It's going to be a busy summer...

For those of you who know me (anyone reading this more than likely), you know that I'm working hard on a redesign project for Count Me In and their wonderful site http://makemineamillion.org.

What you may not know is that I am also going to be working on the next Star Trek film as a Drupal consultant - yeah, baby! Palantir has hired me to work with them as a Futurist to as accurately as possible predict user interface design 200 years into the future. Details here: http://www.palantir.net/blog/drupal-enterprise#comments. I'm very excited, as you can imagine.

In my last post here, I talked about the initiative I wanted to launch to change our tax structure from one of unapportioned (unconstitutional) taxation to one of apportioned tax by having a say in the allocation of our tax dollars. Fortunately, there has finally been a break on that front - President Obama read my post (or the email I sent him), and has decided to form a committee to explore my idea. This has just now happened in the last week so I don't have a lot of detail on this one yet, but I will be posting more here as we progress. Finally, a chance to really make a difference!

In other news, my new self-titled album is coming out in a couple of weeks under the name AUTO*SPKR, with guest artists Aubrey Hale (banjo), Steve Wilkinson (drums) and Gryphon Graham (guitars, synths and production) on K records. We've been working hard at this intra-state project using the best in long-distance collaboration gizmos over the last couple of months, and it's worked out really well. We're planning a summer tour as I write this -- I'll be working on the Star Trek movie on the tour bus.

Also, I have a book of short stories that was just accepted by a small press for publication. No pub date on the book yet, but please stay tuned for more details.

It's definitely going to be a busy busy summer, fools ;-)

My Letter to the President

Today I did something I have never done before: I wrote a letter to the President of my country. Why did I do something seemingly so pointless, knowing full well under normal circumstances that it's unlikely to ever be read by anyone, much less taken seriously? Because these, I feel, aren't normal circumstances. I actually believe, somehow, that there's a chance someone at the White House might listen to me. I know, right?!? "That's crazy talk", you say. Well, probably. But I'm doing it anyway, They remade whitehouse.gov in Drupal after all, and that's certainly awesome, and a sign of business NOT as usual. SO here goes, my letter to the President:

"Dear President Obama,

I have had this idea for a very long time but haven’t known how to really make it happen. It’s a huge project, and I imagine a partner like a bipartisan version of MoveOn.org would be needed, but how much more powerful would it be if it were you? My idea is this:

The Federal Income Tax is illegally implemented in this country. It is an unapportioned tax, which is precisely the kind of taxation against which we fought the Revolution, and as a 10th generation Native Texan this sort of thing is very upsetting. As a tax that goes for purposes not directly approved by the people, and as such violates our Constitution, I want to change this. Somehow. It’s been a dream of mine for over 20 years to do so, and I think I’ve found a way: a grassroots social networking site that does in theory what I want to happen in fact.

In essence, it’s like a big game: a user makes an account, and in this (as anonymous as they want it to be) account they enter in the amount of money they paid (or are paying) in income tax for the last however long they wish. Then they “vote” with their money. The user picks from a list of say 10 items (I want this list to correspond to the top-level categories in the national Federal budget – Defense, Healthcare, Education, Energy and Environment, Law Enforcement, etc. PLUS an option to “spend as Congress sees fit" – the current model), and assigns percentages to each category to which they want their money to be assigned, with the total coming to 100%. They do this for each year they entered their tax figures, and the beautiful thing is that the data they produce can be used to run all kinds of “what-if” scenarios in which the will of the people is directly expressed in our national fiscal will – the Budget. It makes Income Tax legal, and would ideally, in extended development, include all the states that have unapportioned income taxes as well.

If this game could grow into significant numbers, we could actually see what might happen if we were able to have a direct voice as citizens in the actions our government takes, and hopefully make it happen in actuality. I really want this to happen in my lifetime. Very badly. I would love it if you guys were interested enough to perhaps help me make it happen.

I build web sites for a living, and have done so for many years. I have good ideas on how to execute this project. Let the people speak, for real. Are you with me?

I would greatly appreciate any comments.

Kelly Bell

Digital Strategist/Futurist, Musician, Web Designer and Developer, mother of three, taxpayer, independent businesswoman and Obama supporter

Twitter: kelly

LinkedIn: kellybell

PS I contacted Senator Lloyd Doggett about this idea several years ago, but received no serious response."

So we'll see. I can envision exactly how to build this thing - both in its early stage, as a social networking experiment, and as a "real" site, integrated with our taxation system and allowing us to REALLY vote with our dollars. I wanna build it! How awesome would that be?

Cheers,

Kelly

NYC - Diesel XXX, ho!

Just got back from NYC for the weekend - what a blast. Check my Facebook profile (morpheusathame) for pics of the Diesel XXX (30th Anniversary) Worldwide Party. Truly awesome.

... and this is just the beginning.

I always thought I would use this name for a terrible hardcore band, but instead I finally decided that using it was better than waiting for that day to come. And so, Denizens of the Interwebs, I give you... Hell Toupée! In this location I shall talk about all sorts of things on a semi-regular basis (but I'm not promising anything). Check back soon to see what those things will be.