I believe everything everyone tells me- don't you?

The year was 2004. I was but a wee young lad, a student in my last semester at the University of Kansas. It was November and election time. I really didn't know who to vote for. You see, George W. Bush and his administration had really harmed our country the previous four years, so I definitely knew I was not voting for him. John Kerry, the Democrat, was intelligent enough but really didn't have any good ideas for change.

I voted for Ralph Nadar in 2000, to my parents dismay because apparently he was for killing babies. I am not for killing babies, nor any other human beings, so yeah, maybe I clashed a bit with Nader on this one but overall he made a lot more sense than the Republicans and Democrats. In 2004, after knowing my dumb state would waste our electoral votes on Bush, I went ahead and boosted the Libertarian Party's chances of raising funds but voting for their candidate, Michael Badnarik. How did I discover Michael Badnarik? By visiting his Web site, of course, and doing a bit of research for about an hour or two.

It was in 2004 that I realized that our country was full of idiots. Okay, that's a little harsh. Our country was full of lazy individuals who did not realize the simple mistakes they were making. Why were people like me, who went just a little out of their way to actually research a candidate, a minority?

Four years later, my cynicism has grown. There has been some hope this past year, however, with the rising of people running for President who have common sense. The mainstream media, of course, ignored these people and continues to do so because they do not meet the status quo or their agenda. Everything I have learned about these fantastic people I learned on the last free form of media- the internet. People like Ron Paul, like Dennis Kucinich, like Mike Gravel, heck, even Barack Obama (I still think he has more common sense than he has demonstrated in debates thus far).
However, it's just so depressing to me that so many people out there have not heard of anyone other than Hillary, Barack, or John. Someone asked me the other day what I thought of Hillary Clinton, and I said that I don't care about her, I support Ron Paul. "Who?" he asked. I started to explain that he was our last beacon of hope but soon this guy was thinking about Nascar and I knew I had lost him forever.

When will this end? When will the majority wake up? There are many like myself, who know the truth. Who have discovered the truth independently, without influence of the robots. But so many people are spoon fed propaganda to the point where they cannot tell the difference between fact and fiction.

Why do so many people believe everything Bill O'Reilly says? Is it because he speaks with authority, with swagger? The "no-spin zone" my butt. That show, in fact, is the OPPOSITE of "no-spin." I think the most dangerous thing about his show is the fact that he tries to come across as someone who is open minded and objective, as someone who does not prejudge until he gets all the facts. This is bullcrap. He preaches that he is against propaganda, yet he represents how dangerous propaganda can be.

Yes, ladies and gentleman, the reason why John McCain, Hillary Clinton, and Barack Obama are the top three contenders for CEO of the U.S. is because of how much the mainstream media has overloaded us with them. How can people support a candidate they don't know about?

Until Americans wake up (and the world, for that matter) things will not change. We have to learn to not take everything we hear on the daily news for granted. We should always question everyone. Those people who report the news- they are human beings with dispositions and their own agendas. Those corporations who own the people who report the news- they also their own agendas (sometimes those agendas are strongly influenced on them by another, mysterious force). More importantly, we must stop being lazy when it comes to researching who is running for public office.

We will not have a true democracy until we have a true democratic process of how we get our information.

Our Chicago Trip (I'm a Dork)

Shannon and I spent the last four days on a trip to Chicago. We figured it was a good idea to get away for a long weekend, and what better place to go than the city with the nation's highest gas prices.

We had four days off (work has been slow for me and I actually had all my school assignments done ahead of time) and took the seven hour drive from Omaha to Chicago bright and early on Saturday morning. On the way we stopped for lunch at Iowa City, a lovely college town that reminded us quite a bit of Lawrence. My primary reason for wanting to go to Chicagoland was the fact that many of my favorite films were in fact filmed in the Chicago metro area. While there we visited some of the most random places where great American movies were filmed, such as

Groundhog Day


Home Alone


Stranger Than Fiction


Wayne's World

and Ferris Bueller's Day Off


In conclusion, I am a dork. As Shannon took pictures of me in these nostalgic places, people who were systematically going through their everyday lives wondered "who are these strange people taking pictures in front of random, unimportant backdrops?" Movies I grew up watching allowed me to be more aware of these places than the people who actually lived there. 18 years after Home Alone was a smash hit, I am the lone lunatic who had my picture taken in front of that once famous house a couple days ago while the mailman next door laughed.

Why am I fascinated with these places? Because they're real. They're not some Hollywood set. Plus, they're in the midwest, in relative proximity to where I currently reside.

Shannon and I did do a couple of touristy things. We went to the top of the Sears Tower and caught a Cubs game at Wrigley Field. But it was the non-touristy things that stood out the most for me. After all, how many people visit a place with their primary goal in mind to visit as many locations as possible where some of their favorite films were filmed? Not too many, I'd say.

It was a great time, despite the over 7 million people living in the suburbs. We drove around on Monday for hours through endless strip malls, subdivisions, and stoplights to get back to our hotel in Naperville. And I thought Kansas City was bad. Talk about suburban sprawl. But the city of Chicago is just a nice place. I was telling someone today that it probably has some of the best architecture in the world.

The only major annoying thing about downtown Chicago- no restrooms. Kudos to Starbucks, the only place that didn't seem to mind if we just stopped by to urinate.

Everyone's got a theory

I was thinking today while driving my car. That happens sometimes.

I was thinking, why is it that when one makes a conspiracy theory, they are considered a crazy person, yet when one makes a scientific theory, they get a Nobel Prize?

Theories are all based on evidence. Every conspiracy theory has at least some evidence to back it up. Food for thought for Shannon, who will be the only one reading this.

CHAMPIONS!

National Champions. I never thought I'd live to see the day a favorite sports team actually became champions. I was six years old when the Kansas basketball team last won it all, but back then I wasn't a fan yet. Yes, I hopped on the bandwagon about that time. Same with the Royals back in 1985. I was four years old, but really became a fan a couple years after that.

This is one of the greatest nights in my life. I will talk trash to my friends,oh yes...especially the ones who said KU was just not good enough to win it all, that Memphis, that North Carolina, that Davidson were all just too good.

Well let me tell you something- KU is now the best.

I will relish every moment of celebration and remember this night for the rest of my life. This is what being a fan is all about.

20 years of ups and downs, of highs and lows, of heartbreaks and then some more heartbreaks. Of losing to Bradley and Bucknell in the first round. Of losing to Syracuse by 3 points when I was student at KU back in '03. All of that doesn't matter anymore because we have reached the ultimate goal. A national championship.

Mainstream music today

Mainstream music today (at least on MTV, BET, VH1 and mainstream radio) is quite repulsive. Mariah Carey now has more number one hits than any other pop artist except the Beatles, recently surpassing Elvis Presley. This is only further proof to mainstream music's decline in recent years. Yes, it never used to be this way in the '60s and '70s. Back then most mainstream artists were actually talented.

What's sad is that many of these artists are winning Grammys, which are awards that were at one time much more credible. Grammys are partly based on record sales, which automatically leaves out any musician who is unsigned or on an independent label. Some of the best music on the planet will never be heard by the majority of people on this earth. Currently, the majority of this country has heard of R. Kelly, Hannah Montana, and Britney Spears, but the majority has also not heard of Sufjan Stevens, Pinback, or Electric Needle Room (ha!)

What makes a pop song? Well, a pop song is a POPular song. What makes a song popular? Money. Money controls what we are able to listen to on most radio stations, MTV, BET, VH1, and even Pandora. The gatekeepers, even in this internet age, consistently continue to control what we listen to on a regular basis. Casual music fans don't even notice. People like me who go far out of the mainstream to find new music do, and we feel special and/or cool for noticing all of these "indie" bands.

But now, thanks to shows like Grey's Anatomy, "indie" is pop. "Indie" is in style, at least on television. Just listen to 75 percent of television commercials- they all contain a great song from an "indie" artist. Still, this "indie" artist most of the time truly is not "indie," because much power and money was put forth to get these "indie" songs in commercials and on TV.

I challenge you today to discover an artist who is not on a record label. Check out my Myspace page and you will see many bands that are my myspace friends that are unsigned but freaking good.