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So, over the past 3 years I’ve been able to participate in a system that is as far as I know a direct democracy.

Most people think that direct democracy is the best form of government. You have a direct voice as to what goes on. I agree to a point, and disagree to a point.

My experience is based on my fraternity, of which I have been a member of and lived with for 3 years now.

Here’s a quick breakdown of how it works.

Every Monday at 6:30pm all the members of the fraternity meet at the chapter house so that we can hold a large meeting that covers the business of the fraternity. This business includes officer reports, old business, new business and remarks for the good of the fraternity.

All initiated members are allowed to propose by-laws to our constitution regarding any matter that is important to them. These proposals are read, discussed and voted upon.

Each initiated member has one vote equal to all other members. During discussion all members are given the opportunity to voice their opinion on the subject.

So, it’s a pretty rad system. Right???

Well, kind of. Its great because its inclusive and everyone is on the same level as everyone else.

However, things take FOREVER to get done! For the bigger things, that’s ok, in fact I acknowledge that it’s a good thing to go slow so that no hasty decision is made.

It’s the smaller things that get me. Food is a huge issue. We have a cook that makes us lunch and dinner. The issue arises when people don’t like what’s being served or feel it is healthy enough.

We’ve had to vote on what cereal we get. That’s how democratic it gets… Its very frustrating because this seems like such a small thing. It is. But, since we’re a direct democracy we need to embrace that and make sure decisions for everyone are made by everyone.

So, my thoughts on direct democracies… they are great in theory but need to be refined so that small issues are taken care of easily so that the populous can focus on the real issues as hand.

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So, in the few weeks since I last posted, I’ve got my helmet, jacket, and most importantly my bike!

So, the helmet is a 707 Nemsis Modular Helmet. That means you can flip up the chin as shown in the picture. This to me is a great feature because I wear glasses and having that chin flip up feature allows me to put on and take off my glasses with ease.

My jacket is a Fieldsheer Drifter 2009 Model. It has the classic biker cut but is made of a strong textile material. It features lots of vents to keep you cool. Lots of pockets with easy access to store your stuff. Lots of straps and Velcro to ensure a tight custom fit. It also has a water proof and cold weather liner that zips in and out so that when you’re riding in the rain you can put it on and keep dry and warm. Or, take it out on nice sunny days and stay protected. It has elbow, shoulder and back armor to keep you protected in the most vital spots. I havn’t gotten it yet, will probably either Saturday or Monday.

Most importantly! My bike, a 1981 Yamaha xv750 Virago. I got a good deal on it but had to replace the starter which was no problem. However, like most used vehicles it had more problems than met the eye. So, I’ve spent the last week riding, fiddling, and being frustrated when it dies on me.

Right now, my biggest problem is that we think there is an electrical short draining the battery which is whats killing it. Who knows though. Hopefully I’ll have the bike up and running in great condition in a couple of weeks. Just in time for the spring weather to really catch up!

As for riding it. Man, that was great! It was exciting, scary, and fun all at the same time. When I entered traffic for the first time, it was pretty worry some. But, that fear allowed me to focus better and really do what I needed to do to be safe. It was pretty intimidating to stand on the road with my bike in stopped traffic waiting for the light to turn. All the cars zipping past and cars next to me really made me realize how small my vehicle is.

But, it was fun. The bike sounds great (when it runs). I look forward to getting it up and going to have some much needed independence!

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I’ve been wanting a motorcycle for a long time now, and I’ve finally committed to getting one soon. In fact, I’ll be taking the WADOT moto class starting tomorrow, with riding lessons this Saturday and Sunday. I’m pretty freaking excited!

These are my motorcycle boots. They are the first real motorcycle purchase I’ve made, besides paying for the class.

I orded them via www.motorcycle-superstore.com which gave me the best deal and gave me free quick shipping, only 2 days!

I got them today, tried them on. They don’t come in half sizes (I’m a 10 1/2) so I decided to go down instead of up. They’re just a little small but I’m sure that as I break them in they will feel more natural. The look great. Can’t really tell they’re motorcycle boots when I’m wearing them with jeans. This means I can bike to work and not have to change shoes when I get there. Pretty cool!

Anyways, I’m in the market for a bike. I’m looking at crusiers with 500-1000 cc, my price range is giving me mainly hondas and yamahas from the 80’s which is just fine with me.

I’m pretty excited and can’t wait to hop on for the first time! I’m kind of scared of getting in a wreck, but I’m getting more used to the idea of getting on a bike. Its dangerous, exciting, and an economical way to get around!

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What you say!?!

Well, heres the way I see it. I’m 21 right now, probably won’t have children for another 5-10 years. That means we’re looking at about 10-15 years until their old enough to read and probably another 3-4 years on that until they are really able to comprehend large amounts of text.

So, we’re looking at about 14-20 years until my potential children are able to really read and understand books.

In that time period, I truly believe that most if not all books will be available in digital format. You will be able to read this on your personal computer (laptop probably), or possibly even your phone! The most likely case is that people will have digital book readers, like the Amazon Kindle.

I’m predicting right now, that I will never have to get book covers for my children because all of their books will be on this digital book reader, that is most likely provided by the school, and their books are downloaded onto that reader.

Now, in that time I’m also thinking that these readers could also be used to take notes on too. So, instead of having to bring their books, notebooks, and pens, my children will have one handy device that lets them do all of this.

Now, I’m not saying that books will ever go away. I love reading books, I read for at least 30-45 minutes a day (not including reading for class). I’m just saying that their conventional format will become obsolete by the time my children are ready to read.

And I’m kind of excited for it.

Academic Opinion, My Future!

Understanding what motivates people is powerful. Once you can do that, you can sell your produce/need/idea to them in such as way that matters to them.

One of my classes this quarter deals with Global Warming and how everyone and their aunt has an idea of how we should make the would a greener place.

To me, its simple. Make it real for the individual. Huge abstract things like sea level risings and tempreture changings don’t matter to people because it doesn’t effect them right now.

However, if you start charging people a $5 tax on each gallon of gas they use they’ll get pissed off and start to do something about it. Now, thats an extreme example but it gets my point across.

People are selfish and only do things that benefit them. Sure, some people have general good will, but the majority of the world will only act according to their best interest.

So, my solution to this problem and any social problem. Make it personal. Make it so the problem is screaming in that persons face so loud that they get so pissed they want to kick the problems ass. There ya go. Simple enough right???

Right….

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Preface: In high school I was a concert-aholic. I went to shows probably 2x a month every month while in high school. I saw many great bands, many bad bands, but had fun at all the shows. I enjoyed the shows so much, I decided to start making my own shows. I did that for awhile, until college came around and I didn’t have enough time anymore.

Yesterday, I went to my first punk show since a very long time. Maybe the scene has changed, but when I was going to shows a few years ago, there was a certain punk etiquette that everyone followed (mostly, we’re still punks )

Because I feel like I have some knowledge, but mostly because I can, I’m going to lay out some basic Punk Etiquette Rules.

Punk Etiquette: By Tyler Goulet

Rule 1: Don’t be an a-hole. Seriously, we might be rebellious and pissed at the world, but let me enjoy this show. I don’t want to be pissed off at you, because you’re a fellow punk and we should be friends.

Rule 2: Don’t crowd surf or stage dive at small venues. Come on, you have no where to go! You’re up there for a few seconds, and all you do is piss off the people you land on. However, if you’re at a large venue and have some room to move, go for it, but don’t mind me if I punch you as you land on my head.

Rule 3: Never put someone in the pit unless they want to be there.

Rule 4: If someone falls in the pit, the pit stops (at least the area around that person) and you pick them up. Then, game on!

Rule 5: Don’t just stand there in the back. You paid to go to the show, dance, enjoy yourself! If you’re doing that, you might as well be at home with a CD on.

Rule 6: Enjoy yourself!

And thats it. 6 simple rules keep everyone happy and having fun.

Keep rocking!

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This is getting fairly exciting for me. I’ve got office 07, One Note, Google Earth, and (hopefully) going to get photoshop soon. Almost done putting everything I had one my old laptop onto this one.

On a different note, I’m starting to make the transition from written notes to only taking notes on my laptop. This transition has been interesting.

Taking regular notes is obviously very conventionaly, therefore easy. However, if you want to digitize them you have to take a whole extra step to do this. This can take up time and be frustrating. Also, in regular notes you can’t directly link to websites, which is something that happens often.

I took notes in One Note via my new laptop yesterday in my Planets class. It was pretty cool because I was able to type up the regular notes in bullet fashion, and I could use my pen tool to draw right into the program. He was drawing and explaining light waves.

The guy next to me was also taking notes via laptop but had to bust out regular notes to draw the diagram.

I’m not going to lie, it felt pretty cool to be able to write and draw onto my screen.

Another transition moment.

I was working on my planets HW which was originally in PDF format, so I changed it to txt, copied that into Word, had to do some formatting. I am now doing my UW directly into the assignment, underlining my answers.

One of the questions required me to show my work for a math problem. So, I opened up One Note, used the pen tool to write out the equation and how I reached my answer, copied that as a Jpeg into Word and that was that. I felt pretty good about being able to do everything digitally.

Why go through all this trouble? Ease of transport. I can send my HW directly to the TA via the internets. No printing out, no having to go to class to turn it in. He can then correct/grade it digitally and send it back to me. Easy as that!

Also, I can compare notes with other students who have their notes digital w/o ever having to meet up with them.

This is very attractive in a world where everyone is too busy and its extremely hard to meet up with someone. So, sending files digitally that can be looked at via their convenience is great!

Who knows, maybe I’ll make a complete digital transformation by the end of the quarter!

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Okie doke, so I finally got my new laptop. It is an HP Touchsmart tx2z. This after I spent 3 months and many hours trying to fix my old laptop. I dealt with Best Buy.

I do not recommend buying from them if you want good insurance help. They where not sympathetic at all and not good to work with.

However, they did comp me a little bit for my old computer that they couldn’t fix. I did not think this was a fair trade but it was time to get a new laptop anyways.

I paid a bit more for this one, but the trade will hopefully be worth it.

My new laptop, as you can see, is a tablet. It is the first consumer multi-touch tablet laptop. This means I can pinch in/out and rotate things like you can on an Iphone. Its pretty cool and I’m starting to get a hang of it.

This laptop has about twice the specs as my last one so hopefully it’ll last for a bit. It is smaller though, which makes it more portable. This is good because lugging around my 8lbs 15 incher was getting annoying. I’ve decided to get an external monitor of which I can hook up my lappy too so if I want to watch movies on a bigger screen or whatever I can still do that.

Overall, I’m pretty happy with this laptop. I’ve done a little review on it and havn’t heard too much bad stuff. I’ll keep you posted as to its uses and when it breaks.

PS
Since I have my own laptop now, I will be posting more regularly.

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I’ve been working on this one for a very long time. Still not sure if I’ve got it but it makes sense to me.

The only way to get uninvolved people involved in something is to make it personal to them.

1st Step- Generalize the issue. Give them the facts in an easy to understand way that has as little bias as possible.

2nd Step- Show them exactly how the issue is negatively effecting them.

KEY to 2nd Step- You must understand what they care about! You need to know whats important to them and point the negative effects toward whatever they care about. However, as with everything else in life, have some ethics! If it doesn’t effect what they care about, then move on to someone else.

3rd Step- Explain an easy and sensible solution that they can practice to ensure the safety and protection of whatever they care about the most.

4th Step- Follow up! Always follow up a week or so later to make sure that A) they are in fact involved now and B) they understand what they’re doing. Always offer to help.

Good luck and I hope this helped ya out!

Academic Opinion

I’m no expert on this, but heres what I remember from a course I took from Prof. John Gastil who is an expert on Deliberative Democracy.

The steps as I remember them are as follows.

Step 1: Design the process
                 -Get all the details figured out

Step 2: The unbaised information on the issue is given to the participants.

Step 3 Participants ask their questions to experts on the issue so that they really understand all the facets of the issue.

Step 4: The Participants form their individual opinions on their own time.

Step 5: Participants meet in small groups
              A) They get to know each other on a personal level so that they can better understand where their colleges are coming from. This is an informal discussion.
              B) They go around the circle and tell their colleges how they feel about the issue and why.
              C) They deliberate on the possible solutions to the issue at hand.

Step 6: Their individual opinions are aggregated.

Step 7: These opinions are then turned into a summary of what the people want. This summary is then given the key decision makers, usually politicians.

Step 8: The politicians use the information gathered from the Deliberative Democracy event and make decisions accordingly.

So, those are the steps as I remember them. I’ll post more about the benefits of Deliberative Democracy soon.

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