Almost all conservatives I know a) love FoxNews, b) assume that liberals love CNN. In reality, liberals hate CNN. It embarrasses us in every possible way. Yet, I visit CNN.com several times a day — it is my “I am not sure what I intended to do when I opened this browser window” contingency plan. And as I wait for the page to load, I’m not thinking “I wonder what’s happening in the world,” rather, “I wonder what incidental bullshit CNN has deemed worthy of placement in a giant animated red ‘Breaking News’ banner.” CNN feeds only my hedonistic appetite for cynicism.

CNN was always bad, but they’ve gotten worse since Fox News raised the bar for lowering the bar. With Fox News at least, sensationalism appears to be a core ethos — on CNN, it feels like a half-baked afterthought.

Join my campaign to boot the trivial human interest news stories off of CNN.

I believe in the idea every bit as much as I did two years ago, and there’s still nothing like it.  Policy Tree attacks the same problem as The Point, but from the other side: Policy Tree makes it easier understand civic life, The Point makes it easier to join it.

I just submitted Policy Tree to the Knight News Challenge, so maybe I’ll be able to get back to work on it sooner than I thought.

Today is the first day I wasn’t really writing code; I spent most of the day writing letters and site documentation.

Earlier tonight I had the idea to change the name of “campaign” to “thing.” I truly believe it’s a great idea, but being experienced in having ideas and thinking that they are great, I can recognize signs that point to it probably being awful.

Just now as I was getting ready to go to bed I made the following observation in my head: “today is the first day I am not writing code and I had an awesome idea, therefore writing code is enslavement of the brain.” Then I said “I can’t believe you just thought that” and I ran to my computer to punish myself.

Anyway, here are the reasons that “Thing” is a great word:

• Ironically, “thing” is wide-open for someone to define. Right now, its meaning is neutralized by its ability to be any thing.
• It gets at the diversity of our model.
• It’s totally memorable.
• Simply naming it Thing will entice people to figure out what it means.

Plus it is fun and catchy.

Join my Thing!
Got a problem? Why don’t you start a Thing at The Point?
This Thing has tipped!

For most of the day we took it easy, knowing we might not have another opportunity to relax for awhile. Or at least that’s why I relaxed. Joe, on the other hand, probably relaxed because that is just how he rolls.

We had lunch at Bistro 110. On the bus ride there, at the 59th second of the 59th minute of the 11th hour, we changed the name of the things on on our site from “unions” to “alliances” to “campaigns” to “drives” to “campaigns” to “tipping actions” to “campaigns” to “tipping actions” to “campaigns.” If anyone ever reads this and can come up with the perfect word, I’ll eat an animal.

You can read my introductory blog post here.

I’ve spent most of the past two days paralyzed with indecision — I can’t decide what to name the… “things” on our website.  We’re going with Tipping Action for now.  This is like the worst thing to be thinking about the day before launchveiling.  I am now going to live-blog the putting of myself in my employees’ shoes, and… I think I would hate me.

For 10 months, I’ve imagined what this day would feel like.  I am surprised to report that it feels like… nothing.  I’m so overwhelmed with work that I haven’t stopped to reflect.  Gives me a weird pang of sympathy for George Bush.

So that’s it.  Special thanks to Jenny for being the best girlfriend in the world and putting up with the myriad neuroses I’ve developed over the past 10 months.