Wednesday, November 26, 2008

Good Stuff

Obama’s Use of Complete Sentences Stirs Controversy
Stunning Break with Last Eight Years

In the first two weeks since the election, President-elect Barack Obama has broken with a tradition established over the past eight years through his controversial use of complete sentences, political observers say.

Millions of Americans who watched Mr. Obama's appearance on CBS' "Sixty Minutes" on Sunday witnessed the president-elect's unorthodox verbal tic, which had Mr. Obama employing grammatically correct sentences virtually every time he opened his mouth.

But Mr. Obama's decision to use complete sentences in his public pronouncements carries with it certain risks, since after the last eight years many Americans may find his odd speaking style jarring.

According to presidential historian Davis Logsdon of the University of Minnesota, some Americans might find it "alienating" to have a President who speaks English as if it were his first language.

"Every time Obama opens his mouth, his subjects and verbs are in agreement," says Mr. Logsdon. "If he keeps it up, he is running the risk of sounding like an elitist."

The historian said that if Mr. Obama insists on using complete sentences in his speeches, the public may find itself saying, "Okay, subject, predicate, subject predicate - we get it, stop showing off."

The President-elect's stubborn insistence on using complete sentences has already attracted a rebuke from one of his harshest critics, Gov. Sarah Palin of Alaska.

"Talking with complete sentences there and also too talking in a way that ordinary Americans like Joe the Plumber and Tito the Builder can't really do there, I think needing to do that isn't tapping into what Americans are needing also," she said.

Tuesday, November 25, 2008

Things

It has been pretty quiet lately, but there are a few fun things going on. I am in my in between time, to damn cold for me to ride my bike and no snow to ski yet, I hate this time of year. Melissa and I are getting ready for our annual pilgrimage to Chicago for the weekend. I can't wait. We have some fun stuff planned while we are there. I love spending the busiest shopping day down on Michigan Avenue, it is just really a cool vibe. There are millions of people milling around and the streets are decorated for Christmas, it is just really cool. This is also a big weekend for Melissa, her 40th birthday is on Sunday. Hopefully she will enjoy her time in Chicago celebrating her birthday. I have a few things planned. I love Chicago, I love to ride the El and walk around looking at stuff, it is a great city. I hope we get a little snow while we are there, that makes it fun and seem more festive.

I have an interview for a job here at the state, I posted for an internal job with another group. The job is virtual machine stuff, it sounds like it will be pretty sweet, all server and SAN stuff, but it sounds like there is a lot of room to test ideas, do research and learn. I am very hopeful for the getting it, it will be higher end IT stuff and be more back office. I have been in IT for almost 10 years and to be completely honest, I am really getting tired of end user support. I want to do other stuff and hopefully this will be my ticket.

I can't believe the holidays are right around the corner. Thanksgiving is in 2 days and Christmas and New Years are right behind that. Seems like only yesterday it was the 4th of July and I was getting ready for my 25k. Man how time passes. I am looking for to the holidays. I love Christmas time. We are getting or tree next Saturday and will be decorating it on Sunday the 4th. We put up our outdoors Christmas lights this weekend, so I think our house looks great as well. We just put up a couple strings of blue icicle lights, and some of the old fashion style lights on our deck. Pretty simple and straight forward but I think it looks nice. I have to go Christmas shopping in the next few weeks. I am not sure what all I am going to get for Melissa, but I have some ideas so that is a start.

Happy Thanksgiving everyone.

Thursday, November 13, 2008

Quiet

It has been a quiet week, which has been nice not to much to report at all. The weather seems to be changing but changing slowly. We are getting some snow but mostly in flurry form and not much else. But at least it is snowing. I am really hoping for a fun ski season this year. We booked our trip out to Big Sky to ski in Feb. So if nothing else I hope Big Sky gets tons of snow so we have great conditions when we get there. Think snow.

I have posted for a job here at work. I am hoping that I get it but I would be to disappointed is I don't. It is in a different department and I would be spending 95% of my time working on virtual servers and SANs. I love that technology so I am excited about the idea of the job, But I am guessing that the post will get a lot of action. So we will see what happens. More on that later.

This weekend Melissa and I are going to the Minnesota Ski and Snowboard show at the Minneapolis Convention Center. I am looking forward to that. I like going to those things and getting brochures and swag. I guess there are going to be resorts from all over the country and also some local resorts. Sounds like Glen Plake is also going to be there signing autographs. So that should be fun. Then Sunday we have a birthday party to go to. Melissa's friend husband is turning 40 and there is a party.

Tonight I have my watercolor class. The class has been really fun this time and I am doing some fun stuff. I think I am getting better which is scary. I have been playing around with some landscapes and still life stuff. I like my landscapes a lot the two that I have done have turned out great in my opinion. I am going to try a panorama style one tonight, we will see how that turns out...

Wednesday, November 5, 2008

New President


I am happy with the turn out of the election. Normally I am not really into politics at all, but this year I paid a little more attention. I was glad to see Barack Obama win the race. I voted for him and I truly think he is the better choice for the USA. I think it is time for a fresh voice in Washington. I am really hoping that Obama turns out to be a great president and can bring this country back. I am also glad that it looks like Al Franken is going to not win the senate seat. He really bugs me and I think he would have made a really crappy senator. I liked Coleman better in this case and that is who I voted for. Which I know kind of goes against the Obama deal, but I really always have voted for whom I think is going to do a better job. I really learned a lot this year about politics and I was glad to be involved even from just doing a lot of research on the topics and listening to a lot of radio and debates.

Monday, November 3, 2008

Weekend

Well, this turned out to be a great weekend. Halloween was really fun. I hung out for a while outside handing out candy to the kids that came by. We had a quite a few kids which was really fun. Most were polite and they all had great costumes on. It was a fun time. We got to meet some of our neighbors and visit with friends that we have from around the neighborhood. After that Melissa and I got a Little Caesars Pizza and turned on The Shining, we watch that movie every year on Halloween. That movie still gives me the creeps. It is so well done in my opinion.

Saturday we had a fun day as well. We went out to REI to pick up our skis. They were there getting tuned for the up coming season. After REI we went down to the North Face store in Minneapolis. Melissa is looking for a new winter coat. I think after going there she has decided on what she is going to get. But I am unsure. The coat quest continues. Saturday night was the big MORC Murphy night ride. MORC bought a permit to host a night ride at Murphy trail, it turned out to be a great success. There were I guess 72 riders there and the night was perfect. Melissa, my friend Chris and I pretty much all rode together. The weather was perfect so it was just a blast. After the ride we all hung out in the lot and had a couple beers and then a large group of us met at Champps down in Burnsville for some food. It was a really fun night.

Sunday was an normal Sunday. Lots of errands. Grocery's, Walmart, things like that. But the highlight of the night was BLT night. Every once and a while we will do something stupid for dinner. Last night was BLT night, it was pretty fun, and the BLT's were really good. After dinner, we listened to the senate debate on MPR and I finally know whom I am going to vote for, yeah! I was so torn on the senate race but after last night I am solid.

I am looking forward to the election tomorrow. I think it is going to be interesting to have a new president.

Now if it would only snow...