A Few Thoughts…

So I was reading Digg this morning (which I don’t get to do all that often) and a story about a picture caught my attention. The subject was a man with a hoodie, sitting on an escalator, with the lights streaming past him. It’s really a great shot. I won’t post the picture here since he owns the work (there’s a link to it below) , but I will post a link to his blog where he talks about the shot (see below).

What really got me thinking though is how fun it would be to take a photography trip. Go to some destination with the sole purpose of taking pictures. I know I could probably get a few people to join me (Steve, Sara?), and I’ve been thinking of various places for a while. Some would be ideal for weekends or evening, others would definitely be more involved. So I’m going to start a list, and we’ll see what happens. If you have ideas, add a comment!

Per the comment below from the photographer – here’s the picture, go look at the bigger one though! Thanks Brian!

The Shot, entitled “Gomez”: http://flickr.com/photos/fotizmo/396179226/
About the Shot: http://brian.shaler.name/pages/blog/light-speed-escalator/

(more…)

I’ve been meaning to post this for quite some time – since I saw Barak Obama present the keynote at the 2004 DNC Conference. What I saw him present that night reminded me very much of the videos I have seen of a previous young, charismatic presidential candidate – then Sen. John F. Kennedy. In fact, Sen. Obama made reference to President Kennedy in the speech he made that night. He has a certain air of authority in his communication with the people of the nation, which if nothing else, makes me listen to what he has to say.

Now, I am a conservative on just about every issue that comes up (I like to consider myself independent, since there are many Republican candidates now are starting to move away from both social and fiscal conservative viewpoints to get elected), so the title of this post may seem a bit unusual. But with comments like the one below, he has a direction which could be very beneficial to the nation in bringing everyone back together.

The pundits like to slice-and-dice our country into Red States and Blue States; Red States for Republicans, Blue States for Democrats. But I’ve got news for them too. We worship an awesome God in the Blue States, and we don’t like federal agents poking around in our libraries in the Red States. We coach Little League in the Blue States and yes, we got some gay friends in the Red States. There are patriots who opposed the war in Iraq and patriots who supported the war in Iraq. We are one people, all of us pledging allegiance to the stars and stripes, all of us defending the United States of America.

Sen. Obama recently announced his plans to run for president in 2008. The critics are now calling his skin-color into question, saying he’s not black enough since he is the child of parents who were not the same race. Saying that any black candidate who gets a lot of attention from white people will be questioned, and that many black leaders have allegiance to other candidates (such as Sen. Clinton) already, and won’t sever their ties. I believe this sort of division will ultimately lead to his loss, probably in the primaries, for the 2008 bid.

The country as a whole is so divided that any candidate will have trouble winning the election based completely on a “we need to change” strategy. It’s far too early to develop a strong platform, since we are over a year away from general elections, and there’s no telling where the country will go in the mean time. The president in 2009 will enter leadership of a divided nation, and will probably not be able to change much. The DNC will learn from the mistakes of division, and will nominate Sen. Obama for a 2012 bid for the White House. If he sticks to his “unity for the nation” message, he will gain support from a majority of the nation, who will long be ready for a change in political rhetoric, and he will win the general election by a landslide.

Well, that’s my prediction anyway…I’m interested to hear what you have to say on the issue!

Section 9 of the Ohio Drivers Law, Special Conditions, under a section heading of “Inoperable Traffic Signals” states:

“By Law, except when a law enforcement officer is present to direct traffic, drivers must treat a non-working traffic signal as a four-way stop.”

Miriam-Webster defines ignorance as:

“the state or fact of being ignorant: lack of knowledge, education, or awareness”

Theme for the day

“I got a rock….“

After the weekly HTG meeting at Panera this morning, I ran a few errands an came home to find the power out. People were ignoring the non-working traffic light at the end of my street. At a break in the traffic, I proceeded through to my subdivision and went inside to drop off the groceries I picked up. After calling my dad to find out if Duke Energy already knew about the outage, I decided to go out and get lunch since I couldn’t fix anything here.

I called Sheri to see if they had power since they are basically just up the street. They did have power, so I went that direction to eat at McDonald’s. The wind was quite strong, which must have killed the power. I got my hot, though not-so-fast, food and ate quietly at my table.

After getting back in m car, I decided to just go back home and have a relaxing afternoon and evening. The power was turned off at the intersection of Smith and 747, and for a few seconds, people ignored that. Then people started obeying the non-working traffic light = four-way stop law. The car in front of me went through, then the people on 747, then it was my turn. I checked to make sure the cars were stopped, and then proceeded.

The next moment is kind of a blur – but the end result is that my shiny new car, is now a shiny wreck. I’m okay – I’m not injured in any major way, though my knee is going to be bruised up a bit. My car, however, is not is such good shape. Thanks to the ignorance of others, my new car is now undriveable, sitting in a lot waiting to go to the body shop. My driver’s side door wouldn’t open more than a few inches, and I had to get out on the passenger side. As you an see, coolant is leaking, though I think that’s because the coolant tank is on the side that was hit – that’s my hope anyway. My joy of owning my first new car is now crumbled in pieces.

So, now I’m sitting in my house, watching “Remember the Titans” and feeling pretty bad. There are so many other things I want to put here. But, what’s left of my better judgement tells me that because of the people who read this (or, who I think read this anyway), that some things are better said in person. So I’ll keep those things to myself. For now though, I’ll leave you with the words I’m trying to comfort myself with:

” And we know that all things work together for good to those who love God, to those who are the called according to His purpose.”

Romans 8:28

Hopefully I have some “after” pictures before too long, but for now I have my parent’s van.