Mars: Putting the "Red" in Red, White and Blue!

I’m feeling philosophical this week (I blame Justin Kownacki and Mike Friedrich). So I want to pose a question to my tens of, ten readers. Let’s say in the next 125 years we were able to colonize the Mars. It is a dangerous mission, so we don’t send the A-list of humanity. Instead we send the dreamers, adventurers and those looking for a fresh start.  My question to you is this, how long until this social experiment breeds a “New America”?  Let me clarify what I mean by the term “new America”. I’m not suggesting that Mars would end up just being an addition to the United States. It may start that way, but what I’m suggesting is that in the end it becomes a complete retelling of our countries birth, with the role of Great Britain being played by the United States and the role of revolutionists being played by Mars colonists.

Imagine it, the red planet 2138; the last of the settlers arrive on the last ship, the Bransonita. It has been a long journey; provisions nearly ran out since they had navigated around an errant band of meteorites. The settlers are exhausted but excited; this is their new start, a new beginning. No longer will they be subject to the limited opportunities of earth. Here they will be free to live away from a society that subjects them to ideals which they don’t agree with. On Mars they will no longer be subject to the endless stream of corporate commercials that pass off as culture. On Mars they have no need to worry about student loans, finding a safe place to live, and electing leaders that no longer represent them. This is the new world! Fast forward another 25 years and the Mars settlers have organized and began to have a thriving community.  The first generation of Martians has been born and they are quickly spreading across the planet. Of course, this colony is still part of the United States and their citizens are protected and in some cases supported by their earthly motherland. However, their home planet ties are dwindling; the people of Mars have perfected hydroponics and have almost created a complete self-sufficient ecosystem which makes the need of constant supplies and visitors from earth less necessary. In fact they are down to one supply ship a quarter, until they discovered “element X”. Element X is a new type of construction material for microchips. It conducts electricity perfectly with zero impedance at room temperature. This means that all power can be used to its utmost efficiency. This new element has the potential to revolutionize all technology and mankind with it, the only catch is that it can only be found on Mars.

Suddenly there is a surge of immigrants to Mars, every one of them looking for ways to cash in on this new “gold rush”. Of course now the governments of Earth are paying close attention to the Red Planet. What started as a frontier adventure has turned into a financial boom for every Martian. You see, for the first 50 years of the Mars colonization they believed that there were limited resources on Mars and thus little value to the planet. So, the United States allowed people willing to travel to Mars to claim or purchase land, which includes mineral rights to that land. Aside from a few entrepreneurs who bought huge plots of land for entertainment purposes, most of the land was bought by frontiersmen who accepted it as pay for work and services. These are the citizens who moved to Mars to escape the less desirable parts of earthly living. They came to Mars for adventure or to start new churches, new cultures, and a new way of life. They took a leap of faith and now this leap made them rich. These Martians now have a pride for their new planet, its culture and people. It’s this pride that makes them want to form a new country and of course you know, this means war.

What qualifies me to think any of this might happen? Nothing, I’m not qualified in any way, shape or form. My only justification is that we, people, humans are very predictable. Throughout history we have cycled through the rise and fall of many empires. So, in short, America isn’t that special. Maybe that’s going a bit too far…we are just as special as Greece, Rome, Persia, Egypt, and every other empire that has ever existed. However, to think us unique is a stretch. We weren’t the first and we won’t be the last and what better place for the “next America” to be born then on another planet. Its history and we never learn from it, so we often repeat it. By the way, this would make an awesome tv series or book. I would write it, but I’m too busy making money to buy an acre of red dust.

Out of Hibernation

I cannot wait for spring! Not because we’ve had a bad winter, in fact, we’ve barely had a winter at all in Baltimore. The fact is I just need the weather to pick a consistent temperature and stick with it. This back and forth between 40 degrees and 70 degrees has caused me more literal headaches and sinus/cold issues then I would like to count. It has been the mildest winter I’ve experienced since moving to Maryland over three years ago and is not even comparable to any winter I experienced in my 10+ years in Erie. Since, both astrological and meteorological spring is nearly here, I figured I may as well blog again. So, I’ll ease into it with the #1 bloggers tool for easy content, a list. Here’s my list of things that helped get me through the long winter:


• Dawn Papuga, duh…

• DC’s launch of the New 52, I’m digging the Red Lantern and Red Hood books

• Game of Thrones, I can’t wait for season two

• Archer, “Serpentine Baboo, serpentine!!!”

• Justified & SOA, best dramas on television

• Batman: Arkham City, I lost a week of vacation to that game

• La Scala, our favorite restaurant in all of Baltimore

• NFL, let’s go BRONCOS!!

That’s just a few things that made this winter bearable. Now on to a summer full of excitement and if I’m lucky, blogging!

What kind of "Blogger" are you?

It’s April Fools Day and nothing says April Fools like a fresh blog post. I’ve been taking a long time in between posts and I was beginning to feel bad about that, but then I realized what kind of “blogger” I am.

You see, in my opinion, there are three different types of bloggers. The first type is the “self-important bloggers;” these people blog, Twitter, update Facebook and basically type their fingers off every day. They see themselves as entertainers. Often they are humorous or highly opinionated and if you look closely you can see the definite outline of their ego on everything they touch—not that it’s a bad thing. I've had many a long discussion with my good friend Justin and my girlfriend Dawn about how ego is a central theme in social media. Twitter, Facebook, 4-Square all run under the guise that you are important and entertaining enough for complete strangers to follow throughout the day. Ok, that sounds a bit harsh, but it’s not meant to be. I consider social media just another creative outlet or art-form. I think that being relevant, creative, and entertaining in 140-characters or less is challenging and I respect those that can do it. They are talented in a way that really cannot be taught and really isn’t that what art is all about; talent and ego?

Alright, now the next blogging style is the “dam bloggers”, not to be confused with “those damn bloggers”, which is likely something you’d hear at an AP News convention. What I like to call “dam bloggers” are creative people who have enough fresh ideas to blog, tweet, and spew social media creativity everyday, but they are too busy, unmotivated, or indifferent to do so. What happens to them is they wait until their reservoir of ideas/opinions is full and then they spew all of them onto blog pages, twitter feeds, or Facebook updates. This usually results in either a quick and heavy burst of social media posts or just one really, really long blog post. I think this is probably the most common type of “blogger” or social media user. In this case, these individuals need a creative outlet, but not everyday. They have no real aspirations at making money via social media or even being known for their social media use. They just like to occasionally express themselves and be social and there’s nothing wrong with that. It’s a lot like the term “social drinker”-- it’s somebody who likes to go out and have fun, but not necessarily every night. I’d try to dub the term “social blogger,” but that might get too confusing.

Then there is the final type of social media user. I like to call them the “peer pressure bloggers.” These folks have a blog because everyone else they associate with has a blog. They could also be referred to as “apathetic bloggers.” In a lot of cases, they get the whole “idea” behind blogging and they might even be amazing, creative, insightful writers, but they are missing the level of ego that is needed to be a prolific social media producer/creator. They don’t understand why their voice would matter or if anyone cares about what they would have to contribute. They use social media more as a communication tool than a resource. They use Twitter only with their close friends and Facebook is really just a giant rolodex for their friends and family. Like I said before, this isn’t wrong, it’s just different and that’s what makes social media so confusing and great at the same time. Social media is an art-form and a tool; it’s the “Adobe Creative Suite” of communication devices. There are right and wrong ways to use social media, depending on your desired outcome, but you won’t know if you don’t try. These folks try, but the art of it, really isn’t in their blood. Even so, they can be an important part of the community. As the saying goes, “the world needs ditch diggers too.”

Now, back to my realization of what kind of blogger I am…well, I’m a mixture of type number two and three, with enough ego for a handful of number ones. Lucky for me social media is big enough for all of us.