Help me get my PhD

I'm preparing to take a significant academic leap in my life: I intend to get a PhD.
You may have known that this announcement has been building for some time. I had been wrestling with both the intention as well as the timing of this decision. After such consideration, I decided that the Fall of 2015 was the right time to take the first steps.



Over the next few months, I'll be preparing my application, taking the necessary preparatory exams, and meeting with professors I hope will be my mentors in my degree program. My desire is to study and research fear. If you've been a reader of my blog, then you know that I'm fascinated by the psychology of fear and challenge. I would like to hone that fascination and turn my various hypotheses into working theories and models. As with many things, this will take time and money; it is with those two things that I'm asking your help.

This is a big decision, not least ways financially, and I'd like to minimize the amount of debt I go into as a result. I would appreciate any amount you're willing to give me. Within these first months, you'll be helping me to pay for taking the GRE and the study materials to perform well on it. You'll also be helping me pay application fees and order the necessary documents.

To make a donation, of any amount and at any time, click the button below or visit http://donate.indy.cc


Money isn't everything. I want your help keeping my focus and motivation. Ask me about my progress, remind me about my priorities, encourage me to continue forward. Life is all about the connections we make and you have connected with me; I value your input, advice, and encouragement.

Thank you for your support, both financially and motivationally.
I'll keep you informed of my progress as I walk this journey. I hope to hear your cheers along the way.

Return to writing

Writing these blog articles is only a hobby and the rewards are merely self-gratification and the organization/sifting of personal ideas. Therefore, it ranks lower in my priorities and significance than life priorities with greater meaning and enrichment. However, the organization of personal ideas eventually becomes more meaningful as those ideas pile up. And, recently, I've been sitting on a few writing ideas and allowing too many opportunities to write pass me by.

It's time to write down some of the thoughts that have been baking in my mental oven and free myself from the pressure building up in my mind. So, I'm going to begin publishing these articles and, if necessary, back-dating the ones that should have specific events associated with them. I'm not sure how they will appear on my social media and RSS feeds, but I'm hoping I can arrange the impending tempest to be more of a drizzle than a hurricane. Either way, the storm is coming so grab your umbrellas and maybe even get ready to swim.

Countdown 2011

In ten minutes the last seconds of 2011 will pass at the International Date Line. If you're a fan of pop music, you may enjoy spending the last 5 minutes of 2011 watching/listening this "mashup of the 25 biggest hits" over the last year.


URL: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ail7D_k0s9w

The rest of the world still has a little under 24 hours to reflect on the year 2011 before the calendar change happens. As you reflect on this last year, remember the message I shared in August that "This is your Life".
You may also wish to reflect on some of the other subjects I touched on over this past year:

- A human population of 7 billion
- Fear
- Need
- Survival
- Alchemy
- Understanding
- "Privacy and control"
- "Politics, Religion, and Sex"

Thank you to INDY Blog readers

Thank you all for taking the time to read my blog over the past year. I hope that I at least got you thinking about politics and maybe even helped you to become confident and comfortable with HOW you choose to exercise your right to vote.

Today the nation will begin laying the ground-work for building a new future. While I will continue to keep my eyes on the political playground, it's time for me to steer the INDY Blog back toward the subjects of entertainment (games, movies, and TV), science, environmental concerns, new technological developments, and (my favorite) crazy internet findings. (Don't fret too much, politics will appear once in a while.)

Cheers for now! This blogger is taking a break!

INDY Poll: Who would you like to see win the 2008 United States Presidential Election?

I've made a new INDY Poll available. During convention season, I mentioned that I would make a poll for the 2008 United States Presidential Ballot once all the major parties* had selected their candidates.
* I'm defining a major party as those parties whose candidates appear "on the ballot in enough states to theoretically win a majority in the U.S. Electoral College" [wikipedia]. For a full list of the 2008 candidates check out Wikipedia's "List of candidates in the United States presidential election, 2008".

As always, I encourage you to learn about the candidates, their parties, and where they stand on the issues. I believe that votes should be cast toward the candidate(s) who you feel would best represent your opinions and values in their office. To aid you in that understanding, I am including links to Wikipedia's articles on the candidates' parties, their campaigns, and I will even provide you with links to some helpful online "quizzes".

INDY Poll: Who would you like to see win the 2008 United States Presidential Election?

- Constitution: Baldwin / Castle
- Democratic: Obama / Biden
- Green: McKinney / Clemente
- Independent: Nader / Gonzalez
- Libertarian: Barr / Root
- Republican: McCain / Palin

As of yet, I've only found a couple online "quizzes" that I really like as far as political opinion alignment goes. The number one on my list has always been SelectSmart.

In fact, I'll throw SelectSmart's 2008 Presidential Candidate Selector Widget into the post right here:

(If the widget doesn't show up, just use the link I just provided.)

I came across another quiz today which is also pretty decent. However, it is really only good for aligning you with a candidate on environmental issues, SelectSmart's selectr address an array of issues. Anyhow, here's The Daily Green "Which candidate thinks like you on environmental issues?" quiz.

Once you've got your choice figured out, come jump back over to the INDY Blog and place your vote in the poll. (The poll closes at midnight MDT on November 5th; and you can always change your vote up until that point.)

Adjustments to the INDY Polls this week

I've decided to extend the 2008 Democratic Candidate INDY Poll until the last of the states vote this season, rather than just having it used as a weekly poll. In order to change the title of the poll, I had to remove it and then add it back into the blog. I feel kind of bad because it had already started to accumulate votes, but I'm relieved to see that the votes are already coming back in. If you have not yet done so, I suggest you come on back and recast your vote.

In the place of the candidate poll, I placed a poll about Daylight saving time as the weekly poll. So, head on over to the INDY Blog and place your votes. Thanks!

Introducing the Weekly INDY Poll

I've decided to begin posting weekly polls on the INDY Blog website. I will post the polls on Friday (when I am able) and the polls will close the following Friday at 6:00 AM MST (or MDT).

I am considering offering other - longer running - polls for either larger issues or site suggestions as well, but before I proceed down that path I want to test the waters with these weekly polls.

This week's poll is on a subject which is driving much of my posts recently: the 2008 Democratic nomination. I have included all candidates who are still running active campaigns.

Thank you in advance for your participation!

2008 Primaries Current Standings

Looking at the statistics for the INDY Blog has shown me that MANY of my readers are interested in seeing how the numbers of the race are stacking up. Democratic Convention Watch is keeping a good watch on those numbers, but I recently found myself wanting something a bit more concrete. So, I jumped over to Google Docs and made myself a spreadsheet.

Google Docs has a great feature which allows you to publicly publish your documents. So, here it is... my overly detailed spreadsheets of all the democratic and - as of 2008-02-08@14:24 MST - republican party's numbers for the 2008 primary:
Democrats
Republicans

I've color-coded some of the cells, so that it's easily visible where some "problem spots" are. What I mean by "problem spots" are places where the people made one choice, but the current political system stacked up against them anyway.

For example, in New Hampshire Clinton won the popular election, but tied Obama for delegates. Another example is shamefully here in Colorado where Obama OWNED Clinton in both the popular vote and pledged delegates, yet hardly any superdelegates have stepped forward to reinforce our voice within this state.
(*ahem* To those superdelegates who are being contrary to their populace: Have you dimwits considered who put you into office in the first place?)

It's statistics like that which bother me. Elections are supposed to be decided by the voters, not the money-munching elite. Hence, why I put this sheet together, to better keep an eye on the game which is being played. So, take a look and enjoy! I plan on updating it quite frequently!

NY Times misses the point of the Grinch

For over a year now, I've found myself becoming increasingly environmentally concerned and conservative. It began last year with my interest in saving fuel which was spurred by the article I posted about here: OmniNerd - Articles: Fueling a Lifestyle. Things really picked up last month after I took that entertaining ecological footprint quiz I talked about in my post titled "Your impact on the planet". That quiz switched on my "green light" and since then I've continued to do what I can to lighten my load on both the planet and the family finances.

In part, those benefits are what I wanted to talk about today. Not only does green-thinking better our planet, but it has also been improving my family's finances (e.g. saving $50+/month on electricity and natural gas, saving money on fuel due to hypermiling, saving money bringing our own bags to the grocery store, etc.). So why then do I find a post at a blog I frequent which points out an article in the NY Times on How the Green Grinch is Stealing Christmas (TreeHugger)?

As you will find, if you read the TreeHugger blog entry, the NY Times essentially trashes environmentalism because of its avoidance of thoughtless consumption. It's infuriating!

However, there may be a way to turn the NY Times article on its ear. Let's take a look at the original Grinch of Dr. Seuss. In the story of "How the Grinch Stole Christmas", a shady green creature steals the Christmas gifts from Whoville to prevent Christmas from coming. In the end, though, Christmas still comes because it is about more than just the decorations and presents. In 2000, Ron Howard's live-action remake of the story of How the Grinch Stole Christmas (IMDB) even has the Grinch as the catalyst that actually awakens Whoville to the fact that Christmas is about community NOT materialism.

So, I ask this: Is it really bad to be a "Green Grinch"? After all, in the words of Lou Lou Who: "You can't hurt Christmas, Mr. Mayor, because it isn't about the... the gifts or the contest or the fancy lights. That's what Cindy's been trying to tell everyone... and me. I don't need anything more for Christmas than this right here: my family."

And that's right where I'll be spending my holidays this year, in a house full of the Love and thoughtful generosity of my family too! Happy holidays, everyone!

INDY.CC Updates: Weather and more preferences

I really need to get back on track with updated blog entries on a regular basis. I apologize for how useless my blog has become for what it is supposed to be: a place for updates about the INDY.CC websites. I will attempt to restart after my blogging stall today....

I recently made some updates to some of the INDY.CC member's areas. First, I added a few new preferences to your profile (e.g. pressure, volume, and more date selections). I also added a "Favorite Weather Underground Station ID", allowing members to set a favored station to receive weather information from.

I then used those new features to update both the My INDY page with a Weather graph display and the Trip Tracker with automatic lookup of same day ambient temperature. This means that you can now use a specified Weather Underground Station ID and the Time of Day of your trip to automatically enter the ambient temperature during that trip. If I find that these features are a bit confusing to use or understand, I'll post more information on them here in the future.

Now for a bit of a help request.... I'd very much like to add more non-member features to INDY and other associated sites. If you have any ideas or suggestions about what you would like to see, please let me know.