Privacy and an awesome article about it

Via Lifehacker -- Privacy is not Dead

I always use the eye test, what my professor calls the face test, to determine if something makes sense. This is not a very good way to do it (he would say the worst), but it is one of our favorite tools to use as humans. So with that warning, what this chick says makes a whole lot of sense.

In fact, that is why I stay somewhat anonymous. You can see my incoherent ramblings on the topic here. I figure (rightly or wrongly is up for discussion) that by using my Batman persona(s): aztecskin, ntm, etc, that I can do some very public things that I like to do like blog, or tweet, or post on forums about how I am awesome, without hurting or putting in danger those I love. In reality, I am pretty much the same guy you know and hate on here in real life. My thoughts are measured. I know the risks. Still, I don't want something I said when I was 20 effecting me or my family disproportionately when I am 30. I know you don't want everything that you did or said, or wanted to do or say, to become the topic of discussion all of a sudden during an important meeting or some shit.

That was what was the most fascinating portion of this chick's argument. The whole 'having things be public vs publicizing things'. It's an 'Shitballs! Yeah! That is what I mean about privacy!" -type moment. It's true. You go into a situation and determine as best you can, the risks and rules of the situation. I can talk about my stupid boss here freely, oh crap! There he is! Hey, uh, about those Mean Green Eagles ....(nervous laughter) ... So when those rules are changed drastically you feel violated. It's what she calls privacy FAIL. That, and we are still trying to figure out how to deal with unusual phenomena of the Internet. You know, stuff like how that drunken post about Obama you wrote is still up there on Ihateeveryonepost.org. Our brains aren't built to handle that shit yet. I mean, sometimes, the fact that you look back at your life through rose-colored glasses means that you can deal with your life a little easier ya know? Again, I am all for transparency and accountability, but like with everything else, it needs to be balanced with discretion and forgiveness.


Enjoy the read. It is fascinating.

Texas Board tries to Conservatize history

Via Yahoo---


History is written by the victors. So it continues to be. Whatever bullcrap the Texas Board of Education recommends won't change the fact that education is always in the hands of the individual.

So people, don't accept what is told to you at face value. Do some research and figure out if it is so to the best of your knowledge.

It is what Socrates (or Plato talking like it was Socrates) meant by examining your life, homie. All those things you believe? How do you know if they are so?

So don't worry about them crazy country-music loving, hip-hop excluding, Latino culture reducing, McCarthy-lovin', civil rights hatin', word-changing sons o' bitches. Fuck 'em.

Another Lazy Link Post! ... Featuring Mike Fucking Leach!

Getting dunked on is embarrassing. Getting dunked over is worse. Still when you are arguably six feet tall you get some slack. Via SLAM ONLINE

First woman's football coach: Blog

Like anyone else, I hope she get's judged by the quality of her coaching and not anything else. Having said that, I wonder how much being a coach is being looked up to by your players, fans, parents of players etc. Will that be her biggest hurdle?

So this is the big deal? Shit. It's like he was reading off a Tech message board after a loss. It also was pretty damn motivating. As for the F-bombs: well I like cussing. Fuckin' love it. I don't mind it at all. On his coaching style and whether or not to cuss or yell etc: those are all decisions that have consequences (you may alienate some people) and doing the opposite also has consequences (you have trouble reaching those who like emotion). What the fuck ever. My only quibble is probably that for such a smart dude, (and the speech's concepts were solid) he is pretty in-eloquent. He kind of rambles and halfway through sounded like he got distracted by some other thought.

Still though, the thing that makes me call for change the most here, is the fact that it is fucking recorded. Can't anyone say anything without it being fucking digitally documented anymore? Not even in the fucking locker room. Shitballs. 

Note: if for some reason you cannot watch this, go HERE and you can read DoubleTnation's transcript of the videos. 

On the Ideal Internet and Newspapers

Hey, remember when you weren't so cynical? Remember back when people thought the internet could be used for more awesome things than watching porn or cats do stuff?

This is that awesome. This guy got fired from his beat writer job and decided to keep doing it. 

He got donations from readers and used the money to cover the Nationals' spring training. Cool. Shit.

This is local 'zine type stuff. Life is for the enterprising. Although I feel for all theses guys that are getting canned and have families to support, I can't really do much about it. That kind of stuff happens to most industries eventually. It is just basic animal-kingdom type stuff. This dude didn't spend his time writing woe-is-me columns or get a crappy job to fill time (although he may have thought of that--who knows). Instead he goes out and does something. Gotta love that.

When I start to think about it, it seems like the answer to the problem plaguing the newspaper industry doesn't it? For a century now, newspapers' value has been timely, quality news and information. It has two customers: the advertisers and the readers. It attracts the readers with its content, and the advertisers with the readers. Somewhere along the line they figured out that the advertisers would pay to tell them who to attract. And thus was born bias. (Not really of course but its my blog and I can do that)

I suppose one reason why I think what this guy is doing is so awesome is because it is so pure. He wants to cover these things and the people reading want to read what he covers. He has the time and skill, they have the money. They trade. Boom. Blogness time. Its beautiful. Its capitalism.

It makes me see the inefficiencies in the paper industry more clearly. They kept trying to feed my the whole Lunchable when all I wanted was the crackers. Or the Ham. Or the dessert. See what I mean? I would guess the percentage of people who read the entire paper is small. Is it beneficial? Sure. If you did would you have the breadth of knowledge that you otherwise wouldn't? Of course. Is sticking to that idea screwing the industry? Yep.

Over the last few years, papers have tried charging differently for the product. They changed it. Made it smaller, or less colorful, with less writers, with more local, with less local, with more sports, with less sports, with local sports, with national sports, etc. The whole time there were entities that did each thing better. Sports? ESPN. Gossip? TMZ. News? The Internet. Local news? Ah. there you go. They should have (and still should) have split the thing up. There isn't as much money to be made. But its not like they are rolling in the dough right now is it?

That would be nigh impossible though. There was and is too much attachment to the old-way. It would be too weird for too many. Old people would complain. Poor people without internet would complain. So we are going to end up with an even bigger collection of conglomo-papers. We'll read the NYTimes-Dallas.

Unless ...

Some of these young journalists do something like this. There are people out there that really care stuff like local politics on the reporting side and on the reading side. Its a lot less expensive to pay for a guy to go to city-hall meetings etc. They could reasonably afford to be news-patrons. It is freaking brilliant. The best part is that there would be more reporting and less advertiser-appealing.


Having said all that, there would be problems, ranging from laziness, to outright libel. Still, its would be fun to see and I would definitely support it. Shoot, if I had any journalism skills I would turn meangreennation.com and mgnation.ning.com into that kind of thing. I don't so I won't. Also, no one really gives a crap about it.

Still, all you guys on gmg.com, would you be willing to (collectively) fork over 70-80 grand per year to support Vito as full-time MG Beat Writer?

Makes you think.


Links:

Nats Insider

ESPN story on the blogger

/via Deadspin

OK Go is awesome

Depression and the like.

I read this fascinating article in the NYTimes the other day. Definitely a must-read. It has elicited some opposite reaction. It is to be expected however, given the sensitivity of the subject.

Its still an entertaining read.

This is a surprisingly engaging joke. 


If you like football, you need to be reading this.




/end lazy.

So what this guy says:

Movie Night: Wolfman Review

This portion of the review is courtesy of my wife because she is awesome:

So my husband and I went to see The Wolfman last night.

Overall I give it 2 out of 4 jalapenos.

I think the audience had a heavy influence on my movie watching experience. This particular audience was rather annoying. The young guy next to me alternated between chewing off his nails and spitting them out, and undoing and redoing the velcro on his wrist brace. The people behind me purchased the noisiest wrapped items the concession stands sell and proceeded, somehow, to unwrap it through the entire movie.

As for the movie itself, it was decent.


**********MAJOR SPOILER ALERT************


I enjoyed how they attempted to make it feel like an old-fashioned horror movie but the ending was a little anti-climactic for me. They threw in the romance element and made it seem as though they were building up a romance between Del Toro and Blunt so that it would make sense in the end when only "true love" could change the beast. But alas, this wasn't quite what happened. The beast gets killed any way. So what was the point in all of her research of Lycanology (or whatever it's called) and seeking out the wise old gypsy woman to help save her new man?
The only way they could have made up for this dud of a romance was for him to have ripped her head off just after he purrs in submission near the end when the angry mob is fast approaching.

Oh well. I did enjoy watching him transform. It was perfectly disturbing.

It gets a B- from me.

*********** END SPOILER **********************

Do I recommend it?

No.

Why?

If you plan on seeing this, just make sure its not your last $20 bucks and/or you aren't expecting a horror flick. Don't expect to be scared.

Aztecskin Says:

I wasn't scared. I wasn't enthralled. There is a cool scene here and there. I was mostly distracted by Benicio Del Toro's hair.

 Which reminded me of Uncle Fester

But it was entertaining, which is all I'm asking for when I fork out cash-ola to these people. I liked the homages to the original Wolfman --apparently Del Toro is a huge fan-- and when I kind of figured out they were going that route I adjusted my expectations and was, well, entertained.

The transformations were pretty cool. I don't think it was groundbreaking but it didn't look stupid.

(SPOILER: that A. Hopkins head roll was totally lame though. Looked totally fake. END SPOILER)

As for the story, as my lovely wife alluded, it was kind of a love story/kind of a horror flick. Those kinds of things can be done, but it was not done very well here. Really? There was very little connection aside from like a crush between these two. Not enough to love. (Pauses. Looks at screenwriter)

All in all, I think I would rather be a Wolfman than a Vampire. No really. Vamps are kind of ghey and worst of all: played out.


Do I recommend it? 

Yes.

Why?

Cuz Werewolves are awesome. Wait for a half-price day or a matinee showing though. Also if you like a little gore and maybe a little Emily Blunt side-boob. Oh - and bad hair.

Snow was awesome

It snowed in Denton. It was awesome.

Back to frolicking.


And working.

Hurm. Makes me wonder ...

EA Sports: NCAA Football 10 Photo

More on UTSA... From Me.

Pictured: Fake Helmet

So as promised: Here is more reaction sports fans.

This ain't going to be pretty.

Here are the requirements for being an FBS school (or Division 1-A for you fogies)

FBS requirements

To earn FBS status, schools must meet five requirements (UTSA already satisfies Nos. 1 and 2):

1. Sponsor a minimum of 16 varsity intercollegiate sports, including football.

2. Annually offer a minimum of 200 athletic scholarships, or spend at least $4 million on scholarships.

3. Schedule at least 60 percent of its football games against FBS members, including five home games.

4. Average at least 15,000 fans for home games in at least one of two reclassification seasons.

5. Provide an average of at least 90 percent of the maximum number of football scholarships (85).

All the above is from the Express-News.

First off, notice how it doesn't say you have to be any kind of awesome huh? Well, other than drawing 15000 fans a game. Now do you see why the good ol' Mean Green give away student tix?

It's cool though. The U used to do the same thing. Here is a lengthy breakdown of what it all means according to the Internet scroll down to TastyGreek's post. I'll summarize here a bit because it is freakin long:

Its gonna be hard. Other schools that did it had special circumstances and still had it pretty rough. UTSA should not alienate their conference if they want to do this right. 

That pretty much sums it up. Lots of examples and things in the original post however.

What intrigues me most is that UTSA's AD Lynn Hickey said this

“We have worked really hard looking at all our options,” Hickey said. “As a start-up program in a major city, with the aspirations we have, the facility we have, the head coach we have, the best thing we can do is move as quickly as we can to FBS status. And until we’re in a conference that has FBS football, we need to stay independent.”

It makes me extremely curious to see the number that she was looking at. To the average fan, San Antonio produces decent talent every now and then and the city is pretty big population wise but nothing  exceptional in any other areas. So its not like they are striking an untapped gusher here. Austin is next door. UT fans permeate the city. Shit, UT-SA is part of the UT System. Of course UTSA is aspiring to be  a top flight school but realistically what can we expect?

I see something like UNT. Not only do the RoadRunners have to battle for a piece of the state educational fund pie with the other public schools in the state, but also with its own mother: the beast that is the University of Texas.

Its hard to fathom that the state government will ever let UTSA be competitive athletically with the big boys. UNT has a hard enough time.

The private schools have a better chance to compete than do the smaller public schools. There are a lot less regulations to deal with and most importantly, its easier to get money.

And money is everything cousin. 

Big Mike's Coffee Shop- a Mother-CENSORED Review

A while back I talked about the new 24 hour coffee shop opening up. Well in my desire to move quickly and write timely reviews I just went there a few days ago. At the risk of sounding like the Daily's food snobs or whatever I'll tell u a little about it.

First: I like it. One of the problems I had with the Jupiter house is that it closes. Yeah, I mean, why close? Right? I did some research (took a guess) and found that it was (probably) because of the extra cost. Well whatever it is that made them change their hours from 24/7 to closing at 2am to closing at midnite. And I went from going there to not to not.

Secondly:  It's spacious. Relatively. I mean in real space it's probably 3/4 of the size of Jupiter house (square) or Banter. However each table is sittable. At Banter you have two choices: rickety table or couches that will swallow you whole.  Jupiter House gives you those high ass tables. I figure they are thinking that it's kinda like a library or some shit. I figure it's an exposed position. Probably because my dad was a spy --note: there is no evidence he was but if there were he wouldn't be a very good spy would he?-- I like to sit where I cannot be spotted easily. High seats like the ones here and at Hooters just don't appeal to me. And at least Hooters has .... well, hooters. JH has maybe hipster hooters which are covered in ironical clothing from seemingly 1973. So take your pick, homie.

Where was I? Oh yeah: sittable. Plus they have booths (plural but really I think there was only one) with big ass tables which is awesomeness.

The Bad:

Well if you really love you some Coca Cola then Big Mike's is not for you. I remember strolling by when it used to be Voyager's and seeing the anti-coke propaganda. It made me chuckle. Now they have it splayed on the table brochures. Makes me chuckle still. Not that I am anti-human rights or anything. It just makes me chuckle.

Big Mike's Philosophy

So don't ask for a coke and you should be good. I am kind of a night owl so getting there at midnight etc is awesome because I avoid the crowds. If it is crowded during the daytime (probably) then I don't know about it.

Overall: A. I will be going back again.



Sent from my iPhone

UTSA aiming for FBS in five years yo.

Wow. As a San Antonian, I am rooting for the hometown squad. Gotta love the aggressiveness. I still have my reservations of the quality of the kids on the field n such. SA is not regarded as an extremely talent rich area. Still, being in a talent-rich area doesn't guarantee successful recruiting hauls.

Most intruguing:

Beyond any serious resistance from the Southland, Hickey and other UTSA officials are confident the school can meet the five NCAA requirements for FBS membership.
The Roadrunners already offers the requisite number of sports (16) and overall athletic scholarships (200). They’ve raised more than $2 million in donations, well on target to fund the football scholarship pool of 85. The combination of a major metro population and the Alamodome’s capacity provides an ample base to reach the rolling attendance standard of 15,000 per home game.
The biggest concern had been scheduling. But UTSA associate athletic director Ross Cobb said the response among potential FBS opponents has been “extremely favorable.”
“I’d say 95 percent have said they’d definitely be interested in a home-and-home,” he said. “This is a great city, with a great facility, and a lot of these schools recruit in Texas. It just makes sense to most of the people we talk to.”
Though no contracts have been signed, Cobb said, the school is in “serious” discussions with up to 20 FBS teams.
“I was a little apprehensive, just because there are so few teams that (play independently),” Cobb said. “But I think being in this city, with the recruiting hotbed that Texas is, if anybody has a chance to pull this off it’s us.”

More reaction from your favorite north texas mescan later.

Also coming soon on meangreennation.com: some reaction to the Canales signing. If I will be doing a dynasty on NCAA 10 with NT and if anyone wants in on any of it. Thinking of getting a dude from each member of the Belt and battling it out for supremacy.