Mr. E's Crazies List 2010!

Deep down in the depths of my soul, heart, and brain (the big deciders of my emotions and thoughts), I concoct a crazies list... which for some time has gone unlisted. Well, this week finally pushed me to a point where I feel it is necessary to share bits and pieces of it. This was brought on by the first entity on the list:

1. The entire state of Oklahoma
Oklahoma just recently passed... over the governor's veto mind you (so a supermajority I'm assuming), a law that a) forces a woman who is getting an abortion to have an ultrasound and receive a report on all of the babies vitals and b) protects a doctor from being sued if he or she withholds information about any genetic defects the baby may have from the parents.

I'm really not pro-abortion (sorry ultraliberals). If I had to choose a side, I would probably extend the protection of the Constitution to a fetus (since no matter what happens, they will eventually have that protection). However, that isn't the world we live in and I think it is kind of sick that a large chunk of Oklahoma thinks that they should make a difficult decision even more difficult. Moreover, a doctor shouldn't be held responsible for lying by omission to his patient. That's ridiculous.

Now, if this had passed by a simple majority and the governor signed it, then I'm cool with it. Your state is just a little over half crazy. However, the governor vetoed it and the legislature overrode the veto. Yeah... that's why Oklahoma makes my crazies list for 2010. Congratulations!

Progressbaritis: Inflamation of the Progress Bar

I don't know what it is about a little bar that fills up as numbers are poured into it... but I absolutely love that thing. I bought my friend Borderlands, a game that lives and dies by the progress bar. Perhaps you call it the XP bar, rank bar, or leveling-up bar. No matter what you call it, for some reason it has a strangle like hold over gamers (and probably nongamers as well). We like progress. Not that games don't have progress, but we like having progress for everything we do, not just story centric events. Video games are generally built around a number of ideas. You have the story (easy to get progress), mechanics (dealing out complication bit by bit), and finally character progression (often difficult to do well when it comes to emotion and story, but easy when using a progress bar). Okay, so the list should be longer, but those stick out to me right now.

So, the progression bar is a blade with two sides. First, it's awesome. Like I said, the progress bar is an easy and addictive way to see your character grow. New skills, abilities, higher life bars and magic bars all add to the notion that your character has done something worth while in the game world.
- Hey! I used this sword to kill a bunch of mad pandas. In real life, by the end of all that panda killing... I would be pretty great at it. Thanks progress bar for reflecting that in a game!

However, the progress bar is a bit of a crutch. Ask someone who plays a lot of RPGs... or a person who has ever played an RPG. The story can range from awful to great, but that doesn't make up for the repetitive gameplay. The progression bar does. Yet, I would like to periodically see meaningful changes and progression in a character. Maybe after all that panda killing my character is really skilled at the task, but I'd rather see a different change in my character than being able to put a skill point into "panda murdering." Maybe he simply holds that sword with a little more confidence. Maybe an NPC (non-player character) comments on my recent accomplishment. I think those ideas have all been tried... and failed as far as I'm concerned. I still want something more. The progress bar is great, but let's see a bit more.

Intelligent Inquiry: America's Moral Decline

I've always been a bit of a pessimist when it comes to the general public. Despite my beliefs in democracy and the importance of participation... I actually sort of don't believe that. In a country where American Idol is allowed to run for 9 seasons, I just can't have faith in the American people. Okay, that was a cheap shot. I listened to a podcast of the MPR midmorning show and Kerri Miller had a guest on who basically felt this way. Chris Hedges (the guest) basically took up this banner. His argument was that Americans are slowly losing the ability to tell what's real and what's fake due to the introduction of 24-hour entertainment news. Well, to be fair, not all Americans... just a majority. The rest are those who can still read, understand, and interpret complex ideas and translate those into beliefs that move the country forward. I don't know if I sign on entirely to that idea, but he does have a point. I really can't watch the news. I understand that I grew up when news was already entertainment focused, but four years of college and my own academic pursuits have really kind of put me on the 'I-want-information train." I don't need some news reporter to tell me what someone on facebook thinks. I don't need them to try to make me afraid of the deficit, health care, or immigration. Worse yet, I feel that politicians are completely fine playing this game. All the way to our president, politicians are fine with skipping details and going straight to what will play with people who prefer not to think. That's fine... but what am I suppose to do. I like to read the New York Times as opposed to digging through a bill to find information. However, I can't do that when all Obama says is, "health care bill is good." That doesn't help me. The health care bill was something I wanted but it was damn hard to defend it because I knew nothing about it. Usually this is the part of a post where the writer offers a solution. I don't really have any. If you read books, good for you.

Law School: Making the Choice

I won't lie. The economy and my lack of a job played a key role in my decision to go to law school. Prior to December of 2008, I was seriously considering graduate school. So much so that I had taken the GRE only a few months earlier. I didn't really know what I wanted to study in graduate school. That was a big problem. A bigger problem was the clear deficiency of receiving a higher degree in the area of history/political science... they don't often yield a higher salary. That's unfortunate, but look up the numbers... it's true.

So anyway, law school. As I said, I was unemployed and basically needed to decide where my life was going to go. I didn't have a job and all I had invested myself in at the time was a marathon. Basically, I had time. I began searching around with my new GRE score, but I couldn't decide what I wanted to study. That was the real problem. Money is also a problem, but not knowing what to study is a much worst problem if you want to go to graduate school. I kept shopping around and discovered that I would never likely be able to choose. That's where law school became the top contender. A law degree is versatile and gives me a lot of movement in my career. I like that. I need that. I get bored fast.

On top of that, I've always had an interest in the law and specifically social sciences that operate more like a science. Sure law has it's wiggle room (it's not a science with unchangeable rules), but there is a structure in place for the study of law. I feel that many of the other social sciences are a bit more subjective where views are constantly changing and even if you convince a majority that your view is correct, it doesn't matter. Law on the other hand... well... if I can convince a majority of people that all roads have heated bike paths, I could get that to happen. That's what draws me to law.

Law School: The Beginning

I've been doing some thinking about what I'd like to do with this blog. The whole writing about articles has grown a little stale for me. I didn't do it that much, but I think I tried to force it. Anyway, I've decided to go in a new direction. Law school. A year ago at this time in my life I had no idea where to start when it came to prepping for law school. I knew I needed to take the LSAT. That was about it. At the time, I would have liked a resource about someone else's experience of the application process. That is what I would like to provide on this blog for a while. Now, I don't expect some law school hopeful to come read this religiously, but perhaps some of the regular readers are curious how one goes from simply wanting to go to law (or grad) school, to actually doing it. That's the plan for the next few posts at least. Now I need to bike to work.

Intelligent Inquiry: U.S. and Russia Best Friends Forever

Lieberman: Obama Won't Get Nukes Treaty Without Changes

When it comes to international relations, I've been a straight realist. While the word is descriptive in its literal sense, in an academic sense it's the belief that states (countries) are constantly competing for resources, military capabilities, and international influence in order to ensure existence. I'd love the world to be different, but when it comes to world politics, this is what's at stake. However, a big shift took place in the 1940s: nuclear weapons. Suddenly states could no longer count their pennies and translate that into how many military units could be mobilized for security purposes. After the creation of nuclear weapons, conventional forces lost their potency as applied to major power conflict. A country could mobilize 1 million men, but that doesn't matter when a single missile can destroy a city. The major powers then proceeded to have an arms race while making nuclear policy on the fly. That's where we still are today.

I've lost my way in this post, but I'll come back and rally around the question: Does anyone still want these things around (nuclear weapons)? I understand that nuclear weapons have undoubtably deterred a number of wars in the past, but I can't help shake the age old fear of MAD when it comes to nukes. If you're not familiar with the concept, MAD (mutually assured destruction) was the realization in the heat of the arms race that nobody on earth could survive a nuclear exchange that would take place if something broke out between the USSR and the US. So going back to my question, who still wants these things around? Lieberman? Palin? What is wrong with them? This treaty doesn't even eliminate all nuclear weapons. Not even close. But Lieberman says he'll oppose the treaty unless we update out nuclear stockpile. Again, I would like to bring your attention to MAD. Unfortunately, I'm sure many people will rally behind his claim that this treaty makes us "vulnerable to Iran." All I can say is that even with this treaty, we'll still likely be able to destroy the earth a few times over with our nuclear weapons and I'm sure if we choose that route we won't forget about Iran.

iPad: It changes everything

My roommate's brother and I got into a facebook showdown the other night. Okay... so it wasn't a showdown... He posted a comment that praised the iPad (I don't think he even has one, but he does have an iPhone so he knows exactly what the thing does). I asked him, "what's so great about it?" He said, "it changes everything." I responded, "like what?"

That was the end of the discussion. Now, maybe he just hasn't gotten back to me. It's possible that like myself, he has no idea what the thing changes. I don't know if anybody knows. It's a big iPod touch. If you don't have any ipod touch or iphone and you have 500$ laying around, I say go crazy. However, I imagine that the target audience of the ipad is already quite inundated with technology.

The questions really comes down to what does the ipad change? I'm sure the hardware is great. Apple's usually is. However, as a long time fan of Apple, I've come to expect a bit more from them, which is my mistake I suppose (I'm having a Nintendo flashback here). I would recommend people check out Microsoft's tablet, "The courier." Even if you're not a tech head, it's a much more interesting device from the looks of it.

Hangin' with Mr. E

Today is the first day of my self-created after-school class, Hangin' with Mr. E. Spring session has a special feeling around it. I'm more excited about this after-school class than any of my others, and because of that I'm doing a little more planning than I did with the others. Not to say that I did no planning for the others... but sometimes that was the case. Anyway, I have a few good things planned. Of course, this is the first day so the rules are ever important. However, I've got some apples and bananas for the children to eat while I do some reading, named "fresh reading." I'm also planning on giving them a riddle to decipher in their groups, as well as some free writing time. We'll see how it turns out.

Child Safety

This weekend, I learned that one of my relatives was burned by a gas fireplace in a daycare. Now, the relative is still in that toddler/ preschool phase, but the only opinion given to me about the situation was, "accidents happen." I really do believe that accidents happen. Sometimes children burn themselves, cut themselves, get bit by an animal, or receive an incredibly large splinter in their finger after going down a slide (that was me), but is it really acceptable for a child to be burned like this in a daycare? Is it really unfair to think that a daycare (or babysitter for that matter) should be responsible when a child is burned by a trivial item (in the age of heaters and all). I don't think so. Recently, a child at my job had been burned by an iron at his home. I didn't dig too deep, but why the heck does a two year old even have access to an iron? Why is a mother leaving the iron unattended with her children present? Why shouldn't the daycare be held responsible? If knives were left on the floor and a child cut themselves, I doubt anyone would say, "accidents happen." For the record, accidents do happen, but if I was the parent that wouldn't be my response.

Neglect

This blog has been a lot like Nic's plants over December and January. In the spirit of Easter, Jesus really said it best... well... I'm sure he said something about how his words are the water. There's a lot of stuff about words and water in the Bible, no doubt about it. Anyway, ERICtalk has been under distress lately. I've been waking up, listening to an MPR podcast, and then going to work. Then, at night my writing has taken back seat to a book about the First Minnesota volunteers in the Union army and Battlefield Bad Company 2. Furthermore, over the past few weeks I've been taking my sweet time affirming my attendance at Hamline Law School. This weekend I finally sent in my 500 sweet sweet dollars (well my parents') to the school and I am officially a piper. I have some other loose ends to lock up, but we're pretty much set. That being said, it's been easy to put off writing when I've had that to fill my "usefulness meter" every week. However, that has passed and I'd like to get back into it. So, I am pledging to begin posting again. No more neglect.