The Dark Horse rises (aka Alaska is on the map!)

Governor (Vice President?) Sarah Palin

In the shocker of shockers, extreme dark horse candidate Sarah Palin (current governor to my wonderful home of a state Alaska) was nominated as John McCain's running partner in the upcoming Presidential election. Count me in as ridiculously shocked, who knows what this is going to mean for McCain's chances and the landscape of the election as a whole, but one thing is for sure: this is a game changer. Palin's nomination puts something on McCain's side that he wouldn't have otherwise: buzz and surprise (not to mention a possible shift in women's voting).

Obama is already responding with rips about her small town origins, but anyone knows that is a strength heading in for her. I'm shocked, but I'm also kind of stoked because of her origins from Alaska and the University of Idaho like myself. The whole thing is just unreal.

Edit: Productivity in my office is next to nothing. Sarah Palin causes work stoppages! You read it here first!

Food One in Anchorage

Popular comic creator and live art impresario/performer Jim Mahfood is in Anchorage for a signing, lecture, and live mural art demo. I've always liked the guys work, not my favorite style but it's definitely unique and he stands out amongst a crowd of other creators, and there is something to be said about that. I was at Bosco's getting books for the week and completely spaced that he was going to be there and forgot my Clerks books (amongst other Mahfood creations I own), but I got to chat with him for a bit and he seemed like a really good guy.

Today I caught his live mural art demo, and it was really cool. Essentially it's Mahfood making pieces of art live set to music, and you can see pictures from it below. The guys art is heavily influenced by music and grafitti, and you can definitely tell from what he was producing today at UAA. Thanks to UAA for bringing up a interesting and non-traditional guest to the state. Solid work there all!

Jim Mahfood working on his murals

Middle left mural

Far left mural

Queue and not U

A line for the 3G iPhone

A couple weeks back I was discussing how to draw customers into a special store my company has opened for a major project with a coworker. We were bouncing ideas back and forth when I came up with the idea of creating fake lines to draw buzz to the store. My coworker laughed, but I was strangely jazzed by the idea so I got off the phone and went and told my boss. I prefaced it with "this may seem insane but I think it would work."

Against all odds she thought it was incredibly inventive and a likely to succeed idea, so we took the idea to the project manager as well. He loved the idea, and we quickly formulated the concept out for proposal.

Shortly thereafter, said project manager left the company and no one has discussed my million dollar idea since, but I still think it was a good idea and a rather hilarious one. I was just stoked because every once in a while I come up with something that makes me feel halfway intelligent and that was my mini stroke of genius lately.

The story doesn't end there though.

Apparently Orange/Apple had bugs in someone's office. Why's that? In Poland, the iPhone has simply not been selling. This is in the face of staggering worldwide sales (4.1 million to date) and tremendous levels of buzz. However, customers simply did not want to pay the hefty monthly charges. So Orange (think of them as Europe's AT&T) and Apple paid actors to wait in line, creating fake queues to generate buzz.

So essentially my month old idea was adopted by two of the biggest companies in the world. Not to toot my own horn, but apparently this guy has got this marketing gig down. Orange, I'd like my consultant fees in Euros please, and Apple, I'd like a 3G iPhone with a lifetime unlimited unlimited (meaning anything and everything unlimited) plan. Also, one of whatever your best Macbook is.

Not too much to ask considering I won you guys the wireless battle in Poland. Everyone knows Poland is the key to supremacy in Europe.

The Suffering of a Word Nerd

I'm a bit of a self professed word nerd. I pride myself on my ability to spell correctly and to use those words in sentences that are both conversational and technically accurate. Poor spelling is a very, very frustrating thing for me to see. In a recent article from Time however, it was revealed that the people who should be the ultimate sticklers about spelling are not only forgiving these transgressions but encouraging them.

"Making an Arguement for Misspelling" (their misspelling, not mine) is the title of the article, and it's mostly about a senior lecturer in criminology at Bucks New University in England named Ken Smith. Smith is said to see "so many misspellings in papers submitted by first-year students that he says we'd be better off letting the perpetrators off the hook and doing away with certain spelling rules altogether" He encourages the idea that words should not be labeled as incorrect, but rather be tagged as "variant."

To get this out of the way, I do like one concept that Smith proposes. He states that there is the tendency to overlook great ideas because of spelling errors, and that is an unfair situation to put intelligent people in. I agree that you should not look past these ideas, however the care to spell correctly can not be underrated.

This may seem overboard to some but when I think of the path this article could take us down I think of the movie Idiocracy. While the movie overall is flawed (but still good), it is great conceptually (somewhat like the great ideas masked by poor spelling, perhaps?) and the primary concept behind it is this: what if the dumbing down of America continues on its current trajectory? It hypothesizes a world full of morons, where simple tasks (such as feeding plants water instead of a knock off of Gatorade, regardless of how badly the plants crave electrolytes) are made near impossible.

If we start down this road then what is next? Sentence structure being deemed unimportant? School being thought of as an overrated concept? Why encourage people to strive for mediocrity? To me, it seems like this is the most surefire way to bring the degradation of our language as a whole. Granted, it isn't a flawless language, but it's ours and we should treat it right.

As a fan of the written word, I do not want to think of a future highlighted by criminally misspelled articles and horrendously written stories. That isn't a very savory thought to me, and I really hope this is not something that catches on. Shame on Time and the writer of the story (Laura Fitzpatrick, you're suspect) for encouraging it by giving this concept the time of day. This type of thinking may seem harmless, but it is the type of thing that could lead in other directions quickly.

Next thing you know, we'll have a Secretary of State sponsored by Carl's Jr. and the number one TV show in America will be a show off the Violence Channel called "Ow! My balls!" Then we'll look at Mike Judge like some sort of freakishly prescient genius.

Or maybe not. But I think you get my point.

The Weekend Edition

This weekend was another very calm, very pg rated one once again. Which is perfectly fine, because I had an absolute blast, but for those looking to hear about my tawdry activities in local Anchorage bars and the shenanigans that frequently ensue, you're not going to get them. What are you going to get?

• Tropic Thunder with Colver and Lorna
• A ridiculously delicious dinner at my parents with my parents, my sister and niece, and family friends
• Gyming it up (on the weekend? no way!)
• Hannah and David's grand adventures (including: lunch at Snow City, dinner at Bombay Deluxe, going to and walking out of the trash that was Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas at Bear Tooth, lots of shopping, watching the gold medal game for men's basketball - GO REDEEM TEAM!!!, and much, much more)
• Bagging and boarding what felt like infinity comics
• Going rafting with Kim and my parents

The highlight of the weekend was going whitewater rafting for the first time ever.

My dad, mom, myself, and Kim - I seem freakishly huge

Recently I've been trying all kinds of new outdoorsy activity. I always like the outdoors, but for some reason it always just doesn't happen. I just never seem to go out and do things of that variety. However, with kayaking and skeet shooting finally going down, this weekend I got to try what I really, really wanted to do in rafting.

It was an absolute blast! I had the best time at Lion Head with the fantastic guides from Nova. It would get up to class III and class IV rapids on that run, and it was super cold but my god was it invigorating and an absolute blast. It's just such a unique sensation rafting down a river, going through absolutely treacherous water with people around you nearly falling out at all times.

Even though it was incredibly cold (because this is Alaska) no one's spirits were down. It was sort of like a rollercoaster, where I'd find myself yelling intensely, except not out of fear but out of raw emotion. Sort of a mix of every emotion I could muster into one yell, but one that came out as pure joy when it was all said and done.

I had a fantastic time, and I was so glad I got to share it with my parents and Kim. Now I can't wait to go again, and already discussed a little about going down to visit with Kim and go on a trip with her family where the water is actually warm. I've heard of this "warm" river water business, but I assumed it was just a legend, like unicorns or Sasquatch (Sassy to some). Kim assures me it is not.

I remain skeptical.

Not Born Blonde Celebs

They aren't real blonde but wearin' blonde all the time

Still here..

Just hiding a little bit, maybe.

My new apartment doesn't have the internet and BT are a bunch of bastards.

My listening habits have degenerated so you are probably lucky I haven't been able to post.

Dank libraries built in the 70's are not really places I wish to visit often.

What are you listening to?

Brook Hogan: The New Paris Hilton?

Brook Hogan has been in the news for all kinds of reasons and one of them has been the constant show of her skin that she has been putting up for the paparazzi following her. Lets be clear on this, she is not Paris Hilton and not many will fall for her the way they fall for Paris Hilton. However, she has something going on for her and she does fill out a bikini nicely. She has curves to make you take notice and she flaunts it. Look at her latest images here which were taken on the 24th of this month. Doesn't she look absolutely delicious!

She has become the darling of the paparazzi and now with Britney going straight under the influence of papa... they needed another celebrity to keep their game together. She has been making appearances all over the place and there have been no less than 10 sightings of this babe in Bikini over the last few weeks. Either she likes the sea a lot or she likes to be in the limelight. It is anybody's guess what I will choose - She loves the sea a lot!

Her reality show has not taken the world by storm but it has been getting decent TRP and it can only pick up after so many paparazzi appearances by the lovely lady.

Hayden Panettiere Swinging Both Ways?

Hayden Panettiere might just be getting ready to go all dirty on us. It is the time when she would launch herself as the next big thing. Her cute image has already become the reason for her being considered the best clean image celebrity of the decade. Well, she is doing a Britney it looks. With her shorter hair she is already looking mature and not like a teen.
Hayden already has spoken about a list of female celebrities she would like to hook up with! Also, she was recently spotted alone on a number of occasions giving strength to rumors that she might not be seeing Milo Ventimiglia, 31, anymore. Here are images of her alone at a club a few nights ago.

Hayden knows exactly which sexy A-listers she'd want to seduce if rumours about her being a lesbian were true. Has she been giving it a thought?
‘If I’m going to be linked with someone, I could do an affair with Angelina Jolie, Jessica Alba or Charlize Theron,' she tells The Sun. 'And Kate Beckinsale is gorgeous. There are so many beautiful girls.’ What! No Britney, Paris or Lohan in her list? Not desperate enough as yet. She is friends with Paris and that is the reason why I bring the names in... 'I've known Paris since I was 13,' she says. 'At 15, I did party with her, but I was just doing what every teenage girl does.' Don't we wish she had elaborated on that.. Honestly, what kind of parties do you think Paris Hilton throws?