Ramanujan Redux

I’m trying to build up a steady resume of my writings and accomplishments online, and I don’t want to seem like I’m embellishing. This is to serve as two things:
1) A set of online accomplishments that can show value to other people.
2) A set of online accomplishments that can show value to me.

As much as I enjoy me, and talking about me, I want other people to know about me. Me is great. Me is the best. So let’s get going spreading the legend of me!

I wrote up three live blogs on The Play in CA (New Orleans at Dallas, Phoenix at San Antonio, Washington at Cleveland). I enjoyed the experience, but one thing I did learn is that it’s not fun talking to yourself on a live blog. It’s enjoyable if the games are great (and thankfully all three lived up to the opening), but I want to figure out a way to blog NBA games and have a captive audience. If I can do that, I’ll be pie-in-the-sky happpppy.

As usual, running Bears Necessity with a deft hand. I’m not exactly tiring out (I come up with decent ideas for posts all the time), I just want more free time to focus on other things. Hence my call for guest posters on Cal football. Hopefully more people will answer the call.

Finally, wrote an article on my slowly developing (and by slowly I mean stagnant) sports site, Get Up Eight Times. How the hell did the Phoenix Suns fall into a 3-0 hole against the San Antonio Spurs? I try my best to explain in the NBA roundball way.

I’m not sure what I’ll do about Squidoo and Metafilter. Squidoo seems to relate more to life experience, and I have very little of that at the moment. Metafilter seems pretty interesting, although it seems to be inhabited by librarians who will pay for gated access and people too snobbish for NPR. I hope this isn’t the case, but those are my preliminary thoughts on the matter.

Tune in for my weekly resume. It should be totally bereft of useful details.

“If our job teaches us anything, it’s that we don’t know what the next President’s gonna face. And if we choose someone with vision, someone with guts, someone with gravitas, who’s connected to other people’s lives, and cares about making them better… if we choose someone to inspire us, then we’ll be able to face what comes our way and achieve things… we can’t imagine yet. Instead of telling people who’s the most qualified, instead of telling people who’s got the better ideas, let’s make it obvious. It’s going to be hard.”
“Then we’ll do what’s hard.”

Last lines of 20 Hours in America, The West Wing.

There are times when I watch the current presidential debate and shake my head. Has anything changed? Sure, we have changed in eight years–on everything but politics. We have changed the way we ridicule our candidates, mock their stances, incite anger in our voters. Instead of yelling at each other in public, we log onto Malkin (GOP!), or Kos (Obamanation!), or the Internets (Ron Paul!), and yell at each other in the comments. You should witness the comments of badly moderated political posts. Downright filthy.

So I’m going to talk about the Senator’s speech. If the comments will get nasty, I will delete swiftly and surely.

For the first time, the Senator stood up and held his ground. He took a tough stance, a stance that will almost certainly in the short run, damage him and his hold on the campaign. Middle white America is howling its disapproval, furious at the thought that there is a race problem in this country. Nope nope, everything’s alright!

I remember the sugarcoating 2004 Democratic Speech, an inspiring one. But it was purely words and rhetoric, the same thing many in America have been protesting against. Show us what you mean. Show us how you plan to change America.

Today he took that first step. He confronted race openly. He speaks to what is real. To what plagues our country. To what needs to be fixed. To the problems that middle-class America have done their best to ignore and escape. To issues that affect those we don’t really acknowledge on a day-to-day basis.

Whether we like it or not, we cannot divorce ourselves from these issues. They are fundamental to the corruption in the Beltway and the disillusionment of the citizen to the process. We do not live in a utopia. We are troubled by race in the suburbs, in the cities, in the swamps (okay, well, not as much in the swamps). Subconscious or unconscious or conscious, it is an issue that have kept many disenfranchised minorities distrustful of authority, of refusing to peer outside the boundaries of their skin color.

Most of the people who are condeming Obama probably lack the extreme character of a Reverend Wright in their life,  and are quick to judgement. “Oh, if I were in his shoes, I’d just walk out and leave! There are so many other churches.” But where are you from, anonymous commenter? Did you grow up in the streets of Harlem or the suburbs of Madison? Context matters. Obama’s experience is relative to his own life. And this is more of an example than an excuse: At the extreme, this is what results from neglecting race.

Open, unadulterated bigotry, the things most Americans claim to shun in real life. And the cultural schism grows wider between the poor black kid and the rich white kid.

Those admonishing Obama probably have not experienced race relations first hand or have shunned it out of their minds, fearing exposure rather than walking across the lines. But this speech isn’t for them. And they’ll be voting for Hillary in any case because it’s easier to vote for a sure commodity of experience and image.

Our experiences shape us. They make us. To escape them is to deny ourselves. Obama took that first big step with that speech. To show us who he is. To show us that he is a human who really wants to fight for us. For us to come together does not mean a big group hug. It means coming to the table and arguing, mending, laughing, crying, discussing, shouting, hitting, being. Learning to be comfortable with race as we are comfortable with family, to let skin color fade and let our content speak for ourselves.

It’s the hard road to do this. But I think it’s the right road. Let’s do it.

Share your thoughts. Please try to be insightful. I want discussion, not retribution.

Sun Tzu’s The Art of War illustrates many an interesting point, but there was one thing that comes to mind—the easy path never looks like the right one. When attacking, the easy thing to do is attack head-on—it’s also the easiest way to get lit up like a Christmas tree. When defending, the easiest thing is to hunker down, don’t move—but eventually you’ll be overrun, overwhelmed, and someone else will take the place in the bunker. What is it about taking the hard path that makes it the right way to survive the longest? And why do many of us decide to choose the easy path even if we know what would make us happy?

“Do not repeat the tactics which have gained you one victory, but let your methods be regulated by the infinite variety of circumstances.” Again, the easy thing is to repeat is what is successful right? But what is successful today will not necessarily be successful tomorrow. One must retool, reorient himself to his surroundings, and adapt to the situation in the proper way. This is hard. But it’s necessary.

“According as circumstances are favorable, one should modify one’s plans. “ Again, not easy to change in the moment, especially if one is set in their ways. We can think of this in business with the Entrenched Player’s Dilemma. How does one leave what they know works for them right now? Isn’t it difficult to sever ties with someone you know very well, even if this person adds nothing to your life? Nevertheless, the right choice remains there for us to accept–that our time and effort is too valuable to be spent on petty squabbles. Think of the big picture. There will be more people to meet and connect with. The time you lose in the meaningless battles you fight you will never get back.

Fight smart. Don’t just fight hard.

What are your own thoughts and elucidations on these quotes?