My first internship issued me a little plastic badge with my name and picture. It really did nothing. I actually carried my bosses extra badge around so I could get through security doors (Yup, Security was tight at the Kerry campaign). My background check happened three months after I started). Anyway, I was proud of this badge, and in my first few days I wore it too and from work. This stopped after I noticed no one else did this. I thought I would fess up to this “Hilltern” behavior before I posted this video.
I admit I wore my first badge on the street
July 29th, 2010Inspiron 600m
July 22nd, 2010Seven years ago I got my Dell Inspiron 600m. It was my laptop for college. Only today has it been officially replaced. The 600m came with 512mb of memory, a 40 gig hard drive, and a 1.6 Pentium M Processor. It was a blazing machine, but its day has passed.
That laptop designed three versions of Billikens.com; drafted an undergraduate and Masters thesis; connected the networks of: Parliament, Kerry-Edwards 2004, the DLCC, a number of universities; wrote business and not-so-business emails; and created this blog.
I am now on an HP dm4t. The screen and keyboard are wide, but the machine is thinner and lighter. Instead of the never used serial port it has one for HDMI. It does not have a scratch across the screen due to a design flaw. It likely will deal with more Political Science originated data than that for a political party. Instead of grad school applications, it will write job applications. It will present chapters of my dissertation and not state legislative campaign web sites for $40 a month. Like its predecessors, it will edit a fan site devoted to Saint Louis University and play horrible music.
In 2003, I could never foresee what the Inspiron 600m would do. I don’t know if I ever really thought about it. I think about what dm4t will produce, but I am sure my predictions are wrong. We will just have to wait and find out.
No matter what though…every computer I own will look like it runs Windows 95.
Kirkwood has a feeling
June 4th, 2010I for some reason like group YouTube Dances or lip syncs to pop songs. My favorite is probably this. My high school did their own spin of it (in SLU’s arena no less).
The Next Season
May 31st, 2010After successfully completing the first season of LOST in under a week, I supposed that an update was needed…
I now have a BA in Political Science, a MA in Political Science, and a MA in Politics. Lets just say I am a ‘bit slow and need things explained two or three times before they stick.
The past two to three months were dominated by General Exams. I overstudied despite advisers (literally) shaking their heads at me. I am glad I did, and I am thankful to those that helped me along the way (no matter what though, I will forever hate the raft problem). I will never be required to take a class again. Little ‘bit of awesome in knowing that Season of life is over.
But now it is summer, and I am back in St. Louis. Drove here with my friend AJ after a night in Pittsburgh (where they need to build a Buccos pirate ship). Currently, I sit here on the back porch. My cat is on the step outside; Dad is on the deck; and a family of robins sits in my sister’s tree. Busy times at 2027 Firethorn.
People asked me when I will go back to Princeton. I feel like a slacker with my response: “I don’t know.” I am just taking time off…some work here and there, but ultimately recharging the batteries.
Last night, the first of the high school crew got married. Matt wore a kilt. Katie got clogs. It was a nice ceremony, with a great reading of the Velveteen Rabbit. The wedding season of life has officially begun.
The next project is figuring out what to dissertate about for the next three years. Simply looking for a motivating question that interests others. The decision seems somewhat binding. I always get nervous about commitment and potential closing of doors, and I think that is playing into my thoughts too much with this decision. But we will see.
Whether it is the end of classes, or the start of wedding season or dissertating. Time to begin Season 2.
On a day Billikens.com goes down…
April 22nd, 2010Peter Rogers makes it onto StLouisRams.com (Click the photo)
He is the man in the collared shirt and khakis in the background. Absolutely loves football. I think he has only missed one Rams home game and that was because Karen was in the Big 10 Cross Country Championships. He had season tickets to the Big Red for years.
Glad to see some enjoyment out of retirement.
Put a ring on it…
April 13th, 2010I am now the owner of four domain names for weddings… In honor of this, a humorous photo.
If you need the song, see this post.
The Most Relevant Amendment
March 26th, 2010From Congressman Louie Gohmert via TPM with a hat tip to Sarah Binder
Gohmert: Fight Health Care Bill By Repealing Popular Election Of Senators
Rep. Louie Gohmert (R-TX) is calling for a strong re-assertion of states rights against Congress — in the form of a Constitutional amendment to eliminate the direct popular election of Senators, and go back to the pre-17th Amendment setup of state legislatures appointing them.
“Ever since the safeguard of State legislatures electing U.S. Senators was removed by the 17th Amendment in 1913, there has been no check or balance on the Federal power grab for the last 97 years,” Gohmert said in a press release, calling for a constitutional convention of the states. “Article V requires a minimum of 34 states to request a Convention which in this case, would be an Amendment Convention for only ONE amendment.”
And once again, the mainstream miscalculates how many Senators would be indirectly elected. Dan Weigel incorrectly reports:
For what it’s worth, Democrats currently control 27 state legislatures, so this would be a pretty bad deal for them at present, sending them back to 54 senators. Media Matters Action has video and points out how this conflicts with the “Massachusetts elected Scott Brown, thus health care reform should die” argument of a week ago.
He is pretty close though. Democrats would have at least 54 seats. No idea how Nebraska or some tied legislatures would go.
Gohmert: Fight Health Care Bill By Repealing Popular Election Of Senators
SLU v. Princeton
March 23rd, 2010
Who woulda thunk it?
Sociological Reasons
March 18th, 2010Andrew Gelman quote via Tyler Cowen via The Monkey Cage
We originally wrote this article in Word, but then we converted it to Latex to make it look more like science.
Volcanic Billikens
March 15th, 2010Well, the Billikens bombed in Atlantic City in the A-10 Tourney. They hoped for an NIT bid, but didn’t get it. Now as I await the announcement of the College Basketball Invitational teams, I share some Google trends.
In anticipating the NIT announcements, someone started a thread on Billikens.com titled NIT Selection Show. Google picked up this thread for its search engine, and for most of the day, it was the 3rd item that came up when you searched for NIT Selection Show. Well, the Billikens.com servers paid for that tonight. Here is a Google trend graph for “NIT Selection Show”
So as thousands of college basketball fans whose bubbles had burst googled NIT Selection Show, many came across Billikens.com. Before tonight, the most users that had been on the message board at one time was about 230. Tonight, we reached 437. Even on an upgraded server plan, we crashed a bunch.
The really interesting thing is to see the spike in people who searched for “College Basketball Invitational”. The NIT selection show ended at 9:30, and it seems people frantically hunted after then for another bubble to ride.
My guess is the x-axis is Pacific time. So as soon as the NIT Selection Show ended, Google got swarmed with CBI seekers.
Google called the above trends volcanic. The below is a preliminary graph of Billikens.com traffic tonight….Does sort of look like a Volcano.
Sorry if these Billikens.com posts are boring. The site has just been pretty interesting to me in the past month. Now, lets make the Billikens 2010 CBI Champions.
Update: SLU, GW, and Princeton all made the CBI. The final four could legitimately include each of those schools.