ZENFORMATION MAIL THIS WEEK:A Punker Challenge, Library Research, and Mark Warner's Chances in 2008

* NOTE - These are e-mails I've received in the last week. Again, as always, thanks for stopping by and thanks for the feedback. I have removed all identifiers in the queries to protect privacy, even of the haters. Have a question for the ZenFo Pro? E-mail me here. Please include "Dear ZenFo Pro" in the subject line. Not promising to answer every question, but I'll give it my best shot.

E-mail text is unedited (other than identifiers) and some content may be objectionable to some folks.

- Jason,

AKA The Zenformation Professional

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so your a punk fan huh? only ppl i've met from oxford who think their real punks are snotty little rich kiddies and whiny emo bitches. your profile says you like punk but can you prove it? and how many tats do you have? answer me on your blog if your not a pussy.

- Female, CINCINNATI, OHIO

ZenFo Pro Response:
Well, Cincy...I hope I can answer your questions to your satisfaction. Yes, I'm a punker of the old school. Not Green Day a la Dookie old school, but OLD SCHOOL. And yes, there seems to be a few poseurs here in Oxford and at Miami, but that's a problem everywhere. The harder someone tries to look like a punker, the less likely they really enjoy the music or know anything about it.

As for proving I'm who I say I am, maybe this helps. Here's a list of ten of my favorite punk songs of the moment, in no particular order:

John Wayne was a Nazi - MDC/The Stains
Livin' in the City - Fear
Holiday in Cambodia - The Dead Kennedys
The KKK Took My Baby Away - The Ramones
The Dicks Hate The Police - The Dicks
Mommy's Little Monster - Social Distortion
The Legend of Pat Brown - The Vandals
Sliver - Nirvana
Cars and Girls - The Dictators
Fields of Athenry -The Dropkick Murphys

I have no tats, but I do have other "scene markings." I have a scar above my right eye from a mosh pit incident involving a skinhead and lets just say a not-so-friendly discussion about race relations, circa 1994 or 95. I did have about a dozen piercings at one time, but they disappeared about the time I realized that it was way too easy for society to write me off as another wasted youth.

And, rest assured, I'm not one of those whiny emo bitches. Emo is the greatest marketing swindle in the history of underground music (when did it become cool for skinny white kids to run around complaining about how they hate looking like frigging supermodels and being the preppy kids? Or for 25-30 year-olds to sing about getting head in a Denny's after their high school prom?)

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okay--just read a post where you answered a q about libraries and stuff so i guess i'll ask you. i'm a miami student and i have papers like coming out my ass this semester but i can't find anything. and the numbers on the books aren't like the ones at the library in dayton. i'm so lost, so please help!

- Male, OXFORD, OHIO

ZenFo Pro Response:
Finding information in an academic library can be tough, especially if you're not sure what you're doing or if you can't seem to find anything relevant to your topic. I recommend swinging by the Information Desk and/or scheduling a consultation with a librarian. Don't expect to get answers instantly - research takes time and patience. And don't expect the librarian or any library staff to just give you everything you need, either. Academic librarians are here to show you ways to narrow your research, to familiarize yourself with the online and print resources, and to move your research forward - not to do your research for you

As for the numbering of the books...I'm assuming you used Dayton Metro Public...those funny little numbers are called call numbers.

Most public libraries in the U.S. use what's called the Dewey Decimal classification to organize their collections. Most university and college libraries, on the other hand, use whats called the Library of Congress (LC) classification. You may be confused because you're used to looking for Dewey numbers when searching shelves - and now you have to figure out what those pesky letters mean at the beginning of Miami's call numbers, right?

Again, stop by the Help Desk and they'll be happy to explain it. Or click here for information on what those letters at the beginning of the numbers mean.

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I was just wondering what you thought about the rest of the elections this week. I agree with you totally that Dems made too big of a deal out of Do you think our governor here Mark Warner should run for president in 2008? I think he's a bit too conservative for most progressives to vote for.

- Female, RICHMOND, VA

ZenFo Pro Response:
I definitely think Warner stands a better chance than most people mentioned as possible Democratic candidates for the 2008 elections. Hillary Clinton has been named by a couple folks as being a frontrunner, but personally I think she'll get eaten alive - too much mud and baggage from her husband's presidency. Warner seems to be a centrist and have more populist leanings - even some of my conservative Virginia relatives seem to like him, compared to the apathy towards Al Gore in 2000 and the loathing of John Kerry in 2004.

The way I see it, Warner's got several things going for him. For one, he's a Southern governor. Two, he's not George Bush - which I think will be key in this next presidential go-round. And three, he knows how to do something that neither Kerry nor Gore could manage to do - win elections that matter when they matter. For those unfamiliar with Virginia politics, this was a big election. Had the GOP candidate won, Virginia would have regressed back into being a home for conservative hardliners.

I think I've said this before, but I don't think conservative-vs.-progressive matters a whole hell of a lot to your average American. The whole Blue-vs.-Red State thing is a media construct, aimed at dumbing the American public down into two warring camps. I think, in reality, Joe and Jane Sixpack vote for the candidate that comes across as the most populist. That's how Bush won two elections - by billing his opponents as members of the Elite Left. And I think both the Gore and Kerry campaigns took the bait, playing right into Karl Rove's hands, coming across as know-it-alls or as stiff politicos. The Bush White House, up until recently, had been doing an excellent job at casting the president as the American Everyman - a total lie, of course, but a well-crafted public persona nonetheless.