What's happening in Duane's busy world

School
Still working hard on that one. This is my second and final year of grad school at the University of the Pacific. I am starting to nail down my thesis and committee for my comps. I spoke with Dr. B today about my thesis, and he's agreed to chair the committee, and then we also talked about the second of three members, and she agreed to be part of the committee as well. My thesis is going to be a rhetorical criticism of the August 1991 Soviet coup, focusing on the dissemination process of Yeltsin's speech, using an application of agit-trains as a contemporary adaptation of an archaic process from performance theory. I'll be going in tomorrow morning to discuss my blueprint for moving forward on this thesis project.

My two courses this semester are going in opposite directions. I love my political communication studies in the documentary form class but my other course doesn't seem to be all that engaging.

I was creating a synthesis project, and Raman has indicated she is interested in working with me. We're now distributing the four segments of the project to build upon the synthesis theory for the paper we will be writing.

Writing
I am in the process of creating a new novel. The idea came to me a few days ago, and it just seems like the thing to write now.

Speech Coaching
We have some really talented people, but at the same time it gets really frustrated when I can do so much to help some people with success but they put in such little effort themselves. Others, they put in a lot of effort and I believe they will be rewarded in the long run, but it does take a lot out of someone to keep trying to rally the ones who just seem to think success will come because they want success to come without actually putting in the actual work.

Teaching
My interpersonal communication class is going well. It helps that I've taught this course before, so I know what is expected and how to get my students there. They take their first exam in a few weeks, and I'm hoping they do well. I've always found it a joy to teach when the students are motivated to want to learn. Some of the political science courses I taught in the past at KVCC were nightmares because of a lack of that energy.

Relationships
None.

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Public servants and "needed" raises

One of my favorite arguments about why public employee executives deserve raises is that they are highly sought after by the private sector and without raises we can't keep such "great" people. This is really crap and an aristocratic, ridiculous argument. These jobs are highly sought after by very qualified people, and quite often it's more about who you know rather than about what you know that gets you one of these jobs. Once entrenched in their own worlds and fiefdoms, they argue about how the system is so lucky to have them pushing paper when they might push paper somewhere else for much more money. I say let them pursue that outside, private job and save these jobs for the people who keep trying to enter the public sector of government jobs but are constantly looked over because they're not already part of the establishment.

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The problems of a lazy congress

Part of the current problems with Congress today is that procedurals have made our senators lazy. A time limit for tours in Iraq (for soldiers) was blocked Wednesday because Democrats could not get more than a 56-44 vote majority; they need 60 votes to override a filibuster. So, they did nothing instead, effectively rewarding potential filibusters without actually making them do the filibuster. Screw that. Make them actually filibuster when they threaten to do so. Remind these lazy senators why a filibuster is a lot of work. Make them earn their defiance with actual Constitutional action instead of caving in as if they already did the filibuster.

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Societal double standards

Well, it appears that the jury is deciding whether or not Britney Spears was a trainwreck on the MTV's Video Music Awards program. While I stopped watching MTV when it actually stopped playing music videos, I am finding the condemnation of Britney to be quite humorous to observe. You see, while it was obvious she was just going through the motions and probably wasn't ready to be out in public doing this sort of thing just yet, what amazes me is that one of the commentaries being waged against her is that not only was she untalented, but she was also fat. Now, look at the picture. Is she really fat? Is she really considered obese? She just had a kid, and who can honestly be expected to keep the weight they wore when they were just becoming an adult?

But even without all that, what I find fascinating is that there is this whole movement in this day and age to "be proud of your body" no matter what size it is. Magazines that ridicule people who aren't "perfect" and then hold up to a pedestal women who starve themselves to death to maintain an unhealthy figure are the same magazines that are ridiculing Britney for being overweight, pudgy, and in the words of The New York Post, her performance was "lard and clear", stating that her "bulging belly she was flaunting was so not hot."

So, young women across the country, expect to be continued to be held to ridiculous standards of perfection to entice men and please women who are as critical as they expect men to be. We haven't moved any further forward on this issue, and we took three steps back. To me, THAT is so not hot, but then I don't write for The New York Post.

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Another academic publication

I found out today that my article (with Dr. Dong and Mark), The Impact of Emotional Intelligence, Self-Concepts on Romantic Communication Over Myspace, has been accepted for publication. That will sure make the Vita look better.

I'm quite possibly going to be working on a rhetorical criticism on dissemination of messages with Dr. Bates (it was a logical progression of a paper I was working on last year). At the same time, I've approached a colleague in the grad program to assist me on a synthesis paper (of 4 theories: Two game theoretic processes, one interpersonal communication concept, and my own personal strategic/tactical process application). I chose her because I think she has the philosophical foundation I need to turn this idea into a viable synthesis/research question for future study. The personal theory I generated is the harder one to develop, but she gave me some ideas for how we could work this into the literature review (as there is no literature on this as my idea is completely alien and original) by focusing on historical events rather than previous scholarly linkages. Anyway, I think I made a wise choice in collaborating with her.

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City of Heroes

Because I'm not dating, and I finally have money again, I decided to start playing another massive multiplayers online roleplaying game (MMORPG) when I had some time to kill. There's not a lot of that kind of time in grad school, but every now and then is kind of fun. I realized I was never going to go back to World of Warcraft because the game is really designed for people who aren't into a tough game, but just want the belief that they are playing a game tougher than it really is. So, I started up a game I had never played before called City of Heroes/City of Villains.

The premise is simple for those who do not play these games. Instead of a hack and slash world with elves and dwarves and that kind of fodder, this involves cities where everyone playing the game is some kind of superhero with all types of different powers. The end product is a lot like any other MMORPG, such as you have healers, magic users and tanks (guys that take a lot of damage for the team so everyone else can actually kill the bad guys), but it has a superhero saves the day atmosphere to it.

Now, those who know my previous exploits may remember that little sarbonn originates online from his character in Ultima Online. This old MMORPG was a very violent game where you could be killed at a moment's notice, and people were actually scared to leave the safety of major cities. So, I created little sarbonn, who ended up being the clueless, happy, go-lucky little guy who wanders around, oblivious to danger happening all around him; I also made him a shepherd, the most useless skill in the entire game, and I was one of about two people in the history of Ultima Online up to that point who managed to develop a Grandmaster Shepherd, which meant that I could click on sheep with my shepherd's crook and they would move the way I wanted them to. I then created a comic strip back then (using scenes directly from the game) to create The Adventures of Little Sarbonn.

In Star Wars Galaxies, well, the universe is pretty much what you'd expect, an MMORPG with the skin of Star Wars. Well, there was one somewhat useless class called the ranger who could create huge camps out in the middle of nowhere, but was pretty much useless for anything else other than producing traps. So, I made the cowardly Linnea who would create camps right outside the city limits and then "compete" for citizens from the cities where she placed her camp, stating that her city was better and more democratic. I used to be visited by people from all over who pledged allegiance to places like Droid Town, Anchorhead West, Across the Street, and, of course, Ranger Town. I should also mention that I also created Cellphone Guy, who was a guy who wandered around in the middle of huge battles between the Empire and Rebel Forces saying: "Can you hear me now?" (long pause) "Good!"

In Dark Age of Camelot, a game that pits three military forces against each other in the frontiers (but safety within the home areas), I created Gretal, the healer, who was great at fighting, but was more famous for my Travels Through Camelot, which was a HUGE database of pictures of Gretal dead in front of many of the great landmarks of the game.

So, I've started doing the same with City of Heroes. My first attempt is Former Girlfriend, a superhero who is powered by the loss of a life shattering relationship where her previous boyfriend bankrupted her before leaving, so she now receives economic power from nonstop credit card offers from predatory lenders. Her battlecry is "Let's just be friends!"

My second character is a little more involved and seems to be pissing people off who take this game too seriously. His name is Floppy, and he's a guy who runs around in a bunny outfit and stops crime. Simple as that. But nothing is better than seeing a team of superheroes go to fight the evil bad villain and then Floppy comes trouncing through with his big feet and very fake outfit, to save the day. It's one of those you kind of have to see to get the true feeling for.

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Today's work ethic and the retail industry

I almost didn't blog this because I couldn't see a way of doing it without sounding really aristocratic and condescending. You see, I was at Big 5 yesterday to buy a pair of walking shoes. My old shoes have practically ripped themselves to shreds, and I've been wearing them because I couldn't afford to wear anything else.

Well, this very young guy is there, and while I'm looking through different types of shoes, he starts on about how there's nothing better than sleep. He especially loves sleeping during the day, going home and sleeping for four hours during the day. He then continues to go on and on and on about the wonders of sleeping during the day.

Now, for those that know me, you also know that because of my frozen shoulder problem, I don't get a lot of sleep, even at night, and ever since leaving the Army, I've never really been able to sleep during the day. Last night, for example, I got about 4 hours of sleep before I finally gave up and realized my shoulder was hurting too much for me to get back to sleep again. My physical therapist suggests using an ice pack on my arm at night when it starts to hurt, but there lies the problem: Once I start using the ice pack, my system begins to believe that the night is over, and it doesn't allow me to go back to sleep.

Anyway, so I'm listening to this young guy go on and on about how wonderful sleep is, and it dawns on me that not once has he ever mentioned ANYTHING about shoes, Big 5, sporting goods, or anything that has to do with the job. It's been a conversation that I've not been contributing to about sleep during the afternoon.

I was having a conversation with someone the other day about the retail industry, and she was talking about how she gets irritated with staff that does all sorts of different things that retail staff tends to do. And I chimed in that if you put yourself in that person's shoes, chances are you wouldn't really think some of those things are all that bad. One of my pet peeves is an accepted practice at practically EVERY retail place I go to where I'm told that because something was discounted from its previous price that I "saved" a certain amount of dollars. No, I didn't save anything because money still moved from my wallet to their cash register. But that's just an indoctrination thing that retail has allowed to happen, so I don't actually get upset at the retailer in question, but just at the industry in general. People are trained to say certain things, and I have no desire to ridicule them for that.

But this was different. This was a retailer who was doing absolutely nothing that concerned any retailing. He and I had an agreement by the fact that he works in a store, and I entered his store. It was that he would help me find products of his to sell, and I would buy them. A friendly conversation is one thing, but this whole conversation that kept making me think: "You lazy bum, go get a job...even though I'm thinking of telling you this at your place of employment."

So, is this an isolated incident? Unimportant? Or is this more of a sign of the future of retailing in this country? I remember going on about how I went to an upscale retailer some years back and everyone in that place treated me like I crashed a party that I hadn't been invited to. I've been to some stores where a clerk rudely pays me some attention after I "interrupted" her conversation with one of her co-workers about a rave they attended the previous evening. I know how I talk about places like Best Buy where I sometimes feel I need to go in stealth mode in order to traverse the aisles without 50,000 extras from the movie 300 chasing me through the store in blue shirts asking if they can help me find something, only to discover that the first person I let catch me doesn't actually know where anything is, how anything in his/her section of the store operates, or just makes up crap because people don't want to admit they are not all knowing these days. When something has been released today, please don't tell me that one of your coworkers has been watching/viewing/playing that released product for months and LOVES IT.

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The Academic fascination with all things Internet

Okay, I know that academics like to think of themselves on the cutting edge, but what I've been noticing over the last year or so is this HUGE fascination with all things Internet by professors and the academic community. Yes, I'm guilty of it as well, as my last paper was on romantic communication involving self-esteem and Myspace.

But there's another layer to this fascination that I'm finding equally fascinating only because I was one of that unlabeled generation that grew up adopting the Internet as it was happening, not pre-Internet or post-Internet. To explain this further, let me take a virtual world that seems to be overwhelmingly talked about in both academia AND the political sphere. I'm talking about Second Life, a massive mulitplayer online role playing game.

People running for office think it is important to have an avatar (a character in the game that looks like them, or whatever they want to represent them) running around in Second Life. Currently, I'm taking a course on mass communication that will involve all of us creating characters in Second Life, interacting with each other, and then writing a paper on our second life persona observations/interactions. Well, as someone who grew up with the infancy of Second Life, there's a little underbelly of a secret that no one seems to want to talk about: Second Life used to be nothing but simulated pornography. People would create avatars and then "hook up". Gambling used to be the highest grossing activity in the game, and I mean real world gambling with real world dollars being played with an exchange rate of Linden dollars (the in game currency). But again, what was fascinating is that there was so much sex going on in the game that most of the businesses set up in this sandbox are sex businesses. And people are selling animations (because they code them and then put them up for sale so you can use them yourself), and those animations are...well...quite sexual and extremely explicit in the variations they use. If bondage is your thing, you can walk down any street in Second Life, and there are bondage dungeons set up all over the place. What you won't find is other players. For some reason, the place exists like a ghost town, no matter what promoters like to say about it. The only time you're really going to see a group of people is when something from the outside of the game has announced that is going to happen inside the game (like a press conference, or some publicity generating activity from an already established real world corporation). So, what academics really have the opportunity to study is momentary expressions of people interacting based on events fueled outside the world, or they can study peep show pornography, if they're lucky enough to catch some embarrassed player in the act.

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I'm getting really fucking tired of passwords

It seems that NO MATTER WHAT I DO, I can't seem to get away from fucking passwords. And this is for everything, including things that don't need a fucking password. Sometimes, I don't care for a password, but in order to do ANYTHING, EVERYTHING wants a fucking password. And they don't make it simple so you can just choose one or a few and keep using those. No, they each have stringent stupid requirements to them so that no matter what you do to comply with one password service, the next one wants you to do something else. So, because I happen to be unfortunate enough to be just living, I have 128347018275075987575 passwords that I'm expected to remember. Take Kaiser Permanente, for example. They didn't even let me choose a password. They supposedly sent it by mail, and they'd like to keep choosing my password for me. Take my Internet service (well, one of the many that I have). They want me to have over 10 characters, of which one of them must be a number. Another Internet service of mine requires 8 characters, a number and a symbol. Another Internet service of mine requires 8 characters, a number, a letter, a capital letter, a symbol and alternative spellings of my mother's maiden name. Another requires anything I want for a password, but it has the added fun bonus of not actually working no matter what password I actually chose. Thanks Comcast. Love your password system.

I understand the need for security, but let's be honest here. There are a lot of things out there that don't require security, but the security is added to somehow make us feel "safe" in an environment where we really don't care if we're safe or not. I'm on a gaming site where ALL I CAN DO is look at new content updates. I don't pay a fee, and they offer the information for free. But you have to register WITH A PASSWORD in order to access the site. There is NOTHING that can be compromised with this service, OTHER THAN MY PASSWORD IF I CHOOSE TO USE A SIMILAR ONE SO I CAN REMEMBER IT. I can't tell you how many things like this exist.

My computer wants me to use a password. I live with my stuffed animals. I trust them. A lot. They're probably watching when I enter my passwords anyway, so it's not like it's that safe anyway.

I signed up for several newspapers. Each one wants a password created. It's a freaking newspaper. Are we worried someone is going to cancel my service? Who cares? Are we worried someone is going to take my newspaper and not allow me to read it? Someone already does that now. That's how you define "neighbor". I do ZERO business with the newspaper companies online but because I made the mistake of signing up for the newspaper online, it wants a password created. Now, in order to do any business, which you used to be able to do sans online, I have to remember a password I created six months ago when "omega" didn't work because it is neither 8 characters long, 10 characters long, doesn't include a symbol, a capital letter or any reference to sex tapes by Paris Hilton.

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