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- August 31, 2008 -

President Bush is at FEMA headquarters today urging people to heed the evacuation order before hurricane Gustav makes landfall. Three years ago when Katrina was about to hit he didn't seem to take the situations seriously and went on vacation instead. He did get to see Katrina from Air Force One on his way to Texas. Gustav may be stronger than Katrina, and New Orleans appears to be in the leading edge this time instead of the weaker side.

- August 30, 2008 -

It's my birthday so tonight there was a party for me at Mary Lou's house. Teresa and Bob decorated the place up great; Mary Lou made turkey tacos that were great... and we played Pictionary; my team was victorious which always makes me so happy. It was a very good evening. I'm truly thankful for all the good friends I have!

- August 29, 2008 -

Tonight Teresa & I went over to Matt's to game... He recently got Soul Caliber for the Playstation 3 and had been playing it online... I'm not sure he's going to ever play it again though after being completely humiliated at it by me........ ....After my fifteen game winning streak we had to switch to Rockband before things became physically violent in a non-digital manner. Loved every minute of it I did!

- August 28, 2008 -

I've now worked in my current job for two years as of today; It is also the 45th anniversary of Martin Luther King Jr's "I Have a Dream" speech, and Barack Obama gave his acceptance speech for the Democratic Nomination tonight.

The first rule of political PR; speak only in a room you know you can fill.... You always want to make it look like you had to turn people away- this doesn't really seem to be a concern for Obama as he packed the stadium in Denver. The speech itself and the night overall was well received- There were a few barbs at McCain and Bush, but mostly it was a very unifying speech that focused on what hopefully we can all agree on to overcome the divisions that have come between us.

"The challenges we face require tough choices, and Democrats as well as Republicans will need to cast off the worn-out ideas and politics of the past. For part of what has been lost these past eight years can't just be measured by lost wages or bigger trade deficits. What has also been lost is our sense of common purpose our sense of higher purpose, and that's what we have to restore.

We may not agree on abortion, but surely we can agree on reducing the number of unwanted pregnancies in this country. The reality of gun ownership may be different for hunters in rural Ohio than for those plagued by gang-violence in Cleveland, but don't tell me we can't uphold the Second Amendment while keeping AK-47s out of the hands of criminals. I know there are differences on same-sex marriage, but surely we can agree that our gay and lesbian brothers and sisters deserve to visit the person they love in the hospital and to live lives free of discrimination. Passions fly on immigration, but I don't know anyone who benefits when a mother is separated from her infant child or an employer undercuts American wages by hiring illegal workers. This, too, is part of America's promise, the promise of a democracy where we can find the strength and grace to bridge divides and unite in common effort."

I see a viscous political campaign ahead though; McCain aired an ad with people chanting Obama over and over and it asked if we were ready to have the biggest celebrity as commander... To me the ad had a quazi-subliminal Nazi tie. First it was in black and white, which immediately draws you to thinking of the past and not the future. Posing the question that he was a celebrity makes one think people follow him just because he is popular, and not for what he stands for, which conveys a sense of danger. The manner in which the people were chanting was also rather ominous... I just saw it as an ad that didn't really pose any argument at all- it just conveyed fear.

Obama has also made a statement I didn't agree with; that McCain felt that the bar should be at $5 million that separated the "rich" from the "middle class". He said it clearly as a joke, and immediately after said that he shouldn't have made the joke, because it probably would be taken out of context and promoted as fact.... which Obama now has done several times. It doesn't change my overall opinion of him; but it is something I feel he should cease doing.

- August 13, 2008 -

After work I went with Bob and Teresa to the Linkin Park concert at Sandstone- It was awesome! The warm-up band I wasn't so fond of, but they were a warm-up band... most of the people did seem disinterested in them though. It was a great, and most memorable early birthday gift, and Bob also got me a t-shirt which is most keen.

I've been keeping track of my gas consumption since I got Raider (the new Scion tC) and so far I've gotten an average of 28.67 mpg- that's a huge step up from my old car that averaged around 19 mpg.

There hasn't been any forward progress on a house; I feel I should save up more before I make a go of it, but that doesn't seem possible. So far this month I've been in the negative column (mostly due to stocks).

- August 9, 2008 -

A lazy weekend is all I have plans for. I slept in late, watched some of the Olympics jogged on the treadmill some (I've been very bad at doing this regularly lately) took a nap and starting into super cleaning the upstairs. There was also a nap in there too.

- August 8, 2008 -

8-8-08; tonight the Olympics began. Right after work we congregated at Mary Lou's house and watched a bit of the opening ceremony and then we went back to work for the last movie of the film festival. The movie tonight was Twister and there was a very good turn out which was probably due to the weather mostly. Last year it was really hot, but this year it was quite cool- a very nice night.

- August 2, 2008 -

Last night I went over to Allen's house after work and showed him a few things about preparing images for his genealogy book, after that I came home to begin a quiet weekend; I ended up chatting online and watching Stargate Atlantis. This afternoon I got a haircut and then I took a nap to catch up on my sleep.

I took a new Facebook profile photo tonight.