But if you do, I've started a new blog focusing on politics and sports instead of my mundane life.

www.opinionsarelikebellybuttons.blogspot.com

I hope I'll see some of you there, my first content post is pretty substantive.

Hi everyone, I've just been selected as a finalist to shadow a member of the Detroit Regional Chamber of Commerce for the Michigan apprentice. This is where you come in. 25% of the selection process is a vote, you have to go to the website listed below and vote for me. Once you do that spread the word.

http://alumni.umich.edu/michiganapprentice/index.php

x-posted in a few places.

"No court, justice, or judge shall have jurisdiction ot hear or consider an application for a writ of habeas corpus filed by or on behalf of an alien detained by the United States who has been determined by the United States to have been properly detained as an enemy combatant or is awaiting such determination."

-H.R. Bill 6166


This bill passed both the house and senate and is awaiting signing by the President. It regards the use of military tribunals as a method for trying prisoners.

You would think that, at the very least, anti-war folks would put up a stink for Mid-Term elections.

First day of classes and I am pumped! I'm ready to sit through 6 straight hours of lecture with breaks only to rush to the next class, "Heck Yeah!"

Not that I'm complaining, I kind of like it this way. 10-4 two days a week and only 3.5 hours of classtime spread out over the 3 remaining days. Hopefully this will be an easy semester, two intro sociology courses, statistics and a german class with my favorite professor ever.

Dunno what else to say except that this will be a good semester, simply because I kicked it off last night with watching a demolition derby. Leif's pick won the whole thing, the two america-cars had wildy different but both fitting performances, one car hit another car so hard it knocked itself out, and the "lady-driver" made it to the finals.

That is what makes a bad-ass semester.

P.S. I started today with half an hour of C-SPAN, I both love and want to beat myself up for this.

With my recent readings it has become increasingly obvious to what extent the corporate world has started making political decisions. Of course America, Michigan and Detroit all suffer because of it. Multi-national corporations have multi-national interests in mind, namely the profit of it's largest shareholders (incidentally those are the ones who make the decisions).

It happens from either side of the aisle, with the both the left and the right caving to the demands of the (corporately) well-funded lobbies. We're fighting the war against terror, not for civilian safety, but for corporate safety. Terrorist organizations are not striking at America specifically for it's morals, but because of exploitative corporate strategies. America has become a symbol for corporate largess and therefore a target of the anti-globalism crowd. Nevermind the fact most american citizens don't see much benefit from these globalist policies.

Simply put, I would love to change things, hence the reason for my interest in politics, but recently I am realizing just how little can be accoplished as a politician. While a single politician can stand up for what they believe is right, if their colleagues are all cowards who consistantly bow to the whims of those with the most money, that voice of reason will be swept under the status quo.

It seems the people who are making the most positive influence on the world are the progressively-minded corporate types. The class of people such as the Bill Gateses, Warren Buffets and their contemporaries, who dole out millions in charity. Money is what changes the world, not all the rhetoric and passion that gets a person elected, but the money that comes from successful business ventures.

So it would seem that I could make a bigger mark on society as a member of the corporate community than as a politician. Is it likely, or even possible, for me to do so. It wasn't too long ago that Bill Gates was a villian with his monopolistic business tendencies. Does the corporate game turn its players into the monsters that most of these corporations have become? Is it possible to run big business progressively? More importantly, would I become corrupted by money such as others most assuredly have before me?

I am worried about my ability to weild power responsibly, never mind the far cry that I actually get into a position to wield such power. Is it possible to wrest control of the government away from money and back into the hands of the people? What would it take? More specifically how do we get the people to matter more than business in politics? One citizen, one vote has proven not to be enough when many citizens can be swayed with the money/access/advertising that a single corporation can provide. Campaign reform seems to dead, as those who vote on it have the most to gain from it remaining the same. Essentially we are ruled by the business world.

Even the two inescapable truths that all human beings have to deal with, death and taxes, corporations can cheat both. They have constantly weilded their influence to find, create and abuse loopholes in the tax code - even illegal measures which they almost never get called on. Corporations also cheat death, in two ways no less. First, corporations don't die in the normal sense, if a corporate leader dies another one takes his place. More insiduously, bankruptcy, which should be the death of a business, has become an ecomonic ploy. Brankrupt companies are allowed by the government to continue functions without paying all of its creditors.

At the same time, business is not a wholly negative proposition. In many cases business can provide jobs, build infrastructure, allow for education, do charity work, and in general create/rebuild communities. Politically it would take a strong leader to push business in that direction, but it also requires strong progressive-thinking leaders in business as well to look beyond the immediate profit and see the greater picture. It's an extremely lofty goal, but if I could somehow play a part in any of that I would be a fulfilled man.

Just to get the writing juices flowing again, we're going to play one of my favorite games: Ask me questions.

It goes like this, you ask me a question and I answer it. You will be totally amazed by my 100% correct answer, because of my absolute mastery or despite my total ignorance of the subject matter.

I want you to have fun, but more importantly I want you to entertain me and force me to be clever again. There's far too little of that these days.

Kind of like a train only belonging moreso to the internet.

Having just looked over my LJ calendar, I have owned this journal for almost 4 years now and my post rate has gone from a staggering almost daily to once a month. I have more LJ-friends than I actually read, I don't follow the communities I signed up for (and in one case founded - not that it's active anymore), and have been slowly distancing myself from this forum. At the moment I am feeling a bit of remorse for seperating from this community that has been so good to me in the past. Who knows, this little bit of introspection should be enough to kick start me into recording more of my daily events.

Much of the problem is that my daily events seem, to me at least, somewhat boring. I fall into my routine and frankly, I don't feel like expounding on that repetitive experience. If this journal is to return to some form of use it is going to have to evolve. Less about my actions and more about my thoughts. Lets see whether I can piece together anything coherent.

I always find it kind of weird that going home has my internet prescence die. At the same time it is a very seperate part of my being, so in essence it is like killing a part of me. This is one of the few forums in which I actually do some relatively heavy soul-searching and self-discovery, of which I do not really do elsewhere.

In other news I've been working for 2 weeks, MWF 10am-4pm, doing lots of menial jobs and some very basic promotional work, making brochures and listing the properties on Craigslist. The most noteworthy event that has happened to me because of this job is meeting a relatively influential Detroit artist. Jon Strand is a longtime Detroit resident and because of his experiences in 30-odd years of living in Detroit and producing art he was given a book deal to talk about Detroit, art and any connections he's made between the two in those 30-odd years.

Outside of that I've been catching up with friends, amazingly enought I just realized that the Grosse Pointe folks I hung out with in Ann Arbor, amazingly enough, are in Grosse Pointe - it only took me about a month to figure it out. This resulted in a bowling trip on Tuesday where I bowled a respectable 100+ and two solid 150-ish rounds.

I also reconnected with the first real friend I made in Grosse Pointe. We saw Clerks 2 yesterday, I thouroughly enjoyed it, and proceeded to chat for a while about things in general, reminiscing some and talking about the future as well.

More good news, I am officially readmitted to the University of Michigan, without a probationary period no less. It was touch and go for a while as letters went missing and petitions went unconfirmed. Thankfully it's all over and I just have to work my ass off to come out of here with two degrees, hopefully the second will have a solid GPA.

On a random ending note, my cellphone was faxed three times yesterday. I called them back, got the screeching dial-up noise, and it was over.

That's all, leave me a message and I'll get back to it pretty quickly.

Pistons Summer League concluded yesterday.

They had a player on their roster, Cheick Samb, 7'1" weighing in at 195 lbs.

Also amusing, a Rick Rickert was on the roster.

According to preliminary reports, Ben Wallace is no longer a Detroit Piston.

He reportedly took $60 mil over four years that was offered by Chicago as opposed to the $51 mil over four years we offered.

Needless to say I am disappointed and more than a little disheartened. We are certainly no longer the same team that we were before this happening. Ben Wallace was the heart and soul of this team, but was seemingly a bit malcontented at the end of the season and during the playoffs.

This, just like when we lost Grant Hill, will be another pivotal point for the future of this franchise. Our continued success depends on how Joe Dumars rebounds from this loss. Personally I think the best option would be a sign-and-trade with Portland for Joel Pryzbilla, not sure what we would give but we do have a lot of spare parts lying around which would probably be more palatable to Portland than just losing Przybilla outright - as he seems unhappy with the Portland organization.

But the worst part about this is that today was also the day that Steve Yzerman retired. I wish that Ben would have at least had the respect to wait a few days so that we could properly reflect on Stevie Y before dropping this bomb on the city of Detroit.

*edit* 2:20 am, reports have come out that Detroit is in negotiations with Przybilla and is the front-runner to receive his services next year. I enjoy being right. Let's see if my next proposed, much more radical, idea of trading Chauncey for Luke Ridnour and any one of the following :Nick Collison, Chris Wilcox or Damien Wilkins, comes true.

Turn Loose The Aruna.
Gonna Be a While? Grab an Aruna.
I Saw Aruna and I Thought of You.
Aruna Is Our Middle Name.
Aruna with the Less Fattening Centres.
Too Orangey for Aruna.
Is It Live, Or Is It Aruna?
Better Ingredients, Better Aruna.
I'm a Secret Aruna Drinker.
Tough on Dirt, Gentle on Aruna.
Because Aruna Can't Drive.
Australians Wouldn't Give An Aruna For Anything Else.
My Anti-Drug is Aruna.
Come to Life. Come to Aruna.
Little. Yellow. Different. Aruna.
Better Living Through Aruna.
Made To Make Your Aruna Water.
They're Yummy For Your Aruna.
Once You Pop, You Can't Stop Aruna.
Two Hours of Aruna in Just Two Calories.
We're Serious About Aruna.
The Future's Bright. The Future's Aruna.
Feel the Aruna.
It's How Aruna Is Done.
Why Have Cotton When You Can Have Aruna?
Snap into an Aruna!
I'm Only Here For The Aruna.
When It Absolutely, Positively Has To Be Aruna Overnight.
Come See the Softer Side of Aruna.

and finally

It's Aruna Time.

That's right I've ruined the Advertising Slogan Generator for you.

Looks like I need to start taking care of administrative business again. My umich computing accounts are going to get shut off as of July 11th due to my status of being on academic suspension (as a result of my medical withdrawal). So this morning has and will be continually full of e-mailing various people trying to get my shit together. Aruna is not happy.

I had an interview with O'Connor real estate and development. Looks like I am welcome in their office for the rest of the summer. I'm going to be getting a crash course in starting and running a business. I'll be starting once my folks get back into town and I can figure out exactly what my schedule will be for the rest of the summer. Congratulations are in order and I am expecting you to give them to me.

I tried out TrustFlow II for LiveJournal. The following people not on the friends list for flymonk321 are close by:

• kavsterwa, xanthine, acrylamide (300 - 350)
• suffuse (350 - 400)
• angelburnsy, moonmaid, mrsoluble, stateofthings, mrfriendly, desdemona03, confusedllama (400 - 450)

Created by ciphergoth; hosted by LShift.

TrustFlow II: Who is closest to your friends list?

So you'd think with all the other shit going on in my life the Pistons bowing out in the conference finals wouldn't affect me that much. Well you were wrong, it was another in a series of gut punches. I used to be able to look to the Pistons to always play a good game, to scrap it out and prove that hard work and dedication pays off.

This year they got away from that. Whether it was tired legs from 4 straight trips to the conference finals, a new coaching regime, or just complacency, something was wrong and it started to show game 3 in Cleveland. Sheed was hurting, Rip was hurt, Ben's wrist is always awful and Chauncey was out of sorts for whatever reason, injury or not. Usually the team plays through these things, but they lacked the intensity and the toughmindedness needed to pull off this usual feat of valor. They managed to put it together long enough to finish off the Cavs, but we gave the Heat their window of opportunity to steal one at home. All that hard work to get home court advantage wasted - the extra minutes that we wore the starters down during the regular season, stolen with a single loss. We were supposed to win and took it for granted, so the better prepared team snuck up and forced us to play from behind.

Frankly the Riley difference on the Heat is night and day from what we saw last season. I would argue last year's team was a better team, where this is just a jumble of talent, but that's what Riley likes. He loves having such a myriad of weapons at his disposal. Riley uses his team like a Swiss Army knife, picking apart the opponents with precision weapons and teaching former defensive liabilities (Antoine Walker, Jason Williams) to hold their own. Frankly, Flip has been a dissapointment for the Pistons. Sure he opened up the offense, but he wasted the defense we were vaunted for. Another turning point during the season was trading Darko and Arroyo for cap space and a draft pick. The only hurt our title run, we lost at one time the second best assist to turnover man in the NBA and a promising talent who could have contributed at least as much as his replacement. We tried to plug the hole that Arroyo left with Tony Delk, but he never seemed to gain Flip's confidence.

Having written this I take solace in the fact that the Heat lost to the Mavs. A team built a whole lot like the Pistons, with less overall talent, better overall coaching, a deeper bench, but most of all a hungrier team. In the coming crossroads, with the, seemingly less imminent by the moment, signing of Benn Wallace slated for this summer, Joe needs to take a good hard look at the team and see what went wrong. Early signs look promising as Joe wants to develop a bench, the rest will be seen. I look forward to next season, but this one - that started out so well - ended up a disappointment.

Putting all of your being into something and still coming up short. It's even worse knowing that had you been given more time it would have worked out. For those of you who don't know, which is most of you, two of the past three weekends saw me training (which is really an extended interview process) to teach the ACT for the Princeton review. Due to procedural issues, it boiled down to how much advice I could synthesize and prepare smashed into three hours between training sessions that I wouldn't spend sleeping. Apparently those three hours weren't enough to make up for two other lost opportunities due to changing trainers and a lack of general instruction.

It hurts even more because in terms of personality and interaction I was exactly what they were looking for. I just was never given any useful feedback until it was too late. It hurts to give as much as you can and still have the what-ifs hanging around.

I've attempted another job earlier this summer as well. I tried my hand at canvassing. That sucked hard. Slaving for 5 hours a day in the hot sun, after 2 hours previously spent preparing, it's draining - emotionally moreso. Then having your wages, your very employment, hinge on how much you can coerce out of people to support a political cause. I found out I'm not that good at pushing people in directions they don't want to go. I don't like imposing upon them and I just couldn't push enough.

I'm not sure what the rest of the summer will bring. At the moment I am recovering from the emotional destruction that was the Princeton Review rejection. I'm going home for my sisters high school graduation on Wednesday, after that I'll sort my summer together again. Possibly just volunteer and get my stuff together for next year, maybe join the job hunt again.

On a lighter note, eis271828182845 and I are taking your advice arthenadent and eloping to Canada, Vancouver to be exact. My phantom wife be damned, if she wanted her feelings taken into account she should have the decency to let me know.

Apparently there's a rumor going around my hometown that I'm engaged/married. You think I would know.

The future of the TV commercial is from the past.

Some of you might know Mark Cuban as the eccentric dot-com billionaire who owns the Dallas Mavericks. Some of you might remember that he had some sort of reality show on one of the major networks. What most people don't realize is this guy is a genius on the business world, I mean he had to do something to make those billion or so dollars. While I originally started reading his blog for the NBA stuff, oftentimes his take on the broadcasting business is far more enlightening.

Anyways, he advocates returning to live ads. The main point being that a live ad allows for spontaneity and will be different (possibly topical) each time you watch it.

In my group of friends, we're absolutely enthralled with the "Why so Blue Panda Bear?" Milky Way commercial. In my opinion it's mostly because of the high WTF quotient, combined with the fact that if we made commercials they'd all be like that. But another part of the reason for that irrational love, in my opinion, is that despite being planned the commercial seems spontaneous, almost improvised, in delivery.

Just a little food for thought as I start to figure out how to use this journal again.

Date:	2006-02-08 03:20
Subject:	I am sick and tired of being everyone else's rock
Security:	Public
Mood:	exasperated

I don't know if I'll be feeling this when I wake up in the morning, but I'm sick and tired of fixing everyone else's problems. Every once in a while I'd like to hear someone ask me what's wrong. Or is it that I do such a great job of putting up a stoic facade and not showing that something's wrong?

Whatever, I'm not really alienated - but at the same time I'm not fully part of anything either. On a brighter note, the back I sprained, WHILE SITTING IN A CHAIR, is almost better. Almost still being a long way from feeling productive. Also, I may or may not have broken my pinky a few weeks ago. Except at the time I thought it was a jammed finger, but now I seem to no longer have the full range of motion for that pinky anymore.

I just can't wait to start over somewhere. Not only the fact that I'm really hating school right now, but I feel like I've stopped growing and am more than a little restless. I love my friends, but my social options are pretty static right now. I was fine with that, but now I'm feeling more than a little bit in a rut.

I guess I just asked myself what was wrong, and answered it, and that's the reason we have journals. To let the world know about our problems and in the process figuring out exactly what it is those problems are.

Snakes on a Plane, man . . .

. . . Snakes on a Plane.