MoBloYoFoMo and Beyond!

You may have noticed that as soon as December ended I took a couple of days off from blogging. Yes, I was getting a bit tired of putting out a daily post. Actually, I got tired of putting out a daily post within the first week. But, I thought a few of them were good, and that's probably a few more good posts than I would have written if I hadn't pushed myself to write (almost) daily.

However, clearly a post per day is more writing than I would prefer to commit to, and, to be honest, it's probably a lot more than you would prefer to read. Accordingly, I need to figure out how to approach writing in my blog in this, the new year. I have noticed that one common trait my favorite blogs to read have in common is that they produce new content fairly regularly. In fact, some blogs that I really liked *cough* Hyperbole and a Half *cough* I stopped reading just because I lost interest in checking back to find no new posts. So, while I do not feel that I necessarily need to update on set days, I do think that I should try to update on a pre-set schedule.

Since I, unlike authors of math text books, write things in order that they be read I thought I should see if there is any input as to what kind of update schedule you would like to see. It also helps me live up to commitments if I feel an external obligation to see them through, so any input would be helpful!

MoBloYoFoMo

So, I haven't been writing in my blog as much as I would like. Not only because, if responses are an accurate judge, interest is down, but also because I have ideas bouncing around in my head I would like to have feed back upon. I considered resolving to blog every day in November, as sort of a tribute to National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo), but I'm really freakin' busy. Also, a couple of my readers are participating in NaNoWriMo, and it seems poor planning to produce tons of my own content that I want them to read as they are also trying to write a book in a month.

So, December will be the first ever More Blogging You Fool Month, or MoBloYoFoMo. And if you hear that spoken in the voice of a Judoon, you are not wrong. Basically, I will be updating my blog every day next month! So, I hope you tune in to see what happens!

A Note on Content

As I mentioned, I have many browser tabs open, storing things about which I would like to talk. However, I am not going to do that today. "Why?" you might ask. Because responding to things in a meaningful way takes a lot more time, mental energy, and effort that just making up a post whole cloth, and I am still fairly worn out.

There is the obvious reason, posts in which I respond to other things, or even develop my own idea seriously, tend to be longer, and thus take more time. They need to introduce whatever it is I am referring to, in a way so that the people who don't love hyperlinking around the Internet discovering new, interesting, and awesome things will have an idea what I am talking about without reading the source link.

It also is a more arduous process because I feel the need to give weighty consideration to what I say. In this post, after I decided what I wanted to say and why/how I would say it, I basically am just writing as it comes to me. But if I am developing an idea I think is important/interesting, or, to put it another way, about which I would really like some discussion and constructive feedback, I feel that I should take the time to structure my thought in an interesting, appealing, and accessible manner, which takes time.

Additionally, if I am responding to something thought provoking, I feel the pressure to make my response a worthy one. If I don't add meaningful thought to the discussion, then I might as well have just posted the link and let you simply read it for yourself. So, while response posts are quite interesting to write, as you might guess from the number of them I do, and pleasant in that I don't need to worry about coming up with something to talk about, they do require a lot of energy.

I don't have a lot of energy, so you got this today ;)

100th Post

As I have mentioned, I look at the statistics for my blog a lot, perhaps somewhat obsessively. One of the things that interests me is which posts receive the most page views. Of course, this is a rather imperfect way to gauge which of my posts are having an effect, if people don't leave comments I rely on what I must.

So, for my hundredth post, I want to share the five most viewed posts, according to page views, my ten favorite posts, in hopes of changing the most viewed list a bit, and talk a little about what I have planned, and I, as always, welcome input about future content. I was going to list my top five favorite posts, but, quite pleasantly, I came across 16 posts that I really liked, so I decided to compromise and do a top ten. So, without further ado, the top five most viewed posts are:

5. ???

4. In Defense of Pi

3. Mathematics, A Eulogy?

2. Travelogue II: Fear and Hope

1. Kant Touch This

The first two are somewhat of a disappointment, I say almost nothing in ??? aside from asking if people have questions to suggest, and I think that In Defense of Pi, while a hot button issue, is a bit trivial, although I had fun writing it. The next two are posts of which I am proud, so I am glad to see them there. Kant was a solid post, but I find it uninspiring. Furthermore, I'm pretty sure that it showed up on this list, and was #1 by a large margin, for a reason related to the fact that it has generated half of my total spam comments. As usual, SpamBot pageviews count as heavily as the ones that I actually want. So, which posts do I actually wish people would remember me for?

10) Happy Independence Day!: This post hearkens back to when I expected this blog to be more political than philosophical. I also appreciate that it lays out some of my most foundational beliefs about our political system. Finally, I was just in a really good mood when I wrote it, and I appreciate that too.

9) A Call to Grandma: I like how this post fairly accurately captures how my mind works. It also manages to address how perception affects what we are willing to pay money for, and even what we can call property. Having read a little Marx now, I think there might be another post's worth on that topic.

8) Relationships: While not something I have as much empirical information about as I might like, an important topic nonetheless. This managed to do double duty as a Valentine's Day post and the second in my series on Kant's categorical imperative. I also like the interplay between the facts presented in the psychology articles and the ethics on how we ought respond to this info.

7) Why Am I Here?: Not only was this post reader inspired, something I really appreciate, it also gave me a chance to reflect on who I am, who I was, and how the two were bridged. I also was glad to have a reason to express my gratitude to those I could think of who helped me get here.

6) Mathematics: A Eulogy?: This post inspired a rich comment thread, that alone is something I very much like! While the above post talks about education in relation to my life, this is the first post on the list where I talk about the education system in general. As a math educator and student this is an important topic to me.

5) Education in Culture: What do you know, another post about education. This one addresses what I believe to be the fundamental problem with our education system overall, namely that our culture does not value education.

4) Travelogue II: Fear and Hope: In addition to reminding me of my most recent visit to Oregon, this post addresses race, our fear of "the other," and why libraries are not only awesome for pragmatic reasons but also for their implications for our society's philosophy.

3) Only a God Can Save Us: I think that the struggle to connect with our fellow humans is one of the, if not the, most important struggle that faces us in this world, and Nazis are not exempt from humanity. Sometimes we may try to set Nazis somehow beyond humanity, beyond the pale, but I think this is a serious error, and by contemplating the horrors spawned by the last century, in some ways we contemplate ourselves. I plan to write more on this in a post soon. This post also lacks a single comment, and I am unsure why, do people think I am way off base, or am I saying something so obviously true that it hardly bears mentioning?

2) Poker Face: As I have already mentioned, I think relationships and other people are kind of important. This post, in addition to being the first in my series on music videos, addresses the problems with knowing other people and being known to them, and the importance of continually trying.

1) The "Three 'R's": While much of this ordering was difficult, I am sure that this is my absolute favorite post thus far. Another education post, I attempt, with an indeterminate amount of success, to address what education and thought itself mean in a fundamental way, and why I believe them to be important enough to devote a large portion of my time to. Another post which has sparse feedback, and again I am unsure if it is because I am on the mark or well off of it. On the other hand, I seemed to inspire my sister to write a post in a similar vein, so I guess this post inspired someone other than myself, which makes me happy.

As mentioned, there were sixteen posts which I thought were quite worthy of note, so if you think I missed one of my most important posts, odds are I agree with you. My posts on feminism were almost overlooked in this list, although they are certainly of great importance to me. Again, aside from #1, much of my ordering was haphazard, chosen only to get a decision made.

In regards to the future of the blog, I always welcome inspiration from my readers, or their own blogs, and I have my sister, Karen, and ElfArmy to thank for the inspiration for quite a few of my own posts. If people want to see posts on a specific topic, or more posts on a theme that I have previously explored, please feel free to express that desire. That said, I also have a backlog of post ideas sitting in a draft, and the list has reached the rather impressive number of 13. I plan to do at least a couple responding to various TED talks I have watched, and also a couple responding to inspiration from webcomics that I read.

As I noted earlier, this blog has deviated quite significantly from my original idea of a political blog. As such, I am considering renaming my blog, and perhaps redecorating while I am at it. However, as I am not one who adapts to change easily, I felt it would be good to see what others thought about the idea of making such drastic, if cosmetic, changes to the blog.

We're Planning a Party!

As post 100 continues to creep closer, I have been wondering what I want to do with these last few posts leading up to it and with my 100th post. In my next couple of posts I want to write up some ideas I have had for a while. While my blog idea list continues to expand more than it shrinks, I would like to put out the third and final (planned) post in my Kantian respect and in my philosophy of pop music series.

That will take me up to post one hundred. As for that post, while I have some ideas, I also would like to know if you have any thoughts. It is clear to me that the main reason I have stuck with it so long, albeit erratically, is the pleasure I get from reading your responses, especially those that present a new perspective from which to view the situation, or expand on a point I may have overlooked.

It is not often that someone as inherently flighty as I am puts this much effort into a personal hobby; there is an embarrassingly bad set of webcomics to attest to that, and even my math blog has been lacking in updates lately. That I made it this far is because this isn't just a personal hobby to me, this is a shared undertaking. So, it only makes sense that I at least invite you to help plan my 100th post, since you have already helped me get to a place that I can talk about writing it.

I check my pageview stats slightly obsessively, because it is nice to know that what I write is being read. However, in addition to corrupted data from reporting computerized accesses, by SpamBots and the like, pageviews cannot tell me how much people are thinking about a post. To gauge that I basically rely on comments. Nothing heartens me more than to see commenters engaging in discussions independent of my participation in the comment thread.

If you have a thought regarding the 100th post, please feel free to leave it. And, as always, feel free to respond if you feel the urge! I'm sure I'll say it again in a couple of days, but it bears repeating, thank you for getting me this far!

Administrivia

A couple of quick notes. I remain firmly committed to keeping my updates to the at most one per day rule. Since I would like it if people read and thought about every one of them, it seems that one a day may actually be too fast a tempo. However, you may notice I make exceptions, this happens when I post something I don't particularly care if people think about, although I still like being read ;). These administrative posts are one example, nothing much deep happening here. Another was the poem yesterday, I like it and all, but, in my opinion, it really isn't deep thought provoking. So, that's just a heads up as to where I'm at in regards to update schedule.

Like I said, I like to believe that I am being read. The main way I achieve that is through your feed back. Sure, when I have time off I obsessively stalk the stats page, gazing longingly at the page view count, but since my cynical side assumes most of those are bots or other automatic processes sizing up my turf, I don't put a ton of stock in it. So, if you are not commenting out of some mistaken belief that what you have to say is not relevant or worthwhile, please feel free to comment, I love comments. If you don't want to take the time, please do not feel obligated too! But, if there is something you feel like saying but you aren't sure, as long as it is polite (and I don't mean you have to agree with me, in fact, I kind of prefer when people don't), go ahead and post it.

On a related note, I love feed back where ever it comes from, I especially like it when it is on the post itself. The reason for this is that, ideally, other people will respond not only to my post, but to the comments already on it, and we can get a discussion going, and discussions are some of my favorite things in the whole world; deep conversations and dancing, my two favorite activities. Of course, I understand that in the past there have been issues with posting comments for some reason, or maybe you just don't feel comfortable doing so, or just don't want to. This is, of course, fine. If you want to post a comment, but find yourself unable to, if you get it to me in another way and tell me that you want it posted, I will post it under your first name, or whatever moniker you prefer.

Finally, although I'm whittling down my backlog of blog topics, I still have a selection available. So, I was going to see if people have any preference which they see first. However, I will describe them in my own vague style, where a post about value, commercialization, and Monsanto is actually about a call to my Grandma. So, the choices you have are my third post on music videos about the song Dead and Gone, my third post on Kant's categorical imperative about homeless people, a post about football, or a post about public transit. I may do a post about Facebook next, because it is timely (I was going to do it tonight, but this is actually turning into a substantial post, so probably tomorrow), but, if people express a preference, it will be the first of the four options that I get to. That should be enough for today, have a good night!

Capcha

I am irritated every time I have to enter a Captcha code to comment on a blog. After all, I know that I am human! Also, I sometimes forget to do the Captcha then don't comment. This is why my blog, currently, does not require a Captcha.

However, I do get a fair amount of SpamBot generated commenting. This isn't something I mind much, Blogger is fairly good about recognizing it and quarantining it, so I don't even need to delete it. I am disappointed to see an E-mail about a comment, then realize there is nothing personal and interesting in the comment. Since I encourage people to subscribe to the comment thread for posts that they comment on, it occurs to me that you too might suffer disappointment when disingenious comments are made.

So, I am opening it up to your input, what do you think about Captcha requirements to post on the blog? If people make a good argument for them, I'll implement them. After all, it isn't as though I'd need to verify my own comments, I think...

I'm In Ur Facebookz

Appearing in ur newsfeedz! I have been conflicted about using my status to announce new blog posts, although you probably came here from Facebook, so must realize that at the moment I am announcing them. In fact, I plan on continuing to do so for the foreseeable future, and here is my thoughts on the quandary.

The two big reasons that I am hesitant to spam Facebook about my little ol' blog are that it seems arrogant and impolite. Arrogant because it seems like I am announcing how worthwhile my blog is, when in fact I am quite unsure that it is worthwhile. Impolite because it feels like I am barging into your newsfeed unasked, invading your space in order to promote my own agenda, which seems to be cutting too close to violating Kant's categorical imperative, that we ought always treat others as beings with their own complex desires and needs, rather than only as a conduit through which we might achieve a desired goal. Furthermore, it seems slightly high-handed to assume that you want regular updates on my blog posts, when there exist some easy tools to receive exactly these updates, such as RSS feeds and E-mail, which don't involve me cluttering your Facebook.

Of course, one might argue that there is the mitigating fact that I am posting to my Facebook, which is an area of the web that I nominally control, and might be considered mine to do with as I will. I believe this is an oversimplification as, although my statuses are just that, my own, due to the system that Facebook uses, they routinely travel out to appear in your newsfeeds, a place that I would consider either yours, or at least public commons. An analogous situation might be a CD player that I own, although it is my personal possession, allowing me some freedom in what it plays, since the sound may travel out to the public, or even into the personal space of others, I have an obvious responsibility to consider their needs when making musical selections.

Since I posted on Facebook, you might imagine that there are better reasons for it than a mistaken belief that my Facebook page is part of my own petty, little kingdom. The biggest argument in favor is how glad I am to see my sister's statuses, informing me of her new posts. These help me realize that I am imagining that others view my actions much differently than I view similar actions when they are taken by others. In truth, I am always excited to read her new thoughts, and welcome the Facebook update, despite the fact that she is also in my RSS feed (located two the right under the title Inside Out); sometimes I miss seeing updates there, and another reminder is welcome. Indeed, not everyone knows how to set up an RSS... thingy (I only know, barely, because Blogger will do it for me). Finally, I do think that this blog is worthwhile, otherwise I would hardly put my time into it. Perhaps my thoughts or stylings are not terribly inspirational, but it serves as a location for me to engage in the exchange of ideas with friends new and old, and certainly that is worth something.

So, here are some things that you can expect (hope for...) to see from my blog. Updates about posts on Facebook, at least until I feel self-conscious and stop again. More frequent updates, although maybe not on a regulated schedule. As you may know, I am taking a philosophy course this semester, to save my sanity, and I think it would be nice to share thoughts that it inspires. On a related note, I am making a conscious effort to keep my terminology more widely accessible. My sister noted that sometimes my thought process is hard to follow as I assume the reader has the knowledge of someone who has studied a significant amount of philosophy. Since I want all to participate, and I think everyone will get more out of the posts if they feel more like a friendly discussion, rather than a lecture from a pompous "expert," this must change. Finally, if you would like to know when I update, through a method such as RSS or E-mail, let me know somehow and I will try to figure out how to make that work for you.

One last change that I am considering making but nowhere near to implementing is making this a collaborative blog with other authors. As I mentioned, I think that intellectual engagement is best achieved when ideas are developed collaboratively, rather than combatatively (as is often the mode of academics) or unilaterally (coming up with ideas on your own, or imprinting your ideas on a passive audience in the manner of a heavy handed lecture, something of which I am occasionally guilty). I have no idea with whom I would collaborate, nor the specifics of such a partnership, but if you have an interest feel free to let me know somehow.

October, and the Crushing Weight of Existence

Well, today is the seventh of October. I did not want a week of October to pass by without a post, so it seems I am logically compelled to post today. As you may have noticed, I failed to keep to my MWF updates, even after F became "weekend." So, I am setting a less strenuous schedule for myself this month. In short, I shall update at least once every seven days, about a topic of my choosing. I have quite a few posts about the education system and education in general running around in my head, in embarrassingly unpolished format unfortunately, so that may become this month's impromptu subject. This is fitting, as many of the people I imagine read my blog are educators.

Since just updating you upon my plans for updating this blog in October seems like a terrible cop out on my part, I am also going to post something that I wrote elsewhere, about my experiences walking home today.

I finished the book I was reading, Sophie's World, today, which I think warrants a celebration. In what I read today, the existentialists were covered, and the author talked about Sartre's notion that as beings that exist, we owe it to ourselves to do SOMETHING with our existence. Oddly enough, both of the books I have read this school year have inspired this thought in me, as it has been nagging me since I finished Deadline, by Chris Crutcher. I imagine that I was previously aware of Sartre's thought on the subject, because we talked a bit about existentialism in a Feminist Philosophy course when I was an undergrad.

Anyway, as I was walking home under the darkened sky, I almost began crying at the thought of how much I would never understand. Then, as I almost was home, it occurred to me that my dissatisfaction may be because I have lost my faith in mathematics. I remember being quite upset in high school when I realized that there were open problems in mathematics, that is, statements that we are fairly sure are either true or false, but we cannot prove certainly to be one or the other. However, I stuck with mathematics, as it seemed the best method to make sense out of the chaos by which we are surrounded.

Now though, I inch out along a slender branch, toward the tips of a tree of mathematical knowledge, seeking the budding areas where soon new growth will occur. My problem is no longer that these areas of uncertainty exist, but that in reaching them, I have lost sight of the ground from which I began my climb. In an attempt to gain an advantageous viewpoint of my surroundings, I have instead become so myopically focused on the tree I am climbing that I have lost track of my surroundings entirely.

The natural follow up question I asked myself is, would studying philosophy become a remedy to this myopia, or merely a repetition of the mistake that I have already made once? I suppose that since philosophy often concerns itself with the larger picture of what is and what should, it may be more conducive to keeping the vastness and wonder of existence in focus. However, I do believe that more than a few great philosophers have found themselves staring into philosophy and discovering an ever hungry void of uncertainty that has scarred them to the soul.

Anyway, since I have no dependents, nor partner, nor expectation or inclination for this to change in the immediate future, I have great freedom, what Sartre might describe as terrifying freedom, to shape my life at this point. It seems only fitting that I take some time to reflect on what I owe it to myself to do with that freedom. Of course, if you have any suggestions, fill free to leave them, I obviously am not making too much progress upon my own.

It's September!

So, last Tuesday I asked what people thought about some ideas for changes to my blog. I got one response, saying that everything I suggested sounded interesting, which is somewhat flattering. However, you are still welcome to go submit your input if you want to deflate my ego a little, steer me towards a specific track, or suggest something I may have overlooked. For now I think I'll set a schedule for September and go from there, who knows what we'll look like in October, it's exciting.

For September I am going to run a series on the Philosophy of Consciousness Fridays. I have the first one up, and you can expect the next one at the end of this week. Mondays (ooo, that's today!) will be an informal day, hopefully updating you on my life, or whatever. Then Wednesdays I shall put up some theological musings. I have decided to try to break the grip alliteration holds upon my mind, so theology will not be on Thursdays, and this will not be Sci-Fi September. On that note, I do have a series of Sci-Fi themed posts brewing, and they were going to go up this month, but I found the idea of consciousness more interesting, so it went first.

I have been trying to read more, those of you who knew me in high school, or earlier, probably remember that I was a voracious reader. I have let that facet of my personality slip, to my detriment I believe. Earlier this month I read Blindsight, a really bleak but interesting Sci-Fi novel about aliens with a strong undercurrent of philosophy of consciousness/mind theme. This partially explains why that topic won out this month. Right now I am trying to get through a chapter of ManefestA each day, and I have Sophie's World stashed in my office for down time. Considering how absolutely mind-numbing office hours are sometimes (often), I think stashing a book in there will really improve my mental habits. Sophie's World was recommended to me as an interesting fictional narrative which introduces one to a basic overview of Western Philosophy, ManefestA, as I understand it, is an overview of the state of Third Wave feminism as of the year 2000.

Went to a Labor Day get together with graduates from the math department today. There was food and conversation, the host had a really nice townhouse. Not much to say there, I am trying to be more social in Michigan, seems useful if I am going to be here three to five more years, never say I don't try. On the here x years more, those of you who follow me on FaceBook (FB) may have noticed I passed my third qualifying exam two weeks ago, knocking over another hurdle in my way on the math to philosophical doctor-hood.

The classes I am taking seem ok. I definitely like Group Theory, and am thinking of going into that subject, a scary decision I now face having completed quals. Algebraic Geometry seems like it will be tolerable, the first day was an incomprehensible overview of the subject, and I didn't sleep Thursday night so Friday was a bit blurry, but seemed to be familiar material, introducing affine and projective spaces and varieties, you know ;). Number Theory meets for the first time Wednesday.

As for teaching, I am solidifying my decision to pursue a Philosophy Ph.D. after I finish here (hopefully finish=get doctorate). I am sure my students are decent pupils, they are taking Calc II, which is something that indifferent math students can certainly do, but they are taking it in the evening, that must mean something? However, I hardly get any intellectual enthusiasm from them. My lectures feel boring even to me, but when I try to liven it up by asking questions, I feel like I am pulling teeth. I really want to try teaching a discussion based class, but don't feel that is the most appropriate manner in which to teach math, especially to 38 students. I know a lot of people are down on mathematics, saying they don't like it and whatnot. But consider this, how do you think your teacher feels being stuck lecturing to an apathetic crowd who bring almost no energy or feedback to the relationship? Sorry for the mini-rant, I get depressed at how dehumanizing teaching sometimes is.

Oh, back to reading! I am planning to attempt the Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus by Wittgenstein, which might be the seminal piece in analytic philosophy and modern philosophy of language. If other people want to read it, I would certainly welcome a support group to hold each other accountable for timely reading and with whom to discuss the content. It is also considered one of the more opaque works of philosophy, so perhaps a background in reading philosophy would be helpful, but I certainly wouldn't turn down any people desiring to participate. I got my copy Friday, but I am definitely waiting until I finish ManefestA to begin.

That seems to be enough, have a good week!

Feedback Appreciated

Well, today is the last day of August, and as things end other things begin. When things begin, I often wonder how they should go. So, today I thought the question should be, how do you want this blog to go? I have some specifics that I have been considering, so I thought that I would run them by you.

The current format is a post with content I find interesting on Fridays (Philosophical Friday), and questions on Tuesdays (Response Tuesday). How is that working for you? I have trimmed out my more frequent updates in hopes of not giving readers content shock, but there are some things I have been considering adding. If I do add some stuff, I could add it here, and you could read it at your own discretion, or I could create a separate blog to segregate posts by topic.

Some of the topics I have considered giving voice are my daily life and religion. Also, I enjoyed having a theme in July, but when August's theme flopped *nasty glare at people who didn't suggest topics* I found I had fun making a post on a topic of my choice, like Find Your Song. So, I have considered putting one day in for topical thought provoking posts and one for a post of my whimsy.

So, if I did all of these and did them on my Blog my schedule might look something like the following. My Life Monday, Topical Tuesday, Response Wednesday, Theological Thursday, Free Choice Friday. Of course, that might be a lot of content to churn out, especially during the school year, but I could adjust things so I wrote on MWF one week and TTh the next.

So, my question to you is twofold. First, what content sounds interesting? Secondly, should I add it to this blog, or segregate it by topic?

Oh, if you happen to be stuck in a training meeting all day, here's a more open ended question to chew on. This occurred to me while driving past a log-truck filled with lumber. Specifically, are dead trees still trees? More generally, consider the boundaries of nouns, how do you tell when one "leaves" the category a noun describes? Are cats still "cats" after they die, are lions "cats", are stuffed animal cats "cats"?

Nose to the Grindstone

I feel like I have been remiss in being active within the comments. This is reprehensible as I like active comment threads. So, I am going to start with the most recent post and go back, commenting where I feel I should have. Tune in Tuesday for a question that I hope will generate feedback !

Summer Rots Your Brain

Upon waking up it occurred to me that today is Saturday. Which, by logical extension, means yesterday was Friday! Ooops. So I owe a good post of feminism to you, my dear reader. Unfortunately circumstances conspire to delay it a bit further. I have to head out soon, which coupled with the fact that I don't have a topic yet, makes it hard to complete the post before I go. However, I have a good long walk to my destination, so I shall be thinking of topics on my way. If you have a topic idea, feel free to suggest it. I should get around to giving you your well deserved post by this evening, so post quickly if you want to see it today.

Despite not knowing my post for today, or yesterday technically, I do know what I am talking about next Friday. So, if you do not get your idea in on time, you will not see it in July, but you certainly could see it in August. I am sorry for my deviation from schedule, it was entirely unintentional.

Housekeeping

Housekeeping express lane, 10 items or less.

1) Did a bit of tweaking to the site layout, thanks to everyone who gave feedback *aHEM*

2) I was worried that my great walls of text were daunting prospective readers, and since I don't really want to edit or present half explained ideas, I redesigned the site mainly to make it wider, so the entries seem shorter.

3) I am also worried that the volume of posts are discouraging, so, while I promise not to update more than once per day, I shall try to take some days off. Please respond to the validity of these two fears, if you want less of me feel free to say so.

4) In light of item #3, I am expecting to take tomorrow, Monday, off.

5) In addition to Thoughtful Fridays I think I shall institute Response Tuesdays, where each week my Tuesday update asks for a specific type of contribution. Last Tuesday I asked for subjects that people would want to see posts about.

6) I provided the first requested post yesterday, Saturday, so I do aim to please.

7) You may still send in subject ideas, even if I put up a new Response Tuesday before you take the time to.

8) If a suggested subject seems, in my sole consideration, appropriate for a Thoughtful Friday post I shall save it for a Friday after Femminist July. I am trying to get enough to make a Response August. Thankfully August only has 4 Fridays, so I only need four more topics to fill it up...

9) Today is a month since my bus pass expired, walking more places has enabled me to ride the buss 5 times this month, which saved me $17.

10) I'm doing something a bit different with my sleep schedule. If I seem loopy, all is well since I always seem loopy, if I seem really loopy, let's just let it slide since I really do want to try this. If I seem off my rocker insane, please give me a heads up so I can take that into consideration.

Do the Time Warp

So, I wasn't going to post until Friday, partially out of passive-aggressive response to the lack of response to what you want me to do, and partially because I was worried that the lack of response is because I am simply overwhelming people with me post frequency. Then it occurred to me, I did write a post where I quite explicitly said I would be making an effort to post thoughtful material only on Friday, and maybe people just underestimated how much non-thought-provoking material I can come up with during the week. If that is the case, and you are reading this after Friday's post, I am sorry for the ton of stuff I put up here secretly this week. It is summer, my class is over, and I am a little BORED, though the weather is helping, I am too uncomfortable to worry too much about being bored.

Anyway, I put up a discussion of some lyrics I wrote, the lyrics, then a horrible quality file of me singing the song. Then I put up links to a better quality file, and to two better quality projects. I also had a thoughtful post on the 4th, which got exempted from the Friday rule due to holiday. Finally I asked for more participation from you (unless you happen to be Kenny proofreading this), because I can think these thoughts all night long (and have) without putting them online. I put them online so they can develop, which only happens with your help, or at least entertain/interest you, which can be done without your response, but I won't know what is entertaining/interesting you so I may not be able to tailor what I do to your desires. So, that's the interesting stuff since last Friday in a nutshell, if I forgot something it probably wasn't that important.

For those of you who linked from FB, I promised a viewing of my "to-do" list. I posted this on June 14th 2005, so it was really cool to see what I have done. If you have suggestions or want to help me with unpursued goals, please let me know! Isn't that a good excuse to leave a comment?

"So while I'm not doing anything I thought I'd list some things I want to do with my life, and maybe get started on them.

Visit the British Isles and while I'm there see Hadrian's Wall
Visit Rome after I...
Learn Italian after I...
Learn German
Ride the trans-Siberian railway
Write a novel I'm happy with, even if it is never published
Teach high school at least once
Teach at a university at least once
Live in a city and not drive a car
Live where I'm the only house in sight
Live in the outdoors for weeks at a time, kayaking, canoeing, or backpacking
Get a BA in a liberal arts subject
Program a computer game I am proud of"

First off, notice how I have time to kill in the summers...
1) I have not visited Britan or Hadrian's Wall, still to-do.
2) Also no, hmm, maybe I should get around to getting that passport, but first...
3) Still no, wow, a discouraging start, fortunately...
4) Took two years at OSU, and will take more for my PhD, I wouldn't consider it "learned," but enough for a check mark.
5) Nope.
6) Uh-uh (no). Although, I have plenty of ideas, I guess I need to settle in for some productivity and start some time.
7) Nope, and I hope I don't need to get to much licensing to complete this goal, maybe a private school?
8) I'm going to put a check mark here, although I am not a professor, I have taught classes at Michigan State University. New goal, have control of the syllabus.
9) Check, Lansing had better count, since from where I'm standing it sure seems like a big city, and I do not own a car.
10) Doesn't count if my parents decided to move there, or I think I'd have been done at birth. Doing this while being car-less and a university student would be hard.
11) I'll give this a maybe, I spent 5 days on an AWESOME kayak trip later that same summer, which I certainly think counts, but I want to do this again, so it stays.
12) Definitely a check, I was considering Anthropology when I wrote this, but that requires you to talk to strangers, my BA in Philosophy counts (and was also awesome, and the reason I got 4 done).
13) Not yet, and this one I may have to drop, or amend, since I have sensibly decided that I don't ever want to do that much programming myself. Storyboarding a game would be fun, working on game mechanics would be fun, but writing the code, that's a task I want some help with. So, who wants to make a game (and has the necessary knowledge to make up for my ignorance)?

Well, I'm proud of what I've accomplished (almost 25% there, now if I just live to be 100...).

Complaint/Challenge: In Which I Use the Slash A Lot

I have been updating a lot recently and I just wanted to reassure people that I am going to limit myself to one post per day. So the most you will have to deal with is one post per day, and you can expect at least one post per week, on or near Friday, which should be something which I think is thought-provoking.

Now to my promised complaint, since it is no longer Independence Day, which I hope everyone enjoyed by the way. Atheists are Amoral Animals had 19 comments, of which I believe 6 were mine, which was a rousing success in my book. My two most recent Friday posts have 3 comments total, if I add in the other things I have posted on other days I believe the total jumps to 6. Now, I suppose it helps that my Atheist argument seems to have been flawed, and you can look for a reformulation in the future to try to save it, but I want more comments.

To encourage them, I shall pose a question to you, about what would you like to see me write? It can be a specific topic (the abolition of man, the book "The Abolition of Man," moral relativism, how I choose what clothing to buy), or a general suggestion (book/movie/videogame/pizza reviews or whatever). Please feel free to be as creative as you choose. Now, if the idea fits into a Friday format, and I get four (or five, depending on how long August is), then August will be commentator's choice month, which allows me to push my reformulation of Atheists into September since it won't fit Feminist July.

Now, an incentive, I hope, if you comment here on a post in the next two weeks, that is, until Friday of next week, and let me know what your blog/livejournal/WordPress or analogous project is, I shall post at least one comment on EACH post you make in the same time frame. You may of course opt out by letting me know in your comment or some other form that you don't want me showing up a ton of times in your project comments. Even if you don't want me blathering on your site, please feel free to pass along a link, so I can at least read it.

The Temptation to Type

It is sometimes hard not to put up a post when I have an idea in my head. I bother to restrain myself for two reasons that I can think of. First, sometimes it is hard to come up with an idea for a post, so might as well save them for Fridays. Second, keeping a once a week schedule not only ensures that I am putting up content to entice you, my treasured friends and collaborators in this, to keep coming back, but also helps me not to feel pressured to present posts at such a prodigious or prolific pace as to burn myself out.

Hmm, I'm riding some kind of alliteration riff today. Also, as much as I tend. to argue, after some thought I have decided that arguing with my friends all the time might not be the best form of communication. Thus, having alienated both my conservative and liberal friends by this point, I am going to try to present thoughts, rather than positions on debates, for the immediate future. I still highly enjoy and appreciate comments, critiques, contributions, and even affirmation, even though it doesn't start with a hard 'c' sound.

So I don't forget the thoughts that I am currently restraining myself from talking about, here is a cryptic preview of my planned topics for the next couple weeks.

Feminism

Perception of Education

Old Gamers Never Die

They just blow on their cartridges a lot. I have to admit that I never was a hardcore gamer, but I was a fairly serious recreational gamer (and have the Mario Kart 64 skills to prove it). I also did die quite often, though it was great fun. However, I left that lifestyle behind me, for the most part, when I was at my undergrad; perhaps not so much due to my diligent studies (unless you happen to be one of my parents), but more because of the many opportunities to engage in fun activities with my peer group. This is of course how I gained my crazy boardgame addiction.

Here in Michigan, where the boardgames do not roam as freely, I occasionally find myself with an abundance of time. In light of this I am returning to my roots and, once again, hoisting the controller aloft, this time to a new generation of games. This post is to say, I am not impressed.

While graphics have improved with the time, the essence of the game has, in a word, atrophied. I would separate the games I have played into two broad categories. One includes games with wonderful gameplay but no overarching story, or at best a weak facsimile thereof. While enjoyable, keep in mind that they are competing with MS Hearts. The other is characterized by a deep, even enthralling, plot line, which tragically is supplemented with an actual game that is indifferent at best.

Into this category I place Mass Effect and FF XIII, although they are engrossing to watch, and I intend to finish them at least once, I am somewhat dismayed at the lackluster game beneath the lovely story. As a DM, I believe that my appreciation for background information ranks up there with two year olds and people who have actually read the Silmarillion, but when I buy a game I hope to feel like I am playing something. Honestly, FF XIII comes on three CD's, if I had that kind of time I would read the Silmarillion. While in Mass Effect I at least get the feeling that I am making decisions and entering a role, in FF XIII I feel like I am watching a stunningly gorgeous and stunningly long movie.

Perhaps I am being too harsh on these games. The measure by which I judge them has been set by Chrono Trigger, FF III (6), Earthbound, and Secret of Mana, which may be an unbeatable standard. Even if we cannot exceed the games of our ancestors, I would ask that we at least produce games of a similar quality, worthy heirs to the legacy.

In other news, I think that, in addition to my Friday philosophical post, I shall try to put up a post, or even two, midweek on a lighter note. So all my friends out there see how absolutely glamorous my life is.

The Way of Things

First off, thank you to everyone who has visited and read my ramblings. A very special thank you for those who gave me attention, um, I mean feedback. I have decided that it is my goal to put up a substantial post on a matter worthy of discussion at least once a week, thus you can look for one tomorrow. I am hoping that this schedule will prove less stressful than the same time line for my, currently defunct, webcomic. This seems reasonable since I am a licensed and trained pontificator, but a supremely unskilled artist. Supplementing the meaty posts will be updates on my life, things I think are funny, and other random posts (such as this one) as I feel moved or as is requested. Let me reiterate, this is not my weekly (hopefully) thought provoking post, this is a post about that post, a meta-post if you will.

Because the title of my blog is premised on my being a rational centrist, rather than accepting either leftist or right-wing dogma, and because the majority of my friends are left leaning, I wanted to choose a topic this week that would seem less acceptable to liberals. This is under the assumption that most of them would agree with my stance on abortion, which is unlikely to garner any interesting arguments from them. (Although there were some thought provoking responses, I didn't get any clear rebuttles, and what is the fun in that?) To that end, tomorrow I shall be presenting my argument why people who do not have faith in a higher power/order cannot be moral. Please do not lambaste me yet, wait for the post before you mentally skewer me.

This is a thought I have had for a few years now, though it hasn't had the polishing that comes from much discussion yet. However, one of my goals for this blog is to generate new thoughts and ideas. To this end, please feel free to let me know if there is a topic you would like me to give my view on. Once I am done teaching, in two weeks (Huzzah!), I would even be willing to read papers/books that are recommended to me, in moderation of course. Until tomorrow, think thoughtful thoughts!