DC - the first day

Day Four - October 1


Yes, I'm getting back to my Leave Time. I found my camera that I thought I lost, the point and shoot with my pictures on it. Very Grateful.

I was in Washington DC earlier this month when I was on leave. I have never been to DC but have always wanted to go. I stayed at a Hostel in the Northern Part of DC and parked my car for $5 a day and took the Trans. Definitely recommended in DC, don't take your car anywhere here, which is what I learned on teh Second day. It is a pain to park.

One thing that is really awesome about DC is the fact that there are free things to do EVERYWHERE. One upside is the Smithsonian. There were a gob of museums I wanted to go check out, including the Smithsonian Museum of American History but unfortunately it was closed for renovation.

I had to wait until the Museums opened to go check them out however, and most museums didn't open until 9:00, and I'm on military time on leave, so I'm up at 6:00 and ready to go. Their was a sculpture garden to check out, so I did that.



Some weird sculptures were to be found.



I have a fondness for modern art, and incorporating myself with it. However, i was quick to learn not to sit on the pieces when a security guard came by and scolded me for getting to close to a piece.



It must be just a flesh wound. Where the heck are this guy's legs?



Honestly, I don't know about this one. supposedly it is some woman sitting on a bench, or something. . . and it is obviously abstract and only supposed to represent something. Or something or other.



The National Space and Air Museum however, that is one I could have spent all day in. I'm a space junkie, so anything that has to do with space or flying is awesome with me, and this museum went through the history of Air and Space.


I also caught a show in the planetarium on Black Holes and that was freakin' Awesome. I was also caught up on these following sensors. One senses heat, the other, er, I don't remember. Infared or something. Gah! I knew this!





I guess I better look it up. But can you see me taking a picture?

I spent all morning in that museum, and could have spent all day if I wanted to. Unfortunately, I did not have the time allotted to spend all day in one museum. I went across the mall to the National Art Museum. It is not part of the Smithsonian, however it is still very much free. And free is good.



They had a lot of european artists, lots of renaissance art, and I have discovered while touring this museum that I am more interested in landscapes and Modern Art then renaissance art. I did find the Leonardo DaVinci, the only DaVinci in the US in fact. And I got a picture with it.


The Eastern Musuem was more interesting to me in the long run. I wanted to see more of the American Artists but that exhibit was closed. *sighs*


After the art museums, I found my way to the National Archive, discovered that this is where the Declaration of Independence, the Bill of Rights, and the Constitution (the original documents) all reside.


I checked them out. So very fascinating. There was a lot of historical documents to see here, but i was also running out of time and had a lot more I wanted to see.


Like the Smithsonian Natural History Museum.


Where I saw the Hope Diamond and a bunch of other awesome stuff. Like Butterflies!


These butterflies are in this enclosure and they just fly around and land on you and do all sorts of stuff. I'm not really much of a girly girl that swoons over butterflies really, but it is fun when bugs start landing and crawling on you.

I spent my time in this museum until the place closed down. I thought about going to check out Arlington but found that the hours weren't conducive to my being there. So I had to walk across the bridge and found my way at the Lincoln Memorial.



Abe Lincoln is the BEST!



Can you see my pockets are laden down with all sorts of Stuff? Here is the view over the mall with the washington Monument back there in the BG.



I spent the remaining daylight hours at the Wall.


My dad served in Vietnam and I asked him if there were any names he wanted me to look for. I was able to get a rubbing for him. And a few pictures of the name.



The wall is a little surreal in some ways, one of those places where you stand there and reflect on the loss of life that came with this war.

I ended up talking to an old vet near the wall, looking for the nearest metro back to the hostel, and when I told him I was a drill sergeant, he looked at me with this expression that likely had him thinking 'this girl is a drill sergeant? what happened to the tough drill sergeants of Vietnam that could kill you just by looking at you?'

He obviously never saw me give anybody my angry eye.

Walking to the metro at night was a little interesting, but I never really feared for myself in any way. I did keep a lookout for unusual characters, but didn't see any. I didn't think DC felt unsafe in any way while I was there.

Hangin' Palin?

So, everyone has probably heard of this west hollywood guy who hung an effigy of Sarah Palin from his house and claimed it was alright because it was in the spirit of halloween and it was 'art'.

You know what I think? It's his freedom of speech, he can do whatever the hell he wants.

But if anybody did this to an effigy of Barack Obama, it would be labeled as a hate crime and they would likely be arrested. They couldn't label it as art or free speech. But you know what else? Nobody on the right except for the extremists would even think to do something like this in the first place, because it is what it is, tasteless and idiotic. It speaks volumes of the people who do it. But if the left does it, that is normal. I guess that shows the mindset of the left.

Frankly, IMAO says it best. . .

It's Ok to hang sarah Palin, as long as. . .

In other 'related' news, I found a PUMA site (Hillbuzz, I'm out of it if I'm just discovering this blog, I know) which is a bunch of democrats who have broken with their party and voting for McCain. I have to admit that I really enjoy this blog so far I have been reading it. And I find it fascinating that they are noticing and disgusted with the far left of their own party too, such as the case with this guy relating a story of an incident he witnessed at a gay club in chicago. What is the problem is this is seeming to be the norm.

But the left will go up in arms over a reported 'kill him' at a Palin rally that wasn't even stated.

The fringe left is rediculous.

More Zo

I think soon we'll be seeing a lot more of this guy, especially after the election. He resonates with a LOT of people, especially conservatives. And he tells it exactly like it is.

The Appeal of Obama

Often times, when I'm doing various duties, such as monitering the Dental Clinic, pulling Staff Duty, or getting set to go home, the news is on. Sometimes it is CNN. Today it was MSNBC. I don't watch a lot of TV (my cable doesn't work, and I don't watch enough TV to call the cable guy to turn it back on seeing as I don't pay for it) so I just surf the internet to keep tabs on things.

So I listened to Obama make his final case today when the news allowed it to play. And my first initial thought was 'this guy IS good.'

Barack Obama is a very charismatic and energetic speaker, and he is very good at telling you exactly what you want to hear. This election cycle I have been wondering why people are drawn into this guy and I guess I have figured it out.

I talk to a lot of people, and generally you don't talk about politics unless you want to get into a pissing match, and sometimes it can get ugly, so I do avoid politics in discussion. But sometimes I can't help myself and it comes up. But something I have noticed is a lot of people don't seem to want to get themselves informed on the issues, because otherwise they avoid politics for the same reason. They listen to the politician tell them what they want to hear and say to themselves 'hmm, that sounds pretty good. I think I'll vote for him.' What confounds me is the amount of self proclaimed conservatives that plan on voting for this guy.

When I listened to his speech today, it occurred to me how much Obama comes off as a centrist. When he is talking about his plans for the nation and the Hope and Change that he will bring, he sounds like he is speaking from the center of the aisle. His speeches makes him appear to be a moderate.

The problem is, Obama is more known for his oratory skills, which help him come off as a moderate, then for his actions. And his actions, as limited and few as they are, do not back up his words. He says one thing, tells you exactly what you want to hear to get himself elected, but from the few things he has voted on, his record so to speak, labels him as something entirely different. And his record does not support his stump speeches.

And the problem is, you get to talking to some people, and they don't want to listen to you make this case. They don't like to talk about politics. They just want to take his words at face value and go with it. And boy was his words coming out smooth as silk, telling you exactly what you want to hear. He is going to solve all the worlds problems you know. This guy will promise you the moon on a silver platter. He is going to fix the financial crisis, give everyone free healthcare, create jobs, end war as we know it, and probably cure cancer while he's at it. And how he says it, you are almost inclined to believe he can do it, because, you know, he's such a great speaker. And so everything that is coming out of his mouth must be true.

The thing is, with all of his plans and what he expects to do to help fix America, there is no way he can promise all of this crap. He is just another politician, telling you everything you want to hear just to get himself elected. There can't be anyway possible he can come through with half of his promises without taxing this nation up to our eyeballs or drowning us deeper into debt then we are. But the problem is, a lot of ordinary Americans caught up in the glory of Obama don't seem to realize this. He says he is a new kind of politician, so it must be true.

If he could back up his words with his record, this guy would have had this race cinched up months ago and McCain wouldn't have a flying chance. The thing is, a lot of people do see him for who he is, have noticed 'this guy is a little to good to be true' and looking into his background, noticing the strange occurances that happen, like critics being silenced, voices of opposition being personally attacked, and every now and again his true intentions come forth when we hear things like 'wealth distribution' and his own running mate telling us how we are going to be attacked 'to test the mettle of this guy', this is sending up some intense red flags. This guy is a freakin' Socialist.

The problem with Obama's message is often times he uses talking points similar to what McCain would use, as McCain is a true centrist, and McCain can't really repeat them without sounding like he's copying Obama. If people would wake up and do a little research on their own, they'd realize that this guy is not what he says he is, he has no record to back up his claims of planning to do what he keeps promising with his smooth talk of hope and change and in fact has a very different track record of extremism, maybe they would wake up to the true nature of what an Obama Presidency might mean.

I hope that if this guy does win the presidency I'm wrong about him, that he can follow through with half the crap he's promising without bankrupting our nation, but I doubt it.

I guess the only way we can find out is if he wins the Presidency, won't we? Then we'll know for sure.

But I'll tell you one thing. As a soldier, I'm more loyal to the Constitution of the United States then my Commander in Chief. If Barack Obama becomes President, I'll respect his position, as long as he respects the Constitution for which this great nation is founded upon. But as soon as he goes against that, I'll go against him.

And I fear under an Obama Presidency, our Constitution may be at threat. I sincerely pray that I am wrong on that.

Spelunking

Why did I wait so long to go to Mammoth Cave?

I'm not knowing, but I should have hit this place up early in this mobilization. I had a blast!

Anyhow, I decided to go Spelunking, or Amateur Caving this weekend. Actually, I don't think I intended to go this into Caving when I initially decided to go check out Mammoth Caves (more of a 'let's walk through a bit of the cave for a couple hours and then go do something else), but when I went to the visitor center and discovered that we would be crawling and climbing and going through clausterphobic enducing trenches, I was all about 'sign me up!'

Yes, I went on the Wild Cave Tour at Mammoth Cave, because I'm all about climbing and crawling. And ironically enough, without meaning too, I watched Planet Earth: Caves on Friday so I was thinking 'that looks like fun' when I discovered I could go on a caving tour at Mammoth Cave, which happens to be the longest cave system in the world.

Maybe I'm young and adventurous and finding it harder and harder to endulge that adrenaline rush, but after I did this, I wanted to go back and do some more. It helps that I'm in the military too, there is a lot of crawling involved. Knee Pads are a must.

But I guess my relative youth and adventureousness made me wanting to do MORE climbing and crawling then we did, but I think I need to take up the sport more regularly and go spelunking with more experienced cavers then a hike geared toward a healthy amateur who does not consider Drill Sergeant their chosen profession.

Yeah, I'm a drill sergeant for a reason. because I LIKE doing things like this.

dang, there are no caves in washington like this though.

Me and some of my fellow cavers on this little hike out and about.


this photo does not show properly how tight that little crawl space is. It's always fun to come out the other side as another tour is walking by and they all stare at you as you crawl through this hole in the ground in awe.

You get people coming up to you asking what tour you are on, because we are a bit dirtier then the other hikers. And we wear these cool helmets and bandanas.


I'm a photo whore. we were so busy hiking this thing that I didn't get a whole lot of pictures of me doing it. And I took my point and shoot. You don't take an SLR on this thing unless you are willing for it to be broken into tiny unrecoverable pieces.



Ok, I'm totally posing here. Yes, we crawled off this ledge, but not at this specific spot. One of the people I was doing this with told me "hey, jump up there and I'll get a picture for you." to which I replied "ok!"


Climbing down a passage. I started to get other hikers and took pictures of them to say "I did this too" but a lot of these didn't turn out.


Me crawling through a hole. What I want to point out however is the foamy crap there on the left. That's a cricket, they called them an AIDS cricket, because if this cricket touches any other cricket with this crap all over it, that cricket will eventually look like this too, and it will die. Its some kind of fungus or something, not sure what, but they recommended us not to touch it. I thought it was fascinating. We did see some crickets. They looked spidery.

that's what Mr. Cave Cricket looks like alive.


At the end of the tour, I looked like this. I was actually hoping for some more mud but I did have fun, I'm sure I'll feel it in the morning, and if I ever find myself in Fort Knox again (a high possibility) I will try to make my way down to mammoth caves again and maybe do a little more spelunking. I'd love to do Wild Cave again, maybe this time I can bring a friend to do it with me.

yeah, one of those other drill sergeants that isn't involved in cycle or attached to a significant other.

*snorts* HAH!

Disclaimer: This outfit, from shirt to boots, was purchased specifically for this trip because I didn't want to use the clothes I had brought with me because of the threat of ruining them. I wasn't aware that I would be doing a spelunking tour until I got there so I just went to Walmart and found some clothes on sale that I wouldn't care about. I also had to buy a pair of boots. I wish I had planned this out because I could have saved myself some trouble by taking some old BDUs or something and wearing those. Next time, I will be prepared.

If there is a next time *I hope so, I had fun*

Kentucky Down Under

Yeah, I know, I still have the rest of my leave to post about.

It kind of got put on the backburner because I was looking for my digital camera (one of the small point and shoots I have) that it turns out, I think I forever misplaced. Because it is nowhere.

*sighs* The camera I'm not to worried about. Its a material possession (and it isn't the DSLR). Its the pictures on the memory stick I want. But getting upset over the fact isn't going to change the fact that I lost it. So onto other things.

This weekend, I took a trip to Cave Country here in Kentucky. I was actually planning on spending a couple of hours in Mammoth Cave or something and then found myself drawn to the fact that there is a lot to do in Cave City. It is a tourist trap, and very kid friendly. Alas, I had no kids with me, just myself, but taking advantage of my military discount, I went to Kentucky Down Under and saw some sheep and kangaroos.

I need to pull those pictures, but I didn't get any pictures of myself with the sheep or Kangaroos, though I did get a full idea of how well endowed Rams are. I was not aware of how low they can hang. Its a little disturbing sometimes.

However, I did see the Lories. They have this little enclosure where you can go in and feed the birds and they'll fly over you. Kind of like Pigeons do down in Venice Italy.







These birds are hilarious. They'll just perch on you and nibble on your ear and you just giggle snort in response.

As soon as I pull more pictures off of my DSLR, I'll update this post with them. Maybe I'll post up on DC too while I'm at it.

I'm Joe the Plumber

McCain's Website has a little contest asking people to submit a video of why they are Joe the Plumber, to help spread the message of the fact that Joe the Plumber is kind of a euphemism for everyone.

I thought about doing it, so I put a little time aside, and filmed it in the back yard in little 5-30 second soundbytes and linked them together. Because, well, I learned that sometimes you'll think of all sorts of cool things to say and then when you get out to say it, you realize that your brain goes numb and you can't think of how you want to word something.

So anyhow, I looked to see how the soundbytes would play out and figured out that I couldn't really fit 27 seconds of soundbytes into a coherent clip. And I'm sure there are a lot of other people out there with better video editing skills then me (and better software then I currently have) That, and I wasn't so sure I would like that much exposure on the national level. Sure, I was thinking about how cool it was at first, but then I remembered Nov 2004 and how that played out.

Don't get me wrong, it was cool then too, but I think I could handle that level of exposure again, probably. But I don't want to ever be Joe the Plumber famous.

However, I don't mind posting the video on my own blog. I don't even mind if people think its halfway interesting if they want to post it on their blogs. But in the political way of things, Joe the Plumber is already old news and people are now moving onto new things, like some stupid college student who thought it would be bright to cause national attention by making up a story of how she was attacked by a 'black' Obama Supporter for being a McCain supporter.

if she would have carved an O in her face instead, she might not be facing as much scrutiny. That, and you can't get an O backwards when carving it on your face in the mirror.

Thanks chick, thanks for killing the momentum we had going. That was bloody brilliant. There is a reason the rest of us are disgusted by the hoaxes played on account of the left, because we like to consider ourselves above that nonsense. Now we are considered to be at their level and the media will spin this for all its worth against the McCain/Palin ticket. "Why aren't you controling your supporters?"



As for the video, um, it got dark and I had to move it inside for some of the clips. I considered doing some of it in uniform but decided not to, because I don't want to make a statement as a representative of the military, this is just me.

Maybe it makes sense, maybe it doesn't, but I started out just saying somethings about me, just to show that I'm an everyday citizen. Like Joe the Plumber. Then I told some of my weaknesses. I don't have a lot of bad things against me like Tax Liens, but I've kept my nose pretty clean. And then I went into some of my beliefs. Sometimes I got a little silly. I tried to have a little fun. One line I stated with a little to much seriousness that it came off as a bit much so I took it out.

With all the other saturation out there, I don't think this is really anything, but whatever. Tell me what you think.

Ibex / Equine Creature

I got into a bit of a drawing mood, signed up for an exchange and this creature is what I got to draw in exchange. I've decided I want to go back to traditional media and so I drew it in graphite, my preferred media as a budding artist in my teen years.

I look back now and think I should be a better artist then I am. I've decided to move away from the illustration bit and more towards traditional media once more.



Drawing two images on two seperate sheets of paper with the intention to merge later doesn't always work. But I feel pretty decent since I used minimal references to draw.

Visited States - Updated Again

visited 33 states (66%)
Create your own visited map of The United States or determine the next president

I plan on visiting Tennessee before I leave. I promise.

I'm not sure if Florida or Maine actually count. those are Airport States.

I probably shouldn't technically count Kansas, Iowa or Ohio as I just traveled through a corner of them, but in the meantime, well, that's my visited states tally.

Making A Case

My sister gave me a phone call today asking me some questions in regards to her website which is where she runs her business through. After explaining what she needed to do (I'm the family web guru when it comes to this sort of thing) we got to talking about politics. It was kind of a nice discussion to be able to tell somebody in words where I think this election is going and where we will be going depending on who wins the White House. I laid out the reasons why I think McCain is our best choice (I'm not a huge fan, but I am a big Palin fan and think she balances the ticket nicely) and why we should be doing everything we can to defeat Barack Obama.

I hate to admit it, but I would rather have Hillary on the ticket then Obama. I disagree with a lot of her stances, but I am also more confident in her ability to lead versus Mr Hope and Change who has no other merits to run on and has already been predicted to be challenged by Foreign Leaders ala JFK. Great. I'd rather see Hillary handle an international crisis versus 'the One'.

I have been reading blogs and following politics for the last couple months pretty closely. It is interesting how one can get so wrapped up in this stuff and it really will make you angry to get to thinking about it.

That said, as I've gone through different websites, and we still have just two weeks until election day, I thought I would post some links of some arugments that have been made in favor of McCain and against Obama. Now, I'm not a fan of getting in confrontations with heavy Obama supporters and using these talking points with them, as it will likely turn into a heated argument where neither side is willing to listen and somebody ends up in the ER with a political sign ran through their sternum.

The Comprehensive Case Against Barack Obama. Ok, they even admit that some parts of this is not entirely comprehensive, but this lays out some of the finer points as to why Barack Obama is bad for a our country, and why Reverand Wright and Bill Ayers do matter.

Manifesto of the Silenced Majority - Notice that any criticism on the part of The One is met with charges of Racism and Smears? Well, this is a well documented list of reasons why and conservative feels the need to vote against him.

The Left's Big Blunder - I just posted to this essay a couple of posts back, well I'm going to post to it again. A good list of reasons why not to get discouraged into thinking McCain is out of the race yet. A recommended read.

Look Who's Gripped with Insane Rage - When you hear the arguments about how bad the McCain/Palin rallies get with Keith Olbermann getting serious about the seriousness of people screaming "kill him" about Barack Obama (which has since been debunked as being false), just show them this to prove that the left is not without its own hate mongering and its not Sarah Palin's job to keep tabs of every little thing that comes out of the mouths of her supporters.

The Biden Gaffe Machine - can you imagine if Sarah Palin had said any of the things Joe Biden has? Bloody hell, it would be Dan Quayle and Potato all over again. Worse is how his latest gaffes have been creaping on him. Biden all out said that in the first six months Obama is going to be tested by an international crisis by our enemies who may percieve his inexperience as weakness and may likely screw it up, but we need to stand by him in support. most would say that this is a reason NOT to vote for him. Don't forget Barack Obama is not without his gaffes too. But it does show poor judgment on Obama's part to pick this guy as his running mate, don't you think? He should have picked Hillary if he wanted to win, but I'm guessing Hillary turned him down.

The Fannie mae and Freddie Mac Fiasco should have anyone up in arms over a $700 Billion dollar bailout. But while both candidates were for the bailout *gag me* one in particular is in it to his eyeballs with being the second largest reciepient of donations from this mess with only two years in the senate. There is something wrong there.

There was an awesome video that went viral describing this issue and how deep Barack Obama was in on the mess, but unfortunately whoever made it decided to use copyrighted music from Warner and it's been removed.

But the Democrats are largely responsible for this economic mess in the first place, and we are about to give them the House, the Senate, and the Presidency? Because they speak well and are able to deflect criticism by stating President Bush is in office, so it must be his fault.

Fascinating how ignorant the population is to buy into this "it's all Bush's Fault" in regards to the Economy when this has been going on since the Clinton Administration by leftist policies of 'equality and fairness' instead of people earning it.

Anyway, there are some cases you try to make for not voting for Barack Obama and you can't escape the charge of 'ooh, you're a Racist!' I've linked to this guy before but I'll do it again. I love his point of view, he's brilliant, well educated on the matters and he knows what he's talking about and lays out a very good argument. Oh, and he happens to be a black conservative. You can't pull the racism card on this guy, he'll throw it back in your face. Check out his blog, I'm waiting to see him blog some more but he's more of a video blogger anyway. He's just a good source for giving the case for conservative causes, and to vote for the McCain/Palin ticket. And I don't know, I just really like this guy. He's great!

As for other reasons why to vote for McCain? because he kicked Obama's behind at the Alfred E Smith Memorial Dinner when it comes to speeches geared for poking fun at one's self. I busted up laughing when I first saw this, thought Obama was funny too. Just not as funny as McCain.

I get most of my info from right wing blogs, and they are usually pretty good about fact checking each other, and yes, so sew me for keeping with the right wing blogs and not the left but they aren't always friendly to McCain either. I've been watching a lot of CNN lately and must say that I tend to zone it out, the bias is highly evident.

If anybody has any other articles or webposts on the net with more info in regards to our political candidates, I'd like to see them.

Writing Novels in a Month

I'm thinking about participating in NaNoWriMo this year. I've wanted to do it in the past, even though I think I easily complete the equivelent of what is expected all the time, as one story I'm working on I did a word check with and its at 400,000 words.

So what is NaNoWriMo you ask? National Novel Writer's Month. The goal is to write a 50,000 word novel in 30 days, between November 1st and November 30th. You are to start from scratch, having an outline or an idea is okay, but you aren't supposed to start writing the actual novel until November 1st.

Well, this year, while I was on leave, I came up with an idea in my head for NaNoWriMo and fine tuned it while I was driving around DC and New York City. I'm wondering, if using the subject matter I wish to write about, if I can make it readable, because I tend to write about things that would make people question me and my sanity and wonder why I would even wonder about things like that. I think. I don't know, I guess they get to be sensative topics, but its these sensative topics that perks my interest and gets me to keep writing.

People ask me if they can read my books all the time. I tell them no. But I'm going to TRY to write this novel with the intent of letting people read it when I'm done (it will likely not be publishable, but readable is the key). I just have to reign myself in and say, 'no, that is not necessary to the story to do that to the character.'

So I was thinking, some of my month of November will be cut off because I will be traveling home and taking my time traveling home, so I was wondering how many words I would be able to write to reach that 50,000 word cut off.

See, before I started the book, I put it in my head. And I outlined it.

The outline is 10,000 words.

Okay?

I got interested in aspects of the story that I decided to write a little backstory on one of the side characters in the story, because I am apparently pretty good at creating backstories for all of my characters in my head.

I wrote this little 'side story' over the weekend, making it pretty much unreadable because it deals with touchy issues and all, and I checked the word count after about four days of working on it (no, its not done).

It's at 25,000 words.

Um, I should have NO problem completing this goal. As long as I can stay on task.

I tried to do a NaNoWriMo a couple years ago and couldn't stay on task because the novel idea interested me at first, but I lost interest in the story I was writing. I think I got to about four thousand words. Maybe. I'd have to check.

But if I can finish an outline (and even plot out an eventual ENDING to the story, because this in itself is a major rarity on my part) and the idea holds my interest enough to actually finish it, I think I can do that.

But if the outline is 10,000 words, I'm thinking that this is likely NOT a 50,000 word Novel. Based on my outline, I'm guessing it will probably reach close to 200,000 words if not more.

Um, I'll give you a summary later, you can tell me if you think it is an interesting enough idea that you would want to read it. For some people, it might make them squirm.

It Ain't Over til its Over

This is an interesting article about the psychology of the voter and how just because the polls say otherwise, that this election may be closer then we all think and by no means does Obama have it in the bag. It is actually an interesting read and has a lot of information about group think and what could be affecting people's thoughts as November 4th draws near, thought I would post to it.

The real-world campaign involves speeches and proposals and facts and scandals and political positions and news events. These details, however, are becoming increasingly irrelevant, and have become subsumed by the meta-campaign, which consists of perceptions, polls, reactions, analyses and summations. Until very recently, elections were decided by real-world facts -- but not anymore. Facts and events in and of themselves are no longer important; what's important is how everyone reacts to them. And how do we find out the public's mood concerning this or that incident? Why, the media tells us, that's how.

Its a long read, but very interesting, talking about conformity, the Bradley Affect and polling. It is also interesting for the psychology experiments it discusses like the Asch Experiments, which for some reason I found particularly interesting. Good essay.

The guy who wrote it blogs, and I've been in a blog surfing binge for the last two months. He has some interesting thoughts, so I bookmarked him. Of course, his blog is nothing new, in fact I may have ran into it before.

I like what he has to say though, and it is a little reassuring to read.

Yep, Don't Panic. Yet.

Question about Leadership

I started posting a question on my blog about Leadership, and it turned into a long healthy rant for me.

One that unfortunately, I cannot post at this time.

So I'm going to post the condensed version, and make it an open question for my readers. What is Leadership to you? How does one become a strong leader? What does it take to develop the leadership skills to become a good leader?

This is the Army's definition of Leadership out of AR 600-100.

"The Army defines leadership as influencing people by providing purpose, direction, and motivation, while operating to accomplish the mission and improve the organization."

So, with that in mind, can somebody please inform me of what it takes to be a good leader? I know it is a weak area of mine, it has been a weak area for as long as I've been in the army. I need to develop as a leader, and aside from going out there and just being able to do it, I need some good advice on what to do to become a better leader.

then maybe in a couple of weeks, I can undo the post I just wrote and you can see a really large healthy rant from me.

I Am Joe

Say it loud and proud. Because when ordinary citizens have their dirt strung about for the entire nation to see because they dared critique a candidate, there is something seriously wrong with the direction the country is going.

Nothing has infuriated me more in this presidential election then what is happening to this man. But I have stated my case already.

I think I want to get this made into a bumper sticker and stick it on my car. I can then go drive to Ohio and make a point with it or something.

Guess the Baby!

For a while, I had a very good track record of guessing the sex of babies before the parents found out officially. for some reason, I was always right. And there are a lot of opportunities in my family to do this, as I have a gob of nieces and nephews. I started guessing correctly in 2000ish with all of my sibling's children and I seemed to always be right for some reason.

I mean, if you are curious about the sex of the baby, just ask Kami and I was always right for some reason.

That changed this year, when all three of my sisters decided to get into the procreating business together and left me out of it. . . again. Not that I mind, you see, I kind of need the guy first, but they do have a tendency to get pregnant all at once and it leaves me as the odd sister out.

I guessed right on my sister Corinne, thinking Girl for some reason (they were hoping for a girl, their boys, while cute, are quite a handful). My sister Arah, I guessed boy at first, and then had a dream about her having a girl and then chewing me out because I was wrong in my guess. Well, turns out she's having a girl, so my guess was wrong, but the dream was right. Well, in the baby part, my sister didn't chew me out but she needled me about it a bit. However, I had been right about her baby Olivia.

Then there is Julie. I guessed a boy. She just found out she's having a girl.

My reputation as an infallible baby sex guesser is ruined. But as I think about it, I never dreamed about the sex of Julie's baby. I didn't about Corinne's either but I was fifty/fifty on that anyway.

So from now on, if I guess, it's just a guess unless my subconscious tells me otherwise. We'll see how infallible my dreaming is the next time a close friend or family member gets pregnant and I dream about it.

In Perspective

In light of the topic of wealth distribution, when I was a Sophomore in high school my social studies teacher kind of told us an interesting little 'metaphor' to kind of put it in perspective, and why it doesn't really work in helping society. I may have mentioned this before but bare with me, because I was told this twelve years ago and it stuck with me.

In life, you got your over achievers, your under achievers, and those just trying to scrape by. In a communist society, they expect the over achievers, out of the goodness of their hearts, to put in maximum efforts to help their fellow man. The problem is, often times the under achievers are just downright lazy and expect everything to just be handed to them.

Well, in this scenerio, you have a classroom. The teacher informs his students that everybody in that class will recieve a 'C', which is considered average. How they are going to attain that C is because the middle of the road workers, who would have earned the C regardless, will do the work expected of them, while the over achievers who would generally earn A's and B's, will bring up the grades of the dumbasses who generally recieve D's and F's, so that everyone gets a fair grade of a C.

However, at the end of the class, is that how it is going to work out? Are the normally A students going to do the work necessary to help their D and F classmates achieve their C's? Some might, but in the long run I would have to say that this is a No. The D and F students, knowing that they are going to get a C regardless, will continue to put out shoddy work, because they know they are already going to get a C. And about those A students? Their level of work output will likely go down as well, because they have lost the drive to work for that A, that A was their reward for their hard work and now they find that they are working hard to help the slackers who don't want to put in the effort.

This is a system that rewards bad behavior and punishes good behavior. When you start handing out a C average grade, hoping that the As would carry the weight of the Fs, you will find that productivity will go down. And the same can be said in the workfield. If no matter what you did, no matter how hard you worked, your paycheck would be stripped from you to help the guy who has little ambition and motivation for his own career, where does that leave you?

The Constitution promises "Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of Happiness", and everyone is entitled to that. But the pursuit of happiness does not guarantee happiness. There is nothing there that promises a steady paycheck and three square meals a day. Nothing that states that free healthcare is a right. Socialists would have you think that everything is a right, you are entitled to all of this and more. Not so.

You are entitled to Life, which can be taken from you if you take away somebody else's right to life. You are entitled to Liberty, which is basically freedom to live your life the way you see fit. You can do anything you want as long as it does not impose or threaten anybody else's life or liberty (and of course, is not against the law). The Pursuit of Happiness is something that I think most people misunderstand, because they think you are entitled to happiness.

Not so. You have the right to pursue it, however. Happiness has many definitions according to various people, and the pursuit of happiness is different from person to person. And that might qualify as Success. Some people find happiness in the satisfaction of achieving something, whether that be a good job, a nice house in the suburbs, or maybe the pursuit of partying every night until 3AM to wake up with a hangover the next day. Whatever makes you happy, it is your right to pursue that.

the problem is, some people *socialists* believe that everyone is entitled to happiness and shouldn't have to pursue it. Hence, the need for handouts. the need to give low income people that subprime mortgage that there is no earthly way they can afford. The need for free health care because of how living the lifestyle of smoking pot, drinking and lot's of anonymous sex in the sixties has led to a person destroying their body and now they think its the government's job to make sure they feel better.

Wrong, wrong and no. These are not 'rights', this is part of individual responsibility.

I find it funny how effective labels can be in a very non-funny way.
Motivation and Ambition to be successful? that's just greed, and we need to take the money of those that are successful away to give it to somebody who is not so successful so they can have a chance.

Well, you start taking away that drive which motivates people to be successful, you will find that they will decide that it just isn't worth working as hard as they were when they are not going to be rewarded for their efforts.

And the people who are recieving the hand outs? Why should they work at all if its just going to be given to them?

People should be encouraged to work hard and be successful, there is nothing wrong with wanting stability in life, to have a nice car and a good home, a comfortable nest egg to retire on. The desire to be successful is not greed (that's what some libs would have you to believe), it is in fact ingrained in the US Constitution as the part of the Pursuit of Happiness.

I have nothing against people being successful and making a crapload of money. If they worked hard for it, they deserve it. But again, what is the point of working your tail off when you don't reap the rewards of your actions?

Just a thought. . .

The Hypocracy Kills Me

Yes, a little political talk, because I have to admit, the way this election cycle is going, it is downright ridiculous.

We'll start with Joe the Plumber. Anybody hear about him? He's just an average Joe trying to make a living and he has the nerve, the audacity to ask Barack Obama a question on the stump.

JOE WURZELBACHER: "I'm a plumber. You know, I work, you know, 10, 12 hours a day. If I buy another truck and add something else to it, and you know, build the company..."
OBAMA: "Right."
WURZELBACHER: "... you know, I'm getting taxed more and more."
OBAMA: "Nobody likes high taxes."
WURZELBACHER: "No, not at all."
OBAMA: "Right? Of course not. So -- but what's happened is, is that we end up -- we've cut taxes a lot for folks like me who make a lot more than $250,000. We haven't given a break to folks who make less. It's not that I want to punish your success, I just want to make sure that everybody who is behind you, that they've got a chance at success, too. And everybody is so pinched that business is bad for everybody. And I think when you spread the wealth around, it's good for everybody." (FOX News' "On The Record," 10/13/08)

Ok, for a minute, let's forget Joe the Plumber and focus on Obama. His answer to Joe's question is downright socialistic. This is scary times, but what is interesting to me that suddenly, after the Liberals and Obama keep harping on the fact that any little criticism detracts from the real issues, now that some ordinary middle class American has dared bring to light the true nature of what an Obama Presidency might bring, instead of focusing on what Obama said, the whole "spread the wealth around", Joe the Plumber is now the focus of a massive Character Attack as his personal life comes unto intense scrutinity.

Proof? Well, from a blogger's perspective, I'll just link to Ace of Spades, Here, Here, Here, and Here.

There's also this crap being spewed by liberal sources such as Huffington Post courtesy of Right Wing News.

What is this a sign of? Well, from my own humble opinion, its a little enlightening of what the US will be like if Obama gets the most powerful office in the nation. Because the issue that has aroused from this debate has turned it onto Joe Wurzelbacher, making him the focus of attention, when all he did was ask Obama a question. Quite frankly, as far as I'm concerned, Joe is an ordinary citizen, he doesn't appear to be running for higher office and last I checked, most ordinary citizens have a little dirt in their past. Hell, I'm disthymic, have a chronic lead foot with plenty of speeding tickets to prove it, and have a bad NCOER stating that I'm completely incompetent in the field of Preventive Medicine. Should I ever have the opportunity to meet Barack Obama and dare ask him a question with the News Media present that made headline news because of Obama's questionable answer, the focus would immediately shift from him and all of my dirty laundry would come to light.

Hell, look at Sarah Palin, she is announced McCain's running mate and suddenly people are questioning whether Trig Palin is even her son with absolutely NO BASIS WHATSOEVER. But Trig Palin isn't the issue, if I were to say anything, I would say that this attempted character assassination was trying to deflect from the issues.

Because the issue is no longer about Barack Obama, but about the person who dares question him. The thing is, it shouldn't matter if the question came from Joe Wulzerbacher, Katie Couric or Jesus Christ himself (because as the only perfect person to ever walk the earth, good luck finding some dirt on him). The person asking the question is irrelevant. What should be detrimental is the answer that Barack Obama gave. That is the issue here, that is what the focus should be on. Doing a character assassination on Joe the Plumber to tear apart his credibility does not change the fact that Barack Obama stated that he wants to destribute the wealth just like the Socialists do.

I'm sorry, I have to disagree with that policy.

This whole election issue has been very enlightening, and I have been watching it very closely these last few months. But if you look at the trend for the last few months, every negative attack against Barack Obama is turned against the person making the attack, if you try to discuss his highly questionable number of personal acquaintances for which I doubt he would be able to get a Secret Security Clearance with the US Army, you are labeled as trying to detract from the issues and pointing out that Bill Ayers *a freakin' WHITE guy* as a terrorist who appears to have extremely close relations with Barack Obama, bloody hell you must be a racist. Every negative attack is deflected with lies and an excuse to detract from the issues, but they are relavent.

What gets me is for eight years we have heard people screaming Bush=Hitler and proclaiming that the Bush administration is encroaching on their constitutional rights and freedom of speech, but they kept doing it. But Barack Obama can't be criticized without being labeled as a racist and having your character attacked?

I'm sorry, but I see the first ammendment being under serious threat under a Barack Obama Presidency more so then the entire eight years of the Bush Administration.

No, I am NOT voting for Barack Obama, if that hasn't been made clear enough. And though I have remained relatively quiet on the political front for the past few months on account of being active duty military this summer and feeling that as a representative of the Army I need to keep my political opinions to a minimum, enough is enough. I am still a soldier, and as a soldier it is my duty to protect the constitution of the united states, and that includes MY right to free speech.

This country is going to hell in a handbasket right quick. People aren't paying attention to what's going on around them, thinking that if they ignore the issue, it might just go away, or somebody else might take care of it. But it's dangerous to think like that. You HAVE to pay attention, or before you know it, to many people are going to just lie low thinking that somebody else will fight the fight and then before you know it, we will have the executive branch (presidency), both legislative branches (senate and house of representatives) and the judicial branch (supreme court) in the hands of the liberals, with no system of checks and balances in play, just watch as this great nation turns to a liberal utopia of socialism and you find your freedoms stripped away for the greater cause.

I'm a conservative. I respect everybody has a right to an opinion, and if you believe that socialism is the way we should go, then more power to you. That's your opinion, I disagree with you but will respect your right to have that opinion. As a soldier that is my duty, to make sure everyone has a right to say what they want to say, that they have a voice and a right to their opinions.

The problem is, as a conservative, with the way things are going, the thuggary involved in the mainstream media and liberal left to anybody who dare opposes the inevitable election of 'The One', I might just lose my own voice.

I'm not going down without a fight, I've got about three weeks to election, and I'm not keeping quiet anymore. see ya all at the reeducation camps in January.

UPDATE: Courtesy of Perfunction via Instapundit



Very enlightening. . .

. . . one can only hope that people start waking up these next few weeks and see what kind of person Obama really is. . .

Chincoteague and Assateage

Day Three, Tuesday September 30

When I was a young girl, my favorite author was Margaret Henry. She is well known for her books on horses, and one of her most popular is a book called Misty of Chincoteague.


I was a horse nut, had a bit of an obsession really, and had always wanted to see Chincoteague Island since I read the book.

Though I have outgrown the horse phase (don't get me wrong, I still love horses, but its not to the point of unhealthy obsession I had as a preteen), I've still wanted to visit Chincoteague Island.

Well, there are ponies everywhere, but you have to go to Assateague Island to see them.

I went early in the morning and toured a bit. And forgot to put on bug spray.

Big mistake. The mosquitoes are particularly vicious. Of course, on the Chincoteague side of Assateague, I didn't see many ponies on the island. I did however, see a lot of bugs, mainly spiders. So I tried getting shots of them while i got eaten alive by mosquitos.

I need to find out what kind of spider this is.

But aside from the ponies, and the spiders, there are a lot of birds on Assateague Island.



I just played with my camera mostly. And no, I didn't get a whole lot of pictures of myself. Unless you count the pics of myself I took with my snap. (as soon as I can find that camera, which I have misplaced, I will show pictures)

There was, of course, the Assateague Island Lighthouse, and being a fan of Lighthouses, I wanted to get some pics, except for it was under renovation. I think.



The Maryland side offered more wild ponies, if by wild you mean ponies that will walk right up to you and pass you by without a care in the world.



I really did like Assateague Island, and of course, the pony shots, which I felt like I got a few. I want to take some of these through Photoshop and mess with them a bit.

Wildlife Pics.

Back From Leave

FYI - I'm back in Fort Knox, from leave, and back to work.

I'll try to get my blog updated with more pics. I just got sidetracked with other things. That is not uncommon with me.

Er, more to come. Later.

I'm a PC!

So, Microsoft is having a big campaign to counteract the 'I'm a Mac' campaign done by Macintosh I guess.

Whatever the case, wander about Times Square this week and somebody will come up and ask you if you want to be on the billboard at Times Square.

Hmm, I've been traveling the last few days, I don't have an ounce of make up on, my hair is a mess and I look like hell. Sure!



Hey, I was on the billboard in Times Square! Oh, and I snowboard.

You know the funny thing? I was THERE in times square with my camera handy today just to see what the campaign looked like and I saw my picture flash up there. I went to snap a picture and my stupid camera FROZE! GAH!

But hey, microsoft was nice enough to forward the proof that I was on the billboard of Times Square in all my ate up glory!

Not the most flattering picture of me, but look! I was in Times Square! Flashed for ten seconds along with about a thousand other pictures that got lost in the madness of this campaign, but I was still on a Billboard in Times Square!

So there.

Finding People in New York

One of the guys in the hostel I'm staying at was inquiring about my visiting New York. Most people in hostels are foreign I've noticed, you don't run into many Americans in them, and we got to talking about why this is. They asked me if I knew anybody in New York and I told them I did, but not to the level where I could just crash in on them and say "hey, can I stay at your place?" For one, it would be highly inappropriate, or I haven't seen them in years and I didn't know them well enough to just crash on them anyway, hence why I'm staying in a hostel (much cheaper then a hotel).

But as I said this, I had a change of heart, commenting, "you know, actually there's this one guy I know who I would love to find so I could kick his ass."

To which I got a reply "I like this girl already."

A major douchebag, and an ex-private from Basic. I think he's got several people plotting his extermination.

Hmm, I wonder how hard it would be to find somebody in Soho?

In the Subway

I was on the subway in New York a few minutes ago waiting to get on a train when this guy with a crazy look in his eye glances over at me and starts mumbling under his breath stuff like "Weapons of Mass Destruction" and "Satan". I ignored him, kind of stepping away afterwards when at first I just thought he was crazy and talking to himself when I realized that I am wearing a t-shirt that says US Army on the side. It's not a blatant t-shirt by any means that screams Army, but it kind of crossed my mind that this guy was talking about me.

Hmm, gotta love New York.

Announcement

I drove in Downtown Manhattan.

And survived.

I didn't hit anybody, nobody hit me, and my car is still intact.

I was getting a little tired and looking for a place to park my car so i could get to my place of sleep, but that whole experience woke me right up. That is a white knuckle experience with the yellow cabs outnumbering cars like 10 to 1. And I will drive through it one more time to get out of here.

Well, next three days in Manhattan. Wish it would stop raining.

Yorktown and Virginia Beach

Day Two - Monday, September 29

So I spent the morning in Yorktown.


I got there early and ended up taking pictures of the cannons in the park.


I took a lot of pictures of the cannons actually.

Then I went on a roadtrip around the area where you follow trails to where different forces had their armies set up, like the French, and where George Washington camped, and so on and so forth. It was really kind of a nice little meandering drive.


Then I went to the Yorktown Victory park, which is like the Jamestown Settlement, and walked through some re-enactments. Had some camera problems but got it all sorted out.

They let me play dress up again. :)


It's a turkey. . .

I thought about trying Williamsburg again, but since I already saw it, it kind of got a pass and so I had to make my mind of whether to go to Richmond or go to Chincoteague. I couldn't do both.

I kind of wanted to see the beach so Chincoteague won out. But I spread it out a bit more, so I went to Virginia Beach as it was on the way.


They had a Sand Castle competition that they have every year that I happened to come upon. There was some cool sand castles.


Also, Virginia Beach has two lighthouses. I love Lighthouses, and found out that my military ID comes in handy when having to get on Fort Story to go see them.


I hung out on a few of the beaches, just chilling. It was nice.


I got a tripod and since I don't have anybody with me to take pictures, and I'm somewhat of a goober, I set the camera up to take pictures of myself. Because I could, that's why. When you are traveling around, you want to get pictures of yourself in the action, don't you? I guess I could just take a picture and photoshop myself in but that's cheating.



I prefer this to the picture of me holding a camera so you got a picture of my big head and the thing I'm taking a picture of.

That gets old. I got a lot of pictures like that too.

From there, I went up to Chincoteague via the Cheasepeake Bay Bridge Tunnel and the Eastern Shore.


It probably would have been more interesting if I traveled there during the day, but you don't see a lot when you travel at night. You know, something about lack of light does that.

. . .

Wow, I haven't had a whole lot of time to post about my adventures in Virginia and DC, because I want to take five years to edit the pictures and then I have to write about the experience and all of this other stuff and by the end of the day, I'm so beat from walking around everywhere (DC will do that to you) that I just want to surf for a minute, check my email and then crash.

Anyway, DC is done. I got a couple stories that I will share, as well as some pictures. Probably will end up posting the pictures when I get back to Kentucky though. Or when I find a location where I have more time.

Right now, I need to find a Laundromat. When I find one, I'll probably post more then.

Tomorrow is Philidelphia, for key historical sites, and then its off to New York City the following day.

After that, I'm not all that sure.

Watched teh Palin/Biden debate yesterday. It was interesting, as I was in DC, staying in a Hostel that was run by a raging liberal (he was a nice guy when you didn't talk politics with him) and so I got to watch the debate while listening to a bunch of people make fun of the way Sarah Palin pronounces things. I went to the blogosphere to see what they had to say about her performance, because I couldn't really pay attention to it when I was listening to people begging Biden to slap her, insisting that it would immediately elect him to Vice President.

It was an interesting social position I was in. I didn't say much, but I think after a moment they might have gotten the impression that I was a conservative.