nerdfont

I saw this in a digg comment and was amused.

I’m a little confused. Let me see if I have this straight…..

* If you grow up in Hawaii , raised by your grandparents, you’re ‘exotic, different.’

* Grow up in Alaska eating moose burgers, yours is a quintessential American story.

* If your name is Barack you’re a radical, unpatriotic Muslim.

* Name your kids Willow , Trig and Track, you’re a maverick.

* Graduate from Harvard law School and you are unstable.

* Attend 5 different small colleges before graduating, you’re well grounded.

* If you spend 3 years as a brilliant community organizer, become the first black

President of the Harvard Law Review, create a voter registration drive that

Registers 150,000 new voters, spend 12 years as a Constitutional Law

professor, spend 8 years as a State Senator representing a district with over

750,000 people, become chairman of the state Senate’s Health and Human

Services committee, spend 4 years in the United States Senate representing a state

of 13 million people while sponsoring 131 bills and serving on the Foreign Affairs,

Environment and Public Works and Veteran’s Affairs committees, you don’t have any

real leadership experience.

* If your total resume is: local weather girl, 4 years on the city council and 6

years as the mayor of a town with less than 7,000 people, 20 months as the

governor of a state with only 650,000 people, then you’re qualified to become

the country’s second highest ranking executive and next in line behind a man

in his eighth decade.

* If you have been married to the same woman for 19 years while raising 2 beautiful

daughters, all within Protestant churches, you’re not a real Christian.

* If you cheated on your first wife with a rich heiress, and then left your disfigured wife

and married the heiress the next month, you’re a true Christian.

* If you teach responsible, age appropriate sex education, including the proper use of

birth control, you are eroding the fiber of society.

* If, while governor, you staunchly advocate abstinence only, with no other option in sex

education in your state’s school system while your unwed teen daughter ends up

pregnant, you’re very responsible.

* If your wife is a Harvard graduate lawyer who gave up a position in a prestigious

Law firm to work for the betterment of her inner city community, then gave that up to

raise a family, your family’s values don’t represent America ’s.

* If you’re husband is nicknamed “First Dude”, with at least one DWI conviction and

no college education, who didn’t register to vote until age 25 and once was a

member of a group that advocated the secession of Alaska from the USA, your

family is extremely admirable.

OK, that makes it much clearer now…

In today’s society, the internet is such a necessity to keep up to date with the latest news. So how do our Presidential candidates stack up when it comes to technology? The recent discovery of McCain’s ineptitude in the field of the internet has me cringing. Who doesn’t know how to “get online?”

And so, I thought I would delve into the websites these two candidates have set up online. While I know they did not personally create them, at least we can see how they compare and how it reflects their presidential campaigns.

First Impressions

With the amazing speeds of FIOS, I figured I shouldn’t have a problem loading their websites. When typing in Obama’s website (www.barackobama.com), everything loaded smoothly without a hiccup, graphics and all. The color scheme is consistent and fresh, organized and easy to navigate. The red “Donate Now” button stands out, however with their central Flash graphic, it keeps the donation plea somewhat in the background. Since I am of the younger generation, I don’t see any issues with the font size, which is slightly small, however the important fields of interest are of a larger size. Another thing to note is the consistent message for the title of each page, “Change We Can Believe In,” which has echoed every speech Obama has made.



McCain’s website (www.johnmccain.com) has a different story altogether. The page took longer to load in general, however the graphics were not any more elaborate than Obama’s. The feel is “boxier” with no shadow effects between the different fields. The navigation menu looks old-school from about 10 years ago with its use of solid colors and simple text. The color scheme is also a bit inconsistent as their green “Contribution” button does not match with the darker blue used for the background. Also, I noticed that the font size is overall larger than Obama’s (maybe for all those older folks who know how to “get online”). And while Obama’s website constantly reminds you of his message, the only message we get on McCain’s web pages is “John McCain for President.” Straightforward, sure, but doesn’t everybody already know that piece of information?

I am also curious what would happen to McCain’s website if I choose “Supporter” versus “Undecided” or “Unregistered Voter.” Would it filter out certain sections of the website? Currently I am not willing to touch that section of the web page, however you would think that the website would cater to all types of potential voters.

Looking Deeper

Of course, we need to look past the first impressions of their websites because the issues of these two candidates are the main focus (supposedly). Aside from the detailed plans each candidate has for the issues, I find it interesting the diversity of issues Obama has outlined. With 23 issues, not including “Additional Issues,” it gives him an almost 2 to 1 ratio in what McCain outlines as his issues. And, not so surprisingly, McCain does not discuss his plans on future technologies. Go figure for a man that is still learning how to get to his website.

Another area of interest is the overall appeal to those of all ages. For those of my generation, and a bit younger, there are 16 different social websites to choose from to find information on Obama and connect to those who share similar interests. McCain does not have a section that caters to this generation. However, he does have a link to “McCainSpace” which is similar to “my.barackobama.com” where people can set up their own site supporting their fav candidate.

And since we’re comparing the age focus of these websites, McCain’s campaign has not been updated that the word “radio” on a website should really be “podcast.”

And the Unexplained…

I had a few “what the hell?” moments when I came across these options on McCain’s website. The first is your very own paper airplane (with donation only)!

I know that my vote is decided on whether or not I can have my very own “McCain Ace” airplane! Sure, wallpapers and desktop images are standard in any website promoting a cause or product, however a paper airplane made me say “What the hell?” Sadly, I did not find a paper airplane option on Obama’s site, however I could access wallpapers, posters, flyers, avatars and more without having to give to his campaign.

My second discovery on McCain’s website was “Pork Invaders.” It’s a game that helps people “fight against wasteful spending” by exercising the “veto pen to restore fiscal responsibility.” Seriously?

Obama’s site was very focused and did not have anything odd aside from “ObamaTV,” where you can watch video clips of what is happening on the campaign trail. Even trying to say that “ObamaTV” is odd is a stretch because people watch videos online on a regular basis.

Getting off the internet

Sure, I’m biased about who I will vote for this coming November. However, I must say that their websites reflect how tech-savvy the two candidates are and how they are reaching out to their voters. In the article mentioned at the beginning, McCain said, “I don’t expect to be a great communicator, I don’t expect to set up my own blog, but I am becoming computer literate to the point where I can get the information that I need.”

Shouldn’t our next president do more than what needs to be done? Shouldn’t he be ahead of the curve in terms of communication? Communication includes the internet these days, McCain should think about getting on board.

after being with joel for over 5 years, the number of road trips to sacramento have been plenty. while flying is always preferable to driving, we have our limits on what is reasonable in airfare, and so, we made our trek up to sacramento this week.

after driving up to sac multiple times, one of the main lessons we have both learned…the 5 sucks. absolutely sucks. there is a very long, straight, boring road that lingers for a good 5-6 hours. and you get to see all types of drivers. you get passed by all those bastards who think that going 90+ will get them ahead of the group, only to find themselves behind when they get pulled over about 5 minutes later by those “sneaky” chp officers. you see the family van that can’t figure out how to maintain the correct speed, and you find yourself playing doe-see-doe with the car for a good half an hour. and you get the trucks…oh the trucks.

now, i’m not saying that the 101 won’t have those people. it’s inevitable on any road trip of 300+ miles that you will see these people. but our main reason for avoiding the 5 is the excitement of passing actual cities. compared to the 5, we pass a city about every 15-30 minutes. and i can’t tell you how exciting it is to avoid the cow farm on the 5 (ugh, the stench). we might deal with traffic every once and a while, but in general, joel and i are much happier people driving on the 101.

now, this past road trip was probably one of the more entertaining trips we have had. our last road trip consisted of us watching for groups of more than 15 birds in a location (keep in mind we are easily amused people), which happened to keep us entertained the whole way up. however, we found an even more exciting way to stay entertained on our trip (omg, i know!).

there is a little sign that makes absolutely no sense to us when we drive past it. and for anybody that drives between san jose and slo, you’ve probably seen it:

now, seriously…what the hell “is happening” in soledad?! has it already happened? i don’t think i can give justice to the 15 minute conversation we had on this billboard, but suffice to say this is our favorite landmark on our trip up to sac. the amount of joy it brought joel to take the photo of this billboard…it’s actually quite scary.

does anybody think it’s happening in soledad? i’m pretty positive that it’s not happening there…how deceiving.

I really liked how the LA Times summed up their comparison of Clinton and Obama as it sums up my view on them:

“In the language of metaphor, Clinton is an essay, solid and reasoned; Obama is a poem, lyric and filled with possibility. Clinton would be a valuable and competent executive, but Obama matches her in substance and adds something that the nation has been missing far too long — a sense of aspiration.”

in super mario galaxy, i always get so excited when i feed those hungry lumas their 400 star bits and they “TRANSFOOOOOOOORM!” into a planet…anyone else?

OK, so now that my “2nd Christmas” is over, I thought I would share some of my thoughts on those shiny new products Apple revealed today.

Macbook Air. Aside from the unbelievable thinness of it, I really think there is a wonderful movement the product is endorsing- wireless everything. This has been an idea touted for who knows how long, and this is one of the first computers I can think of that will finally step in that direction. We have the ability to download everything- media, games, and programs. So why are we stuck believing we need to install a program with a disc?

What I loved about the Macbook Air was Steve’s ability to tell people, “Hey, you’re going to be alright without that optical drive.” It’s almost like taking off the training wheels of a bicycle…until people try the product without a peripheral, they won’t know what they aren’t missing. With wireless devices becoming commonplace around the world, I hope to see a comfort level with pure wireless connections. Besides, it will save quite a bit on paper and other materials.

Another interesting idea behind the Macbook Air is what I consider the “ultimate mobile lab.” I really think schools can take advantage of its portability and “remote disc” abilities. The laptops would be controlled by one “hub” computer, which would handle all application installations and any other updates necessary for the laptops. While this is quite a spendy project for any school (and needs one heck of an internet connection), I thought I would throw out the idea.

Overall, I am really excited to see how a wireless environment will pan out in the upcoming months/years. While some people question Apple’s ability to keep coming out with the latest and greatest, I think this year’s Keynote was a wonderful start, as well as perceptive foresight into what we as tech consumers will experience in the future.

i was listening to the classic rock station in our area, and every time i hear a song, i see the notes of guitar hero.

goldeneye is 10 years old!

and it was a great game too…even though i completely sucked at it and died every 5 seconds. but i loved paintball mode and big head mode, those were fabulous.

along with a fabulous sushi dinner for our 2-year anniversary, we purchased guitar hero 3 for the wii. so here is a little back story before i get into it…

for christmas a couple years ago, i decided that i really wanted to learn to play the guitar, and so my parents got me this gorgeous apple red stratocaster and a cute little amp. and that is about as close as i got to it…my aspirations to play the guitar lasted about 2 days after christmas…

and so, as my real guitar sits in the corner of our living room, we assembled our wii guitar and rocked out to some songs. joel and i watched our amazing dexterous fingers do their magic to the beats of weezer, rolling stones, santana and many others. i, for one, felt that if i could play a song 99% correct on easy, well hell, i should be able to pick up my guitar and do the same! (i mean, if 5 buttons can play 3000 notes…)

it’s actually quite a fun game, considering neither of us ever picked up 1 and 2. however, i wish there was some deviation of songs when you move up in difficulty. nevertheless, it is a fun game…now if only they sold separate guitars for the wii…