Is one that many of my friends have heard me rant about before, but because it happened in a presentation last night, well, I felt it was necessary for me to repeat.

Wikipedia.

I’m not some fabulous writer or some amazing researcher, but I can tell you one thing: if you are writing ANYTHING at all, NEVER EVER EVER cite Wikipedia as a reference.

Sure, I know that more often than not when I mention someone or something that I link to Wikipedia here. I think, though, for the basic blogging world, its not too bad to run with and have a comment or two or quickly reference back. Why? Well, if I didn’t know what was what and I read it on a blog? My first instinct is to either Google it or search for it on Wikipedia. So why not just save the work?

Yet, in a research paper? Its completely inappropriate. When you’re researching, the facts have to be accurate, sure, and reputable. People think that Wikipedia is some sort of ultimate online encyclopedia. The issue there, is that its user editable and anyone can write in it or edit it as they’d like. Sure, its moderated, but its not perfectly seamless. I have three examples for you on this one.

1) There’s a classic incident where an individual had written some false information about the Kennedy assassination on a writer’s wikipedia entry. The man’s reputation was drug to the dirt.

2) This past week right after Tim Russert’s passing, a ton of edits were done to his page by people trying to defame him for one reason or another. I witnessed one of them myself when I refreshed the page and it redirected me to this article, with the header “Tim Russert.” I’m sorry, not funny.

3) I was ranting about this same thing and an acquaintance of mine told me that they knew someone who quoted Abraham Lincoln as being “the first black president” because they found it on Wikipedia. Someone had edited the article and put that in and the person happened to find the article after the edit and use it for their paper.

The examples just seem to go on-and-on about issues in reliability and accuracy, but the truth is in Wikipedia’s own words on their reliability. They acknowledge that there is a lot of accuracy in the articles, but that there might be some issues. A good way to look at it is this editorial article from The Guardian from a few years back. While 3 years old, it has the right idea.

The right idea? Use Wikipedia as a springboard. In the two groups that I’m in this semester, that’s exactly what I told my teammates: Cite Wikipedia and we’ll have problems. The honest to goodness best way to use Wikipedia is just to get a general idea of the information and then from there, go to the sources of the article. Its a great way to find what you’re looking for. Think of it like a Google search giving you some prose response, but to cite Wikipedia?

I’m sorry but in my mind, that’s not a good idea. Anyone could go in and switch up a number or two here or there and give you a completely false figure. Change a few “billions” to “millions” and move around decimal points and some scientific articles are worth nothing. Switch up a few names and you change everything.

The whole truth of the matter is simple: its only as good as the information that it cites or the sources it comes from. So maybe, why not just go to the sources?

We’re born into the Presidential Objective.

Every child growing up is told they could be an Astronaut, Fire Fighter, Doctor, Police Officer, or even President of the United States. All capitalized like that because they’re all important. And we reenforce these values as we grow up by making sure that we provide equal opportunities for each and every person, each and every day throughout their educational experience. Before they get out into that cruel and harsh Real World (not like the MTV show, which is also cruel and harsh), we provide them with the inspirational fuel that they’re all special and beautiful and unique little butterflies, and maybe, just maybe, they can do anything they want to in this world.

And what better way to look at it than this election cycle when a son of a naval war hero born in the Panama Canal zone, who served his country and was captured as a POW, and then after being a long-time senator is running for the presidential dream; when the son of a Kenyan immigrant and an American, born in Hawaii and raised between there and Indonesia, can go to law school and run for the presidential dream; and when the daughter raised by first generation Americans can be involved in conservative politics as a youth, marry a rising political star, and then run for her own presidential dream. We have three dream stories that show us that anything can happen. Just like the team winning the Stanley Cup, the World Series, or the Superbowl, they’re going to their political Disney World: 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue. And not just to visit, but to sit behind the Resolute desk with the pen from the Eagle’s talon in one hand and the arrows in the form of a red phone near the other.

And this dream, is one that in grade schools, we start teaching. We let children all take turns being line leader. We let children take turns cleaning the chalkboard erasers. We let children take turns being door holder. We give them this responsibility and tell them that everyone in class gets the same chance. But its that power of the title and the responsibility of the position that sets fire to that dream.

The same three individuals still in this presidential race of 2008 all had the same chances to be that door holder, eraser cleaner, or line leader. And the teachers in schools still set forth chances for those responsibilities all over again. And with this, we foster the American dream. The truth? That we hold it all self evident that everyone is created equal.

If there isn’t a better example of that anywhere, just look at the future jock, future geek, future cheerleader, and future goth all playing together in the sandbox, all taking turns being line leader, and all holding the door for each other.

So why should we care? Why should this make a difference?

Its hard to really think about politics as a whole. I know that, and we all recognize that. What makes it so hard is that you have to jump right into the thick of it. Where we hear names like Zbigniew Brzezinski, Allan Greenspan, and Henry Kissinger that are treated as giants. Its hard to imagine that in future generations, our kids will see people like Colin Powell, Karl Rove, and Howard Wolfson as great commentators for what we’re going through nowadays. But its all with the agendas that we hold.

Because even if we can’t be President, we can be unique. We can find that one thing that we’re good at and do it so well that we create what we call in business, a competitive advantage.

So, The Presidential Objective. As a whole, its about finding your own competitive advantage over every other person out ther. That we’re all equal, but that we all can find that one thing that makes us special and different and propels us to that presidential spot. To that highest of highs where we are so unique and so much greater than the other fourty something people who have currently come before us, and somehow the right person for the right time.

Because, no matter how old you are, you can be an Astronaut, Fire Fighter, Doctor, Police Officer, or even President of the United States. Its who we are, and what we are. And the second we forget that, we’re forgetting that we’re all the same. The goth, the cheerleader, the jock, and the geek.

Even a few days after the fact, I really don’t want to be thinking about this, but I prefaced myself on Sunday, and I’m ready to jump at it…

Assassination
noun
1. an attack intended to ruin someone’s reputation
2. murder of a public figure by surprise attack
Source: Dictionary.com

On May 23, 2008, Hillary Clinton was in a meeting with the Argus Editorial Board and when asked about staying in the race, she replied: “My husband did not wrap up the nomination in 1992 until he won the California primary somewhere in the middle of June, right? We all remember Bobby Kennedy was assassinated in June in California.” And then after those two sentences? The shit hit the fan and the pundits went wild.

That’s where we need to stop and look at everything rationally and see why this was such a big deal and an erroneous statement that was made. Or even if it WAS something to make a big deal about it.

1992 - Bill Clinton’s first presidential campaign. I was attempting to find the information online about this, however the only source that I can find is Wikipedia. And I honestly hate using it for final sourcing, until I found this neat little site that someone compiled. As you can see, the situation at hand was a sweep by Clinton in the majority of the primaries after what’s called “Super Tuesday” when the majority of states vote. The thing to note is that the first “Super Tuesday” of 1992 was on March 10th. In our current primary cycle? February 5th. A whole month worth of difference. That calendar shows an earlier clinch by Clinton, which him primarily campaigning to keep himself running. And also, with a primary cycle that started later than the current one, to be “going into June” meant a something a bit different.

1968 - Robert F. Kennedy was assassinated. There’s no mistaking the fact. But with a completely different primary schedule and calendar, its hardly a comparable race. Add to that the fact that when RFK was assassinated, the person who was running in second behind him was the one who got the nomination. Just because the front runner was no longer in the race, the party wasn’t thrown into complete shambles or disarray. Of course, you could say that they were, seeing 1968’s DNC established the current system of superdelegates and 50-state primary/caucus system for selecting the candidate.

And finally, the politics of assassination aren’t to be taken lightly. Gandhi, JFK, MLK, Lincoln, and Lennon to name a few, are names that when you hear them, you think of the brutal violence associated with them. You think of the movements they stood for and the way they’re idolized for their beliefs. You think of how in the prime of their speech as they stood tall in the face of all oppression, they didn’t falter, they didn’t waver.

Here we stand in 2008 with Barack Obama–representing a living breathing ideal of hope and change–and Hillary Clinton–representing women’s rights, empowerment, and strength. If either of these candidates were to fall, if either of them were to be assassinated, it would be the same tragedy as RFK, who stood for the youth and a return to the politics of his brother. And if either of these candidates were to fall, the other one would undoubtedly take their place as the Democratic nominee, carrying the banner of the other along with their own.

Hillary Clinton’s remarks were off color and uncalled for in those three regards with different measures to be used, and for the pundits and press to jump on her for a recall of her comments?

It was justifiable.

When you’re going to make any sort of historical reference in anything you do, you need to have citations for it: be it a paper or speaking. You need to know what the basic implications behind your words and what will be interpreted from what you say and the words that are said. You need to be careful what you’re inciting, whether you mean it or not.

We live in a world where anything we say can and could be used against us in a court of law. We can be held liable for these words, and we need to ensure that what we say is understood in the way we mean for it to be understood, and we do so by watching our words, understanding what we say, how we say it, and how it might be understood.

And that is why Senator Clinton shouldn’t have said what she said. I’m not going to harangue her any more than that because its not my place to say it. Its just plain and simple: when you’re under the spotlight and a microscope of scrutiny? You need to watch what you say because its under that same spotlight and microscope of scrutiny. Its as simple as that.

Just like when you were growing up and your mother told you to think about what you were going to say instead of just running your mouth…

With today being the day that Obama will probably have reached the presumptive nominee status on the electoral vote majority, I’m going to shift from primary writing to about the race as a whole. And if you’re interested in the primary coverage, I’d recommend the First Read blog over on MSNBC.com. Very well done and indepth, and one of the best political team coverages that I’ve seen… And let’s get into this…

MSNBC.com Video: Rachel Maddow and Geraldine Ferraro on Today

I kept seeing that clip on MSNBC this morning, dissecting the section about the Jay-Z gesture of “brush your shoulders off” and the Clinton “iron my shirt” sign. And in truth, I think that this race brought race and -isms to the forefront in a completely new light.

In the past, its fairly safe to say that it was old white guy versus old white guy in the nominations. Sure, Elizabeth Dole ran once, and JFK was our youngest president, and Alan Keyes and Jesse Jackson ran a time or two. The “script” has been broken in the past, but what makes it different is that its not us talking about someone who tried and dropped out after a state or two: we’re talking about two candidates that are strong choices for the Democratic party.

In some cases, anytime anything is said racially, there’s a jump to say that its racist against Obama… And now, as Clinton’s chances dwindle and the only math that works is Rove’s? The back-burner conversation has changed. No longer are we talking about racism, but about the dwindling chances of the first female president. I read more articles that sadden me daily about senior citizens that are out at rallies and are shedding solid tears because they see their chance for the first female president in their lifetime–their first honest to goodness solid chance with a strong candidate–dwindling.

Since day one, I’ve admitted to being an Obama supporter, but that’s not to say that I don’t respect Clinton. I have nothing but respect for her and the race she’s run at most points. I haven’t liked the attacks by either candidates against each other, and its gotten damn dirty, but that’s Obama choosing to change the rhetoric of running in this race.

The problem is, and its an interesting discussion at hand, we’re changing history. We’re living at the brink of something historic and we’re not talking about gender and race. Clinton is looking to break the highest glass ceiling in our country, and the inherent possibility that a black man will quite possibly make that move before her.

We make any vague reference, and its a race card, and we look to see who’s playing it. We dissect language for the smallest words to see any clues that might be at hand: Edwards saying “‘em” and it being interpreted as “him” about endorsing Obama on May 9th on Morning Joe; Obama brushing his shoulders off and talking about “Annie Oakley”. We look for the extraneous meaning to these, trying to point fingers at people for the “boo boos” of identity, rather than the actual messages. Why? Because we’re so used to calling people out for being racist or sexist that we feel the need to “be better” than those who we interpret as choosing to say these things. To quote an old story that Reagan told that Clinton’s told too: a young boy is shoveling manure out of a room and when asked why he’s shoveling away, he replies “with all of this horse shit, there’s gotta be a pony in there somewhere.”

We need to stop looking for the pony and start looking at ourselves. This is a dialogue that needs to be had. We need to be discussing race and gender and discrimination. Its a sad truth that we’re at this point in our society and we’re not ready for it. We can’t look past skin and gender with this difference… We can’t accept them for being American.

Melting pot, indeed.

I know that I’m putting off what I hinted at last week, but I’d like to have a few more ducks in order before I shoot them all down. I posted something over on my LiveJournal for friends of mine there, because I wanted my friends to know what was what before I went blabbering all over the whole intarweb, but its not hard for those who are intelligent enough to at least figure out the fringe details. Sorry that I haven’t posted about it here, though. I promise I’ll fill in most of the blanks hopefully by the end of the week. I want this to be better footed than just a reveal. I want this to be substantial.

So speaking about substantiability, I feel that its only fair that I mention something because I’m tired of seeing it.

Frequently, I find myself visiting the bathrooms on campus. Be it either a massive shadoobie that I need to squeak out, or just an overload of water and energy drinks in my system, sometimes you just have gotta go.

And like any other guy who knows the rules of the bathroom (don’t look to your sides, just straight ahead or down; shake twice, anything more is playing with it; urinal rules for spacing; courtesy flushes), well, there’s a common sense rule that I wish more people knew as a whole:

WASH YOUR FREAKING HANDS

I just left the bathroom and a guy who walked in after me was out before me. Why? Because I took time at the sink and some soap and water. Seriously.

When mankind dies epically in however many years that it takes and its from disease transmission, its because we didn’t cover our mouths when we sneezed, or we didn’t wash our hands after we did that, or maybe we wiped our asses with our left hand and didn’t use some soap.

People have looked at me funny when I throw a wet paper towel on the ground when there’s no trash can, right by a bathroom door. You want to know why? Because I tried to protect my hands for a few minutes after leaving the bathroom by washing them, and I’m not going to have that dashed at the door by the moron who walked in two minutes after me then shook three times at the urinal four down from me and then walked out five seconds before I did because he didn’t stop at the sink.

It doesn’t take much, and I’m no Adrian Monk, but this is just the least that anyone can do to be courteous to the person behind you.

Facebook and MySpace have gone too far. Seriously.

I remember a few months back when they added in this little feature called “applications” on Facebook. At first, some of them weren’t too bad: music players, other websites functionally integrated (Last.FM, LiveJournal, Digg, Fark), extended info boxes. Things that were mostly useful. That you could use more things alongside it, but they didn’t get in the way.

Then, came the vampire applications where you “recruited” friends. Then werewolves, then pirates, then ninjas, then major movie spin-offs. Then different versions of each pirate or werewolves. Then they added quizzes as applications so you could have some subjective quiz tell you that you’re a certain type of martini because of how complex you are as a unique and beautiful butterfly that you believe yourself to be from the biased questions that some generic person made with a stock Geddes photo attached. Just like all of the quizzes we used to find all of the time of “Which Power Ranger are you?” or “Which flower are you?” or my personal favorite, “Which My Little Pony are you?” Because lord knows my life isn’t complete without knowing that one.

Slowly, Facebook allowed ways to block applications, but for each application you block, there’s another five that you’ll have to soon block that are like it that some other company creates but tweaks a feature to make it into their own. And while I didn’t think it could get worse…

It did.

Because now, MySpace added applications too. And they made it a little harder to block them initially. But believe me, the second I found out how I could block it? I did.

My problem, though, is why do we need all of these applications?

Think about it. A social networking site should be simple, which is what Facebook originally did which distinguished itself from MySpace. It should be something where you can provide an easy profile and communicate who you are simply, and it should be used to log in, catch up with friends, and then move on and live your life. So there’s no reason to need 200 profile boxes, cluttering up this basic interface. That’s why I like Facebook better than MySpace: because it doesn’t crash; because the mobile interface is easy to use; and because as a majority, the profiles are all standardized and not all glittered up.

Yes, I’m guilty of using both for more than what they are, but I still try to keep it professional to some regards. I just don’t need those polls and quizzes, and they’re such an eyesore and a pain.

But please, folks, think about them before you click on them. And if you’re on them? Maybe look at the applications you’re using and see if they really do help you out at all… I mean, really… Do they?

Well, on the “fair success” that I saw on my posts last week on the democratic primaries, I thought I’d share a little insight on recent updates in the campaign.

After everything, why is Clinton still in the race is the biggest thing that I keep hearing. People think she’s hurting the presumptive Democratic candidate, Barack Obama. Others say that its because she’s trying to make up the $20 million in debt that she owes to creditors and herself. And even more have the thought that she’s appealing to the Superdelegates on each state that she’s winning. She’s expected to win tonight in WV by a high margin, and some think that this is her trying to fuel things. And with that WV win, there’s talk that she’s staying in just so the presumptive nominee doesn’t lose a state after he’s the presumptive nominee. The truth of the matter is, this isn’t a question that I have an answer for. By law, Clinton’s allowed to use up to half of her personal assets if she so chooses, which means there’s still more personal money. But if this isn’t recouped by the end of the process, well, then its lost. The only person who knows why Clinton is still in, is Clinton herself. We’ll see what happens as things go on.

Next up, the big one is what’s the deal with the superdelegate counts and delegate counts. In essence, each network uses their news feeds and does the best they can with them. I prefer to use the MSNBC count myself, just because they’re a bit more conservative/hesitant to add to the count, and I like Chuck Todd and the First Read Blog staff’s take. When it comes to the actual day of a primary, I like using the CNN Election Center because of their breakdown in the county-by-county returns as they come in. But, back to the question at hand. You see the difference in counts because it depends on the official endorsement statements, the candidate’s blogs, the AP wire statements, and the casual endorsements (like Edward’s nice words to both) versus the official endorsements. Its a really thin line there. And to give you an idea too, in the span of me typing this post, there have been two new superdelegate endorsements. And I’d be damn certain that by the time you read this post, there’ll be at least another, possibly more than that too by tomorrow this time.

And Florida and Michigan are back in the headlines, seeing Obama is starting to visit these states (I’ve been hearing rumors of Orlando for on May 20th/21st, I’m looking into it). There’s been a plan on the table that seats the Michigan and Florida delegates that Obama has agreed to and the DNC seems to be supporting as well. The catch, however, is that Clinton’s campaign doesn’t agree with it because it seats delegates for Obama from Michigan–the uncommitted votes. The catch is, the uncommitted votes aren’t exactly Obama supporters, but at the same time, some probably were. So needless to say, we’ll just have to see what happens there. The biggest thing to this are these points to remember:

(1) All candidates agree that delegates/votes in FL/MI won’t count.

(2) Clinton starts slipping and starts fumbling for some numbers and looks to FL/MI.

(3) Clinton calls for full acknowledgement of FL/MI “at all costs.”

(4) Clinton rejects option that everyone else agrees on but her.

Yes, I know that was a biased shot. So sue me, you were warned back on my first post on the Democratic primaries that I’m an Obama supporter.

There’s really nothing else that can be said about tonight. Its expected to be a 64-36 type of victory for Clinton tonight, but it doesn’t change the math all too much. There’s still about a 200 delegate lead by Obama, with him being about 120ish from the nomination/magic number.

We’ll just let the polls happen, and remember my important dates, as I said them earlier, with some new notes:

1) May 21th: Next Wednesday I didn’t mention before, but at this point, Obama will have presumably clinched the majority of the pledged delegates and could assumedly claim the presumptive nominee status.

2) May 31st: Democratic National Committee meeting on Florida and Michigan. With the early plans being rejected by Clinton, this is starting to really get interesting.

3) June 4th: The final primaries would have been the night before. No more pledged delegates after this point, we’ll be hearing from superdelegates around then.

4) August 25th-28th: The Democratic National Convention, which will determine who the actual candidate/ticket is.

And there you have it. Enjoy!

While reading friend’s blogs the other day, I came across this gem talking about Disney and ticket prices. And it hit home a bit after Sarah’s and my anniversary trip last week.

On our trip, we went to the Biltmore Estate in Asheville, North Carolina. That was pretty much the sole reason we went to Asheville. Sarah had read about their award winning wines and the estate looked beautiful, so she thought it’d be something fun to do. I agreed because, well, free wine tastings are always good.

So we get to Asheville around 1pm or so on the 29th and we stop at the ticket/information center. And that’s where our jaws dropped.

You see, to get onto the property, you have to buy a ticket. That doesn’t sound bad, until you see that the price for a ticket is $47. Per person.

Now, let’s think about this. You’re visiting a giant house with 43 bathrooms. There’s a beautiful garden nearby, some expensive, high-quality restaurants, and if you want an audio tour or one of their other tours there, they’re about $15 a person on top of the price you already paid for the tickets. Of course, you do get a complementary wine tasting, but still.

So for us to get in to see everything, we’d be paying about $94 and tax. Just to walk around a house and taste wine. Hell, if I wanted to do that, I’d stay at home and buy a lot more wine.

The woman working at the register–who was a trainee at the estate–saw our hesitation and that we were only interested in the winery really and then tells us that there’s a disabled ticket that we could buy for $32. Well, saving about $15 a ticket, eh, we’ll bite. The catch to the disabled ticket, though, is that you’re only allowed admission on the second and first floors of the house. While that might seem like its a lot, the house is four stories and a basement, so you’d be missing three stories of the house.

So we buy our disabled tickets, feeling like our assholes have just been violated, and we begrudgingly park and head towards the house. And when we get to the front door, that’s when I see the sign about no cameras or cell phones allowed in use inside. Great. So we might have just saved $30, but we now can’t take pictures of our visit. So much for making that money up in pictures.

Even still, once we were in the house, noone checked our ticket and saw the small print that said “disabled.” We got to see all five levels of the house, and saved 1/3rd of our ticket price. We did a few other things, took some pictures of the gardens, bought some wine, and just enjoyed ourselves before going out to a hibachi dinner at a local restaurant down the road.

But the point I wanted to get at is that we’re sitting here and charging so much for these attractions, and I understand that the money here goes to the restoration of the property, but maybe there should be a limit to things there. When we were there on property, we brought the average age drastically down. Most of the elderly folks on the property were staring at us, wondering what a couple of our age might have of interest at a property that was so hoity toity, so high strung. It was strange for them to see a couple who actually still had color to their hair and didn’t have a stroller with them.

Maybe, just maybe, we should let things be a bit more open. Maybe we should just lower some of these “entertainment/amusement” prices and let people enjoy them more rather than worry about their wallet or avoid them all together. I dunno, there’s really no way to think about it seeing its privately held or owned, just like the Biltmore, Disney, Hard Rock, Universal, Sea World, etc. But when you’re thinking about the admission costs, that high initial sunk cost with little to nothing to show for it just doesn’t feel right at a place like Biltmore. Sure, you get some more out of Disney/Universal/Sea World for rides, animals, and sight-seeing, but there are historical places like Biltmore that could be much better for the costs they have, or could reconsider their costs.

But the most fun we had for the least amount of money had to be hiking up to Anna Ruby Falls. For $2, we were able to park and walk up to enjoy that. And I got to take pictures.

Suck it, Biltmore.

So for anyone who might have read my post yesterday about politics, I figured I’d follow it up with another one for people who are wondering what’s what.

First of all, let’s start at the beginning there.

Indiana - Clinton wins by 2% of the popular vote, roughly 20k votes
North Carolina - Obama wins by 14% of the popular vote, roughly 260k votes

So what does this mean? The key is this comes in a few things:

Popular Vote - Clinton has used this as a key argument. If you look at yesterday alone, she is down 240k votes from last night alone. Clinton has introduced the argument of including Florida and Michigan’s popular votes. The problem comes in with the fact that the caucus delegates don’t have a popular vote tied to them, so that would have to be projected and guessed. And caucuses are a discussion for another time.
Electoral Vote - As I didn’t mention yesterday, Obama was the presumptive front-runner. Depending on which news source you go to for your counts, the superdelegates electoral count shows Clinton in the lead by about 15 or so and the pledged delegates are in Obama’s favor by about 160. When you add all of that together, Obama’s about 145ish or so in the lead and at a point where he’s just under 200 delegates from the nomination point. Clinton is under 400 back from that point.
States Won - By my rough count, Obama’s won 29 states to Clinton’s 16. If I’m off, don’t shoot me. I didn’t include Guam, Virgin Islands, Americans Abroad, and other such votes, but the key to this metric is the concept of “what are states worth.” Clinton has the argument that some of the states that Obama has won are historically not Democrat won states in the election and that she won the “important states” (Texas, NY, California, etc). Then there’s talk of swing states, small states, Florida and Michigan, and it sounds like 2000 all over again.
Florida and Michigan - Just see my comment on that yesterday.

So what does that mean today? Today, there are a lot of news items to listen for.

1) “50 State Plan” - While it might seem that because Obama has this lead in electoral delegates and popular vote and states won, it would seem that superdelegates would just start flocking to him. I heard Massachusetts Democratic Party Supervisor Deborah Kozikowski talking about this point this morning. The key to this is that most superdelegates will be waiting till after all states have cast their vote and the FL/MI ordeal has been resolved. So June 4th, as I said yesterday.

2) Clinton’s Self Loan - Apparently in April, Clinton gave herself $6.4 million for her campaign. Add this to the $5 million from the other month and that’s a total of $11.4 million (hooray basic math!). That being the case, the money trail goes to Bill’s book tours and speaking engagements. Last time this was the case that she loaned herself money, donors paid her back because of all of her victories. Howard Wolfson, a chief communication officer/strategist for Clinton, has said that she’ll loan herself more money as necessary. Watch her money and you’ll see what the future will hold for her campaign.

3) Defecting Big-Wigs - While I link specifically the McGovern unendorsement of Clinton and reendorsement of Obama, because of the results from last night, he might not be the only person with a big name you hear moving one way or another. I say it like that to be non-discriminatory, but you’ll hear more of them leaving Clinton and heading to Obama. In this case, McGovern isn’t a superdelegate, but you might hear the same with some of the superdelegates, which of course will change the electoral vote counts slightly.

4) Pundits Calling It - Last night begun this, and it’ll continue on. From the ones that I’ve heard of, Tim Russert was one of the first people to declare Obama the presumptive candidate. Others that I’ve seen on the list have included union leaders too. So just start listening to what is said by who. While the remaining states are probably pretty set in their voting ways in the way they look, well if there’s a shift in the way they’re “expected,” who knows.

5) The Convention Committees - I mentioned this yesterday, but we’re just going to have to wait. If there’s some issue with the May 31st meeting, there’s another meeting scheduled for June sometime for the FL/MI votes. This is just something to keep in mind and see what happens.

And I think that about sums up everything from last night. Its one of those things that we’re sort of “right back to where we started,” but because of the margin of victories, well, it makes it a bit clearer for Obama. The key, though, is whether its Obama or Clinton? In my mind, it just needs to be a Democrat in the White House. But my anti-McCain rant is for another time…

I’ve been talking to a friend of mine online and I explained everything succinctly to her in the span of about half an hour, and I think maybe there’s so much to this primary that people aren’t really understanding, so maybe a quick run down in my own words might help some folks understand this a little better as I half watch more pundits on MSNBC.

First of all, I’ll acknowledge a few things…

1) I’m no expert at this crap. I just watch at least an hour of MSNBC a day, sometimes more, so I’m just a bit more intelligent of a parrot.

2) I’m a liberal Democrat and I do support Obama, and I make this bias known and acknowledge it. I’m trying to be unbiased in this as I present what’s below, but understand that when I mention Clinton/Obama below? I’m not trying to slam one candidate or another.

3) This by no means is a definitive guide. I think its a good start to help explain it a little better… Or I hope…

So, let’s begin.

Delegates and superdelegates are the first big issue. Delegate numbers are assigned to the state. Then, the popular vote is figured out in the state (caucus or primary, we can explain those later). Delegates are then awarded proportionately to each person based on the popular vote. These delegates as people are then determined by the democratic parties and each candidate’s groups. These are the pledged delegates. These delegates are folks who are usually so set in their candidates that you’re not going to move them.

Now, what about the superdelegates? These are folks who are party elders, Democrats in Congress, Governors, former Presidents, and other party leaders. They don’t have to vote the way that their constituents vote or the way that their state votes as a whole (because you could have constituents in a county vote one way and the state as a whole another, of course). These folks vote the way that they want and the way that they feel best. Sometimes its for political reasons, sometimes its because they believe in the candidate. You can decide as a whole how you think it really is.

And the question this go round that Clinton has raised is how should these superdelegates vote? Clinton has said that they should vote based off of the leader of popular vote. the “must-win states,” or their conscience of who’s “electable.” Obama has said that they should consider the will of their delegates or the will of the people as a whole. And if I got that part wrong, well, the honest truth is this: the superdelegates vote as they think is best. And also to remember, just because they endorse a candidate now doesn’t mean they’ll vote for them at the final vote at the convention. It means they should, but still.

Next up, what happened with Florida and Michigan? There’s a long answer that you could read into, but here’s a good simplified version of it all. Iowa and New Hampshire always have the first two primaries and the early ones. There’s a lot of money for any state that moves their primaries up. The schedule was set for all states and they were told that if they moved up their primaries, they would face penalties from the Democratic National Committee. This was something agreed on by both parties and signed upon by all of the candidates. All of the candidates signed a “no-campaign” sheet, acknowledging that these two states would not be seated at the convention. At the same time too, Obama was not on the Michigan ballot. So, when the folks did vote in Florida and Michigan, Clinton won both states. Now, in the aftermath of everything, Clinton is trying to move for these two states to be seated to boost her numbers. Please understand that this is an argument for completely later…

Now, moving on… why are North Carolina and Indiana so important? After today, the majority of the delegates to be awarded come from that superdelegate number. Also, today the largest number of delegates for any one day remaining are divided out: 187 (72 for Indiana and 115 for North Carolina). There are three outcomes of tonight and here’s how they all read politically:

1) Obama wins both: If this happens, the appeal could be made that he’s won the most contests, the most delegates, and is ready for the nomination. It almost completely seals the delegate math against Clinton and makes it hard for her to really claim to have much of a continued stake in the race. This would probably have more superdelegates would declaring their support for Obama within the next week or two.

2) Clinton wins both: If this happens, Clinton has struck back strong and it shows that the electorate is wavering. It shows that people aren’t set fully behind Obama and that they might be having second thoughts, and that Pennsylvania strengthened her campaign. With this result, superdelegates might start coming out for Clinton, but more than likely might be quiet through till about June 4th.

3) Each candidate wins one: This is probably the most likely result from tonight with Clinton winning Indiana and Obama winning North Carolina. If this happens, the Democratic race remains the way its sitting and noone really advances in the superdelegates’ eyes. And then we just have to see.

Two things to remember with that: (1) Even in winning a state, if Obama or Clinton wins by a 55%-45% on the popular vote, they’ll only get that 55% of the delegates; (2) After today there are more superdelegates that are undeclared than pledged delegates that could be awarded to either campaign in the upcoming states (West Virginia, Kentucky, Oregon, Puerto Rico, Montana, and South Dakota). That means that in those states coming up, there won’t be as much “concern” as we’ve seen in the past. We’ll still see it, but most of the campaigning will be calls to superdelegates. Just keep both of those in mind, and I hope I didn’t lose you on it.

And if you’re still with me? Okay, the last really big thing comes with the important Democratic Primary dates ahead:

1) May 31st: On this day, the Democratic National Committee meets to see how to deal with Florida and Michigan. The outcomes on this day will be interesting. There probably will not be a solution that both candidates will be happy with, but we will just have to see.

2) June 4th: On this day, we would have had the last primaries the day before and there’ll be no more pledged delegates to be awarded (pending the DNC decision on Florida and Michigan). There should be a lot more superdelegates endorsing then and as a whole, there should be a presumptive candidate. That presumes, of course, that there was resolution on May 31st to Michigan and Florida.

3) August 25th-28th: The Democratic National Convention, which will determine who the actual candidate/ticket is.

And I hope that clears things up. When you turn on the news and you hear dates, candidates, delegates, superdelegates, Rev. Wright, gas tax holidays, Florida, Michigan, “elite,” and tons of other of the buzzwords, its sort of hard to sort things out for one side or the other.

Anyways, let me know if that helps, and if it does, please feel free to pass it along to others. It’ll help you read the paper and understand a little more for the water cooler in the morning, I’d imagine. And if not? Feel free to ask…

Well, as I sit here, I’ve played the sales support run-around game for about twenty minutes. You see, Sarah and I are in the market for a laptop computer. She’ll need one come August for Law School (more on that later) and she has specific specifications:

1) Windows XP Pro SP2
2) 2.0Ghz Pentium or AMD processor/1.3GHz Pentium M or Celeron M Processor
3) 512meg ram
4) 802.11g compatible wireless network card
5) 20gig+ hard drive
6) CD/DVD drive
7) 3.5″ drive or USB ports to plug one in
8) 3 year warranty or extended warranty

A fairly standard list of requirements, you know? Mid-level type of system. Well, the biggest problem is that XP is available for sale on so few systems. And for the ones that it is available on, for $100 more after all of the upgrades to it, you could get a Vista Ultimate system with much better specs (NVDIA graphics cards, fingerprint readers, 1-2megs more RAM, 100gigs more on the HD at about 3600rpm faster, .5Ghz faster processor). And why care about Vista Ultimate?

You see, Vista Ultimate is downgradeable to XP Pro. You can transfer your license to a version of XP Pro and use that instead. And trust me, for this laptop and its needs, XP Pro and that warranty are the biggest things.

And therein the problem lies. You see, when you get a $1,500ish laptop, that warranty is damn well important. Especially because you’re upgrading it to a three year warranty in our case. So with that all said, why not just find one of the few XP laptops left and use that? Because you’ll pay about the same money in purchasing it, AND if something goes wrong, you have the rights to Vista and XP.

So Sarah called up Dell because they were the preferred vendor in this transaction. Earlier in the day yesterday, around midday or so. The woman tells her yes, no problem at all, no warranties messed up. Sarah waits to talk to me that night and to hear from her dad. With no call back from him, we call about 20 minutes before Dell closes and then the sales rep tells her on the phone that if you downgrade, you void all of your warranties. Really? Well, that’s funny seeing you still have a EULA with Microsoft and you own the software. Huh. After keeping the guy about 20 minutes after he’s supposed to have left for the night, we pass on it and lose out on a deal that would have made a $2,300 laptop into a $1,400 laptop. A one day deal. Ah well.

We call after them HP. And the HP guy tells me that everything would be fine. It’d all be right as rain with no worries at all and no problems. But as I press him, because we need to be absolutely sure of this, he slowly reveals that if they were to take back a computer and find out that there’s a software issue and not a hardware issue? It’d be on our hands, not on theirs. So we wouldn’t be voiding the warranty but we’d be walking it across a tightrope and hoping that if we fall and land in the net below us, that we land in the net and don’t slip through the rope? Sounds about right.

And then I recalled Gateway.

You see, the junker computer that I use was originally a Gateway. A Celeron 1.3Ghz with a 40 gig HD and 512meg of RAM running XP Pro, I’ve since had a 150 gig HD slaved on for my music/data backup and upgraded to 2gigs of RAM. It still runs slow, but half of that is the internet speed of where it is.

And when I spoke with a guy from Gateway a night or two back about XP, he was extremely helpful in pointing me in the direction of a few that they carried, but that the warranties wouldn’t work right for us. Nice guy, and they’ve always been straightforward with me. So I tried them again and I spoke with someone in sales, and in his own words, “You purchased it with a Microsoft operating system and because you’d be returning it with a Microsoft operating system, you’re covered. Now, if you tried to change to Linux, then you might have problems.” Cool. Finally someone who understands. So we thank him and sleep on it.

This morning, I call up Dell to just check and confirm that what the second guy said is true. And after calling in, dealing with one of those “voice response” systems (which I completely hate, more later), getting transfered to a real live person who transfered me to someone who they said would be able to help me, who ended up being a second operator who transferred to someone who really was supposed to be able to help me? Well, I got a confirmation alright. If we were to downgrade to XP, we’d void our warranties. So obviously, the guy tries to sell me one of the XP systems. My response was simple as I’ve said it before about the capabilities and the specs, and at a $100-200 difference.

As a whole? It looks like dude, we’re not getting a Dell. Gateway’s an option, but if anyone has any suggestions for companies or brands, we’re open to suggestions…

Dear Mr. Young,

I have to admit that I’ve never really thought much of you and have never really been a fan. Yet, recently, I was a bit disturbed to read an article on MSNBC.com. In it, you claimed that music has long since lost its power to change the world. Upon reading this, any chance of me ever being a fan were washed away. Sir, I wonder what world you’re living in if that’s truely the case and why you are still making music.

I recognize that you have written some phenomenal music and have had some amazing concepts. Most recently, your album Living With War drew a lot of acclaim for its raw unabashed nature. Your classic songs like “Rockin’ In The Free World” and “Heart of Gold” are covered and acknowledged by musicians everywhere. And your nature as an outspoken individual of opinion and integrity has been upheld by all. But again, why does music no longer change the world?

Back in the late 1960s when your early career was starting I know a lot of forces were at work in the world between JFK’s assassination, Vietnam, and The Beatles, but to say that their music changed the world and what’s around now doesn’t is absurd. Back in those times, the music influenced many minds to live and create and act on what they heard. They were anthems for standing up and taking action. John Lennon’s “Imagine” was a call for peace, Hendrix’s version of “The Star Spangled Banner” cried out for freedom, and Stephen Stills–your own bandmate–called for awareness in Buffalo Springfield’s “For What It’s Worth.”

You’ve also got tons of other examples progressing from there. You have Dylan dancing with civil liberties in “Hurricane” and Nancy Sinatra calling for women’s “Boots Are Made For Walking.” The Bee Gees wanted people to just be “Stayin’ Alive” and KISS wanted to “Rock and Roll All Nite.” Lynyrd Skynyrd called for people to remember the south and “Sweet Home Alabama” and Stevie Ray Vaughan revived the “Texas Flood.”

Music, sir, has been what has flowed through so many veins. Sometimes, people had to write the songs because it wasn’t written and other times they found the solace in someone else’s words. And today, has that changed?

Not in the slightest.

If that was the case, why did you release your album Living With War? Oh that’s right, it wasn’t to make a statement, it was to make money.

And then, you have Will.I.Am’s “Yes We Can” song, which definitely has affected change. And that’s one of many examples. Each and every day, people wake up and pop on a song to start their day and to get their lives on the right foot. Because what they hear moves them.

Just like you’re moved to write music too, sir.

Music still is a force for change. And if you don’t believe that? Maybe you’re not writing a song that means anything to anyone other than yourself.

---

EDIT–23 April 2008, 9:47pm: Greetings to all whom might stumble upon this from ThrashersWheat.org. I appreciate the link-back. I know that this was something that actually appeared back in February, but I had written upon it back then and saved it as a draft until I could complete my thoughts. Even still, I feel like I haven’t completed my thoughts. But, I do appreciate you taking the time to read, and I openly welcome discussion if you’d like. And stick around if you see fit. The more the merrier, I say…

Well folks, while people might have tuned in to find out why I was in Tallahassee this past weekend, I’m not going to indulge that one just yet… Instead, I’d like to share a tale of apartment hunting.

Sarah and I had a great 1,200 sq. ft. apartment that we were living in up till the end of March, but the problem was, the lease expired in the middle of a school term. So with that, we were faced with finding a new place to stay till August when I’d be done with school. Not too bad, when you think about it, but when you add in a few key things, well, it makes it all the harder:

Two people living in one room

Cats allowed/not minded

Close to the campus because I have no car

While that doesn’t sound like a lofty list of demands/issues to take care of, well, it’s definitely plenty. And when we were looking, well, there were a few trends that we noticed occured on a regular basis… I’d like to go over them here because it shows just how much of assholes and stupid people can be.

1) We Have Cats: That means that we’re not getting rid of them. That means that if you don’t want cats or pets, don’t advertise pets allowed. Also, don’t back up on things.
2) Two People Doesn’t Mean…: That we’ll pay twice the rent because we’re sharing half of your space. If there are three people living in one apartment, we’ll pay 2/3rds of the electricity, but if we’re using half the space, we’re only paying half the rent. Yes, I’ve had people want to charge us twice the price because of three people in one place.
3) When We Say Close…: We mean close. Seriously. Don’t offer me something 5-10 miles away that I’m going to have to ride an hour to school on the Orlando bus. And also, when I say I have no car, don’t offer me something that’s not on the bus line, even if it is cheap.
4) And When You Post An Ad…: You need to follow up on it. That means if you’re on Craigslist, check your e-mail. If you’re on Facebook, check your Inbox. If you left your phone number, listen to and respond to your messages. Even if its to tell me that you’re busy, that’s alright. And make it timely, like 24-48 hours. You need to follow through or you’re not getting me in because I’ve tried and its in your hands, buddy.

And that’s where I have the greatest stories…
1) A guy had a 2/2 condo that he was looking for a renter for one of the rooms. The real estate agent himself thought we were a great fit, but when he contacted the condo owner, he didn’t think it was fair to the guy already living there for two people to move into one room. All of this after we already agreed to pay twice the utilities. We weren’t even shown the place. In all honesty? If you’re the owner of a place and someone’s going to pay your mortgage for a few months? In this market? Take it!
2) One guy was going to rent out his room in a 2/2 to us, and we’d have to pay all of the deposits to transfer things into our name, but his lease was through October. With us not needing it past August, it was a bit weird. It got even weirder when he stated that he’d be living on the couch in the living room. So in essence? It’d be 4 people in a 2/2 apartment, and we’d be paying his rent for a few months.
3) One girl replied and everything was perfect, absolutely perfect. I replied to her about her place and I didn’t hear back from her… until two days before our lease expired, a good two weeks after I replied to her. She apologized stating that she doesn’t check Facebook much. That’s sort of sad, seeing I replied not 2 hours after I got her message. Oh well, that’s not as much my loss but her loss.

So all of that said, like I had mentioned late last month, we have moved. Ironically the roommates we have now? They graduated one of my alma mater’s rival high schools c/o 2004. They were freshmen at Hernando High when I graduated Springstead High in 2001. Talk about interesting coincidences…

I’ve been thinking for a while about writing more reviews for this blog, and its something that I’d really like to start doing. But the question is why don’t I just do that? I mean, its easy to really just quickly review something, so why not just do that? The fact of the matter is because of the time I spent working for the UCF Independent? Its just not that simple for me.

Back from 2001 through mid-2004 or so, I was a writer for one of two campus papers before it folded and was bought out by the main paper. And my specialty was writing CD reviews, so I got it quickly down to an art. And when you’re writing reviews, you need to have it all down to a formula, especially when you’ve got two to three albums that you’re working on weekly like I often do nowadays. So what’s my formula?

I start off with a casual listen through of the album as a whole from start-to-finish. I let it sit in the background and then just do what I need to do. If it catches my attention, I’ll let it do that. If it just sleeps in the background? It does that. I just let it pass by and be there. After that, put it aside. Over the next day or so, I’ll not listen to it and see if something’s stuck with me. If I remember any of it, if the riffs or lyrics have caught me. After this day or two passes, I’ll take another listen to it, trying to pay a little more attention to the album. I’ll let another day or two pass, and then after that, I’ll play the album a third time (at least) and start writing the review while I’m listening to the album. I find that when I do it this way, it lets the album grow on me and be a lot more than a precursory glance to the album. If you just listen to it once, or listen to it back-to-back in one day are you really doing it justice? You need to let the music exist with you. Music is not an individual process but part of the biggest picture of life and expression. If you just take it as music and entertainment? Fine. But really if you let it live with you, you get so much more from it.

And that’s why when I reviewed She & Him and Joe Hedge’s albums? I feel like I did a crappy job. When I did the album reviews, I had only heard both of those albums only one time. I felt like I didn’t give them that chance to really grow on me, but in my quest for content to fill on those days? I felt strong enough to write up more of a “commentary” on the album. I wish I could feel better about them, and maybe eventually I’ll write a “part two” to the reviews, but still. The originals stand as they are, and I just hope that they were enough to give my inital opinion…

9 Things to Stop Worrying About Right Now - Source: MSNBC.com

It seems that every single day there’s some new study that’s well founded that tells us what we should and shouldn’t do in regards with this or that diet or food concentration. One day its water, then eggs, then salt, then sugar, then fiber, then meat, then…

You know what? I’ve got the secret to healthy living right here:
1) Laugh
2) Smile
3) Love
4) Live

1) Laugh - Like the Readers Digest column, “Laughter, The Best Medicine,” there’s a truth to that. If you can laugh at the stupid things and see the lighter side in life? You’re starting things out on the right foot…
2) Smile - Okay, so some of us have shitty humor. If you do? I’d advice that you at least smile about things if you can’t laugh about them. A smile invites another smile, and we feel good when we see someone smile and have to smile ourselves. Contageous and healthy.
3) Love - Share yourself in any way possible with anyone possible (except for beastiality, infidelity, and incest). Love is something you never run out of. And when you do, you can always find more in what people give you in return.
4) Live - This is the most important one and what we often forget. With all of the talking heads on TV and the new secondary glowing idiot box of our computer monitor, we forget sometimes that there’s a world outside… We should be active, energetic, and come back here and then tell all of our friends the cool things we’ve done away and invite them to join us next time.

And with that, its time for me to depart and get on to the four steps so I can enjoy my own healthy living…