Vincit Veritas

Obama Tax Calculator

2008-10-15T11:30:00.001-05:00

Nifty "real-world" way to show people the in impact of Obama's proposed tax plan.

The Tide is Turning

2008-03-26T14:08:00.002-05:00

Awesome, moving mashup of Obama's 3/18/2008 speech on race in Philadelphia.

A Vision of Students Today

2007-10-19T11:22:00.000-05:00

Produced by a Anthropology class at Kansas State University, the following video takes a candid, and sometimes disturbing, look at the lives of American college/university students, and the apparent incompatibilities with an education system still grounded in 18th century styles and methods. Very thought-provoking.

Ron Paul, Perhaps the only Republican I'd Vote For

2007-07-29T17:11:00.000-05:00

Representative Ron Paul (Rep. TX) speaking on Google's campus, as part of their 2008 Presidential interview series.

Inbox Zero

2007-07-26T22:45:00.000-05:00

A little presentation by Merlin Mann, as part of Google's Tech Talk series, on maintaining a manageable email inbox. Very interesting, and humbling.

Simon Willison on OpenID

2007-06-28T10:39:00.000-05:00

OpenID advocate and Django Project co-founder, Simon Willison, gives a presentation on OpenID to a group of Google employees. This is a great overview and discussion of the most promising solution to the problem of "too many accounts" online that I've seen. When I migrate my blog to my new Djano-based backend, I'm definitely going to implement a consumer.

Big-Ass Table

2007-06-21T18:02:00.000-05:00

A hilarious re-narration of Microsoft's promotional video for their new "Surface" table-top computers.

Wow. Just, Wow.

2007-06-14T23:53:00.000-05:00

Barack Obama Answers the Question of Whether He's "Black Enough"

2007-03-05T17:58:00.000-06:00

Senator Kennedy Vents His Frustrations on Minimum Wage Fillibuster by Republicans: "Why do you hate the poor?"

2007-02-27T00:45:00.000-06:00

Keith's Comments on Bush's "Surge" Speech

2007-01-16T01:52:00.000-06:00

Combat Information Center Comment

2006-10-20T12:56:00.000-05:00

As promised, here's my comment in response to the season premier episode of Alan Light's great fan podcast, The Combat Information Center, where I address some of the issues that Alan has with Season three of Battlestar Galactica, some of which I addressed briefly in a previous post. There were some issues with file encoding, so the comment didn't make it onto last week's show, but with any luck, it will be there this week.

Click here to download the mp3 of my comment.

The Death of Habeus Corpus

2006-10-19T00:05:00.000-05:00

As many of you are probably aware, President Bush signed into law this past Tuesday, October 17, 2006, the Military Commissions Act of 2006. While there are many things this act does that I find reprehensible (including authorizing torture and making a mockery of our most hallowed legal proceedings), perhaps the most dangerous is the revokation of the right of habeus corpus for anyone deemed an "unlawful enemy combatant", whether or not they are an American citizen.

The unfortunate part of this entire story is that the American people noted this tectonic shift in American political, legal, and cultural life with little more than a dismissive wave of their hand. Hopefully, as the reality of what this means for America as a whole becomes more widely known, we will gain the will and strength to undo the damage that has been done, that we will wake up from this nightmare before it is too late. I will leave you with another video from Countdown, one that I think makes my point better than I could hope to in so short a space.

Better late than never...

2006-10-17T23:42:00.000-05:00

I know I'm a little late to the game on this one, but I've wanted to post this ever since I watched it on 9/11. Keith Olberman seems to be emerging as one of the more cogent, consistent voices for sanity and justice in America today. I strongly encourage you to take a look and listen to what he has to say about where we find ourselves five years after that horrible day.

Connect the Dots...La, La, La La...

2006-10-10T22:25:00.000-05:00

This past Friday, October 6, brought us the highly anticipated third season premiere of the Sci-Fi Channel (in the U.S.) original series, Battlestar Galactica. The two-hour event didn't disappoint; however, the great fan-produced Galactica podcast, The Combat Information Center did. I've been a regular listener to Alan's podcast since the very first episode in late season one, and, while he sometimes makes small errors in his commentary, whether in his account of events in an episode or in his interpretation of a given storyline or plot element, none come close to the whopper he gave us this week.

While he, too, enjoyed the episode overall, he took particular issue with the Kara/Leoben/Kacey storyline, particularly Kara's reaction to her child. I had three major problems with his assessment:

Alan claims that the scene during the "Previously on Battlestar Galactica" recap, where Leoben comes to Kara and Anders's tent never actually happened in the show. I beg to differ. It occurred at the very end of "Lay Down Your Burdens, Part 2". I just downloaded the episode from iTunes on Thursday, so my wife could watch it.
Alan also takes issue with the existence of Kacey, claiming that it and, more broadly, the entire relationship between Kara and Leoben is a cop-out from the writers. I would tell Alan to go back and review his Season One DVDs, particularly "Flesh and Bone", the episode where Kara interrogates a captured Leoben. There are seeds of this relationship there, so much so that when Kara's ovary was removed in "The Farm", I thought, immediately, that Leoben would be the father of any cylon/human hybrid from her eggs would be fathered by Leoben.
Finally, Alan claims that Kara's reaction to Kacey is completely out of character for her. I don't think he could be more wrong. Kara, as she has been presented over the course of the first two seasons has two sides. First, is the tough bad-ass, not gonna take any crap from anybody, punch out the XO Starbuck we met in the miniseries. The other is a more sensitive, caring, compassionate Kara Thrace, a woman scarred by the memories of her own childhood, the loss of her fiancé, and her guilt over leaving Anders behind on Caprica. In "The Farm", Kara talks to Simon about the abuse she suffered at the hands of her father, and briefly mentions that she doesn't really ever want to have kids of her own, because she'd be too afraid of messing them up, or worse. So, yes, when Leoben introduces her to Kacey, her initial reaction is one of cold detachment. She, intellectually, recognizes the likelihood that he's telling the truth, that she is her daughter, but she can't accept it emotionally, on many levels. But when Kacey is hurt because of Kara's actions/inaction, all of those fears come boiling to the surface, and those insecurities lead to her reaching out and embracing the child, and, by extension, her father.

I plan to put together an audio comment for Alan's show sometime this week, where I'll not only address the above concerns, but also his take on the Resistance's use of suicide bombings, the Cylon's torture of prisoners, and Lee's weight. If you want to hear what I have to say, either tune in to Alan's podcast or, if he chooses not to play my comments, I'll post them online after his show airs.

Why 1:1 is the Best Course for Missouri State

2006-04-20T00:07:00.000-05:00

Well, after months of delay and consideration, my technology improvement resolution finally came back before SGA this past Tuesday. In many ways, it was a mere shadow of the original, lacking the strong language and firm recommendations that I believed were essential for the future success of any plan born from it. It was also, now, two resolutions, not just one. What did manage to survive committee negotiations, though in an arguably weaker form, was the provision for implementing a 1:1 technology plan. At least I could feel positive about that, right? Wrong.

When the resolutions came up on Tuesday night (for debate, I might add, a contingency for which I was not adequately prepared, having not fully decided to support the resolutions as they existed), the ill-founded concerns over the 1:1 provision once again reared their ugly heads. Some claimed that by requiring students to own their own computer, we would alienate a significant population of potential students, while others asked why we needed to implement such a plan if the current system of common computer labs was meeting students' needs. Rob (Martin) and I did our best to assuage these concerns, pointing specifically to the weak language of the resolution that asked the University to implement such a plan only when trends in student computer usage and ownership made such a plan the most prudent course. In the end, though, we failed, and a motion to amend the resolution to remove the 1:1 provision passed. To say I was disappointed would be an understatement. This was almost nine months of my life down the drain, my proverbial blood sweat, and tears. If there was one thing I wanted to accomplish in SGA this year, this was it. The question now is, where do we go from here?

Well, first, I want to offer the justification for the 1:1 initiative that I should have offered on Tuesday night, had I been aware we would actually be debating and voting on the resolutions that night. The following comes from the blog of Adrian Sannier, the University Technology Officer of Arizona State University, discussing a proposed 1:1 technoogy initiative at ASU, which has raised similar objections to those presented by some here at Missouri State:

If we leave things the way they are the digital divide doesn't narrow. It doesn't even stay the same width. It grows. Every term.

If we stick with the common computing model, then it's only those of limited means that are going to be left out. If present tech trends continue, it's only going to be a year or two before nearly any student that wants one will have a laptop, leaving only the most financially struggling students as the ones forced to stand in line for a taste of tech.

Those with means will be on the sunny side of the digital divide, free to bypass the lines at the Commons and use their personal machines at a coffee shop instead. It will only be those without means who will have no alternative but to wait their turn for a crack at a common device.

No requirement, no aid. No aid, no personal computing for people of limited means. No personal computing, no experience of how tech works in the working world, among the technically literate -- because out in that world waiting in line to use a common computer has kinda gone out of style, unless you are really up against it. Which is not what we hope for our graduates.

1:1 is a way to bridge the digital divide not widen it. It's a strategy designed to bring all of us into the future instead of trapping the least fortunate of us in the past.

The future is coming, and that future is ubiquitous computing. We can either recognize current trends and what they mean for the future of education in America and the competitive position of our University, or we can sit quietly and watch the world pass us by. If we do, schools like ASU that took the intitiative and made the effort will be the ones who attract the top students, faculty, staff, and outside financial contributions, and Missouri State will remain a third-rate, regional institution.

Busy, Busy...

2006-02-24T15:53:00.000-06:00

Hey, everybody. I just wanted to let you know that I am still alive, but I've been extraordinarily busy this semster, between work and school. I'm currently working on two fiction projects (one's my thesis) and taking another theory class besides. At work, I've been swamped doing research for my boss, and setting up several virtual hosts on our server. Also, for anyone interested, it looks like we're going to have our first committee meeting on the SUTII (mentioned below), next week. I'm still not sure about the date, but rest assured, if we don't, some heads will roll! Well, I just wanted to offer an update on how things were going. Later!

Newsvine

2006-01-28T15:27:00.000-06:00

I'm not sure how many of you have heard of the new web service called Newsvine, but I'm sure you will soon. Newsvine is a service that seeks to aggregate, categorize and present the latest and greatest in both mainstream and citizen journalism, all my attempting to make the latter much, much easier (both to create and to access). All this, and they plan to pay those who contribute content as well based on the amount of traffic that your pages on their site generate. Right now, the project is in private beta (you have to be invited by a current member). I heard about it on both Twit and Inside the Net. I highly suggest you listen to this past week's episode of Inside the Net to learn more about Newsvine. It's a really exciting development in the world of web-based news services. Not only does it provide great access to content and allow you to rank it (much in the mode of Digg.com), but it also provides a great interface in which to view it. I have a limited number of invites left, but I'm reserving them for either people I know personally, or by reputation, to be promising citizen journalists/commentators. If you think you fall into either of those categories, drop me a line, and we'll see if we can't get you hooked up with an invite. That's all for now.

Back to School

2006-01-18T17:44:00.000-06:00

Well, winter break is over, and it's time to head back to school. It's already shaping up to be an intersting one for me. I'm taking nine hours of grad credit, and carrying an incomplete from last semester for a total of twelve. Six of the twelve are creative writing heavy, so that should be fun (Finally, an excuse to seriously work on my novel!). I'm also seriously weighing the possibility of running for student body president here at Missouri State University. I'm growing tired of supposed student "leaders" who lack any sort of vision for the future of this institution outside of their time here. The registration deadline is looming on the horizon, and I have yet to find a running mate, but I'll be sure to keep you posted. I'm going to try and post more frequently this semester (yeah, that's what I always say), including some fic excerpts if the muse strikes me. That's it for now.

Response to my Technology Initiative

2005-11-16T23:17:00.001-06:00

Well, it's been a couple weeks, and I can definitely say that reaction to my proposal at SGA has been decidedly mixed. Many people support what I am trying to do, and recognize that I only have the best interests of the University at heart. Everything that I'm pushing for is not going to affect me in any way. I plan to be long gone by the time that any of my proposals would come into force, as would many of those currently involved in SGA. I want this to be my legacy. I want to be the student who pushed Missouri State, perhaps kicking and screaming, into the 21st century. There are, however, those who seem not to share my vision of the future for our institution. Here's a response that I received to my previous post:

I hope your stupid little initiative fails miserably. You were doing so good in fighting Microsoft on campus until you did this. Maybe if your rich parents bought all the students a laptop like they bought yours then there wouldn't be an issue of students emptying what little was left in their checking accounts to buy a computer just so they can get a college education at MSU. Go f*$# an iPod and leave us BROKE students alone.

All I've got to say to this person is that they definitely don't know me, who I am, if they can say these things. I understand that the program I'm proposing could impose financial hardships on some students, and its something that I try to address in the resolution by calling for the establishment of a fund to aid those who need assistance. I also believe that there are plenty of opportunities for the institution to leverage its numbers and buying power to ensure that students are receiving the best deal possible on hardware and software. There are numerous opportunities for corporate sponsorship and partnerships as well. The fact of the matter is, simply, that MSU's current technological regime is simply not doing what is necessary to prepare students for the future, whether that be in the job market, or further post-bac education given todays technology trends. That is what my resolution hopes to address, but if my detractors have a better plan, bring it on. A committee is being formed to examine the issues raised by my resolution. We'll probably begin meeting the week after Thanksgiving. If you're interested, please contact me or Rob Martin for more information. I look forward to working toward a solution that benefits the entire community, but, for some, that solution might be painful. Change often is.

Improving Educational Technology

2005-10-27T17:57:00.000-05:00

Those of you who have been with me since my .Mac days should be somewhat aware that I have a very deep interest in the field of instructional technology. For the past three-plus years, I have worked for the Educational Technology Center at Missouri State University, and in that time I have become acutely aware that the institutional technology/technology support policy at the University is severely lacking. First, it fails to consider and take advantage of recent trends in technology, such as ubiquitous ownership of computing by students. Second, it seriously cripples those students by providing a large system of open access computer labs that serve as a crutch, abrogating the need for them to learn to perform basic maintenance on their own computers, something they will most definitely have to do when they leave school. Of course, if every student had a Mac, then this wouldn't bee as big a deal, but I'm not about to push that issue. All I want is for students to have free choice in the platform they choose to use, whether it's Mac OS X, Linux, or Windows. The only problem is that right now, Missouri State is just beginning to truly support a multi-platform environment, and only halfheartedly at that.

Well, this week, I took steps to, hopefully, remedy the above problems by, for lack of a better phrase, giving the administration a kick in the pants. At this week's SGA meeting, I introduced a resolution entitled the Student and University Technology Improvement Initiative. It calls for the university to begin implementing a 1:1 computing plan within three years, and to develop the appropriate institutional environment to support such a plan, including a redefinition and restructuring of Central User Support to be more academic centered. First order of business will have to be placing responsibility for developing and implementing institutional technology policy under the office of the provost. This will help to ensure the preeminence of academic (read students and faculty) interests in that process. Right now, administrative interests clearly dominate. I'm not trying to say that there aren't certain areas that belong under administration, MIS for instance, since they handle the records side of things, but there clearly needs to be a shift, and a big one. We have to shake them out of their apathy, and that's what my resolution aims to do. If you'd like to take a look at it, and feel free to comment on it either here or via e-mail, you can find a PDF copy here. We'll be discussing and possibly debating the issue further at next Tuesday's meeting, so if you're a student at Missouri State and you're interested in this topic and care about the future of the University, then please come to the meeting. We need all the support we can get.

Lost in Transition

2005-09-08T15:10:00.000-05:00

Arghh! My school, Missouri State University, recently undertook a name change and accompanying transition in its computer resources. Part of this is a transition to a new e-mail set-up. Unfortunately, they don't seem to have put too much effort into making sure that their instructions for connecting to the service through third-party clients, like Apple's mail.app or Mozilla's Thunderbird. The saddest part of this whole thing is that they've known this change was coming since the spring. This isn't even the only problem. As part of this transition, our login credentials for the network have changed as well, but they don't yet work for use when logging on to our campus wireless network or VPN. This entire episode has only hardened my resolve to seek major changes to the University's technology policy. Stay tuned later this week for more details on this issue.

UPDATE: I've managed to get things up and running in Mail, and it wasn't entirely their fault. However, this is only one of the many issues that have arisen during this transition that should have been taken care of months ago.

Rome

2005-08-28T20:01:00.000-05:00

Just settling in to watch the new HBO original series, Rome. Hopefully, it will be better than Empire was on ABC. Check back later this evening or tomorrow for a more detailed account of what I thought of it.

UPDATE: Well, that was definitely a much more rewarding experience than the ABC, though I can say that much of what made it so would have been impossible for ABC, given "broadcast decency" standards. It's amazing how much historical accuracy our society sacrifices to the gods of decency, how much authenticity is lain at the feet of our puritanical myopia. But, I digress. The producers of Rome seem to have gone to great effort to insure the veracity of the story that they are telling. Surely, they are taking some dramatic license, but the core events and people of the story are as accurate as they possibly could be. The violence and sensuality of ancient Rome really come through in the depictions of the city and the portrayals of its people. The simple fact that Octavian is a young boy, no older than 13, rather than a simpering, spoiled pseudo-adult, is enough to make this the superior production. Add to that they inclusion of Pompey, Atia of the Julii, and a much younger Antony and disengaged Brutus, and you get a show that every person who has ever studied the Rome of the late Republic and early Empire should see. I encourage all of you that have HBO to tune in next Sunday at 8pm CDT (9pm EDT) for the second episode and be sure to catch the encore presentation of the premiere that is sure to come this week. Afterwards, be sure to stop by and let me know what you think.

Goodbye, SMS, Hello, Missouri State

2005-08-28T00:00:00.000-05:00

At midnight tonight, my alma mater, Southwest Missouri State University officially became Missouri State University. To mark the event, there were midnight madness celebrations held, and, shockingly, the University Bookstore was actually open on a Sunday! *gasp* This name change has been a long time in the works, ever since SMS became the state's second-largest institution of higher education back in the late 80s or early 90s. After many long years of struggle, the state legislature was finally able to hammer out a compromise this past spring, thanks in large part to Governor Matt Blunt's assistance (a.k.a. threat to cut funding to MU)—at least he's good for something.

Here's hoping that the school will take this opportunity to re-focus itself and really do something to deserve the name it has been given, hopefully beginning with a concerted effort to join the 21st century and begin to emphasize the use of technology both in and out of the classroom. Look for an entry that goes into more detail on my technology vision for the University in the coming weeks. For now, however, I simply say congratulations.

My Favorite Podcasts

2005-08-26T16:29:00.000-05:00

Ever since the launch of iTunes 4.9 back in June, Podcasting can definitely be said to have gone "mainstream". Prior to the addition of podcasting to iTunes, I used the free aggregator iPodder to download my podcasts. This was a pain. The integration between the program and my iPod just wasn't up to the level that I was expecting. Thankfully, iTunes has addressed many of my issues, while raising a few others, but that's a topic for a different entry. We're here to find out what my top podcasts are, so without further ado, here you go:

As you can see, they're all either tech, TV, or literature-related. I also subscribe to commandN, a video podcast, "vidcast", which I enjoy a great deal, but you can't watch it on an iPod (yet). It features Amber Mac and Mike Lazazzera from Call for Help. I definitely recommend checking it out. It comes in two version, one in MPEG-4 and another in h.264. The above link is for the h.264 version, which requires QuickTime 7. So, go out and have a look or listen at some of these podcasts and let me know what you think. Also, feel free to post your favorites in the comment area. Happy listening!

Redesign

2005-08-25T17:23:00.000-05:00

As I'm sure many of you have noticed by now, Vincit Veritas has undergone a bit of a redesign, thanks in great part to the team over at Blogger Templates. I also want to thank Amber and Mike over at commandN for pointing me in their direction. This site's design is based on one of their more recent postings. I simply removed the "neat" but ultimately annoying scroller and customized the expanding/collapsing sidebar. Ultimately, I think I'm going to be much happier with this look than the old one. Lord knows, I'll probably change it again, but I'm finally satisfied with the look of the site.

In other site-related news, be on the lookout for information on my ongoing SF writing and criticism projects. I'll probably be posting or linking to some excerpts from my in-progress work and asking you for your input. Also, when I finish my first novel, or collection of short stories (whichever happens first), I plan to make it available on LuLu, the on-demand publishing site founded by the co-founder of Redhat Linux. That's it for now. Be well.

Congratulations, SMS Lady Bears!

2005-03-31T23:59:00.000-06:00

I just wanted to give a shout out to the Lady Bears of Southwest Missouri State University, and congratulate them on their 78-70 victory over West Virginia in the championship game of the Women's National Invitational Tournament. I especially want to congratulate tournament MVP Jenny Lingor on her record-setting performance throughout the tournament. The Lady Bears also set an NCAA single-season record for three-pointers made, with 305. Congratulations, ladies, on a great season, you earned it!

Why Windows® XP Professional Drives Me Nuts!

2005-03-30T21:05:00.000-06:00

As some of you may know, I spend most of my days at work working on Windows XP PCs, and to say that I don't like it would be a significant understatement. Recently, I began having issues when attempting to deploy a custom image of XP onto some machines in a lab that I am responsible for. Previously, in a situation like this, we would set up the machine the way we wanted it, set up a custom user account template, and copy it over the default user template that comes with XP. Then, we would run Microsoft's sysprep.exe utility on the machine and dump it to a Norton Ghost image and then deploy it as needed. That worked great (note the past tense), that is, until this past summer, and Service Pack 2. It turns out, that the functionality that we relied on to deploy those customized user templates was a "bug" in XP prior to SP2. Apparently, the correct behavior is for Windows® to copy the administrator account profile onto the default user profile. For some reason, that doesn't make any sense to me. For instance, in my situation, I want the administrator account to have Windows's Administrative Tools in its start menu, but I don't want network users to have them there. What are my options? I can set up profiles for all the I want to administer the machines, but they have to be present for me to do that, because they have to log in, at least once, and that just isn't feasible in my situation. Oh, but that's not all.

To add insult to injury, Microsoft also insists in ramming its apps down your throat as well. Every time that you create a new image using sysprep, the machine puts MSN Explorer Internet Explorer and Windows Media Player icons on the desktop of every user, even the ones for whom you have already created a custom set of desktop icons (In my setup, I don't get the MSN Explorer or IE, icons, but just TWO WMP icons, instead). It makes me want to pull my hair out. I wish the U.S. government would crack down on Microsoft the way that the European Union (Free Registrations Required) has, and force them to offer Windows without all the bundled (read: force fed) Microsoft media and browser apps. But, alas, as long as G. W. Bush is president, I have little hope of that happening. If anyone out there has any suggestions as to what, if anything, I can do to ease my custom setup woes, I would greatly appreciate it. In the mean time, have a good day, and stay away from Windows, if at all possible. Stress kills.

Win a FREE iPod® shuffle

2005-03-28T14:33:00.000-06:00

Good news, if you're a college student. Apple is giving away a free iPod® shuffle every week from now until September 30, 2005. To enter, just go to this website. The Apple higher education student site also contains valuable information on student discounts and using your Mac at school, so it's worth checking out as well. Well, that's it for now. Have a good one!

Best Places for iPod® Content

2005-03-27T19:20:00.000-06:00

I know that many of you have gotten caught up in iPod® fever over the past couple of years; i know I have. One of the biggest problems that I've run into with my iPod is finding good content to fill it up, and I want to take this opportunity to let you know about some of the best sources I've found so far, some free, some not.

iTunes Music Store

We'll start with the obvious one. The iTunes Music Store is definitely the Apple-recommended source of iPod content, and it's a great one. Featuring a library of over 1 million songs from Big Five and Indie labels, as well as audiobooks from audible.com (more about them later), the iTMS is the #1 online music store in the world. Here are some links to get you started:

One last thing on iTMS: If you drink Pepsi, you'll want to be on the lookout for yellow Pepsi bottle caps good for free downloads. You'll also have a chance to win a FREE iPod® mini for each cap you redeem.

Audible

If you're like me, and you love book but don't have the time to read for fun, but you do spend a lot of time in situations where you can listen to you iPod--driving to work, school, home from college, walking to and from class--then Audible is the ticket for you. For $20 a month, you get two audiobook downloads, regardless of how much the book normally costs, and some are upwards of $80. To make it even sweeter, you can get your first two audiobooks free!

Podcasts

I'm sure you've almost all heard about the phenomenon that is the podcast. If you haven't, we'll just call it a weblog for home-brewed audio, and it's re-making online audio distribution, the same way that blogging has re-made online publishing. There are several applications out there, for all platforms that make it easy to subscribe to, download, and transfer podcasts to your iPod. Here are a few of them:

iPodder 2.0 (Windows®, Mac®, and Linux v1.1)
Podfeeder(Windows)
More to come...

The nice thing about podcasts is that, as far as I've seen, they're free, and there's definitely no shortage of them. You can even make your own. One way to do this, easily, is by using your 3rd or 4th generation iPod and a Griffin iTalk and LapelMic. Just as a sidenote, one of the most popular types of podcasting out there is known as "Godcasting," that features Christian and other "family-friendly" content.

Well, that's it for now. Happy listening!

Welcome to the NEW Vincit Veritas

2005-03-26T22:45:00.000-06:00

Greetings, everyone! Welcome to the new home of my personal blog, Vincit Veritas, previously located on my .Mac account. As my previous readers know, my site is devoted to my greatest interests: technology, politics, religion, and entertainment, and literature.

I'm currently seeking my Masters in English, Creative Writing at Southwest Missouri State University, soon to be Missouri State University. I have a Bachelors of Arts in Political Science, and currently work as a Graduate Assistant providing computer support in the Educational Technology Center at the University, where I support a mixed-platform lab and office composed of both Windows® and Macintosh® computers, though I'm making progress on getting the office to go all-Mac. I love Science Fiction, especially Ursula K. LeGuin's Earthsea and Hainish cycles, and am currently working on several critical papers based around her work. I am also interested in Philip K. Dick, William Gibson, and Orson Scott Card. My favorite literary theorists are Fredric Jameson, Northrop Frye, Carl Jung, and Terry Eagleton.

Anyway, my favorite TV shows are Enterprise (SAVE IT), Smallville, and Alias. As for politics, I was a Kerry supporter in the last election, but that doesn't mean that I support everything the Democrats stand for. I subscribe the the Sojourners online newsletter for progressive Christians, and am definitely anti-abortion, but don't think that it is prudent to make the procedure illegal. We should be working to create an environment in which abortion isn't even a consideration for women, rather than forcing them to undergo dangerous back-room operations or use clothes hangers on themselves. Well, that's really it for now. Hopefully, I'll be able to keep up with things a bit more regularly here, than on my .Mac account. Have a good one!