I ranted back at the beginning of last football season about the NCAA’s changes to the clock rules, encouraging readers to go fill out the petition. It looks like it’s all paid off. Last week the NCAA officially announced changes reverting the clock rules back to the 2005 standards. How neat is that?
 

Looks like we were heard, along with everyone else who complained about the changes. If only governments could be responsive like this?
 

Debated whether or not I would post this (because I’m not sure I want this site to have much to do about my writing, though I’m considering changing that), but perhaps it suffices for the lack of content as of, well, forever. I’ll try to squeeze some more reviews into my schedule, since I have a stack of books I’ve yet to review, but have read.
 

I had a poem “published” by some entity other than myself for the first time on the first. It’s available for reading free online, but first I’ll say some about where it is (both because they asked nicely for those they published to plug the project and because I think what they’re doing is cool.)
 

The poem (titled “Delicate Veil”) has been published as part of the “Imagining Ourselves” project, run by the International Museum of Women. The project is an online “conversation” primarily for and about young women around the world. They launched early last year, but for the january/february exhibits, they’re coming back to ask young men about some of the same issues, and about the issues that face young men. So, I’d encourage you all to check out the site in general, even if you don’t care about whatever poem I’ve posted there and don’t even choose to read it. ;)
 

Feel free to send me your comments, too.
 

My poem: Delicate Veil
 

The site, at large: http://imaginingourselves.imow.org
 

Supernatural Love: Poems 1976-1992 is a collection of poems, or rather a collection of three previous books: Portraits and Elegies, The Lamplit Answer, and A Gilded Lapse of Time.
 

If you already like Gjertrud but don’t own any of her books, this is probably a good place for you to start. I had been to see her when she gave a reading here earlier this year and wasn’t particularly impressed, but (big but) I tend to not respond well to readings in general, and often need to have something in front of me. Two other students I know in the Creative Writing program sang her praises and recommended the book, so I decided I’d go ahead and give it a shot.
 

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I’m probably going to post a few reviews of books I’ve been reading lately, perhaps of more things, but I figure there’s some relevant ground to cover before I bother reviewing anything… a sort ofinagural post summarizing my philosophy of reviewing.
 

It’s all too common a situation where I’m trying to determine whether or not I want to put my money on the line for something, and all of the reviews I can find of it are too brief to be useful, circumspect, throw a lot of terminology at me and in general seemto fail at the real “point” of a review. The point of a review is for me to be able to, via someone else’s experience, determine whether or not I’d like to do/buy whatever this person is reviewing. I usually just end up basing my decision off a product blurb and a starred rating somewhere.
 

So what IS the relevant information? Well, whether or not the person liked the product is, of course, relevant, but what really counts is that person’s perspective. Maybe I do need to know that book X was good because author Y has beautiful prose, but more than that, I need context for this statement, and so often I find it lacking.
 

So, in my efforts at reviewing, I’ll do my best to reveal my personal biases, and attempt to clearly communicate whether I didn’t like something because I just don’t like the style it’s in, or because I like the style but find it poorly done (which is a huge difference, when it comes time to pay.) I’ll try to say why I like something, and depending on the media, give some examples. If you find I’m looking for something similar to what you are, the review should be quite useful. If you find you’re looking for something I’m not, maybe it will, and maybe it won’t tell you something interesting. >_<

 

to have a blogdentity crisis?  
 

I stopped updating a few months ago for a number of reasons. Mostly the time I was spending between school and the Kinky Friedman campaign, but also because I didn’t have anything to talk about BUT the Kinky Friedman campaign, and we’d been asked not to compete with the official site(s) in that respect. So, I didn’t.
 

Now, I’m hoping to get back into the swing of things a little, but it hasn’t helped that I’ve been trying to re-evaluate the purpose of all this, and find a real identity for the blog. Until I’ve done that, god only knows what you’re going to see on here.
 

Mmmhmm.

Here’s a good information resource for anyone wanting to hear more about Kinky Friedman, why you might vote for him, and his positions on multiple issues (as well as links to various interviews and other good information.)

Kinky Friedman on Texas Issues @ the Burnt Orange Report.

When I finished up my newswriting class this summer, after a month and a half of dressing up nice and looking presentable for interviews, I decided I wanted to get a mohawk when I was through (I’m so hardcore, right?)
 

Originally, I was just planning to have the mohawk for a month–just to have some fun with it–and then cut it off. It’s been a month now, though, and I’ve decided (at some cost to myself) to keep the mohawk, at least for the time being, because I’ve enjoyed the experience so much. |continue reading »

Just in case you’re wondering what exactly goes on behind the accusations of political favoritism and the cynical postulation that everything is for sale, The Dallas Morning News put out an article today that elucidates some of what goes on here.
 

Still, I imagine this is only scratching the surface, even in Texas. Planning to look into this and how it relates to Texas Tech in the coming weeks, but for now I’ll leave you with the DMN’s findings.

So, for ages and ages (a few months) all I’ve done is bitch about The Mars Volta and question the sanity of anyone who can listen to them (which is really just to say that, three or four times, I’ve teased someone I know who listens to them.) Still, I listened to Viscera Eyes (off their upcoming album, Amputechture) this weekend and I must say, I’ve changed my mind.
 

One song was all it took for me to go from, “What the hell IS this shit?!” to “interesting!” |continue reading »

So maybe you’re watching the campaign and you read an article about Kinky Friedman, or see an interview–and you hear him railing on money disappearing into the pockets and projects of the legislature. But, do we really know what’s going on there? Sure, that’s a heavy accusation–”let’s support the guy who’s going to end that shit!” right?
 

The Houston Chronicle put together a good story about money like this–what it was designated for and where it’s really going. If you hear Kinky talk about these funds but don’t really grasp the breadth of what is going on, or know at all–read the article.