Today I woke up excited to spend the day at Stanford at the MediaX conference – thinking it would send me back to Oxford days. But I am dismayed to notice that while academic speakers are still noted more for their ideas than their presentation skills what has changed in the, ahem, 20 years since my graduation, is my tolerance for this. We live in a world that so perpetuates packaging over content that intelligence is no longer enough.
This is a pretty big day. It’s the last time in ALL of our lifetimes that the date will read like this. The next time will be 1.1.(30)11. I remember so well 7.7.77 (GREAT teacher when I was 7) and 8.8.88 (surly teenager) – 9.9.99 is a bit of a blur which means I was doing what you are supposed to do in your 20s. 2000s was a wash out cos there is no 0 day or 0 month. 01.01.01 was extremely cool. I wrote as many checks as I could. It was very satisfying. 01.11.11 was when a good friend of mine had her baby. And here we are. 12.12.12. And that’s it. No more. Sad. If anyone reads posts like this in 1.1.3011 then hello I feel the same as you do now.
And marvel that this took us so long to adopt nationally. Hopefully that day is soon.
Americans have collectively breathed a sigh of relief at the end of the loud season of electioneering. The constant barrage of ads and polls that polluted our fall airwaves and websites is over. Airtime is reportedly a quarter of the price in some battleground States.
But I personally believe the Democratic election campaign of 2016 needs to already be underway. Why?
Well if the Democrats act as if campaign season is over and simply go back to partisan politics as usual, and we continue this gridlock for four more years, then any failure of movement in the next four years will be on them, and the Republicans will succeed in their waiting game to take back the nation.
But If the Democrats acted like a challenger brand and issued a rallying cry to the nation to put pressure on Congress to mend their differences, the Republicans will have no excuse not to compromise. And the failure to move the nation over the next four years will be all on them.
So 2016’s campaigning should start now. And it should be around pushing us to push the Republicans not to filibuster for 16 quarters. Americans don’t like to wait after all.
Maybe Hilary has some money she can kick in?
Lucy
My first federal election since being a citizen. Exciting stuff but being in CA sadly not that important. Still yet to see my first political ad. But did get held up at SFO due to Airforce One landing for a fundraiser…
The paralympic games give us a rare chance to engage with and cheer on the disabled without pretense.
Our awkwardness or our silly fears of saying or doing the wrong thing disappear for a euphoric couple of weeks. I wish there was a way to make this a less than 4 year occurrence.
http://www.boston.com/bigpicture/2012/09/paralympics_2012.html
Something so very mystical about spheres aligning. It was wonderful to take a pause and watch the moon cross the sun this Sunday.
Driveways are a mental sorbet from the outside world. The longer the hotel driveway the more pampered you feel. One day I want a house with a long driveway.
smellslikeaninsight 