Yesterday I received an email from a friend in Topeka who has a meteorologist friend who informed her (and encouraged her to do so to others) that there was some bad weather coming today.

Earlier my wife had mentioned something about all the weather factors being just about identical to some "perfect storm" scenario that occurred in the late 70's. Something about a bunch of tornadoes in Eastern Kansas (that's us) in one day.

This morning the front page of weather.com provided a third source for the rumors when it told me that a "Major Severe Weather Outbreak" was "Expected", though its little Weatherland Security meter is only at yellow (as opposed to the much more ominous red that I saw this last Monday, when the sky turned so dark the streetlights came on).

So to get a fourth opinion, I decided to go straight to the source: Gary Lezak himself. For those of you unfortunate to not know this already, Mr. Lezak runs a weather blog that he and his team of meteorologists update regularly - sometimes well into the night. He does, in fact, state that he is "fairly certain that the Storm Prediction Center is going to issue a high risk for Thursday." However, the threat of tornadic activity does not exist for his viewing area (I'm assuming this includes Lawrence), and the greatest threat for KC lies after midnight and into tomorrow. I'm assuming this means that just before or at midnight we'll experience what he is experiencing then. He seems optimistic enough, regardless of the foreboding photo featured on his blog that I've posted above. If this were the only thing posted on the entry, I'd have to assume that the forecast for today is "Apocalypse".

So to ease the fears of my colleagues and classmates alike, as I spend my usual great deal of time outside today I will keep my eyes on the skies, posting updates as often as I can as to the view of Kansas from the top of Mt. Oread in the summer. In fact, I'll go ahead and step outside right now to take a look and let you know - BRB...

Okay I'm back. Well, it's muggy. You didn't need me to tell you that I'm sure. A bit overcast but I did catch a glimpse of some blue sky and high clouds to the southwest. Once I get on campus I'll be able to see better. Through the back-hoes and bulldozers.

Two nights ago as I was leaving the library at around 2:00 a.m. I saw the outline of what I thought to be an Opossum crossing my path, until I got close enough to it to realize it was a skunk. Upon seeing me it slowly raised it’s large, bushy tail up in the air, the white stripes now visible, its Tina Turner-esque froo-froo trembling in the moonlight. I slowly retreated.

Conflict avoided, it again turned towards the bush that had been its previous destination, lazily ambling in its polecat gate.

My curiosity not quite satiated, I decided to once ...

SINCE freedom of speech, PARTICULARLY involving neo-colonialist situations (see: Palestine, Iraq, Tibet, etc.) is SUCH a hot topic on Kansan.com - and not a bad hot topic to have, if you ask me- I thought I would mention a couple of speakers that are going to be at the Ecumenical Campus Ministries today.

Two speakers from the Wheels of Justice tour will be presenting on Iraq and Palestine starting at 4 o'clock. Discussion will be at 6 and go to around 8. The ECM is located at 1204 Oread. Go there. There will also be food.

Yesterday I was making my way across Wescoe Beach, head down, discreetly avoiding the overly people-persony Democratites as they preyed on the last of us who hadn’t yet voted. I was eventually caught, by someone from United Students of Connected Libertarianisms, and asked if I had voted. I lied and said I had. When they asked me who, I panicked. Thumbing the air towards the large group of people waving the large red flags, I said “China.”

Did anyone else catch the irony of the folks taking full advantage of their inalienable Democratic right to demonstrate their views on the ...

It was late, I had laid down with my three year old who was a bit frightened by the thunder. The thunder I took as an ominous sign of things to come as the Championship game got underway.

After awhile I switched to doing the dishes which had piled up, but before doing so went ahead and surfed to espn.com to keep an eye on the clicker - I’m far from the biggest basketball fan but I am a Jayhawk, and I did grow up here.

Twenty years ago I got out of school after we won the Championship, ...

It is pretty well known that the emergence of various online phenomena like blogs and vlogs work to fuel a certain self-satisfaction in terms of one's ego. In short, it has taken popularity to a whole new level. A weblebrity, as I've heard them called, is essentially a really really really popular person on the internet. Somewhere between a real celebrity and just some schmuck with a blog.

Another aspect of people's increasingly proliferated presence online as a mode for self-marketing is one I think many people who don't ever use the internet preach constantly: the relative ...

Here is an awesome poem I wrote:

an apple is an orange

an orange is an apple

therefore apples are oranges

It's all about truth and stuff. Here's one you can participate in. I've decided to attempt an unholy wedding of poetry, blogging and audience participation. Pick the best last line of the poem and post it in the comments. Or write in your own candidate, even though if you do you weaken the position of one of the two candidates drastically undermining the point of democracy whilst simultaneously damning yourself to a third party hell where heretics and ...

So I’m supposed to be working on my column right now (sorry Bryan), but it just so happened that I’m writing this blog instead. This is okay, because it perfectly illustrates its own point. And I’ll be writing it next. I promise.

The function of this blog entry was to perform a certain amount of what my personal communication textbook calls “personal disclosure”. By its very nature this entails a certain level of vulnerability on my part, but that is part and parcel of the whole spiel.

In my life there exists a certain cliche - one of many, I’m ...

Apparently blogging is not cool. Bloggers- by association- are a scorned breed who, when mentioned, are met with sneers and other condescending throat sounds and their corresponding lip-curls. For a people who for the most part tout the righteousness of free speech, if only and most often for its own sake (not the wisest reason to tout anything in my opinion), and who are notorious for their love of the sound of their own voices in normal day-to-day conversation (I count myself as one of these), I find this rather odd.

For a culture whose consumption of the literary ...

The other day I was wondering why the kind folks over at Lawrence dot Kawm never stopped me on the street to inquire as to the genius behind my fashion taste for their “style scout” section. Then I looked in the mirror. Maybe it’s the pony tail. Perhaps my penchant for tucking my t-shirt into my blue jeans.

So in honor of myself and all the other looked-overs I’ve decided to start featuring my own Pirate Style Scout section (no, not actual pirates). And for her maiden voyage I’ll pick the coolest looking dude I know: me.