Great Song by The Matthew Show

"A Brighter Place in the Sun" by The Matthew Show

The video's not the best quality so you can check here for an mp3 stream. Also, the video's two songs and I selfishly didn't bother to listen to the second, I just went back and did "A Brighter Place in the Sun" again.

I especially like the chorus: 

You are not the only one 

Standing on your own 

And someday far away you may find 

It’s not that hard 

To find a brighter place in the sun 

So far to the only place we see 

Where things are want, and never need, and meant to be 

Shadowed by the graveyard waltz of fear 

And if you run far enough, it won’t come near 

What Issues Inspire Voters?

Image from Good Transparency

The people over at Good Transparency create some amazing infographics on a wide variety of topics. Their newest one, here, takes survey data taken from Pew on which political issues are most important to Americans each year from 2001 to the present.

It gives a nice, clear, visual breakdown of data that might otherwise take a long time to sift through. It also shows the breakdown by party to show how each party's priorities have changed over the years. While it shows survey data from January of each year instead of October, the trends are still worth considering when questioning which issues could have the largest impact on bringing voters to the polls.

I think it's most interesting that there is no data on immigration until 2006. Legal and illegal immigration, and the contexts separating the two, have been issues in the United States for decades, if not centuries. Even so, the chart shows that Pew didn't ask the question, or maybe no one answered the question, until 2006, halfway through Bush's second term. Today, it is toward the bottom of the scale as far as political priorities go. Only 40% of Americans see it as a top priority. I bet, though, there are many thousands of Americans for whom immigration policies and status are first or second. This points at another potential negative of Pews survey, from which the data is drawn. If Pew calls or sends mailers, it is very likely that, more than the other categories, immigration priority numbers would be misrepresented because many illegal immigrants might not have phones or addresses or might not respond to anything having to do with their immigration status for fear of deportation.

Either way, this infographic shows valuable data. And, the questions arising from the data might be even more important than the data itself.

Facebook Connect

I am not a coder, nor do I understand most of what is said when I read about or listen to people talk about code. Even so, it seems that Facebook Developers' tools would allow me to do the technical things that I believe will make my site unique and more useful than existing sites.

This page lists many of the permissions a site can obtain from a user using Facebook Login as the default site login. Some of the things I would like to do, like access group data, would require extended permission codes, which people may be hesitant to allow. This means that I will have to ensure that my site's features, especially the friend and group based focus, are simple enough and compelling enough to convince users to give it a try.

Recommitting

After an LSAT, a leadership retreat, and a Teach for America interview, I'm ready to jump back in and plug away at this thing called entrepreneurship. October really showed how important it is that an entrepreneur's idea can and is and must be his baby, that nothing is more important, even if those other things floating around are much more real and tangible than an idea in one's head. I've lost almost an entire month so now it's time to get my act together and put things at full speed.

My Dad sent me a website he thought was similar to my idea: http://www.sweatmonkey.org/. It's a superbly organized and it looks great. It is similar to my idea in that it connects service organizations to volunteers. It also seems to be mostly targeted to high school students, which would be part of my target audience. The difference, though, is that mine would connect to Facebook, which allows for a viral marketing effect to happen in a much quicker and more efficient manner.

One of the best things about SweatMonkey? It's creator was a sophomore in high school!

Found

Found in a pocket journal, dated 5/12/09

Words rise from gaping mouths

Empty sounds with meaningless power

Light pierces from their eye, from your eye

Piercing my heart, pith giving fire

consuming my whole

Words rise from gaping mouths

Empy sounds with meaningless power

Warmth spreads from my hand,

your touch drying my tear-soaked depths

stilling my shivers

Words rise from gaping mouths

Empty sounds with meaningless power

Saying more in their silent omissions

Than in thousands of speeches before

Unlocking desire, hope, future

though just one of many locks

Words rise from gaping mouths

Empty sounds with meaningless power

I don't know if I meant to add more stanzas, the apparent pattern would seem to say "yes" but maybe ending there was supposed to be a resounding "no."