Fortunes.

Yesterday's fortune cookie.

Learn Chinese - The Sun Comes Out
tai yaon chu lai
Lucky Numbers 3, 7, 15, 29, 4, 38

"Enjoyed the meal?
Buy one to go too!"

JM: I guess fortune cookie writers are striking too. (But I'm sure some PR flack crossed the picket line.)
---

Amazing writing.
Busy worker bee.
24 days.
29 days.

Blog Action Day -- October 15, 2007

Today is Blog Action Day. This first, but hopefully annual, blogebration has lofty goals. Let's get everyone to post about the environment in their field of choice. I'll let the founders explain more:

On October 15th, bloggers around the web will unite to put a single important issue on everyone’s mind - the environment. Every blogger will post about the environment in their own way and relating to their own topic. Our aim is to get everyone talking towards a better future.

Some notable blogs that commented today:

• Lifehacker did a post on top 10 user-submitted ways to live easier, greener.
• The Official Google Blog writes about how ideas of "small changes, aggregated on a large scale, can bring to people everywhere" work on both topics of environmental change and searching the web.
• Google Finance Blog discusses "The Green Stock Boom" for investors interested in environmentally conscious companies/industries that will benefit from rising oil prices.
• One of my favorite posts of the day, Copyblogger writes on "The Butterfly Effect" and how one action reverberates worldwide, forever.
• Kansas City blogger Mike Swenson writes "...unless we do begin to take all actions large and small to impact the future of our planet in a positive way, nothing else will matter someday. Most especially the economy."

These and 15,000+ other bloggers who have registered to make today a chance for a slight murmur across the blogosphere which, I hope, someday is a fervent yell for the cause of environmental concern. Folks, we got one planet -- it would suck to lose it.

---

What I want in this space is a focus on the future of the newspaper industry.

Last Thursday, my friend Ben came in to OP to have a dinner with my folks and I. Among our varied discussions, I postulated "The newspaper industry will be radically different and almost extinct in 15-25 years."

My dad and Ben were not persuaded. They spoke of the tactile sensation of holding a double page spread, photos arrayed in designer layouts, graphics, and the walk down the driveway to to pick up the paper. This makes me sad and nostalgic too, one of my favorite things in the world is a dinosaur.

Unfortunately, these times are a changing. There are several reasons for that, but the simplest, easiest one is this: the cost of a digital medium will continue to go down to almost nil while the cost of newsprint, distribution, and printing will rise. Market forces will simplify this equation for newspaper publishers.

As more people get their news online -- there are fewer and fewer people wanting to deal with the hassle of getting news that, (believe this!) isn't updated on the minute like the CNN and NYT web sites.

Combining that, with as I'm sure most would guess, the fact that print newspapers aren't the most environmentally friendly:

Tyson Miller, director of the Green Press Initiative, said ... “Newsprint consumption is 9.2 million tons per year, and the average amount of that which is recycled material is 32%, so about 6 million tons of virgin fiber is used to make U.S. newsprint per year,” he said. “That’s more virgin fiber than the books, magazine and catalog business combined. So even though they use a lot more recycled content, and print circulation is dropping, the industry as a whole uses a lot of paper. The good news is that the industry has a fairly high recycled fiber use rate.”

Circulation is down, advertising revenue for the print product is down, and the discourse on environment first thinking is going up.

Hasta la vista traditional newspapers.

What will replace newspapers and how will we get our information? Check back Wednesday for my take on the future of media in this country.

---

My very little thing I did this weekend was finally organizing my recycling at my apartment. Previously, my system involved me throwing all my plastics/aluminum goods in a trash sack haphazardly taking it to local recycling places when they got too smelly to keep in the kitchen. (At best, and more times than I'm proud of, a nearby dumpster) I think you'll approve of the upgrade.



---

Thank you for taking one minute to think about the environment collectively across the blogosphere. If you are so inspired, write something on your blog/facebook note of choice and register with the Blog Action Day folk. Let's just hope we keep the dialog going to October 16 and beyond. Besides, don't you really know what October 15 is?

What "in rainbows" will do to the music industry

So, ok. I think just about everyone I know that I've seen in the past few days has to know how excited I was for today. Why, might you ask? Because today is the day that the music industry is changed forever (and for the better).

It would have been enough had one of my favorite bands, Radiohead, to release a hell of a seventh studio album, but they had to break every economic standard that the music industry has been counting on for the past five decades. In Rainbows stands to do that and more.

"How come I end up where I started?" the band asks in the opening cut "15 Steps." A legitimate question, and it is one record executives will be asking in the upcoming days, months, and years. Techcrunch guru and noted blogger Michael Arrington said:

2007 is turning out to be a terrible year for the music industry. Or rather, a terrible year for the the music labels.

The DRM walls are crumbling. Music CD sales continue to plummet rather alarmingly. Artists like Prince and Nine Inch Nails are flouting their labels and either giving music away or telling their fans to steal it. Another blow earlier this week: Radiohead, which is no longer controlled by their label, Capitol Records, put their new digital album on sale on the Internet for whatever price people want to pay for it.

The economics of recorded music are fairly simple. Marginal production costs are zero: Like software, it doesn’t cost anything to produce another digital copy that is just as good as the original as soon as the first copy exists, and anyone can create those copies (meaning there is perfect competition and zero barriers to entry).

Dorothy and Todo, we're not in Kansas anymore. Gone are the days of record companies holding rule over bands on how, when, and for how much will you make when we generously publish your music and make bank. Radiohead bucks this trend by announcing on their blog 10 days till the albums online only, digital, DRM free release.

Hello everyone.

Well, the new album is finished, and it's coming out in 10 days;

We've called it In Rainbows.

Love from us all.

Jonny

This is directly from the source, completely handled by the band, straight to the consumer. Record industry. It's time to wake up. N.I.N. plans to do the same, and more band will jump on this after they see how successful it is for the band and their fans.

So how is the album? Reviews, as expected, have been glowing.

The Guardian Unlimited gives it five stars:

Witty, romantic, life-affirming: you don't need to be an expert in the minutae of their back catalogue to know that these are not adjectives readily associated with Radiohead. But then, in the years since OK Computer propelled them to superstardom, you could say the same about the phrase "consistent album", yet that's precisely what In Rainbows seems to be. Whatever you paid, it's hard to imagine feeling short-changed.

My friend, and self proclaimed Radiohead addict, Nolan T. Jones said:

It’s a good album. Hell, it’s a fantastic **** album. It does exactly what a Radiohead album has always done—it makes you feel the whole way through. It’s an emotional journey, and it charts new territory for the band. Obviously an initial review of an album means very little—classics grow on us. New things appear in tracks we’ve heard a hundred times and amaze us. Also, in terms of my own words, the mysticism of music is interpretation.

For me? If you like Radiohead, you'll love In Rainbows. It picks up perfectly from where Kid A, Hail to the Chief left off. I'll let the band really say how I feel with the concluding verse from the final cut "Videotape":

No matter what happens now
I won't be afraid
Because I know today has been the most perfect day I've ever seen.

--

Today's M-W quote of the day strikes me as eerily similar to a certain group I've been with for the past few years.

"You get fifteen democrats in a room, and you get twenty opinions.

Senator Patrick Leahy, May 1990"

Hah.

An essay on childhood

From "Mimsy were the Borogoves":

"Neither Paradine nor Jane guessed how much of an effect the contents of the time machine were having on the kids. How could they? Youngsters are instinctive dramatists, for purposes of self-protection. They have not yet fitted themselves to the exigencies – to them partially inexplicable – of a mature world. Moreover, their lives are complicated by human variables. They are told by one person that playing in the mud is permissible, but that, in their excavations, they must not uproot flowers or small trees. Another adult vetoes mud per se. The Ten Commandments are not carved on stone; they vary, and children are helplessly dependent on the caprice of those who give them birth and feed and clothe them. And tyrannize. The wound animal does not resent that benevolent tyranny, for it is an essential part of nature. He is, however, an individualist, and maintains his integrity by a subtle, passive fight.

Under the eyes of an adult he changes. Like an actor on-stage, when he remembers, he strives to please, and also to attract attention to himself. Such attempts are not unknown to maturity. But adults are less obvious – to other adults.

It is difficult to admit that children lack subtlety. Children are different from the mature animal because they think in another way. We can more or less easily pierce the pretenses they set up – but they can do the same to us. Ruthlessly a child can destroy the pretenses of an adult. Iconoclasm is their prerogative.

Foppishness, for example. The amenities of social intercourse, exaggerated not quite to absurdity. The gigolo-

”Such savoir faire! Such punctilious courtesy!” The dowager and the blond young thing are often impressed. Men have less pleasant comments to make. But the child goes to the root of the matter.

”You’re silly!”

How can an immature human understand the complicated system of social relationships? He can’t. To him, an exaggeration of natural courtesy is silly. In his functional structure of life-patterns, it is rococo. He is an egotistic little animal, who cannot visualize himself in the position of another – certainly not an adult. A self-contained, almost perfect natural unit, his wants supplied by others, the child is much like a unicellular creature floating in the blood stream, nutriment carried to him, waste products carried away-

From the standpoint of logic, a child is rather horribly perfect. A baby may be even more perfect, but so alien to an adult that only superficial standards of comparison apply. The thought processes of an infant are completely unimaginable. But babies think, even before birth. In the womb they move and sleep, not entirely through instinct. We are conditioned to react rather peculiarly to the idea that a nearly-viable embryo may think. We are surprised, shocked into laughter, and repelled. Nothing human is alien.

But a baby is not human. An embryo is far less human.

That, perhaps, was why Emma learned more from the toys than did Scott.

--

That is why, perhaps, I wish I was still a kid.

I wish I could write like that. But really, how many of us don't want to throw in a discussion on philosophy in the middle of our short stories. That, my friend, takes chops. I first saw this story when I was young, and reading this again now (at the ripe age of 22) blows my mind.

But I'm sorry, I gotta go. I'm off to paint in three dimensions.

Life on September 26.

Hi blog,

Long time no see. My bad. I take responsibility. I've been busy.

Work is going great. I am learning so much.

KU Football is rocking.

I gave a presentation yesterday on Web 2.0. Let me know if you want to learn more.

I'll be back, I promise.

Who I am, maybe, after escaping the raccoons...

My personalDNA Report

Free food for you, possibly

Hi world,

I know how much all of you love free food and me. We are talking about two great things, if you asked me about it.

I want to buy you dinner. But like all things free, this one comes with a catch.

Here's the deal...I am currently a salesman for the University Daily Kansan this summer. I am looking for clients and you, my lovelies, are my best connections to highly qualified prospects.

If you connect me with a decision maker at any business, organization, cause, or whatever that might want to advertise, I'm buying dinner.

Here are some talking points for your conversation (As I'm sure you all know).

Advertising in the Kansan is...
...the best way to reach the student body.
...read by the 10,000 students who take summer classes.
...easy, quick, and painless. I will guide a prospective client in creating the ad, placing it, and helping determine effectiveness.

Please feel free to let me know if anything comes to mind.

I wish I was crazy so I could declare myself Emperor of the United States...

...just like Joshua Abraham Norton did.

J.S. Mill is my kindof guy

I just turned in my Western Civ II paper a few minutes ago which was a focus his work On Liberty. Amazing book, by the way. I'm not even joking. Every time I re-read it, it makes me want to be a libertarian. And that's saying something.

However, this particular time I read it... I felt an overwhelming since of dread.

We're screwed.

As a nation.

As a society.

As a civilization.

Maybe even as a species.

Here is my intro paragraph from an early draft:

In John Stewart Mill’s On Liberty, he envisions a dystopia that will come about if human kind as a whole ceases to value individualism as the chief value of the human experience. He believes that if humans continue to value the opinion of the masses over the importance of difference of opinion, we will quickly be “encroached” with overwhelming uniformity where “all deviations from that type will come to be considered impious, immoral, even monstrous and contrary to nature. Mankind speedily become unable to conceive diversity when they have been for some time unaccustomed to see it.” (Mill 71). Mill’s concerns over despotism and the forces that crush individualism are as valid today in 2007, as they were when he originally wrote On Liberty in 1859. Moreover, unless we as a human race recognize these concerns and take active steps to value individual differences of opinion, humankind is destined for a dystopian civilization that will make it impossible to do so in the future.

So I wrote that. And then at the end, I interpreted current forces that were crushing individualism...and there is a ton. Mills contention is that when people stop valuing being different, we cease to expand as a species. And, people, we've stopped.

Like Rome, maybe our time has come.

A civilization that can thus succumb to its vanquished enemy, must first have become so degenerate, that neither its appointed priests and teachers, nor anybody else, has the capacity, or will take the trouble, to stand up for it. If this be so, the sooner such a civilization receives notice to quit, the better. It can only go on from bad to worse, until destroyed and regenerated (like the Western Empire) by energetic barbarians. (On Liberty, Mill, Ch. 4)

--

This is where B pops me upside the head for being a pessimist. I sure hope I'm wrong. Anyone out there? I have no problem being completely off-base with this. I am sure I am in some regards, but seriously how far away are we from 2+2=5?

Too busy to write in this blog...

...you should check out this one.

Delta Force is rockin' and rollin'. Super exciting right now. Seriously, go over there right now. I'm not even joking.

Wee! Thursday is to-morrow!

My favorite painting of all time

One more game...one more game

Oh my gosh. Here we go. Off to the Wheel. Wish us luck if you have a heart.

Game time, whoop!

Oh my god! Oh my god! Oh my god! Come on Jayhawks, goddamn it!

I am so excited I can barely be productive. Screw that, I am not being productive. Sweet Sixteen oh yeah!!!

---

Ok. Deep breath Jarrod.

All right, so here it is: we are going to win this game (probably). I know this because of a quote I read in the Star today:

Because they’re playing such a physical team in Southern Illinois, the Jayhawks said workouts the past few days have been particularly intense.

“Some people get really mad because coach isn’t calling (any fouls),” KU guard Sherron Collins said. “People get a free pass to whack away at you. You get popped everyday on the face or scratched on the arms. But we know it’s for the best.”

Comments such as those make Self grin. For four years he’s been trying to get his players to grasp his defensive philosophy and embrace it.

This year’s Jayhawks, it seems, finally have.

This is why we are going to win. We have finally taken a team attitude of defense through and through. Our Hawks have fully become totally immersed in the Bill Self tight and fast defense one hundred percent. Through and through. SIU may play just as smart as defense as KU, that I do not doubt. Yeah, let's see it with world class athletes and future NBA players.

Oh my god, oh my god...

---

Two posts, two days! Whoop! And some could call me a lazy blogger, hah. Yeah, you.

Dead Sea Scrolls, Chi-Town, Hawks, and Happiness

Yay! Spring break! Doubleplus Yay!

So, Spring Break 2007.

Best. Break. Ever. No, not really, (Maybe!) but it is up there.

So, I have been requested to blog a little bit, and blog a little bit I shall.

So, I just used 'so' three times in 5 sentences. What a lazy writer, this Jarrod punk. So, sue me.

---

Start: Friday at 3 AM in Lawrence, KS.

Ack and I journey to Chi-town. We arrive around Noon. Best driving of my life. There is something pretty damn Huck Finn'ish about about driving over the Mighty Mississippi (no spell check needed, thankee sai) through Hannibal, MO, at 7 or so in the morning as the sun comes up listening to The Weight by The Band. (Take a load off fanny, and (and) (and) you can put the load right on me.)

Yeah, it was going to be a good weekend.

Highlights:

• Soccer at Galway Arms with a genuine Irish barkeep serving Guinness at 10 in the morning on St. Patty's day. Ack teaching me the intricacies of European soccer leagues and clubs. Go Arsenal!
  
• Chilling with AJ. (Like it is every time I see him, goddamn it Jarrod, hang out with this man)
• Imagining life as my cousin in Chi-town's Lincoln Park. Our best guess was that there was 200 bars in 5 square miles.
• KU winning twice by a combined margin of victory of 52.
• Wandering with Ack.
• Thinking of Topeka.
• AJ and cab rides.
• Having an amazing cousin who would shelter us rambunctious animals for a couple of nights in her incredible Lincoln Park studio apartment with a view of Lake Michigan.
  

Lowlights:

• 1000 miles in 72 hours + 10-14 No Doz. + St. Patty's day in Chicago = Sick Jarrod
• Six dollar Shoe Shines "You don't gotta do shit, I gotta stay in the cold! Gimme my six dallas!" (absolutely a story there, I'll tell you over a beer sometime)
• The cheapest beer we could find wasn't. Expensive weekend.

End: Monday at 4:30 AM in Overland Park.

My dad was just leaving the house for Houston, Texas. Fun parallelism. I am arriving and he is leaving at the same time to two very different objectives. Him: business and making money. Me: sleep.

---

Here is a partial list of music Ack and I listened to for the 18 hours of driving:

• Rolling Stones, Beatles (especially post August 18, 1964), Gorillaz (both Demon Days and their self-titled album), Radiohead (OK Computer, Hail to the Thief, and Live on MTV), Arctic Monkeys, Johnny Cash Live at Folsom Prison (Jez: 25 Minutes to Go still haunts me), Blow OST, Easy Rider OST, and Wicked (yah, judge us, Ack and I rockin' out to Wicked at 2 in the morning, singing Broadway. [ Wonderful / They called me "Wonderful" / So I said "Wonderful" - if you insist I will be "Wonderful" / And they said "Wonderful" / Believe me, it's hard to resist /'Cause it feels wonderful/They think I'm wonderful])

---

Since then, life has been, let's just say wonderful.

Today, my fam and I visited Union Station to see the Dead Sea Scrolls exhibit. Unbelievable. I need to have another blog post to really say what I want to say about that because this post is getting rather long. (And for the record, not inspired by green beer nor Lake Michigan.)

More to come soon, world! Go Hawks!

Wiki Wednesday

I know how happy you are all with the return of the infamous Wiki-Wednesday celebration.

(Hey facebook readers, you might want to click "view original post" for hyperlinked goodness.)

So, with no further ado:

Music: Search and Destroy by the Stooges

• I listened to this song during Almost Famous, which was also great.
• Also on GH 2.
  

Movie: The Departed

• I finally saw this week -- and yes, it ruled.
• Soundtrack, gore, action, all met my expectations. Favorite movie I've seen since Easy Rider and probably will be until 300 on Friday.
  

Place: Jackson Hole, WY

• Because I miss it. And you should go.
  

People: The KU Basketball Team

• They are on a roll, suckas. Watch out, we could easily win 9 in a row here.
  

Also, Lennea says hello.

KU beats UT or Durant hurts his ankle

I normally don't delve into sports too much here in this space. This is for several reasons: (1) There are a ton of great sports blog out there (Hey Deadspin) and (2) I don't feel that overly qualified to make brilliant commentary and (3) I don't think that many of you care about my takes on the Hawks, Chiefs, and Royals.

So don't fret, friends we'll be back to our regularly scheduled self-important, psychobabble in just a minute.

That being said, I am a little ticked off.

Yesterday KU beat Texas 90-86, in one of the greatest games I have ever seen.

The first half was a whirlwind of Texas athleticism, sharpshooting, and oh yeah, that guy, Kevin Durant dominating a team like I've never seen before.

I was watching the game with my boy B, my roommate, and her dog. I think my outbursts in the first half might have made Jasmine (the dog, not my roommate) pee herself, but she is a scaredy cat, and she sometimes pees herself when she gets overly excited about a piece of ice or a bowl of water.

When UT was leading by 16, I did not feel good about our chances. B was not worried in the least.

I am so glad I was wrong.

The Hawks demonstrated more heart and stickwithitness than I could have imagined. They weathered the 11/14 3PFG that the Horns put up in the first half and raced off to a 24-7 run in the first four minutes of the 2nd half to get to a 59-58 advantage.

And then the man, the beast-child, maybe the best player I've ever seen play at AFH got himself injured. In one play, it looked like KD injured both of his ankles -- something neither B nor I had ever seen in any sport.

And the hawks stayed hawt. (Sorry for the -awt, I just wanted to use extra letters there).

KD goes out for a few minutes but comes back with a limp. He isn't the same when he comes back. He's one step slow, and it is obvious he is hurting.

The Hawks hold on to win but the Horns make it close by absolute crap free throw shooting down the line.

And this is what pisses me off. The lead story on Sportscenter about this game isn't my Jayhawks winning the Big 12 title, for the third time in four years. It isn't Julian Wright shutting down KD in the 2nd half or gutsy shooting by my man RussRob it is Kevin Durant is injured! and the Jayhawks Win, barely.

Here is what is wrong with that story:

• When KD got hurt, UT was down 6. When he got back three minutes later, they were down 7.
  
• Durant wasn't tripped up or had his foot stepped on or even fouled by any Jayhawk baller. He injured himself, going out of control to the basket.
  
• The game was won (and lost by UT) in the first four minutes of the half when they let a 24-7 run kill their amazing first half sharpshooting prowess.

Even if Durant was healthy and he made four points in time he was gone, I have no doubt KU would have scored five. This game was not going to be won by UT yesterday, they just were out of gas in the 2nd half. Not that I blame them, they had just played their rival in double overtime with all the emotional baggage that that goes with.

So, ESPN, get the story straight. The Hawks won and UT lost. Durant is going to be fine, Basketball players sprain their ankles like that 20 times a season.

Friday, thankee sai

Great day today, truly a lovely Friday -- got First Watch with AB this morning, goofed off/did some errands/some reading and listened to the Stones all afternoon.

My favorite of the day:

Gimme Shelter

Reportedly, Merry Clayton had a miscarriage because of her intensity. She screams murder at 3:01, but loses her voice but you hear a voice in the background, most likely Mick Jagger screaming 'Yeah'!

Oh, a storm is threat'ning
My very life today
If I don't get some shelter
Oh yeah, I'm gonna fade away

War, children, it's just a shot away
It's just a shot away
War, children, it's just a shot away
It's just a shot away

Ooh, see the fire is sweepin'
Our very street today
Burns like a red coal carpet
Mad bull lost its way

War, children, it's just a shot away
It's just a shot away
War, children, it's just a shot away
It's just a shot away

Rape, murder!
It's just a shot away
It's just a shot away

Rape, murder!
It's just a shot away
It's just a shot away

Rape, murder!
It's just a shot away
It's just a shot away

The floods is threat'ning
My very life today
Gimme, gimme shelter
Or I'm gonna fade away

War, children, it's just a shot away
It's just a shot away
It's just a shot away
It's just a shot away
It's just a shot away
I tell you love, sister, it's just a kiss away
It's just a kiss away
It's just a kiss away
It's just a kiss away
It's just a kiss away
Kiss away, kiss away

intensity.

In senate at 1121

YAY! !!!!!!

Sonia just gave a speech, but it didn't help because the students are going to pay a ton of money for busses, but that is all right, because the y needed it for full ADA compliance, which is good, because we should be progressive not regressive. Yay!!!

Wednesday Happiness

Is there anything better than chilling on a Wednesday afternoon, blaring Can't you Hear me Knockin by the Stones? I am sitting here, blaring it as loud as my stereo can go, and enjoying my beautiful view outside my apartment. Life could not be better.

2nd post to come today during Senate. Watch out bootsy, we're watching you.

----

The Rolling Stones Can't You Hear Me Knocking

(M. Jagger/K. Richards)

Yeah, you got satin shoes
Yeah, you got plastic boots
Y'all got cocaine eyes
Yeah, you got speed-freak jive

Can't you hear me knockin' on your window
Can't you hear me knockin' on your door
Can't you hear me knockin' down your dirty street, yeah

Help me baby, ain't no stranger
Help me baby, ain't no stranger
Help me baby, ain't no stranger

Can't you hear me knockin', ahh, are you safe asleep?
Can't you hear me knockin', yeah, down the gas light street, now
Can't you hear me knockin', yeah, throw me down the keys
Alright now

Hear me ringing big bell tolls
Hear me singing soft and low
I've been begging on my knees
I've been kickin', help me please
Hear me prowlin'
I'm gonna take you down
Hear me growlin'
Yeah, I've got flatted feet now, now, now, now
Hear me howlin'
And all, all around your street now
Hear me knockin'
And all, all around your town

Son day, Sun day, sunday, Ice cream sundae

I choose you number four.

This weekend:
-Great time in Manhattan
-Iggy Pop, you got nothing, I got 4 stars on Search and Destroy
-Awesome time on Friday at Eurotrash, I am trashy and faux European, so...awesome
-Pat, good work on the G. word
-Name the song:

You ain't a pimp and you ain't a hustler
A pimp's got a Cadi and a lady got a Chrysler
Black's got respect, and white's got his soul train
Mama's got cramps, and look at your hands ache
(I heard the news today, oh boy)
I got a suite and you got defeat
Ain't there a man who can say no more?
And, ain't there a woman I can
sock on the jaw?
And, ain't there a child I can hold without judging?
Ain't there a pen that will write before they die?
Ain't you proud that you've still got faces?
Ain't there one damn song that can make me
break down and cry?


Time for your moment of zen:

Finance makes me feel like such a jerk...

...I always leave Finance committee feeling like an asshole.

---

Guest blogging begins by Lennea C.
Greetings! I write this to you from the loveliness that is the KU Student Senate Finance Committee. I absolutely adore Finance. Finance is the guardian of the coffers of the Student Senate, and thus their job is quite difficult. Whereas other committee meetings might last 20 minutes, Finance regularly lasts hours--and its students are just as busy (if not more) as their peers on other committees. Despite such personal time constraints, these devoted senators are willing to spend over 2.5 hours so far of this beautiful evening confined to a humid, slightly smelly room in order to preserve the integrity of the whole of Student Senate.

On another note, I think that the best way to fight terrorism abroad, as well as social ills at home, would be to raise the price of petroleum fuel to $10.00 per gallon or more. When the cost of fuel begins to restrict travel to the point of oil conservation, Americans will begin to live in accordance with frugality. As the oil consumption would decrease, many nations in the Middle East would be starved of the excess revenues that, in certain instances, (Hi, Jarrod's Mom!) fund groups that espouse violence against Americans, women, and ethnic and religious minorities. [Hizbollah seems a fitting example of a group that benefits from oil revenues.] Moreover, as Americans drive less, the woes of suburbia on social and familial unity will be unveiled. Suburban sprawl has enabled families to live further apart, separated by dozens, if not hundreds or thousands, of miles. Stripping the suburbs of their allure would preserve current farmland that is being encroached upon, as well as serve as the impetus for suburban dwellers to relocate to places that are closer to their places of employment. A reduction in driving would also encourage more Americans to adopt an active lifestyle by walking to more locations, thus helping to counter the epidemic of obesity in the United States. Would this drastic increase on the price of fuel be pleasant? Certainly not--it would be a difficult burden to bear. But, like the rationing of materials during World War II, it would enable the realization that petroleum is a precious resource that is not to be squandered, and that oil, while it has increased the ease of American life in certain ways, has also brought about a variety of detriments that affect short and long-term safety and social harmony.

Senate's Finance Committee is now nearing its third hour. I wish you all a fabulous evening and implore you to remember that your elected representatives in government, in addition to sometimes having grievous personal flaws, also are men and women of sacrifice that believe in the public good. I am in a room full of such individuals at present, and it is one of the most inspiring activities that I have found on campus to date.
Shalom, my friends!

No one knew the quote from below...

...first person who writes in the comments identifying where that is from gets a monster hug/ice cream treat from Jarrod when I see you next. No cheating, and Google is totally cheating.

--

Just got done with K. Benson's class -- went pretty well. I was no Guitar wielding podcaster, but pretty good discussion nonetheless.

Hit me up, I'm feeling social. You know you wanna...

Yeah.

Billy: We did it, man. We did it, we did it. We're rich, man. We're retirin' in Florida now, mister.

Wyatt: You know Billy, we blew it.

Today, Sunday, Feb. 18 --

I am ---

--tired from Friday night at BenKori's/RedLyon/BenKori's. awesome time though.
--upset we had to forfeit at BB today.
--thankful for friends like Kori and Elaine for their needed help.
--vicariously excited for Into the Streets Week for the CCO gang.
--optimistic about speaking tomorrow at K. Benson's class.

The Jayhawks are --
--Ballin'. Hot diggity dog, the Hawks are playing well. Good luck KSUck tomorrow.

Peace.

"If your life depended upon it...

...what could you do?"

For example, I think I could watch one hour of Laguna Beach.


Question submitted by Aaron B. EDIT: But not answer. I said the part about Laguna Beach. If Aaron had to answer, he would have said something like "I, Aaron B. could shop at Old Navy, if my life depended on it."

Any questions boss?

Regarding the interesting lady at the Dole Institute that attacked the panel...

So, I'm sitting there, enjoying the panel session with five top political bloggers at the Dole Institute on Tuesday, and we come to Q and A. This is always my favorite part of any session, because you really learn a lot from speakers when they have to answer on the fly.

Apparently, another audience member appreciates Q and A too. Her question, and I paraphrase:

Um, I ask this question, because when I look up, I see four of five of you that are white, men, and wealthy political bloggers, my question, I ask, how do you represent me on the blogosphere? How are you representing people who don't have a voice in traditional media?

Interesting, I think. This could be fun. Of course, her totally stereotype was off, as one of the bloggers was part-Native American, and several of them made comments that they weren't wealthy. I'm sure Jerome has cash, but I don't doubt that several of the panelists are paid equivalent amount that civil servants and most political operators make (read: not much).

And their response, which I think Jerome said: "If we aren't representing you, make a blog yourself. It costs nothing."

Spot on. This is the beauty of blogging. It isn't traditional media where you would need hundreds of thousands of dollars to start a printing press, nor the immense amount of paperwork and FCC regs if you wanted to started a radio station. You just need a computer and internet connection.

Yes angry lady, everyone doesn't have the money to have a personal computer or online access, but everyone can go to a library. There is no blog conspiracy to keep minorities and/or women from the blogosphere. It all comes down to content.

If your content rocks -- people are going to read it. I don't even know the sex or ethnicity of 90 percent of the bloggers I read.

Moral of the story: Produce great content. Get readers.

/end rant

I'm back...

Hi gang,

Sorry it took me so long to get back here after summer. I don't know why I have put it off, but I figure I can at least dabble with the blog on the side.

So, news:

-Last night, I went to the Dole Institute of Politics for a session with five top political bloggers and their thoughts on 08. I think we don't even begin to know all the ways that politics (heck, everything) will be changed by social media in the next two years. Fun to be on that ride, though...

-Life is all right. I can say that with 100 percent confidence. Senate is rockin'. DF is getting some momentum. PRSSA, well, I had a great time talking last meeting about Web 2.0. I hope my members did the same.

-I got a great V-day card from Amy today, it really, really made my day. Also, the rents sent a nice card, complete with chocolate.

-I hope to keep updating. I will let you know when I do. :)

Love, j