{11.07.2008} Friday Melange - Halloween Fun

The craziest election season for most of us is over, thankfully. In the midst of all that was Halloween. It's a strange day...some folks go all out with their decorations and parties and we, as parents, have to explain to our daughter that on this ONE day of the year - it's OK to accept candy from strangers. Either way, Isabelle had a blast. Today's post will be a simple photo-journal of our first Halloween back in Wheaton...enjoy.

First, Izzy had a "Fall Party" at her school the week before Halloween, so she had the opportunity to wear her Lion costume...as you can see, she loved being a Lion:
















On Halloween, the weather was unbelievably warm, so Susan decided to switch Isabelle's costume from the Lion to a Ballerina so as to avoid an overheated child:




Finally...there's the loot:

Putting politics aside and understanding history...

After a long, long campaign and after I have been very critical of the Obama campaign and the man himself...I have to say that Barack Obama has run an amazing campaign. The sheer fact he is the first African-American President is amazing enough. What about the fact that he is *only* 47 years old, that he is a lawyer, that he is the most liberal Senator in the US Senate? Despite those facts, he was still able to win the Electoral Vote. What about the fact that as recently as 5 years ago, there were no African Americans in the US Senate? Wow. He has transcended the typical voting demographics and became the 44th President of the United States.

As recent as the 1960s the African-American population was being denied their rights and still being persecuted. There is still racism today prevalent in pockets of the country, people still will have ill feelings towards Barack Obama just because he is black. However, tonight we can say that our country has grown a lot. This election has shown us that this country is moving to become a much more diverse country, where the "majority" vote is not what will steer the direction of the country. Hispanics, Asians, African-Americans, Whites...all of these people groups will have their voices heard more loudly through the next few years...

My personal politics do not agree with what a President Obama will espouse, however, I do hope he is a good President - for the sake of the country. Regardless, history has evolved tonight and we were blessed to be a part of it...regardless of what side of the aisle you were on.

Goodnight...tomorrow we wake to a new world.

Election Night 2008

A recap of Politics 2008 and random thoughts from this historic day:

• I voted. Did you?
• Don't believe the exit polls, that's been proven over and over.
• Why are people so angry? Stop hating and just vote and let the next guy vote.
• Turnout is amazing. People are very excited this year for a historic event.
• We've seen some election day fraud. Black Panthers intimidating voters in Philly, wet ballots in Virginia, ballot machines malfunctioning, military ballots being delivered/sent late, random callers from both parties lying to people and telling them that their polling site has changed, and who knows what else? Share with me any other stories you might have heard or events you actually witnessed.
• Chicago has become the center of the nation - and will become moreso if Barack wins.
• I got free Starbuck's coffee today just because I voted!
• I enjoyed an almost 10 month email conversation with a good friend. We challenged each other, irritated each other and I believe taught each other a lot about the opposing views. I'd be interested to know how much your political views have grown or changed over this election cycle. Did you engage in the political process? Did you have a conversation that might have changed your vote? Did you read something that might have swayed your vote or made your choice more concrete?

Finally and most importantly: I believe our God has a plan that will be made more apparent tonight. I might have opposing views to the potential winner, but I know that God has plans that are far greater and far more amazing that anything these politicians can promise.

Goodnight - enjoy watching the election results and don't get too crazy out there.

{10.24.2008} Friday Melange. Fair Warning: Politics enclosed.

With 11 days left in this most important, life changing, life altering, harrowing Presidential Election season, I have decided to talk about it in my blog. I realize that this subject is taboo for many and I feel that way for the most part. However, this year we have seen unprecedented levels of attention placed upon this election. Potentially, the country will be electing its first minority President, which is an incredible feat, one that cannot be diminished. There is no doubting the ability and the commitment that Obama has displayed during this campaign. He defeated a candidate, Hillary Clinton, whom many believed was to be the first woman president. Instead, Barack Obama came out of one speech in 2004 and has grasped control of something many would never have believed to happen in this country as recently as 30 years ago.

Anyway, I sent the following email to some of my friends the other day and have decided to turn it into a post:
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
This is from a Democrat journalist regarding the current state of affairs in journalism and his take on the credit, housing, economic crises - and the media's response to it. A good read…regardless of your choice for President, or your personal feelings. http://www.ldsmag.com/ideas/081017light.html

This past week has been a great example of the media's bias: Joe Biden said some truly amazing things about the future of our country if Obama is elected and it was not the top story of that day, aside from the DrudgeReport…what was? The fact that Sarah Palin and the RNC spent approximately $150,000 on her clothing as part of the campaign. Ignoring the fact that the Obama campaign has purchased a cable channel, donated over $800,000 to ACORN, spent millions on airing a 30 minute infomercial, and now at least $2 million to stage a huge election night victory party at Grant Park, which, by the way, taxpayers of Chicago will be paying a portion of, due to the necessity of having Homeland Security and police forces there.

CNN's lead "label" everytime I flip to that channel is "Is Sarah Palin hurting McCain?" - where is the question about Biden? Obviously he is hurting their campaign, which is why he has been muzzled and only allowed to speak at rallies, with no questions taken from the press. When Palin was kept away from the media, she was labeled as "hiding" and having "Vlaidmir Putin" style secrecy. Where is that same analysis of Biden? CNN clearly distorted an article on nationalreview.com as "evidence" that even conservatives think she is incompetent, during an interview with Palin. While the article, in full context, was saying that as a strike against the media…CNN won't apologize or retract it:

Griffin said to Gov. Palin: “Governor, you've been mocked in the press, the
press has been pretty hard on you, the Democrats have been pretty hard on you,
but also some conservatives have been pretty hard on you as well. The National
Review had a story saying that, you know, ‘I can't tell if Sarah Palin is
incompetent, stupid, unqualified, corrupt or all of the above.’”

This is a complete distortion, a falsehood. The full quote from the National Review’s
Byron York shows he was in fact dressing down the media, NOT Gov. Palin.
“Watching press coverage of the Republican candidate for vice president, it's
sometimes hard to decide whether Sarah Palin is incompetent, stupid,
unqualified, corrupt, backward, or — or, well, all of the above.”

Again, I know this probably will not change your vote, but this might give you a glimpse as to why I have been so adamantly against Obama with this election. The media's treatment of one candidate or another shouldn't change your politics. However, it is causing many millions of people to create an image in their minds about the current state of affairs and causes them to gravitate to this message of "hope and change" -when it may truly end up being "more of the same". People seem to forget that for the past few years, the Congress in charge is Democratic and they have lower approval ratings than Bush, but is that reported as heavily as Bush's numbers? It seems like it simply is a coronation, aided and abetted by a media organization who chooses to ignore the negative news that would affect Barack and the democrats.

There are so many aspects of this election that I feel has been hidden by the media and not brought to the attention of America. Unlike people who are interested in finding information about the candidates, millions of Americans rely on the media to inform them of these candidates…this year it has been shamefully apparent that the "fix is in".

{10.10.2008} Friday Melange

So this is the end of the 2nd week of of our re>rooted lives in Chicago. What a difference! To highlight the developments of our transition, here are a few key details:

1. We are not alone. We moved into my parents' house in Wheaton and after 7 years of marriage and living in our own place, there are quite a few differences here. For one thing, we have a dog here (Mandy), who I swear is being treated better than Jayne or I have ever been treated! =) The dog is loved, but it's still a dog. There are times when she gets too excited to see one of us and takes a leak on the floor...we thought we were done with potty training! She also is a beggar...she sits and waits for the scraps to fall off Isabelle's plate. Anyway, watch for more updates on the adventures in the Abraham household.
2. Its a long drive. I average 75 miles a day now driving back and forth from Wheaton to Chicago. On average it takes about 50 minutes to get from point A to point B. Some of you have heard me talk about the 15 minute commute we had in Bloomington...oh, how much I took that for granted! When it rains here, oh my gosh. I forgot how plain stupid people become. It took me one and a half hours to go 24 miles this past Wednesday evening. Some people apparently think the rain is a cause for stupidity and it causes us sane people to sit in our cars for hours on end.
3. Working in Chicago is definitely eye opening for me. As a suburb kid, while I lived in the Chicago area, my jobs were always in the suburbs. The office I now work out of is in one of Chicago's neighborhoods (Lincoln Square). For lunch, I walk to one of the local joints instead of driving somewhere. I'm getting used to the thousands of cars, cabs and the busses, and actually paying attention to the "Do Not Walk" signs. I've seen a wide assortment of human beings, not so human beings and pigeons. Its been a fun 2 weeks so far, and I'm looking forward to more.

That's it for this Friday. Sorry for missing last week...I was thinking of doing a post about the economy, but decided that the news was too dreary. The news continues to get worse, but I figured that after 2 weeks, I could post about something lighthearted and mundane.

Last couple of items>

• Looking forward to a fun weekend coming up, we get a chance to spend time with some friends that we have missed...
• Susan heads back to Bloomington for a couple of days to get some work done there and she's taking Isabelle with. So that leaves me with my parents for a couple of evenings...good political conversations with my ultra liberal dad. Should be good times. Pray for both of us.
  
• 10/18 is the last wedding we have the privilege of attending this year...
• Oh...and my head is still shaved. Yeah boy.

{09.26.2008} Friday Melange

This is it...my last day in Bloomington, IL. As I've mentioned in an earlier post, I knew this day was going to be bittersweet. On one hand, I am so happy to be finally moved back to Chicago, on the other hand, I'm sad about leaving a great town and community.

So, in that vein, I will share a (cheesy alert! cheesy alert!)..."Letter to Bloomington/Normal", from the Abrahams.

Dear Bloomington/Normal,

Thank you for all you have taught our family and allowed us to experience in the last 4 years. When we moved here we had never seen so many corn fields and yet so many new houses. We had never seen so many pickup trucks and yet so many business professionals driving said pickup trucks. We had never watched the 5 o'clock evening news that started with stories about "nice things" rather than the number of killings or robberies that might have taken place throughout the day. We had never seen a huge, modern, corporate complex, literally surrounded by farmland and cows.

Its obvious you're doing something right. From the old timers in town we heard stories about all of the expansion over the years and yet even in the 4 short years we've lived here we've seen even more expansion. For example, when we moved here there was no Starbucks, Krispy Kreme, Rosati's, Meijer, Potbelly, Noodles & Co., Hollister & Co., or nice mall. Now there are three Starbucks, two Rosati's, a Meijer, 2 Potbelly's, 2 Noodles & Co. and a very nice mall with great stores. We felt at home, while not being "home".

It was here in Bloomington that we as a family celebrated Jason's and Susan's 30th birthdays, our 5th wedding anniversary and most importantly the birth of our daughter Isabelle.

We helped plant a Harvest Bible Chapel in Peoria, and made lasting relationships there. We both made significant contributions to State Farm via our jobs, and built great relationships there as well.

We've lived in 2 houses, met great neighbors and had great conversations with friends over the dinner table. Our lives will never be the same because we had a chance to slow down and experience community in a different way. We took part in local events and again experienced the genuine "goodness" of people.

Again, thanks for allowing us to make this our home for the past four years. We will always have a special place in our heart for this town.

With genuine love and gratitude,

The Abraham Family.

Oh, and by the way. The re>ROOT is now complete.

"Texting automatically removes 10 IQ points"

The title of this blog entry is a quote by Paul Saffo, a technology trend forecaster in Silicon Valley. The New York Times published an article last week that illustrates the dangers of texting while doing various activities and the actions being taken by the government.

We all text to communicate; its become even more easy with unlimited text message plans. I love the fact that I don't need to have a direct conversation, I'd rather be able to ask or answer a question and move on. There are times when texting has gone out of control for me: recently a friend and I exchanged 80-something text messages to discuss some issues in the news (not while driving, thankfully). I only have a 250 text plan, but have found that that is not enough anymore. To illustrate this, these numbers just blow my mind: In June of 2005 people texted 7.2 billion times - wow. How about June of 2008? 75 billion text messages were sent and received. Amazing. This is according to CTIA - the Wireless Association.

The reason I'm writing this today is because I've found that I am texting (& twittering - which is different from having a nervous tick, but not by much) more and more on the road. After reading a few articles and hearing about the train accident in California this past week, I've decided that I will not text or twitter while driving anymore. In this fast paced world, we've all become more and more accustomed to being able to communicate at any time, anywhere. With the popularity of the iPhone and its many useful features, I've found that while texting or trying to communicate instantaneously is simple, it is also becoming a much more dangerous activity. Especially when you consider all the other drivers texting while driving.

Several organizations have done some sort of research on the effects of texting while driving; this is what the UK's Transport Research Laboratory found:

• Texting behind the wheel impairs driving skills more than being drunk or high
• Reaction times deteriorated by 35% (which is worse than being drunk @ the legal limit - 12% worse reaction time)
• Drivers drifted out of their lanes more often - steering control was found to be 91% worse

This is all just to say that I would implore you as my friends and family to drive safely, and quit texting as you drive...whatever you have to say can wait until you pull over.