Blogstorm

Proving once again that my attention-whoredom outweighs my reason, I'm running for Academic Affairs Vice President in this year's ASUC election. My platform is that, as Academic Affairs Vice President, I'll promote academic affairs, meaning affairs between professors and students. Specifically, I'll work to undue the harm created by ousted Boalt Hall Dean John Dwyer by lobbying to repeal the UC Regents' ban on professor-student dating. I won't take up space on this blog with my campaign antics, but those of you wishing to keep up with my progress can check out my campaign blog, you bunch of weirdos.

My last foray into ASUC politics was in 2001, when I ran for and accidentally won the position of Student Advocate. My only opponent (and the only legitimate candidate) dropped out of the race at the last minute for reasons unlikely to become clear at this time. I was elected by default, fooled everyone in the ASUC into thinking I was actually going to stay an extra semester and take over the office, resigned at the Student Advocate Office end-of-the-year banquet where I was supposed to make my official acceptance speech, graduated, got a job at a law firm, applies to law schools, got rejected from most of the schools I wanted to go to, started at UCLA, transferred to Boalt, got married, and wrote this blog.

But what if it didn't go that way? During and after the 2001 ASUC elections I came up with an idea for a novel about someone who ran just such a joke campaign and won - legitimately, based on unexpected votes rather than last-minute resignations - and for a variety of reasons was, in fact, forced to stay an extra year and take over the office. I've made several attempts to get the idea on paper (well, screen, really), and after writing a few episodic segments, some of which are funny and most of which are not, I've come up with a new approach that's probably also a terrible idea.

What I'd like to do is create an interactive weblog novel. I'll make up a person, make up a blog to go with this person, and create a blog detailing his fictional campaign in the current ASUC elections. From there we'll find out about his unexpected victory and his failed attempts at extricating himself from the situation. Then, when school starts up again next year, the fake action will resume, in blog form, and by the end of the year there should be a coherent story. The other fake characters will periodically comment on the blog and (here's the fun part) so will real people! Holy crap!

This idea is both highly ambitious and probably really stupid. If you people don't succeed in talking me out of it by the end of next week I'll start the fake campaign blog after Spring Break.

Possible problems to throw in my face:

"You already have a blog and a comic strip and a whole nother campaign blog. How much reading to you expect people to do? You're not that funny."

"You have no idea how busy you're going to be next year. You think you'll have time to make up internal SAO office drama while you're taking Federal Fucking Courts?"

"Why in God's name would anyone care about the ASUC?"

"Okay, okay, wait a minute. You're going to have real people write comments, and then try to publish this thing? Do you have any idea what kind of copyright and joint authorship issues that raises?"

I'm sure there are more, but those are the two that spring most readily to mind.