Bassitone's Rants

A view into my somewhat random mind and everyday life. Just what is normal, anyway? var gaJsHost = (("https:" == document.location.protocol) ? "https://ssl." : "http://www."); document.write(unescape("%3Cscript src='" + gaJsHost + "google-analytics.com/ga.js' type='text/javascript'%3E%3C/script%3E")); try { var pageTracker = _gat._getTracker("UA-12364179-1"); pageTracker._trackPageview(); } catch(err) {}

[lolmythesis]

It's possible to catch a Mewtwo with a pokeball, but twelve years later i still would'nt recommend it

Mathematics, Princeton

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Hmm...I would have paid more attention in math class if we had mentioned Pokémon...

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Guess who's back?

Back again...

But actually, this is getting revived somehow.  Holy crap the theme I chose four years ago is bad...

[bassitonesrants]

Another Upgrade to the Blog!

Tonight, I have introduced another upgrade to The New Age of Politics: a new type of post called Brief Thoughts, at least for now.  These short posts are meant to give you something in between the longer, normal posts that I write.  I love writing the really long and detailed posts that I do, but thanks to the fast-paced world we live in, finding time to read them can be a challenge.  Sure, it may be summer break for me now, but this is a thing I should have started when I was forced to take the hiatus last month. 

These posts are shorter, and I will put an extended "related articles" section at the end if you want to read more on it.  Don't worry, I still provide my thoughts on the issues I write about in these short posts.  The increased "related articles" list is for those cases where there is something interesting being said somewhere else that is beyond the focus of my post or when someone has said something that I agree with so much that I cannot say much more about that particular aspect.  I read through each of the related ones (other than the randomly-generated ones already present; if someone could predict those I'd be very impressed), and they're linked for a good reason.

In addition, there are often developments on something that I have already written about, but do not necessarily have enough to merit a full post normally.  At the beginning, you may remember I said that I would try to do a post every day that something happened, and I only planned on 300-500 words per post.  Eight months later, you can safely add 500 to those numbers, or even more, in addition to only writing twice a week.  Thus, this new type of post is closer to what I envisioned at the beginning.  It's funny, looking back I remember how I hated  writing long essays; now, I have no issues writing 1,500 words on political issues, but shorter lengths are hard!  Like every major change I make to the blog, this new section is experimental, so I welcome your feedback either in comments on this post, on the fan page, or through the feedback form.

[bassitonesrants]

A Summer of Blogging

Well, freshman year ended much like the Kentucky Derby: with a sprint to the finish.  And then, nothing...

As I write this, I've been away from Wash U for a day less than two weeks.  After too much time spent on airplanes and traveling in a car all for a trip that took me through seven states but was ultimately an epic waste of time for everyone involved, I have arrived at home.  Well, that depends on your definition of "home".  Even though my family and most of my stuff is here in Texas, am I really supposed to call this place "home" even though I've lived here for about five days?  I mean, all of my friends at college have scattered to the four winds as they say (and I'm sure I butchered that!), but seriously, St. Louis feels more like home to me than anywhere else I have lived.  The New York City area is nice, and sure, it is where I grew up, but let's be honest, there's only really four people that give me a particular reason to go back there now that we've taken the opportunity to move halfway across the country.

But now I guess I'm settled down here in Houston.  Still trying to figure out what "official" job/internship I'll be working at this summer, but unlike my previous 50 attempts or so, I actually have a couple of potential ones.

Did you catch the quotes around "official"?  Unofficially, this summer is dedicated to vastly improving The New Age of Politics, which is, as you probably know if you're reading this, the only thing possibly equal to music in terms of how much passion I put into it.  Of course, since even Facebook updates on the official fan page for The New Age of Politics can't handle the awesomeness of this summer of upgrades and blogging I'll be using this space to announce the changes in detail, while providing a brief (ish) summary on the news page on The New Age of Politics.

First up, coming up with a good acronym for the name of the blog that doesn't remind me of sleeping!

Seriously, tonight I rolled out the first of many changes.  On the main page of the blog I have changed the feedback link into a formal contact form that is easier to use than a certain website that lets you pose questions about others.  In addition, I have added a chat feature to the official fanpage that I'll be checking in on every now and then for those of you who want to talk politics with more immediacy than wall posts and comments on my writing.  Not really sure how well it will work, but that's something we'll have to see.

I have big plans for both the blog and the fanpage, so keep a close eye on them and this blog throughout the summer.  Who knows, I may even choose to include certain other spaces in addition to what I have now among the plans for this summer...

Of course, the one thing that won't change is the high value I place on you, my readers, so I'm asking you:

Do you have any ideas for things you'd like to see happen to The New Age of Politics or its fanpage, or maybe even this space?

[bassitonesrants]

Voice

Many people have interesting practice habits when it comes to music. For some reason I like to practice at 1 or 2 (or 3!) in the morning…

Part of that is that this time of the morning is almost the only time I am basically guaranteed an open practice room, but somehow I still sound good this late. Of course, sleep is also good, but hey, I’m already routinely up late because of homework, might as well take an extra 30 minutes or an hour…or more, if I get into it, which happens very often…

This actually happened once (or twice). It is a little on the extreme end of my practice routine. It normally does play out like this, albeit on a shorter duration.

2am: “Alright, finally done with everything. Time to practice!”

2:30: “Okay, this phrase is getting annoying”

3:00: “Good run, but I think I can do better.”

4:00am: “hmmm, it’s 4. I should probably sleep……”

What are your interesting, random, or otherwise special practice habits?

[bassitonesrants]

Well folks, I'll be working on something for The New Age of Politics tonight assuming I don't give in to my lack of sleep. In the mean time, there is something you could do for me. You might have heard, but the Huffington Post is sponsoring a competition where the most-voted on question asked by a student journalist is given the chance to interview Education Secretary Arne Duncan about the student loan reform passed as part of the healthcare reconciliation bill. Well, my local student newspaper, Student Life, has gotten a couple of questions in the top 25. I'm not personally involved in these questions, but as a political writer attending this university who contributes to the paper on a biweekly basis, I would like to ask that you help vote for these questions. We aren't nearly the largest school in contention, so we need all the help we can get. Watch the videos, vote for them, and tell your friends! Also, keep an eye out for my next post later tonight, and my column in Student Life on Wednesday...assuming I can finish it on time :)

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So much work, so little time...

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Because I have nothing better to do...

...I'm watching the Oscars. As much as I'm not interested in them, there's just nothing else on.

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So, Apparently the Academy Awards are this weekend

I honestly didn't know until I noticed that the Best Picture race is too close to call. And by "notice" I mean that I couldn't avoid all the news stories about it last night. I've seen both "Avatar" and "The Hurt Locker", and I have no idea which will win. You know what, I don't particularly care either. Sure it means millions more in DVD sales down the road, but let's face it: there are many more important things we should care just as much about. (insert shameless plug for my other blog here)

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Thought of the Day

Something in my college's satire newspaper made me think about this: If Senator Amidala from Star Wars were in the U.S. Congress, which party would she be in?

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Well this is interesting.  According to that BBC article, NASA scientists say Pluto is becoming red in the atmosphere- literally.  The scientists believe that it is a result of a change in the surface ice on Pluto, and hey, I'd buy that argument.  However, remember it's the subject of a meme along the lines of being able to tell our future grandchildren "When I was your age, Pluto was a planet."  The International Astronomical Union decided it wasn't one during the last decade.  Maybe the news finally reached Pluto, and its blushing with embarrassment?

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Hopefully just a coincidence...

When I looked at the viewer statistics for The New Age of Politics this morning, I saw a somewhat...interesting...number on the monthly views page.  The number was exactly 666, and while I don't believe that a number can be evil, we all know the connotations of it being "The Devil's Number" or whatever.  Okay, so it was just another number that may or may not be evil.  Right as I was about to go on with my work for the day, the "Dies Irae" from Mozart's Requiem came on.  One of the most apocalyptic-sounding pieces of classical choral music out there.  It is an awesome piece, but given how the text relates to judgment day, Revelation, etc. it is pretty much a win for timing that it came on.  Coincidence?  I sure hope so...

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Wow. Just noticed that I have more views on The New Age of Politics in the last hour than I did throughout all of yesterday. I'm almost afraid to see what the stats look like after I sleep. Almost.

[bassitonesrants]

formspring.me

Ask me anything http://formspring.me/bassitone

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formspring.me

Ask me anything http://formspring.me/bassitone

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Back at school, doing homework, and writing more blog posts for The New Age of Politics. Such is my life. Exciting, isn't it?

[bassitonesrants]

Blogging

Naturally, there's a lot of background work that goes into each of my posts on The New Age of Politics.  Reading news items, finding the angle I want to take on it, etc.  Sometimes it seems a bit tedious, but in general I enjoy it.  In fact, the days it seems more tedious than normal are usually the days that I don't end up writing anything.  Of course, I usually make up for it a couple of days later.

But did you also know there is a lot of background work related to just running the blog in general?  Since I use the Wordpress platform for The New Age of Politics, I do not have to worry about the technical work: ensuring the blog stays online, managing the source code, etc.  However, I do have to do most of the design things.  For instance, the tools to share my posts that have started appearing in recent days took a lot of work to implement.  While I did not have to reinvent the wheel, the little toolbar at the bottom of the posts especially was annoying.  Did you know that the HTML for that toolbar actually takes up more space in the editor than some of the posts I've written?

In addition to that, I occasionally reorder the items in the sidebar.  The background work on my main blog is not as obvious as the actual posts that take most of my time related to the blog, but it's almost as fun sometimes.