Also – Millard Fillmore? Seriously?

To get your very own pile of loot, go and pay your Richardson Street Parking Garage ticket with a Jackson (a twenty – notice how it’s not a “Fillmore”).

Sometimes, I just find it hard to keep track of all of the days when I’ve felt it’s necessary to skip. Which is why I now have this.

Dry-erase and magnet heaven.

• Major assignment (comprises at least 10% of y0ur grade) due in the next 36 hours (in this case, an 8-9 page paper)
• Minimal preparatory evaluation/work in place to aid completion of assignment
• Discovery of a new social networking/media site
• Uncompromising belief that yes, I can finish this assignment and do a good job
• Coffee-maker in the apartment with mediocre but potent grounds

Timeline:

• 14.15 – Finish last class of the day, haul ass back to the apartment
• 14.40 – Arrive apartment, later than anticipated, but with Einstein’s bagel in tow
• 14.40 – 15.00 – Catch up on emails, eat a bagel, meet a giant fish, realize that 45 minutes of precious time has been wasted already, continue eating snacks
• 16.34 – Tweet about impending doom
• 17.00 – 17.05 – Wow, I’m hungry
• 17.05 – 17.35 – Wendy’s Value Menu is less enjoyable than I remember – 2 Jr. bacon cheeseburgers and 2 crispy chicken sandwiches
• 17.40 – 22.00 – Assemble source material notes, outline them, attempt to put down something on paper than I can use in the paper
• 22.00 – 22.30 – Go to the library and print off outlines and brainstorming – rationalize this decision by saying that it’s easier to refer to hard copy materials than stare at a computer screen and that the 30 minutes used up in this endeavor will be recouped through the ease of referring to hard copy
• 22.30 – Let’s see what’s on Twitter
• 22.31 – Let’s see what’s on Facebook
• 22.34 – I just signed up for hype-machine – let’s see what music is up right now
• 23.00 – Shit.
• 23.05 – Start writing
• 01.25 – Coffee break!
• 02.25 – 02.45 – Shower to wake up, re-assemble thoughts
• 03.00 – 381 words/2250 words (estimated)
• 03.00 – 06.45 – Uncertain
• 07.00 – Ignore moderate throbbing in head and burning sensation in eyes
• 08.30 – Finish draft, go to breakfast, eat omelet (egg whites with mozzarella, spinach, sausage, ham, mushrooms, and onions)
• 09.30 – Return to apartment with large chai from Einstein’s, begin proofing
• 11.30 – Leave apartment to turn in paper by 12.00 deadline
• 11.53 – Shit. There’s a missing word on the first page.
• 11.54 – 11.57 – Reprint new copy with previously missing word
• 11.58 – Paper is turned in. Now where am I?

We’re back.  Tell a friend.

I hope you all have been well.  Italy was quite wonderful, but I’m not unhappy to be back.  Let’s get right down to it.

Cheers to seeing things for the first time a second and third time.  I was driving back onto Furman’s campus the other day, from a koolaid and protein run.  I realized that I hadn’t looked up at the trees bordering the front gate in as long as I can remember.  I drove up and down the mall, looked at the trees, looked at the fountains, looked at the sun’s return and its effect on the campus.  It was nice to have a taste of spring a few months early.  Sometimes, its the going away and the coming back that makes you appreciate the times you spend in such a beautiful place.

Jeers to the senior gift.  Given the choice between covered bike racks and/or geothermal energy for NV and a glorified treadmill, they choose hamster power?  Really?  I mean, I know Furman is hard up for money, with its $400 bazillion fundraising drive (we care, Furman, our tuition money proves it), but really?

Jeers to Moe’s, not living up to their promise of free Queso on Wednesdays.  Small thing?  Yes.  But, after all, the little things are the spice of life, and my life is more bland because the Paladen Penny Pinchers.

Cheers to outgoing professors.  We’ve loved them, we’ve hated them, but at the end of the day, we have to respect them.  Here’s to all those folks, professors, administrators, and staff, who are retiring this year or this summer, and those who are shuffling around in their responsibilities.  We’ll miss having you around.

Let us know what you’re cheering and jeering about this week!

So, admittedly, I’m not the biggest fan of Drake. Granted, I’ve only listened to “Best I Ever Had,” and the lyrics to that song are so dumb, they’re almost as bad as the video for that song.

HOWEVER!

One of Drake’s opening acts sounds pretty cool: k-os.

Here’s his Wikipedia biography.

And here’s an awesome song he did. It’s called “I Wish I Knew Natalie Portman”.

And since we’re on the topic of Natalie Portman, here’s another related song.

Due to time and planning constraints, I was only able to pick one to celebrate. Which one was it? Well, if you can read logical functions and inequalities, you already know. But let’s pretend you don’t, and instead look at this awesome chart.

So obviously, Chinese New Year makes for the better party.

Now, we didn’t really have a dragon (I think that’s prohibited under the current Furman alcohol policy), but we did make some good food: steamed dumplings (in substitute wonton wrappers), pork fried rice, and hot and sour soup.

Dumplings:

Hot and Sour Soup:

Finished Dumplings:

Now, I’m not saying that this is a bad idea, but it totally is. And here’s why.

I see (at least) two problems with the idea of a Furman-specific social networking site:

1. It has a stupid name
2. It will not be what is claims it will be

The first issue is perhaps more easily addressed.

Look at Twitter, Facebook, MySpace, and Tumblr (all examples of successful social networking sites listed in the article). How many syllables do they have in their names?

2. Two. Dos. Due. 两个.

How many does Furman-Engage Community have? Eight. That is 400% more syllables. Now, I quibble – I mean, a syllable is a syllable and I should be less lazy, right? Wrong.

Social networking is not a substitute for real-life interaction. People Facebook (verb), tweet, etc. online, but then they go and talk about the stuff they tweeted or Facebooked about in person. Just pay attention during any old inane conversation you might have – Facebooking and tweeting come up inevitably, and you refer to those events as such. No one is going to be talking about Furman-Engage Community precisely because it is going to be exceptionally difficult to work that into conversation.

Sure, you could abbreviate the site or give it a nickname, but let’s look at the possibilities.

• Furman-Engage Community, or FEC. Well, that’s nice, except FEC is already the abbreviation for the Federal Election Commission. It also sounds like SEC, which could refer either to the South-Eastern Conference (athletics) or the Securities and Exchange Commission (federal regulatory agency). In short, there’s nothing unique about this abbreviation, which leads us to the next problem -
• If you just shorten the name or nickname this site “Engage” (as it is referred in the article), you run into a lot of confusion. Everything is already labeled with some combination of “Furman” and “Engage.” You hear that terminology thrown around by admissions counselors, campus organizations – to what does that actually refer? Is it that special day in April where everyone shows off their research? Is it working at an internship? Is it going to CLPs? There seems to be no limit to what being engaged entails, so everyone is pictured as being engaged, at which point you must question if anyone is really engaged at all. Sort of the principle of “how can you know what is good if you have never experienced something bad.As an overarching philosophy and brand, Furman Engage(d) is fine. As a product label, it only engenders confusion and ends up diluting the impact of that branding.

This bring us to our second problem – what does having this social networking site add? What kind of service is this site going to provide that isn’t already widely available (and in use) by the community?

Judging by the article, it seems that a lot of the emphasis behind this site is strengthening ties between administration, professors, students, parents, and alumni, which will in turn create new opportunities for discussions about internships, campus life, campus safety. There’s also mention of how this site can serve as a resource for prospective students and their parents, as well as a way to vent and rant and give feedback to the University.

This is great, in theory, but this conception overlooks a huge part of the equation. This social networking site, above all else, is a creation of Furman’s Office of Marketing and Public Relations Office. As an extension of the University, there is going to be regulation.

Part of the appeal of the internet is freedom through anonymity. If you can remember back to the FUnet debates on the Kinsey Sicks or Dubya’s commencement speech, you also no doubt remember the giant clusterfuck of anonymity that started clogging up the tubes on FUnet. Even on Facebook, there is relative anonymity in that there are over 300 million users on Facebook – it’s rather unlikely that someone is going to censor what you say or what you do simply because of the sheer QUANTITY of Stuff that is put on Facebook.

Now if you transfer that model to a much smaller community, you lose a lot of that perceived freedom. Instead of 300 million, you’re looking at several thousand users – definitely a manageable number.

I’m not saying all regulation is bad – the lack of regulatory measures can result in the retarded* name-calling and flaming that shows up on the internet (or on FUnet). However, there are people who have legitimate concerns that do not always mesh with University policies or stances – how can they be expected to express those concerns on a site that is under the eye of the University?

Here, we go into some Foucauldian notions of surveillance and regulation by institutions. It’s pretty interesting theory, if you’re not familiar with it – look up Discipline and Punish.

How it applies here is that Furman, as an institution that has certain aims and images it would like to preserve, is going to make sure that users of their social networking site follow certain rules, written (or vaguely intimated) and unwritten. For example, I don’t believe that admissions counselors would look too kindly upon blog posts or comments or pictures that do not conform to the particular image that is being marketed to prospective students. There’s going to be pressure to have particular subjects censored or removed from the arena of discourse on the site, and in some cases, disciplinary action taken for those particularly finicky users who continue disregard those rules.

Of course, this kind of action isn’t going to be publicized; it’ll be kept as quiet as possible so as not to create the impression of regulation. In time, however, the threat of a big brother watching over the site is going to dissuade many potential contributors from participating, or participating in a way that actually reflects something other than the carefully groomed image of this University. There is not going to be a discourse that challenges or provides accurate feedback. Disagreement will always, generally defer to big brother’s wishes.

Furman is not the only regulatory force here, either. If parents are going to be present in this network, there’s going to be something else to worry about. I’m not sure any of us particularly want our parents to know the details of our lives at college, and so users are going to be encouraged to censor themselves in accordance to some parent-friendly filters they have already established. This also adds the possibility for direct contact between parents and professors, which I see as rather detrimental. After all, you’re in college; you’re at the point where your parents don’t really need to have conferences with your professors.

As a networking resource for connecting alumni, students, and career and internship opportunities, I think there is real potential.  As a social networking site around which students can congregate and share stories, this site is fundamentally compromised. If anything, Furman-Engage Community needs to be retooled from a marketing perspective. It doesn’t need to be a social networking site because it cannot be socially conducive and remain Furman sanctioned; it cannot make those kinds of claims.

*Sorry, Mrs. Palin

Drake (no, not that Drake) is going to be performing at Furman on April 22.

BUT THAT’S NOT ALL.

It’s going to be part of an eco-friendly tour. According to Billboard,

Drake, in conjunction with Reverb — a non-profit organization that promotes environmental-friendly techniques — has adopted and eco-friendly policy for “The Away From Home Tour.” Dubbed the “Campus Consciousness Tour,” Drake has “greened” his tour with the use of biodiesel fuel and biodegradable and recyclable products on the bus and backstage.

Drake will also showcase an “Eco-Village” with tents which will feature environmental and other socially-conscious groups educating on green technology, student carbon-offset programs and eco-friendly consumer sampling.

Damn, Drake. You da fuckin’ best.

Download link: January 15th

I am a big fan of retro-looking things, books, and t-shirts. Which is exactly why I want some of these shirts. Even if $28 is a bit outrageous for a t-shirt.