the art of simplicity

I took a break from the never-ending job search to watch some college basketball. It has been a basketball crazy 24 hours. Last night, my Dad and I had suite tickets for the Wolves 25 point win over the lowly Memphis Grizzlies and this afternoon I watched the Gophers likely punch their tickets to the Dance. It's pretty amazing, but barring some major surprises (like Baylor winning the Big 12 tournament), the Big 10 might get eight teams in the NCAA tournament. I have watched a lot of Big 10 games this year and the league has been really exciting. There are only a half or dozen pro prospects but the league is full of great coaching (Izzo, Tubby, Pearl, Beilein, Carmody, Crean, Painter, Ryan, et cetera) and great defense. March Madness is my favorite sports event of the year.

1. Last night, I stayed up to finish The Rum Diary. Before I begin my thoughts, this is what the back of the book says: "Begun in 1959 by a then twenty-two year old Hunter S. Thompson, The Rum Diary is a brilliant, tangled love story of jealousy, treachery, and violent alcoholic lust in the Caribbean boomtown that was San Juan, Puerto Rico, in the late 1950s. Exuberant and mad, youthful and energetic, The Rum Diary is an outrageous, drunken romp in the spirit of Thompson's bestselling Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas and Hells Angels." This book was loaned to me by my friend Mike and I eagerly began reading it. I give the book a bit B-. The book was pretty bizarre. Of course, why am I not surprised when I knew before hand that its author, Thompson, lived his last few years in a secret compound in a tiny Caribbean island before killing himself, being cremated, and then requesting his ashes be shot out of a cannon into space... The book is not a bad read, even mildly entertaining at times. It also is a pretty quick read and if you're bored, or want to read about warmth, lust, and drinking on the beach, pick up a copy.

2. I went to the gym this afternoon and I wanted to do something different. As I was cleaning my room, I noticed a pair of goggles, and I decided I would go to the gym's lap pool. Keep in mind, that I was a competitive swimmer in high school (hence the reason for the speedos.) I swam about ten laps today before my heart was exploding and my shoulders were on fire. I forgot how great of a workout swimming can be. It's low-impact, requires almost no equipment, and is a great mix-up. I still hate the smell of chlorine though. I thought I was getting in decent shape but the burning in the shoulders after ten laps quickly reminded me that I have a long way to go before I get back to where I was at 16-18 years old.

3. I don't like the new Facebook layout. I didn't like when they changed it a year ago, and I don't like this. The word cluttered comes to mind. When I click on the home button, I am just bombared with stuff.

4. Great cover article of Newsweek about Rush Limabugh and his de facto leadership of the Republican party. Rahm Emmanuel and Obama aren't dummies. They know that although Rush Limbaugh is wildly popular with many Americans (20-25 million people listen to his program daily), he is still very unpopular with the majority of Americans. 70% of Americans, according to the Newsweek article, strongly dislike Rush Limbaugh. The fact that the Democrats have cast a man who is that extremely unpopular with the majority of Americans as the leader of the GOP, is downright brilliant. Sure Limbaugh wins, but Obama and the Democrats are the real winners. Until the Republicans get some real leadership, they can continue to enjoy huge losses in political races. The 2009 Republican party does not stand for anything. Yes, the oppose Obama... how original. But what do they stand for? Fortunately for them, we are a long way until the 2010 mid-term elections.

5. Anna Quindlen, who is a a brilliant writer for Newsweek, had a great piece on abstinence only education in the American secondary education system. Her basic point is that it is failing. According to Newsweek, Congress in the past couple of years has poured $1.5 billion into what is essentially anti-sex ed, abstinence only-programs, despite the following facts: They don't work. 1) A study conducted for the Department of Health and Human Services during the last Bush administration showed that teenagers who took abstinence-only classes were just as likely to have sex as those who didn't. 2) They're actually counterproductive. Other studies have shown that adolescents in abstinence-only programs were less likely to use contraception, perhaps because those programs emphasize only the failure rates of even the best methods. I think Ms. Quindlen is right on the money. Of course schools should stress and encourage abstinence only education. However, they should also teach proper contraception methods, and using a food analogy, you don't teach children that they shouldn't eat because they might get salmonella. No, you teach children how to eat properly. I know Obama has a lot on his plate and in fact I would be irritated if he dropped what he was doing to focus on sex-ed. However, I hope sometime in the next four years, his department of education takes a hard look at revamping a broken sex-ed system.