october

Some brief updates, since I know I haven’t written anything lately. What I’ve been up to.

College Side:

I’m one of three Pledge Educators of my fraternity’s new 20-strong pledge class. We hold their meetings, study sessions, team building activities, and organize social functions for them. Thus far it’s been a great experience.

I started volunteering with about three other guys at the local Boys & Girls Club for a few hours every Monday. We help with homework, play outdoor games with them, play pool with them, etc. One of my DU brothers is an Elem. Ed major and is hoping to either get a job or actual volunteer position with them, which would be nice, so he could plan better activities for us when we go. I don’t mind it as it is, though. I’ve learned a few things already – such as the ‘Chinese’ rules of playing pool (you hit any ball into any hole at any time… along with a few other rules) and that what looks to me like a firing squad with gym balls (one kid hurls a ball at a bunch of kids maybe 6 feet away up against a chain link fence) apparently passes for dodgeball nowadays.

I go to the gym with a bodybuilder brother several times a week – it’s rough getting back into weightlifting when I can do half of what I did as a Junior in high school.

I’ve volunteered to register students for the Students for Obama campaign a few times here. The deadline to register is the 6th. Here’s hoping we turn Indiana blue for once.

Rest of the time is class/homework/video games.

 

Technology wise-

I’m kind of wanting a 120gb Zune. I’ve heard nothing but good reviews for the new interface, and I like the widescreen video format.

I think the new Windows commercials are great. I think they counter the Mac ads perfectly. Honestly, I didn’t think the Seinfeld ones were that bad – they put more of a human face on Bill Gates than has been done previously, which is a shame. And you can’t exactly say Mac has a hold of the ‘new age thinkers’ demographic when Deepak freakin’ Chopra is advertising your product.

I’ve been using Google Chrome since it came out and only use Firefox when some Javascript  things (mainly Facebook-related) don’t work. It’s by far the best browser I’ve ever used, and it raises a lot of questions about the open source format. Mozilla is by and large funded by Google (for having Google as the default search engine) for several years now – but when that runs out, what will happen? They’ve been the greatest success story of the OSS market, and I hope they can manage to continue – I use Thunderbird for newsgroups and would love to eventually be able to replace Winamp/Foobar/iTunes with Songbird.

I also really enjoy Google moving into the philanthropic world and proposing a timeline to end nonrenewable resource use – yes, the search engine company. They have not bothered to wait for legislation to pass, instead they’ve gone out and spent their own money to make things happen. That’s the right kind of capitalism.

Also I wish I had an Android phone. Not the G1 – maybe the HTC Touch Pro or Touch HD.

Politics-

I have few words. McCain is running a travesty of a campaign. Palin is the worst VP candidate he could have ever picked. McCain has a disconnect with the reality around him, Palin has a disconnect between her brain and mouth. If I said the same sort of incoherent gibberish she’s given during interviews, you’d rightfully suspect me of being inebriated.

Economy-

is not good.

 

I could expand on most of these issues, but I have some homework to do.