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.

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.

LA is almost gone...

In about a day or so I will be leaving LA for the desert city of Las Vegas. From there I will stop by the Grand Canyon to get a post card or two, then home to Arkansas. Most of this will be driving down I-40, but I have never shied away from road trips.

I won't be sad doing this. When I get back to AR I have plenty of catching up to do in terms of videogames, friends, and rainfall. I also won't miss the horrid parking or at least having to pay to park anywhere that exists out here. There is also the excitement of moving into a house just off campus with some of my best friends that is also less than a block from my sister's residence. Life is waiting for me to get back there in other words.

While I have been out here my time has been fun. I have gone to the beach a few times, been in neighborhoods looking at houses that cost more than the net worth of most people I know, attended a filming of The Price is Right, eaten chicken and waffles at the same time, eaten Pink Berry, eaten Chinese food in a crowded restaurant in which Hannah and I were the only people of Western descent, seen famous movie houses, and over all just been around some of the most awesome places in the world. All said, it has been good in getting a feel for LA.

In terms of productivity... I wrote a bit for my thesis. It needs way more work, but in the pages I have written so far I have the ball rolling with my thoughts. I have read just about everything published by Chuck Klosterman. A man with whom I feel a certain bullshitter's connection. I have read a few other things as well, but nothing to point out. While I wish I had read and written more overall, there is nothing too specific that I did not do that I wanted to.

So while I go off into the future in the next few days I will be ready for it. Soon school will be starting and I will be forced to go into heavy work mode, something I forget that I am capable of doing during the summer but seem to fall right into the moment I find I have dozens of pages to write while studying for that many tests while trying to have a life and be an active Honors person too. It makes me wish I was going to be a PA again...

School's about to start

The night before class begins always gets me feeling anxious. While I can tell myself it is good to start back, get back into a grove, be productive; I know doing so is nothing I really look forward to doing.

I do school because of what I get out of it. Not for its own sake. Don't get me wrong, I love education and learning. I would much rather have a way of learning that was a bit less stressful though. I do this sort of thing though because of what I will get out of it. So in order for me to get ready for school here is a list of what I plan on getting out of this semester:

-A clear focus on my Honors thesis. By the time May is here I will have read at least a dozen more books and have a sense of what connects all of these stray thoughts that I have with the rest of what is cool

-One major down. I will be done with both Spanish and Political Science classes. w00t... (word of last year)

-More economic ideas. I am taking to economics classes that will hopefully be better than the class I had last semester. I don't want to feel like going to BBA will cause my brain to melt this semester.

-The proof I am not a lazy person. I feel now more than ever that I am often lazy and spend too much time just doing things to enjoy myself (sloth and gluttony). 21 hours should do that...


While I am sure there are more things I want from this semester these are the biggest ones. Now I can only sit back and enjoy the whiteness of my to do board before it is filled with lists of books to read, papers to write, and anything else that is going to come up this semester.

Now that we've taken care of that...

I am done with school finally, but not done with work. I still have to write a paper comparing something with the Baltics. I don't know what I will be writing on, but I need to get it done in the next few days.

I also have to work on my thesis. There are at least three books I want to read before the break is over. Hopefully, I won't be lazy and actually read them.

This blag should update more often now that I am not actually having to read almost 20 kids work every other night.

2nd Life? Who has time?

I went to Charlie's soapbox on 2nd Life. It was mildly interesting, nothing too new or exciting, but it was done very well. I am glad he put together a very good little presentation.

For anyone not in the know, 2nd Life is sort of like one of those MMOs like World of Warcraft, but without the competitive aspect. You can build just about anything there in 2nd LIfe though. Charlie for example built a room based on the lobby of Farris Hall. This place is a new place to interact with the world.

I barely have time (read: I don't have time) to blog. How am I suppose to interact with the world all the time! I have books to read, papers to write, things that need organizing! Who are these people that hang out on 2nd Life? I know it is not me.

That said it looks like I need to do some work, otherwise I will let my roommate down. He needs me to read the one book he can't seem to enjoy reading.