WTFbrb

Firstly IANAEd.D. That out of the way, kids should be taught to use wikis. (Kids meaning way little kids… the ones who can read but can’t change themselves)

Wikis (and super advanced things that are like wikis) are for real the future of the internet as a non-vehicle-for-commerce. Almost all major software projects have them, and of course there are many Wikis for other collections of knowledge, the most famous by far being Wikipedia.

Sure, whatever, I don’t want my kid reading about horse porn on wikis. But y’know, have schools set up wikis, use horse-porn filters and what-not when viewing Wikipedia, have a figure of authority monitor the kids passively.

The real reason kids should learn how to use wikis is to give them a good shot at seeing what is out there. If we set them free in the wonderful world of wikis, they might just learn how to learn things, or even more shockingly, how to share their own knowledge. Remember how exciting it really is for a kid to get a chance to run free through a library? It only gets better.

We don’t live in a world where you just can’t find stuff out anymore. That was called the mid-90s. (tee hee). Most kids are taught that you can get information from teachers, maybe. Some get to use textbooks too. The lucky ones get to use libraries, or even cite news-related sources on the internet. But really, kids are waaay smarter than adults—they just don’t know it yet. If we gave them a head start at being able to learn and contribute to the internet, it might catch on. The most amazing thing about Wikis is how much you end up reading about when you just look up like… “cereal” (I am so serious).

Oh yeah also dont’ worry about Wikipedia being wrong sometimes. It’s not like no kid was ever told something wrong by a teacher or textbook. They’ll recover from the blow, especially if you remind them not to believe everything they read.

I’m not saying replace textbooks, teachers, or libraries, that would be kinda dumb for reasons that are beyond the scope of this blog post.

So find a little kid and show him the article about his favorite TV show on Wikipedia. Tell him how to click on the links. (S)he’ll probably have learned all about DNA, the declaration of independence, and some underground ny rappers before you can say “fun, huh?”.

Ok, first off, I seriously know many people have thought of this, and probably done it from time to time. But that doesn’t mean I can’t blog about it.

The idea is that chocolate soy milk (CSM for those in the know) is for some reason pretty popular. (For me, that reason is that I actually am not a huge fan of the beany taste of plain soymilk, and vanilla is just too sweet. As you may have previously heard, I do like Rice milk but that doesn’t always work in this following thing). Where was I.

Yeah so CSM is popular. So is coffee. So is instant. So why not instant coffee with chocolate soy milk? See I told you people had already thought of it, but still, why not. It is good. Its not like a Cafe Mocha. It just has a little chocolatey taste.

Also, connoisseurs, it doesn’t ruin the taste of the coffee, because it is instant coffee anyways, it just tastes like instant coffee with chocolatey goodness.

The best thing is that chocolate soymilk is actually really tasty, and you don’t need to worry about it going bad before you use it up in coffee. You can just drink it by the glass!

Edit: Wow I’ve thought of more I forgot to point out.

What is especially fun about this idea is that since instant coffee usually is made from the robusta bean, it tends to develop “crema” (how classy!). When combined with any type of soymilk, the crema sort of puffs up underneath a layer of soy foam, creating a really fun chocolatey coffee foam for the top of your coffee. That is fun!

The full house is the thing that makes poker interesting.

No, I don’t mean that flushes or straights aren’t fun too, they certainly are. But imagine if there was no full house. Allow for the fact that quads and straight-flushes never occur, especially when you consider relative frequencies in 7 card hands like those in many popular variants of poker. Then your “attainable” hand ranks are basically flush, straight, trips, two pair, pair, blah. This is less fun! Why? because matching ranks have no chance at all against fancy hands—there is no draw to the full house! This is kinda like a microcosm of a society in which those of a low caste can never move up: such a society is no fun. The little guys want to be able to move up!

It also makes flushes and straights less safe. I mean imagine if you have already hit your flush, how boring is that. But the fact that someone can be playing two pairs at the turn and hit a full house at the river means you have to worry. Sure the odds are on your side, but it’s not a sure thing, so it’s fun.

Next time you hit a full house on the river (or seventh street for all you studs out there) or your opponent does against your ace-high flush, appreciate how much fun you had doing it, because it is the reason poker is fun!

That is all.

There is a certain clarity that comes along late on a Friday evening, when one has imbibed (ew, what a dirty word… it’s meaning is so…. narrow!). It may be a Friday just before one faces the approach of the start of their 24th year (yes, you begin at the start of your first year, not zeroth). Or it may be another Friday. They’re all the same.

This blogger wonders many things. 23 years is a long time. Its long enough that this blogger is willing to write “23″ instead of “twenty three” and “23rd” instead of “tweny thrid” (sp ?). It’s long enough that this blogger is reflecting on what he has done in his 23 years.

What must one do, an intoxicated blogger might ask, to make a difference. Blogging or otherwise, what must one do?

Ceratainly this blogger hasn’t changed the course of history with this blog. But has he influenced one of the great minds of his generation, while attending college? Has he affected the people around him to create a better world? Ok, WTF(brb)! (yes, a real WTFbrb moment, if you didn’t experience it, go back and try again) Okay here is the truth. This blogger plans on spending the next 76+ years (yes, I will be dissapointed if I don’t live to 100 or more, even as a tall individual) both making the world a better place and enjoying himself, but isn’t going to gripe about what he’s done. He hasn’t done as much as he could have, but that is the last you will hear about what he hasn’t done.

Go him!

Ok g’nite. And don’t expect any more blog posts as contentless as this one for a while. It can only get better.

In light my roommates’ and my new Showtime priviledges, I have been watching the occasional episode of Penn & Teller:Bullshit!. Now, before you get all pissy about it, I acknowledge: sometimes they make sense, sometimes they don’t, sometimes they provide decent arguments, and sometimes they don’t, but regardless, the show is always funny and thought provoking.

Anyways, the duo aired an episode about college. They basically aimed to expose public universities as bastions of censorship by liberals, and they made a few good points, and of course gave us a few flawed arguments (including an altogether unsuccessful attempt to discredit Noam Chomsky as an academic that was almost sad to watch). Point being, they sort of vindicated one thing I’ve always felt, but didn’t know how to explain.

I used to say nobody should ever be offended. But what I meant, as Penn Jillette quite eloquently stated, is that you shouldn’t be scared or protected from being offended. I know, they seem diametrically opposed, but let me explain.

The reason I would say “nobody should ever be offended”, is because I saw the idea of taking offense as the primary reason for censorship. I was right, and in being right, I became offended and thought nobody should be offended. Oops. But, what Penn told me is that (read this carefully) people are going to be and should be and shouldn’t be prevented from being offended all the time, because a society that guarantees free speech is a marketplace of ideas. That makes sense!

If you’re never offended, either you’re not thinking for yourself at all even for a moment, or you’re living in a bubble. Aside: Remember that bubble of college, well I guess that ties together with the point Penn and Teller were making to begin with. No I don’t truly believe that there is a liberal agenda to keep campuses free of dissent. I think in fact that academia draws a certain type of crowd in general. That combined with the fact that younger people seem to be more liberal, (or young liberals are more politically vocal than young conservatives) gives rise to the idea that there is a liberal cabal running academia. End aside.

Anyways. Along with freedom of speech comes being offended, and probably offending others. (Alternatively, closing your eyes covering your ears and never talking, or, for that matter, letting anyone see you doing that.) So how do we cope. Well, the synthesis of the thesis of free speech and antithesis that is buttloads of knee-jerk reactions is nothing more than discourse. We just have to make sure we think about both what we hear and what we say. That you have to be offended to be truly free doesn’t necessitate needlessly offending others. Nor does it necessitate taking offense to everything. Agreeing to disagree, perhaps better, coming to an agreement are important considerations when people find themselves offending one another. I guess open minds and mouths are what is important in the marketplace of ideas.

Now tell me what you think.