have read a good number of books, many make it into the paper while a good deal of them are only there in spirit only. I have had so many conversations about cool with my advisor, my girlfriend, my friends, my family, and nerdy guys who work for NASA out in New Mexico. I have written upwards of 150 pages on cool, but have junked most of it or at least refined it down to something between 40-50 pages. I apply everything I learn to cool, from game theory to democratic system formation. I may not be cool, but it is always on my mind.

After meeting with my advisor today and bouncing some ideas off of her, I wrote a little today. I will write more as soon as I wake up tomorrow too. I feel like I have a second wind. I might actually make this happen.

Where Do We Go From Here?

Now that we can get things done, Obama, do these things:

- Continue Twittering. If you want to stay popular and connected with the people make sure that you tweet every time you do anything at the White House.

- Don't till away your grass roots. While you might need to mow the lawn on your campaign support system do not get rid of it. Instead use the people you had generating support for you to begin creating informal local gatherings to talk about certain issues. Maybe every month is a different topic, but you must need to keep people engaged. We all too often turn off our brains when there doesn't seem to be anything going on that we can have a say in.

- Meet with every economic and political leader in the world. Go to China and talk with the people in charge of the business part of government. Go to Middle East and talk about what they can do to ensure that once oil is gone they will have industry to keep them rich.

- Be the leader of the party. Don't let Reed or Pelosi boss you around. You know what you want to do, get it done.


This is just a short list of things, general things, but if you follow them the rest will come.

My Generation

For the last two years I have been looking forward to tomorrow night. That's because tomorrow night will be the first time I feel like I am a part of a generation of people who are willing to make something happen rather than ride on what the babyboomers did in the 60s.

Generation X has done very little in the way of pushing the world toward anything new and better. Instead, they let themselves become idle spectators in history refusing to admit that just because the Cold War was over that there was anything left to do. They seem to prefer accepting that we have reached the "end of history" as some political scholars have put it.

While I think it matters greatly as to who wins the election, I hope that either outcome will result in my peers standing up and making the things that work today better suited for tomorrow. I hope that we are able to spread information to everyone as to allow new ideas to sprout forth from every individual. I hope that we can take a world powered by oil, the sticky black remains of those who once lived and ruled, and turn it into a world powered by the supply of energy granted to us each day anew. I hope that we can soon provide the world with the feelings of joy the very privileged of us here in the West have by simply walking our peaceful streets at night after a full meal. I hope that we can all find a way to make sure that everyone's job is work and not labor.

I hope that I remember these words on the 5th, then again in January. It will be at these moments that our ideals will be tested. We must roll up our sleeves and dig our hands deeply into the soil of the future. Unlike those who came before us we must always know that the future is fertile with new opportunity, but it must be cultivated. From this we can produce something the likes of which has never been seen by civilization. I don't want to be the greatest generation, but I want to be better than any before. And I hope that we can inspire the next generation to the same or better.

My goals are lofty, but I don't think I am alone.

It has begun

While I would much rather be in the situation that the Penny-Arcade guys seem to be in, I am pretty much crazy busy right now. I have to polish up a thesis as to make it worthy of even being submitted for OTA, I have other papers to write, many books to read, and a house that needs constant cleaning thanks to the gathers that seem to be taking place here every weekend.

I am going to try to start blogging every day though. I know it will be hard and some days will be better than others, but it is National Novel Writing Month. And if I were to try to write a novel I might not have time for anything else.

In other news: Happy Birthday Tre!