Grown and Sexy: My Libido has a new theme song

One day, I hope to be fortunate enough to open a dance club. Not like the meat markets my friends try to drag me to. Do any other kinds exist anymore? I want my establishment to be a more energizing and intimate date night for couples than the de facto trendy restaurant. I want to bring live bands back to dance clubs. I want everyone ordering funky drinks that look cool and sound even cooler. I want to see people dressing up to get down. And I want some space. Is that too much to ask?

You're probably wondering why I felt like sharing this. Well, I keep a running list of songs that would make the cut in my dream establishment and I recently found two fun ones by the same artist. Finding two on the same album is very rare. Finding two by an artist that I had prejudged as a sappy suck-up to teen girls is even rarer. So, I have to give him his props: the voice is dope and the vibe is just what I'm after. Thank you Mr. Mraz for helping to keep my dream alive:

Jason Mraz - Coyote (My libido has a new theme song)
Jason Mraz - Butterfly

Game Time: The "Battle Room" is here

I can't wait to get my hands on Starcraft II. The crafty developers at Blizzard have somehow managed to avoid announcing a release date for this game, even though it's been on everyone's must have list since it was announced in 2007.

You might be asking yourself, what could possibly be so great about a game that someone who spends 65+ hours a week testing games could still go cuckoo over? I didn't understand it either at first. I thought it was just a lot of great childhood memories coming back. However, the more I think about it the more I realize how I'm not thinking about how much fun Starcraft used to be. I'm not even thinking about how much fun Starcraft II is going to be. I'm literally foaming at the mouth thinking about another shot at going head to head with some of the brightest tacticians and strategists in the world.

That's right, I said it. For those that don't know, Starcraft is more than a game. In fact, it is more than a sport. It is the stage for anyone and everyone to prove they have the mental dexterity to command battalions and wipeout others without physical violence. The place where children, men, and women alike can anonymously see if they could've made it as a Leonidas, Maximus, George Washington, etc... It is Orson Scott Card's "Battle Room" incarnate. The one I had sought my entire adolescence.

Yea, so.... I can't wait.

Real Talk: Title 1 = More Stolen Blinds

It appears that the stimulus plan's education allotments are going to be distributed according to Title 1 mandates or something similar. Today's NY Times article describes that as:

"The formulas by which the stimulus money for public schools would be allocated to states and local districts are complex, but take into consideration numbers of school-age children in poor families. The level received per student would vary considerably by state, according to an analysis by the New America Foundation, a research group that monitors education spending. New York would be among the biggest beneficiaries, at $760 per student, while New Jersey and Connecticut would fall near the bottom, with $427 and $409 per student, respectively. The District of Columbia would get the most per student, $1,289, according to the foundation’s analysis."

What I never understand is this. How people can admit that overcrowding and family conditions are some of the biggest factors in the miseducation of America's disadvantaged youths, but continue to believe in a system that gives priority to institutions that uphold this? Even with the best teachers and the best resources we are knowingly setting these kids in New York and DC to fail.

Why? Because they are the little stacks at the high limit poker table. Every hand they commit themselves to will result in putting it all in the middle. Even if they win that hand and double up, they will still be the smallest stack and will have their blinds stolen repeatedly. That cycle describes their existence at the Poker table, until they eventually run out of chips. Of course, there is the "American Dream" - the player who can take the small stack and come out the winner. But let's be reasonable. Everyone is not cut out to perform at this high a level, nor can anyone do this without playing at a higher level than their opponents.

So how does one continue playing poker if they are the small stack? Simple. They go to a different table where their small stack is much more respectable. And that's what the country needs to be doing with these stimulus packages. We have, for too long, financed a poker room where there are only high limit tables. We have effectively said, "if you want to play then you need to play at the highest stakes possible. Otherwise, keep working."

Charter schools have taken up one position that does this by encouraging kids to play at these tables hard and fast and hopefully come out with enough to go to a lesser high limit table. But that doesn't solve the issue that most people can't do that and therefore the game, as it is meant to be played, is inaccessible to most people.

I'm pretty annoyed that this package misses the boat there. We need to open up more tables that allow small stacks to move out of the high limit arenas. We do not need to provide them with more chips that don't change their insignificance. And we definitely should not lower the buy-ins so that everyone can play, even though they can't afford to be competitive.

Real Talk: How we really got here

So, it's Sunday Morning and I'm watching these talking heads "discuss" Obama's plans for stimulating the economy. The reason that is "discuss" and not discuss is because neither of them focus on the issues at hand. In all honesty, it seems like they are using his platform as a way to legitimatize their own narrow beliefs concerning economics.

One dude, Sam Donaldson [former ABC anchor] is like "trickle up". He wants the government to give people more money ($500 tax credit) so that they can spend more.

A couple of people are like. Help small businesses. Give them more money (allow them to write off past debt) so that they can stay competitive.

Another person is saying clean up the credit crisis. In their mind, nothing good can come of any action until we rid the banks of their bad debt, since they control the flow of money.

The Nobel Prize winner in economics is trying to keep the people above from taking things to far into the extreme, but I just read that this is how he believes it all started:

"This is, first and foremost, a crisis brought on by a runaway financial industry. And if we failed to rein in that industry, it wasn’t because Americans “collectively” refused to make hard choices; the American public had no idea what was going on, and the people who did know what was going on mostly thought deregulation was a great idea." - http://www.nytimes.com/2009/01/23/opinion/23krugman.html?_r=1

So, I'm sitting here screaming back at the TV, "You fucking idiots, it ain't hard to tell!". We're here because the distribution in wealth is out of wack. The number of rich people has increased and so has the amount of money, they as a group control, meanwhile the number of poor working people has also increased and the amount of money, they as a group control, has continued to dwindle. None of what they are talking about is addressing that core fundamental problem in the economy right now. Obama is. I think. I hope.

And this is a problem for everyone.... Businesses in a capitalistic society are going to target the customers that they can count on providing them with profit. Normally, this means they go after the market that is increasing. And due to the shift I pointed out earlier, this is the reason why we have an overwhelming amount of specialty stores, services, and establishments that the average American can't afford. When this is taken to its extreme you get what a lot of us are experiencing - the choice to be helpless: your only options for groceries (necessities) are Whole Foods or C-Town.

I don't believe for a second that we got here because of a runaway financial industry. I think that was a product of the problem - the government failing to ensure that the economic bottom doesn't drop out.

Working people have to go where the jobs are. Businesses go where the talent and/or customers are. And the government, since the depression, has allowed our demise to become a self-fulfilling prophecy because the country pretty much discourages people from making their states relevant and instead depends on metropolises to supercede the states.

The denser our populations gets the more demand for products and thus the gap between what things are sold at and what people can afford grows larger. People want to go elsewhere, but if the infrastructure is not there then they are taking too big a risk with their families in doing it.

I'm hoping that Mr.... President Obama realizes this and is planning to place funds for infrastructure in this manner. Tax cuts and credits will help grease the wheels but it doesn't change where the money goes and therefore contributes to the problem. We definitely need to rebuild our cities, but we need to rebuild more money in the bridge communities that allow people to spread out from the cities first! We need to encourage business to see the richness in all of America, not just NYC, LA, SF, Atlanta, Seattle, and Dallas.

LiquidJin