Please Watch The Video First.
You remember those guys at JibJab, right? They made what quite possibly gave rise to the genre of YouTube videos four years ago when they published "This Land," a video making fun of Bush and Kerry.
The operative word here is "both."
"It's Time for some Campaignin'" is so great because it does just that. It makes fun of both candidates while still getting across some of their main campaign ideals.
Alright, it does it with McCain in a tank and Obama on a rainbow unicorn, but the point still stands.
Why can't we just make fun of everybody?
"The Daily Show" routinely makes fun of politics, but leans a little far left. Bill O' Reilly makes of the politics, and leans a little far right. JibJab has stumbled across the goldmine of comedy:
Making fun of both sides!
If you truly want to be respected by both sides, you must be able to work both sides and appeal to everyone. I love watching the Daily Show, but sometimes it just makes my skin crawl.
I personally like Glenn Beck, although sometimes he blows things way out of proportion.
I have yet to see, besides JibJab, anyone able to make fun of both sides and not have a "bias."
On a side note, even though this video was indeed making fun of both sides, isn't it ironic, the portrayal of both candidates?
Obama is a fruity skipping guy who rides a unicorn over a rainbow and sings about nothing but change.
McCain is a wizened, hardened, tank-riding old guy.
But what does he sing about?
Stopping the jihad.
Hmm. Obama sings about ambiguous change, and McCain sings about actually doing something specific. Could all this tomfoolery possibly have a nugget of truth in it?
Just a side note.
If we can't have humor in this election, or even in our everyday life, then how can we even survive?
Humor is vital to our everyday lives. We must be able to find humor in everyday things, even something as mundane as the elections.
Discussion
All comments are moderated by Kansan.com staff. For our full user policy, click here.
cbeattie
1 October 2008
at 8:55 p.m.
Suggest removal
We're nearly a month away from the election, and I can honestly say I'm not positive who I'm voting for. If I don't know soon, I probably should refrain from even voting. The reason's simple: Both candidates make me laugh, usually a "this guy might be our President?" half-hearted chuckle. I doubt few honest people can say they believe in and support every policy of their favored candidate. It's not realistic. So I agree, Mr. Sommerville, instead of brutally bashing others' political opinions to hide their own ambiguity, everyone needs to relax. And have a good laugh.
pgriffith
2 October 2008
at 6:34 p.m.
Suggest removal
Our campaign system is so ridiculous from how long it is to how it's covered. Every day or so you can find something worth mocking. Either a candidate will say something funny or some media outlet will cover a speech or development in some hilarious, over-the-top fashion. It may be serious business deciding the "leader of the free world," but it's more pertinent that we all have fun with it.
Sunday, November 23, 2008
Sunday, October 05, 2008
Kansan Blog Entry #3
Please watch the video first.
After watching that video, what is your initial reaction?
Are you in agreement? Are you incensed?
Or here's a better question:
Have you even heard of this incident before now?
Here's the background for those of you who can't view the video above.
McCain was talking about constitutionalism regarding the (in)famous Roe v. Wade case passed down in 1973, and saying that he would appoint Justices to the Supreme Court that would interpret the Constitution "the way our founding fathers envision for them to do."
Sounds like a normal Republican response. Yay. But then Goldberg comes out of LEFT field with this question:
"Should I worry about being a slave, being returned to a slave?"
Yes, ladies and gentlemen, you read that correctly. She asked if she should be worried about slavery returning to the United States.
Apparently she's never heard of the 13th, 14th, or 15th Amendments, ratified in 1865, 1868, and 1870 respectively, that guarantee African-Americans rights they did not have before those Amendments.
So apparently Goldberg thinks that the Amendments to the Constitution are really just suggestions, and don't really count as actual parts of the Constitution.
That is incredibly ignorant and insensitive. That question shows just how much ignorance regarding politics has sprung up in our country, and how little is being done to stop it. When I checked on this video at 5:30p.m., September 23rd, 2008, it had 42,595 views. That is an incredibly SMALL number compared to an interview Charlie Gibson had with Sarah Palin one day earlier, which now has 257,559 views.
What's going on here?
Goldberg asked what may be one of the stupidest and most offensive questions in this political season, and no one talked about it. I actually found out about it through conservative pundit Glenn Beck, who posted a transcript of his radio show here.
How is it that this went completely under the radar? Why are we letting people like Goldberg ask supposedly serious questions to the candidates? Why aren't people fighting BACK, and asking good questions, and telling ignoramuses like Goldberg to let us big boys do the talking?
This is a problem in our society today, and we need to start being INFORMED about our political decisions, and not just saying "poignant" and "scathing" questions to get a rise out of people.
And so, Ms. Goldberg, if you ever read this, please, PLEASE take a 10th grade civics class again before you try to get involved with politics.
After watching that video, what is your initial reaction?
Are you in agreement? Are you incensed?
Or here's a better question:
Have you even heard of this incident before now?
Here's the background for those of you who can't view the video above.
McCain was talking about constitutionalism regarding the (in)famous Roe v. Wade case passed down in 1973, and saying that he would appoint Justices to the Supreme Court that would interpret the Constitution "the way our founding fathers envision for them to do."
Sounds like a normal Republican response. Yay. But then Goldberg comes out of LEFT field with this question:
"Should I worry about being a slave, being returned to a slave?"
Yes, ladies and gentlemen, you read that correctly. She asked if she should be worried about slavery returning to the United States.
Apparently she's never heard of the 13th, 14th, or 15th Amendments, ratified in 1865, 1868, and 1870 respectively, that guarantee African-Americans rights they did not have before those Amendments.
So apparently Goldberg thinks that the Amendments to the Constitution are really just suggestions, and don't really count as actual parts of the Constitution.
That is incredibly ignorant and insensitive. That question shows just how much ignorance regarding politics has sprung up in our country, and how little is being done to stop it. When I checked on this video at 5:30p.m., September 23rd, 2008, it had 42,595 views. That is an incredibly SMALL number compared to an interview Charlie Gibson had with Sarah Palin one day earlier, which now has 257,559 views.
What's going on here?
Goldberg asked what may be one of the stupidest and most offensive questions in this political season, and no one talked about it. I actually found out about it through conservative pundit Glenn Beck, who posted a transcript of his radio show here.
How is it that this went completely under the radar? Why are we letting people like Goldberg ask supposedly serious questions to the candidates? Why aren't people fighting BACK, and asking good questions, and telling ignoramuses like Goldberg to let us big boys do the talking?
This is a problem in our society today, and we need to start being INFORMED about our political decisions, and not just saying "poignant" and "scathing" questions to get a rise out of people.
And so, Ms. Goldberg, if you ever read this, please, PLEASE take a 10th grade civics class again before you try to get involved with politics.
Discussion
All comments are moderated by Kansan.com staff. For our full user policy, click here.
I was watching this show and a I have to disagree with you. He said he wanted people who interpeted the constitution the way the founding fathers meant it. At that time slavery was common place. It is a legitimate question that he never actually answered. He acknowledged that the question was asked, he even acknowledged her concern behind the question, but he never answered it. There are those ( and I am not accusing McCain of being one) who would love to see slavery reintroduced in this country and every person of color should probably be asking that question.
Sorry not a ignorant question from this side of the fence.
You made the same mistake that Goldberg did. The Amendments ARE the Constitution, and whatever they change becomes a part of the Constitution.
And show me one person who would "love to see slavary reintroduced in this country."
I highly doubt you'd find anyone.
noirbear, you'll notice that he tries to say something about four times after Whoopie does her thing, but she and Walters interrupt him. Also, most of the founding fathers at the Constitutional Convention were against slavery, and it was proposed that it be outlawed from the start. The Southern states threatened to secede, so they caved, but it's still written as an outstanding issue that needed to be dealt with, not a Constitutional institution.
Besides, to accuse somebody of that when you know full well that's not what he meant is just malicious. I'm not going to ask you if your "side of the fence" is for King George and the royalists, or for the Articles of Confederation, because I know that's not what you meant. It'd be the same kind of stupid question, for just the same rhetorical purpose: to make you look terrible by pretending I think you're saying something that I know you aren't.
Sunday, September 28, 2008
Kansan Blog Entry #2
This was my Kansan.com blog entry from two weeks ago. Enjoy.
"The GOP is disgusting."
"If you vote for this guy [Obama] you are an uninformed political idiot and an intellectually lazy moron period."
These are just some of the statements flying around these days. The election, which is supposed to be the shining moment of American Democracy, has become a time for people to hate each other and become extremely polarized.
America is supposed to be a place of harmony and democracy and of people working together. With each election, it seems like people hate each other more and more.
In an article in the Washington Post from March of 2006, a study was done to test American's "vitriol" that "accompanies party politics."
"These data show that on balance, Democrats' and Republicans' evaluations of a president of the other party have steadily soured," authors Shanto Iyengar and Richard Morin said.
And that was two YEARS ago. Imagine if they did the same study today. The study was related to how people affiliated with either party ranked the incumbent president, and the study showed that people are moving more and more towards the extremes (i.e. "strongly approve" or "strongly disapprove").
It's time, to borrow a superbuzzword from this election, to have some change.
How about we DON'T yell at each other about how the other side is stupid?
How about we DON'T tell each other to "go back to school?"
How about we DON'T base our votes simply on who Oprah says is awesome?
How about we DO research the issues?
How about we DO have civil discussion with our opposites and see their point of view?
That is what is supposed to make America so great; this melting pot of ideas.
As I've heard recently, but I forget where, America is supposed to be a melting pot, but it's more like a pot with a whole lot of ingredients that hasn't melted yet.
Get a fire lit under our butts and let's actually work together to choose he who is best for our country.
I know who I'm voting for, but I'm not about to yell at the other side for not agreeing with me.
Chill Out, everyone.
"The GOP is disgusting."
"If you vote for this guy [Obama] you are an uninformed political idiot and an intellectually lazy moron period."
These are just some of the statements flying around these days. The election, which is supposed to be the shining moment of American Democracy, has become a time for people to hate each other and become extremely polarized.
America is supposed to be a place of harmony and democracy and of people working together. With each election, it seems like people hate each other more and more.
In an article in the Washington Post from March of 2006, a study was done to test American's "vitriol" that "accompanies party politics."
"These data show that on balance, Democrats' and Republicans' evaluations of a president of the other party have steadily soured," authors Shanto Iyengar and Richard Morin said.
And that was two YEARS ago. Imagine if they did the same study today. The study was related to how people affiliated with either party ranked the incumbent president, and the study showed that people are moving more and more towards the extremes (i.e. "strongly approve" or "strongly disapprove").
It's time, to borrow a superbuzzword from this election, to have some change.
How about we DON'T yell at each other about how the other side is stupid?
How about we DON'T tell each other to "go back to school?"
How about we DON'T base our votes simply on who Oprah says is awesome?
How about we DO research the issues?
How about we DO have civil discussion with our opposites and see their point of view?
That is what is supposed to make America so great; this melting pot of ideas.
As I've heard recently, but I forget where, America is supposed to be a melting pot, but it's more like a pot with a whole lot of ingredients that hasn't melted yet.
Get a fire lit under our butts and let's actually work together to choose he who is best for our country.
I know who I'm voting for, but I'm not about to yell at the other side for not agreeing with me.
Chill Out, everyone.
Sunday, September 14, 2008
Oh.
I do have a blog. Totally forgot about that. Whoops.
Anyways....I'm now a senior at KU, still in journalism, and still on course to graduate (we'll find out for sure on Thursday).
I'm taking an opinion writing class now, and I have to a Kansan.com blog with it. I'll post the entries here as well, so everyone can read them twice.
Woo.
Here it goes:
"Welcome to the Reactor. I am a conservative in a liberal land, a Republican where Republicans fear to tread. In this blog I will present a conservative reaction to the events in our world.
Ahh, election season. That magical time of every four years when people hate other people for no apparent reason at all and the media tries to play the middle of the field.
Believe me, I'm the last person who would want to criticize the media. I am part of the media and I hate it when the media is accused of spinning everything and just out to screw with us. People with no experience in the field assume they know everything about how the news process works and attack it for being one-sided.
Usually I disagree with them.
Now that I'm watching the current election coverage, I begin to see what those angry people are talking about.
The news seems to be hailing one particular candidate as the savior of our country, able to magically fix all the wrongs in this world. The news seems to be tilted towards covering everything that candidate does and only a little of what the other one does.
When I did I normal Google search for McCain, 86,600,000 hits came up. When I did the same one for Obama, 161,000,000 hits came up. Maybe he's just more popular.
But when I did a Google News search, 351,174 for McCain and 380,343 for Obama came up.
30,000 hits is nothing, right?
On CNN.com, 15,700,000 popped up for McCain and 27,000,000 appeared for Obama.
Hmm. 11 million hit difference now.
This may seem like a simple fluke, but in reality, it is a sign of something more. The media is obviously leaning towards Obama as a favorite. The coverage of him and his campaign coverage is more prominent, and has been going on for far longer than the coverage of Republican hopefuls before McCain stepped up.
Every time you turn on the TV it's talking more and more about how awesome Obama is and how he's going to single-handedly save America. I was listening to the radio, and on a commercial for some Rock The Vote thing (a decidedly BIPARTISAN thing, mind you), they used a clip from an Obama speech. The clip? Something along the lines of this:
"And in November, the name George W. Bush will not be on the ballot!" *big cheer*
Don't even get me started on the ridiculousness of that statement. That's a whole other blog entry. The fact is, the media is all but ENDORSING Barack Obama. Sure newspapers do it all the time, but what happens if CNN, FOX, MSNBC, heck, even the BBC endorses a candidate?
In other words, the media's credibility is going severely downhill. If a network endorses a candidate, which I don't see as too far away at this point, then where will people get their balanced viewpoints? I realize they don't exist from any one source, but a conglomeration of unaffiliated sources provide the American people with the big picture. With the way the media is heading this election, what is the big picture?
Quis custodiet ipsos custodes?
Who watches the Watchmen?"
And I did my job, which was mainly to get people to think about the issues. I don't care if they think I'm right, cuz this is Lawrence and I know they don't.
Here's the comments I received:
"
Anyways....I'm now a senior at KU, still in journalism, and still on course to graduate (we'll find out for sure on Thursday).
I'm taking an opinion writing class now, and I have to a Kansan.com blog with it. I'll post the entries here as well, so everyone can read them twice.
Woo.
Here it goes:
"Welcome to the Reactor. I am a conservative in a liberal land, a Republican where Republicans fear to tread. In this blog I will present a conservative reaction to the events in our world.
Ahh, election season. That magical time of every four years when people hate other people for no apparent reason at all and the media tries to play the middle of the field.
Believe me, I'm the last person who would want to criticize the media. I am part of the media and I hate it when the media is accused of spinning everything and just out to screw with us. People with no experience in the field assume they know everything about how the news process works and attack it for being one-sided.
Usually I disagree with them.
Now that I'm watching the current election coverage, I begin to see what those angry people are talking about.
The news seems to be hailing one particular candidate as the savior of our country, able to magically fix all the wrongs in this world. The news seems to be tilted towards covering everything that candidate does and only a little of what the other one does.
When I did I normal Google search for McCain, 86,600,000 hits came up. When I did the same one for Obama, 161,000,000 hits came up. Maybe he's just more popular.
But when I did a Google News search, 351,174 for McCain and 380,343 for Obama came up.
30,000 hits is nothing, right?
On CNN.com, 15,700,000 popped up for McCain and 27,000,000 appeared for Obama.
Hmm. 11 million hit difference now.
This may seem like a simple fluke, but in reality, it is a sign of something more. The media is obviously leaning towards Obama as a favorite. The coverage of him and his campaign coverage is more prominent, and has been going on for far longer than the coverage of Republican hopefuls before McCain stepped up.
Every time you turn on the TV it's talking more and more about how awesome Obama is and how he's going to single-handedly save America. I was listening to the radio, and on a commercial for some Rock The Vote thing (a decidedly BIPARTISAN thing, mind you), they used a clip from an Obama speech. The clip? Something along the lines of this:
"And in November, the name George W. Bush will not be on the ballot!" *big cheer*
Don't even get me started on the ridiculousness of that statement. That's a whole other blog entry. The fact is, the media is all but ENDORSING Barack Obama. Sure newspapers do it all the time, but what happens if CNN, FOX, MSNBC, heck, even the BBC endorses a candidate?
In other words, the media's credibility is going severely downhill. If a network endorses a candidate, which I don't see as too far away at this point, then where will people get their balanced viewpoints? I realize they don't exist from any one source, but a conglomeration of unaffiliated sources provide the American people with the big picture. With the way the media is heading this election, what is the big picture?
Quis custodiet ipsos custodes?
Who watches the Watchmen?"
And I did my job, which was mainly to get people to think about the issues. I don't care if they think I'm right, cuz this is Lawrence and I know they don't.
Here's the comments I received:
"
¨Every time you turn on the TV it's talking more and more about how awesome Obama is and how he's going to single-handedly save America. How is it logical to say that every time you turn on the TV, someone is talking about how awesome Obama is? This is a weak assertion, unless you have watched all television programming since Barack announced his canidancy. Obviously, you imply that you have. Further, by cherry picking statistics from one source (CNN, google does not publish it´s own media) you seek to associate all media with a possible CNN bias, and then march out the old, trite liberal media bias argument. Arguing the media is purely liberally biased becomes silly the second you remember that Fox News was the number one rated cable news broadcaster in 2007. Setting up a false argument that all bias is liberal, you only distract from the fact that bias in general has reared it´s head in ugly, new ways in the 21st century. This is the issue that truly needs to be addressed. -Alex Dohety
Alrighty then.
FOXnews: 16,700 for Obama and 12,600 for McCain
MSNBC: 573,000 for Obama and 466,000 for McCain
CBS: 6,686 for Obama and 4,762 for McCain
ABC: 1,274 for Obama and 906 for McCain
NPR: 6,933 for Obama and 6,839 for McCain
NYTimes: 2,680,000 for Obama and 1,800,000 for McCain
Try it yourself.
FOXnews: 16,700 for Obama and 12,600 for McCain
MSNBC: 573,000 for Obama and 466,000 for McCain
CBS: 6,686 for Obama and 4,762 for McCain
ABC: 1,274 for Obama and 906 for McCain
NPR: 6,933 for Obama and 6,839 for McCain
NYTimes: 2,680,000 for Obama and 1,800,000 for McCain
Try it yourself.
But you're assuming that any hit is a "good" hit. How many of those hits link to NEGATIVE coverage? Just because News Site A has more Obama hits than McCain hits doesn't mean that all of those Obama hits are positive coverage. Personally I think the "liberal media" is a myth. This same media is fawning over Sarah Palin, letting her lie through her teeth with zero accountability, and is perfectly fine with the fact that she's hiding out from the press. People also tend to forget that corporations — you think they're "liberal"? — own the media outlets. Viacom, Time Warner, GE, Rupert Murdoch, Disney, etc. are the de facto owners of most major news outlets, including Fox, Time, Newsweek, ABC, CNN, CBS and NBC.
I'm betting that in a year news outlets will begin chiding themselves for their lopsided coverage of this election. (Not unlike they did for their lopsided coverage at the beginning of the war.) I'm a graduate of KU's J-school and follow several news outlets very closely. There is definitely more good coverage of Obama. McCain story headlines often have a negative word in them even if they story is positive. (Not much the writer can do about that.) You're right though, Palin is getting favorable coverage too. I don't think it is as much a grand conspiracy to elect Obama or glorify Palin rather that they are younger, appeal to more viewers/readers and are sexier news choices. But, that only explains the numbers not the content. I think many people blow the influence of the network out of proportion. A vast majority of journalists are completely free to write on whatever they want (I would be interested in seeing how papers are assigning the election beats though). The problem is that many of those journalists are pro-Obama. News papers have also taken more of an advocacy turn in the past few years. This could be a symptom of that as well. Bottom line: We are witnessing some very poor news coverage.
What about the fact that Obama was part of a much longer contest to win his candidacy? There was a time this year where the stories were about Clinton and Obama nonstop and McCain was almost forgotten for a while. I'm pretty sure that skews the results a bit. I wonder how many times Hillary shows up in the respective media archives.
I have 100 pennies, you have 50 nickels, therefore I'm a richer man than you. 100 is greater than 50. Same basic argument you're making. How many articles are pro, how many are neutral, and how many are negative for each candidate? Research that, because otherwise you're making sensational statements with the idea of correlation equals causation. Consider the elongated battle between Hillary and Obama (the only really serious candidates, even since day 1 everyone knew one of them would be the democrat of choice) versus the relatively short battle between multiple Republicans. Consider also the exact same claim was made in 1999 by Bush's supporters, yet a later study determined the percentage of positive media for Bush was substantially greater than the positive media for McCain. In conclusion, you're twisting the data.
I meant Gore, not McCain in my next to last sentance."
Fun fun fun.
But like I said, it's my job to stir the pot, so to speak, and to get people to sit up and take notice of the world around them.
Well, that's about it for now. I'll try to actually, you know, WRITE in this blog now.
Fun fun fun.
But like I said, it's my job to stir the pot, so to speak, and to get people to sit up and take notice of the world around them.
Well, that's about it for now. I'll try to actually, you know, WRITE in this blog now.
Thursday, December 20, 2007
Smells like a new blog
New Blog smell isn't exactly a new car smell or something equally noticeable, but it's still new.
It's been awhile since I've been on the ol' bloggy, so I decided to update my tens of readers before I left on my highfalutin (or however you spell that) vacation.
My family and I leave for Hawaii tomorrow (an 8.5 hour flight from Minneapolis to Honolulu) to go on an island cruise! We're stopping at all the main islands, and I have no idea right now how many there actually are, but there's a bunch. We're going on the cruise with my mom's extended family, so my aunts and uncles and one set of grandparents and all those type people. All in all we'll add up to 23 people.
Now, I've never been on a cruise, so I have no idea what to expect. We may be doing the shuffleboard-Vegas-show-old-people-Branson-on-a-boat type things (I hope not), or we may just hang around the pool-within-the-bigger-pool-known-as-the-ocean until we're sunburnt and fat on free cruise food. I don't know yet. I do know that we'll be doing all the touristy type stuff like this shop and that volcano park, but I don't know exactly what each off-boat excursion will entail.
I do know one thing about the trip: I have about a 1000-1500 limit on the pictures I can take, and I plan on getting as close to that as humanly possible. That very well may be filling up my already almost-full hard drive.
In other news, I'm home! I've finished my first semester of my junior year at KU, and hopefully only have 3 more to go, barring any unforeseen catastrophe. Next semester I'll be taking the last of my non-journalism classes. I will also be working for the student paper as a reporter for a class, so I can get experience and class credit, all in one. I'll also be taking some other classes, but I can't remember them at all right now. I'll check on that once I get back to Lawrence sometime in January.
Ah, to be a young, carefree college kid. (insert scoff here)
For those tens of you that read my blog but don't know my mother, she has also started a blog (in an effort to become hip and cool and cool and hip and all up ons) called Just Enough Light. You should all check it out.
----------------
Now playing: Hans Zimmer - Hunger
via FoxyTunes
It's been awhile since I've been on the ol' bloggy, so I decided to update my tens of readers before I left on my highfalutin (or however you spell that) vacation.
My family and I leave for Hawaii tomorrow (an 8.5 hour flight from Minneapolis to Honolulu) to go on an island cruise! We're stopping at all the main islands, and I have no idea right now how many there actually are, but there's a bunch. We're going on the cruise with my mom's extended family, so my aunts and uncles and one set of grandparents and all those type people. All in all we'll add up to 23 people.
Now, I've never been on a cruise, so I have no idea what to expect. We may be doing the shuffleboard-Vegas-show-old-people-Branson-on-a-boat type things (I hope not), or we may just hang around the pool-within-the-bigger-pool-known-as-the-ocean until we're sunburnt and fat on free cruise food. I don't know yet. I do know that we'll be doing all the touristy type stuff like this shop and that volcano park, but I don't know exactly what each off-boat excursion will entail.
I do know one thing about the trip: I have about a 1000-1500 limit on the pictures I can take, and I plan on getting as close to that as humanly possible. That very well may be filling up my already almost-full hard drive.
In other news, I'm home! I've finished my first semester of my junior year at KU, and hopefully only have 3 more to go, barring any unforeseen catastrophe. Next semester I'll be taking the last of my non-journalism classes. I will also be working for the student paper as a reporter for a class, so I can get experience and class credit, all in one. I'll also be taking some other classes, but I can't remember them at all right now. I'll check on that once I get back to Lawrence sometime in January.
Ah, to be a young, carefree college kid. (insert scoff here)
For those tens of you that read my blog but don't know my mother, she has also started a blog (in an effort to become hip and cool and cool and hip and all up ons) called Just Enough Light. You should all check it out.
----------------
Now playing: Hans Zimmer - Hunger
via FoxyTunes
Monday, September 10, 2007
New Photo Site!
Since Google is taking over the world, I decided to help them out. I'm now using Picasa Web Albums to post my pictures online instead of Photobucket. It's a lot easier, and it's integrated with Picasa.
I've just put a bunch up from this past year, and a bunch from Navigator events. Enjoy!
I've just put a bunch up from this past year, and a bunch from Navigator events. Enjoy!
One Free Night A Week.
Hence the lack of blog posts. Monday I lead a Bible Study, Tuesday I have leadership team for Navs, Wednesday I have music practice for Nav Night, Thursday I have Nav Night, and Friday night I am free (hear that, ladies? Hehe). That....and I really haven't made time for it.
*Ashamed Face*
Life has been going good here at KU. It's much easier to get into the swing of things once you've already done it twice. Classes are going good for the most part. My Western Civ class is a LOT of reading (including some wonderful *snore* Plato), but kinda interesting. My Political Theory class....well....let's just say that no other human should have to take a class from this goofball. He's a big fancy-schmancy pants from Rutgers who's "used to 90 minute classes" and "can't repeat sentences. I don't have a replay button." He thinks he's all that and a can of worms, so when he lectures, it's just a bunch of big words and ramblings to make himself sound smart. He actually lectures straight out of the text (with a few pointless long ramblings), so I know what he's trying to talk about. He actually used the word pejorative about 4 times the first class period. My photojournalism class is going really well. The prof is the photo editor at the KC Star, so he really knows his stuff. He's funny, he's informative, and he actually helps all of us figure out our cameras. For instance, he taught us how to take pictures in Manual with no flash, just by adjusting the aperture and shutter speed according to what the light meter says. If that made sense to you, mad props. If it didn't, don't worry. It didn't until two weeks ago for me. My child psych class is really interesting, and I am looking forward to learning lotsa stuff to help me parent, if/when that ever happens. I also get to sit next to a girl from Navs who's a lot of fun to talk to during class. She already took a developmental psych class last year, so she usually spends the time studying for other classes. She's fun, though. I'm also taking an editing class that has so far been a bunch of practice. Which is good, because I can already see a difference in my editing capabilities.
Aside from classes and my full night schedule....hmmm. My roommates and I all pitched in 5 bucks a month and got Netflix, which has been a lot of fun. We all have a list of movies that we've never seen and want to, and now we can! For a heckuva lot cheaper than Hasting's or Blockbuster.
I've done worship once so far at Christ Community, and it was Maggie's inaugural worship experience there. She did well. I'm up next week, too.
And now, as I am sitting in the Budig computer lab listening to "Live and Let Die" by Paul McCartney and the Wings, sipping my Full Throttle Unnecessarily Large Energy Drink, I must leave again. Western Civ beckons to me from Wescoe 3140. Weee.
Here's a great video of one my new favorite artists, Damien Rice. The song is called "Volcano."
*Ashamed Face*
Life has been going good here at KU. It's much easier to get into the swing of things once you've already done it twice. Classes are going good for the most part. My Western Civ class is a LOT of reading (including some wonderful *snore* Plato), but kinda interesting. My Political Theory class....well....let's just say that no other human should have to take a class from this goofball. He's a big fancy-schmancy pants from Rutgers who's "used to 90 minute classes" and "can't repeat sentences. I don't have a replay button." He thinks he's all that and a can of worms, so when he lectures, it's just a bunch of big words and ramblings to make himself sound smart. He actually lectures straight out of the text (with a few pointless long ramblings), so I know what he's trying to talk about. He actually used the word pejorative about 4 times the first class period. My photojournalism class is going really well. The prof is the photo editor at the KC Star, so he really knows his stuff. He's funny, he's informative, and he actually helps all of us figure out our cameras. For instance, he taught us how to take pictures in Manual with no flash, just by adjusting the aperture and shutter speed according to what the light meter says. If that made sense to you, mad props. If it didn't, don't worry. It didn't until two weeks ago for me. My child psych class is really interesting, and I am looking forward to learning lotsa stuff to help me parent, if/when that ever happens. I also get to sit next to a girl from Navs who's a lot of fun to talk to during class. She already took a developmental psych class last year, so she usually spends the time studying for other classes. She's fun, though. I'm also taking an editing class that has so far been a bunch of practice. Which is good, because I can already see a difference in my editing capabilities.
Aside from classes and my full night schedule....hmmm. My roommates and I all pitched in 5 bucks a month and got Netflix, which has been a lot of fun. We all have a list of movies that we've never seen and want to, and now we can! For a heckuva lot cheaper than Hasting's or Blockbuster.
I've done worship once so far at Christ Community, and it was Maggie's inaugural worship experience there. She did well. I'm up next week, too.And now, as I am sitting in the Budig computer lab listening to "Live and Let Die" by Paul McCartney and the Wings, sipping my Full Throttle Unnecessarily Large Energy Drink, I must leave again. Western Civ beckons to me from Wescoe 3140. Weee.
Here's a great video of one my new favorite artists, Damien Rice. The song is called "Volcano."
Saturday, August 18, 2007
Back in the Saddle again...kind of
Well, I'm back in Lawrence now. Have been since Monday, but just haven't gotten around to blogging yet.
I left Hutchinson after church on the 12th, and after Maggie's (my newest guitar) worship team debut, and drove 4 hours to Ames, Iowa, where I have family. They weren't actually there, but I was able to use their house to sleep in, which was very nice. They actually had a plaster tree built into the side of the wall. (see picture)
yeah. Don't really know what the point of that was.
Anyways...after a night there, I drove the remaining 4 hours to Lawrence. Driving for the most part went okay...it just got really tiring really fast. I had my iPod hooked up to an FM transmitter so I could listen to it on my stereo. The only big cities I had to drive through were Des Moines and KC, and both weren't too bad. Lawrence traffic was, and is, by far the worst. Most major roads are four lane, and a huge percentage of the drivers are college students.
Which, by stereotype, aren't exactly the best drivers (I'm only guilty sometimes).
Classes started on Thursday, but I've only had one. The two others I have scheduled are discussion sections for lectures I haven't had yet. The one I did have was Child Psych, which looks very interesting.
Other than that one class (busy, I know), I've been running errands, buying cables to get various electronics in the room working, eating at Sonic again (for the first time in a long time today! Yummmm!), and seeing old buddies. I'm actually going to "The Bourne Ultimatum" again tonight with some of them. Wooohoo!
The room's pretty nice. I'm on the sixth floor in something called the Jayhawker Towers now, or just the Towers. They used to be private apartments, but the university bought them a while back and now they're university-operated apartments. We have a very small kitchen, and a pretty good-sized living room. I like it.
My window I'm right next to right now is a little creepy...There's four Towers (A-D), and they all face a central courtyard. My window faces the courtyard, and therefore looks into a buncha other rooms, too. That's why they have blinds.Well....that's about it for the Lawrence news. Be sure to check back for more excitement!
PHOTO BONUS:
The New Hairstyle!
Thursday, August 02, 2007
My Summer (sans 3M and pre KU)
Well, since the last post was a feature on where most of my summer has been taking place, here's what I'm doing when I'm not at 3M. Only a few more days up in the FWOM* until I go back to Lawrence!
On the weekends, I've been hanging out with my friend Jeremy a bunch. We usually just watch movies and talk (or rather, he talks and I listen) and take the occasional road trip (we went to St. Cloud so I could help him buy a camera. Since I'm like a camera expert or something). We've been friends since halfway through 9th grade, or the beginning of 10th grade...but that's besides the point. We've been friends for a long time.
During the week, I usually meet with my pastor Dan Moose (yes, funny name I know). We're going through the book of Nehemiah so I can begin to grow as a spiritual leader. I'm really excited about what I've learned, and I know that God will present multiple opportunities to test it out. Nehemiah was the governor of Judah right after the Jews got out of exile, and he took it upon himself to rebuild the walls of Jerusalem.
I'm also a part of the Joshua Team next year at KU which is a leadership training thingymabob for Navs. I'm pumped to see what God has planned.
I've also made a new friend! Zach Meyer is the new youth leader at our church who also works at HTI, or as he calls it, "The Company." He's [age], and a lot of fun to hang around with. Not to mention he actually gets and laughs at most of my jokes. I think there's probably 4 or 5 people in the world who do that. My sister and dad just look at me funny most of the time. Shoutout to Mom for thinking I'm funny!
I am now the proud owner of my fourth guitar! I bought an acoustic-electric Martin DCX1E about a month ago, and it rocks! I keep it next to my bed just in case inspiration strikes suddenly, which it often does. I've been playing a lot of bluesy-jazz-make-it-up-as-I-go stuff, as well as some Damien Rice.
When I went to St. Cloud with Jeremy, I also bought a new external flash for my Olympus E-330. I got drafted to take photos at a friend's wedding this fall, so I figured I might as well be all fancy and whatnot.
*Frozen Wastelands Of Minnesota. Applies 9-10 months out of the year.
On the weekends, I've been hanging out with my friend Jeremy a bunch. We usually just watch movies and talk (or rather, he talks and I listen) and take the occasional road trip (we went to St. Cloud so I could help him buy a camera. Since I'm like a camera expert or something). We've been friends since halfway through 9th grade, or the beginning of 10th grade...but that's besides the point. We've been friends for a long time.
During the week, I usually meet with my pastor Dan Moose (yes, funny name I know). We're going through the book of Nehemiah so I can begin to grow as a spiritual leader. I'm really excited about what I've learned, and I know that God will present multiple opportunities to test it out. Nehemiah was the governor of Judah right after the Jews got out of exile, and he took it upon himself to rebuild the walls of Jerusalem.
I'm also a part of the Joshua Team next year at KU which is a leadership training thingymabob for Navs. I'm pumped to see what God has planned.
I've also made a new friend! Zach Meyer is the new youth leader at our church who also works at HTI, or as he calls it, "The Company." He's [age], and a lot of fun to hang around with. Not to mention he actually gets and laughs at most of my jokes. I think there's probably 4 or 5 people in the world who do that. My sister and dad just look at me funny most of the time. Shoutout to Mom for thinking I'm funny!
I am now the proud owner of my fourth guitar! I bought an acoustic-electric Martin DCX1E about a month ago, and it rocks! I keep it next to my bed just in case inspiration strikes suddenly, which it often does. I've been playing a lot of bluesy-jazz-make-it-up-as-I-go stuff, as well as some Damien Rice.
When I went to St. Cloud with Jeremy, I also bought a new external flash for my Olympus E-330. I got drafted to take photos at a friend's wedding this fall, so I figured I might as well be all fancy and whatnot.
I've seen a few good flicks this summer as well. "The Bourne Ultimatum" was absolutely incredible. It was better than the first two, crisp, gritty, and full of fight scences and car chases that made you go "Ooooo! That had to hurt!" Plus, it has the ominous-sounding line "Activate the asset."
Creeeepy.
I also saw the third Shrek movie (snore, with a few funny parts thrown in) and the third Pirates movie, "At World's End." I thought it was a good ending to the series (although they did leave it open for more...oh Disney), with a lot of great action and hilarious Captain Jack moments.
Overall, this summer was a lot of fun, despite the work that sucked my life up. I'll miss everyone back in Hutch this school year, especially my awesome family.
I love you guys! Thanks for being a great family to come home to.
*Frozen Wastelands Of Minnesota. Applies 9-10 months out of the year.
Wednesday, August 01, 2007
The Story of The Temp, Mr. Guy Who Talks Like Dan Akroyd, Mr. Oops, and Mr. Mumbles
Well....this isn't really going to be an actual STORY. Sorry. Those are just the people that I've spent a majority of the summer with at 3M. Since I haven't written in the ol' blog lately, I thought I'd liven things up a bit with a different kind of post.
If you haven't figured it out yet, I'm The Temp. I'm one of 4 in my area of 3M (HPT Converting for those 2.5 of you who speak 3Mese), and we basically get the shaft while on our short stays here. Oh well. We do need money, right? Anyways, I'm going to be done being The Temp on the 10th, which means (hopefully) eight more days of work, counting this one. Whew.
Now on to the other characters. Mr. Guy Who Talks Like Dan Akroyd (let's call him Mr. Gwtlda) is somehow the self-appointed leader of the bunch. And seriously, he sounds almost exactly like Dan Akroyd in The Blues Brothers.
"You want I should clean the dead bugs off your windshield?"
Yup.
Mr. Oops is the nicest of the bunch. He has a daughter that just graduated, and he works really hard, but sometimes he just makes mistakes that make ya wonder where his mind was. Mr. Gwtlda gets very angry at Mr. Oops sometimes.
Mr. Mumbles is my favorite to work with. He doesn't get all pissy like Mr. Gwtlda, and he doesn't make big mistakes like Mr. Oops. He's been here for something like 17 years, knows exactly what he's doing, and is pleasant to talk to when he isn't being a creepy old pervert (Mr. Mumbles and Mr. Gwtlda share this affinty). The only problem is that about 50% of the time, I have no clue what the heck he's saying. Oh well. He thinks he's funny.
And there you have it. Of course, we have many supporting characters, like Creepy Old Ladies 1-7, Mrs. Extremely Loud Cackle, Sarge the Supervisor, and the list continues. I will definitely (read=not definitely) miss it here.
The money has been good, and will be good, considering I'll be driving in Lawrence this school year, and gas tends to cost money.
Unless you've got extra arms and legs to give to the employees at Holiday. I don't know if they actually take them, though.
Might be something to try later...*strokes chin*
If you haven't figured it out yet, I'm The Temp. I'm one of 4 in my area of 3M (HPT Converting for those 2.5 of you who speak 3Mese), and we basically get the shaft while on our short stays here. Oh well. We do need money, right? Anyways, I'm going to be done being The Temp on the 10th, which means (hopefully) eight more days of work, counting this one. Whew.
Now on to the other characters. Mr. Guy Who Talks Like Dan Akroyd (let's call him Mr. Gwtlda) is somehow the self-appointed leader of the bunch. And seriously, he sounds almost exactly like Dan Akroyd in The Blues Brothers.
"You want I should clean the dead bugs off your windshield?"
Yup.
Mr. Oops is the nicest of the bunch. He has a daughter that just graduated, and he works really hard, but sometimes he just makes mistakes that make ya wonder where his mind was. Mr. Gwtlda gets very angry at Mr. Oops sometimes.
Mr. Mumbles is my favorite to work with. He doesn't get all pissy like Mr. Gwtlda, and he doesn't make big mistakes like Mr. Oops. He's been here for something like 17 years, knows exactly what he's doing, and is pleasant to talk to when he isn't being a creepy old pervert (Mr. Mumbles and Mr. Gwtlda share this affinty). The only problem is that about 50% of the time, I have no clue what the heck he's saying. Oh well. He thinks he's funny.
And there you have it. Of course, we have many supporting characters, like Creepy Old Ladies 1-7, Mrs. Extremely Loud Cackle, Sarge the Supervisor, and the list continues. I will definitely (read=not definitely) miss it here.
The money has been good, and will be good, considering I'll be driving in Lawrence this school year, and gas tends to cost money.
Unless you've got extra arms and legs to give to the employees at Holiday. I don't know if they actually take them, though.
Might be something to try later...*strokes chin*
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I'm amazed the situation came about to begin with. How can people boil a Supreme Court nomination down to one issue? These people have unrestrained power to overturn any law, and we're ignoring everything in favor of turning it into an abortion-only issue? Much as I hate to say it, McCain was absolutely, 100% right in saying that it can't be a one-issue deal. I've never heard truer words come out of his mouth.
Not that I'm surprised that Goldberg would say something like that. She thrives on saying stupid, offensive things, then acting like she's the cleverest person on earth for saying it. She talks about being a slave all the damn time, too, even though she oddly never mentions what she was doing during the Civil War...Oh, right, she's never been a slave. I wonder sometimes whether her ancestors are offended that she pretends that she went through the same things they did.