blake c's blog

Starting over

2008-07-31T17:43:00.001-05:00

The time has come to allow this blog to peter out and begin anew
somewhere else.

I've been considering this for a while, and the fact that google has
failed so far to supply a decent mobile platform for blogger that I
could actually use...well, that cemented the decision for me.

For the time being, I am moving to wordpress. The new URL will be http://theshortestverse.wordpress.com
.

In the coming weeks or months, I plan on launching my own site. I've
grown dissatisfied with the limitations on how I am able to organize
page layout on free services and hope that once I launch my own page I
can sort the various subjects I write on in a more logical and
organized manner.

But then again, who knows. I'm fickle. I may take to the new page
like a fish takes to water. Wherever I go, I hope you will join me.

Irresistible Empire

2008-07-20T13:47:00.001-05:00

This is the book that I am currently reading for my latest class,
"American Culture in the World."

I'm not done with it yet, but I can tell you the main thesis: America
extended its hegemonic power through business, thereby creating a
"Market Empire" and reshaped Europe on its own terms.

It is interesting to read about a time when things were not almost
completely determined by one's buying power, and the processes that
brought about the current reality.

Black Cab Sessions

2008-07-19T10:26:00.001-05:00

So since this is being posted from my phone and opt lacks the basic
ability to copy/paste, I can't provide a link but let me just tell you
that blackcabsessions.com is worth checking out.

It's fairly straightforward, and has been around for a while. I know
this isn't breaking news.

It entails musicians performing their songs in the back of a moving
cab. That's it. No other pretense. But the movable venue provides a
sense of intimacy to the viewer, resulting from the cramped confines
of the cab and the close camera footage.

Like I said, check it out. Since no video posted to the intertubes is
sacred, you can also find them on YouTube.

Pandora critique

2008-07-18T17:00:00.001-05:00

So I have been trying to use the website pandora.com to find some new
music lately. For the unintiated, pandora lets you choose an artist or
band and then it creates a station that is supposed to play other
songs that match the style of the band you've chosen.

I had used the program before on occasion and never for very long.

They recently came out with an iPhone version of the page and, since
this is the first week I have had this thing I've been putting it
through it's paces. So I downloaded a copy.

Pandora is a pretty cool thing to have on a phone, but I have a
complaint. I am finding that the stations I create play the band or
artist that station is based on far too often. Like every song or two.

To be honest, I haven't been able to listen for a very long stretch--
usually between 15-30 minutes. I'm not sure if I would start getting
better variety if I listened longer or not. Has anyone else had this
experience?

Money to burn

2008-07-17T17:54:00.001-05:00

There is a hole being burnt in my pocket by some birthday money, and
for once I am at a loss on how to spend it. Any suggestions?

Why China's Olympian Efforts to Clean Up Beijing's Air Won't Work | Wired Science from Wired.com

2008-07-17T16:03:00.000-05:00

http://blog.wired.com/wiredscience/2008/07/why-chinas-effo.html

Unintentional poetry

2008-07-15T22:54:00.001-05:00

Apparently a "side effect" of blogging from the iPhone by email is
that the formatting is all jacked up. Oh well.

Why stereotypes linger

2008-07-15T22:49:00.000-05:00

I just got out of a class where we discussed the avant-garde movement
in 1920s Paris's fascination with black culture. Much of the art and
entertainment of the period was really based on stereotypes of
Africans and African-Americans and not their true cultures.

This got me thinking about stereotypes in general. My professor asked
the class why racism lingers in society, and I think that the
pernicious and tenacious nature of stereotypes is largely responsible.
They carry a kernel of truth, if ever so slight. They are also shallow
truths and therefore easy to propogate. They degrade a group of
people to one or a handful of characteristics as their defining
features.

Once a person or society has a fuller experience within a different
culture, these rough caricatures begin to lose their staying power.
Just a random thought.

Testing

2008-07-13T15:51:00.001-05:00

Bought an iPhone Friday. Testing to see the different elways that I
can blog from it. Expect more useless posts throughout the day.

Sent from my iPhone

dad

2008-07-10T22:46:00.003-05:00

thanks to all of you who may have seen my blog post about my dad and have been praying for him and my family. his surgery went well. he had brain surgery today. he is recovering very well and it doesn't appear that the surgery has affected his personality, mood, or memory. he was very lucid when we saw him this evening afterward. it was a rough day, but it's over and with very good results. if you would like more details, call or email me. thanks again for your thoughts and prayers. they mean a lot.

prayer request

2008-07-08T08:41:00.001-05:00

my dad is having surgery on thursday. if you'd like more details, email or facebook me. the surgery begins at 1:00 pm CST. please keep my father and our family in your prayers.

danger, youtube watchers

2008-07-03T22:26:00.002-05:00

big brother is watching you. or rather, google is giving up all of your information to the NY federal district court as part of the viacom v. google lawsuit. every clip you've ever watched, associated with your IP address and--if you signed in--your username info, will be up for scrutiny. it's a dark day for privacy advocates.

all things d

nytimes

though according to this article, google is making some effort to protect the privacy of its users. this is the most recent development.

calling all conservatives...

2008-07-02T22:35:00.001-05:00

give me 5 reasons to vote for mccain. list them in the comments.

stop the sweep

2008-06-29T11:28:00.001-05:00

come on, cubs. don't get swept.

why do it? because we can.

2008-06-28T21:45:00.003-05:00

technology has so many possiblities. air piano is obviously one of them.

via engadget.

sweep

2008-06-22T22:07:00.002-05:00

it feels good to sweep the white sox. especially after being swept at tampa. so far this year, it's been very fun to watch the cubs. i'm being realistic: we're not even to the all-star break. but they've been great at home. tonight's win makes 14 straight wins at wrigley. keep it up, cubbies.

go cubs go.

sometimes i wish i had a smartphone (revisited)

2008-06-14T09:00:00.000-05:00

so. i had a posting a while back about wanting a smartphone. still true. current headrunner is the iphone, especially now that the new one has been released, and the (initial) price has been cut.

now it's no secret that i'm an apple fanboy. but, with any articles or postings that i've read about the iphone there's always this flamewar that happens in the comments. i'm not a huge fan of that. i think that people can buy whatever dang phone they want, for whatever reason. does the iphone get undue media attention? probably. but i think that the iphone, in my case, is the best option. here are my personal reasons:

1. automatically a huge upgrade from the razr.

this phone doesn't do anything but calls, which it does do very well. but, any smartphone would be an upgrade, and either an iphone or blackberry in particular would be quite nice.

2. good web browser, coupled w/ 3G data speeds.

i like the idea of having internet access without having to have a laptop, and the web is very impressive on the iphone. and now that the new iphone has 3G network access, the experience is even better. not having to have to lug a laptop around, or be in a wifi hotspot, would be nice. especially b/c of the next item.

3. would add productivity/entertainment to my commute.

the two hour commute is really killer sometimes, and is never what i would describe as a "smooth ride" either on the cta or pace buses. because of that, a lot of times there is no way that i can write legibly. having a phone i could just tap away on, without having to worry if there are any bumps in the road or sudden stops on the track, would be a relief.

also, given that the iphone has a great screen, i could do some serious goofing off, too, watching youtube. and i've also heard that nbc is streaming their shows to iphone/ipod touches.

4. GPS.

google maps integration providing live-tracking. searching for businesses in my immediate area automatically. geotagging photos. third party apps finding novel uses for GPS data. no need for independent GPS device. i'm really glad they added this feature.

5. email access.

i know this is on every smartphone known to man. but it's become such an important thing for me to check my email, for better or worse, that i would like to be able to do it on the fly or be able to access my personal email from work w/o using my work computer.

6. i have a thing for touchscreens.

this one is a little more estoeric, but nonetheless important. i like touchscreens. when tablet PCs first came out, i wanted one really bad. they seemed like the smartest thing ever; and in a way, they still do.

i like the idea of not having to use a keyboard or a mouse. to me, that doesn't seem to be the best way to interact with a computer. when you use a touchscreen, the user interface is much more convincing. there is no barrier between you and the data that you are manipulating or creating; when you are "touching" a screen there is a direct, tactile interaction with what you are doing. the overall illusion or metaphor of computer usage is then elevated. incorporating your sense of touch right on the screen provides a level of intimacy w/ the data that is sometime lost or incomparable to, say, writing on paper, when you type a keyboard and watch the words appear in front of you.

so those are my 5 reasons to get an iphone. i have two reasons why i'm skeptical:

1. no cut-copy-paste.

since my main reason for getting this is so that i can read and post things online, i'd think it would be handy to copy/paste some hyperlinks here and there. but the iphone can't do this for some weird reason. one of those weird apple things. sometimes they think of something no one else has done, and then forgets something that everybody expects.

2. i'm afraid that i won't like the keyboard.

i'll figure this one out really quick if i end up getting one, so i'm not that worried. but if i don't like the keyboard, i may not like the phone. it's a primary function of the phone and if that is no good, then what?

so this is where i stand. is there anything i've missed or didn't consider? i have almost a month to make up my mind for sure. is there another phone out there that you think would better suit what i need/want a smartphone for?

crawfordsville, IN in google street view

2008-06-07T09:50:00.002-05:00

so i wasn't very surprised when google rolled out the google street view feature that they did chicago and part of the suburbs. it's the 3rd largest city in the country, after all.

however, i was more than a little surprised to find that they had sent their 360 camera on wheels, in some cases privacy-invading google street crew to crawfordsville, IN, my hometown.

here's the church i went to growing up (behind that tree):

View Larger Map

i also found my old house.

oh, they also went through marion, IN, where i went to college. and muncie. and bloomington. and columbus.

they basically started in indy and branched their way out to all the cities in the state.

i've noticed before that for some reason indiana has some of the highest-resolution aerial shots available in google earth, and now, it has some of the most detail shots in google street view. do any fellow hoosiers know whether there is a reason behind this?

so check it out. see if they spotted anyone you know. i'd do the same but i have, you know, stuff to do.

the proper metaphor for the internet

2008-06-05T22:20:00.004-05:00

my mind is wandering from my paper, and from a long day of work. in a moment of weakness, i picked up the most recent copy of the atlantic that came today.

the cover story is called "is google making us stoopid?" it's about how the internet has changed the way we read, and therefore, how we think overall. the author talks about the inability to concentrate on longer books or blog posts--anything requiring a lot of mental focus, really. i can relate. this blog post and my failure/inability to focus on my paper at the moment i type this is a result of the same phenomenon.

it led me to post a question i've been meaning to put up here for a while: what is the most fitting description of what the internet is? is it an undercurrent of data, that pushes information along; or is it more like an overlay, augmenting the world and describing it in minute detail? is it both? or is it something else?

let me know your thoughts in the comments.

UPDATE: removed bad first title i chose.

uhh...

2008-05-31T17:25:00.002-05:00

not exactly produced by will.i.am.

he's got moves, though. whoever he is.

via fake steve

kinda makes ya rethink 'surfing the net'

2008-05-28T18:01:00.003-05:00

those ingenious german grad students and their wacky tricks. seriously, this is cool. it would help silver surfer nerds realize their deepest fantasies.

found via gizmodo.

kunstler on colbert

2008-05-08T23:29:00.003-05:00

a while back i wrote about the james howard kunstler's book the geography of nowhere. it appears he has a new book out, and he promoted it on the colbert report. gist is that we can't sustain our way of life forever. that's probably true. but that doesn't mean we shouldn't fervently pursue solutions. he seems more than a little pessimistic in this clip.

recommendation to brandon.

2008-05-08T21:59:00.003-05:00

this is a personal, yet public, recommendation to my good friend brandon. i share it here because, well, it's pretty cool. geeky, but very cool.

first off, it's a moped. brandon has an obsession w/ these things for some reason. second, it's tricked out with all sorts of geeky high-tech goodness. the moped is a mobile wifi spot, has GPS, can stream audio/video and upload it to the net, is a PVR, and does your laundry. click on the title of this entry to go to the site that posted this.

brandon: if you're up for a summer/autumn project when you join me and em in the windy city, i'm game.

this just about sums it up...

2008-05-08T21:30:00.002-05:00

my sister sent this to me. i like it.

thomas friedman goes green.

2008-05-02T20:38:00.004-05:00

it appears that thomas friedman has jumped on the greenwagon. i commend him for it. i have, too. and i think that everyone should. friedman is a popular economist, and has a decent amount of influence. his books sell well. from the focus of his articles on nytimes.com--and the fact that he's on sabbatical--i would imagine he's working on a new book about the topic.

this article, "dumb as we wanna be," highlights the myopic attempts by mccain and clinton to provide a 'tax holiday' on gas this summer, as if that's a well-thought out energy strategy that will do any good. then it veers into how we're missing the boat on all other types of renewable energy business opportunities (particularly solar) because of the inability for congress and the president to agree on lickity-split. not the best article, but interesting nonetheless.

i haven't yet had a chance to get through the entire "the power of green" article i've got posted on semi-anonymous, but so far i like where he's going w/ the article. going green makes good business sense, and could be changed into a unifying political movement. i'll end w/ a lengthy excerpt from the article i like:

"In the world of ideas, to name something is to own it. If you can name an issue, you can own the issue. One thing that always struck me about the term “green” was the degree to which, for so many years, it was defined by its opponents — by the people who wanted to disparage it. And they defined it as “liberal,” “tree-hugging,” “sissy,” “girlie-man,” “unpatriotic,” “vaguely French.”
Well, I want to rename “green.” I want to rename it geostrategic, geoeconomic, capitalistic and patriotic. I want to do that because I think that living, working, designing, manufacturing and projecting America in a green way can be the basis of a new unifying political movement for the 21st century. A redefined, broader and more muscular green ideology is not meant to trump the traditional Republican and Democratic agendas but rather to bridge them when it comes to addressing the three major issues facing every American today: jobs, temperature and terrorism.
How do our kids compete in a flatter world? How do they thrive in a warmer world? How do they survive in a more dangerous world? Those are, in a nutshell, the big questions facing America at the dawn of the 21st century. But these problems are so large in scale that they can only be effectively addressed by an America with 50 green states — not an America divided between red and blue states.
Because a new green ideology, properly defined, has the power to mobilize liberals and conservatives, evangelicals and atheists, big business and environmentalists around an agenda that can both pull us together and propel us forward. That’s why I say: We don’t just need the first black president. We need the first green president. We don’t just need the first woman president. We need the first environmental president. We don’t just need a president who has been toughened by years as a prisoner of war but a president who is tough enough to level with the American people about the profound economic, geopolitical and climate threats posed by our addiction to oil — and to offer a real plan to reduce our dependence on fossil fuels."

on intelligence.

2008-04-28T18:37:00.002-05:00

so wired has an article about the creator of a program called supermemo. the guy behind it--who has the same surname as the co-founder of apple (no relation, that i know of)--spent years studying the relentless pursuit of a method to remember anything he learns. he experimented on himself, and worked out the best way to guarantee retention of knowledge. his work and the work of others interviewed in the piece have a lot to say about the nature and capacity of human memory, and the correlation between knowledge and comprehension of information.

wozniak, the creator of the software, worked out an algorithm that (once you buy the program) customizes itself to your interests and the ability of your mind. supermemo focuses on basically on well-timed repetition to help you remember what you've already learned, therefore allowing it to be cemented in your mind. it's a highly efficient, optimized study aid.

not surprisingly, it seems the most common use for this program is for language acquisition. many people in other countries use the program to learn english so they can pass competency/fluency exams in order to study in english-speaking countries. according to the article, the software has been highly pirated, so the figures for the company that distributes the legitimate copies of the program are not indicative of the program's true popularity.

i'm completely fascinated by the idea of the software, and will definitely consider buying it. perhaps more intriguing is the wozniak, the man behind the software, and his own lifestyle that i for one find envious. i don't think i could follow his "incremental reading" process. but i wouldn't mind following this line of study, at least for some things.

one final note: the item that drew much of my attention from the supermemo's bare bones website was the "formula for human genius." it's what spurred the title of this entry. i've posted a link to it in the right-column, on my semi-anonymous tumblr-log. hit up the link and enjoy.

i need some "zen" music.

2008-04-24T22:58:00.003-05:00

see, i'm taking this asian religion in literature in film class, and for the next few weeks i'm gonna be reading the life of buddha on the train back and forth to work. i'm looking for some good instrumental music, capable of assisting me on the path toward enlightenment. it must have a peaceful, serene, and transcendant quality. it must also not be sigur ros. i am open to any and all suggestions.

Anyone wanna start an airline company?

2008-04-12T01:11:00.001-05:00

because i think that it's a solid market, really protected from any
market fluctuations or regulations that ground a whole fleet of
airplanes, stranding thousands of passengers throughout the country.
the other market I'm thinking is immune from danger is the subprime
mortgage market. Who's with me? no one? really?? good. this means
you have more sense than wall street and the management of american
airlines.

sometimes i wish i had a smartphone

2008-04-07T21:30:00.001-05:00

the reason being, i think of a lot of good stuff to blog about at random times. it'd be nice to be able to tap out a one-off without having to wait until i got home. and that 2-hours-each-way commute would primo time to do some blogging as well. and it's just not an option from a work computer.

well, the ol' phone contract is up in a couple months. we'll see if anything changes at that point.

10 reasons why NU & Chicago rock

2008-04-01T18:14:00.003-05:00

so, my good friend jonny o'dodrill posted a blog about princeton and why he should stay. i have decided to break from my term-paper/easter-induced hiatus and give him some (more) reasons why NU and chicago are in his best interest.

1. the name.
sure, accord to US News, princton (that's not a misspelling; i did that on purpose for someone in particular--you know who you are) is ranked numero uno and NU is numero catorce, but come on: we've got Stephen Colbert, Mike Greenberg, and David Schwimmer as alums! take that!!

2. the people.

me, emily, brandon. who else is there?

3. NU.

we're hot stuff.

4. Chicago.

even if you live in evanston, you're still a hop, skip, and a train ride away from the city. and the city rocks.

5. come on, you know want to....

NU/GETS--and the inevitable draw of the White City, the Windy City, the City of Broad Shoulders--is so great you can't resist. i don't even need to list 10 things. and it's not because i'm writing this right before class, either.

if you need more reasons, i'll gladly supply them. they are in ample abundance. but do what you gotta do, my friend. i'm rootin' for ya either way.

how it all ends

2008-03-08T17:22:00.004-06:00

this video has been on youtube for a while, so you may have seen it. it's a high school teacher's accelerated, large-survey style risk analysis of climate change. he posted a video that was more viral, but less substantive. this is the updated version. if you click on the title of this post, it'll take you to this guy's youtube page, where he has around 70 more videos exploring similar topics. let me know what you think.

excerpts: the geography of nowhere

2008-02-26T22:47:00.000-06:00

the geography of nowhere, by james howard kunstler, was published in 1994. the book is a treatise on the architectural and cultural weaknesses of suburbia. he sees suburbia as the cultural and economic bankruptcy of american society, and states that we have lost a true sense of home and community. it's anti-globalization, anti-big business, and not without cause. i agree with most of what he says.

here are a couple of excerpts from the book, lifted from their larger context. i'm sharing them to provide a taste of his thesis, which still has relevancy.

"In 1992, there were 1,200,000 housing starts. It's a figure that ought to send chills up the spine of a reflective person because the housing starts do not represent newly minted towns, or anything describable as real or coherent communities. Rather, they represent monoculture tract developments of cookie-cutter bunkers on half-acre lots in far-flung suburbs, or else houses plopped down in isolation along country roads in what had been cornfields, pastures, or woods. In any case, one can rest assured that they will only add to the problems of our present economy and of American civilization. They will relate poorly to other things around them, they will eat up more countryside, and they will increase the public fiscal burden." (p. 147)

i went to high school in just such a suburb. just a few years prior to my family moving there, where our house was there used to be farmland. now, there is house after house, and development after development for miles in each direction. all were very new, relatively speaking, and had no significant relation to one another. the only thing that connects them are wide roads, unsuitable to the many children and teenagers unless they are chauffeured by car from place to place. moving on, to another excerpt.

"The present solution to creating focal points in suburbia is the curvilinear street. Make a bend in a roadway of only a few degrees and you will close the vista. You can demonstrate this to yourself by looking through a two-foot lenght of hose and bending it: the view out the other end disappears. Closing the street vista with this gimmick provides a crude sort or psychological comfort, but affords nothing in the way of real visual interest. It merely protects someone from the depressing sight of all the tract houses lined up in a relentless row, leading to a vanishing point. On a typical curvilinear street the focal point changes as you move forward, but it is always just another house, not a library, a grocery store, or a theater, which are banished to other parts of town by zoning. From the traffic engineer's point of view, the curvilinear street has another side benefit: Cars can still move at speed with no problem--which is exactly what you shouldn't want in a place where children play." (p. 128)

now back to my suburb. here is the view from above of the general area where my house was.

View Larger Map

look at all those curvilinear roads. a considerable portion--if not all--of these houses weren't around when kunstler wrote this book. and yet, it fits the mold he describes perfectly.

i enjoyed my life in the suburbs. despite all the rhetoric kunstler has in this book about how home life had deteriorated tragically, that wasn't my personal experience. but i agree that this type of expansion is no longer tenable in the long-term. in fact, it never was.

iBand-the ingenuity of hackers

2008-02-19T19:36:00.003-06:00

don't know if these guys were the ones who wrote the programs they used here, but regardless, this is impressive (in a dorky sort of way).

on climate change and politics.

2008-02-07T00:04:00.012-06:00

i've been investing a lot of thought into the environment and our country's energy policy lately, due to the class i'm currently in. the class is called "energy and the environment."

i have read several books for my class titled "energy and the environment" to date. each book has made clear to me the urgency of finding a plausible renewable energy source that is not dependent on fossil fuels.

the interesting thing i'm realizing is that talking about the environment is exceedingly difficult because it is hard to distill the topic into easily digestible bits. there are so many aspects to discussing "the environment" in a general sense: the topic itself is often too large to convey successfully--and, more importantly--succinctly. there's drought in georgia, contaminated mine-water leaks in colorado, population control problems in rwanda, energy shortages in california, massive deforestation in haiti, 'mountaintop removal' in west virginia (they blow up a mountain to get to the coal underneath it, then dump the rocks into other valleys [they call them 'valley fills'] and destroy homes and water sources), and increased pollution in lake michigan. and that's just to name a few things that are going on.

most environmental problems that are man-made are a result of our industrial level energy consumption. and developed countries are the largest contributors. of those developed countries, america is the largest consumer of energy per capita (china and india, with their exploding economies, will close in on us soon). furthermore, the majority of our energy comes from fossil fuels. half of the electricity on the grid is generated by coal, and america consumes over 20 million barrels of oil a day. the full cost of this rampant energy generation and usage is incalculable. and yet, our government pays lip service to pursuing climate change, but has pulled subsidies for some renewable energy sources, while continuing to subsidize oil and coal.

the scary thing is, for a lot of america, it's not a priority or even a reality. we don't realize the implication of leaving all the lights on. and still, despite the large body of scientific evidence in support of climate change, it's still controversial in the political arena. ask yourself: how often do you hear a presidential candidate speak about the environment? does that topic get much play, when you compare it to the war in iraq, immigration, or health care?

but all that's changing. a sea-change has occurred in public opinion, and there will likely be a change in public policy as well. it's expected that caps on carbon emissions will be coming down the legislation pipeline in the next few years.

i for one welcome the change. i see nothing but benefit from moving away from using fossil fuels. politically, we would be able to secure energy independence and no longer worry over OPEC production quotas. environmentally, we would no longer ravage our planet. economically, more jobs may be created and de-centralized, local energy sources could encourage economic competition in a free-market, unlike the regulated energy monopolies that are present in some parts of the country (electricity regulation varies state by state). yes, there may be a loss for fossil fuel companies and their employees. isn't that part of the whole "creative destruction" process of laissez-faire economies, though?

but for all that to happen, this stuff needs to be taken seriously. environmental issues need to be de-politicized. what's the harm in "going green?" is there any downside? the issue needs input and support from both sides of the aisle. and support from the ballot box. and support from your wallet. consumers have power, as do voters.

energy is ubiquitous. it's all around you. and despite the illusory effect of being surrounded at all times by energy, it does not come to you without a cost. the entire infrastructure has been designed to be hidden from view. but now is the time for us to invest in a new infrastructure, one that may continue to meet our considerable "needs" for energy, and that does not damage our environment.

i didn't consider all this until recently. because of all the books i've read so far, my opinion has changed. they all come highly recommended. perhaps you are like i was, blissfully unaware of the critical time and place we all live in. now though, i can understand the many people who have a sense of urgency about the environment. i do now as well, and every day am trying to incorporate ways of being conscientious about my environmental impact. after all, what's the hurt?

any given sunday...

2008-02-04T00:16:00.000-06:00

well if you're a united states citizen, you more than likely just witnessed one of the best super bowls of all time. i am unbelievably excited. i am not known for having any good feelings for the patriots. and you know what? the patriots had it coming.

the giants played the better game. eli led the team very well, and the giants receivers made some amazing catches. toomer's catch on the sideline? tyree's over the head catch that he held against his helmet on the way down? ridiculous.

and that giants defense! constant pressure and 5 sacks! tonight brady probably tasted more dirt and grass than he has all year tonight. they shut brady down.

the legend will not be the perfect 19-0 patriots. the legend will be the manning brothers: super bowl champions.

congratulations eli, tom coughlin and company. you've made me a fan.

and here, for all to enjoy, is the play that made the game:

super bowl history.

semi-anonymous

2008-01-18T21:28:00.000-06:00

i'm posting to the site semi-anonymous on a new service called tumblr. supposedly, the service is called tumblr because a subset or genre of blogs is something called a "tumblelog," as in "i [s]tumbled along this cool article you should check out on wired.com." i like it. it's simple and to the point, and conducive to fast posting. so check it out.

jonny d'odrill

2008-01-16T21:29:00.001-06:00

so, i was recently chastised by my good friend jonny d for removing
the link to his blog from here.

dear jon:

i'm sorry.

to make amends, i've restored your rightful place in my sidebar. and
as a tribute to your faux-irish heritage, i've even christened
you "jonny d'odrill." though, that may have inadvertently made your
name sound french instead of irish. ah, well. there's nothing wrong
with a french surname--i've certainly made peace with mine.

so dear readers, click onward and upward to the jonny d'odrill's top
10 site of glory. the gate is open. go forth.

dang that is one small car....

2008-01-10T23:30:00.001-06:00

tonight i started my latest class. it's titled "energy and the environment and i'm pumped about it. i've already started thinking ahead about what my paper may be on, and i'm thinking of working the automotive x prize competition into my paper somehow. millions of dollars in prize money is available to any group of entrepreneurs who can design a car that makes at least 100 mpg (or its equivalent), is freakishly environmentally friendly, can be mass-produced, and affordable. this little thing to the side here is one of the competitor's cars.
i wish i had one of these things in the city when i'm dying for parking. not only that, but the manufacturer, a company called commuter cars says on their website the car goes 0-60 in four seconds! it has an 80 mile range, which would probably be pretty good for a lot of city-dwellers.

and there's this other company, aptera, who has a really cool looking, really impressive car (that's actually classified as a motorcycle). here it is:

i won't go into this car's coolness, mainly b/c i'm getting tired. but anyways, i might be coming back to this a little later. i really like the philosophy behind the x prize foundation (i think): innovation through entrepreneurialism. or, is their slogan calls it: revolution through competition. it seems to--at least with the automotive x prize, there are others competitions, too, for space travel and mars and genetics and the like (brandon, i expect you may be interested in the google lunar x prize, since you already fancy yourself governator of the moon)--harness the ambition of capitalism to advance a technology that sorely needs to be shaken up.

what do you think? would that make an interesting paper?

a candidate by the chuck norris, for the chuck norris.

2008-01-08T20:19:00.001-06:00

i think something just clicked.

2008-01-06T23:43:00.001-06:00

i may finally understand where a lot of my frustration with writing and other artistic things i've tried is coming from: consumption v. creation.

i'm an internet freak, on it all the time. as a result, i'm constantly reading or watching something and continually developing some sort of opinion on something or other, from the most mundane new update on a video game or gadget that won't be released for months, to world news and other things that actually kinda matter. i want, no, need to somehow articulate what i'm thinking about those things.

at the same time, i have this impulse to be original. to create something new instead of rehashing the old---even if it is only five minutes old.

so i've got this dual drive: to hash out what i think of what other people have done, and then also do my own thing. and put it all out there somewhere on the net, because for some reason, somebody somewhere might actually care. and even if they don't, well, at least it's out of my head.

maybe it's like analysis v. art. or the left side of my brain taking on my right. i don't really know. just because i may understand where the frustration originates doesn't explain how or why it comes about. it's likely a matter of focus. and time management. i'm going to explore this thought a little further, though. i think it has legs.

merry christmas, everyone!

2007-12-25T08:08:00.000-06:00

merry christmas! emily and i just finished opening presents with her family. it was great, and the weather outside isn't exactly frightful here in VA. i can't help but miss my family, though, too. mom, dad, heather & brian & ben, we'll see you soon. i hope you all have a wonderful christmas day. and here's a little treat, so you know that i'm thinking of you and love you with all my heart.

i'm done!

2007-12-11T21:59:00.001-06:00

just turned in my paper!

cue handel: hal-le-lu-jah! hal-le-lu-jah! hal-le-lu-jah!

i feel lighter. but that may just be the exhaustion talking.

merry christmas.

that is all.

the santa clause 2 has its moments, too...

2007-12-08T22:30:00.000-06:00

so. em and i had to watch the sequel to the santa clause. it wasn't an option. it's not as good as the original, but this one has molly shannon. wait for it in this clip below, it's worth it.

the most underrated christmas movie of all time.

2007-12-08T13:13:00.000-06:00

for about 2 weeks, my wife and i have had one movie on repeat in the background: the santa clause. em and i rented it, admittedly, only because most of the other movies we wanted to see were checked out. we got the muppet's christmas carol, too, which is also fantastic. but we had no idea what a treat we were in for when we got this movie.

you probably know the basic plot of the movie: santa slides off of scott calvin's (tim allen) roof, calvin puts on the santa suit and becomes santa. hilarity ensues.

now, home improvement was on when i was growing up, so it's not like i wasn't used to tim allen's type of humor. but i certainly didn't appreciate it as much as i do now. his delivery in this movie is exceptional. for example:

scott calvin: how come charlie says there's no santa claus?
charlie's mom: oh, charlie came home from school crying, saying that some older boy told him there was no santa. so neal talked to him, and explained that santa is more like a state of mind than a real person.
scott calvin: kind of like neal.

okay, it's not quite so funny in paraphrased transcript form, but it's easier to understand what he's talking about when you realize that "neal" is played by judge reinhold. i mean, the guy stopped believing in santa over an oscar meyer weenie whistle.

that's just a sampling. the trailer is down below. go rent or buy it. now. (and don't judge me if you happen to not like this particular movie. some people like ice pirates and wizards, but i don't judge them...too much.)

the relentless hope of advent.

2007-12-08T01:48:00.000-06:00

last sunday, em and i went to church w/ tripp and laura downtown at fourth presbyterian church. it's the church on michigan ave right near borders. the picture here is the of the sanctuary. all around, the church is beautiful.

as far as i know, this was the first presbyterian church service i've gone to. it was a good experience. just before the service started, we saw illinois gov. rod blagojevich walk in. at first i wasn't sure if it was him, but the pastor acknowledged he was there prior to beginning his sermon--a 'shout-out from the pulpit' so to speak.

the service was quite formal. the choir did a procession down the center aisle to begin the service. they had several different clergy reading scripture, leading liturgy, etc. they had an assembly line full of babies being baptized.

here is my favorite piece of liturgy from the service:

Minister: Lift up your hearts.
People: We lift them to the Lord.
Minister: Let us give thanks to the Lord our God.
People: It is right to give our thanks and praise.
All: Eternal God, as you led your people in ages past,
you direct our journey into the future.
We give you thanks that you came to us in Jesus Christ,
and we eagerly await his coming again
that his rule may be complete and
your righteousness reign over all the world.
Fill us with gratitude overflowing
that we may share life and love in praise to you,
God of all the ages, in the gracious name of Jesus Christ,
your Son, by the power of the Holy Spirit,
now and forever. Amen.

granted, it's not exactly the most eloquent, but sometimes i like modern liturgies. they have a connection to the present and the past. cramner would never have written about newspapers, but he would have written in something similar to this style.

today is the first week of advent. churchgoers know that each week of advent leading up to christmas has a theme; the first week's theme is hope. the sermon was good. at this time of night, and almost a week later, i don't remember that many details. that and the acoustics were kind of bad where we were sitting in the back. (it's a long church--during the hymns there was a delay between when the congregation up front would sing and when those in the back would. it was kind of odd/funny.) anyways. the pastor patterned his sermon on the theme of hope. more specifically, the relentless hope of advent. what he argued is that despite all the things that may cause us to lose hope--the war, destruction, and strife we visit upon ourselves, our neighbors, and our world--the hope in the coming savior, and the grace he is able to give, is stronger than our doubts, and reassures us of the good that is able to happen.

and hope is exactly what emily and i need right now: we both have papers due very soon.

new stuff on the sidebar

2007-12-07T20:59:00.000-06:00

i updated my links, and added some music. hope you like it.

happy holidays, from everyone's favorite media corporation: viacom

2007-12-01T15:39:00.000-06:00

good news south park fans, viacom has a present for you. starting next year, they'll be posting every clip from every south park episode ever on the internet for free. it's about time. i think that stuff like this is probably the reason why all those writers are striking. but the guys who created south park have already been able to work out a deal where they get a significant chunk of ad revenue for their stuff on southparkstudios.com, which will likely be where all those shows are gonna be posted when they go live next year.

i know this is random, but it gave me justification to take a little study break and create the holiday avatar you see right above here.

merry christmas.

i love this video, too...

2007-11-25T20:26:00.000-06:00

it's great, and one of my wife's favorite snl moments.

i love this video...

2007-11-25T20:03:00.000-06:00

...and this is the first place i've found it on the net. i found it on hulu.com, which is in beta right now, available by invitation. i may do a review in a little while. anyways. enjoy.

dollar for dollar, you can't beat this deal...

2007-11-23T21:13:00.000-06:00

my wife and i were perusing the intertubes for gifts today when we came along this good, albeit ironic, deal. take a look at the price of the barnes and noble gift card. nice.

the future of reading(?)

2007-11-20T16:51:00.000-06:00

yesterday, amazon got a lot of press for its release of an ebook reader that they've manufactured and area calling the "kindle." it's a pretty cool device. it utilizes a new technology dubbed "E-Ink" that is reportedly much better at rendering a book-like image that previous readers.

amazon is rolling out a service where you can download from a choice of thousands of books, and download them wirelessly. the service doesn't require a service fee, it's free of charge as amazon handles all the costs w/ sprint for letting them use their high-speed wireless network as part of their back-end costs. you can also subscribe to newspaper downloads, as well as select blogs.

newsweek covered the story, and the author entertains all the implications of the book "going digital." the ceo of amazon admits that the book itself is almost impossible to improve upon, but he tried to anyways. he states that one of the best aspects of the book is that "it disappears," meaning that the reader is lost in the experience and transported to another world. i don't think that's necessarily true. the weight and feel of the book provide a sense of intimacy that the literate will likely not rush to give up. also, it's entirely against the whole idea of used books. when a reader purchases a used book, they can have a feeling of ancestry, of history, in that the book they now own once belonged to someone else, who had their own thoughts and feelings and emotions about it--and maybe jotted some brilliant notes in the margin, too.

nonetheless, i can see the upside of it...mainly in buying books for class that i don't exactly want cluttering my already-bursting bookshelves. and why even use the kindle for that when i can find the book i need in a used bookstore, mint condition, for 66% off the retail price?

still, the gadget-lover in me would like to take it for a spin. maybe i'd become a believer. it's a shame that amazon doesn't have a storefront where i could go try it out w/o having to pay a hefty $400.

okay. this entry was just typing practice. now on to finish a paper. this'll be my last post prior to the thanksgiving holiday; i hope you all have a safe and wonderful day with your loved ones.

that is all.

special interest slip-ups: an example, or, politics and religion don't mix.

2007-11-17T14:17:00.000-06:00

so a couple weeks ago in class, we read a book called white slave crusades, which is about late 19th century narratives concerning forced prostitution in cities. the practice was called "white slavery" at the time to draw a parallel between chattel slavery and this "new" evil of forced prostitution. as luck would have it, most of the stories involved pretty, innocent white girls from the country being seduced at places like skating rinks and ice cream parlors in the city by foreigners.

first of all, it was hard to think of skating rinks and ice cream parlors as anything but innocuous. but that's just funny. most of the book is not, and doesn't pretend to be. anyways.

most of these narratives were written by activists from various walks of life. one activist profiled was a lawyer; john d. rockefeller was also involved. but the activist i want to focus on is frances willard.

the name may be vaguely familiar to you, though you might not know why. she was a suffragist and early feminist, who led the women's christian temperance union for quite some time. she was good friends with jane addams. she did a lot of good things for women's rights, though i'm not too crazy about the whole temperance thing.

in my first class i took, my professor was a biographer of jane addams. as a result, i was slightly exposed to the various things that willard was involved in. this whole issue of forced prostitution was not one of them, or at least not that i could remember.

the wctu was a nationwide organization, and willard was head-jefa over it all. naturally, there would be regional differences to account for when leading an organization of such size. but after reading this book, i was appalled by the sort of pandering that she did to appease her southern constituents. in fact, after reading this next passage, which i am quoting, i was so distraught i couldn't keep reading:

"I think we have wronged the South, though we did not mean to do so. The reason was, in part, that we had irreparably wronged ourselves by putting no safeguards on the ballot box at the North that would sift our alien illiterates. They rule our societies today; the saloon is their palace, and the toddy stick their scepter. It is not fair that they should vote, nor is it fair that a plantation Negro, who can neither read nor write, whose ideas are bounded by the fence of his own field and the price of his own mule, should be entrusted with that ballot from the first. The Anglo-Saxon race will never submit to be dominated by the Negro so long as his altitude reaches no higher than the personal liberty of the saloon, and the power of appreciating the amount of liquor a dollar will buy."

oh. my. lord.

i was on the bus when i read that, and i got emotional. my eyes welled up in anger. here is this woman who fought so hard for the right of women to vote--which she never lived to experience for herself--condemning the right of others to vote. and not because they were women, but because they were not anglo-saxon. and that "wronged the south" part? sounds like it's an implicit apology for freeing the slaves.

this is an example of what disgusts me about certain political interest groups. they fight so hard for their causes, for liberty they feel is denied to them, and yet they do not wish for similar or identical liberties to be given to others. in a democratic society, such an agenda is ultimately hypocrisy. because ideally, what is allotted to some as a legal right, should be allotted to all. that is the lesson of the suffrage and civil rights movements: universal liberty. in this case, the right to vote.

now i understand that special interest groups do not have to be sympathetic to other groups who may have similar agendas. they may have their own battles to fight. but the bone i pick willard and the wctu is the "christian" part of their organization. the quotation above is anathema to the gospel.

and that's where the real difference lies between political agenda and the gospel. in agendas, there is compromise. though they purport to be liberators, they only want to set themselves free, not everyone. as a result, political groups are willing to compromise, often to their detriment, as shown above.

the gospel, on the other hand, does not compromise. that's why when i think about it, i understand that Jesus is the true liberator. he has two commandments: love god, love your neighbor. it can be boiled down to five words, a sentence fragment. but that's all there is. it's the ultimate inclusiveness, the ultimate liberation, to try and love everyone as yourself. it's a shame we always have such a hard time with it.

i want to make one thing perfectly clear, though. this political guffaw committed by willard helped me to refine my religious belief, but it also cemented my belief that religion should not be front and center in politics. it leads to terrible political consequence eventually, and is harmful to both the political and religious causes of those who commit such errors. be religious; be political. but lessons like this show us that if you're both, above all you must be careful.

just shut up.

2007-11-16T21:19:00.000-06:00

now, we all know that hugo chavez has a mouth on him. he's the diplomatic equivalent of a bull in a china shop. but every once in a while, someone can rise to the occasion and properly chastise him. in the instance above, two people did. both the prime minister and king of spain got their shots in; the prime minister with a thoughtful rebuttal, and king carlos with an impassioned "shut up!"

it's about time someone did something like this. now we'll have to see if chavez really goes through with his threats about spanish businesses in venezuela. the guy needs to learn to take criticism. after all, he's very fond of giving it out.

felicidades, espana. vaya con dios.

musharraf: what happened?

2007-11-14T22:57:00.000-06:00

in the past few months, pakistan has exploded internally. pervez musharraf, who in recent years has been an ally of the US in the war on terror, is now facing dissension in his country due to his recent actions. in an attempt to control the situation, musharraf declared emergency rule earlier this month.

i'm wondering what sort of history we have with him. with the help of google, keyword search, online news archives and a little elbow grease, let's see if we can carve a little meaning out of all this information.

pervez led a bloodless coup in 1999. at the time, he was the commanding general, and in fact still is. he was force behind the ouster of nawaz sharif, the former prime minister. at present, i don't have time to go into a long post about the past few years of pakistan under musharraf. my goal is to address the current situation. but i'll highlight what i am able to quickly find and verify, and if my history (or interpretation of it) is incorrect, well, let me know.

in the wake of 9/11 and the ensuing war on terror, pakistan has played a significant role. overall, musharraf has been a sympathetic leader in a troubled area, at least from the vantage point of the united states. he has made at least one direct criticism of bush's policy, but quickly backpedaled. see here:

this incident was an anomaly in the otherwise militarily beneficial relationship the u.s. had with pakistan. as a result of that relationship, the united states has given much military aid to the country.

a major concern is the instability that is a result of it's shared border with afghanistan. they have been put in a tough diplomatic and strategic spot, as this interview reveals. the country faces various threats and expectations from all directions: afghanistan, india, europe, america, and non-state players. i do not envy them.

interestingly, the interview i just quoted, which was done in july 2006, ends with an inquiry about the forthcoming elections. the official stated at the time that "I believe it is in the interests of Pakistan that there are free and fair elections, and that the president act in accordance with the constitution. He has said he will do so, and I have no reason to doubt that he will."

clearly, things have changed.

View Larger Map

musharraf himself recently promised that there would be elections and no emergency rule. nevertheless, due to a military attack, growing political unrest, and a demand that he at least step down as head of the military, if not as president, musharraf indeed declared emergency rule, and suspended the country's constitution.

things get uglier every day. former prime minister benhazir bhutto is being placed under house arrest, freed, and put under house arrest again. a cricket player is now a political threat.

things just keep going topsy-turvy.

it'll be interesting to see what happens. a lot is at stake. today, musharraf made some big pronouncements, including that he will take off the uniform by the end of the month, and is actively defending the fact that he will ensure elections are free and fair, even inviting foreign overseers. (for that last link, if it doesn't work, search "musharraf defends elections" and you'll see the video.)

the u.s. is getting anxious over the matter. press conferences by the white house and state department today address the burgeoning crisis. the administration does not condone what musharraf has done by declaring emergency rule, and want him to return to the but have nonetheless started making contingency plans should the relative "peace" not last.

my reaction at this time is one of suprise and shock, how quickly the situation has accelerated in such a short time. i want to believe musharraf will do the right thing, but i am hesitant to think that he will relinquish his position in the military or as president so easily. i find the thought of musharraf attempting a "second coup," which is being propogated by bhutto, to be intriguing, but don't know how true it is. it all seems to be done in a matter of desperation, and i don't know whether the first coup had a similar motivation. this article seems to nail the situation--and what's at stake--pretty well. i'm interested to find out what will happen. i do not want the country, which has the bomb, to be run by religious extremists, though that is not a likely situation given the character of other military leaders in the country who would likely succeed musharraf. i only hope that free elections may be secured, and stability be recovered, in a peaceful manner.

keep your eyes and minds open.

a great free game.

2007-11-12T21:00:00.001-06:00

my sister just told me about this awesome game, which you can't
possibly feel bad playing, because they donate rice when you win. go
to freerice.com

i think i've seen this logo before...

2007-11-07T22:16:00.000-06:00

so. the cma's are/were tonight. i didn't watch. but, i did see the commercials. and i noticed something a little familiar in the logo for the cma's. tell me if you can spot the similarity:

i blame myself.

2007-11-04T18:19:00.000-06:00

i knew i never should have blogged about the game. i jinxed them. and according to em, i shouldn't have said i hate the patriots. she may have been right.

but i still don't like the patriots.

go colts!

2007-11-04T12:56:00.000-06:00

i hate, hate, hate the patriots! and despite being undefeated, defending superbowl champs playing at home, they colts aren't even the favorites! take 'em down a peg, manning!

cool video

2007-11-03T12:49:00.000-05:00

i found a cool video on a random article i was directed to from slashdot. brandon especially will probably like this.

Time from Fabian Mohr on Vimeo.

that is all.

i can't believe that in this day and age...

2007-11-01T21:31:00.000-05:00

with tivo and dvr and shows available online thru various services, that watching tv on thursdays at 8:00 is still so compelling that em and i couldn't find any parking b/c people were on their cans watching tv!!!

but as soon as 9:00 rolled around, a spot opened right up.

it's funny how things are connected

2007-10-31T23:30:00.000-05:00

so i'm in this class right now titled "moral reform in america." at the beginning of class my prof had us read a paper written by a former student of hers regarding obscenity controversies related to music in the 80s. the paper compared tipper gore and her ilk going to congress over their concern about heavy metal's influence on white kids, with the case of the rap group 2 Live Crew and the obscenity trial that ensued over an album of theirs. we also read an article she had written about Anthony Comstock.

i had begun class thinking i may be doing a paper that would be dependent on multiple in-depth interviews. i may still do this. but yesterday just before class another idea struck me. this idea was completely separate and unrelated to my first paper idea, but may be both more plausible given my schedule and also possibly more engrossing in the long run about what i want to end up studying.

so. here's the new moral controversy i'm looking into: video game violence. specifically, i will be looking into the ramifications of the "hot coffee" controversy from the GTA: San Andreas game. if you're unfamiliar with video games, GTA is one of the most violent game franchises out there. but that is a given, and in and of itself is not controversial. the "hot coffee" controversy surrounds an "easter egg" (i.e., code that was written by the programmers as part of the game and later abandoned and/or locked away from use within the program, which can be discovered by hackers and unlocked) in GTA: San Andreas where an explicit sex act can be interactively controlled by the player. to be sure, this portion of the game was never meant to be found by the public, and maybe was never meant to be included in the final product. alas, it was.

controversy ensued. several politicians became involved. legislation was passed with the intent of protecting children, and the developer/publisher was investigated by the FTC. my interest lies in how remaining obscenity laws are applied to this situation--which involves sexuality--as well as an overall concern for violence within video games as well.

several other questions arise, both general and specific. generally, there is the matter of how the debate on video games should be framed. should games be held as art? do aesthetic rules apply to judgment of a video game? how do politicians view video games, and how does that effect resulting legislation? what sort of parallels are present regarding the ESA/ESRB and the MPAA? specifially, is this "hot coffee" controversy too easy? too one-sided? should i look at several events, or only two for comparison? what about real violence, i.e. school shootings that are linked to the influence of video games? whose rhetoric should be considered weightier than others in this topic?

and here's where it's all connected. i started some preliminary research on this topic last night and tonight. a key figure in this "hot coffee" thing was jack thompson. the man has a kindred spirit in Anthony Comstock, the man responsible for thousands of arrests in the 19th century over obscenity charges. my prof wrote a book on comstock. i read it. it's good. but the big whammy is that this jack thompson fellow, he was was also involved in the 2 Live Crew incident, too. craziness! and FWIW, i know i linked wikipedia and that that's what i'm basing this off of, but i believe it's beneficial to start looking at a topic by viewing the wikipedia entry, but negligent if that is where you stop. and this is all in the nascent stage, so i am unapologetic.

so there it is. i'm looking at obscenity in the video game industry. i really think GTA is a great topic to focus on. and i think jack thompson would be a great guy to focus in on, and i know he has a dissenting conuterpart, b/c i've read an article about him and another man duking it out over this very issue. but those are just my thoughts. i would love to get some dialogue going in the comment thread here about whether you think this is a plausible thesis for a paper.

quick review.

2007-10-31T23:28:00.001-05:00

i just watched this movie, b/c it's halloween and i like vampire movies.

not that good.

that is all.

this may come as a surprise...

2007-10-30T18:28:00.000-05:00

but i'm not nearly as good at staying up late as i was in undergrad. maybe it's the whole working full-time and being newly-married thing. but i don't want to make excuses.

something big.

2007-10-20T12:27:00.000-05:00

right now, i'm sitting in the barnes and noble in noblesville, where i used to come during college. my wife recommended the idea, and i decided to indulge my nostalgia.

i'm at this weird spot mentally, and i'm trying to get out of it. the best way to describe it is vacuous introspection. i'm internally focused, but about nothing in particular. no specific idea is dominating my thought. this happens sometimes when i have several choices in front of me, but no drive toward one over the other. i need to study, visit my family, and call a friend. eventually, i will do all those things. but just this second, every item on the list eludes me.

these are some of my most frustrating moments of life. moments like this bring to the fore a certain reality, which is the terrible inconsistency in which i live my life. there are brief moments of bright-eyed clairvoyance, followed by extended periods of lethargy. an overbearing sense of not living life as i should. feeling that change is needed, but too much to attain.

sometimes i wonder if it is my desire for knowledge that trumps my desire for experience. they are not mutually exclusive, to be sure. but you likely know what i mean. reading or watching something provides a quick, vicarious fulfillment, but living something is an entirely different sensation--and almost always the superior one.

i am tired of making resolutions, though. i'm 24. by now, what i need is a revolution. the thoughts in my head need to seep out into the rest of my body, through my actions and into my personal life and the world.

some things are inherently more important than others. my wife, my family. my art. (i won't be afraid to say that anymore. i want to make art. i want to write. i want to take photos. i will not be ashamed of any attempt to do so.) my country. reacting to the needs of the world. and if technology--that potentially great aid to all the things that are really important that i have just mentioned, but has largely become a means of distraction (as this blog can clearly testify to the truth of)--plays any role, it should be a supporting and not a leading role. it's time to reorient my priorities.

i have had similar dreams before. i've written similar manifestos like this. and the weight of the dreams and the internal pressure i've put on myself to achieve them in reality have always led to failure. i never liked thinking of the things i love becoming a habit, but in truth the habits i've developed are what seem despicable to me: wasting time on the internet and tv, eating poorly, financial carelessness. so what i wish to do is to make a change in my posture toward life. be proud while still being humble. and keep moving forward, evolving into who i want to be.

this is a big idea for me. and i'm risking something by making it public. but it's the right thing to do. it's the only thing to do. i'm off.

a beautiful sign

2007-10-12T22:41:00.000-05:00

many weeks ago, em and i were walking through the city and we saw this hand-written note on the door of a coffeshop in chicago. it was beautiful, and heartbreaking. i must share it with you all. here it is:

the joy of bringing home a child. given to strangers.

i love chicago.

random post

2007-10-10T22:17:00.001-05:00

em and i wen to the darfur/darfur panel this monday. it was very informative and moving. if you don't know much about the conflict, go to their website. or, if you have google earth installed, they have a feature on the atrocities occurring there as well.

reminder: download the new radiohead.

blah. more later.

yours,

b.c.

darfur/darfur

2007-10-07T22:02:00.000-05:00

quick note to anyone in the chicago area:

if you can, go see the darfur/darfur exhibit that will be playing at the field museum this week.

the exhibit consists of images of the atrocities occurring in sudan being digitally projected onto the side of the field museum. i heard about it when the architect that has arranged it was on worldview, a very good chicago public radio show.

you don't even have to get out of your car. you can see it from lakeshore drive. if you live in the city or in a suburb, it's worth a trip. the website for the event, which will be touring several cities, is here.

keep your head up, cubs fans.

2007-10-03T23:43:00.001-05:00

that is all.

this just in (this morning)

2007-10-02T00:07:00.000-05:00

radiohead is letting you set the price of their new album next tuesday. kinda odd. but maybe genius. this guy thinks so. and per the article, you may not get the whole album. ah, well. it's radiohead.

the album is called in rainbows. the site is here.

two (but really three) movies

2007-09-30T13:05:00.001-05:00

here are two movies i'm unbelievably excited about that'll be out soon.

the first is i'm not there, a biopic on bob dylan that has actually been approved by the man himself. dylan will be played by six different actors, including heath ledger, christian bale, cate blanchett and a young african-american boy. i'm thrilled.

below is a clip that was leaked to youtube of blanchett's performance. this clip seems to be referring to the don't look back era of dylan. and if you're an arrested development fan, keep your eyes open for a familiar face:

this right here is the official trailer:

next up is: the darjeeling limited, by wes anderson. his movies are some of my all-time favorites. as my friend brandon said, get excited. here's the trailer:

note to jon: wes anderson does not suck.

wes anderson has recently posted a free short film to itunes that is related to the movie, called hotel chevalier. it features jason schwartzman and natalie portman. editor's note: this clip is somewhat explicit, so use your judgment.

and an extra bonus: iron man! i love comics. iron man has been a douche in the comics recently, but this movies looks like it will be fun. enjoy the trailer:

thoughts on grad school.

2007-09-28T22:03:00.001-05:00

so. no one in 3 weeks has taken up my call for suggestions, so i'll keep blogging for blogging's sake.

i just started a new class in grad school on tuesday, called "moral reform in america." i very much enjoyed my first class, and it should be very interesting. it will focus on various social movements in america and the ideological basis behind each of them.

what struck me about my first class, though, was something about myself. after the prof had given her short biography, everyone was going around introducing themselves and what led them to the course. i noted some things said about religion, liberalism, etc. in the other's comments. religion seemed to be a concern for some, and an oddity to others.

when it came my turn to introduce myself, i felt it necessary to inform people of my undergrad experience at a conservative christian school. i told them how i came there thinking i wanted to be a pastor, saw the way some people at iwu lived and what the believed, and markedly chose not to go that path. i mentioned how attending a conservative school served to make me more liberal than i otherwise may have been. and in the same breath, i was defending christians as well. i can do that: criticize something while also upholding it.

but what was it that compelled me to do that? what was it that made me speak up, force my faith into a discussion? i don't know if i would go so far as to say it was the holy spirit, but maybe it was. i don't know.

and the funny thing is, this isn't the first time i've done it. i've done the same thing in another class. i think i just instinctively react to this sentiment that i sometimes detect amongst intellectuals that christians are stupid, close-minded bigots. that thought is all too prevalent, and though it has some truth to it (4 years at iwu was experience enough to prove that), it is overall a falsehood.

has anyone else who is an alum of iwu or a similar school continued their studies at another school and had similar experiences? or am i alone in this?

re-tooling.

2007-09-07T22:58:00.001-05:00

so. i feel like this blog needs a little revision. more focus. i've been kinda all over the place in my random postings. is there any topic that i write about that is actually interesting? anything you want to see more or less of? i'm looking for your input, your ideas.

happy birthday to a special lady

2007-09-06T22:56:00.000-05:00

my wife turned a year older today. happy birthday, hon. i love you.

Sufjan Stevens – Happy Birthday

a really interesting blog i found.

2007-09-04T22:42:00.000-05:00

so this guy i know wrote a interesting piece about 90's music on his blog. you may want to check it out. it comes highly recommended, and the guy is trying to update his blog much more frequently than i get a chance to do here.

good copy bad copy

2007-08-26T21:54:00.000-05:00

there's a lot of downloading that goes on over the intertubes. some of it's legal; most of it isn't.

downloading for some is a gray area, and for others it's completely black and white. i would like to say that i have a definitive position on the subject, but i can't. i understand that i am liable to the laws of my country, and therefore i strive to obey those laws. but when the internet becomes a factor, everything becomes much harder to pin down. the reason being: not every country has the same laws and attitudes about intellectual property and copyright.

case in point: russia and china.

there is/was a music site based in russia called allofmp3.com. they sold all sorts of music at a ridiculously cheap price: .02 cents per megabyte. this meant you could potentially get a whole album for less than a dollar. it was amazing. and it got a lot of business. that is, until several record companies (and the US gov't) started to allege that they were violating copyright laws and artists' royalties. they became unpopular. visa pulled their support of the website. the site became a negotiating point for russia's consideration of acceptance in the WTO. eventually, the site was shut down. the person who ran it was even taken to court in russia. but to no avail. the guy was acquitted.

in china, piracy is so rampant that it's been accounted for in microsoft's business model. that's why they're selling vista for next-to-nothing in china compared to what they sell it to us for here. it's more profitable.

so the subject is a little hazy, as you can tell. different individuals, companies, and governments have different ethics, convictions, policies and legislations. the question isn't whether it should be happening or not, really. not anymore. it's a given fact that uploading and downloading of copyrighted and un-copyrighted material will continue ad nauseum/infinitum. what we can't all agree on is exactly how it should happen.

and that's where good copy bad copy enters the picture. it is a very well-done documentary that takes this topic into consideration from several perspectives. it features several artists who have sampled music from other artists, mixed it, and created an altogether new type of music. they also interview several people in the music and movie industry as well.

i've included a clip of the documentary below that i found on youtube. this portion of the film focuses on a type of brazilian music called 'tecno brega.' the clip is fairly innocuous, though there are a couple seconds of party scenes that some may object to. (it's brazil. they like to party.) the makers of this documentary have released it for free. the film is available for download here.

when it comes to digital media, every entity--whether it is some kid in jersey or a multinational corporation--assumes the risk of piracy and theft and violation of intellectual property. they can also assume that their work will receive a much larger audience by doing so. eventually, a balance will be struck. our society is still adjusting to the new reality wrought by the digital revolution.

where do you stand?

UPDATE: allofmp3.com is going to re-open. how 'bout that.

an interesting video.

2007-08-24T15:09:00.000-05:00

i haven't posted it here. i was directed to it via james fallows, so i in turn will direct you to him. i do so because i like what he has to say, and i couldn't say it any better.

for those of you who don't know, james fallows is one of my favorite political/current events writers. he writes with authority and clarity, but only after considerable experience and research. he also has my dream job, by the way.

new bride, new life

2007-07-31T23:00:00.000-05:00

hey everyone. been back from the honeymoon for a while, but have had little chance to blog. it's hard trying to decide what to write about when you get back from a honeymoon. life has changed forever, but there's an aspect of sameness that i may not have expected, a familiarity. but it's a good familiarity, all in all.

for those of you who couldn't attend, the wedding was wonderful. my bride was beautiful. we were married in garden on the Virginia Tech campus and the gardens couldn't have been more lovely than they were.

the ceremony was all we could ask for. the homily was very well done by a pastor em had grown up with. emily's father married us. there was not a single word wasted, not a single awkward moment. (though some would say i paused too long to say "i will." to wit: i for some reason was expecting to hear "if so, your answer is 'i will' from em's dad, although even in the rehearsal it was not done like this. i recovered smoothly.) my sister sang as emily was coming down the aisle, and emi's sister sang during the unity candle moment. they both did extremely well.

the reception was also in the gardens, with tables under tents. we served chicago-style pizza in honor of our home-city.

we honeymooned in mexico. as we were traveling, at the roanoke airport we saw 5 married couples. on the trip to cancun, we believe that there were were at least 2 newlyweds in each row of a thirty-three row plane.

we vacationed at a resort in the riviera mayaregion of mexico, where it is was blazing hot. vacation tip: bring lots, and lots, of sunscreen. also, don't forget sunglasses, keep track of your underwater camera, and bring sunscreen. did i mention sunscreen?

also, if you're going on vacation to mexico, go all-out. go all-inclusive.
no-worries vacationing built in. it was great.

when we got back, we flew back into roanoke and spent half a day w/ em's
family. we then drove back up to IL and into chi-town, and things started
going back to normal, as far as work and all that is concerned.

next up in the homelife series: the apartment. coming soon.

i have an iPhone!

2007-06-30T00:12:00.000-05:00

iPhone. iPhone. iPhone. iPhone. iPhone. iPhone. iPhone. iPhone. iPhone. iPhone. iPhone. iPhone. iPhone. iPhone. iPhone. iPhone. iPhone. iPhone. iPhone. iPhone. iPhone. iPhone. iPhone. iPhone. iPhone. iPhone. iPhone. iPhone. iPhone. iPhone. iPhone. iPhone. iPhone. iPhone. iPhone. iPhone. iPhone. iPhone. iPhone. iPhone. iPhone. iPhone. iPhone. iPhone.

yes, that's right. i threw caution to the wind and blew all my savings and got an iPhone. i blew off work today, too. didn't even call in. stood in line all day in downtown chicago, and man it was worth it. em, i hope you're not mad, given that we're getting married next week and all. pretty please? but seriously, guys, this thing is great. i love it! it's a touch screen ipod and phone and internet thingy....it's just awesome! and it's in my hand! yeah!!

just kidding.

i really just wanted to see if somehow, somewhere, this ends up on a google search. i figured if i used the word "iPhone" enough times, if they ever indexed this entry or whatever they do, it could pop up.

people who know me know that i am a mac enthusiast. i even check macrumors.com on regular basis (mainly in the hopes that there will be a mac tablet/multi-touch laptop in the near future). and i ate up a lot of the crumbs that apple would leak over the last six months about this device. but really. i couldn't find myself buying one of these things for a while (at least until the next generation comes out, or my contract w/ verizon ends).

this whole thing's been so blown out of proportion. and people are right to make light of it, and poke fun at it. here are my favorites:

this is from the daily show. i especially like the part w/ the stroller:

then there is a delicious piece of satire from the onion, as well. just follow this link.

and there's one i won't post here, because it is slightly risque, but for another fairly funny one, go to myspace videos and search for "ieverything."

and the colbert report of course had to chime in:

and this unfortunate gaff by meredith viera:

that last one....ouch. talk about potentially good marketing turned into really bad marketing. wow.

so, that's my iPhone launch day retrospective.

scientists for obama

2007-06-27T22:54:00.001-05:00

i went to a meeting tonight with emily that was with an organization started locally by one of the professors who has taught in her program. i was more than a little out of my element, because almost everyone was a scientist in the room. a lot of the people there had not made their decisions as far as which candidate they would eventually support, but came to learn more about his position--largely about the NIH funding of scientific research.

senator obama conferenced in. what actually was going on was that there were supposedly a lot of house parties going on throughout the state of illinois that all teleconferenced into the call that the senator made. what he had to say was largely what he's already said, and though they were talking points they were at least somewhat salient talking points.

this was the first political event emily and i have attended. it was an interesting experience, to actually be at least a very small part of a political movement, instead of merely philosophizing about things within my very confined head.

i don't know whether i'll end up supporting obama in the long run. i have this thought that obama and clinton may eventually join forces after the primaries next year, just like bush and reagan did. or maybe it will be another combination of the other democratic primary candidates. i am somewhat upset at the fact that that presidential race overall has already begun, and think it's somewhat absurd. on another tangent, i feel that all of these star political players are using their presidential-hopeful platforms as a way of avoid being caught up too much in any current Washington controversies that may have an adverse effect on their campaigns. thought that is probably very cynical of me. perhaps this is just the new political environment. it's just i'd rather have a current constructive dialogue in Washington instead of a promise to have one in January 2008. for the mean time, though, i'll try to remain open-minded.

painting and such

2007-06-24T12:43:00.000-05:00

em and i have been getting ready for our new apt together after the wedding, and it's been quite a long ordeal. who knew that this stuff would take so long? we've finally got all the rooms painted. the kitchen has an accent wall which is painted a kind of robin-egg blue, the living room is painted brown, and the bedroom is painted grey. we really lucked out w/ the colors.

em and i love it here in chicago. we live in lakeview, and have a wonderful immediate neighborhood. and brandon's just a block or so away.

more later. maybe even photos.

Book Report from the Bus Stop: Shopgirl, Snow Crash, Hey Nostradamus!

2007-06-19T19:45:00.000-05:00

i've been taking the train lately. and the bus. instead of driving. it's a two hour commute, but let me tell you this: you get a lot of reading done when you have four hours of commuting time a day!

and boy howdy, that's what i've been doing.

so far, i've read three novels in the past two weeks since school got over with. (brief note: i thought i did poorly on my paper...i got an A-. nice.) the first, was shopgirl. by steve martin. yes, that steve martin. if i could use one word to describe it, i would call it "serene." it was a wonderful re-introduction to reading for pleasure. it was very short, but very satisfying. it took place in L.A., a place i've never been. highly recommended to most readers.

next, i read snow crash by neal stephenson. this was an epic sci-fi type book. the main character's name is Hiro Protagonist, the greatest samurai fighter and hacker in a twisted dystopian future america. the book focuses around a virus that's being spread through the Metaverse, which is a lot like the MMOGs like Second Life, but more expansive--and infecting the actual minds of hackers. it's also being spread through a drug called "snow crash" (hacker term for a total system crash) in the real world.

the book had a lot of action, sharp dialogue, and very sardonic narration. in this future, there is no real government, so the world is essentially run by different franchises. there are several critiques of our culture hidden in there, many only thinly veiled. it popularized the term "avatar," which is used for any virtual representation of a person in a simulated reality, like Mii's on the Wii. it also seems to be the philosophical ancestor of movies like the matrix, which seem to have some strikingly similar ideas in them. and did i mention the sumerian mythology? oh yeah, that's in there too.

i'm currently reading hey nostradamus! by douglas coupland. it's heavy, but good. it's about a school shooting, specifically the death of one girl, and how her death affected those close to her in the years afterward. it's written in journal, stream-of-consciousness, confessional style. it's a bit hard to summarize.

that's it so far. i'll probably finish the coupland book tomorrow. i think i may start hiroshima after that. i love reading. and for now, it seems that i love the bus.

parkour

2007-06-11T22:47:00.000-05:00

so, i've been told by someone that i may be losing my readership due to lack of posting. well excuuuse me! only kidding. it's been pretty busy 'round these parts if you've talked to me lately. but thankfully, em and i are done w/ school now so we can relax! at least a little.

anyways, this is just a random post about something called "parkour" that i heard about on NPR recently. NPR: the fount of all wisdom. parkour is basically insanely acrobatic people doing insanely acrobatic things in insanely dangers urban surroundings, with no restraints or safety measures. i think it's basically just them and their buddies w/ camcorders. but it makes for some great youtube posts.

so, according to the NPR story, this guy named david belle is credited as being the founder of this little internet/xtreme-whatever movement. here's a clip of the leader of the pack in action:

neat, huh? well, anyways. here's a well-produced scene, from some uncredited movie. but you can see that the production values are significantly higher in this clip:

i hope you enjoyed that as much as i did.

the medium is the message

2007-05-15T23:31:00.000-05:00

the title of this blog is a central dictum of marshall mccluhan, a communications theorist. i think it holds true for much of our society today. new media is being created every day, and the nature of media, not the content of it, is often the focus.

but i don't want to be ambiguous here. i'm really talking about myself. in recent months, i've become fascinated by the various ways that people are able to communicate and create via new and emerging technologies. myspace, facebook, second life, wikipedia, slashdot, the heroes 360 experience, blogs, flickr, netvibes, et al. each has its own contained sense of community. for whatever reason, i've been fascinated by it. i would go online and just, i don't know, check it all out. the fact that there are hundreds of millions of myspace pages out there, it just boggles my mind. random people can edit a wiki. major networks are rolling out truly multimedia experiences. and so on.

but here's the weird thing. i'm go to these sites to observe. i'm a lousy participant. i'm bad at email, facebook, personal correspondence of any kind. it's a weakness. i'm not proud of it. and yet i still check out all the sites, daily.

i think for a while now, it's largely out of habit. and some increasing desire to be in the know about what is going on. maybe it's largely spurred by my constant perusing of google news, this unhealthy desire for immediacy which the internet so wishes to provide.

my working theory is that work may not provide the most mentally stimulating environment for me. so i try to compensate by inundating my day with sheer information. the drawback of this is that the drive for information often leads me to spend further time online, and not enough time actually thinking about the knowledge i've gained. it feels surface level. i've lost that analytical spark that i once had. well, i want it back.

i think the latest entries of this blog are indicative of my current state. most of them have sucked, to be honest. sorry about that. i hope that in a short time i will regain what i feel i've temporarily lost. for your sake and mind, it will hopefully lead to some better posts here.

spider-man 3, movie and game review

2007-05-11T00:15:00.000-05:00

in the interest of full disclosure, i should tell you that when it comes to spider-man, a certain epitaph which carries all manner of connotations applies to me: fanboy. that's right, i am a spider-man fanboy. he totally intrigues me. i still read the comics. i just love the character. i can't deny it.

so it's only fitting that i offer my two cents on the new movie. so here they are: i liked it. the special effects were pretty good and i enjoyed the new villains. i thought that having topher grace cast as venom was very appropriate as he kinda looks like tobey macguire and venom is pretty much the archetypal anti-spider-man.

but...

i have a few critiques.

first, the movie was a little disjointed. it didn't have the kind of flow that the other movies had. they just kind of changed scenes unceremoniously.

too many people cried too much.

there was no huge fight scene like the one between dock ock and spidey. the one with sandman and venom was great, but not as great as that one was. that one had the adrenaline going.

but my biggest critique is that i don't think that venom as a villain was easily accessible to the general public as other villains in the movies have been. the general public has a harder time accepting a symbiote from another planet than comic book readers do. that and they didn't explain venom's introduction into the movie at all. peter and mary jane are making out and then, thump, an asteroid lands next to spidey's vespa. i just don't understand why they didn't use one of the orthodox origins from the comics like such as the symbiote being brought back on the space shuttle with j. jonah's son. (to be specific, the black suit i believe originated during the first "secret wars" saga, but that took place on another planet, and could not possibly be discretely explained in a movie. see, i told you: fanboy.) i don't think people really get the whole "venom concept" so to speak as well as they could get that doc ock was a crazy mad scientist.

but despite all that, i still liked it. i couldn't help myself.

now, onto the game.

the game...rocks. for one reason: two-handed webslinging. that's right, you heard me. it's every fanboy's (read: my) dream. you swing like friggin' spider-man. the graphics, they're not so great. but that's to be expected on the wii. but all other sins are forgiven, at least for me, because of the web-swinging.

me wantee

2007-04-21T23:24:00.000-05:00

ok, so this game is pretty much why i wanted to buy a wii. seriously.

"This is Kurt Vonnegut, WNYC's reporter on the Afterlife, signing off."

2007-04-12T06:18:00.000-05:00

kurt vonnegut died thursday. honor his memory by reading one of his books.

new (old) photo

2007-03-31T18:55:00.000-05:00

this is my grandfather's watch. i've always known it like this, in its display.

the clutter

2007-03-10T14:01:00.000-06:00

so this is my room. it's messy, as you can see. it doesn't exactly look like this anymore, but it's not much better. due to the sprawl of crap, little writing actually gets done at the desk. that being said, little writing is done anywhere else, either. (sigh.)

on this side, the tv isn't connected to anything. the books remain unread. and the magazines in the boxes remain unpacked. how do you unpack magazines? how do you throw away magazines? i don't think they throw away like normal things. i like magazines too much. i feel like i've lost something if i toss them. i keep them because once every four months or so something strikes me about something i've read, and then i have to go find it. and that's the fun. for the remainder of the four months, though, they're just annoying.

so that's (part of) my room. other than this, you wouldn't be able to see it. it's too dirty to be shown in public. but in black and white and online, somehow that's okay. i don't really know why that is.

an odd sculpture

2007-03-04T21:34:00.000-06:00

i walk past this every time i go to the library at NU. i think it is the oddest thing. but it's about how my paper is making me feel right now. like i'm stuck in the middle, and it's splitting me in two.

new blog

2007-03-03T11:18:00.000-06:00

in an attempt to make better use of the resources and possessions i have, i've launched a new blog, called "rifling through the music bin." the purpose is for me to go through all the music i already own, and post a blog about each album, in order. the goal is for me to foster a greater appreciation for the music i already own, thereby curbing some of my consumerism as well as forcing me to write on a regular basis. it will also help me make a good use of my time, doing something edifying and productive (in a way). hopefully it will help me evolve into a good record summary and review writer, too.

so that's that. just thought i'd put that out there into the ether.

you can't cut this.

2007-02-27T22:04:00.000-06:00

i heard an interesting piece on npr this morning about the future of money. according to some, within 10 years, printers will be so advanced that joe shmoes like you and me could pretty much print our own money. so to deter all those independent minded people that say "why should the american govt. have a monopoly on printing currency in this country?" they've come up w/ a great solution: nanotechnology!

according to the story, within 10 years although we might be able to print our own money, they could put some sort of molecules in the dollar bills they print that could do any manner of things to confirm their validity: they could change color, a big smile could go across franklin's face, they could make it so you couldn't cut the dang thing, or make it so a specific touch would make the bill go rigid.

i'd like to see it, for the cool factor. i really don't know if this would make it into every dollar bill in 10 years' time. but the fact that they're considering it, that's just crazy.

read/listen to the report here.

all shiny and new

2007-02-27T00:32:00.000-06:00

i decided it was time for a change on the ol' website. hope you like the new digs.

grad school so far

2007-02-26T23:35:00.000-06:00

i've been in grad school for almost 3 months now. i guess you could say i enjoy my class, though it gives me a lot of anxiety.

my first day of class, as i was sitting there with a couple of the other people who got there early, the professor told me point-blank that this was an advanced course and i may want to consider dropping b/c i would be expected to do advanced reading and writing. but i'm pig-headed, not to mention very interested in the topic of the course, so i just kept coming to class.

but to be honest the experience has been very trying. so far, i'm doing this very much alone, which is a far cry from my undergrad experience. i feel isolated. granted, i do not do much to change this or encourage others to speak to me. we sit in a circle, and i am usually one desk removed from the closest person to me. however, the two people with whom i did engage with in class moved to the other side of the room at the next class. i took it as evident that i should not migrate with them. and all this is coupled with other factors, like the fact that i came into the program at an odd quarter, that all these people had been in classes with one another for over a year, and so on. there are all sorts of factors.

but generally, i don't know if i could say that i enjoy this class in some respects. i don't feel as if i provide adequate or interesting enough input. i watch carefully how my comments are taken in class when compared to others. the others build upon one another, adding to the discussion in a way that seems organic. my comments seem dead on arrival. nothing is built on my comments, by the professor or the other students. i try to make my comments relevant, but i suppose i somehow fail at that. i have a hard time feeling as if i belong in class. maybe i don't. but i'm too far committed and have paid too much for the class to back out now.

the work thing and the school thing. it's a lot.

there's something wrong with this picture...

2007-02-15T21:25:00.000-06:00

so, lucasarts announced yesterday that a new star wars game, called Star Wars: The Force Unleashed will be coming out this winter. the game will be available for the Xbox 360, and the PS3.

something is missing. what is it, you ask? oh, just the frickin' Wii.

it may just be me (it isn't), but you might have thought that there just a few (tens of thousands) of Star Wars fanboys who would love to take their Wii-remote in hand and do some all-out online lightsaber dueling. but for the time being, lucasarts is denying us this. they've failed to realize that the whole reason behind technology's progress up to this point is for the sole purpose of pretending to be a jedi by flailing arms around like a fool in front of our tvs. and all they want to do is release this game on the PS-please. yeesh.

i hope they've got something good up their sleeves.

some thoughts on the internet and online communities

2007-02-08T22:11:00.000-06:00

kurt vonnegut hates online communities. he thinks they're shams. at least that's what can be drawn from his comments in his newest book. he finds too much joy in things like going to buy stamps to order everything online like so many of us do.

i love vonnegut, but this topic is a division line for us. i find that the internet is a wonderful tool of the (post)modern era that allows for friends, families and businesses to interact with a speed and efficiency not previously known. it is also the greatest tool for any sort of trivia, any piece of information that you may want. the internet is expansive and all-encompassing. it outpaces ethics and the laws that enforces those ethics. it likely outpaces our ability to understand its effect on us.

and that's precisely the problem and the beauty of the internet. i can think of at least a couple inherent problems with internet usage. to be totally truthful, these "problems" are more like double-edged swords, strengths and weaknesses dependent upon how you view/use them.

the first problem is that the internet is too big. it's too much. even though there can be plenty of sources of information, sometimes it's just too daunting or overwhelming. and there are those times, where despite your best efforts, it still takes 2 hours to locate something specific on the internet. to deal, we set up RSS feeds and use bookmarks and receive info from a single compilation website like google news (guilty). which leads me to another thing.

the problem with so many sources is that it can also be hard to verify the validity of a report or of a website in conjunction with all the others. to counteract that, we tend to rely on one or a few sources, which in some way negates the ability of cross-referencing several sources of info, especially pertaining to news. but this point is self-defeating. the responsibility has and always will ultimately rest with the reader to confirm the veracity of any source.

the second problem i think of pertains to online communities: myspace, facebook, etc. these sites are great. they allow us to stay in touch with friends. i can attest that i feel some sort of affirmation when i am contacted on one of these sites, or someone leaves me a message, and get a sense of dejection when there are no messages to receive. (to my discredit, i am not very good at correspondence. like so many things, i think it is lovely in theory, but i am utterly horrid at it in practice. so i reap what i sow.) i think that these sites really can provide a sense of community even when we are physically removed from our friends. and there's a sense of ownership that you have when you claim a piece of the web, that that part of the net is yours---even if it is owned and operated by a multinational conglomerate.

however, to an extent i agree with vonnegut when these types of sites deprive of us of actual fellowship w/ our fellow human beings, that they can become a detriment to our society. no matter how successful in a virtual world, i am not yet convinced that it may provide the same sort of satisfaction can be achieved as in the real world.

but perhaps my definitions are all outdated. maybe i need to stop limiting my classifications, and accept that the internet is here to stay, and that the line between "real" and "virtual" will be irrevocably blurred. i've already embraced it. i habitually check my email and a few favored sites, feeling almost compelled to for one reason or another. i have a deep-seeded interest in the progress of hardware. it's an impulse to be up-to-date, the first to know. but i think all that may have done for me is to allow me to repeat someone else's opinion, without forming my own.

the whole point of this entry is to illustrate to myself the sort of mixed feelings i've had lately over this subject. the truth of the matter is that i can spend an hour on the internet looking at all sorts of facts, and never learn a thing. there's little context, or the context could be pointless. so my resolution should be, that if i intend to be online i should make that time beneficial. i must either cultivate relationships or learn something somewhat useful. there's an inherent entertainment value written into the code of the web too, and i want to enjoy that. but i have to cut down on the time i spend just goofing off in cyberspace. why do that when i can buy stamps and experience something.

it's back.

2007-02-05T22:37:00.000-06:00

here's an updated version of the touch-screen i put on my blog before. i want one for myself.

check out my super bowl ring

2007-02-04T16:45:00.000-06:00

super boxl XLI is about to begin!

super bowl xli (exhibition wii edition): the results

2007-01-30T21:10:00.000-06:00

so jon and janna were in chicago visiting em and i this past weekend, and jon and i played some wii. specifically, we played the superbowl game. i was the colts, jon was the bears.

the colts had a rough first half. peyton was injured on the first drive. later he returned, and threw 3 picks by the end of the half. grossman was having a "good day." if memory serves me right, the colts were down by at least two touchdowns at the half.

the colts rallied, though, and had a breakout second half, sacking grossman in the endzone for a safety after a perfect squib kick that ended up on the one yard line and was ran out of bounds (ha!). the postseason defense of the real colts showed up in the second half.

ultimately it came down once again to the golden foot of robbie gould, and his foot more than proved its weight in--for the sake of being redundant--gold. the 50+ yard kick was good enough, and the bears won the bowl, 34-31.

i have to say, jon is probably a little better of a qb than grossman is, and i am probably a little worse of a qb than manning. nonetheless, it was a game that had jon and me on our feet the whole time, in perfect wii fashion.

who do i root for?

2007-01-23T20:32:00.000-06:00

i'm writing this while watching the state of the union address. but this post is on a little lighter of a subject...maybe.

i speak of super bowl xli.

it seems unbelievable to me. the bears and the colts in the super bowl, at the same time. the two teams i've rooted for, in the big game against each other.

i'm torn. i grew up in indiana, but now i live in the chicago area. within the year, i'll be living in the city itself. and to be honest, i never expected anything like this to ever happen.

both teams have been notorious for blowing it in the playoffs.

but now that's changed. and i don't know what to do w/ myself.

still, it's been rough. (point for bears). qb's: rex grossman is all over the place. 0.0 rating? yikes. peyton on the other hand is endlessly entertaining for me to watch. and he does his job well. (point for colts). defense: w/o breaking it down, this goes to the bears, though the colts had a pretty good defense in the first two playoff games. one word: urlacher. (point: bears). coaches: i love both these guys, and it seems likeso let's weigh the options. personal history/experience: i've been to colts games, i couldn't dream of going to a bears game. (point for colts). disappointments: the colts have let me down more than the bears have, but i think that's only because i've been watching the colts longer and watched them go down against the steelers or pats way too many times in the playoffs. dungy and smith love each other. their relationship will make this game interesting on an entirely different level. (tie).

with these things in mind, it's still a tie. but to be honest, for the time being i'm leaning a little more towards the colts. i just can't deny the bears spirit i feel here, though, so who knows who i'll end up rooting for.

come feb. 4th, i don't think i'll be disappointed regardless of who wins. both teams deserve to be there more than any other team this year. i would have been happy if the saints made it too, b/c brees was qb at purdue. it'll be a good game, sans brady, which is a whole different story.

go colts! go bears!

throw away your television

2007-01-17T22:26:00.000-06:00

a quick thought before bed.

besides engagement, em and i have entered another joint venture together this year. we have given up watching tv. to date, it's been wonderful. i miss two shows: house and boston legal. however, tv shows always come out on dvds now, and that's the best way to watch them.

i haven't hit the peak/plateau of creativity and time managment i would like to reach, but i'm showing a marked improvement in my general quality of life already. that hazy feeling i've had in my brain for an indeterminate amount of time is receding. i feel as if i am a better steward of my time and property. very encouraging.

if you watch tv a lot, consider emancipating yourself. the glow of that tv can be eerie when you aren't constantly bathed in it.

take some advice from the red hot chili peppers: throw away your television.