Bowling Greener Pastures

I had an anonymous commenter a few months back question whether Bowling Green State University had ANY affect on me (of course it did, but this raw blog likes to focus on the....NOW...er...NOW of things). Unless you have been in a post-election coma, you know that tOSU is playing Michigan in football this weekend. Besides the fact that I liked spending my time in Ann Arbor much more than circling around Columbus, (and THIS should illustrate why I never approached tOSU's campus within a week of game "day"), I generally resented the state of Ohio for shunting the $$ from non-tOSU schools to offer things like THIS. That is why this post on the OSU/Michigan game is so darn satisfying. Who am I cheering for this game? Why the Falcons, naturally.

Winter Checklist

Snow dusting last night. Gotta go through my new snow gear.

Yaktrax? Check!
Jacket? Check!
Boots? Check! (thanks Dr. Drew)
Music for long winter nights? Check! (thanks sport)
Beverage for long winter nights? Check!
Food for the long cold darkness? Check! (thanks D-dawg and M-dawg)

Not Me(me)--Sport's Guest Blog Entry

01. Bought everyone in the bar a drink
02. Swam with wild dolphins
03. Climbed a mountain
04. Taken a Ferrari for a test drive
05. Been inside the Great Pyramid
06. Held a tarantula
07. Taken a candlelit bath with someone
08. Said “I love you” and meant it
09. Hugged a tree
10. Bungee jumped
11. Visited Paris
12. Watched a lightning storm at sea - from the shore
13. Stayed up all night long and saw the sun rise
14. Seen the Northern Lights
15. Gone to a huge sports game
16. Walked the stairs to the top of the leaning Tower of Pisa
17. Grown and eaten your own vegetables
18. Touched an iceberg
19. Slept under the stars
20. Changed a baby’s diaper
21. Taken a trip in a hot air balloon
22. Watched a meteor shower
23. Gotten drunk on champagne
24. Given more than you can afford to charity
25. Looked up at the night sky through a telescope
26. Had an uncontrollable giggling fit at the worst possible moment
27. Had a food fight
28. Bet on a winning horse
29. Asked out a stranger
30. Had a snowball fight
31. Screamed as loudly as you possibly can
32. Held a lamb
33. Seen a total eclipse
34. Ridden a roller coaster
35. Hit a home run
36. Danced like a fool and not cared who was looking
37. Adopted an accent for an entire day
38. Actually felt happy about your life, even for just a moment
39. Had two hard drives for your computer
40. Visited all 50 states
41. Taken care of someone who was drunk
42. Had amazing friends
43. Danced with a stranger in a foreign country
44. Watched wild whales
45. Stolen a sign
46. Backpacked in Europe
47. Taken a road-trip
48. Gone rock climbing
49. Midnight walk on the beach
50. Gone sky diving
51. Visited Ireland
52. Been heartbroken longer than you were actually in love
53. In a restaurant, sat at a stranger’s table and had a meal with them
54. Visited Japan
55. Milked a cow
56. Alphabetized your CDs
57. Pretended to be a superhero
58. Sung karaoke
59. Lounged around in bed all day
60. Played touch football
61. Gone scuba diving
62. Kissed in the rain
63. Played in the mud
64. Played in the rain
65. Gone to a drive-in theater
66. Visited the Great Wall of China
67. Started a business
68. Fallen in love and not had your heart broken
69. Toured ancient sites
70. Taken a martial arts class
71. Played D&D for more than 6 hours straight
72. Gotten married
73. Been in a movie
74. Crashed a party
75. Gotten divorced
76. Gone without food for 5 days
77. Made cookies from scratch
78. Won first prize in a costume contest
79. Ridden a gondola in Venice
80. Gotten a tattoo
81. Rafted the Snake River
82. Been on television news programs as an “expert”
83. Got flowers for no reason
84. Performed on stage
85. Been to Las Vegas
86. Recorded music
87. Eaten shark
88. Kissed on the first date
89. Gone to Thailand
90. Bought a house
91. Been in a combat zone (if you count Belfast)
92. Buried one/both of your parents
93. Been on a cruise ship
94. Spoken more than one language fluently well enough to have a decent conversation
95. Performed in Rocky Horror
96. Raised children
97. Followed your favorite band/singer on tour
99. Taken an exotic bicycle tour in a foreign country
100. Picked up and moved to another city to just start over
101. Walked the Golden Gate Bridge
102. Sang loudly in the car, and didn’t stop when you knew someone was looking
103. Had plastic surgery (see below)
104. Survived an accident that you shouldn’t have survived
105. Wrote articles for a large publication
106. Lost over 100 pounds
107. Held someone while they were having a flashback
108. Piloted an airplane
109. Touched a stingray
110. Broken someone’s heart
111. Helped an animal give birth
112. Won money on a T.V. game show
113. Broken a bone
114. Gone on an African photo safari
115. Had a facial part pierced other than your ears
116. Fired a rifle, shotgun, or pistol
117. Eaten mushrooms that were gathered in the wild
118. Ridden a horse
119. Had major surgery
120. Had a snake as a pet
121. Hiked to the bottom of the Grand Canyon
122. Slept for more than 30 hours over the course of 48 hours
123. Visited more foreign countries than U.S. states
124. Visited all 7 continents
125. Taken a canoe trip that lasted more than 2 days
126. Eaten kangaroo meat
127. Eaten sushi
128. Had your picture in the newspaper
129. Changed someone’s mind about something you care deeply about
130. Gone back to school
131. Parasailed
132. Touched a cockroach
133. Eaten fried green tomatoes
134. Read The Iliad
135. Selected one “important” author who you missed in school, and read
136. Killed and prepared an animal for eating
137. Skipped all your school reunions
138. Communicated with someone without sharing a common spoken language
139. Been elected to public office
140. Written your own computer language
141. Thought to yourself that you’re living your dream
142. Had to put someone you love into hospice care
143. Built your own PC from parts
144. Sold your own artwork to someone who didn’t know you
145. Had a booth at a street fair
146. Dyed your hair
147. Been a DJ
148. Shaved your head
149. Caused a car accident
150. Saved someone’s life (Well, I have a friend who claims so, but I leave it to the universe to decide)

Thanks Doc

Who Is That?

In an earlier incarnation, I was a "Communications Specialist" at a National Lab. That guy with the plaid shirt on looking at my foamcore presentation (my former Manager/Director is giving the talk--it's really her show) is Harry Reid. That's the new Senate Majority Leader. Who sez tech writers have no say?

Every Once in a While

Bitch, Ph.D. has a great post on what good democracy looks like in everyday practice. I won't get wonky here, but she perfectly describes what I try to teach and investigate in my research--embodied practice of good principles.

Today is Democracy Day

I celebrated by voting, but can't find any individuals (outside of the usual political suspects) blogging about it. First blog I find with a post about the election gets onto my blogroll (only applies to those not on my blogroll).
Update:
Saw Jenny's post on the election first. Already on the blogroll.
Update:
We have a "winner" folks.
Neither Necessary Nor Sufficient (with no caps, really). Thanks for the great post.

Are You Ready to Rumble?

V-O-T-E Vote Vote Vote!

What a University Web Page SHOULD look like

In an earlier professional incarnation, I was a web designer. One of the things I got sick of were wannabe cartoon artists trying to impose their aesthetics on others. Almost inevitably, web design proposals tended towards the "sci fi" and "intimidating," rather than the "friendly." It was more an expression of the web designer's ambition than a desire to connect people.

Fortunately, web sites are getting friendlier all the time. One really good example is MIT's homepage. Accessible (hat tip to Clay), friendly, and useful.

No dancing baloney.

Pointless Blog Entry

Not such a good idea to make people blog every day, is it?

Presidential Tag Cloud

Very. Illuminating. Application.

It's got a kick-arse slider so that you can look at Presidential speeches from 1776-2006.

That's Gonna Leave a Mark

O.K., I know that Ne-oponte badly wants to find SOMETHING that the U.S. Executive Branch can, in good conscience, call WMDs, BUT...

open-sourcing the job of combing possibly top-secret nuclear research to anyone and everyone with access to the internet strikes me as almost psychopatically reckless.

Not the kind of thing you want to do IF you claim that you are trying to protect Americans.

But that could be just me...

Is it Just Me?

Or does the media tennis game between Democratic pseudo-snafus and the "Inevitable Democratic Wave" mantra really irritate. You would think we have no issues to discuss.

Smells and tastes like the state fair these days.

It's November Already?

Must...blog...every...day...of...month.

O.K., I started a day late. So what?

Surfing the Red River

Lance humorously asked why I was not getting surf lessons in Fargo. I replied that you simply can't surf the Red River. Turns out I was wrong.

The caption can be found here.

Blogging Has Jumped the Shark

Sudan expels U.N. envoy for blog

Best. Partner. Ever.

Sport got me surf lessons for my birthday. Gotta get to the beach this summer to take advantage of these lessons.

The gift and the travel it precipitates are two of the reasons I'm glad I swapped vows with Sport.

Rollin' Rollin' Rollin' (c'mon!)

During the VR@RL conference, Benden Riley presented a paper on the Katamari Interface (If you don't know what it is, I can't explain it as well as he does). Well, now there is a television commercial that picks up on the theme of aggregation as invention. Popular culture is catching up with...uh...popular culture.

Voices Carry

Looks like the FBI knew a bit about this for months. My feeling is this is going to get much worse. The Washington Post has a pretty dramatic lineup of information that shows some serious dysfunctional stuff going down across the Potomac. Illustrates the inside-out nature of Ciceronian sympathy. When you think you have black boxed the discourse (Liberals=Democrats=Bad for All Time), you are subject to the enthymematic assumptions (liberal=sexual libertine, etc.). The migration to electrate practices allows a new level of speed, but does NOT evaporate as quickly as speech. Electracy is NOT secondary orality.

*snip*
FBI Knew in July About Foley E-Mails to Teen...
Also yesterday, ABC News posted on its Web site instant messages -- reportedly between Foley and another former House page -- in which the lawmaker repeatedly tried to set up a dinner date and indicated that the boy had spent time with him in San Diego. Previously disclosed messages had not indicated that Foley was trying to make personal contact with the boys, who had served as runners and helpers for a year in Washington

...An FBI official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because the investigation is ongoing, said the field office concluded that the e-mails "did not rise to the level of criminal activity." The bureau announced Sunday that it would begin a preliminary investigation into Foley's more explicit electronic exchanges with teenagers.

...Hastert noted that the 2005 e-mails to the Louisiana teenager were ambiguous. In one, Foley asked the boy to send a picture of himself, which reportedly alarmed the youth and his parents. Hastert agreed yesterday that an adult's request for a teenager's photo "would raise a red flag." But he said he would not second-guess his party's handling of the situation.

The boy's parents approached the office of Rep. Rodney Alexander (R-La.) in late 2005, asking that Foley stop contacting their son and that the matter be kept quiet, according to House accounts.

Reynolds, who chairs his party's House campaign committee, and Majority Leader John A. Boehner (Ohio) were among prominent Republicans who also knew of the parents' concerns earlier this year. But the matter was left to Rep. John M. Shimkus (R-Ill.), who chairs the House Page Board, and then-House clerk Jeff Trandahl, also a board member.
*/snip*

Hush hush...

Extimacy Laid "Bare"

Extimacy has been around for quite a while, but Internet innovations like IMing and chat reveal electrate consequences. From the GOP page-gate headlines
*snip*
Many more, and much seamier, message exchanges began to pour in to ABC. Some were mildly crude. "Do I make you a little horny?" Foley is said to have asked one page. Others show Foley, under the signer Maf54, engaged in graphic Internet sex with minors, ABC reported. During one session a page instant-messages Maf54, "brb [be right back] ... my mom is yelling."
*/snip*

Weird conincidence

Sport looks over her shoulder while she's doing research on cancer and gender and mentions that "pap smears are called non-invasive."

As she's telling me this, my iTunes starts playing Fiona Apple's "Criminal."

These weird coincidences have happened around ten times today. Ghost in the machine?