The Day I Got a Golden Ticket & Shook President Obama's Hand

What I'm Listening To: A Change is Gonna Come-Sam Cooke

Today was easily the top moment of my college career. Thank you so much Bryon Eagon. You are the best alderman that has ever breathed life. Because of this amazing, five-star gentleman, I got to sit behind President Obama and touch him. Or rather, half shake his hand. Twice. President Obama came to UW-Madison to rally support for the Democratic party and he has me, and I'm sure the majority of the 30,000 people that were in the area, convinced. I'll certainly be going back to vote in November. Some memorable quotes:

"You have to put the car in 'D' to move forward and when you want to go backward you put the car in 'R'."
"Americans don't come in second, we come in first!"
 "I had some friends that went to Madison and I used to come here all the time, but I won't go into detail about those times..."
"No you can't have the key! You don't even know how to drive!" (referring to "the other party")
"People like Tammy Baldwin, Tom Barrett, Russ Feingold and me got in the trenches, got our boots dirty and pushed and heaved while the Republicans just sat outside the ditch and looked down on us. Then when we finally, get somewhere, we get this tap on the shoulder asking us to hand over the keys."

As proof that I was there, about fifteen feet away from him (because I could have easily just watched CNN or read a newspaper to find any of those), here is a picture of us both (I am about 7 people in and wearing a long sleeved, red Wisconsin Badgers shirt towards the very left end of the pic)

 And here's another, smiling, close-up picture where you can clearly see me holding up my "Moving America Forward" sign

 I think that change is going to come if we all work for it. There are times that we as Americans tend to get disappointed, as the president was saying. This is probably because we live in a society where things are instantaneous and we need to have them immediately. We all have to remember that all good things take time. Losing sight of what is important is the worse thing that we can do as a country. The drive to be innovative as a country without leaving our fellow citizens behind in the process is a tough line to walk. But I'm hopeful that we can make it. YES WE CAN!

                                                                        (courtesy of Rob DeMeuse)

Hello Mr. President!

What I'm Listening To: Us-Regina Spektor

In the midst of karate lessons and just plain life, I finally have a brief chance to sit down and blog. President Barack Obama is coming to the University of Wisconsin-Madison on Tuesday and I'm going to get a chance to hear him speak. It's a great moment for the University, regardless of anyone's political affiliations. I am definitely psyched, although miffed about the place where they decided to have him speak. It's ridiculous. Let's have our president on campus and put him in the worst place possible. Absolutely ridiculous. The main point of interest is that he's probably going to be talking about Russ Feingold's campaign and giving him some support. I personally don't even care what he's talking about just as long as he's coming.

You all already know my views on Republicans and Democrats (if you don't see this post), but with the election primaries already having passed, the political world is in a blur. I don't even want to try and unravel everything that went on. However, when reading the New York Times the other day, I thought that there were some interesting articles about September 11th. I know it's a week later, but it's interesting to think about how much emotion and energy that day produces. There is talk about a mosque being built on or near Ground Zero and people are having a fit. I think that is ridiculous and intolerant. One article states that there was actually a prayer room in the the Twin Towers where many Muslims went to pray and worship when the towers went down. There's even some nut job pastor in Gainesville, Florida talking about having a national 'Burn a Koran day' and spreading hate (his 15 minutes of fame need to be OVER). This does nothing for our troops and even worsens the situation over there, only escalating the violence. Muslims were victims of that tragedy as well and it's time that people recognized that and focused on moving forward instead of pulling people behind and engaging in discriminatory activities.

In other news, my new website is almost done and work on the book is going really well, on schedule to be finished in December as planned. But honestly, for the rest of this week I'm going to be on a President buzz so check back for updates on that.

Stop Smokin' Baby!

What I'm Listening To: the Bed Intruder Song-Antoine Dodson (yep the infamous song made famous my remixers on YouTube and is now stuck in my head)

I was browsing CNN trying to get hit by lightening material for a post (whether or not CNN is a credible news source and not just for laughs or the strange is debatable) when one of the featured posts on the front page caught my eye. Apparently there is an Indonesian toddler who smokes. Not a cute candy cigarette or one of those straws or paper that kids fashion cigarettes out of, no this was a full-blown, smoke producing cigarette. By the way, this baby was a pro! He looked like he could be wearing a bowler with a sophisticated glass of gin by his side and he could be just puffing away. He reportedly smoked 40 cigarettes a day and finally broke his nicotine addiction through a 30-day drug rehabilitation program. And while this isn't necessarily politics, smoking has definitely become a social and a political issue, well here in Wisconsin it has.

As of July, a ban was put on smoking in bars in Wisconsin. Any bar. And if you do decide to smoke, you will be fined and the bar owner will be fined as well. They really put a double whammy on that piece of legislation. Oh, and the fine is about $300. Personally, I don't smoke. I have never wanted to smoke, but I don't knock the people who do. What you do is your business. I'm sure smokers hate non-smokers coming around and telling them "Hey, you know your lungs are going to get black and you're going to die soon right?" It's rude, I do realize. However, on the other hand, I have asthma so when you decide to smoke in my personal space, your habits become my business. I mean honestly, no one wants to sit there while you puff a load of smoke in their face. Be respectful! Smokers already have to adhere to a lot of regulations. They cannot smoke indoors, and for some buildings, they can't smoke within 30 ft of them. Then there is the price. If I was addicted to nicotine, or if I did have smoking as a habit, I would go to rehab ASAP. $5 or more for a pack and if you smoke a pack a day....well that's just insane. Decrease your cigarette intake people, if not for health reasons at least to keep some extra cash in your pocket.

I mean, technically, smoking is a way of life. People have been sighted smoking as early as 5000 B.C. for rituals, enlightenment, relaxation, political reasons, and recreational purposes. Smoking mostly has a bad reputation in Western society, only because we have discovered through medical research that smoking leads to all sorts of horrible things like lung cancer, heart attacks, erectile dysfunction, and birth defects. So if you want to keep it up and have beautiful babies, whether you're smoking the cannabis or the tobacco (and hopefully not the heroin or opium) or choosing the pipe, the hookah, or the bong choose your poison responsibly and be courteous folks!

Let Your Shoulder Lean to Elephants or Donkeys? (Politics)

What I'm Listening To: Shoulder Lean by Young Dro ft. T.I.

"The longer I live, the more uninformed I feel. Only the young have an explanation for everything"- Isabel Allende

I have a confession to make: I do not really follow politics or current events. Furthermore, the fact that half the time I don't know what's going on is simply appalling (health care, what? just kidding, it's not that bad....sort of...) It's not that I'm not interested in what is going on around me, it is just the fact that if I have to add one more thing to my 7:30am-2:00am day, I would really be nocturnal and less functional than usual. I catch the major points, like if something is truly catastrophic (how about that oil spill?) or if I just happen to catch the national or local news one night.

I'm a donkey. And there are all sorts of awesome reasons why: or the difference:

1) Donkeys look better than elephants
2) In a fight, the donkey would win because the elephant would tire itself out and die
3) Donkeys are more conscious of citizen needs
4) Elephants are too uptight. That's why they get old and wrinkly so fast.
5) A donkey could be a noble steed, but if you fell off of an elephant, you might break something
6) Donkeys forgive and forget. Elephants hold grudges and remember every last single thing.
7) Elephants are expensive dates. Just imagine how many tons you'd have to feed that thing! (can we say high maintenance?)
8) Donkeys aren't clingy. Elephants are all about the babies and the mating and super territorial.
9) You wouldn't have to lie to a donkey. If an elephant asked you if it were fat, I hope you wouldn't tell it the truth unless you want to be crushed or skewered with an ivory tusk.
10) Donkeys don't have weird, creepy appendages like trunks or huge dumbo ears. They are compact and you don't have to be embarrassed to take them anywhere

In all seriousness, yes I am democratically inclined, however, if a Republican has a good idea, I'm not going to knock it just because it happens from a Republican. I tend to vote more with ideas rather than parties, although I do claim the Democrats.  So essentially, on Thursdays, starting this Thursday, I'm going to blog about politics/current events. It will help me to be more involved, and hopefully crack you up at my ineptness in my forays into the political world (don't laugh too hard though). I am going to attempt to be neutral, but because of this post, you already know that my shoulder lean goes left.