So, a little over one year into the Obama presidency, and here we stand. The depression has deepened, the homeless and jobless rate is skyscraping, but The Administration insists the worst is over. The war is expanding into new territories, even though we stretched our military too thin years ago. Civil liberties are being taken at a record pace, for any reason our rulers can find to take them. We’re spending money we don’t have like it’s going out of style, to the point where other countries are refusing to lend to us anymore, and for good reason. Picking up in almost every way where the Bush administration left off, Obama’s approval rating is below 50% and dropping fast, and America’s praise for his colleagues on the Hill is barely half that high.
And therein lies the hope.
Recently the people of Massachusetts, the most liberal state in the nation, rattled the Democrats’ cage when they elected a Republican senator, a clear and outright rejection of the anti-capitalist, anti-free-market, anti-freedom policies of Obama and his party. Because of popular outcry, the government healthcare takeover bill has been severely weakened and even has a good chance of failing, forcing Congress to go back and take a fundamental look at what they are trying to accomplish and work towards it slowly instead of ramming something through. Ron Paul’s initiative to, for the first time ever, audit the Federal Reserve, the keeper of America’s fiscal policy, is growing wings. The man himself can be seen on news programs almost daily, a surprise but yet an encouragement to people like myself who support his platform.
Even if it is, for now, a bit overshadowed by the faux/pseudo-libertarian neocon movement, the true libertarian party is growing, its ideology spreading. Americans are starting to reject the Republicans and the Democrats, realizing they are just two wings of the same party. An intellectual the likes of Peter Schiff who, four years ago, was being laughed at for his economic outlook, is now running for Senate with a great shot at winning, and there we can take hope in the gradual restoration of sound money policies and Constitutional values. The libertarian ideology’s threatening effects to the establishment can be seen in the removal of people like John Stossel and Lou Dobbs from the airwaves. Andrew Napolitano will probably be next. But we must take hope that it’s too late to chill a movement that’s already taken hold.
It has become clear that Obama, his administration, and much of the Congress have lost touch with the American people. But there is hope. When the banks and corporations are bailed out before the people, they start to call Obama’s false populist promises for what they are: lies. Civil disobedience against the State is making a comeback, in a way that would make Thoreau proud. The number of thought insurgents is growing every day. Baby roots of iconoclasm are growing in our culture. The paradigm is shifting. The curtain is being torn, and the man behind it may finally have to show his face soon.
People are waking up. The insurgency is alive.
Since the announcement that Final Fantasy XIII would not only be on the Playstation 3 but would also be released for the Xbox360 in America, Fans have bickered back and forth which edition would be superior. What first started as a petty spitting contest between fanboys for either system, soon turned itself back into the heated debate across forums and in stores over which system was better. But for the fans who didn’t care about the systems and focused solely on the game, one fear lingered in their minds, “If the systems versions were equal, what would we lose due to Xbox not using Blu-ray’s space availability?”.
In a recent interview with Final Fantasy XIII’s art director at the Japanese site FF-Reunion, Isamu Kamikokuryou revealed that almost a full games worth of content was removed from the final finished product of Final Fantasy XIII.
Among these removed bits of content was (aside extended dungeons) a secret base for Snow’s hero squad Nora (one time located within Lebreau’s shop), a full area for Lightning’s home (which included a park), and one of the game’s amusement parks also had an extended zoo area that had to be removed. Speculation can only lead one to believe that along with these areas being removed, portions of story that were involved with them were taken as well.
With all the recent heat that the game has gotten for a linear story, its a shame to see that this game was so deeply affected by what one can so plainly see as the inclusion of an Xbox360 edition.
Fans first saw the signs of this possibility when Square-Enix revealed that most of the games side quests would be inaccessible until the later chapters of the game due to the disk restrictions of the Xbox360 and that they were aiming for the Xbox360 version to be merely 3 disks long and story related DLC for the game wouldn’t be a foreseen addition.
While news of the games English version being finally completed may ease the minds of some fans, others who viewed Xbox’s involvement from the begining as quite literally the worst thing for the game will have to now live with knowing what game they could have had if not for Xbox.
Several months ago I started working a job that required me to work from 10pm to 6am. Simply put I was working the dreaded graveyard shift. Soon after I started working there I met a man named Tyler S. Richardson. Within the months to follow we found ourselves with an amazing amount of rediculous inside jokes. One however, we both loved more than anything else we made to pass the time.
This was our creation of the Awesome Award.
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Liz Danzico is a genius. But you already knew that. I recently stumbled upon her website, and took the time to read through the archives of the most current revision (which only run through September 2009, but since she is prolific there are quite a number of articles to read through). Like most folks classified as genius, she has brilliant friends, including the ever prolific Jason Santa Maria (whom I am not so coincidentally mentioning because he designed her beautiful website).
Her current site has the prefect combination of branding, design, simplicity and personal touch. The header contains the site logo, which is of her dog, a Vizsla (an all-round pointer-retriever). This logo is repeated as an end-mark of entries that are full thoughts or original articles. The articles on her site run much like a typical tumblr-style range of quotes, links, photos, short thoughts, long thoughts, etc., and each differentiated by style. This is one of the few websites where I want to visit it to read what was written in the format it was intended to be read, instead of staying in google reader.
In this link post about an invention for a new style of alarm clock, she writes about how a person’s perception of time changes, and society as a whole for that matter, as you change from clocks with hands to digital clocks:
When we first got our Casio watches in the ’80s, I remember noticing a significant semantic shift. It bothered me we stopped thinking in terms of a “quarter past eight” and instead thought and said, “eight thirty-two.” That precision begat a real sense of how time was moving. Something was lost.
In one of the longer thoughts, or articles, she writes about successful patterns for communication between people:
Whatever you think about reaching out to people, there’s a pattern. It’s not a pre-meditated or a cold one, but a people-centered pattern that when considered, can bring satisfaction to both sides.
We’re often in a position of asking strangers for things: speaking at our events, advice, customer support, exchange of services, lunch, counsel — the list is long. And the simple fact is: people want to be helpful. But they also demand value in return; some are extraordinarily pressed for time, others quite the opposite. But all want two simple things: to be listened to and to receive value.
In this post about journaling, she describes the thought process behind journaling as a way of accounting for time:
Keeping track of time, doing this kind of personal accounting, gives things context; it marks the passing of time not unlike the demarcation school enforced, where time was punctuated by semesters and summer breaks. When you mark time in chunks, you can name it — “it’s fall,” “I’m in my 40s,” we’re in the “aughts.” Shared vocabulary has value because then there can be conversation. Being aware of time allows for both an objectivity and a shared experience that weren’t there before.
What you actively spend time on, and (far more difficult) what you choose not to do, who you choose not to spend time with, and who and what you decide to say no to — what you choose, then — is how you mark time. And that is all there is.
I’m going to bring back the Ideas.
To start, I’m opening up the Inactive Projects folder that’s been sitting in the projects file and collecting dust. This means that everyone will have an open eye into the different ideas, designs, projects, and thoughts that start to be Waking Ideas.
To name a few of the past projects that have slipped into the inactive folder: 48 Cookies, CityFilter, Footprint, GeoFiltr, HWADC, Music is For You, PoliticsFail, Quotes Kill, A Sheep To Remember, Snack on That, Eidolon Digital, WifiMaps, Worn, SleepWake Tracker, ResponsCard, SFD, and the Breakfast with a Side of Podcast podcast. Some you might remember, some you may not.
This isn’t to say that these projects are coming back. 90% of these projects are in the deadpool. Some of them are completed projects that need a home and renovation, others need to be cleaned up and turned into a portfolio of ideas and design.