Superellipse November 22, 2006
Posted by James in Insane Ramblings.1 comment so far
Perhaps this blog shall rise from the dead, like Ronald Reagan, perhaps not. Only time will tell, but I shall try to start making more updates.
(As if anyone reads this…YET!)
Mission Statement- Campaigns Wikia July 6, 2006
Posted by James in News.add a comment
The original tet of this open letter mey be found here.
I am reposting it here for archival and news-type purposes.
Feel free to get involved if you can dig it!
(I know I do…)
Let’s ramp up the intelligence of politics:An open letter to the political blogosphere
Jimmy (Jimbo) Wales, July 4, 2006
For more than 50 years now, we have been living in the era of television politics. In the 1950s television first began to have a major impact on politics, and the results were overwhelming.
Broadcast media brought us broadcast politics. And let’s be simple and bluntly honest about it, left or right, conservative or liberal, broadcast politics are dumb, dumb, dumb.
Campaigns have been more about getting the television messaging right, the image, the soundbite, than about engaging ordinary people in understanding and caring how political issues really affect their lives.
Blog and wiki authors are now inventing a new era of media, and it is my belief that this new media is going to invent a new era of politics. If broadcast media brought us broadcast politics, then participatory media will bring us participatory politics.
One hallmark of the blog and wiki world is that we do not wait for permission before making things happen. If something needs to be done, we do it. Well, campaigns need to sit up and take notice of the Internet, take notice of bloggers, take notice of wikis, and engage with us in a constructive way.
The candidates who will win elections in the future will be the candidates who build genuinely participative campaigns by generating and expanding genuine communities of engaged citizens.
I am launching today a new Wikia website aimed at being a central meeting ground for people on all sides of the political spectrum who think that it is time for politics to become more participatory, and more intelligent.
This website, Campaigns Wikia, has the goal of bringing together people from diverse political perspectives who may not share much else, but who share the idea that they would rather see democratic politics be about engaging with the serious ideas of intelligent opponents, about activating and motivating ordinary people to get involved and really care about politics beyond the television soundbites.
Together, we will start to work on educating and engaging the political campaigns about how to stop being broadcast politicians, and how to start being community and participatory politicians.
How will we do that? Is it possible? Jimbo, are you crazy?
Ok, maybe I’m crazy. I founded Wikipedia, which is of course about as crazy an idea as anyone might imagine. And you know what? I was not and I still am not smart enough to figure out how to make Wikipedia work. The Wikipedians figured that out, my role has only been to listen and watch, and to guide us forward in a spirit of sincerity and love to do something useful.
So, I will frankly admit right up front: I don’t know how to make politics healthier. But, I believe that you do. I believe that together we can work, this very election season, to force campaigns to use wikis and blogs to organize, discuss, manage, lead and be led by their volunteers.
We can turn this into the first beginnings of what is to come. This can be the start of the era of net-driven participatory politics. And it does not matter if you are on the right, on the left, moderate or extreme, socialist or libertarian. Whoever you are, and whatever you believe, you can share with me my sincere desire that the process start to be about substance and thought, rather than style and image.
I highly suggest that anyone who finds the above text pleasing to the eye or even just mildly interesting should go to Campaigns Wikia (here is the link again, no excuses) and take a look around. If you really like it when you get there, consider getting involved, would ya?
May Cause Explosion of the Optical Orbs and/or Accute Death— An Emotorial By Kristen March 13, 2006
Posted by rissa in Kristen's Editorials!.1 comment so far
James speaking here. The following is the first in what I feel will be a delightful series of editorals by Kristen-o-saurus Rex. Don your hard hats boys and girls, this first one is about emo kids.
⁂
It came onto me so fast. It was like a speeding train coming at me while I was stark naked in the cold of night. It was finally all adding up…The change of makeup, the change of hair, the change of attitude and music and font usage on AIM. Pink on black? What the hell?
That’s when I was hit.
That’s when it all came together.
That’s when I realized I was in fact…An emo kid.
Just weeks earlier I had been sitting in a classroom with some of my good friends while they made jokes about girl pants and scene girls. I laughed along nervously, for I had been guilty of a couple of those pictures in the past. They laughed and laughed, made cutting motions on their wrists, and I died a little inside.
I entered the Cafeteria during D lunch and sat next to another good friend of mine. She looked at me and said “Holy Hell, Kristen. With that makeup, you look so emo!” I must say that I was shocked. Green, white, and black? Emo? Absurd! This silly girl was pulling my leg, trying to drag me into some lameass conformity. Well, I was certainly not going to have that so I went to the bathroom
to escape the torment. I shook off these feelings as nothing but doubts. I would get over them. I wasn’t a conformist.
But sadly enough, I indeed was. For later that night as I lied in my bed I couldn’t sleep. Her words haunted me. Of course, she only said I looked like one, but still….One wonders.
So I kept on truckin’ through the week, when I came to Thursday and found myself with a new haircut, long sideburns and a sort of pixie at the top, and my new Quickie Chronicles: Sex Kitten palette by Two Faced, complete with violet shades and a bright green that I’m still debating whether or not it glows in the dark, and my prized Durkl shirt.
I stared in the mirror. Long, and hard. Insert metaphorical phrase about a train and nakedness, and POW.
Now I can officially say this in front of the entire world, with my head held up high.
Hello, World. My name is Kristen, and I am Emo to the Maxxx.
Introducing, live from Timbuktu…! March 11, 2006
Posted by James in Self Indulgent Nonsense.1 comment so far
Creating a world-famous news blog is quite the daunting task, indeed. One man cannot possibly do it alone! (Insert your own Chuck Norris joke here, loser. I have things to do. Cool things.) But I digress…Over the next few weeks, months and perhaps even years (if our alien overlords allow it), I will begin to take on various contributors to the fruit salad that is “The Spork Report”. The first, and certainly not the least of which, of these contributors is a good and witty friend of mine by the Name of Kristen. “Sistah” Kristen shall wax extensively on all matters editorial, and lo, it shall be wonderful. Say “Hi” to everyone, Kristen: 
Please note that Kristen is not actually from Timbuktu, but rather Lybia or “Parts Unkown”.
But enough about the Netherlands (multiple entendre!), now is a good time to introduce myself as well. And so, in a plot twist reminiscent of a poorly crafted M. Night Shamylan script, the mastermind reveals himself:
Note here that while James will
probablynot mug you, he has been known to bite and speak fake Dutch.
Yar har har, wasn’t that fun? Oh my, we had some good times back there; meeting folks, knifing fools. Yes, good times indeed, but that is all in the past now, baby. Back to brass tax: Upcoming Events, new things in general, et cetera:
- Kristen’s first editorial, which is all typed up and ready to be posted for your viewing pleasure, will be available for ogling sometime this weekend along with…
- A fun yet disturbing inspirational poster and maybe, just maybe, if you clap your hands and believe…
- An independent “film” review!
That’s all for now minions. AWAY! *cackling laughter*
Happy Gnadenhütten Massacre Day! March 8, 2006
Posted by James in Insane Ramblings.3 comments
Ah yes, March 8th, 2006: The perfect day to celebrate the 224th anniversary of the brutal murder of 96 unarmed, non-combatant, Native American Christian converts (wait, it gets worse) by Pennsylvanian militiamen during the Revolutionary War…
“…the Christian Munsees were killed as they knelt, their skulls crushed with a mallet. In all, 28 men, 29 women, and 39 children were murdered and then scalped. The corpses were then heaped into the mission buildings, and the town was burned to the ground. The other abandoned Moravian towns were then burned as well. Two boys, one of whom had been scalped, survived to tell of the massacre.”
More on that here.
However, it’s also a fine day to start a blog. A “news”, “technology” and “whatever pops into my (‘my’ being me, and me being James) head” blog.
That being said, what is on the coming agenda? Well, definitely fun things, inspirational posters of some sort, possibly some dark humor, and hell, who knows, maybe even a few insane ramblings. These may or may not be about penguins and/or movies from the early 1980’s.
More at 11.
James.
The Spork Report 