Posted by shane On February - 24 - 2008ADD COMMENTS
Obama Attends “Keeping America’s Promise” Rally In Akron AKRON, OH – FEBRUARY 23: Democratic presidential hopeful U.S. Sen. Barack Obama (D-IL) speaks to supporters at the John S. Knight Center February 23, 2008 in Akron, Ohio. Obama is campaigning ahead of the March 4 Ohio primary. (Photo by J.D. Pooley/Getty Images)
Fired Up In Cleveland!
Cleveland this is our moment…this is our time, and if you will stand with me, if you will vote for me, if you will march with me, and organize with me…then i promise you, we will win Ohio, we will win this nomination, we will win this general election. And you and I together we will change this country and we will change the world. God Bless You! Thank You!
Unfortunately I didn’t win the public lottery for the Cleveland State/MSNBCDemocratic debate, but I will be traveling downtown Cleveland to report on what is going on outside and maybe try and get in. I will write about my travels right here, so stay tuned! Who knows what will happen? *cross your fingers for me*
Posted by shane On February - 19 - 2008ADD COMMENTS
WASHINGTON – Barack Obama cruised past a fading Hillary Rodham Clinton in the Wisconsin primary Tuesday night, gaining the upper hand in a Democratic presidential race for the ages. – AP
Ever since 1995 and Toy Story, the world has been infatuated with the company known as Pixar. To the mainstream public, Pixar seemed to jump into the cinema world almost out of nowhere. They have made computer/3-D animation what it is today. Each release has been better than the last and has pushed the medium to levels we never knew existed.
The greatest part of it all is that Pixar has not only done it with technology, but great writing. They have released 8 feature films and have yet to have a flop. That success rate is unheard of in Hollywood and will not be replicated anytime soon (re: Norbit, Meet The Spartans, etc.).
Their next feature film, Wall-E, seems like it will continue Pixar’s winning streak. (If you haven’t seen the trailer yet, head over here.) I have already been excited for this film, as I am with all of Pixar’s films. Heck, one of my favorite commercials from the Super Bowl was the Wall-E “trailer.” Then /film gave me another reason to be excited:
If you aren’t blown away by that image, large or small, I do not know what to tell you. The detail and clarity of everything in that photo is unreal. Sure, I am a kid at heart so I love this sort of stuff, but I believe and hope that anyone can truly see the greatness in that one image, regardless of the fact that we haven’t actually seen the movie.
Now it is just time to start lining up for Wall-E, which hits theaters on June 27th, 2008.
Changing gears slightly, there is a new trailer out for M. Night Shymalan’s The Happening. If you weren’t excited from the first trailer, you should be now. The Happening opens on Friday the 13th of June, 2008.
When you are really young, you have no say in what clothes you wear. Mommy or daddy buys your clothes, picks them out and even puts them on you. What if you don’t like the outfit they select`? Essentially, it is just too bad. As you grow up, you begin to have more say as to what you would like to wear, although your tastes change and evolve.
Back in 5th and 6th grade I decided that it was cool to wear sweatpants to school. Now, I don’t believe you were even allowed to wear them, but I did anyways. I had blue ones that had the name of my school on them, wasn’t I cool? The point is, these days, except for being comfy or working out, I would never be caught dead in public in sweatpants. Let’s just say, I had no fashion sense then, but was I really supposed to?
Time wore on and I went into an “I love flannel stage” and then a “khaki/I hate jeans stage.” That stage was when I would wear only khakis and totally neglect blue jeans. For some reason, unbeknownst to me, I hated blue jeans. I wouldn’t wear them, I wouldn’t try them on, nothing. The pair I had simply sat at the bottom of the drawer collecting dust, waiting for the one day when I might pull them out and wear them. That day never really came.
As I went to college I was still a little awkward in the fashion department. I remember one day, when I was trying to look fashionable, I decided it was a good idea to tuck in my flannel sweatshirt. I quickly learned from a classmate that that was a bad idea. I still had a long ways to go before I would truly look good.
At this point, I have devoted 3 paragraphs to my fashion exploits from long ago; you have to be wondering what my point is. Well, here it is. All through my early years, I had two wardrobes: a nice one in which I would only wear for special occasions and an everyday one in which I would wear for general occasions. I was not that interested in my clothes or what I was wearing, I would pick something out and hope it matched. I thought of clothes as clothes, something I put on in the morning and took off at night. That is as far as the discussion went.
Those thoughts stayed with me for awhile. Prior to college and during the early vacations I worked at Nordstrom in the Cafe, as I continue to do on the weekend. I rarely used my 20% discount except if my mom or sister desired some random piece of clothing or shoes. Nordstrom was making a killing off of me simply because I never used the main perk I received for working there. Clothes were still just something I put on and took off.
Then I entered the business world, the real world, the world where you can’t get away with waking up, throwing on whatever is lying around and walking out the door. That is when I realized clothes are more than just objects that stop you from being naked. That is when I realized I wanted to look fashionable.
Clothes have become more important to me and fashion is moving up in importance. My two wardrobes? They have been merged into one, with the old everyday category being dwindled down to almost nothing. I want to look sharp at work, but also when I go to the mall on a lazy Sunday.
No longer is Nordstrom getting off easy by me not using my discount. Whenever they have special promotions, I take advantage of it. A pea coat here, a scarf there and undershirts in between. It takes money to look good, even if you receive a discount.
All of this is because I entered the working class. All of this because I have started to mature. No longer am I wearing sweatpants as I head off to the bus stop, now I am wearing gray wool pants as I drive off to be a Webmaster.
…especially when they make good suggestions and you were going to do it anyways.
I have created about 5 or so Blog Photo Essays ranging from New Year’s Celebrations to Barry Bond’s 756 and 755 home runs, yet there were was no easy way to view them all at once. I never thought of creating one category that I could apply to all of these, never even thought anyone would want to view them all.
However, I was wrong. Therefore, I have gone ahead and created the “Photo Essay” category, where you, and everyone else, can view all of my Blog Photo Essays. I plan on creating a new Blog Photo Essay for last week’s Super Tuesday, so keep your eye’s peeled for that.
Posted by shane On February - 9 - 2008ADD COMMENTS
Every year, for the Super Bowl, the folks and I make a fire and cook food on it. This year I made the fire with them and enjoyed it, but then headed over to my sister’s to watch the Super Bowl with her, my brother-in-law and Nate the Great. A good time was head by all.
This fireman is on his way to put out the fire from the Super Bowl, it did get a little out of hand…
Currently, there are 28 definitions for blog on Google. As evidenced by these various definitions, a blog is many things to many different people. These days, everyone has a blog no matter if they are 8 or 80. Grandmother’s have blogs. Kids have blogs. Companies have blogs. Everyone has something to say that they want to share with the rest of the world. The problem is how do you get the world to listen? That is the million dollar question and the one I am just starting to ponder.
There are people who blog about their day and what they did, such as going to the grocery store and buying milk. Honestly, who wants to read that? I don’t and have never wanted my blog to be like that. I have wanted it to have at least some universal appeal so that people who don’t necessarily know me could read it and not become bored.
I have had this blog for awhile now, dating back to 2006 when I signed up because I wanted to have a place to share my thoughts. I didn’t care about traffic or random people reading; I just wanted somewhere to vent. Then, somehow over the years, this blog began to grow into something more than just a sounding board for my feelings. I updated the look of imagine a different world, moving away from the default design to something a little different. I have started the A Photo A Day project where I post personal photos and behind the scene stories for everyone to see and read. I am moving away from the daily posts about my personal life and have begun branching out into politics and movies among other topics.
This is where I return to my original question: how do I get people to read my blog? Better yet, what do I want this blog to be about? There are much better blogs out there about technology, politics, news, sports and so much more. I could and will never compete with those blogs so why even bother? I need to find my personal voice, a specific angle that I want to take on that will make people come back for more.
I believe I have begun to find that elusive voice with my last post, Inspired. People read this post and although they didn’t comment here, they did comment via IM. It wasn’t many, just a few, but it was something. According to one friend, It had that universal appeal I am looking for, searching for. It was timely and only somewhat personal enough that made it interesting. It wasn’t too long but it wasn’t too short. In between all the words, as I said, was my voice starting to ooze out onto the proverbial page.
That is all well and good but where do I go from here? Am I going to stick to writing only about politics? No. I don’t know enough to be interesting or dangerous. I have thought about having a weekly blog entry that I set aside to “my voice.” For instance, every Sunday I would write something new on a myriad of topics so that people know when to check back for something new, something interesting. However, there a few issues with that. One, I don’t really like schedules and am not sure how long I would stick to it. Two, what happens if I have something to write on Wednesday, do I hold it until Sunday? And what happens if I have nothing to write on Sunday, do I force it and write something boring and mundane?
I think the answer, for now, is to go forward with a free-flowing schedule…write something when an idea hits me. I will still have my updates with the A Photo A Day project and maybe some boring personal posts, but mixed in with all of that will be my voice, just waiting to be heard. Hopefully there will be someone on the other end, listening…
In 2000, when America was deciding who would be the 43rd President of The United States of America I was 17 years old, one year away from being able to exercise my right to vote. I was able to follow politics and learn as much as I could, but I was unable to actually partake when it came to deciding who I thought should be president.
In 2004, when America was deciding if we should re-elect our 43rd President of The United States, George W. Bush, or choose a new, Democratic president, I was 21 years old and able to partake in all political festivities. There, however, was one slight problem. I backed John Edwards in the primary, who eventually lost to John Kerry, the Democrat’s nominee. Then, I encountered another slight problem, which I believe every critic of President Bush experienced: We liked John Kerry simply because he wasn’t President Bush, not because we liked his political views. We were voting for Kerry simply to rid ourselves of the current president, not our best plan.
Many people mentioned this at the time, but I did not believe it, I wanted to act like I was actually voting for Kerry because of his views, not because of who he wasn’t. However, that wasn’t the case for me and I am sure it wasn’t the case for many other people. We wanted President Bush out of the White House so much that we would basically try and elect anybody that would take him on. Unfortunately, we chose the wrong man who couldn’t finish the job.
This mindset of simply voting for a party or idea and not a specific person energized no one. No one was excited, including myself. No one truly cared. Sure, there were rallies and the Vote For Change Tour, among other things, but the young people (excluding me, I did vote) simply did not vote. The hype was huge, but the end result was exactly the opposite. The immediacy of change was not there and therefore we were forced to live with President Bush for 4 more years.
That all has changed. For the first time since 1952, there is not an incumbent President or Vice President running for President. The field is wide open and everyone is watching that unfold in front of their eyes. The announcements of who would “throw their hat into the ring” started earlier then ever. Everyone moved up their primaries, having them start earlier then ever. The campaigns have been going on for what seems like forever. However, as we are right in the middle of the primary season it seems as though people aren’t getting bored, they are becoming more interested. Or so it seems to me.
Yesterday was Super Tuesday, which some are saying was the closest thing to a National Primary. (Side Note: I believe a National Primary will occur during my lifetime, especially after yesterday.) 24 states, the most ever on one day, held primaries or caucuses. For weeks, even before some earlier states had their primaries, people were mentioning and discussing Super Tuesday and what impact it would have on the race. Afterwards, would we know who would be the Democratic nominee? Would a clear Republican front-runner emerge? And so many more unanswered questions.
In 2000, I do not remember the primaries. In 2004, I only remember that I voted in the primaries. I will never forget the 2008 primaries. Prior to Super Tuesday, I would follow the results of the primaries and caucuses and go on with my life. Yesterday, I began watching at 7 PM and only turned it off after Barack Obama was done speaking, sometime after midnight. I was enthralled by the events and couldn’t turn it off. I became a political news junkie.
At the beginning of the current primary season, I was once again backing John Edwards. Once again, he exited the race early because of lack of support. I was heartbroken as I truly believed he might have a chance this time around. However, even as I was believing I was 100% pro-Edwards, I was beginning to follow Barack Obama and listen to his speeches. I was beginning to be inspired. I was beginning to see what everyone else was already seeing. I had a new candidate and his name is Barack Obama.
Yesterday, when Hillary Clinton’s name would be projected to win a state, I felt something. When Obama was projected to win a state, I felt something else, something better. I followed as intently as if this was the general election. I was excited as if this was the general election. I hung on every state, every delegate, every vote. This is the most I have followed politics since, well, since ever. It was an amazing night that was topped off by an amazing speech.
I have succumb to the hype and am pro-Obama and will be until he is President. The man can deliver a speech and topped himself once again last night. Sure, it might have run a little long, but the fact that CNN and MSNBC both cut off John McCain to follow Obama’s speech in its entirety says a lot. Fox News was the only channel that I noticed that stuck with McCain the whole time and that should be no shock to anybody. Obama’s speech was something to be seen, something to experience, something to witness. The crowd participation says it all.
This man has the charisma and smarts, something we have not experienced in the White House for 8 long years. I have become so used to Mr. Bush as President that I wonder sometimes if Obama is too smart to be President. How sad is that? Based off of our current President, I wonder if a candidate is too smart to fill the role of the 44th President of the United States.
When you are thinking like that, it means it is time for change. It is time to believe that, yes, we can. It is time to elect Barack Obama as the next President of The United States of America.
Here is the new teaser trailer for M. Night Shyamalan’s new movie, The Happening, courtesy of FirstShowing.net. Even though I only really enjoyed 2 of M. Night’s movies, Unbreakable and The Village, I never saw The 6th Sense, I still enjoy his style and am looking forward to The Happening. Hopefully it has more success than most of his past movies. M. Night really needs a blockbuster, both with the public and the critics.
Here is the poster, also from FirstShowing.net.
What do you think?
P.S. I have become a blog whore and I know it. Problem?
Posted by shane On February - 3 - 2008ADD COMMENTS
After some delays, lack of updates, and multiple blog designs, the A Photo A Day project is back on track. What do you think of the new digs?
Photos are now being updated very quickly for everyone to see, with most photos receiving their own blog entry, courtesy of Flickr.com. Photos are being viewed in their natural ratio, instead of being stretched or squished to fit into a certain design scheme. Photos are displayed in all their glory to be enjoyed by anyone and everyone. Hopefully you have returned to the blog to see all of this in action.
On the topic of a recent photo entitled Contemplation, most everyone did guess correctly what was different about me: my new specks (aka glasses). People did mention my hair, which is getting long, at least in my book, so I actually combed it and therefore it has somewhat of a different look. Besides mentioning the glasses or hair most people said I looked angry, which I most definitely was. However, I was going for a different look, something that wasn’t 100% happy, maybe something a tad dark. Instead of smiling, or trying to, I merely stared directly in the camera and arrived at that expression.
Since the photo didn’t really turn out “dark” or “somber” on its own, according to my own rules, I could not touch it up if I wanted to use it for A Photo A Day. I could however, touch it up for my own enjoyment and that is what I have done. Please keep in mind, these were very quick studies and could probably be enhanced.
You can view the two photos below, one being really dark and one not so dark. The dark one has my name and web site address included in the photo, while I left it out of the light one. Please let me know what you think…
Posted by shane On February - 3 - 2008ADD COMMENTS
January 31, 2008
Second Best: January
February 1, 2008
February 2, 2008
Everyone thought my previous self-portrait, although very well done artistically, was somewhat angry or sad. Therefore, I set out to do something happy, funny, something not so angry.
Although the photo didn’t turn out as well as I would have hoped, it is a start, and is definitely not angry. I decided to include Little Foot in the photo with me, he makes everything and everyone happy! He told everyone that is viewing this photo that he is available for other photo shoots that you may use him in. However, he does charge a lot…I mean, he is a famous movie star!
Posted by shane On February - 2 - 2008ADD COMMENTS
I was very pro-John Edwards ever since he first entered the presidential race in 2004. I was upset when he dropped out then, and then upset to see the Kerry/Edwards ticket lose to our current president. When he to make a difference and become the next president of the United States of America.
However, as the primaries and caucuses began, the truth was slowly revealed: Edwards would eventually have to drop out of this race as well. He just didn’t have the backing that Obama or Clinton had. Why? I still really don’t know and don’t think I will ever understand it. The other day, when Edwards announced that he was in fact dropping out, I still wanted to vote for him based on that speech alone. That says something.
Hopefully he won’t disappear from public life and will be able to help this country in his own way, similar to what Al Gore has done after his political career ended.
Even as I supported Edwards, there was another candidate out there that I liked, that I was thinking of backing. This candidate was Barack Obama. Whenever I would hear his speeches, I would hear something different, something we don’t hear today. I heard the voice of someone who can unite the country, and who can make people excited about politics and a candidate. Whenever he spoke, I listened. Whenever he spoke, the country listened.
The man speaks of change and moving away from the standard in Washington. The man speaks of a better future. The man believes we can. The man is my new favorite politician, and someone I will back with 100% of my being.
I just found this video, which I hope remains on YouTube, that highlights the “Yes we can” phrase Obama has used so often. I thought it was really well done and therefore wanted to pass it on to you Enjoy it and please, support Barack Obama, the next great politician. If the video below does not work, simply head over to www.dipdive.com.
When you are really young, you have no say in what clothes you wear. Mommy or daddy buys your clothes, picks them out and even puts them on you. What if you don’t like the outfit they select`? Essentially, it is just too bad. As you grow up, you begin to have more say as to what you would like to wear, although your tastes change and evolve.
In 2000, when America was deciding who would be the 43rd President of The United States of America I was 17 years old, one year away from being able to exercise my right to vote. I was able to follow politics and learn as much as I could, but I was unable to actually partake when it came to deciding who I thought should be president.
