Jeff S

Addendum

in light of eriks blog and similar history, I have created this. It is by no means a finished product. Got an event that you think affected/influenced combatrhino somehow? Suggest away.

Are we blogging in college? I think that most understand that this is one of the intentions of this site, but I'm not entirely sure whether this is true for everyone. Also Erik brought up the good point that we may have to forego allowing friend of friends be bloggers, anticipating a possible deluge of new bloggers to which we have no connections. But this is not a static rule, rather a question of what to do. So much change, only a month.

So as to indicate that this is not a desperate ploy for comments, any questions related to the above queries may be made outside of the comment section.
But as we all know, comments are like early nineties dance or ninjas, they never get annoying.

Voting is gangsta

Here is why you don't matter:
"The youth are only 10% of our [voting] population, but 100% of our future"
This was told to me in an interview with our senator (D) Ben Nelson. Though I am a passionist at heart, and as Rob said I know everything about everything, I restricted my urges to mutilate him journalistically. More on this later.
It is estimated that there are around 25 million or so "young voters," this term referring to the people aged 18 to 24 or so. Even if everyone of those 25 million voted, as Benny bo ben son said, we're only talking about 10% of the vote. But don't you worry because you probably can't do anything about it.
Anyone who has read any newspaper in the last 6 months has some idea that money makes moves in politics. I recommend Fahrenheit 9/11 on the basis of this realization alone. Bush panders to rich people (Estate tax what?) because they fund him!
Now think about it. Erik may make $17 an hour stealing chairs from 54-65 year olds (69 percent of which voted by the way). The rest of 18 to 24 year-olds are either in college or just entering the job market. Both applications of time do not equal very much income. This means that neither the Republicans, nor the Democrats, really would see us as a major player in the voting economy, if you will. Moveon.org, a distributed lobbying organization (admittedly of the liberal persuasion) is effective as a lobbying force because of the many moneyed people who contribute donations. However, even if we (the youth) did the same, the effect couldn't even be near the same. This is assuming we even had said income to donate. This means that while in poltiics, politicians only interest in children ends at around age 12 because this is when parents stop caring as much legally. Who remembers Jesus, whose life wasn't recorded from age 12 to age 30? Well though religion has no place in government, the allusion is powerful. It seems that the bible makers didn't really care either. Wasn't he the freakin messiah?
The very major point I have been avoiding until now is perhaps the more obvious reason of why the youth don't matter: we simply don't make up any sort of large voting bloc. Not only can we not influence politicians with our money, we can't do the same with our vote, because we don't vote. 70 percent of us.
If 70 percent of the youth died, there would be a lot of news flash. Yet when more than a senate majority is absent, no one peeps. Who cares if we don't vote! Let them play their Tupac, and they shouldn't protest a lot.
Or who remembers Bob, from Erik's blog, whose chair Erik stole. 70 percent of his voting bloc, from ages 55 to 64 years of age, get out to the polls and vote. That means for every old timer voting, we have a youth playing one of the top 100 video games instead.

Now let's roll back to Ben Nelson for a second. Our Warrior Element story group had sent him a set of questions ahead of time, so he had plenty of time to craft that statement. He said it around 5 times throughout the 10 minute interview. What it really means that you aren't going to matter until you start voting and making more than 30,000 a year. And truthfully, most of us will move on and start voting, and forget about our unimportant politically days as young people. But the gaping hole will still remain. What can we do?
Get to the polls. You have no excuse. Though we may not be important monetarily, 10% is a whole chunk of people. Ben Nelson wouldn't be spitting out crafted statements if he knew that I actually mattered in his vote.
Those who can't vote? Do what you can. Time is money when it comes to political campaigns, and sometimes this can help, though maybe not in influencing politicians. The more you can get political visibility, the more we can get the politicians who represent us to start doing things.
Young voter enabling is why I respect P.Diddy, but not his rapping.

eeyah

even if you dont like 311, you should've been there last night
I told someone I think that it would've been the perfect graduation moment, that concert was probably the conclusion to my omaha experience. the crowd was insane, the biggest and most compact I have ever been a part of.

While his parents kept their distance up the hill, 18-year-old Joel Fulton braved the throngs of concertgoers dancing near the stage.
"It's great," Fulton said. "Everyone's here to see the band that grew up in Omaha." that was in the paper for the not in the know

i had a lot of fun with erik! kem jmac and joel. edit: and rob and many many others

I saw lots of random people. while in a mosh, andrew edwards swung by and shook my hand. I hugged pat desouza. erik and I said hi to mike haas. it truly was like a see everyone youve ever known sort of thing.

open letter to the guy who felt the urge to surf every 2 minutes between grasshopper takeover and 311: I am small but I usually do my part, but lose some weight, I mean jesus, there is only so much I can do.
this was a dumb blog but the whole thing was awesome.

shorty but a goody

if I am dead this afternoon, it is because of my wisdom teeth just so you know. I think maybe joel or erik can have my computer. maybe the rest of my room can be split amongst combatrhino or something.

what will happen to combatrhino after we leave? it has been an awesome addiction the full time that I have been attached to it, and I sincerely hope that it keeps on keeping on. this is a cool group of friends regardless of how cool our new friends may be. I hope that many of these people agree because I want to see what you are all up to. and hopefully eriks parents keep on paying for it haha but if they don't i'm still willing to put in like 10 bucks or something if I have to.

I got AP grades back. it was very fun sort of like a birthday, or like getting clean clothes from the laundry, because unlike the sat or act, these grades are not future dependant. its like a normal school test where you can rabble rowser all you want about it without feeling bad.

later if I am sane I will post a nerdy picture of me, without unneccesary cheek flammation. it has a purpose, world peace, i promise

[edit]
in order to minimize this looking like the moorehead scholarship, I will give out free candy to whoever wants it since I can't eat it anyways.

pass that dutch

oh combatrhino, how I have been secretly admiring you from my unintended distance...
this wednesday I get revved up to remove my intelligence from the back of my mouth. needless to say, I am not excited. but if you want one of the four you can have them, if I am allowed. or perhaps some stunt will be arranged

blueflamingo.org is a site semi operated by me. its the site of the coolest store in the world. if you don't find something awesome to buy there, you will surely meet someone who will change your life. someone who wears tight jeans and loose shirts, who has a subtle mullet, and probably uses the word dude a lot, and likes to look in the free box. this is not me, but in fact one of our many regulars who are just awesome 2.0

tonight we found the cell phone of "Patrick" on the ground. in a spielberg-esque scene, we dodged a hawaiian mallcop in effort to save the cell phone from near destruction by way of falling (how it was airborne, I can not ascertain). needless to say, patricks number is 714-1141. Tell him hi from rob.

this was after I was at the pancake embassy with bone 2.0, rob, erik, joel, dave, karl and kristin. who remembers the highlights magazine feature, "what is different between these two pictures"?
maybe she needs one too

my powerschool username and password are 84420 and GKGAJ. though I'm pretty sure they are disabled, due to my graduated status, I really hope that someone takes their place. old skool flashback: erik's school picture hacking....what a cool concept!

new school info. I kind of have an itching to start a band. or do something awesome. in my research, it has seemed that most blogs surround there being a lack of things to do, which is untirely untrue. I am ready kids, who wants to build a fort

epi-blog-ue: this was pretty badical, which is to say it was radical and bad. truthfully I felt bad for having not written one. so this may be more of a filler in hopes that better content will walk in. just wait amigos