A nod to my friend Katie today. Her favorite quote:

“I dwell in possibility.”
— Emily Dickinson

This post makes a very convincing argument as to how exactly Google plans to basically take over the world. Or well, the Internet portion of it at least. Only, as we move more toward a wired society, the Internet will (and is) beginning to encompass much more than e-mail and Web pages. It’s our connection to other people, our means of communication for much of our work, our source of news and entertainment. Phone lines are moving to the Internet and movies streamed on-demand instead of rented from the local Blockbuster. It’s an interesting phenomenon. The post is worth reading if you’re at all concerned about one company having too much power.

It’s reminiscient of the EPIC 1214 video, which in itself of course scares the crap out of me. (Also, apparently there’s an updated version: EPIC 1215. For some reason, perhaps because I can better see how I fit into its revised version of the future, this updated version is a lot less frightening.)

I missed actually seeing Stephen Colbert on the O’Reilly Factor and vice versa when it happened Thursday.

Thank God for YouTube.

Colbert on O’Reilly — My favorite part,

Colbert: You know what I hate about people who criticize you.
O’Reilly: Who?
Colbert: They criticize what you say but never give you credit for how loud you say it..
O’Reilly: That’s true.
Colbert: … or how long you say it.
O’Reilly: There are not many people as loud as I am.

O’Rielly on Colbert — My favorite part,

O’Reilly: We make mistakes, but we have to respect the country.
Colbert: We may make mistakes, but we must never admit them.
O’Reilly: No, we should admit them. We should admit them. This was a huge mistake, me coming on here. I’ll admit that.
Colbert: I hope I can change your mind on that.
O’Reilly: I doubt that.

Seriously go watch them if you need a laugh. Or kick back to John Stewart on Crossfire last year.

“If you don’t believe in yourself, then who will believe in you? The next man’s way of getting there might not necessarily work for me, so I have to create my own ways of getting there.”
— Michael Korda

I forget who it was that I was talking to recently, but we were discussing how the retirement age keeps creeping older. It will be at least 70 by the time I’m old enough to tap into the Social Security fund. (Not that it won’t have been bankrupted by then.)

The way I figure it, I have about 50 years of work ahead of me. I have half a century of work ahead of me.

That means, assuming I work only 40 hours a week and actually take two weeks vacation each year, I have 100,000 hours of work left before retirement. That’s 2,500 weeks or 17,800 eight-hour days of work in my future.

So now I conclude week one. Only 2,499 more to go.

But seriously. Do you know how much you can do with 50 years? How many stories you could tell. How many people you could meet. How places you could see.

• I could spend one year in each of the 50 U.S. states. Imagine trying to fit that resume on one page.
• I could make it a point to meet at least one new person each day. Even if only one person each year ends up as a friend, that’s 50 friends who will show up to fill the pews when I die, and more than 18,000 acquaintances over that period.
• I could chronicle my life and the world as it stands each year. By retirement, I’d have an encylopedia’s worth of biographical material. (Though, it’d probably be in 20 different formats, most of them out-of-date.)
• I could spend a decade in the Peace Corps, or just pack up and go on different tours whenever I want a break from my real life.
• I could read 100 books each year. By retirement, I’d have 5,000 books in my repertoire.

Seriously. Fifty years is an insane amount of time. It’s about two and a half times my current life so far.

One of the younger professors at my university, whom I talked to as I began my job search, told me that it was an exciting time for me because there was nothing I couldn’t do. She said once you take a job, those doors start closing. Already I’ve experienced that a little from the editors who’ve contacted me since I accepted a job. One can’t help but wonder what other amazing opportunities were cut off by taking one path in favor of others. But you can’t take two roads at once (as much as I’d love to venture down a few to see how they’d pan out). All you can do is pick the one you think will take you closest to where you want to be and jump. You might hold your breath when you do it, afraid you’ll fail and fall flat on your face. But eventually, if you want to get anywhere, you have to jump and take that first step toward somewhere else.

Thinking about how I have 50 whole years ahead of me to try anything I want puts it in perspective. Sure there are doors that are slamming shut to me now. But I could go back later to see what was behind door No. 2, or better than backtrack, just see where I end up. As long as I learn something and enjoy the road, what is there to lose? Nothing.

So, here’s to the next 2,499 work weeks of my life.

I am a fan of approaching stories from a “By the numbers” angle. It’s a quick way to break out the impact of stories. Whether it’s a feature or a hard news piece, you can usually find some numbers that add instant wow factor.

This package in the NYTimes does a good job of breaking down just what the Iraq war is costing. The graphic in particular is reminiscent of those charts in first grade where you pasted the number of blocks together to make a certain amount.

So, if this article is right, if you pasted universal health care and pre-school for all 3 and 4 year olds, as well as increased homeland security, cancer research and immunizations for the world’s poor children, you’d end up with the same number of blocks annually ($200 billion) as the war in Iraq. Kind of startling.

I’m not judging the war in Iraq or its cost (both real and opportunity). I don’t necessarily agree with us being there, but we are there, and some of my friends are there serving proudly. However, you can’t help but be wowed by those numbers.

I’m impressed because this basic by the numbers approach managed to make me really care and see the impact of something that — for better or worse — I’ve honestly become quite immune to news about. It’s a reminder to step back sometimes and look at things from a different perspective.

“The question isn’t, ‘Where are you going?’ It’s, ‘What are you doing here in the first place?’”
— Art Buchwald

As heard in the NYTimes video obit…

Incidentally, the third segment in the obit made me actually laugh out loud. Buchwald goes, “I want to get something in that’s very important…” And then he says, “The New York Times is a dirty paper.”

…

“Because the ink rubs off all the time when you’re reading it!” :)

I saw this video in today’s Al’s Morning Meeting. It is young black women talking about what it means to be black, stereotypes, perceptions, and more. Perhaps because African-American studies interests the sociologist in me or maybe because of my own work and history with these topics, the video really struck a chord.

I don’t know how the interviewer was able to get such candid responses, but there’s definitely a lot to be said for just letting people talk, as she did. I think this is a great example of when it’s appropriate to find that average person and give them a soapbox or microphone and let them tell you what’s on their mind. It isn’t so in your face as the average man on the street interview. It’s more subdued and there’s more of a point to it.

“You must have a room, or a certain hour or so a day, where you don’t know what was in the newspapers that morning… a place where you can simply experience and bring forth what you are and what you might be.”
— Joseph Campbell

So, I just stopped at Ohio.com (The Beacon Journal) to see today’s stories. The top local story stopped me dead in my tracks. The photo above it was a familiar face. It was Andy.

Andy was injured — well that word doesn’t quite begin to cover it — two years ago today, apparently, in an industrial accident. He lost the entire bottom half of his body, pretty much from his waist down. Today’s is a follow-up story about how he’s doing now.

I graduated from high school with Andy and shared several classes and activities with him. What makes the entire event so sad for me is that Andy was this ridiculously bouncy, spirited person. He and Dan used to rap Dr. Seuss rhymes and break dance to them in the cafeteria and hallways of my high school. He used to jump around doing cartwheels and back flips as the school’s mascot. He was also pretty much the funniest guy and never missed a chance to make a joke.

I have followed his progress a little since the accident. We were never great friends, but still it’s one of those topics that pops up when you run into other fellow grads. Plus, the Beacon has done several stories on the incident/his recovery. This article stopped me because it puts the world in perspective. How much he lost and yet how much he still has and gives. I hope he gets the help he needs.