Old and Busted Gives Way to New Hotness
Posted on January 21st, 2009
It’s official.
After eight years of the leadership and policies of an administration that I believe will be remembered as the worst in American history, we the people have sweeping new leadership in Washington… for a little while, at least. I don’t know if this new administration will actually deliver on the messages of hope and change that they have been continually bombarding us with over the last two years, but what I do know is that if this change in leadership had not taken place, then the America that the world has known for the last 200 years would have died. The outgoing administration has so vilified America in the eyes of the rest of the world that I dare to say that this new administration cannot possibly cause more harm without resorting to filming Americans soldiers cooking and devouring foreign toddlers as the President looks on and smiles.
And even then I’d hedge my bets.
To say that I’m optimistic about the next four years of President Obama’s administration would be a little misleading. But only because optimistic is too weak a word. Now, while it’s true that I would have been happy with nearly ANYONE who promised to alter, change or reverse as much of President Bush’s policies as possible, I must say that I was behind Barack Obama from the moment he gave his speech at the 2004 Democratic National Convention. It was obvious then that he would be a great political force to contend with, and I dearly hoped he would run in 2008.
And then Hillary threw her hat in the ring.
Not in my wildest dreams did I think a young, political neophyte African-American could come even close to winning once Hillary joined the race. She is a Clinton after all and voting for her would net TWO presidents for the price of one, but still I held out hope that Barack Obama might be her pick for VP when she got the nomination. Then the momentum started to build behind Obama and it became a two person race between the old and busted leadership and the new hotness that America could become. And then, against all odds it wasn’t Obama who was fighting to be Hillary’s VP, but Hillary who was trying to garner a spot in Barack’s administration. Talk about surprise endings! All of which brings us to today. For the first time in eight years there is a president in office who I believe can do what we the people need him to do. And what do I believe we the people need most right now?
Leadership.
I hope that President Obama will lead us through these dark times the same way he led his presidential campaign, doing what was necessary in an open and inclusive way without anger, without fear, without hatred. Leading us with humility, strength, intelligence and understanding while forgoing the divisiveness and heavy-handed fear mongering of the previous administration. I pray that President Obama will continue to lead all of us through his example; taking the high road of intelligent discourse without blindly attacking when provoked. Use his humility where those before him used smug righteousness.
Show the world our compassion instead of our judgment.
I also hope he makes use of thorough, comprehensive study so that he fully understands the problems we face before he makes the hard, long-term policy decisions that may take years to come to fruition but will certainly be better than a quick and hasty fix that is meant to show involvement but solve nothing. Will he solve every ill that has arisen in the past 8 years? Can he fix Wall Street, the housing crisis, health care, the banks, our economy, our reputation and all the other things that are failing or threatening to fail?
I don’t know. But for the first time in 8 years, I have hope.
I’ve got a lot of my faith in the democratic process and the American way of life riding on President Obama’s shoulders, and so do a whole lot of other people in America. That’s a whole lot for anyone to bear, let alone a young and newly appointed President who is also the first African-American man to ever lead this country. But I believe Barack Obama can, and will, prove to the world that America can survive. That we did not all join the dark side and drink the cool-aid of hate, fear and isolationism. We the people, with the right leadership, can repair the damage that has been done by those who came before. If the incoming administration truly believes its own message and follows through with its promise of hope and change, then America will once again become the world’s brightest beacon of freedom, equality and opportunity. I’m not saying our new president will be the answer to every one of our problems because it will take all of us working together for many years to right this ship and make a better future for this country. One person, no matter how charismatic or talented he, or she, might be, will never be enough by themselves to bring about the changes we now know we need. But one person can lead us out from our yesterdays of dark despair and into the light of the bright future we have nearly lost hope of reaching. We need a leader with vision, fortitude, solid morals and intelligence and it is my firm belief that President Obama is such a man.
And now tomorrow doesn’t seem so scary to me anymore.
Filed under Breaking News, Geek Life, Serious | 2 Comments »
Mapping The Future
Posted on October 1st, 2008
So, I’m going insane… insane-er.
The reason I haven’t been writing lately is that every time I start writing I make the mistake of looking at news sites or turning on my TV and I see stuff that makes me unable to write anything funny. A real estate meltdown, a presidential debate, a bank collapsing, a failed bailout, etc. No matter what I start writing about it almost always turns into a diatribe on current events, which is something I didn’t want to ever do. So, instead of writing something fun, I just didn’t write anything at all.
But now I’m bored with not writing.
So, in the hopes of getting SOME sort of writing done on this site, I figured I’d allow myself some small amount of serious posts here and in so doing hopefully write other, more funny, stuff all the other times I post. I have no idea what I’ll be saying, but truth be told, I have a lot of topics to choose from so almost anything goes. I’m not saying these ‘other’ posts won’t be funny or silly, I’m still The Mighty Geek, but they might not be.
You have been warned.
Here’s a little something on a more Geeky note. I’ve been playing around with Google Maps for the last day or so, and I’ve created one that I think might be fun. It’s called “Where in the World is GeekMan?” and it’s a map showing all the hotels I’ve stayed at during my travels. Now, it’s FAR from a complete listing since I’ve only included about the last year and a half of my travels, plus a few others that I remembered off the top of my head, but I’ll be adding every place I travel to from now on and marking where I am with a green thumbtack. Plus, I’ll keep adding all the places I’ve been to in the past as soon as I can remember all of them. And hey, if you see a green thumbtack in your neck of the woods, drop me a line! You never know… you might be lucky enough to score a drink with The Mighty Geek!
Ahem.
The drink would be a very manly Virgin Strawberry Daiquiri, of course. With a little pink paper umbrella. And a crazy straw with a loop-dee-loop. And a cherry on top. But no whipped cream, because I’m lactose intolerant. Huh? What do you mean, “Why a daiquiri?” It’s obvious, isn’t it? Because only a real Man can handle such a manly drink, that’s why. And I’m the fricking Mighty Geek, baby. That’s right. You know you like it. Who’s your daddy? Who’s your Daddy?
I am. I am your Daddy. Boo-Yah.
Filed under Announcements, Geek Life, Serious | No Comments »
Step By Step
Posted on June 15th, 2008
Slowly I turn…
So, I’m getting closer to actually writing here again but the thing that’s really causing me to stall is the stupid design of this site. I’ve got another one of my “neat” and “cool” designs all done up but every time I try to port it over to Wordpress I get stuck. I just can’t wrap my head around Wordpress’ use of templates and I’m beginning to believe I never will.
It just baffles me.
Of course, if my design was something simple I think I could handle it, but unfortunately for me my designs aren’t so easy as your standard: header, left column, center column, right column and footer. Oh, no. I have to be fricking unique and design something with overlapping columns, multiple image swaps on mouseovers and icons for links instead of standard text links.
Yeah, yeah, I’m a moron.
Anywaste, like I said, I’m getting really close to having the time to once again update on a regular basis. However, after once again being thwarted in my attempts to get this site design updated by my lack of Mad Wordpress Coding Skilz, I came to the conclusion that I just didn’t care to continue banging my stubborn noggin on the concrete wall that is Wordpress and that maybe, just maybe, I should give up my cool design.
Then I came to my senses and decided to ask for help.
So here I am, begging for help from anyone who might be able to take my design and images and creating the proper Wordpress templates for me. Most likely no one will take me up on this without a bribe of some sort, so I came up with a silly idea of a nice exchange. In return for your help in turning my design into a set of standards compliant Wordpress templates I will do one of the following (your choice):
- Design or redesign a website for you
- Write a funny post about you and link to your site in said post
- Be your best friend (for one day only and I chose the day)
- A happy dance
Please, won’t someone help this poor Geek?
Filed under Breaking News, Serious | 6 Comments »
Excuses Suck
Posted on November 3rd, 2006
This is not goodbye.
I’m not leaving so save your teary-eyed farewells for another time. I really want to write about everything that’s going on in my life right now, but because of time constraints and my inability to get more than 4 hours of sleep a night for the last three weeks, I just can’t.
I just don’t have enough time.
So, instead of adding yet another impossible task to my ever-growing list of things to do each day, I’ve decided to put this site on hiatus for a few weeks until things slow down enough for me to devote more time and effort to my writing. If I can find some free time between now and when I think I’ll return full time, of course I’ll write something here. But for now I think it’s safe to say that I won’t be writing anything until the New Year.
I know, I know. It makes me sad, too.
Just so I don’t leave you all in the lurch without any clues as to why I’ve disappeared (again), I think I’ll give you a quick rundown of some, just some, of what I need to do over the next two months. HoBiscuit and I are moving to a new apartment while selling our current apartment ourselves (no broker) and, at the same time, renovating the new apartment. I am working every, single day (except Thanksgiving Day, Christmas Day and New Years Day) from now until March 21st. I’m also traveling to places like Texas, Paris, Arizona, Barcelona, Miami, Rhode Island, Pennsylvania and California among others. Don’t get any ideas though, all this traveling is for work so I won’t be seeing any of the places I’m going to, or doing any sightseeing or anything. I’ll just be there, working, and then heading to the airport to catch a flight to the next place I’m supposed to be.
Yeah, yeah, sucks to be me. I know.
The good news is that once I do start writing again I’ll have a whole new site design for you to see. I’ll also be launching a new PhotoBlog where I’ll be sharing some of the gazillions of pictures I seem to take everywhere I go. And, if you’re all real good while I’m away, I might even have a Mighty Blog spin-off or two for you to read!
Wow! Talk about rewards!
Anywaste, being this busy with work and other stuff is all good for me since it means I’m making money, but it’s also bad since it keeps me from doing all the things I really enjoy doing, like updating this Blog. However, once I come back everything will be even better than before, so have a great Chrismahannakwanzica and a Happy New Year and I’ll see you all back here on New Years’ Day, 2007.
Word to your mother.
Filed under Breaking News, Geek Life, Serious, Traveling | 8 Comments »
