Beyond Occident

Prior to my college days, I lived a life without cable. Our antennas at home picked up a few channels and every once in awhile there would be something good on. But largely, I only turned the tv on to play some 360. But now I have discovered the joys of the Cincinnati Reds and the History Channel. Mainly the History Channel though. Cities of the Underworld is a fantastic show, as is Lost Worlds.

Cities of the Underworld is an amazing show where local experts of each city take the hosts beneath the streets of major cities across the world. I have seen the Napel’s and Paris’ episodes so far and they pretty much blew me away.  I suggest you all go watch (or download them). In fact, they are on iTunes. Who knew TV would be so educational?

3 Red Rings blinking. An evil sign that no gamer wants to see. But alas, the Red Rings of Death have visited my  Xbox 360. It all began as I was downloading the new Bioshock demo (which looks amazing) while playing another demo I already downloaded. While doing a terrific Sun attack for tons of damage against some evil little enemy the screen went yellow and black. And then it knew no more…

I got the new xbox service website to work for me and they should be sending me a coffin to send my beautiful 360 away in. Hopefully it will arrive fixed in a week or two. However, this comes at an awful time. Bioshock comes out in just weeks and Halo 3 is around a month away!  That, and I’m leaving for UofL tomorrow. I’ll have to rely on my family to get it packaged and sent out. Oh, the sorrow.

While investigating Robert Scoble’s Link Blog, I stumbled upon a blog post talking about News21, an experimental attempt revitalize schools of journalism in the United States. The program is funded by the Carnegie and Knight foundations and includes five major research institutions.

All of that is all well and good but the real excitement is in the material that has emerged. The news stories focus on religious diversity in America, controversial topics as seen by major religions throughout the world, spirituality, and religion in politics. The reason I enjoyed it was because of the means News21 uses to convey the information. Text articles, videos, and slideshows are mixed together with interactive maps which connects all the material in a interesting way, but it also makes the stories more logical and immersive. My favorite piece was the Data Road Trip.

The schools and foundations hope that this program helps make journalism school’s education more effective and create a brighter future for journalism in the information age. If more is done in the News21 format, I would be very excited about the future of journalism.

Here’s a sweet episode of “What’s My Line”, an old game show where 3 panelists were blindfolded and had to ask questions to unmask the identity of a celebrity guest. This episode has Salvador Dali, who was a famous surrealist. I really wish this show could come back.

Some of you may have been wondering where I have been since June 6th, 2007. That was the day of my final post. Well, loyal readers, I have been living off the land, traveling from forest to forest, mountain to mountain until I finally found the Truth. Did I? Maybe. But I do know that I can now blog again!

In 13 days I will move into my new life in Louisville. College is here. My schedule is finally ready (after being modified quite a few times), my books only need a credit card to spring into existance, and the broom and dustpan that I probably will never use sits ready in my bedroom.

I also have five days left at FedEx. Next Wednesday, I will be freed of the imprisonment of large brown boxes, and I can again run free. Alas, I’ll be running free much poorer without a paying job but I can sacrifice. After that, it’s a good old fashioned canoe trip with my friends, then I’m gone. I don’t think I’m scared at all for college. I’m really just excited.