in the mist where melody flies

So sick and tired of all these pictures of me

2007-08-04T04:33:09Z

Whoa! I showed up on the Grooveshark blog --

-- and I was further informed that, in May, I was a featured image on Wikinews!

What a wild Web we weave :)

Something new

2007-07-31T05:43:36Z

I feel like blogging more, lately.

I enjoy writing now and then, and would like a venue to do so -- one where I'll feel comfortable pointing people to, and hopefully one that can attract some readership, so I can have feedback.

I set up a WordPress install at gavinbaker.com over a year ago. I've never updated it from the SG campaign site. That's going to change, and relatively soon.

I don't want to break links to the existing URLs, and a part of me thinks I might even want an archive of that content, some day. But I also don't want to have to maintain an inactive WordPress install definitely: at best, it's an annoyance to maintain; at worst, it's a security risk and an invitation to spammers. So I'll be stripping WordPress out and leaving static copies of the pages in place.

I'll install a new instance of WordPress and get things set up the way I like it. Eventually, I'll start using it. Hopefully, I'll use it somewhat regularly -- posting at least a few times a month -- because I know that updates attract readers, and readers leave feedback.

I'll also stop posting here, both to encourage readers to move to gavinbaker.com and join the discussion there, and because I'm done with LiveJournal. I still have some fondness for LJ, but I want something more professional. (If I want the benefits of pseudonymity, I'll use a different account which is not attached to my public persona.) I imagine I have a few friends who would read posts here but wouldn't use RSS or check my site, and I'd be happy to import my RSS from gavinbaker.com, but IIRC you need a paid account or something to do that. (If anyone would like to volunteer to set up a feed account on LJ, please let me know.)

I'll probably continue to use LJ for reading others' blogs, commenting, and communities.

I'll also be making some other changes at gavinbaker.com (out with the old and in with the new), including switching my domain registrar (see ya, GoDaddy).

In addition, my email address will be changing within the next three months (most likely to something @gavinbaker.com). I'll also be going through a twelve-step program for Facebook (step 1: admit you have a problem), so if that's how you normally communicate with me, it's time to dust off the email client. (Yes Virginia, email does have other interfaces besides the Web.) I'll also be, let's say, cleaning up my accounts on random sites I briefly used (I'm looking at you, Friendster).

No, I will be getting a LinkedIn account.

I don't like Web services that won't let me do what I want with my data and that won't let me run the service myself (i.e. they don't give me the code). These proprietary walled gardens are not what I want the Web to be like. (And even if they have narrow windows through which they allow you to pass some data, they're still walls.) I want to start living Web 3.0; and those social networking sites are just a time suck, anyway.

A donation to the commons

2007-07-27T07:02:09Z

My introduction to the public domain, as best I can remember, came courtesy of Project Gutenberg, the fabulous e-book project. I don't know how I first heard of PG, but I do have some memories. I remember, in high school, leaving my copy of Alice's Adventures in Wonderland in my locker at school; I simply downloaded a copy from PG. It was a beautiful thing.

Moreover, in high school I started my first project to contribute to the commons (though I had no idea what "the commons" was, at that time) -- a student club to contribute texts to PG. I never recruited anyone beyond my friends to join the club, and they helped little; the club fizzled out after one book. I chose the name "Literary Preservation Society" because I hoped it meant the administration would leave us alone: it sounded highfalutin, not rebellious like I felt when thinking about (gasp!) posting books online for free. (I figured, with the public domain, we were legally in the clear, but I didn't want any trouble.) I remember my grandiose vision of a network of student clubs around the world, each donating a little of their time to help prepare books for everyone's benefit. These were terribly exciting thoughts for a high school student (Asheesh, feel free to add appropriate Everything2 allusions here) -- which was all the more disappointing when, as previously mentioned, it failed to gain any traction. Little did I know that what was not quite possible ~6 years ago would not only blossom as a field of endeavor since then, but would coincidentally be a movement in which I myself was deeply involved. (Think back ~6 years: Distributed Proofreaders hadn't opened its doors at PG; Wikipedia had just launched; Creative Commons hadn't released any licenses yet.)

As I mentioned, we did produce one ebook, #5825, The Courage of the Commonplace by Mary Raymond Shipman Andrews. A rather unremarkable book, I think we chose it to be first because it was the shortest of the public domain books at our disposal (that had not already been added to PG). We had a little handful of eligible books, some from my mother's collection and some from a stack provided by our biology teacher from his. (I believe Courage was from the latter source.) Most of his such books ended up sitting in a bag somewhere while our club ignored them for a number of months; I remember doing some research to see which would be eligible for PG, but I can't recall what happened beyond that. I think we eventually gave him the books back, and the only one that ever got scanned was Courage. (In fairness, though, even Courage was never scanned: we typed the text in manually. As I said, this was before DP had opened officially for PG.)

Out of my mother's collection, there were at least a few eligible books that hadn't been added to PG. Eventually -- judging from the timestamp on the files, the summer after my freshman year of college -- I scanned one, a Spanish textbook, and added it to the site.

Tonight, through a series of events (which I'll blog about later), I ended up back at DP after a long absence. When I managed to get back into the site, I eventually found the Spanish textbook I scanned over two years ago. It's still in the formatting stages, but it's made progress and is en route to release. It was a pleasant surprise to find out what'd happened with the book, and that it's going somewhere. The project comments and the forum thread are both online (though login may be required to view them). I feel very gratified by this small "donation" to the commons: I found the book, submitted the copyright clearance request, scanned the pages, and found someone to whom I could hand the project off; without me, it's continued forward and will eventually bear fruit. Looking at the forum thread, people from around the world have worked on this book, which otherwise would sit completely unused on my bedroom shelf.

One other contribution I've made to PG (besides a few pages proofread here and there on DP) was the hardcopy of Zane Gray's The Day of the Beast. I don't remember where this book came from (maybe my mother, maybe that biology teacher, maybe some book store or garage sale where I picked it up on the cheap), but it wasn't in good condition when I got it. Rather than scan it on my time-consuming flatbed, I shipped it off to another DPer with a pagefeed scanner; the binding was cut off and the copy destroyed, but it lives on online, free to the world.

awesome

2007-07-19T06:35:48Z

And it's from 1956. Some people are just prescient.

Finally

2007-05-25T16:08:14Z

It's over!
Uploaded by Naufragio.

And the journey is finally, officially, verifiably, completed.

A most peculiar dream

2007-05-14T13:26:12Z

What's even odder is that all parts of the dream flowed together and were more or less internally consistent, unlike most weird dreams which only make sense because they're dreams, and fall apart when you wake up. Unfortunately, I forget some of the parts that made it make sense.

I was in Philadelphia, doing something FreeCulture.org-related. Roblimo was taking over hosting duties for FC.o, as well as for the new Heavy Metal Hall of Fame. There was a good deal of thought dedicated to founding halls of fame for genres of music and how they are funded. Then I called the hall of fame and hung up after someone answered. (The person who answered didn't originally have a British accent, but my dream amended this ex post facto.) After I hung up, the person called me back, and said, "Newberry, eh?," although I never knew this, because I never answered the phone. At the time, I thought it was odd that he called back, and that he knew where I was from, albeit incorrectly (Newberry is near Gainesville). (In retrospect, this made less sense, because I am not from Gainesville, either, and in fact my phone is from neither Gainesville's nor Newberry's area code.)

So then something happened, which made sense but I no longer remember, and I was in a parking lot. There were two cars of interest, but I only remember one. In this car, Jeanna Mastrodicasa was about to drive Cory Doctorow to the airport. They both treated me with that I've-met-you-once-but-don't-really-remember-you etiquette, which is to say cursorily, which disappointed me. I tried to explain something about how I either worked for FreeCulture.org or for the Heavy Metal Hall of Fame, but they didn't care. (OK, so that part isn't internally consistent, either.)

Uh, so then I went to go vote, because apparently now I lived in Philadelphia. So I went to the precinct, (driving - insert scenes of urban Protestant churches), which used paper ballots. The mayor, a woman who looked a bit like Pam Carpenter, approached me and asked what I thought about that fact (the paper ballots, not Pam Carpenter). This was a bit surprising to me, but not totally. I hadn't been expecting to be asked that question, but apparently the mayor had recognized me as a person with an opinion about it, and decided to ask me on the spot. I told her that I thought comparing the running of that day's elections to the previous e-voting elections in the city would be the only fair comparison. Originally, when I arrived at the precinct there were few other voters, but as I spoke with the mayor (who wasn't distracted by anything in particular, but didn't seem to be paying attention) and added all these qualifications to my original statement, more and more voters arrived, and I became aware that the changes I was recommending were more expensive and time-consuming than e-voting (as if these changes were singlehandedly causing the queue of voters to grow longer). I realized that, at some point, e-voting will always be faster or less expensive than paper ballots, and thus I would need to justify paper ballots not only as better or equivalent on those grounds, but also better on some security grounds. At this point I woke up, and marveled at how odd that dream was.

In retrospect, I think everyone in the dream whom I tried to speak with may have acted as if they had ADD because my brain had a very short attention span, as my body was busy breaking down alcohol and being uncomfortably warm because my fan was off. If so, however, it's only more remarkable how coherent the dream was overall.

What are you trying to say about me, Citysearch?

2007-05-13T01:35:52Z

Excuse me?!
Uploaded by Naufragio.

I graduated

2007-05-08T22:11:44Z

Yes, it came as a surprise to me, too.

Free bed! Free desk!

2007-05-07T00:58:30Z

Update: Taken

Moving out and giving it all away! I want to give this away tomorrow - Monday, May 7.

Queen bed - includes frame, mattress, and box spring. Good condition. (The only problem is that I don't have the wheels for the frame. So when you put it down somewhere, it's not easy to move. That's not a big problem, because beds don't usually move too much, anyway.)

Desk - it's a basic desk, maybe 3 feet long by 1 foot deep by 3 feet tall (guesstimates). Wood laminate. There's a little cabinet. It's a little dinged up in places, but it works. Hey, it's free.

Come get it from my apartment in Point West (near University and 34th St.). First come, first served! Call Gavin at 407-929-5657.

11 ways we should amend the Constitution

2007-04-28T21:59:29Z

I would contend that American reverence for the Constitution has a nasty side effect: we revere it so much, we suffer an immense hesitation to change it, ever, for any reason. I think this oversized reluctance ends up warping our policy, because it is so difficult to amend the Constitution, we are forced to work within it even when it would be much more advantageous to update it.

I don't think we should take amending the Constitution lightly, but there's a reason why there is an amendment process: because it is sometimes necessary to amend. I fear this is something that Americans have forgot, and as a result, our laws end up weird because the framework is not very adequate for responding to the realities of the day.

So I wanted to toss out some ideas on ways we should amend the Constitution, and seek the opinion of friends and respected acquaintances. Take this as a starting point for discussion rather than an indication that I am a gung-ho believer in any of the following suggestions. In no particular order:

1. Enshrine the right to fair use of copyrighted material

2. Prohibit retroactive term extensions of intellectual property rights

3. Provide Congressional representation for the District of Columbia

4. Enshrine the right to information self-determination (i.e. the right to control the use of information created by and about you -- essentially a property right for personal information)

5. Eliminate the electoral college and establish a national popular vote for the Presidency/Vice Presidency

6. Abolish capital punishment (at any level of government)

7. Overturn Kelo to limit the use of eminent domain to public purposes (e.g. using language similar to the constitutional amendment in Florida: "Private property taken by eminent domain ... may not be conveyed to a natural person or private entity")

8. Establish that states have the right to secede from the union (either according to the laws of each state, or within conditions established by the federal government -- I'm not sure which); states have the right to reach agreements reconfiguring their borders with other states, within the boundaries of the United States; inhabited areas that are not part of states (with the exception of the Federal District) have the right to secede from the union, petition the federal government for statehood, or retain non-state status

9. Enshrine the principle of freedom of information (i.e. access to government documents), with exceptions similar to those in the Freedom of Information Act

10. Amend the interstate commerce clause to specify that Congress can regulate commerce as long as the activity regulated is performed in several states, and the regulation applies uniformly across all states (i.e. Congress cannot regulate an activity in only one state, or regulate it differently in one state than in another)

11. Reduce the age to serve in elected federal office (i.e. President/Vice President, House of Representatives, Senate) to the voting age (i.e. 18)

Looking forward to some interesting replies,

Gavin

Understanding the Logic of Collective Drinking

2007-04-23T02:11:10Z

Certain small groups can provide themselves with collective goods without relying on coercion or any positive inducements apart from the collective good itself. This is because in some small groups each of the members, or at least one of them, will find that his personal gain from having the collective good exceeds the total cost of providing some amount of that collective good; there are members who would be better off if the collective good were provided, even if they had to pay the entire cost of providing it themselves, than they would be if it were not provided.
Mancur Olson, Jr., The Logic of Collective Action: Public Goods and the Theory of Groups (Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard UP, 1965), 33-34

Here, Olson is describing what frequently happens when I'm drinking, or trying to persuade my friends to come drinking -- namely, I offer to buy the first round / the first six-pack, etc. I'll pay $7, even though I will only consume 1/3 of it, because I get more enjoyment out of that use of my $7 than out of alternative uses.

Man, I wish I were drinking.

Sublease my apartment this summer -- cheap!

2007-03-31T14:51:06Z

As you may know, I'm graduating in May (fingers crossed) but, like most hapless renters, the lease for my Gainesville apartment runs through the beginning of August. Since I won't be here after commencement, I'd prefer to limit the amount I have to pay for an apartment I'm not using, which is to say, I'd like to find someone to sublease to. So:

Looking to sublease 1br in a 3/2 apartment in Point West. Located along the route for bus 34 and walking distance from restaurants, supermarket, and convenience stores. Walking distance to stops for buses 5 and 43.

Rent is only $275 plus utilities (about $100/mo). There is a $200 application fee, but the apartment might waive it; if not, I could cover it if it will be a problem for you.

Apartment will be available on May 9 through July 31.

Apartment is unfurnished, but I will be glad to sell or give you my desk and queen-size bed.

Remaining roommates are quiet and male.

The complex features a spacious outdoor pool and laundry facilities on-site.

Contact Gavin at grbaker@ufl.edu or comment here with your email or phone number.

Note to UF students/employees: The apartment is available the week before Summer A. However, July 31 is before the end of Summer B/C, so if you will be in Gainesville for the Summer B or Summer C session, unfortunately this is not the place for you. You can finish out the lease; or, if you only need an apartment for Summer A, you can just rent for Summer A (i.e. May 9 through the end of June).

1 of 6 - check

2007-03-30T18:21:08Z

Six classes stand between me and graduation. I have to pass each in order to graduate in May. All six classes are senior-level classes.

Five of them are political science classes, and in each of those I have to write a paper. In at least three, I also have a group project and/or presentation. In the fourth, I might have a presentation, but I can't remember off the top of my head.

The sixth class is Media Law. Thankfully, there are no papers in that class. I just took the second of three exams that, along with extra credit, constitute the grade for the class.

In order to pass Media Law, I need only score a 36 on the third exam. A 57 will net me a C+ for the semester; 66 will earn a B; 87 gets a B+; 96 wins an A. And, should I fail to achieve an adequate score on the third exam, I can take an optional final exam which will replace my lower exam score.

So I am no longer worried about one of my six classes.

That just leaves the other five to be concerned about.

P.S. Alligator editorial page

2007-02-06T07:52:04Z

That means you, cartoonists, ed board, and columnists alike.

Hi.

It is pointless when you rehash what someone said yesterday. And the week before. Especially when it was stupid to behind with.

Are you going to make me come out of my editorial retirement???

You suck this semester.

P2008, 2

2007-02-06T07:16:18Z

I figured out the issue. It's trust.

I trust Clark and Richardson.

I don't trust Obama and Edwards. I want to, but I don't.

Come on and inspire me.

P2008

2007-02-05T10:24:59Z

I gotta get a couple thoughts off my chest.

I have always had it out for Hillary Clinton. I would love to see a woman in the White House, but voting for a woman just because she's a woman is no better than voting against a woman for the same reason. There has to be more. I hate legacies -- the thought of a president's wife being elected president is not a happy one for me. And, while I generally favor the Clinton approach to the economy, the endless triangulation and beating-around-the-bush is just awful. There is certainly no place for it on Iraq. In fact, if anything, after November the Democrats should unite around Iraq and really put the heat on the White House. Instead, you get Clinton and co. hemming and hawing. She will not get my vote in the primary.

Can't stand Kucinich.

Biden, Dodd, whatever. The Vietnam guys don't appeal to me. (Biden joined the Senate in '72; Dodd the House in '74.)

Gravel and Sharpton (if he jumps in) are not necessary of serious consideration. I will be extremely surprised if Gore runs.

Vilsack, I think, is doomed to obscurity. He has no experience at the federal level. I don't see anything that makes him stand out. I'm just not interested.

I would not mind seeing Clark run. I fear, though, that he waited too long, and the pack is too crowded at this point. He would need to have incredible polling numbers after the announcement to be taken seriously.

So: Edwards, Obama, Richardson.

I like Edwards OK. He's a bit neocon on foreign policy for me. I think he is running hard to the left of the pack -- which shows he understands what party he is, unlike some of the other candidates -- but I think his policy would not actually look as progressive as he sounds. I guess what I feel is, I don't trust him.

I don't entirely trust Obama either. I would love an African American president, but see above re: HRC. I really identify with him as a young person, more than any of the other candidates. But he has the same Clinton tendency to mealymouth. He looks like a progressive, but doesn't always sound like one, and so I am left wondering if he would act like one.

I love Richardson's biography more than any other candidate's, except maybe Clark. Congress, Governor, Ambassador, Secretary of Energy -- an incredible breadth of experience. I would love a Hispanic president, but see above re: HRC. I think he does mainstream right. Rather than triangulating like Clinton, you have videos like this. How many other candidates have the Chamber of Commerce in their video? You know he's not going to be as progressive as, say, Edwards on economic issues, but I'm not sure I care. I know he's not a neocon, I know he's going to focus on growth for everyone and helping the middle class -- I am not sure I demand more progressive action than that. You get the feeling he doesn't arrive at a moderate position by triangulating and opinion polls and focus groups -- he considers what would be a good policy for the challenge, turning a blind eye to ideology. I think his foreign policy experience would do wonders.

Richardson has to bust it to break out of the second tier; otherwise, he's hoping for VP or Secretary of State. But it doesn't seem like Richardson is really trying to sell himself to the activist base; he's trying to sell himself to the people who've already bought into Hilary. If he is basically a Clinton clone, well, you can't blame him too much, but he has to position himself as something else, because there's already a Clinton in the race. Unless there is a mass defection by the party establishment, he won't be picking up much of Clinton's percentage; therefore, he has to make it up from the other candidates, which means either taking from the losers (except their share would generally transfer to the top 3) or taking from Edwards and Obama. That means looks progressive, or at least, looking clean. He has a good start on the latter by calling for only positive campaigns in the primary. And, in fact, I think it is entirely possible that Edwards and/or Obama will self-destruct -- more likely than Hilary -- so this is not a quixotic challenge. But it is a big challenge. Because those points have to come from somewhere. I don't see many early dropouts -- maybe Biden, Dodd, Vilsack. If Sharpton is in, he's in for the long haul, no matter how bad he does; ditto for Gravel and Kucinich (probably). (I'm talking prior to the first primaries.) The others will be in until at least South Carolina, probably. And if Richardson hasn't scored in the top 3 by South Carolina, I think he's toast.

The bigger question is, how do we keep Clinton in the Senate? Because the last thing I want in 2008 is people looking at Clinton and McCain / Giuliani and saying, "What's the difference? I'll just stay home, or vote for Nader"...

ugh

2007-01-30T18:00:50Z

I'm about this far from never reading the Alligator again.

Every day this semester, the paper contains only

news I already knew
news I don't care about
opinions that are fatalistic, defeatist, pessimistic, cynical, and/or nihilistic
opinions that are uninformed or just plain stupid.

What incentive do I have to keep reading this trash?

Was it always this bad, and I just never noticed before?

Is it impossible to write something positive, ever?

figures

2006-12-27T08:33:13Z

That it gets cold exactly the day after Christmas.

Sublease available, summer 2007: May - August

2006-12-24T08:07:04Z

I want to start getting the word out so I can find someone to sublease my place in summer 2007. Since I'll be graduating at the end of the spring (you heard it here first), I won't be in Gainesville for the summer, and would rather not pay for a place where I'm not living.

The sublease will be available in mid-May (before the beginning of Summer A -- around May 9-12) until August 1 (I believe(. Note that this is before the end of Summer B / C. However, I believe the occupant will have the opportunity to renew if s/he so chooses. I might be wrong on this fact, and it might be available through the end of Summer B / C.

The sublease is in Point West, on SW 34th St. across from campus and the 34th Street Wall. The apartment is about five blocks south of University Ave., or about 15 blocks north of SW 20th Ave. The apartment is a short walk to bus stops for routes 5, 34, 43, 20, and 21, as well as campus routes (Lakeside, Family Housing, etc.) It's just a few minutes walk to nearby grocery stores, pharmacy and convenience stores, and restaurants.

The apartment is a 3 bed / 2 bath. The apartment has a living room, dining room, kitchen, balcony, cable TV, and wireless Internet; your room includes a walk-in closet. Room is unfurnished but I would be glad to transfer ownership of my bed (queen-size) and desk for a nominal fee. The complex has ample parking and laundry machines on-site, a pool and clubhouse. Laid-back roommates. Many of the residents are law and grad students, so it's a fairly quiet complex. Pets are allowed but I'm not sure about the details or whether there is a fee.

FYI for those with allergies: My roommate has a cat.

The best part about this sublease is the price. Rent is $275 / month (your share). Rent does not include electricity, cable, Internet, (water?). My share of the utilities is usually less than $100 / month combined, but given that this will be the summer and you'll be using the air conditioning, you should probably expect to pay a bit more than $100 (but it should be less than $150). So, all expenses paid, it'll probably be about $375 - $400 / month.

Interested? Comment here, or email me: grbaker@ufl.edu.

spam

2006-12-23T20:25:30Z

I got a copy of this spam today. Interesting story behind it!

sigh

2006-12-16T10:20:53Z

I am le tired

1 left

2006-12-06T05:28:52Z

One class left for the semester. It's a doozy: an exam and a group presentation, the latter of which I have no clue what's going on, and the former of which I need to read several chapters for. But I have plenty of time to read tomorrow, and I'm not too worried. Besides, it's only an elective: I'd like a high grade, but as long as I pass, I'm OK.

Then it's on to the GRE.

FL CD-13

2006-11-30T06:52:12Z

The House should seat Buchanan, and not make a stink about it -- in exchange for passing Rush Holt's bill to fix e-voting.

Dems will still have their majority without the political mistake of overturning state-certified election results, or the specter of a special election hanging over the first few months of the Dem majority. Jennings fights out her fight in the courts and prepares for 2008, if she's up for it (DCCC pledges support in the re-match). The massive problem of e-voting is fixed across the country. Everybody wins, except Christine Jennings, but she makes out pretty well for a loser.

Assuming the Republicans promise not to hold up the bill or meddle with it too much. (Given the Dem majority in the House, they can probably pass it there, but they might not have 60 in the Senate without a deal. If it passes both, I think it'd be very unwise for Bush to veto.)

back to work.

I got a laptop

2006-11-25T22:01:55Z

for $300 at Office Depot at 6 am on Friday morning.

Suck it, Adbusters.*

It's a Toshiba. Don't know much more about it, and don't care, because I'm just gonna put Linux on it anyway.

Suck it, Microsoft.

In case you're keeping track, this is the first time I've had a laptop. Yes, that's why I always awkwardly ask to check my email when I travel. So, that changes now. I wasn't planning on getting one / asking for one until next year, but I couldn't think of the next time when I'll be able to get a laptop for $300, and I was there, and it was there, so I got it.

P.S. Yes, I did buy gifts for other people as well.

* I only say this because actually, I deeply sympathize with Buy Nothing Day and feel a bit guilty for breaking it two years in a row.

Future plans

2006-11-20T18:01:02Z

two: The likelihood of following through on my plan to graduate in August and not pursue further degrees is now down to about 50-50. I'm probably going to take the GRE in December and see how I do. If I bomb it, well, there's one less option. If I do well, I'll probably apply to grad school (in political science) at UF.

Being accepted will be a trick as my GPA is < 3.0 and I bombed one poli sci class. (All the rest, I have A's or B's in, and am expecting similar grades in the future.) I also haven't done too much coursework in political science or related areas and don't have strong relationships with three faculty who could write glowing recommendations.

Even if I don't apply to grad school, or I apply and am not accepted, I may choose to take my fourth year. I'd like to do more coursework in political science and economics, and an additional class here and there (like Telecom Law and Regulation or one of the History of Science and Technology classes). I'd also kind of like to graduate on time (or at least in Spring rather than Summer). I should have a fourth year of scholarship money coming anyway (not that it's enough to cover all my expenses, but it might be enough to justify delaying entering the workforce for a year). A fourth year would also give me more time to network and make useful connections.

Regardless of what happens above, I may do my internship in the fall rather than the summer -- or, potentially, both. If I do an internship for academic credit in the summer, it's not covered by Bright Futures, so I owe UF like $300 (for doing an internship!). Correct me if I'm wrong on this count. On the other hand, if I do an internship in the fall, it is covered. So I could stay at Creative Commons twice as long, or intern with another free culture organization (except none of them offer paid internships AFAIK), or intern at some other place, paid or unpaid.

This could be particularly salient if G-- wait, let me look up "salient" to see if it means what I think it means. OK, it doesn't. This could be particularly palatable if Gloria gets the scholarship she's applying for and decides to study at Cal Tech in the fall. Note that there are two variables in the preceding sentence. Yes, Pasadena is still six hours from SF, but at least it's in the same time zone, and we'd be able to see each other maybe once or twice a month vs. once or twice a semester. It's not a ton of difference but it might be enough to make the decision easier for both of us.

Doing my internship in the fall would probably lend itself toward my graduating in the spring. I'd take a semester's more classes -- which is probably just the right amount, since I want to take a few more, but I'm not all that interested in another full year -- and graduate on time, in the spring, i.e. with everybody else.

An additional benefit of taking another year of classes would be that my GPA would almost certainly increase, particularly in my major and related coursework, and I'd have more major and related coursework. This would make me a better applicant for grad or law school.

Granted, the idea of grad school originally arose as a way to stay in Gainesville for two more years while Gloria finishes her degree. But I'd be lying if I said I had no interest in law, and in fact, I secretly also want to study the impact of IP and ICT on development -- something that would be aided by a master's in political science. And certainly a higher degree would give me a foot up in the job market (all a BA in political science really says is that you graduated from college -- it doesn't say much about your actual knowledge about anything). But I'd also be lying if I said I didn't want to run screaming from classrooms and never write a paper again. And if I don't do it while Gloria's finishing her BA, my opportunity will never be as good -- assuming the current track of events, we'd be stuck trying to get admitted into the same school for our respective graduate programs, or at least schools in the same city, or stuck in separate cities. And I wouldn't be able to work while she did her other degrees, which would certainly be helpful to her (not that she'll need it, of course).

Gloria should hear about her scholarship next month, and we'll see how I do on the GRE. And we'll take it from there.

Luckily, I've thought up some good job opportunities in town in case I don't do grad school. Whether they'd pan out, not sure. But I've got some better ideas than I had before.