House votes to raise minimum wage from "top ramen" to "off-brand macaroni and cheese"

House votes to increase minimum wage by $2.10 - International Herald Tribune

I am currently considering examining the effects of a hike in minimum wage on the economy as my three-part, fifteen-page issue paper for my Issues in Social Justice class.

But in other news, let me babble a little about myself.

I'm from a vaguely defined suburb north of Houston. No, not that nice one with the mall and all the pretty master-planned communities, the one just south of that with the large Starbucks that all the teenagers hang out at when they're not getting paid the absolute minimum wage to babysit whiny preteens at the Splashtown across the freeway. I sympathize with Big Oil for this reason, because pretty much Houston would not exist if it weren't for our Gasoline Overlords. I know where the bread and butter comes from, and you don't bite the hand that feeds. I was raised as a conservative, but now I flip-flop (a la Kerry) between pessimistically apathetic and mostly libertarian. I think.

I'm a student at a private, nominally Catholic, university in Austin, TX, Live Music Capitol of The World (tm). I enjoy live music, sleep, and coffee. Mostly just coffee. Speaking of, why is there not a 24-hr coffee place in Austin? Anyone? Bueller?

Oh, so in the long run, I pretty much want to move to the Middle East. I'm an international relations major (but they're about to change the name of my major to Global Studies with a Perspective in Conflict Resolution... but I'll still say I'm in Int'l Rels) who has studied French for six years, and Arabic for six months. I plan on working for world peace, as opposed to wishing for it during a beauty pageant.

My parents are divorced, and I was raised by my father in aforementioned suburb. Every Saturday and Sunday during junior high and high school my dad and I would go to IHOP or Denny's and read the paper. A very clear memory is of my father looking straight into my eyes as I was fifteen minutes deep into the front page section of a Sunday paper and saying "I have never seen anyone get their $1.75 out of a paper the way you do." I avidly follow the news now that I'm in college, but I no longer read the daily paper. Rather, my favorite place to find out all the important, inane, and down-right weird goings-on in the world is a little site called Fark where many people contribute news stories with often hilarious re-titling (see title of entry, which was submitted as the tag for the linked article). Yes, it's not perfect, but at least I try to know what's happening in the world.

So, that's about all you get to know about me, the Secret Surfer.