Throwing my wicked GiMP skills out to AWelkin.
For those of you obsessed with checking this site frequently; you might have noticed that the image has been changed. That’s because the original… well, it sucked serious dingo-kidneys. When I got home from work; I completely redid the image and now I’m much happier with it. If somebody absolutely insists on it; I might be persuaded to put the original back online but that might require some bribery. *grin*
I was going through some of my photos from earlier this year when I ran across this one. I took this in Mom’s yard just after it had rained a bit and I really like how the water drops show up on the petals of the daisy. Plus, I’ve noticed that Ariesna has been using some of my posted photos as her wallpaper and I know she loves daisies. *grin*
Those of you who regularly read this blog will not be surprised to learn that I feel disappointed with Bush winning the presidential election. I could spend pages on that topic but won’t as there are others out there who’ve done it better than I could. Instead, I have a few other words to say.
Thank you for your effort; while you were not my first choice for president, I believe you would have fulfilled the duties of the office honorably.
Whether you voted for Kerry, Busy, Nader or one of the other third party candidates; you decided that your voice would not go unheard this year. For that I applaude you; the single most important reasponsibility we have as American citizens is to tell our government what we think. Yesterday, all of you did just that.
You owe every dead American soldier an apology. One of the things our country has fought for has been to maintain our democracy; so that we have the ability to choose our leaders. By failing to follow the issues and vote, you insult the memory of every American soldier who ever died for us. For those of you who protest that you were too busy with work/family/whatever; just remember those soldiers had their own families and their own jobs that they gave up to defend your rights. They never got to go back to their families and jobs, but you can every night.
Try thinking about that next time.
Today is November 2nd and that makes it the day that America goes to the polls to pick our leader for the next 4 years. As an American citizen, I’ve already cast my vote and I’m hope all my fellow Americans will do so too. If you’re still thinking about not voting, take a look at this article. Below are some quotes from the article:
3. Because you’ll make your sixth-grade social studies teacher happy.
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7. Because there are no television sets in the voting booth, which means the odds are great you will not hear the phrase, “. . . and I approved this message.”
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14. Because even if it’s only an illusion to think you are making your voice heard, that’s still better than knowing with absolute certainty that you remained silent.
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20. Because of United Airlines Flight 93. An amazing thing happened on the morning of Sept. 11, 2001, on that hijacked airplane. The 33 passengers knew, from cell phone calls to loved ones, that two other hijacked planes had struck the World Trade Center. Unless they acted, they realized that they, too, were doomed. And do you know what those strangers did?
From the 9/11 report: “According to one call, they voted on whether to rush the terrorists in an attempt to retake the plane. They decided, and acted.”
What a remarkable act. With their lives at stake, with their country facing peril, these 33 men and women of diverse backgrounds did a most American thing: They took a vote. They decided to rush the cockpit. And a plane that might have destroyed the White House or U.S. Capitol crashed instead in a Pennsylvania field.
Why vote? Choose your reason.
Honoring their sacrifice will do just fine.
Oh and just for the record I voted for Kerry, via absentee ballot weeks ago.
This evening after work Ariesna and I headed up to the World Theater in Cedar Rapids to attend an early Halloween Party.
Err… that’s not strictly true. We’d heard from AWelkin about said party being a mascarade and that it would start off by showing Shaun of the Dead. This is a British horror/zombie flick that was released here in the US not all that long ago and it had looked mighty funny, going by the trailers. Having now seen the movie, I can safely …. but that’s getting a head of myself.
We were running a bit behind schedule when we left (movie scheduled to start at 5:30, left house at 5:10, drive is ~30minutes) but we hurried along as best we could. Narrowly avoiding getting lost in downtown CR, I had to drive around the block a couple of times to find a place to park. We hurry inside –the time is now 6:00– and there’s no sign of a movie screen or a movie playing. We stumble around a bit confused when AWelkin waves us over. Apparently, we weren’t the only ones running behind schedule. *shrug* So we sit and chat1 until nearly 7 o’clock!
Finally the movie started and it was flippin’ fan-tas-tic! Sure, some bits had crude langauge and there was a bit of excessive gore but overall; 4.95 stars out of 5. Definitely, a must see and leaps & bounds better than the last movie we saw together.
1 Well, we tried to anyway but they were blasting annoying music at a near deafening level at us.