Please pardon my temporary immaturity for a moment, but I really couldn’t help myself.

As I noted a couple of months ago, I am the proud owner of an Xbox 360. Along the way, I’ve picked up a small handful of titles, but I have yet to fully immerse myself in the Xbox Live experience. Maybe that’s a good thing, because earlier this week, Microsoft pushed out the New Xbox Experience (NXE for short). This involved a completely revamped user interface and a few other notable changes.

One of the new features is the introduction of Xbox Avatars, which are basically the Xbox 360 equivalents of the Mii characters found on the Nintendo Wii. While fiddling with my Avatar, I realized that I could manipulate him in some interesting ways. By shaking his head, I could make him angry. By getting him to nod, I could make him happy. By swirling his head around, I could make him dizzy.

After mentioning this on Twitter, I got a response from Danny Dang, telling me that I could get my Xbox Avatar to burp by pressing the right analog stick. Further exploration yielded the festive video embedded below. Too bad there aren’t any holiday-themed outfits (yet). Otherwise, I may have dressed him up as Santa or Frosty.

We’re getting that much closer to the NFL playoffs, so each and every game is more important than ever. I’ve started to enjoy a little more success with some of my football picks lately, so hopefully I’ll be able to keep up that accuracy going into Week 12.

The point spreads for this week in the NFL, for better or for worse, do not exceed 10 points in any given game. As always, I’ve pulled these point spreads from the Vegas line, as provided by Caesars-Hilton.

Philadelphia Eagles at Baltimore Ravens (-0.5)
I’ll admit it. I was pretty crazy last week when I said that the Ravens would beat the Giants. That clearly did not happen, but it seems that McNabb and Reid are going through a bit of a downward spiral, so I’ll stick with Baltimore.
Pick: BAL

Houston Texans at Cleveland Browns (-2.5)
Neither of these teams is doing particularly well these days, but the Texans are on a three game losing streak. I expect that to continue with such a small spread to boot.
Pick: CLE

Tampa Bay Buccaneers (-8.5) at Detroit Lions
We’re only a few weeks away from celebrating a completely defeated season for the Detroit Lions. The wish of Ed Lau is getting more and more realistic every week, because the Lions are going to go winless. Go Bucs.
Pick: TB

Buffalo Bills (-2.5) at Kansas City Chiefs
The Buffalo Bills surprised everyone at the beginning of this season and then their spark sort of sizzled. Look for the Bills to snap that four game losing streak against the even more hapless Chiefs of Kansas City.
Pick: BUF

Chicago Bears (-7.5) at St. Louis Rams
Next to the Detroit Lions, the Rams are possibly the second worst team in the league. Even with a record of 5-5, the Bears are still sitting on top of their division. Yes, Chicago got demolished by the Packers last week, but Kyle Orton was fresh back from his injury. With a little rest and an opportunity to get back in the groove, I expect the Bears to devour the Rams.
Pick: CHI

New York Jets at Tennessee Titans (-5.5)
Until they give me a reason to believe otherwise, I’m going to remain hopeful that the Tennessee Titans will repeat the undefeated regular season record that the Patriots enjoyed last year. I’m not so sure if they’ll go on to win the big dance at the end, but they have a good chance of going 16-0. Favre is a challenge, but the Titans will rise to the occasion.
Pick: TEN

New England Patriots at Miami Dolphins (-1.5)
Speaking of the Patriots, this year’s squad is clearly not the same as the AFC champions that we saw last year, but Matt Cassel is really starting to get the hang of things in New England. This will be a challenge, but I expect the Pats to come out on top.
Pick: NE

Minnesota Vikings at Jacksonville Jaguars (-1.5)
Adrian Peterson is pretty impressive, having already rushed for over 1000 yards this season, but I feel that the Jaguars are a more complete package, despite what their 4-6 record may lead you to believe. Look for the slight upset in this battle.
Pick: JAC

San Francisco 49ers at Dallas Cowboys (-9.5)
Anyone who thought the return of Tony Romo would magically turn around the struggling Dallas Cowboys was clearly being a bit too much of an optimist. I sincerely hope that the Cowboys win this game, but Frank Gore and the Niners have enough tools to prevent them from covering the spread.
Pick: SF

Oakland Raiders at Denver Broncos (-9.5)
No one plays quite as well in Might High Stadium as the Denver Broncos and it certainly helps that the nearly useless Raiders are the team coming to visit this week. Look for the division-leading Broncs to trample the Raiders.
Pick: DEN

Carolina Panthers at Atlanta Falcons (-0.5)
I like Matt Ryan and Michael Turner. It truly is amazing what they have managed to accomplish in Atlanta this year, but Jake Delhomme is proving time and time again that he’s still got plenty of gas in the tank. In this battle of division rivals, look for Carolina to take home the win (on the road). Either way, this could be the game of the week.
Pick: CAR

New York Giants (-2.5) at Arizona Cardinals
As I mentioned in my Baltimore pick above, I was wrong to doubt the strength of the Giants last week. Eli’s team is arguably the best team in the league right now and they’re easily a better team than the squad that won the Super Bowl last year. The Cards don’t stand a chance.
Pick: NYG

Washington Redskins (-3.5) at Seattle Seahawks
I understand that it’s hard to play in QWEST Field, but I also understand that the Seahawks are finally showing their true colors this year as a far from stellar football team. The star-studded cast of the Redskins will invade the Pacific Northwest and emerge on top. Jason Campbell’s got this one.
Pick: WAS

Indianapolis Colts at San Diego Chargers (-2.5)
As much as I like the Chargers, the Indianapolis Colts are fighting for their playoff lives. Peyton’s got his work cut out for him, but he should be able to lead Indy to another win to inch them that much closer to a wild card spot in the playoffs. They’re on a roll.
Pick: IND

Green Bay Packers at New Orleans Saints (-2.5)
After a seriously impressive victory over the Bears last week, the Packers have all the momentum they need heading into New Orleans this week. The Saints have a solid foundation with Drew Brees, Marques Colston, and others, but the Pack Attack should come out on top.
Pick: GB

“We don’t read and write poetry because it’s cute. We read and write poetry because we are members of the human race. And the human race is filled with passion. And medicine, law, business, engineering, these are noble pursuits and necessary to sustain life. But poetry, beauty, romance, love, these are what we stay alive for.” - Dead Poets Society

When you look at a good proportion of both the scientific and business communities, there is a tendency to look down at the arts and works of fiction. I experienced a good deal of this during my university days, because I was pursuing a Bachelor of Arts degree in psychology and English literature. Many of my peers scoffed at my decision, saying that it would have been much more “useful” for me to pursue a degree in chemistry or commerce.

While there is certainly value in scientific and financial analysis, there is also great value in considering various works of fiction. The value of watching television, enjoying movies, and reading novels extends far beyond the sheer sake of entertainment. Fiction holds value well beyond acting as a simple diversion. It gets you to think, to see the world in ways that you may not have otherwise considered.

I’ve said before that you are what you read, but this does not mean that you should avoid “indulging” in fiction. Reading something that is fictional does not make you fake; it connects you much deeper with the world around you.

X-Men (and the Rest of the Marvel Universe)

Growing up, one of my favorite Saturday morning cartoons was X-Men. I never really got into the actual comic books themselves, but I was fascinated with that half hour of animated mayhem every weekend. Sure, the primary appeal would be the epic battles and the fascination with superhuman abilities, but there’s quite a bit more to the X-Men universe than that.

The treatment of mutants in the X-Men universe acts as an allegory for discrimination in the real world. These mutants are persecuted and discriminated against, just like the systematic racism, sexism, and other forms of discrimination that we find in modern society. The mutants, despite their superpowers, are still human beings and that serves as a core message of X-Men. There’s also the pressing message of hope for mankind. Yes, we can.

Hamlet (and Other Shakespeare Plays)

William Shakespeare was a wonderfully brilliant man and he continues to serve as a source of inspiration for many people. His plays did not always have an explicit moral message to them, but many of these plays (and poems) do have something to say about society and the human condition.

For example, Hamlet gets us to consider the ramifications of indecision. The title character struggled with an internal battle, not being able to decide whether or not he should avenge his father’s death. After all, avenging his father would mean killing his uncle. What would you do?

Jurassic Park (and Other Michael Crichton Novels)

Michael Crichton was easily one of my favorite authors growing up and I’m saddened to hear about his recent passing. The great thing about Michael Crichton was that he was able to take the current state of technology and push it just a little further into what could be possible. In this way, his novels weren’t so much about science fiction as they were about science fact.

More importantly, Crichton’s novels got me interested in areas that may not have otherwise piqued my interest. Jurassic Park got me thinking about DNA manipulation (and furthered my fascination with dinosaurs). The Terminal Man introduced me to medical psychology and the study of human behavior. Prey enthralled me with nanotechnology and the dynamics of the swarm. Believe me, I would not have picked up some scientific journal or textbook to research these areas, but I’m more than happy to pick up a great novel exploring these topics.

Fiction is an important aspect of the human existence. In between sessions with the Wall Street Journal and CNN, don’t forget to “indulge” in the worlds of fiction too.

Welcome to another rousing tour of what the blogosphere has to offer. I’ve gathered an eclectic collection of blog posts that I hope are of interest to Beyond the Rhetoric readers.

If you want to be featured in a future edition of What’s Up Wednesdays, I highly recommend that you follow me on Twitter. It pays to follow, because I do make a call for posts every week.

Chris Bibey is a highly successful freelance writer and he really enjoys what he does for a living. I can certainly appreciate that sentiment. In one of his recent posts, Chris explains why freelance writing is fun. It’s not all about the money (but it helps).

The Dough Roller might not be rolling in quite as much dough these days, so that’s why he (?) turned to his readers to find 97 painless ways to save money. Tip #18? Breastfeed. Once again, boobs are saving the world (and your wallet).

Mostly Lisa prides herself in being somewhat of a shutterbug, so she knows a thing or two about turning blah into beautiful. Even though I don’t own a DSLR, I really dig using the super macro mode on my Canon S3 IS. Perspective is everything.

John Bardinelli usually talks about video games, particularly those from the casual market, but he also happens to be a professional freelance writer like me. As such, he does have some interest in the the top ten most irritating phrases, as described by Oxford. Looks like some of these could serve as fodder for future Grammar 101 articles.

Tyler Ingram takes a look outside his Vancouver window to see that, yes, it is indeed raining. Again. He also happens to a have a holiday-themed Starbucks cup in his hand, so that’s how he knows that the holiday season is upon us. Santa Claus can’t be far behind. Ho ho ho!

The Philadelphia Eagles and the Cincinnati Bengals had their game end in a tie. The last time that a game ended in a tie was back in 2002! While Houshmandzadeh was not able to lead his team to a victory over Philadelphia, I think a lot of people are losing respect for Donovan McNabb and Andy Reid. The Eagles couldn’t beat the flailing Bengals in regulation and they still couldn’t beat them with an extra 15 minutes of football. Do you think McNabb is overrated?

Yes, I was crazy for thinking that the Baltimore Ravens would be able to beat the defending Super Bowl champions. Even though the better Manning only threw for 153 yards, the Giants were able to win by 20 points. The Ravens never got closer than within 10 points and you can attribute this Giants victory to their 200+ yard rushing game. Contrast that to Tennessee continuing its undefeated streak through the air.

Easily the biggest story of the week is the game between the San Diego Chargers and the Pittsburgh Steelers. As the game drew to a close, San Diego was deep in its own zone. After Philip Rivers passes the ball, it goes through a couple of laterals, before getting picked up by the giant ball of hair known as Troy Polamalu of the Steelers.

He bumbles into the end zone, pushing the score to 17-10. This would cover the spread of 4.5, but the officials took the TD back after the clock wound down to zero, saying that there was a forward lateral involved. The official score was then posted at 11-10, but the officials later noted that they were wrong to take away the touchdown (but the official final score does not change). The result was something like a $60 million swing in Las Vegas betting… and me getting one of my picks wrong.

The English language contains a number of common idioms that people use on a fairly regular basis. In order to further expand a business, for example, someone may say that he needs to take his marketing efforts “to the next level.” If a particular television show is especially funny, it would be appropriate to say that it “had you in stitches.” When discussing financial matters, you are oftentimes told to “save for a rainy day.”

By the same accord, there are a number of sayings that are meant to express a certain lack of interest. A very common error that many people make when trying to express this sentiment is saying that they “could care less.” This is actually quite inaccurate and incorrect.

I Could Care Less

Think about the meaning of that statement for a moment. If you are trying to say that you do not care about something, then you may be trying to say that it may not be possible for you to have less care about that particular subject.

If you “could care less,” this implies that you do have a certain amount of care for the topic. It would mean that you do care, at least a little, and this goes directly against the meaning that you are trying to express through this saying. You could care less, because you have some care to spare. So, what is the proper form of this apathetic idiom?

I Couldn’t Care Less

Whereas the previous statement implies that you do care for the subject, this statement says that it is not possible for you to care less about the subject. You could not care less, because you are already at the absolute minimum (zero) level of caring. It is not possible to care less than not to care at all.

I couldn’t care less about the latest trends in Christmas tree design, because I am not getting a Christmas tree this year. In fact, I don’t think I have erected a proper tree in over a decade. That’s why I couldn’t care less. It is not within the realm of logical possibility for me to care less than I currently do and, thus, I could not care less.

But You Should Care More!

We all suffer from a certain level of apathy, because society is leading us to care more about superfluous things like cool new toys and care less about the things that matter most in life. Instead, it is perhaps more appropriate to care a little less about the latest holiday drink at Starbucks and to care a little more about helping your fellow man this holiday season.

National Philanthropy Day may have come and gone, but it is important to be charitable all year round. Ha! You didn’t think a Grammar 101 post was going to end on that note, did you?

Earlier this month, I announced that I would be hosting the Funnel Vision Contest. The grand prize in this grand contest is valued at over $200, including three great iPod accessories from Griffin and one $70 “paid” review here on Beyond the Rhetoric. Since the month is about halfway through, I figured now would be a good time to provide a brief update.

As you recall, the goal of the contest is to send as much referral traffic as possible from your site/blog to Beyond the Rhetoric. By and large, I said that you could use whatever strategy you would like. Standard things would be simply linking to me on the sidebar or in a post, but some people have been a little more creative. For example, one guy decided to provide an incentive for his site visitors to click on a link over to my site. That’s smart thinking.

In the interest of fairness, there are a few referral sources that are exempt from this contest. Search engines and social media sites cannot win, of course, but I’m also leaving out any of my freelance writing clients as well. It wouldn’t make sense for me to give the prize to Mobile Magazine or LoveToKnow, right?

So, who’s winning? At the time this article was written, the top five referring sites (according to Google Analytics) are:

1. Ed Lau
2. John Chow
3. Stephen Fung
4. Nick (Romandock)
5. Chris Bibey

I’m undecided as to whether John and Stephen should be exempt since I write for both of them. Then again, I don’t write for Stephen’s blog and I haven’t had any ReviewMe reviews on John’s blog (yet) this month. With this in mind, the top spot is still very much up for grabs. So, even if you haven’t made any major effort so far this month, you still have a great chance to win.

What are you waiting for? Get out there and win my contest!

Growing up, many of us are raised to study hard, do well in school, and try to land that perfect job that will sustain us for the rest of our lives. While most of the population still adheres to this philosophy, a growing number of people are trying their hand at making money online. People are drawn to all the wonderful advantages that working from home can bring. You can be freed from your bosses, work at your own chosen schedule, and stay home to take care of the kids. Making money online sounds pretty great.

Naturally, things aren’t quite so simple. Making a career out of an online business is really not that different than trying to establish a brick-and-mortar business. The startup costs may lower and, as such, the barrier to entry is a lot easier to overcome, but that does not mean that you’ll be an overnight success. It’s taken me quite some time to achieve what I have as a freelance writer and I continue to work hard to try and do even better.

Maybe you’re not that great of a writer. That’s fine. One of the great things about online entrepreneurship is that there are several different avenues that you can explore. Unfortunately, so many people dive into these online businesses with unrealistic expectations of instant riches. There are some success stories that may lead you in that direction, but they are certainly the exception and not the rule. It certainly does not help that the “make money online” niche is constantly bombarded with promises of financial freedom and infinite riches.

Take this eBay business course as an example. They tell you that you can become an eBay Power Seller quickly and easily, raking in plenty of dough by selling all sorts of things on everyone’s favorite auction site. That may be true, but it won’t be easy and it’s unlikely that you’ll be buying that Lamborghini any time soon.

It gets even more cryptic when you consider programs that don’t even tell you how you’re going to make money. I found this free course on how you can make money with Google, but it doesn’t really say what you’ll be doing or how you’ll be earning any kind of income. I guess there’s little harm in giving these things a shot — the program itself is free; you just have to pay for shipping — but is there really anything to gain?

There is no such thing as easy money (unless you count winning the lottery). When considering some of these “free” online courses on how to make money online, don’t be afraid to take a chance, but don’t go in with rose-tinted glasses.

Last night may have been one of the most exciting games of the season thus far. In case you missed it, the aging Brett Favre led his New York Jets into Foxboro Stadium to face off against the young Matt Cassel and the New England Patriots. This was a battle for sole position of first place in the AFC-East division and it was quite the doozy.

Brett Favre put together a seven-minute drive in the fourth quarter, resulting in a touchdown to put the Jets ahead by seven points. The Pats, with a little over three minutes left on the clock, tried to come back but had to punt it away. It came down to the two-minute warning, the Jets on a 3rd-and-1 situation. New England comes up with the stop but without any timeouts left, they got the ball back with only about 1:20 left. Matt Cassel put together an impressive drive, picking up 10-15 yards at a time in the middle of the field. With eight seconds left, Randy Moss makes an impossible catch in the end zone to force overtime. Truly amazing stuff. The Jets win the OT coin toss, storm down the field, and score the winning field goal.

I hope that the rest of Week 11 in the NFL can even come close to being as exciting as that Jets-Patriots game. Let’s get on with the predictions!

Denver Broncos at Atlanta Falcons (-5.5)
Matt Ryan has been truly amazing for the Falcons this year and while I really like Mike Shanahan and the Denver Broncos, their abysmal defense will not be able to stop the storm of Ryan and his Falcons.
Pick: Atlanta

Detroit Lions at Carolina Panthers (-13.5)
There is little doubt in my mind that the Panthers will stomp all over the hapless and hopeless Detroit Lions. However, a point spread of two touchdowns is a lot to cover, so I’ll have to take the conservative route on this one.
Pick: Detroit

Philadelphia Eagles (-8.5) at Cincinnati Bengals
T. J. Houshmandzadeh guaranteed that the Bengals would not go winless this year and then they actually got a victory two weeks ago. Coming off of a restful bye week and some time to reflect, they should be much more competitive against Donovan McNabb and the Eagles.
Pick: Cincinnati

New Orleans Saints (-5.5) at Kansas City Chiefs
The Saints compete in one of the toughest divisions in the league and the Chiefs are one of the worst teams in the league. This shouldn’t be too hard for New Orleans.
Pick: New Orleans

Baltimore Ravens at New York Giants (-6.5)
Call me crazy, but I’m going against the defending Super Bowl champions. Ray Lewis has injected something into the Baltimore Ravens, because that team is really showing some surprising promise this year. They could be the sleeper hit of the playoffs and one of the first steps could be for the team to prove itself against the better Manning this week.
Pick: Baltimore

Minnesota Vikings at Tampa Bay Buccaneers (-3.5)
The Vikings are coming into Tampa with a two-game winning streak against a couple of pretty tough teams, but the Bucs have been pretty solid this year too. Expect quite the battle in Florida.
Pick: Tampa Bay

Oakland Raiders at Miami Dolphins (-10.5)
The Raiders need a lot of help and they’re getting it this week in the form of a pretty big spread. I expect Miami to come out on top, but they probably won’t win by more than 10 points.
Pick: Oakland

Chicago Bears at Green Bay Packers (-3.5)
The Bears may be sitting on top of the NFC North, but most of those wins came on the shoulders of Kyle Orton. Unfortunately, their starting quarterback probably won’t take the snaps this week, stepping aside for the positively disappointing Rex Grossman. Look for the Pack to take advantage.
Pick: Green Bay

Houston Texans at Indianapolis Colts (-7.5)
Given all the woes that the Colts experienced this year, everyone thought that they could count them out for the playoffs. Peyton never gave up, posting impressive victories over the Steelers and the Patriots. They’re in the playoff hunt again (albeit for a wild card spot), so the Colts will be hungry for a win.
Pick: Indianapolis

St. Louis Rams at San Francisco 49ers (-5.5)
These are two teams that positively suck and happen to be in the same division. It’ll be a snore-fest unless you happen to be a Ram or Niner fan. Look for Frank Gore to bore his way through the Rams and take the win for ‘frisco.
Pick: San Francisco

Arizona Cardinals (-2.5) at Seattle Seahawks
I hear that Matt Hasselbeck will be back to play this game, but don’t expect him to be the magic formula to turn the 2-7 Seahawks around. The Cardinals are leading the remarkably weak NFC West and they’ll continue their dominance this week too.
Pick: Arizona

Tennessee Titans (-2.5) at Jacksonville Jaguars
I don’t care who the Titans play; Jeff Fisher seems to find a way to win and playing the Jaguars should be no exception. The victory won’t come easy, but it’ll come. Let’s see an undefeated year for Tennessee.
Pick: Tennessee

San Diego Chargers at Pittsburgh Steelers (-4.5)
The Bolts are not what they used to be and they won’t turn around until they get Shawne Merriman back, I don’t think anything is going to change. Look for “Big” Ben Roethlisberger to lead the Steelers to another win.
Pick:Pittsburgh

Dallas Cowboys (-1.5) at Washington Redskins
The division rivals face off again in a rematch of their Week 4 encounter. The Redskins pulled out a narrow victory, but I’m expecting the Cowboys to show even more emotion, even more motivation this time around. They’re fighting for a playoff spot.
Pick: Dallas

Cleveland Browns at Buffalo Bills (-5.5)
Some analysts had high hopes for the Browns this year and no one really expected Buffalo to achieve what it has achieved thus far. I’m not terribly excited about this game, so I’ll just default to the favorite. The Bills are playing at home too.
Pick: Buffalo

You’ve probably heard the saying that you are what you eat. If you spend far too much time consuming junk food, there’s a good chance that you’ll feel pretty junky. By the same accord, I believe that you are what you read. Sure, this may come from my background as a freelance writer, but I feel that the written word is very important and it makes up a lot of who we are.

As with fine dining and exotic cuisine, personal preferences in regard to reading material will vary widely across the populace. Your choice of reading material speaks volumes not only for your areas of interest, but also for your personality and outlook on life as well. What do I mean? Let’s look at a few examples.

Harry Potter, Jurassic Park, and Twilight

Whether it be pure science fiction or something that borders more on science fact, I think that we’d all agree that these kinds of novels are meant to be escapist fiction. Growing up, I read a lot of books by the late Michael Crichton, for example, because his novels depict worlds that are just outside of reality. They present exciting and intriguing areas to explore.

Whether you are drawn to Harry Potter, Lord of the Rings, or Frank Miller’s graphic novels, there’s a good chance that you are reading this material, in part, to escape from reality. People who are enthralled with these kinds of works typically lead lives that are a little less exciting and so they get their thrills vicariously through the fictional characters. There’s nothing wrong with this, because whether you work at home, study at school, or grind it out at a 9-to-5, your life is likely filled with many monotonous details. We all need an opportunity to experience adventure (without taking any physical risks).

Wall Street Journal, The Economist, and Bloomberg News

Do you have money on your mind? Given the financial situation of world markets these days, it’s not surprising that a growing number of people have developed an interest in economics and the happenings on Wall Street. Some people read publications like those listed above partly out of greed, but many more are not interested in money for money’s sake.

Instead, they are much more interested in the dynamics of how money works and the volatility of the markets. Dealing with money is a game, complete with well-timed gambles, odds-stacking, and the thrill of achievement (winning). These people want life to be neatly compartmentalized, completely described by facts, figures, and graphs.

Even people who seem incredibly focused on cash have to realize that money is a means, not an end. They also run the risk of getting so enraptured by economic trends as to neglect the things that are much more valuable in life: family, friends, health, and happiness.

Blog Me This, Blog Me That

If you’re like me, one of the first things you do in the morning is launch Google Reader to catch up on countless RSS feeds from around the blogosphere. I hope that the Beyond the Rhetoric RSS feed is part of your daily reading.

If you subscribe to a lot of different blogs, including those focused on cars and technology (for example), then there’s a good chance that you can’t possibly read every article in its entirety. You may glance at the headline and skim the first sentence, determining quickly whether the rest of the post is worth reading. All you need is the gist. This is similar to how most people approach reading the newspaper.

Easy subscription to RSS feeds, along with several other Internet creations, has led to a shortened attention span. The more you adhere to these kinds of web-derived practices, the shorter your attention span may become. A friend of mine is notorious for having the attention span of a goldfish. Hey look! A castle…

What Do You Read?

Believe it or not, you are what you read. If you only involve yourself with extremist media, there’s a good chance that you’ll soon assimilate to their particular viewpoints. You don’t want to live in a dumbocracy, so it’s important you balance your reading with a number of different topics, genres, and perspectives.

What do you read? Do you read for pleasure anymore or do you only read material directly related to work and school?