Wednesday, December 17, 2008

Four Links on a Wednesday

I'm at a point where I've been doing very little gaming or anything else at home, which hasn't left me with much to write about, so I'm filling the dead air with links to people who are actually doing stuff and writing about it.

#1: Death Throws by Brian at MGoBlog. Brian is, bar none, the single best sports blogger I've read (maybe even the best overall) and his analysis of the recent Detroit News/Free Press announcement that they are no longer doing daily home delivery is spot on. The people who have been the guardians of media for the last 100 years simply can't wrap their heads around the notion their established way of controlling information for profit won't work in an Internet world. There's also a 9-minute video clip in here from a guy by the name of Clay Shirky that I can't recommend strongly enough. There's one quote in particular that stuck out to me: "They didn't care that they'd seen it work in practice because they already knew it couldn't work in theory." I'm printing that quote out and putting it on my wall as a reminder not to dismiss things that I don't immediately understand, which is something I think people do way too often as they get older. (Not that I'm getting old... oh no, not me.) Also, also, there's another link in that post that's pretty damned funny: The Guide to Understanding Flow Charts.

#2: A Roll of the 'Dyess by Chris McCosky at the Detroit News. Putting this link right after the one above is probably hypocritical in the extreme, or at least ironical, but it can't be helped. Even Chris "I-Hate-Pajama-Wearing-Basement-Dwelling-Bloggers" McCosky is capable of writing something decent sometimes. Most of these guys did get their fishwrap jobs for a reason (Rob Parker excepted). Anyway, this one details the Pistons' Antonio McDyess and his recent trade from the team to Denver, subsequent buyout from the Nuggets, and month long wait to re-sign with Detroit. McDyess is one of the genuinely good guys in sports who found a home playing in Detroit and wants his ring there even if the chances were better for one elsewhere and I think that's pretty damn cool. (He had about 15 different teams inquire about him while waiting to re-sign with Detroit, including the Cavaliers and Celtics.)

#3: Teentastic by Hannah at My Mess of Motley Musings. After she commented on one of my posts here I ended up making my way to Hannah's blog which, despite all the pink, is incredibly well written. Really. She's a first rate writer and it's easy to see how she was able to get a book deal so soon after finishing college (at Yale no less). In this post she answers a bunch of questions about her upcoming book and it's a great read. Here's a snippet: "When I was unpopular everything sucked because I felt like there was something wrong with me. Seriously, I was sure I was defective. Maybe if I just tried harder, got smarter, skinnier, funnier, then I would be able to be "normal." This seemed very important and also very faroff coming from a house where a monkey roams around the kitchen and instead of spending money to fix the gutters my Dad once designed and constructed a vehicular shoe. Here is some advice: if you want people to think you're normal, do not show up to school in a shoe."

#4: Elitism in Senate Appointments by Markos Moulitsas Zúniga at Daily Kos. I know your more extreme right wingers (emphasis on extreme) think of Daily Kos as a hate sight, a notion that would be laughable if it weren't so misguidingly untrue. (As an English major I am licensed to make up words.) Anyway, whether you agree with his politics or not, Markos is a fascinating mind and I agree 100% with this post of his regarding Caroline Kennedy trying to get handed a seat in the United States Senate. She absolutely should not get appointed to that seat. This isn't an aristocracy. If she wants it, she should have to do it the way Joe Biden's son intends to get it in New Jersey: By letting the people actually elect her to it. At least then the voters actually get to choose. This whole notion of having state governors fill US senate vacancies is a bad idea.
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