Hope

I'm copying this post from my facebook Notes. It originally appeared on Jan 4, 2008...

I've had politics placed on my mind by those crazy Iowans. Huckabee and Obama. I guess those are the two that were expected to win, but I'm actually kind of hopeful about those two guys. I like McCain too, but let's stick to the early winners, for now. I went and bought books today by both of these guys ("The Audacity of Hope" by Obama and "From Hope to Higher Ground" by Huckabee). It doesn't take a scholar to notice a common thread, at least in the titles. As I said, they both inspire hopefulness. I've gone back and watched both of these guys' interviews on the Daily Show (please end the strike soon!!!). Huckabee from nearly a year ago and Obama from August of '07. I also listened to an archived episode of my favorite radio show Wait Wait Don't Tell Me (the npr news quiz). They both seem like what I would hope to be were I to be elected to a similar political position. That is, they're seemingly unassuming, sincere, quick on their feet, witty, humble and just seem to "get it." They have a hope for the institution of politics that, in his prolog (that's all I've read so far), Obama says can be seen as naïvity. Maybe they've just hit on what resonates with me, but I would MUCH prefer a naïve candidate to a seasoned (read, "calloused") political veteran.

As in 2000, I believe the country is fractured and needs to be united. The Gore/Bush election was horrible for this country and only fractured us further. I remember when Jeb was counting and re-counting, both candidates admitted that the first issue they'd need to address in their presidency would be a unification effort. I voted for W, but I have been sorely disappointed in any efforts he has made to unify this country. His stubbornness and hubris have done what I thought impossible: driven the right and left even further apart. I think Huckabee and Edwards have both seen this as a major issue that people care about. The former caring more about the "vertical" divide rather than the "horizontal." Edwards's "Two Americas" is a similar concept, I believe. Obama has also addressed this issue, talking about how the VAST majority of Americans are NOT extremely left-winged or right-winged. Most people fall in the middle - so, that viewpoint should be represented. It's encouraging that at least this issue is being discussed by those who want to be the future leaders because I hope for a more United America.

It's exciting right now because I'm entering a politican's target demographic. I have to think they don't aim for the 18-year-olds because statistically, an 18-year-old doesn't vote. But perhaps a 28-year-old is more likely. A major theme of my generation so far is skepticism. Perhaps that's a theme to any youthful generation - I don't know - but it's certainly prevalent in mine. Really the only way to get a skeptic's vote is to acknowlegde, affirm and join in on the skepticism. Once you've done that, you've put yourself on their side, so you're good to go.

Anyways, I guess I just wanted to say that I am hopeful for the immediate future of American political discourse.

One other note: when Jon Stewart asked Obama to comment on the Republican candidates (in August - before Huckabee was a viable, or very well-known, candidate), Obama mentioned ONLY Huckabee by name, calling him "sincere and decent."

A good sign-off:
"Here's to staying above the fray and not having the red/blue divide anymore." - Jon Stewart to Obama


...okay that was the post. Here's the game for today: name the actor (or voice) for the following characters:

Steven Urkel
Hallie Parker
Phoebe Buffay
Austin Powers
George Darling


Once you've done that, tell me what these five have in common (besides having 6 letters in the character's first name).

This morning on the way to work...

I saw a very telling and humorous scene...

It's a very important lesson to learn - how to drive and hold the phone to your ear at the same time.

(Please no one mention the fact that I had to have my OWN phone out and NOT looking at the road to take this picture... or that this was attempt #3)

Little Miss Sunshine

I saw this movie for the first time tonight. Why did no one tell me to watch this sooner?!?! Seriously. I cried more tonight than I have in a long time. For some reason (which I know but won't divulge at this point), I have a big soft spot for the whole father/daughter relationship particularly when it comes to self-image. If you are a daughter or have a daughter or know a daughter, please watch this movie. There's certainly more to it than just that relationship, but that was a big part of what I took from it.
Wow, there are so many things to write about from this movie. Every main character seemed to go through hell and find love from his/her family on the other side. I thought it was a very Christian message of persistent love. Plus, the whole Proust lesson pertains to them all and it's just beautiful. I might have already given away more than I should, but if you haven't seen this movie, please do so.

Blogging: Isn't it about... time?

Well, I've written some "blogs" in the past, but they've been on myspace or facebook, so they don't really count. Fortunately, I'm going to cheat and post some of those here so that'll hopefully get me started.
Tangent: I'm getting distracted by the "Save Now" / "Autosave" function on this blog. That is pretty freaking awesome. I'm going to try and see what they're using to do that... It looks like they're using AJAX, which is really cool. If you're into web design at all, check it out. Also, if you hit Ctrl+S, it'll save too. Sorry - I'm way too excited about this.
Back to the topic at hand. It is 'bout time for me to start doing this because I've looked back on some of my blogs and I've really enjoyed them. I think I'm funny, so maybe someone else will too. I used to think it was terribly self-centered to have a blog - and that may yet be true - but to assume that no one out there wants to know about me perpetuates my self-deprecation (which is something I've been told I need to work on).
One other related point is that blogging does take a bit of time, but I believe it is time well-spent. This came to my mind last night as I spent hours playing on-line poker on facebook (with fake money - don't worry Mom). It was a social thing though because my roommate was on another laptop mere feet away from me at the same poker table, so it wasn't THAT bad. But still, I completely wasted my evening when I should've been rambling like this. Whatever. Anyways, I was worried that I wouldn't have/take enough time to keep my blog interesting. But then I have a friend who hasn't posted in over a month. That made me feel better for some reason. Also, after reading really artful, funny and thoughtful blogs, I was afraid that I wouldn't measure up to the blogger standard. But I guess I just got over that.
I'm not sure how long a blog post is really supposed to be, but I'm guessing that I'm nearing my limit, so I should wrap this up.
I'm going to copy/paste some old myspace/facebook blogs later this week, but I want to end some of my blogs with a game for any readers to play. So today's game is called "Common Thread." Find the common thread between these things...

Group #1:
Paul Newman
Clark Gable
Arsenio Hall
Steven Spielberg

Group #2 (different common thread here):
Dinner
Card
Water
Multiplication

#3:
Bundle
Bubble
Glass
Horn

#4:
Paula Abdul
Bob Costas
Gene Simmons
Alex Trebek

Just to clarify, each group has a common thread among the entries; there's no common thread between the different groups.
Leave a comment with your answer(s).