President-Elect Obama

The election ended almost a week ago, and by a commanding lead of 365 to 162 electoral votes (Missouri is still too close to call, but not essential), Barack Obama is now the President-elect of the United States. He will be sworn in as the 44th President of the United States on January 20, 2009.

Well on his way to the White House, President-elect Obama has launched the most transparent transition in our country’s history. I hope he continues the trend and leads the world’s first transparent presidency.

I must admit that it is really nice to see some positive remarks about our choice in President from our friends in other countries. With that said, I’d like to remind everyone here in the United States that Barack Obama will be the 44th President of the United States for at least the next four years. No matter who you voted for, change will come to America. Let’s see what happens next.

If you have not yet seen Barack Obama’s presidential acceptance speech, I strongly recommend that you set aside a few minutes to do so.


Favored Freeware Updates: October 2008

The following Favored Freeware applications have been updated since the beginning of October 2008:

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One State Two State, Red State Blue State

It’s that time again, time to flex your democratic muscles and vote for the future of our country. I’ve been hearing a lot of narrow-minded view points lately about who should be elected and what we should vote yes or no on. In response, I just want to remind everyone reading this that elections aren’t about your personal beliefs, they’re about who is the right person to run the country and which propositions can be executed in a beneficial manner.

Before voting, please research your choices from more than one source. Everyone is biased to an extent, so you’ll never get the big picture by researching from only one source. One person may make a great argument for how the benefit of a proposition outweighs its cost, while another will make an equally compelling argument for how its cost outweighs the benefit. If you have one of those private party voting guides, throw it out. Their form of bias is more like a poison. You’re a smart person, research and make your own decision.

Polls can be biased too, so if you like to follow the polls, keep your eye on Pollster. They collect poll data from a variety of sources and present it in an easy to follow map.

There are plenty of candidates running for President, and if you’re a supporter of Barack Obama, Joen has an awesome poster for you. I’m sure that John McCain has some nice posters out there too, but none of my friends made any.

If you’re interested in how your taxes will be affected by your presidential choice, Barack Obama’s campaign website has a nice tax calculator which will either show you how much you will save under Obama, or if your taxes would be better off under McCain. I couldn’t find anything similar on McCain’s campaign website, but Obama’s tax calculator seems to be quite fair.

Election day is Tuesday, November 4th, so now is great time to start researching. When researching, use more than one source and make your own decisions. If you’re voting via absentee status, remember that your ballot needs to be received by November 4th in order for your vote to count, so plan to finish and mail it by Saturday, November 1st.

Who am I voting for? That’s not what matters. What matters is who you are voting for.


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Wedding Photos

It took almost two months, but some of our favorite wedding photos are finally online! It was honestly quite difficult to pick just a few out of the 3,850 that we received, and I am delighted that this is finally out of the way.

All of the photos in this set were taken by Enchanted Portraiture. They did a wonderful job, and we now have the memory of our wedding captured in literally thousands of photographs.


Favored Freeware Updates: September 2008

The following Favored Freeware applications have been updated since the beginning of September 2008:

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