People in the Middle for Obama is an excellent set of “switcher” style ads featuring people who are thoughtful about their choosing Barack Obama in this election. All of the vignettes are worth watching, but my favorite is below. I like the phrase “energy without anger” that is used. This simple phrase sums up, for me, a fundamental difference between John McCain and Barack Obama. Senator Obama has great energy without anger while Senator McCain seems to have energy because his is angry. America and the world have seen enough of the only “superpower” being angry. It is time for our eight year temper tantrum to end.
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If you are at all unsure about where to vote, Google Maps can help. Go to http://maps.google.com/vote and enter your street address and zip code to receive a map showing your home and your voting location, and localized information for your state and community.
This is an excellent community service by Google.
My new position at work comes with a smart phone. In this case a Motorola “Moto Q 9c” from Verizon. I’ve never had a smart phone before so what follows are my first impressions, after just three days use.
The “automatic” profile which switches the phone to silent when the calendar shows I am in a meeting, and reverts to the normal profile when I am not, is very nice.
The screen is sufficiently bright and the font, while tiny, is legible even to my trifocal assisted eyes. The glass over the screen does smudge easily, but that hasn’t been a major problem yet.
The EReader book software refuses to install on my workstation, making it impossible to add to the phone. I’m not sure what the difficulty is at this point. Being able to read e-books on this device would improve it’s worth to me immensely.
The size and heft are pleasing. While the screen is nowhere near as large as the iPhone, it is sufficient for a extension of Outlook. And since work is footing the bill for this device I can’t really complain. The phone is light enough to carry comfortably in a shirt pocket, something I can’t do with my Sony Ericsson.
Overall it is a nice device, one that will prove useful as many of my days are filled with meetings now. Having had just a tiny sip of the smart phone kool aid, I am even more determined to someday have an iPhone.
Updated: Turns out the EReader software expects the Microsoft ActiveSync software, which allows for synchronization between the handset and your computer, to already be installed. Once ActiveSync was in place, the EReader software installed perfectly. Now my library of eBooks is available on the Q phone. Excellent.
Vote.
In just a little under two weeks I’ll be standing in a voting booth in the local church casting my ballot in the 2008 Presidential Election. I will exercise my franchise as a citizen of the United States. That I live in Kansas, a solidly “red” state, making my vote for Barack Obama largely symbolic, matters little to me. I firmly believe that if you don’t vote you can’t later complain about the administration.
But what if you can’t vote?
There are three people who will figuratively be with me in that booth on November 4th, Michele, Vera, and Sibylle. Michele was devastated by the election of George W. Bush to President in 2000. The whole ballot mess in Florida, and the intervention of the Supreme Court left a very bad taste in her mouth. His reelection in 2004 added to her dismay with American politics. The only bright spot in the 2004 election process was the speech by a relatively unknown politician from Illinois, Barack Obama. She was electrified by his speech.
She would have both enjoyed and hated the months leading up to the 2008 election. Having both Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama as potential candidates would have thrilled her. In 2000 she was very outspoken about the underhanded “Rovian” tactics that smeared John McCain so badly. To see him now using similar tactics, often through the same political operatives, would have infuriated her greatly. Michele didn’t do suspense well at times - the constantly shifting poles would have been difficult for her to bear. The attacks on Barack Obama’s character and past associations would have convinced her that the lowest common fears would once again “rig” the election for the Republicans. Until the last vote was certified and Barack Obama had won, she would be convinced that we were doomed for another four years of a Republican administration.
She would have gleefully voted for Barack Obama.
Vera, my sister-in-something, as a German citizen living in this country cannot vote. Her choice of candidate has changed as she has read and learned more about the candidates. In the early going she was supporting John McCain, but in light of his campaign antics, and some less than flattering articles, she has shifted her support solidly to Barack Obama.
Sibylle, my fiancée, is also a German citizen living in the United States, and is also precluded from casting a ballot. She, like me, favors Barack Obama over John McCain. His dismissive attitude toward women’s health and on-going commitment to staying in Iraq do not sit well with her. Were she able to, she would cast her ballot for Barack Obama.
I, like Michele, was energized by Barack Obama’s speech in 2004. I have followed his campaign with interest and hope since he announced his candidacy. I have read his position statements and agree largely with his stated approached to the issues facing America and the world. What I like best about him is that throughout his campaign he hasn’t strayed from his positions, hasn’t overreacted to slurs and accusations. If past performance is the best predictor of future actions, then his calm, focused, intelligent, rational, and humanist approach to his campaign and all the trials and tribulations it brought, tells me that he is the best person to be President of the United States for the next four years.
While I can only cast one vote on November 4th, I feel honored that I can count three others as supporting my action, and hopefully realizing the benefits the promise of Barack Obama brings.
Apple, Inc. today announced their opposition to California Proposition 8, and added $100,000.00 to the campaign against this measure:
Apple is publicly opposing Proposition 8 and making a donation of $100,000 to the No on 8 campaign. Apple was among the first California companies to offer equal rights and benefits to our employees’ same-sex partners, and we strongly believe that a person’s fundamental rights — including the right to marry — should not be affected by their sexual orientation. Apple views this as a civil rights issue, rather than just a political issue, and is therefore speaking out publicly against Proposition 8. In the time since this announcement I’ve seen several postings referring to, and linking to, this announcement. Like Proposition 8, Apple’s stance against the measure is polarizing. While there are many who are in favor of the stance Apple has taken, there are quite a few people who are opposed. Geek & Mild, for example:
Corporations overtly, covertly, openly, and secretly influence the political process all the time. The whole issue of “money as free speech” is an issue since it gives Corporations a voice in the process they otherwise wouldn’t posses. Corporations are the biggest, and unfortunately, most powerful of the “citizens” involved in the making of new laws, regulations, and standards that shape all of our lives.
I, for one, like Apple’s stance on this issue. I do not like the religious factions in this country shaping our laws and molding our country into a Christian theocracy. One of the founding fathers of the United States, and our first President said,
This week Sibylle and I visited a health club as part of our search for a new gym to work out at this winter. The membership rules stated very clearly that a “couple membership” was open only to
Apple, Inc. is exactly correct in stating that legalized marriage between same-sex partners is a civil rights issue. Unfortunately it is also a politicized issue because it instantly polarizes the electorate. Like abortion, gun control, reproduction education in schools, and immigration laws, same sex marriage is used to move the electorate in one direction or the other.
I support those companies whose products I like and use. I also support those companies whose policies towards their employees and the greater community in which they exist I like. If you don’t like Apple’s stance on Proposition 8, or even that they have a well articulated stance, then I suggest you don’t support them.
When I was growing up I would sometimes watch my father shave in the morning. I was fascinated by the soap and the brush he used to lather his face. As I got older I discovered that the back of the medicine cabinet had a slot in it, labeled “used blades,” or something similar. As he replaced old blades for new, the old blade was deposited through the slot in the cabinet. I asked him once where the blades went. “Just into the space between the studs,” was his answer.
If a blade lasted for a week, he’d have deposited 52 blades each year into the stud space behind the bathroom wall. I don’t know when he switched to cartridge style razors, but I imagine he dropped doubled edged blades into that slot for 15 or 20 years before switching. Which means there are approximately 800 ~ 1000 razor blades in that cavity of the house. And there are similar caches of spent razor blades in houses all over the nation.
The house Sibylle and I live in now hasn’t got a medicine cabinet, there is no slot for me to use for quick and easy disposal of a too-dull-to-shave-effectively but still too-sharp-for-easy-handling blade. I’ll have to get a small jar or something to collect them in so they can be disposed of safely.
Today is my sister’s 46th birthday. She died on Christmas Day 1973 at the age of eleven from leukemia. In the intervening 35 years I’ve come to terms with her death, come to terms with my grief, and my survivor’s guilt. But there is one question I cannot answer: who would she be?
Amy was a straight-A student, she was also extremely willful and often at odds with my mother. She loved horses and the outdoors, but also reading and playing games. Would she, today, be someone I liked, or would have drifted apart like my brother and I? I believe my family would have been profoundly different had she not gotten cancer and died. But then I would have been different as well. I would not be the man I am today.
Life is an equation, a calculus of all that we see and do and are, with results that are sometimes hidden or obscured from our view. Change one part of the equation and unexpected results abound. Change another part with no apparent effect. I don’t have answers, only questions. I can’t ever know who she would have been. I only know who she was, and who she is in my memories.
Happy birthday Amy.
Earlier this evening, on a trip to the local Half Price Bookstore, I picked up a new audiobook to listen to on my daily commute. I prefer unabridged versions of stories, which tend to be lengthier audio recordings. My new one, David Morrell’s The League of Night and Fog, is no exception, weighing in at 10 CDs.
Each CD has between 97 and 99 tracks, with each track lasting between 30 and 60 seconds. I was a bit mystified as to why they would break the narration up into so many little pieces. When I remarked on this to Sibylle she immediately said that way you could find your place faster.
Shortly thereafter, while waiting for one of the CDs to finish importing to iTunes, I read all the text on the box. Including this bit on one end of the box:
Before pausing or stopping your audiobook, note the track number displayed on your CD player. While many newer CD players “bookmark” your position, some players return to the first track at the beginning instead. By knowing the track number of where you stopped listening, you can manually adjust your player to that point (track) in the story to continue listening. There are 97-99 tracks on each CD, each track is 30-60 seconds long - allowing you to find your place without “relistening” to long portions of the story. Ingenious.
I like that Sibylle immediately thought of that as the reason as it hadn’t occurred to me.
NB: The list price on the Amazon link above is outrageous. The box I have gives the price as $29.95, and I paid $14.98 for it. Amazon wants $102.50 for the same title and media.