Lasting Community and the Airport

I've been traveling a lot lately which has left me alone for many hours. Most of my time has been spent in the airport, sitting and waiting. I have been interested in seeing the people who pass through the worlds holding zone.

People who travel seem mostly unhappy. Flying, for most, is nothing but a means to an end. I wish there was a more enjoyable means of transportation. I wish people were happier.

It amazing the anonymity that traveling provides. It's frustrating to see businessmen, civilians and the like passing each other, just inches away from true community. I'm not suggesting that a one hour conversation in the airport is lasting community, but it could be a start.

I would like to know people better. People who are not like me. I am around those people all the time, but I'm too scared to talk to them. It seems like somethings got to give.

The Celebration of Pants

Most of the time I have a difficult time wrapping my head around things (metaphorically, in this instance). One of those things (at this time) is the holiday season. I love the holidays, don't get me wrong, I guess I'm still trying to figure out what we are all celebrating. I know, on a personal level, what Christmas means to me, but what is it as a collective culture?

I've finished a lot of my shopping for the season, and I feel like the reason I celebrate has been cheapened by stuff. I know that for me, I don't get a new pair of pants for Christmas and think, "Oh, pants! This makes me love Jesus more." I usually just think, "Oh, pants! I'm glad someone gave these to me, because I'm too cheap to buy them on my own."

Don't get me wrong people. Please buy me presents. I'm just saying that celebrating the birth of Jesus and getting generic, made-in-China trinkets, seems like a non sequitur.

I'm certainly pro celebration-of-Jesus, I'm just not sure if I'm pro my-current-form-of-celebration-of-Jesus.

Hello Hurricane

This morning when I woke up it seemed like any other day. I went through my morning routine, part of which is checking various sites on my computer. Since the Switchfoot concert was swiftly approaching, I was keeping tabs on their latest Twitter updates. The one this morning read: "Tulsa! Come to a free show at Qdoba- accoustic suprise on 71st and memorial." I read this Tweet, which was immediately followed by: "Almost forgot, the show it at noon. See you at Qdoba, Tulsa! The cat is officially out of the bag.." This was great news.

I'll pause here to mention that I may have a slight man-crush on Jon Foreman. I can't get enough of his music, and meeting him is on the top of my list of things to do.

After reading these updates I left to meet Anna at Cafe Plaid. She called me because she was running late and I told her that Jon Foreman would be in Tulsa and I was sad that we couldn't see him, especially since Tulsa is 2 hours away and the time is currently 10:01a. She immediately responded, "Let's go!" So we did.

After several quick stops, we sped to T-town where stood the great JF in all his splendor. He played a few ditties, which were awesome, and said he'd stick around to chat. He did, and it was great. I won't say we had a great conversation, because we didn't. He was, however, very warm and friendly. He seemed very down to earth. I can now take "meet Jon Foreman" off my list.

Once we got our autographs and such we said hello to my parents and got back on the road; just in time to see Jon Foreman. We made it back to Norman to get tickets, then headed back out to OKC for the show.

Once we were inside, Anna and I were close to the back of the crowd. About 15 minutes before the concert began, a chain of people pushed there way through the crowd telling people they needed to get to the front. This seemed like a lame thing for them to do since we all needed to get to the front. I opted to capitalize on this moment by following them. We just attached to their chain and before we knew it we were 4 or 5 rows from the front. As the concert went on people would leave or shift around until we finally had front row seats!

The show was phenomenal. Seriously, it was great. I'm wondering how it was on an objective scale, but for me, it was everything I wanted. The band played flawlessly through their new CD, Hello Hurricane. JF sang with passion and enthusiasm. He even came down and walked through the crowd. At different times he would stand on the railing about 5 feet from where I was standing. I couldn't ask for much more.

All in all I was thoroughly entertained. Job well done.

Deception and the OU Parking Services

I frequently receive emails from the Communication department asking for participants in various social scientific research projects. I typically only do the ones that give me money. Monday was no exception.

Monday morning I arrived at the Center for Applied Social Research. When I pulled into the parking lot I was surprised to see how many spots were in the lot. I looked around and saw no signs informing me that parking anywhere in the Wal-Mart sized parking lot was prohibited. I parked and went inside.

Once the study began I was asked to answer a series of questions ranging from preferences in social interaction to individual ethical standards. I completed the survey and was told that the next part of the study was research on the dynamics of teamwork. I was then moved to another room where a classmate of mine was to be my partner. We were told we had 5 minutes to answer 8 trivia question, and we would be rewarded and extra $5 for every questions we answered correctly. The main stipulation was that we were only allowed to use our minds (no text messaging, internet, etc.). Once the proctor left the room, we quickly realized we didn't know the answers to any of the 8 questions. My partner noticed that the computer we used to take the survey was left on the table, and suggested that we use google to find the answers. I told him I thought it was a bad idea and that I didn't want to do cheat (I was pretty sure someone was watching us). He continued to insist and finally said he was going to do it regardless of what I thought. He typed in a few searches and wrote down a few of the answers before our time was up. Needless to say I was fairly p-oed.

From there I went into an interview room where a lady asked me questions about the exercise. She asked how we worked together as a team and how we came to consensus when answering the questions. I answered honestly, but may have omitted the cheating portion of our exercise (exact game in practice). At some point she asked if I knew what the University Code of Ethics and Disciplinary Action was. This made me uncomfortable. She then asked me point blank if we had cheated. I immediately confessed, and ratted my partner (not my finest hour).

Turns out my partner was in on the scheme. He was working for the researcher and tried to get me to cheat and the lie about it. The study was actually on deception, not teamwork. If I would have cheated and lied about it to the interviewer I would have earned $40 extra dollars. That annoyed me.

So, I took my $20 and headed back out to the large parking lot (again, no lack of empty spaces). I get in my car, and as I'm pulling away I notice a yellow envelope lodged underneath my windshield wiper. It was a $25 ticket, issued 2 minutes before I got back to my car.

I lost $5 going to a study where I was penalized for being honest.

Friedrich Engels

One day earlier this semester I sat alone in my room looking around me. I am, for some reason unknown to me, a minimalist. Some people have hinted that this may be some sort of neurosis, I think I'm just "neat." I digress. As I was taking in the bareness that was my room, I decided I needed something, anything, to improve my surroundings. I decided fish would do the trick. I'll admit, I haven't had the greatest track record with fish. But, in my defense, they haven't had the greatest track record with me either. The first fish I owned Zwingli (R.I.P) wouldn't eat. It was as simple as that. I gave him food, and he refused.

Needless to say, this left me a little jaded. I proceeded to purchase more fish and test a hypothesis. This left me with less fish than I had in the first place, and still no Zwingli (R.I.P). I thought I had sworn off fish forever.

Little did I know, my whole life was about to change. I recognized the bareness that was my room, and realized what I had to do. I had to learn to trust another fish. I went to the empire known as Wal-Mart, picked out my fish, and introduced him to his knew home. But what to name him? This was a struggle. I realized that the desire to own again came from the positive experiences I had this summer with my roommates fish, Karl (Marx). I'm sure you can fill in the rest of the story.

Engels and I have been getting along great. He's eating and swimming like a champ. Sometimes I take a break from my work and watch him swim. It can feel like escaping into another world. Sometimes I wish we could trade places for a day.

Sometimes I wonder if he can think, and if he can think if he thinks he's free. He's really not. There's not a lot of places he can go. I wonder if he would be okay with that.

michaelmichael-michael

I have never blogged before. I've always thought of blogs as another way for people to judge you. It's as though interacting with real live people and having them reflect on you as an individual isn't enough, now they can refer back to words you've written. Go ahead, judge.

Part of figuring out this whole blog thing required me to set a domain name. I creatively chose Michael Whitham as my first option. This was not available, however, michaelmichael-michael was. I thought for a moment about the joy I would receive from telling people to check out my blog at michaelmichael-michael.blogspot.com, I, however, chose something a little more conservative.

Over the years I have thought of many creative titles for different blog posts. One could (almost) count it as a hobby of mine. Hopefully I'll start putting those to some good use. It would be even better if meaningful content would follow.