A New Era

(I love that this second pic is the 3rd one on Google image search 'obama')

President Elect Obama: Congratulations! You ran a nearly flawless campaign, and you have earned the right to become our president. I do not remember a time when a Bush or Clinton was not in the white house (I wasn't even 3 when Bush Sr. was sworn in). And, yes, it is most exciting that we are this much closer to the passing hurdles of racism and bigotry in our nation. This shall be an interesting time for our nation.

Everyone: Now, I will say I did not vote for Obama, nor his opponent (I did vote though), and this is for reasons that are legitimate. I believe his ideas of hope and the direction he wants to take us are brilliant.

I hope the church can keep pace with the government aide.

I hope that Americans still will have the freedom and encouragement to succeed.

I hope that higher taxes for businesses won't force them overseas leading to less American jobs.

I hope Obama learns more on the issues while in office and really plays a role of bringing parties together and not being as liberal as his voting records show.

I hope that we will realize the weight and difficulty of instantly pulling out of wars.

I hope that we will realize the delicate economic balanace that exists and changing it without careful consideration could lead to failure or success.

I hope we really look into what is happening with the environment, and try to limit our own impact on it in good ways.

I hope that energy policies will be enacted to both reduce consumption but to also increase production (cough *nuclear* cough)

I hope we realize Barack Obama is not our hero, and we should not worship him.

I hope that people who voted Obama didn't vote for government handouts.

I hope that people who legitimately need government aide will receive is in this presidency.

I hope that America realizes the 'we' in 'yes we can' is you and I. Anyone can rise above. That is what makes this country so great.

And most of all, I, as a Christian and person who believe in life from conception to natural death, hope that this...

"The first thing I'd do as president is sign the Freedom of Choice Act. That's the first thing that I'd do." -- Senator Barack Obama, speaking to the Planned Parenthood Action Fund, July 17, 2007

...and this don't lead to this.

President Bush: Thank you for your service to our country. This article really inspires me to thank you for all you've done and tried to do. You have held the highest office, and despite criticisms, have led well.

Everyone: YAY, election season is over! Let us move toward unity. This doesn't mean getting behind every policy because that is what our leaders say, but let us really look to the good of each other and the good of the country. Let us look at the whole picture and not tow our party lines. I mean, after all, Barack told us 'yes we can.' Let's start to do it.

Voting Today

It isn't like everybody else is doing the politics thing..........

"If you're not a liberal when you're 25, you have no heart. If you're not a conservative by the time you're 35, you have no brain" - Winston Churchill

This quote has been attributed to the former Prime Minister of England. However, I can't confirm if he actually said it. The one thing I can confirm is that this tends to be true, especially on facebook, where the population is young, and strongly leaning Obama. We shall see how the end product turns out by tonight perhaps when all the votes are counted.

There is something inherently neat to being on a team. The idea of having an evil to fight against; the opponent breathing down your neck, and the opportunity for glory. Just remember, after all is said and done, we are on one team in this nation. We may have different beliefs about how to fix things, and one of the things that worries me about this election is its strong polarizing nature. I hope we can come together as a nation and support our future leader. Fight for what you believe, but respect where we're going. and remember you individually are called to affect change and to bring about good.

(see what I did there...I combined two logos...I'm funny. and clever)

Everybody is getting in on the fun

I just watched Family Guy on Hulu (maybe not super proud of it) but here they have Stewie in Nazi Germany with the uniform and all.

Whoops, there's something on his lapel

...

The Treehouse Sessions

Today I had the privilege to hang with three wonderful sisters of mine and go take pictures of them. They really were a bunch of pals and wanted to try some neat stuff and let me try some neat stuff. It was really exciting to just try stuff and see how it would turn out. I did a similar activity with these girls last year, and I'd say this year's product is about 2 times better. The autumn weather was perfect for this and the colors were superb in my opinion. So, these are some early teaser-ish images. I'll roll out the rest sometime soon I hope, but I wanted to get these out now. Let me know what you think!

The Girls

I call this one Peek-a-Boo

Bekah in the leavesAnd this is Sarah Blue Eyes. It has already gotten some serious love on flickr.

Flickr Stats

Wow, I love watching my flickr images and seeing how many views they get, etc.

Today, my image of the new bell tower on campus had 274 views yesterday, which was ridiculous compared to any amount of views I had in the past on any image. In one day, it got more looks than any 5 of my other pictures combined. The content sure helps pass this one along. Keep pressing me on towards lots of views on this classic U of I prank.

The Dark Night of the Soul

In my circles, this phrase, the "dark night of the soul," refers to a time when we are stuck, feeling lonely in the middle of the night, or in a time when our soul feels covered in darkness. It had been used to describe loneliness. How limited the English language is though, that we would only see this interpretation.

The phrase actually emerges from St. John of the Cross, and it is a poem that he wrote in the 16th century. While listening to a podcast today, it was brought to my attention that this writing is more about John's time at night with God and how powerful and good an experience it was. Perhaps this thought process needs to be looked at more. Jesus often withdrew to lonely places while it was still dark, and I think there is a seriously amazing connection that can be made with God through the quite and still of the night. It also can be the time when the best conversations are had, and in many ways, I think it ends up being a double edged sword time. Yes, night is a time in which scary and evil things happen, but it is also a time for potentially fantastically forming times with Our Father and each other.

So, in this light, I really do look forward to more dark nights of my soul.

Ironic much?

Presumtuous President Obama needs to get his messages clear. You can't go and tell kids to stop playing video games and then advertise for your campaign in them. I mean, I suppose it is a brilliant advertising strategy and he's taking advantage of every opportunity through his campaign. I mean, what better way to get kids to vote than to tell them to in a game, and then to tell them to stop playing the games to go do so. Maybe he could get a kill-switch implemented to make sure those kids who saw his advertisements while pwning n00bs go out and vote on election day.