I Was Distracted with Poker This Week

I realized about a week ago that WSOP.com is livestreaming the final tables of many of the events taking place this summer, which took away my attention from writing on the blog. Of course, this is something I learn about at the END of the WSOP, when many of the events are already over. Fortunately, between now and the November Nine, I can catch up and watch all the final tables in the archive if I really want to. I might watch some of them since poker always makes great background noise and I don't know any of the results so it would all be a surprise. But, for now, I've gotten my poker fill so I can get back to work and writing blog posts (especially since the July 4th weekend is over).

I Have a New Idea

I mentioned in a previous post about starting a podcast, and I'm tabling that idea for now. I still would like the start a podcast, but I have a better idea that I'd like to pursue, and getting that idea going doesn't involve a podcast at this time. I don't think it's the best venue for the better idea, although it would be great to incorporate a podcast if I can complete the vision I see for my new, better idea.

I'm not going to talk too much about my new, better idea because I don't want to jinx it. I don't remember where I read or heard this, but from what I remember, there is such a thing as "talking about your ideas too much." The problem is that talking about the idea too much can result in a sense of progress, making it more difficult to achieve actual progress. I completely forget where I heard about this, so I could be making it all up,. However, if keeping it under a bit of secrecy helps me to achieve actual progress, then that's "help" that I should take.

I Will Be Testing the Idea on Twitter

I will say that I will be testing the idea on Twitter by tweeting on some of the topics involved in my idea. I'm testing the idea on Twitter to see if there's any traction to this idea and what kind of traction I get for it. I particularly want to look at which tweets and topics get the most engagement and who's engaging with those tweets. Engagement is good, but I'm hoping to target a specific audience demographic with my idea, so know looking at who's engaging with my tweets is very important.

I'm also utilizing Twitter to continue building an audience on the platform. If I decide to take this idea to the next step, then having a substantial audience that's already familiar with who I am and the topics I cover is an incredible asset. I'm not sure how long I'm going to test the idea before taking the next step at this point, but I think I'll have to test for about a month or two in order to get a good sample size and to give each of the topics enough time on Twitter. I want to test this long enough so that it's clear over time that certain topics are more popular than others and engaging the right people, versus looking at results where other factors could explain the engagement or the popularity on that particular day or week.

Right now, I want to do one thing at a time and avoid overwhelming myself by taking to take this in too many directions or in trying to move too quickly with it. If I overwhelm myself, then I'm not going to want to pursue the idea anymore.

My New Merit Badge Quest

Josh McCoy, 14, made headlines earlier this month by earning all 135 Boy Scout merit badges. It took him three years to get them all, ranging from American Business to Woodwork, from Disabilities Awareness to Pioneering. He isn't the first to accomplish this feat (252 Boy Scouts have also accomplished this in the organization's history) and he probably won't be the last. So I wonder, if he can do it then I can do it, right? First of all, I'm just way cooler than a 14-year-old. I'm a grown up. I have a college degree. I have a great job at Inside.com. I live on my own and don't need my parents' permission for things. I have an advantage in awesomeness. Plain and simple.

Second of all, I don't see any reason why I can't do it eventually. Sure, I don't have a summer camp to help me. I'll probably have to find instructors for some of these badges, or perhaps spend a year back home in Hawaii to tackle some of them, particularly the water-based badges (there isn't exactly easy access to a lake or ocean in St. Louis). So, it will probably take me longer than three years to get this done, but I'm not going to let that stop me or scare me out of doing this.

Third of all, I think it would be cool, as a woman, to go after and to accomplish the requirements in each of the merit badges. I was never a Boy Scout, for obvious reasons, so I couldn't really do this when I was younger. I also think that many of the skills associated with these merit badges are fascinating and worthwhile to learn. As I learned in fourth grade, "Reach for the stars. You won't always get them, but you won't end up with a handful of mud either." Stars or mud, here I come!

So, I'm gonna do it and get all the merit badges! Consider it a new life quest or pursuit, versus a New Year's Resolution or an abundance of free time. Adventure is fun, and I could use a little more adventure in my life. I am sure this will take me longer than a year to complete because I still have a job to go to five days a week. I anticipate this will take me 10 years, and within this time I am sure the Boy Scouts of America will add a few more new merit badges to conquer. In the meantime, I've outlined the rules for this life quest/adventure of mine and devised a few immediate steps to get me started, such as picking the 10 merit badges that I'm going to complete first.

My First 10 Badges

The Plate

1. First Aid
2. Personal Fitness
3. Cooking
4. Reading
5. Pets

The Dock

1. Emergency Preparedness
2. Personal Management
3. Citizenship in the Community
4. Athletics
5. Fingerprinting

Merit Badger Rules

• Five badges will always be on the plate at any one time.
• For the five badges on my plate, I can complete the merit badges and their requirements simultaneously and in any particular order. Meaning, I don't have to complete the First Aid merit badge before starting any of the requirements for the Personal Fitness merit badge.
• After I complete a badge on my plate, I will then choose the next one from the dock. After choosing from a badge from the dock to move to the plate, the next badge on the dock will be chosen at random from a jar.
• Before starting any the requirements of any merit badge, I am to read the pamphlet first.
• For each merit badge, I will find five news articles related to the merit badge topic and submit them to Inside.com.
• I am not allowed to use Inside.com or its resources to complete any of the requirements for any badge, with exception of the rule listed above.
• The definitions of "troop," "patrol," "family," "scout" and "counselor" will be fluid, depending on the badge and requirement. Obviously, I am not a scout and I do not have a patrol or a troop, so I will choose who will fit those definitions on a case-by-case basis.
• When I am required to explain or to discuss something, I will write in up as a blog post. When I am required to discuss something, I do have the option to do a video instead of a blog post if I so desire.
• When I am required to demonstrate something or to participate in an activity, then I will take photos and/or shoot video as proof of the demonstrate or activity
• When given the choice among several requirements, I am to choose meeting with someone and/or visiting a location over the other choices since these are more difficult and time-consuming than most other requirements.
• When given the choice among several requirements, if all the choices are equal, then I can choose whichever requirements I am most interested in completing.
• There is no timeline to completing this venture or to complete any specific merit badge.

What's Next?

Now that this is announced and out there in the world, I will get started on reading the pamphlets for my first five merit badges. I need to choose my six books for the Reading badge, schedule my doctor and dentist visits for the Personal Fitness badge, and document the proof of my cat Flop-a-Set for my Pets badge.

Photo via dmuth

All The Things I’ve Stopped (Part 3 of 9)

For the third part in this series, I'm going to evaluate my 50 blog post topics list. I wrote this list so I wouldn't get stuck with writer's block and stop blogging. I didn't like the blog post ideas that I was coming up with just so I could get a post up, so I decided to ensure I wasn't wasting time coming up with a good idea. The list of topics took me a few hours to put together, and in the end I only did 15 of those topics. I also ended up doing the 15 easiest topics first, leaving the tougher topics for, well, perhaps never.

The Tougher Topics Would Have Taken More Time than I Had

Many of the tougher topics (particularly the questions about current affairs) would have required a ton of preliminary research, and once I sat down to write the post, it would've taken me about two hours to write it. Add that to the research time, and tackling one of these tougher topics would've taken between four and six hours of my time. That's time that I could've made room for if I made the blog post a priority, but I couldn't make it that kind of a priority over paying clients.

I wasn't going to do a sloppy job of tackling these topics either. Here's a David Cameron article that I wrote in September 2013, an example of what I would like to do when answering one of these questions. Sure, I could answer a similar question with only two reasons instead of three, or I could include three reasons but cite fewer sources throughout the article, but the David Cameron article is a great article. Not to toot my own horn, but I did a great job in answering the question. If I'm not going to commit to that level of quality, then I'm not going to start the blog post or find an easier way to do the blog post. The David Cameron article is simply how those current affairs questions should be tackled.

Going Back to Making It a Priority

In the first two parts of this series, I've discussed stopping ventures because I lost interest or because I found a better option. This time, I stopped completing this list because I felt I had more important priorities besides taking the time to write on the tougher topics. This blog (for now) is simply for fun and I can't let it get in the way of paying work. Well, I could let it get in the way of paying work, but I wouldn't be earning enough to pay my bills. I also didn't want to spend so much time on just one blog post, because if I did commit four to six hours to write one post, then I would've had to reduce the number of times I published in a week. Back when I was doing those posts, I was publishing about every other day (and I'm currently working to come back to that frequency). Tackling these tougher topics would've meant publishing only about once or twice a week, perhaps even less frequently. That's just no good for blog. At least I don't think that's good for a blog.

Perhaps I'll be able to tackle some of the tougher topics in the future if I plan accordingly. I would probably need to give myself about a month's leeway, and if I do that, then I would need to choose topic that would still be timely in a month or two. That's not too hard, considering that some current issues can go on for months.

All The Things I’ve Stopped (Part 2 of 9)

I'm going to bet that a few people thought that I failed at finishing this blog series, much like the projects that are going to be mentioned in this blog series. But that is not the case! I did want to finish the Blogging Heroes blog post before continuing with the series, and I got that done last week. Then, I decided to keep my personal blogging to one to two times a week, unless things change in my life. The last thing I need is to pile on more responsibilities, and I'd like to ensure that this blog doesn't end up in "failed and forgotten" bin again. So, I'm keeping my blogging schedule to something manageable so it fits in with the rest of my life and I don't get burnt out from overextending myself.

What Is SuperBetter Again?

SuperBetter is an online game designed to help players get better at "something." Since the founder, Jane McGonigal, founded the game after suffering a severe concussion, many of the "somethings" are health-related. For example, there is a "Power Pack" in the game designed for eating healthier and losing weight (and a multitude of other health issues) called the Full Plate Diet.

With this pack, the player completes a series of quests to help them get better at eating healthier and losing weight. There are bad guys that need to be overcome, such as drinking liquid calories or having no fiber-strong foods for meal. To help you complete quests and conquer bad guys, you can enlist allies (such as your family and friends, or maybe a nutritionist) to help you. There are also power ups, which are actions that the player can take to get stronger and to do better against the quests and bad guys. Hopefully, the player completes all the quests, has lost some weight, and is much better at eating healthier than they were before.

Naturally, those same steps would happen with any Power Pack. The only differences are the types of quests, the types of bad guys, the types of power ups, and perhaps who you might choose as an ally (like switching out the nutritionist for a physical therapist or life coach). The idea is to turn healing and recovery into a game.

Why I Stopped Playing the SuperBetter Game

To be honest, I got bored with the game. After I completed the Full Plate Diet pack, I found little value in continuing the game with the other packs. The Full Plate Diet pack was a great pack and I don't regret doing it, even though I still have room for improvement. The main complaint I have about SuperBetter is that there's very little "re-playability" after you finish or take on your primary health problem. There aren't many people who want to eat healthier, but also need to recover from a sports injury and work on their migraines. Once that person starts eating healthier, the other two problems may become less of an issue.

It's possible to create your own pack, and customize the game toward something that you do want to improve, but that takes time and research that I didn't really want to put in. As much as I liked the thought of, say, creating a Power Pack to improve my poker game, I wasn't enthused enough about SuperBetter to start "modding" the game. It would have been nice if a modding community formed around the game, so that half the packs available weren't geared towards those recovering from a concussion, but I didn't have the time, enthusiasm, or skill set to start creating my own power ups, bad guys, and quests.

I stopped in the middle of a Power Pack called, "Better Than a Chill Pill," which is meant to lower stress, to combat anxiety. or to relax more easily so that you can sleep better. I think I originally chose this quest to lower my stress and to sleep a bit better. I don't think I have a problem with either now. I would say my new problem is that I sleep too much. I need a Power Pack to help me get out of bed, start the day, and to be excited about the day. I don't need a chill pill. I need an awakening pill.

I Might Restart with SuperBetter

They have added a few new Power Packs since I stopped, and one of them looks really interesting. It's called "Make It Epic", and it's designed to help you improve your motivation and persistence. There's another one called "Absurdly Grateful", which is to help you focus on gratitude, which also looks pretty neat. But, instead of starting a new pack, I should probably restart some of the old packs. I could certainly use a reboot on the Full Plate Diet to improve my eating habits and to lose a little more weight. Naturally, I could always do another run of "Being Awesome", even though I haven't been diagnosed with depression or psoriasis, and don't have too many problems with anxiety.

But, then again, maybe not. I don't need more things to do. Besides, I am working with my business coach, and she's giving me plenty to help me get super better at all sorts of things. I don't need two tools in my life accomplishing the same thing. That's why I got rid of the bullet journal. I also don't need more tasks to add onto my to-do lists. My life already provides me plenty of quests, bad guys, and power ups.

All The Things I've Stopped (Part 1 of 9)

Ever since my blogging streak ended, I've thought about all the things that I said I was going to do on this blog. With the exception of one or two, I stopped doing all of them within a few months. Besides the blogging streak, there was only one other endeavor that ended in a matter of days. The others were either intentions that were never turned into action, or behaviors that I stopped doing after several months. I think it would be great if I went over each of these goals and endeavors, going into detail of why I wanted to do the project in the first place and why I ended up not finishing what I sent out to do. Not everyone enjoys going over their failures, or evaluating why they were unable (or chose not to) finish something, but I think the exercise will be valuable to me. I am in the middle of determining what I want out of life and how to get those things, so I think this exercise will show me why I wanted to do these projects at a certain point in time, only to decide later on that I wasn't interested in doing them anymore.

Bullet Journal vs Inferno of Productivity

For the first part of this many part series (the number of series parts has yet to be determined), I'm going to evaluate two similar projects where I've stopped doing one but I've continued to do the other.

The bullet journal and the inferno of productivity are two systems that organize your to-do lists and improve your productivity. The inferno of productivity is a system that I created about a year ago, while the bullet journal is a system that I found online and decided to try. I did both concurrently for about seven months, but I've stopped using the bullet journal system about two weeks ago and have continued to use the inferno of productivity system only.

The main reason why I stopped using the bullet journal is because the journal felt redundant. I thought the system, especially its inclusion of a monthly calendar, monthly task lists, and room for other necessary lists (like planning for a vacation or a separate to-do list for that trip), would augment my daily to-do list that the inferno of productivity specializes in. However, that didn't happen. Using both systems at the same time seemed like I was managing two to-do lists for each day with no added benefit in having both. If there was a discrepancy in the to-do lists, then it was weird and a hassle to remedy that discrepancy.

I found the inferno of productivity to be easier since I like the tangible aspect of using index cards (something that I'd like to make less disposable with reusable index cards. I just need to find something reusable that I can use.) I also found this system much more flexible with tasks that I wasn't able to get done and with organizing my day, since I can put the cards/ tasks in the order that I wanted to do them. In the end, I stopped doing the bullet journal because it wasn't adding any value, and I was crafting my daily task list from what was already set up in the inferno of productivity system.

I'm Starting with a Softball

The bullet journal and the inferno of productivity were easy ones to evaluate because:

• I'm still doing the inferno of productivity, which is awesome. It's also a system that I'd like to improve upon in several ways.
• Since I'm still doing the inferno, stopping the bullet journal was somewhat inconsequential.
• Seven months is a pretty good run, but since the main reason why I stopped was because it wasn't adding value to my life, the bullet journal wasn't tough to quit. The failure was in the system, no myself.
• Quitting the bullet journal is not the same as not following through in learning how to drive a stick shift or with anything on my five-year plan. I will cover both in future parts of this series. Both of those do reflect a failure on my part.

But, I gotta start somewhere. It was easiest to start with my productivity systems since they are/were a daily part of my life. The others involved more long-term work, dedication, and planning.

One thing that does need to happen: finishing this series.

1st Post of the New Year!

Happy New Year! Last year, I pledged to blog every single day, and that lasted about a month. Ever since then, my blogging has essentially been a series of fits and starts. I do it for a week or two, only to run out of time, ideas, or both. Even with my 50 blog post ideas list, I've only done about 15 of those articles, and maybe about 25 posts total since I wrote that list.

What To Do This Year

I'm really not sure if I want to pledge anything to the blog this year. I feel that 2013 was full of plans, pledges, dreams and not a whole lot of action. I didn't follow through with many things I said I would work on or accomplish. Partly, I don't want to pledge anything because I don't need another goal or task on my to-do list. I also don't have any clue as to what I would want to pledge or would want out of this blog. The focus of it has always changed, and I've never been able to settle on an idea to which I want to commit. That's something I want to work on this year, so consider "commitment" my chosen theme for 2014. Since I spent so much time planning to do things and not actually doing those things that I planned, I'd like to change that by committing to a few things and following through with my plans. Since I restart my business coaching next week, and part of my coaching involves daily journaling, I'll probably be blogging much more often to chronicle the coaching and my growth process. I think that's more fun than doing it all in Evernote, as my coach prefers, so I'll journal here and then put the links into her Evernote.

2014, Here I Come!

I am still excited for the New Year, however. Things have started off swimmingly, and I have high hopes for the next few coming months. My news gigs are steady and a lot of fun, while get to spend the time informing myself of what's going on in the world. I also still have steady work from my clients, so I have plenty to keep me busy and afloat. Time management is going to be key for me, but because I restart my coaching next week, I'll have an accountability buddy in my life to help me stay on track and to hold me accountable to all these plans.

One goal/resolution that I have for 2014 is to get an iPhone. I know I'm late to the party since it's 2014 and I don't have a smartphone yet, but I definitely need to get one this year since I work for a news app. I need to be able to buy the app and use it on my phone. I want to be able to show the app to people when I tell them about the app and my work. I want to see the app working in real time and use it the way a normal customer would use it so I can be better and more customer-centric when I do my own work. It'll be nice to have a smartphone finally and to take advantage of this amazing productivity tool. The iPhone is one goal/resolution that's certain because I can't work for an app but not be able to access the app. For most places, it's not acceptable to work somewhere but not to use the product or service of your employer.

I don't have anything else set except to stay the course and to work hard. I need to do a lot of building and rebuilding this year since I hardly did any of that in 2013.

Why Am I Here?

And How to Figure Out Why You're Here Too

I picked up a book from the library called, Hacking Your Education: Ditch the Lectures, Save Tens of Thousands, and Learn More than Your Peers Ever Will. It's kind of obvious from the title what it's about. I've read a few snippets here and there, and one of those snippets was the following exercise below. It's used at a non-profit to help kids who can't get beyond their current environment, and the author offers the exercise as a way to show if college is really necessary for someone's dream job. I think it's a worthwhile exercise to figure out what you really want to do with your life, what you want out of it, and what it might take to get there:

What are You Put on This Planet to Do?

This is to be a verb, always a verb, and just one verb. My verb is: to help.

What are Your 5 Greatest Gifts?

Your five greatest gifts are also verbs, and these verbs support your mission (the original verb above). These verbs help with your purpose, and they're not necessarily your biggest strengths or your strongest skills. My five greatest gifts are:

1. To write
2. To think
3. To represent
4. To ask
5. To organize

For Each Gift, Come Up with Two Ways that You Could Use it To Add Value to the World

Each way is supposed to be an occupation that uses this gift to add value to the world. Here are my 10 total ways that I can add value with each of my gifts:

To Write

• Columnist
• Publisher

To Think

• Researcher
• Consultant

To Represent

• Public Official i.e. State Senator, City Councillor etc.
• Non-Profit Director

To Ask

• Journalist
• Policy Analyst

To Organize

• Community Organizer
• Event Planner

Choose One Way, and Come Up with 5 Ways to Fortify the Gift in the Real World

Of the 10 occupations, pick one and come up with five ways to fortify the gift, or to be better at that occupation or that gift. I'm going to choose columnist for this, and here are five ways I can fortify my gift to write so that I could be a columnist (or a better columnist):

1. Start a blog
2. Pitch the idea to a publication
3. Go to an event to write about
4. Attend a writing or journalism seminar
5. Read a book by a career columnist

Now What?

From the book's perspective, the point of the exercise is to see if you really needed a college degree to be a columnist, in this case. The answer is no, for the most part, especially since it's so easily to start a blog or to pitch an idea to a publication. You might want to go to college to specialize in a subject i.e. biology, history etc. that would be helpful for the column, or to be able to work on the college newspaper or magazine to improve your writing skills, or even to go to college to start a column about college life. But, all of that's not necessarily going to college to be able to become a college because there isn't anything intrinsic about college that's needed to have a successful weekly column.

Overall, it's a good thing to do to get a sense of direction, and to come up with a few ideas for career choices and pursuing your career choices. It's also a great way to think about what you're good at , what you like to do, and what possibilities may exist that compliment those things. It's not always about going to school, which isn't all that bad because school is expensive and time-consuming.

Setting My September Goals

I know it's a bit late to do this, but better late than never. Part of what it means to be awesome is to set goals, to create action plans to meet those goals, and then actually meet those goals. I'm going to set myself for awesomeness for the rest of the month, and eventually the year, by setting a few goals for the latter half of the month. These aren't the most ambitious goals in the world, but I also need goals that I can meet in two week's time.

Finish My DMV Appointment Articles

I have 52 articles left of the 102 articles that I need to complete. I want to get this done by the end of the month so I can invoice my client for the next set of articles. This set is taking longer than expected since I don't have the hired help to get them done. The articles aren't hard, just a little tedious since there's a fair amount of research and fact-checking that needs to go into each article. I'm putting it here as my top goal, and telling the world that this is what I'm going to do, so that I stop putting off these articles and start getting them done.

Finish Harrington on Hold 'Em

I haven't touched this book much since I last wrote about reading this. I'm stuck in the chapter on starting hand ranges, and my plan was to make a set of charts that I can refer to as I am playing poker. I've only made one chart, and I actually made it wrong, and ever since then I haven't touched the books or the charts. I really ought to get back to the book, since I think these charts and memorizing these starting hand ranges would improve my game and better ensure that I put myself in a good position when I decide to play a hand.

On a side note, I have already finished one book on my list of books to read this fall (I could have added a few more to this list, actually). Working on my second!

Have $100 in My Poker Bankroll

I am so close to meeting this goal! I currently have $91 and change, and if I reach $100, then I will have broken even with my original deposit. It's only up from there, as once I reach the $100 I can move up a buy-in level. Then, I can work my way up to doubling my money. Completing my second goal on this list will increase my chances of making this goal.

Answer 5 Questions for International Political Forum

So far, I've only answered one question about the Prime Minister and the Syrian conflict, with research started to answer questions about changes to the food stamp program and the welfare system. I need to get those up before they become outdated. This goal is doable, since I'm already 20% there, with two more questions in the works. I'm going to make it a mini goal to get both of those questions up this weekend. This would put me 60% toward my goal, making the other 20% that much easier to do in two week's time.

Small Change in Plans

I know I've changed my plans, like, 550 times (545 of those times were plans that were never started), but this is the 550th time that I am changing my plans regarding this blog. I can't guarantee this is the last time I'm changing my plans, but that's what's happening. My former business coach wouldn't be too happy with this, and would probably tell me to commit to something during our next coaching session. Not only is that not a bad idea, but I do think I ought to schedule a lunch with her in the near future.

Questions Will Be Posted on the International Political Forum

I just secured a new writing gig with International Political Forum, a news and commentary website for politically engaged young people, and I will be posting the answers to those questions there instead of here. I'll be starting this coming week. I think it's a better platform for that type of content, and I think my pieces will be able to attract more traffic on a site like this one. I also like that there isn't much time constraint here, so I don't have to pitch the old questions each one. If one is still relevant, then I can still write about it. One of the nice things about It also frees up my personal blog to be a bit more, well, personal. Sorry if this disappoints a few people.

I Prefer Keeping This Blog Personal

At first, I didn't like the idea of turning this blog into an online diary, since online diaries are so 2001. I wasn't sure if such content was what I wanted for my online reputation and identity capital. However, I do miss having something that's just mine and is there for me to write what I want. Since I write for a living, I am writing for someone else, even if I get to choose the topic or if there isn't much criteria in what needs to be written. There's always a standard to meet, an audience to consider, and other goals to shoot for, depending on the writing project. None of that has to apply to this blog, which is nice to have every once in a while (but don't get me wrong, as I'm probably not going to start using profanity or to cover inappropriate topics). It's nice to be able to write for myself regularly, as it does make me more motivated to write for others. Also, it is easier to write everyday if that's the case with this blog. I really don't need something else that requires a ton of work and forethought.

When it comes down to it, this blog should be fun. Writing should be fun. In the case of this blog and the questions articles, I think this change in plans makes both a little more fun. I'm excited already.

What to Expect

Since summer is almost over, I will be putting together my fall reading list and tallying what I've completed with my summer reading list. I have an idea of what's going to be on that fall reading list, so I am thrilled to put it together and to read more good books. That's what I know I will be covering in the next few days. I'll also write about many of the topics that I covered in previous posts i.e. poker, my cat, my business, eating healthier, video games, political issues etc. Should be fun.

This Week's Questions Absolutely Suck

It's probably a little fortuitous that I didn't answer any questions from last week because this week's questions are absolutely abysmal. Some of the US questions are out of left field, the international questions are somewhat interesting, but incredibly difficult to tackle if you don't know anything about what's going on. Which I don't, so I should start using the free printer at work to print out articles. My parents won't like that idea, but I assure, the office is cool with it.

This Week's Possible Questions

I actually left all 20 here to show the weirdness I'm refusing to work with here. I'm probably not going to pick any for this blog, but I might do one or two for the Amnesty International St. Louis blog. Therefore, I don't think it's worth it to spend any time narrowing the list down. Since I'm working on getting that file cabinet, I think I'll spend more time doing research and preparing myself to do this weekly (or more often). I have yet to make good on my word. I'll probably stick with the questions I wanted to answer last week. The nice thing about these questions is that, for the most part, they are relevant past their initial week.

1. If not Hillary, then who? (I'm presuming for presidential nominee in 2016, but the question is phrased rather vaguely.)
2. Will attempts to unionize America’s fast food industry succeed?
3. Has Obamacare’s implementation been a disaster?
4. Will leaks about NSA surveillance activities lead to significant revisions of government anti-terrorism powers?
5. How should the U.S. respond to allegations of chemical weapons use in Syria?
6. Is America’s housing market on the road to recovery?
7. Will the Playstation 4 have a more successful release than the XBox One? (I mean, really? What does this have to do with domestic policy? Does anyone care besides gamers and industry analysts?)
8. How can Steve Lonegan defeat Cory Booker? (Too localized for my tastes.)
9. Will Texas’s redistricting plan pass constitutional muster?
10. Does Chelsea Manning have a constitutional right to hormone therapy while in military custody? (No, because the Constitution doesn't say anything about this. Not sure what to say or argue here. I don't think there's much on the issue from this angle).
11. What should the Russian government do in light of new reports of chemical weapons usage in Syria?
12. Will the release of Hosni Mubarak make Egypt’s interim government extremely unpopular?
13. What can missile defense planners learn from Israel’s Iron Dome?
14. How can the UN’s MONUSCO mission in the Democratic Republic of the Congo improve its effectiveness?
15. Will recent revelations about radiation at the Fukushima nuclear plant doom attempts at reviving nuclear power in Japan?
16. Do European governments need to take stronger actions against neo-Nazi movements?
17. Why is economic growth in India slowing down? (My initial gut instinct says that it's either one or two big reasons, or many little reasons. The latter would make this question hard to answer.)
18. Should Ukraine sign a customs agreement with the European Union or Russia?
19. How should the Brazilian government deal with rising illegal immigration?
20. Would consolidation improve European banking? (Consolidation of what? Would research tell me?)