Author: TechyDad

Vote!

Politics

vote

Today is the culmination of two years of campaigning, primaries, TV ads, debates, and endless polling.  It’s time to vote.  Across the country, people will decide who will be our next President.  They’ll also decide on Senators, Representatives, and various state and local races.  Some people will even have ballot initiatives where they’ll have a direct say in the path their state takes.

It can be wearying at times.  It might seem like you just want it over with.  You might not even like either of the choices.  However, it is important to vote.

In some countries, the citizens don’t get to vote.  In others, "voting" means saying "Yes, I will select the ruling party’s chosen candidate because I don’t want my house burned down."  In these places, opposition candidates are arrested under trumped up charges and/or disappear under mysterious circumstances.

We’re lucky.  We live in a country where we get a choice.  It may not be a perfect choice, but it’s a choice.  And, even if our chosen candidate doesn’t get elected, we have a chance to vote for someone else in four years.

So if you are supporting Barack Obama, go vote for him.  If you’re supporting Mitt Romney, go vote for him.  If you are still undecided, look at each of their platforms and records, choose the one whose positions most closely match your own stance on the issues, and then vote.

NOTE: The "Vote icon" above is by netalloy and is available from OpenClipArt.org.

NOTE #2: To my international readers: If you live in a country where you’re allowed to vote, please take this as a call to vote when your voting day rolls around.

Wreck-It Ralph: Be Yourself and Don’t Listen To The Crowds

Disney, Movies

In Walt Disney Animation Studios' "Wreck-It Ralph," video game "bad guy" Ralph (voice of John C. Reilly) spends his lonely evenings gazing at the apartment building that it's his job to destroy...©2012 Disney. All Rights Reserved.On Sunday, we all went to the movie theater to see Wreck-It Ralph.  We’ve been anticipating this game for quite some time.  Going in, I was expecting a funny story and lots of references to old video games.  We got all of that, but what we didn’t expect was a valuable life lesson.

Note: While I’ll try to keep the following as spoiler-free as possible, I might slip and reveal a little too much here and there.  So, if you haven’t seen the movie yet, proceed with caution.

In Wreck-It Ralph, the title character is the bad guy in a video game called Fix It Felix, Jr.  Ralph destroys the building in Niceland.  Felix (controlled by the player) fixes it up with his golden hammer.  When the player fixes the whole building, Ralph is tossed off the top of the building by the citizens of Niceland and lands in the mud below.  When the game shuts down for the night, the Niceland citizens party with Felix.  Ralph, meanwhile, is regulated to spending his time alone in the dump, lying atop a pile of bricks.

Sick of being the bad guy stuck on the sidelines, Ralph attempts to join a party celebrating his game’s 30th anniversary.  Unfortunately, things don’t go according to plan and the citizens of Niceland tell him, in no uncertain terms, that his place is in the dump and not with them.

Meanwhile, in another game, Venellope Von Schweetz is a glitch of a character.  The other racers pick on her, shun her, and actively try to keep her from racing.  They want nothing to do with her and would love if she would just disappear from the game entirely.

Both of these characters could listen to the crowds.  They could listen to the people who tell them that they are worthless and won’t ever do anything good or important in their lives.  Thankfully, they don’t.  (Or it would be a very short movie.)  They do their best to prove the crowds wrong.  And, in the end, they must show how the very things that people decried as horrible about them are actually useful strengths.

Wreck-It Ralph is a great movie to watch for pure entertainment.  However, it also has a very powerful message, especially to those of us who have dealt with bullies in the past.  Let’s take a lesson from Ralph and Venellope and show those who oppose us just how being ourselves makes us stronger and not freaks or "glitches."

Aloha Friday: Taking Instant Communication For Granted

Aloha Friday, Communication, Internet

Telefon,_Nordisk_familjebokYesterday, I wrote about how I was worried about my friends and families post-Sandy.  This day and age, we’re used to being able to contact anyone we want to whenever we want to.  In some ways, this leads to procrastinating communication.  After all, why make that phone call now when you can do it an hour later or send a text or tweet them?

When people lost power during Sandy, however, the instant communication vanished.  Suddenly, since I couldn’t instantly communicate with friends and family, I found that what I wanted more than anything was to speak with them.  It really is true that you don’t realize how important something is until it’s gone.

My Aloha Friday question for today is: Did you have friends or family in Sandy’s path?  If so, how long did it take you to reach them?

NOTE: The phone image above is Public Domain and comes from Wikimedia Commons.

P.S. If you haven’t already, try out my Twitter applications: FollowerHQ and Rout.

Thanks to Kailani at An Island Life for starting this fun for Friday. Please be sure to head over to her blog to say hello and sign the linky there if you are participating.

Aloha Friday by Kailani at An Island Life

Aloha #163

A Lack of Trick or Treat Enthusiasm

Holidays, Weather

I want to write a long, photo filled blog post about Halloween.  After all, the boys got a big treat yesterday.  Since Sandy didn’t strike us as badly as we thought it would, they were actually able to go out Trick or Treating.

IMGP2393

The kids had a great time during trick or treating and so did I.  So why can’t I work up the enthusiasm write about it?

One word:

Sandy

As I said above, Sandy didn’t hit us hard.  It did hit my family and friends, though.  My parents lost power and had trees down all over.  Just to get out of their residential area, three trees had to be moved.  My sister has power back now, but she lost it for over a day.  During her outage, she tried to find a place to buy ice.  While driving, she had to keep turning down different roads to avoid downed trees and power lines.  She made so many twists and turns that she got lost.

During one of my brief conversations with my parents, they asked me to check in with my uncle.  Not only was he in the path of the storm as well, but all of my cousins were including one cousin who lives in New Jersey.  After a full day of calling, I finally reached him.  We spoke briefly, but he confirmed that they were without power as were all of my cousins.  They were all safe (as were my cousins), but they needed to drive under a partially downed tree leaning on a power line to get out of their driveway.

The last person I was trying to contact was a friend of mine.  We’ve been friends since junior high school, he was my best man in my wedding, and I was a groomsman in his wedding.  No matter how often I tried, though, I couldn’t get through to him.  I left voicemail messages and sent e-mails hoping something would reach him.  Finally, yesterday, I heard from him.  He was ok as is his family in New York and New Jersey.  A tree ripped out the power line going to their house and they were looking at at least a week without power.  Unfortunately, I didn’t have a long time to chat with him.  He called with only 2% of his cellphone battery left and the phone cut out.

Even though I know they’re ok, I’m used to the era of instant communication.  I want to talk to my parents so I pick up a phone, dial their home or cell number and reach them.  I’ll admit that, at times, I’m lax in communicating with them because of this freedom.  After all, what’s the rush to call when I can talk to them at any moment?  However, not having that instant communication ability is maddening.  I want to know what’s going on and how they’re doing, but I am only able to speak with them for brief moments every so often.

Here’s hoping that power is restored soon and that the recovery efforts move speedily.

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