It was an interesting article, to say the least.

For the sake of brevity, I won’t go into too much detail about the article itself. It’s linked above. But suffice it to say: Mr. Darragh’s view of the Greeks is less than positive.

Darragh said they demand social mass-conformity, the “bro” ideal. Greeks exist entirely to drink “natty” and hit “slam pieces.” Aside: I had never heard the term “slam piece” before this article. It gave me a chuckle, but was wasn’t very rhetorically soothing.

It read like an incredibly one sided, narrow view of the community. But that’s not really what I’m writing about. I’m writing about the little pissing match that followed.

Nearly immediately, letters firing back against Darragh’s assertions were published. WSU student Paul Harrison countered that Greeks routinely beat average GPA’s for other communities and do considerable charity work.

Natty ice slam piece?

Kellen LaVigne, president of Beta Theta Pi, countered that Greeks are involved in all aspects of university life. Wherever you look, he wrote, you will find someone Greek.

Ok. Defending yourself is perfectly acceptable. It’s what anybody does when they are attacked. But, here’s my issue with this. Instead of firing back that Greeks are better academically and Greeks are CEO’s and generally important people, couldn’t they have denied the generalization but affirmed the notion?

To say drinking isn’t some kind of an issue beyond the reaches of Colorado Street is to deny reality. In that vein, to say that all Greeks want to do is get shitty also denies reality. But this could have been a more positive moment.

Why not, then, use this as an opportunity to reach out to the greater university community? Separate fact from fiction, while still affirming the realities of the situation. Tell students that Greek life isn’t all about drinking, but that problems have arisen from irresponsible use. Talk about the high GPA, but put that in the context of the size of the community and the fact it’s selective.

Defend your community. Defend your way of life. That’s totally fine. But can’t someone please, FOR THE CHILDREN, affirm reality every once in a while.

Another aside: It seems the author of the column seems to have proven one of his points: there is a divide between the communities on campus. And by trying to elevate themselves above the rest, the authors of the published letters dug an even deeper trench.

According to the two sets of paperwork thingies I got marked “VERY IMPORTANT,” I’ve made exactly $579.23 in wages.

Don’t get me wrong, I love my job. It’s what happens when you work weekends, I suppose.

On a side note, I’m going to see The Presidents of the United States of America tomorrow at the CUB. Awwwwwe yeah.

My writing muscles have been dedicated entirely to broadcast copy, with its obscure numbering rules and hyphens between the letters of an acronym.

So I’ve decided to pick this back up again.

I’ll go back to sharing the details of my life too long winded for social media, but too impractical for personal conversation. I’ll share funny images and stories from work. Well, maybe some stories from work. I’m not exactly sure what I can and can’t talk about, so I’ll keep it to generalities about my observations of the industry.

When I last left you, I was “unemployed,” in the sense that I wasn’t getting paid for any of my work. I was gearing up to generally manage KUGR.org, which I now consider to be like a child to me. I was gung-ho and upbeat. How hard can management be, anyway? I wondered to myself and others.

It. Kicked. My. Ass.

You learn something about yourself as a “bossman.” My idillic view of how things work was shattered instantly upon taking the job. There was pressure where I thought there was none. There were roadblocks where I thought the path clear.

First semester taught me much, and I think I’m better for it. I understand the hoop jumping and politics a lot better. To my dismay, I’m getting much better at the latter.

The station, however, didn’t run itself into the ground. It did not light on fire. It did not get taken away. As far as I’m concerned, our best programming in years went over the interwebs last semester. Let’s see if we can do it again.

In other radio news, I’m currently employed by Inland Northwest Broadcasting (the ones who are paying me for my work.) If there were a better job in the world, please let me know. While I may only be tracking weekend shifts and coming in for the occasional staff meeting (G6, anybody?) it’s still something that I love. Radio, you see, appears to be the pinnacle of employment. Getting paid to do what you love.

So, that’s the news in my world. I’ll try to keep this updated as often as I can, and thanks to Rikki King for texting me about my lack of blog-age.

But this latest addition to the you-know-what measuring contest has finally fried me. An entire portion of the Microsoft website is devoted to “Why a P.C. is better than a Mac.” If it was light hearted like the famous ads, that would be one thing. But these guys are bordering on outright lying to try and convince you to buy a product. Editors note: If the ratio of P.C. to Mac ownership is 10 to 1, why are you guys devoting so much time to shuffle me away from Apple products?

So, in the spirit of blogging, I’m going to take the “Top 10 Reasons to Buy a P.C.” page and debunk it, so to speak. But I’ll break it up in two categories: 1.) Macs actually have that feature and it works just fine and is no reason to switch, or: 2.) Ok, you’ve got me there. Then I’ll count how many were in each category at the end. Let’s begin, shall we?

1. Get quicker and easier access to your stuff — use Pin and Jump Lists to keep the programs and files you use the most right at your fingertips.

Oh, so you can pin stuff to that funny little bar on the bottom of the screen? That’s so very original. Oh wait, Mac’s have had the dock since at least those lovely gumdrop iMacs. It improves productivity and honestly looks pretty dang cool. Also, we’ve had it longer. This one goes in the first category.

2. Manage open windows more easily—resize and arrange windows simply by dragging their borders to the edge of your screen.

I checked this out and have to concede it’s kind of cool. But “cool” in the same sense that my car has an “oil life” meter. Cynicism aside, this is kind of cool and I can’t think of a good Mac analogy. This one goes in category 2.

3. Quickly find what you’re looking for—use Windows Search to find a specific file, program, or e-mail in a few seconds.

Again, this would be awesome if we didn’t have a comparable program that did exactly the same thing. It’s called Spotlight. In fact, we can easily search from any active Finder window by just typing in text. We’ve had that for quite some time too. Windows old search? Hidden and crappy. I’m giving this one to category 1.

Even Spotlight gets it

4. Share files and printers among multiple PCs—from one Windows 7-based PC to another, you can share files, music, photos, and even printersacross your home network.

Wait a minute, can’t we all do that? I’m pretty sure Mac’s can also easily network. I’ve seen it in a few places, such as my good friend Rob’s workplace. This one also belongs to category one.

5. Stay entertained effortlessly—with Windows Media Center you get one place to enjoy your photos and music, watch and record live TV, and watch free Internet TV.

WMC is sort of cool, I guess. And yes, Mac users do have to buy a nice little addition to watch/record live TV. So I suppose Microsoft wins this round with a point in category 2.

Halftime

In case you were wondering, the score is currently 3 for category 1 and 2 for category 2. I would say “not bad” but this is a pretty small list of things. Let’s keep going. Next up…

6. Easily create and share movies—create great looking movies and slideshows and share them on YouTube in minutes.

One word: iMovie. I’m calling this one for category 1 on its face.

7. Connect to networks easily—view and connect to any available wireless network in as few as three clicks.

I suppose two of those clicks are the double-authentication required to scroll on Windows? Yes, wireless setup is easy across the board. But AirPort makes it exceptionally simple. As wireless connectivity isn’t usually a complicated process (and frankly it’s always been easier on my Mac side) I’m also going to have to throw this one into category 1. I’ll explain…this isn’t a reason not to buy a Mac or to buy a P.C. If you’ve designed a system that makes wireless connectivity difficult in the 21st century, there’s probably a bigger problem.

8. Do more and wait less—improvements that can accelerate sleep and resume and make your PC more responsive help you get more done.

Really guys? Really? From personal experience and the testimony of trusted friends, Mac’s awake from slumber pretty quickly. In fact, mine always boots pretty quick-like too. Again, this is not justification to go either way, just more meaningless B.S. to distract you from the larger points. More marketing garbate. Category 1.

9. Touch and tap rather than point and click—Windows 7 makes PCs with touch screens easier and more intuitive to use.

I suppose everyone dreams of working in food service, so why not bring the experience of work home with moar touch screens! This is kind of cool, but mostly for the “ooh” and “ahh” category. However, I raise you one pocket-sized Apple computer. I’m going to call this one a draw, as nobody really cleaves an advantage out of this one.

10. Manage devices more easily—manage printers, cameras, music players, and other devices from a single, consistent, place.

You know the last time I had to go “manage” any of my printers, cameras or music players? Never. I plug something in, and viola! It works. Device management really isn’t a big selling point for someone who already has pretty awesome device management. It’s sad they had to end on this note…another one for category 1.

It was a bit close at the half, with 3 points for category one and 2 points for category two. Now for the final score…

Category one won (whoa) with 6 points total; Category two lost with a sad 3 points; one point was a draw, rendering Mac the winner.

In the end, what does all this mean? In reality: nothing. You probably weren’t swayed one bit. That’s fine. I wasn’t trying to. My point was merely this: you cannot use these horrible vague yardsticks to try and “convince” people to make a change. If you want to sell your product, sell your product for what it’s good at. Not what it poorly duplicates.

Now I’m even less likely to purchase a Windows-based machine based on this nonsense. If you read to the end, thanks. You’re a champ.

Note on hyperlinks: I left them in mostly out of laziness, but partly because I want to let you see the features I’m bashing for yourself. I’m no Bill O’Reilly.

On another note, this video reminds me why Lufthansa is my favorite airline…

In other news, I’m less than one week away from returning to Pullman. This makes me very happy. Just wait for the picture-laden post extolling the virtues of my Palouse paradise.

While filling out my especially tall ballot, I noticed something rather intriguing. My vote could actually be cast in favor of someone named “Goodspaceguy” for Senate. At first, I laughed. This is obviously a hoax.

The explorer in me wanted to find out exactly how much it costs to file candidacy for Senate. My standard Google tactic of putting my entire question into the search bar seemed to work quite nicely, as the Secretary of State’s site came up first. After a little digging, I discovered that filing for candidacy costs $1,740.00. Quite a bit of money for a hoax.

So I dug some more.

As it turns out, “Goodspaceguy” actually has a blog. The first entry contained some basic campaign information, including his desire to “unsabotage [sic] the economy…” and colonize outer space. Hence the space-age name.

His blog archives extend all the way back to September of 2005, and so I decided to keep on checking. His first entry in 2005 finally revealed his actual name to me.

Goodpspaceguy is actually Michael Nelson, and Michael Nelson actually ran for Governor in 2004 as a Libertarian.

Nelson was defeated at the primary stage in 2004 by Ruth Bennet, the party chair in Washington, 56-43. Bennet was, obviously, defeated by Chris Gregoire in the general election.

As it stands at noon on July 31, Michael Goodpsaceguy Nelson has either raised no money or reported no donations or contributions to the Federal Election Commission.

I realize this is all probably common knowledge to most of you, but I thought it would be an interesting investigative experiment. See what I could find out about this fellow. As it turns out, he’s rather interesting.

You can read his blog, Our Spaceship Earth, for more delightful insight on the world of a candidate for Senate who sees the minimum wage as “evil” and dreams of a day when we can jet around the stars in the Enterprise.

Now that’s democracy in action.

P.S. – “Mike the Mover,” another conspicuous addition to the ballot, is listed on the FEC website as “Mike the Mover.”

He’s 93 years old. Yup. He was born in 1917, and he’s damn proud of it. Old enough to enter World War II in 1939 (years before the “yanks,” as he once told me) my grandfather helped prepare vehicles for the Normandy invasion when he wasn’t slipping into London and drinking a pint or two. According to my dad and uncle, he even got the honor to guard Sir Winston Churchill himself.

Grandpa Wagner served in the Canadian armed forces back when the flag looked a bit different:

Yessir, back then Canada was rather beholden to the Queen. And dammit, they liked it that way. (More on the rather polite parting of ways between Canada and GB in a later post).

After the war ended, Amiel proceeded to sell propane in central Canada to those in need. With selling propane came selling cars. For the first 15 years of my life, I never saw my grandfather with the same car year after year. He loves cars. So he bought new ones every year for a long time. Why not?

About three years ago he turned 90, and on the occasion of his nearly being a century old the Prime Minister’s office sent him this (the main reason for writing this post):

Isn’t that awesome? I thought so.

Amiel turned 93 this last July, and he doesn’t look it at all. He still drives himself all over western Canada, still walks and has all his mental functions and more.

I really do hope I’m that awesome when I’m 93. Sadly I have no pictures on hand, but I’ll post some up later.

One of those times, I happened to be talking about the concept of synergy (a fancy business buzzword). To illustrate my point, I made a hand gesture. It seemed to have stuck with us.

Apparently, she’s attempted to impart the idea of synergy hands to her employers. She’s been met with suspicion and ridicule, which is entirely fitting.

So, here it is. HOW TO DO SYNERGY HANDS, a guidebook by Peter Wagner.

Synergy hands is a baffling concept to many. I’ve had the honor of teaching many seminars where droves of hapless business executives slap their hands together in vein. So don’t feel bad if you walk away from this brief tutorial still puzzled and frankly a little worried about “synergy hands.”

Take a look at this:

Look at those sad hands, gesturing aimlessly. They’re not synergized at all.  What good are these hands at illustrating the concept of togetherness? No good, that’s what. You can’t even begin to convey the idea of content sharing relationships, or shared social networking. They’re absolutely useless.

Now have a look at this:

Look at those hands. Fingers intertwined, palms nearly touching. With those hands I can truly impart to my fellow workers the weight of connectivity. Togetherness is clearly indicated by the interlocking nature of my fingers. You almost can’t tell them apart.

In sum: hands which are not connected cannot convey the power of connection.

This ones for you, Rikki. Imma miss you.

But I managed to catch what could be called the best catch of my recent weeks. I won’t disclose what website I found it on, but here’s the little morsel that reaffirmed my love of the Grab application:

Interesting...

Yes, I added the box and the totally useless “LOL.” Tell me what you think.

Also, theres a post gestating about my rage-ahol directed at a certain local media outlet. I want to make sure it’s not just an off the cuff anger thing, so I’m actually working on this one.

P.S. — If you want to know what synergy hands are, I might just post a picture in a little bit. C/O Rikki.

I’m spending the weekend in Spokane for the fourth, so writing might return to normal sometime next week.

I’ll probably have something to say about the tea party and patriotism. But we will see.