adam @ 404

Clamor magazine has been around for seven years. Covering various social and political topics from a wide range of writers, the mag has been at the forefront of independent journalism for a surprisingly long run. Their fall issue features a series of incisive articles on the contradictions behind the vertically-integrated and “progressive” clothing company American Apparel. It’s worth checking out online.

As of late, Clamor has had financial pains with operational costs. Take a look around their site, read some stuff, and think about making a donation or starting a subcription.

No, this was not a paid advertisement.

From Asbury Park Press via Mac Daily News.

DOVER TOWNSHIP — Despite impassioned pleas from her supporters, the Ocean County College board of trustees voted unanimously Monday not to reappoint Karen L. Bosley as faculty adviser to the student newspaper, a post she has held for 35 years.

The reason given to the teacher for her dismissal was that the paper contained too many mistakes and that the students weren’t being taught real world skills due to her using Apple Macintosh computers. It’s a scary thought to think that if you don’t use, the implied, Windows PC, you could lose your teaching job. God forbid she use Linux. Obviously there are rumors that her dismissal was for other reasons, like she didn’t view the president of the college in good light and the editorials reflected this. Regardless, I decided to write the president an email expressing my dissatisfaction.

Subject: Apple Macintosh Use Not The Basis For Dismissal
To: jlarson@ocean.edu

Dear President Larson,

I was disappointed to hear that the board of Ocean County College voted to not reappoint faculty adviser Karen L. Bosley. The decision was based on her classroom usage of Apple Macintosh computers for the purpose of teaching newspaper journalism and production. As a former reporter on my high school newspaper, I can tell you that “Macs” are used ubiquitously in the newsroom for writing and production. This is not just one reporter’s observation either, many others will tell you the same thing. Macs, just as well as PCs running Microsoft Windows will teach you the real-world techniques of making a newspaper.

Sincerely,

Adam Kramer
Ann Arbor, Michigan

I’m such a good citizen.

On Attack of the Show, Kevin mentioned something about the hot girls from My Space. And then it dawned on me: The true power that the totally smokin’ vixens of My Space wield! What makes a social network popular? Hot photos! And what is more of a hotter photo than that of a hot babe who is socially whoring herself to the semi-anonymous masses.

This is my call to you, Hot Mamas of My Space! Unite now and create a group, you can demand a wage for your presence and move fluidly between social networking sites at will if your demands are not met!

There was a post in Ann Arbor Is Overrated dot com about a new Wiki for Ann Arbor. The beauty and ugliness of a wiki is that most of them allow for anyone to edit pretty much any content page. In this case, the original annarborisoverrated post referenced the about page of the new wiki as criticizing students as simply rich snobs, ruining ann arbor. I then went to the site to find the about page of the Arbor Wiki completely re-edited.

Welcome to Ann Arbor!

Student parasite (n).

1. An organism that feeds off of students’ meager part-time paychecks, summer job savings, and occasional windfall scholarship. Examples include landlords, eateries and grocery stores, and every retail establishment in Ann Arbor.
2. An organism that feeds indirectly on students by taking advantage either of parents or of indirect revenue streams, such as Football Saturday car parkers.

Student parasites are frequently pathetic creatures, vainly posturing to pretend that it is they who are the primary organisms in the local ecosystem and students who are the blood-sucking hangers-on. Very closely related are the student dung beetles, organisms that do not feed directly off of students, but feed on the leavings of students, all the while pretending that their food sources would not only still exist in the absence of students, but would be better-tasting. Theater-goers of all kinds and Food Co-op patrons fall into this category.

As we all know, students are the lynchpin for all things worth living for in this pathetic town. If not for students, you couldn’t buy a stalk of arugula to save your life within 50 miles at least!

I wouldn’t be surprised if it changes by the time you read this. I’d have to say that this latest edit above seems to be more in-line with my views as a former student and currently University employed resident of Ann Arbor.

You’re not man enough to pass this bill!
-Democrat to Republican

CSPAN is gettin crazy right now over a spending bill. This is better than sports. But hey, men and women yelling at each other, what IS better than that?

I just heard Ian Svenonius (see: Weird World War, The MakeUp, Nation of Ulysses) doing a commentary on Marketplace. He connects the policies of Alan Greenspan’s and their effect on the real estate market to recent trends in band downsizing in movements of 21st Century rock (ie Electroclash). Everything I ever read by him comes off as so far fetched, but he always connects in true intellectual fashion. I am not lying when I say, Ian Svenonius is one of the greatest minds in Rock and Roll today. So good.

I got a notice in the mail that I had forgotten to pay one of my University loans and that I was delinquent. Woops! So I went to the website to see why my autopayments had stopped. While I was there I discovered that President Bush’s current budget asks to eliminate the Perkins Loan altogether. The fact that the Perkins Loan was one of the core loans that I received to fund my college education, makes this is a pretty big deal to me.

President Bush seems to have his priorities in all the wrong places. Perhaps once the administration rids us of the Perkins Loan, most of those people that can’t attend college can join the military to bring democracy to other countries. Maybe after that, they’ll get federal support for their education.

Please show your support for federal loans for higher education, and try to save the Perkins loan. Here is the web page that I read asking to save the Perkins loan.

http://www.fuckthesouth.com

Brief theory time. Is it possible that blogging communities, such as LiveJounal, are draining people from the social pool? The thought struck me when I read a one line post about someone leaving for another city. There were many comments for this user wishing him safety, luck, etc… I reflected on how I go about my daily life and the fact that I don’t often tell people when I go on trips (even my parents, thats another story). But has this only happened in recent years? Do I tell less people as a result of those fond farewells being moved from voice to telephone to web? I pose many rhetorical questions to ask an honest question, and to make a point.

I do honestly believe that more and more people who have regular access to the web are putting forth more social energy into this network, and as a result are siphoning their energies away from face to face or even telephone networking. For me, its a disheartening thought when I see so much of the “fluff” and very little coordination to actually organize real life human people.

In the future, maybe we’ll need a “turn off your blog” day, just like Television. Granted, TV is a much more passive activity, but atleast you can watch it with your friends, and talk about it during or afterwards. Some basic numbers about how much time and effort people put into things like LiveJournal vs. how much time they put into their daily social lifes would be interesting … over time, over populations, etc… Survey anyone?

Did you notice that KFC changed their name to Kitchen Fresh Chicken? I noticed. And I saw all their advertisements about how damn fresh and healthy it is. Because everyone knows that being fried is just not fresh, and not healthy. I’d like to know if they actually changed the menu at all.

Well, now KFC seems to have two names. I just watched an ad targeted at the urban market full with flashy colors, a rapped jingled, and everyone with a bucket of their favorite Kentucky Fried Chicken. Yeah, apparently its not Kitchen Fresh anymore. Or is it? Can anyone clear this up. Or has Pepsi decided that they should demographically code their food to mean two very different things.