"Undermining my electoral viability since 2001."

Acid Dreams

Burroughs was never into drugs simply for a good time. Despite his psilocyben bummer he agreed to go to Cambridge to participate in further experiments in consciousness alteration. Burroughs looked forward to working with sensory deprivation and submersion tanks, stroboscopes, machines to measure brain waves, and all the technologies and wonders that a prestigous university could supply. But his hopes were dashed as soon as he arrived at Harvard. All he found was a semiperminant cocktail party with a bunch of starry-eyed intellectuals talking some half-assed jive about brotherly love.

From Acid Dreams, which is a cracking good book.

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Daddy State

I'd like to see some polling done on what the public response is to the phrase Daddy State, because that's what the Post-Modern GOP is all about.

I mean, I personally agree with Duncan -- I think it's pseudo-fascism -- but that's too esoteric or strong for most folks. Daddy State has a nice ring to it though.

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BarCampNYC On!

Jan 14th and 15th, BarCampNYC: registration is open. Should be innaresting.

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Happy New Year

New years party was good! The first thing our hostess said to me when I got there was "You cannot smoke pot in my apartment." The last thing was asking me to steal someone's girlfriend. At least that last bit was half-jokingly proposed, but still. Perhaps I should attend to my reputation a bit more in the New Year. Perhaps I should just run with it. That seems more likely.

Also, though I've read several books that explain -- both mathematically and sociologically -- why things like this happen, it still weirds me out when people in my extended social network, who I've never met before, knows and works with other people (on other coasts and continents even) that I also know and work with. It makes me feel more disconnected with the world, actually. Swimming in my own fishbowl.

And it makes me nervous when people say, "very well said," to things that I say. I mean, I like it, but that's what makes me nervous.

Finally, the Bulgarian bar just isn't what it used to be. Or maybe it's not quite as cool at 1am on Jan 1st as on a random summer friday. At any rate, there wasn't quite the dancing scene I was hoping for. Should have stayed at the party. C'est la vie. Still a good night in all.

I can't wait for this war to be over; can't wait for things to change. We're getting there. It's going to happen. Going to be a while yet I think, but overall I'm cautiously optimistic about the new year and the 21st Century in general. I still expect near-catastrophic upheval to roil the globe, but I generally think I'll do ok for myself.

It's the year of dropping the hammer, a year to start building. I have project plans in the works, business plans, creative plans, etc. Thinking about trying to make something immenseley popular or visible. It's time I started putting my skill-blend to use. I don't want to be building websites for other people for the rest of my life.

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Gobby

Gobby

For serious nerds only. THIS IS THE MF SHIZ! It promises to revolutionize my workflow.

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Big Thoughts

Thinking outside the box is something I like to try around the new year. I don't really do resolutions, but I do do plans.

I'm a little aimless at the moment. Back in early 2003 I wrote myself a little document, a personal manifesto/plan of sorts, which turned out to be decently inspirational.

It's time to start digging in for the year of dropping the hammer.

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Football Rankings

Getting ready to watch Oregon vs. Oklahoma, and it prompts some interesting questions about rankings. Everyone's got a gripe about the BCS, yeah, but I'm not going to to get into that. What I want to know is how Oregon can be in the top 10 of every poll and the BCS rankings, and Oklahoma can be unranked, and yet OU is favored on the betting line by three points.

That's a pretty significant disagreement in terms of team quality between the oddsmakers and the other ranking systems. Maybe this has something to do with the fact that the bookies have money on the line and the top-25 polls are more about marketing and bragging rights. Interesting.

Go Ducks!

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Conclusion: Vegas is smart. They called it correct: Oklahoma by 3. Also, my pithy comparison of overall rankings and individual game odds is a bit apples-n-oranges. As this game showed, player health can impact an individual game quite a bit. A healthy Kellen Clemens would have made a big difference for Oregon.

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Talent

Farsheed and his friends are talented. That's him on the typewriter, drums and keyboard.

Oh man. The art jonze.

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Net Girl Power

New Pew Study: US internet-using population has more woman then men. In fact, 86 percent of women ages 18-29 are online, compared to 80 of men.

The internet: just like theater school? Well, not quite, but it's an encouraging statistic, especially when it comes to the all-important odds of my getting slutty chicks from myspace to IM me.

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Chavez Redux

Some hepcat with the juice to post on Josh Marshall's TPM Cafe -- which means he's someone with a respectable job in DC -- has written a counter-wonk piece describing the biased way in which the US newsmedia, even the wonkishly-legit Foreign Policy, treats Hugo Chavez:

In its zeal to create an imaginary "dictatorship" in Venezuela, the Foreign Policy article ignores this anti-democratic role of the opposition, supported by Washington. It is also worth noting that the opposition can pursue such tactics that would have no chance of success in most other democracies because it still controls most of the Venezuelan media.

It's really quite unfortunate that the US media seems so relentlessly partisan on Venezuela.

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