What are the top three most overused essay/paper/speech openings?

1. Definition of a word

2. Inspirational quote

3. Personal story or insight

Here, let me give you all three:

hope (n.) — the feeling that what is wanted can be had or that events will turn out for the best

“Learn from yesterday, live for today, hope for tomorrow.”  – Albert Einstein

In elementary school, I hoped that my parents would let me play in a basketball league.  In middle school, I hoped that I would be noticed by a boy.  In high school I hoped to make friendships that would last me a lifetime.  In college I hoped I would find a career I could love.  In working at Halliburton, I hoped I would find meaning in the work I did and friendship in the people I worked with.  In graduate school, I again hoped I would find a career where I could use my strengths to their potential and find meaning in the work I did.

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I can’t remember a time when I didn’t hope for something.  I guess it’s been a pretty restless short existence, hoping for better relationships, hoping for stronger spirituality, hoping for a more charmed life — I feel like I’m always looking a little further down the road, hoping for bigger and better.

Now is the first time in a long time where I feel like I’m living in my hopes.  Or living out my hopes.  I don’t even know how to word that properly.  I finally moved to California which I’ve been plotting since Freshman year in high school when me and Babs visited LA for a week.  I’m happily married to a great man who challenges me and pushes me spiritually, emotionally, and intellectually.  I’ve found a church that tries its best to address the reality of Christianity in a secular world and the social problems that exist that we are compelled to do something about.  A church that doesn’t pride itself in isolation but rather, engagement with the city and surrounding community.  I’ve got a great job working for a youth program I believe in that has plenty of room for my thoughts, ideas, and contributions.  I feel like I’m using my project management experience and business sensibilities as well as my social work training — something I thought I’d have to wait years to do.  I live in a loft that is as modern as I can handle and as fun to modify and renovate as I’ve always dreamed of doing.  It’s not everything I want, I mean, I still want to have a big family and make new friends out here, but it’s really pretty close.  And now that I’m here, I realize how selfish all my hope has been for the large majority of my thought life and prayer life.  It’s not exactly a new revelation, and yeah, we’re all selfish when it comes down to it, but being at this place in my life has really opened my eyes to it.

As we’re nearing our one year mark since moving to the Bay Area, it occurred to me that I no longer have any large scale life-changing plans that I’m procrastinating life for.  For the longest time, for the two years before we moved, I was just waiting for grad school to be over so I could finally start my life.  I’ve always joked that doctors are one of the most disillusioned people because they spend so much time preparing for their careers to start.  But here I am at 27 and that’s pretty much what I’ve been doing.

And it’s not like I’ve been living in a vacuum.  I’ve tried my best to stay aware of world/state/local issues and topics that need hope and that need hopeful people.  It’s just never been my main focus.

The Chairperson of Bright Futures (a national health care promotion and disease prevention initiative) gave a really inspiring talk at one of the weekly lectures during my Baylor College of Medicine Social Work Fellowship and to this day I’m still turning it over in my head and digesting it.  She spoke of a notion that she likes to refer to as her “True North.”  She suggested that everyone has a True North, or should find their True North.  It’s not really a career, because she’s gone through 4 or 5 different careers, ranging from doctor to school teacher, but it’s more of a general thing that no matter what you’re doing and what stage of life you’re in, you find yourself reorienting to that same thing.

I think I’m still looking for my True North.  Which is why my hope up until now has probably been pretty misguided.  I think hope can be powerful, especially if it’s NOT the kind that allows you to rest easy because you think fate will magically intervene for you, but the kind that drives you to work harder and be more purposeful in how you spend your time and how you live your life.  And it just seems like a waste to use my hope on such frivolous things like luxury and comfort.

I won’t lie, it’s pretty nice to be where I am right now.  And I do want to enjoy living in the present.  But I also want to refocus myself a bit.  And re-evaluate what it is that I want to be hoping for nowadays.

I’m at a Big Picture Learning conference today and tomorrow in Sacramento and it’s been a really interesting glimpse at what a charter school can do if they think outside of the box.  I’m not thrilled about everything the school is doing but they are definitely doing a lot of things right.  They are incorporating project-based learning and work-based learning, two elements I think should be utilized a lot more in more public high schools.  They are also keeping classrooms small and requiring a lot of one-on-one contact between teachers and students.  I chatted with the Big Picture Learning founder, Elliot Washor, this morning and I thanked him for inviting us to his schools and sharing his ideas and materials.  He smiled and told me to steal whatever I wanted.  I wish all progressive organizations were so open.

We spent most of the day visiting different internships all over Sacramento that ranged from Bertolucci’s Body and Fender Shop (complete with a vintage car room!) to City Hall to a Horse Farm.  Tomorrow we’ll get to spend some time with the students and their advisories and ask them about their experience.  I’m really looking forward to it.

The school is located in a really old building that is a bit rickety but definitely has its charms.

***The bus driver just asked me if I fell asleep and when I told him no, I was using my phone, he asked if I was calling my mother. So random.***

Anyway so the husband and I went to get dim sum together this past weekend. I think its ideal to eat dim sum in groups of 3-4 because most things come in that amount and you can order a wider variety of things. As the hostess was leading us to our table, I spotted another couple and the thought occurred to me that there should be casual dim sum.

I just have to make a heartbreaking disclaimer that almost 4 GB of photos are missing.  Well, I usually delete half of what I take (maybe more) so it’s not like I really lost a full 4 GB but what happened was that I thought I had downloaded the photos to my computer and I went ahead and formatted all of my memory cards before our quick trip out to Rocky Mountain National Park.  (I love run-on sentences; they feel so much more conversational.)  It still makes me a little sick to my stomach to think about it.  Ugh.  And it’s worse seeing all of these mediocre photos of Rocky Mountain National Park knowing that I could have breathtaking photos of Machu Picchu instead.  I did try photo recovery software and even talked to a few specialists (thanks Carlos for helping me research) but most people said the chances of recovering photos after you format and then write over until the card is full again is slim to zilch and even if you could, “a recovery like that would cost several hundred dollars.”

So, I took a deep breath and decided to stop being such a baby with my pathetic mini-tragedies that don’t even register a blip on the world radar of real life tragedies.  I’m actually embarrassed to admit that I was upset as I was.  My eyes were uncontrollably tearing up.  It was really weird.  I never thought I had any possessions that I would cry over but now I know I do.  My photos.  (I really need to get a Time Capsule!)

So anyway, the husband gently (I use this term loosely) reminded me that we were lucky to have even gone and we were lucky that we were both there to take in the sights with our own eyes and that alone should be rewarding enough.  So I’m moving on.  All this to say, Machu Picchu is even prettier and more outrageously breathtaking than my photos convey.  Okay sorry, I’ll stop rambling like Governor Sanford.  (Wait one more thing, can I just say that I’m pretty sure that adultery is a bigger threat to the sanctity of marriage and the family unit than gay marriage will ever be?  Get it together, folks.  Okay I’ll stop.)

Here we go:

Bus ride from airport to our hotel in Cusco

Courtyard at El Balcon Inn

The streets of Cusco

Cusco, a city full of interesting doors

Fantastic Five

Convenience Store, buying water and bonbons

24 Hour Free Coca Tea at our Hotel

Minimarket

Macaws (at the zoo for animals rescued from the black market)

Condor with its crazy wingspan (there were pumas too! but we weren’t allowed in their cage, for obvious reasons)

Sandra makes a new avian friend

Giant corn served with quark

Tony is forced to try on a hat made from baby alpaca (llama) wool

Peruvian kolaches (with a side of roasted cuy aka guinea pig)

Happy shoppers at the famous Sunday Pisac Market

Meat market

A little patch of wheat

Spotlight on the sacred valley

Terrace farming

Tight squeeze

On the Pisac Ruins (who took this one for us? viaTheAvocadoProject)

Patchwork Quilt

Foreshadowing

Jin being Jin

Overdone but still fun

Sacsayhuamán

Nice view of the city

Photo taken by the Japanese tourists who kept speaking Spanish to us (via The AvocadoProject)

Wide angle doing what it does best

Jin and the Giant Peach

Tony, human GPS, helping us navigate San Blas

Windows

Architecture

Granja Heidi, a must visit restaurant if you’re ever in Cusco (get the Nelson Mandela Cake!)

The Church of La Compañia

By the Urubama River, before our whitewater rafting trip

Wetsuits

Bankside (photo taken by TheAvocadoProject)

The start of the Inca Trail! (via TheAvocadoProject)

Jin and Tony

Pretty easy beginning to the hike

We encountered a lot of people & animals along the trail

Beautiful scenery to hike in

Snowcapped mountains in the background

Our sleeping arrangements

Our whole group (via TheAvocadoProject)

Warmiwanusca a.k.a. Dead Woman’s Pass a.k.a. The worst part of the entire Inca Trail a.k.a. One of the greatest physical accomplishments of my life (4,200 meters above sea level, a ridiculous gain of 900 meters in about 2-3 hours)

Here we are, happy that we made it to the top!

Reflections in the mountains

Lots of steps

And more steps

Here’s our group overlooking Machu Picchu!  Yes, my hair is slicked back with sweat.  (via TheAvocadoProject)

Another group shot in front of Machu Picchu (via TheAvocadoProject)

Machu Picchu!

Quiet morning at Machu Picchu

Condor Temple (as demonstrated by Jin)

The Incas modeled their architecture after the natural landscape

The Temple of Three Windows

Beautiful

Amphitheater

Running out of adjectives

Stairway to nowhere

Team Machu Picchu

Since I didn’t get any classic photos of Machu Picchu, this is probably my favorite photo from the trip

My first time in a VIP lounge! Bogota, Colombia

(DJ Ceeplus Bad Knives at CAMH’s Steel Lounge Underground Party)

I think I’ve already used this DJ photo before but it’s the only DJ photo I have that I like.  So it’s getting recycled.

Every summer needs a good soundtrack.  My summer soundtrack is still unfolding as summer gets underway but here’s a tentative tracklist:

• The new Metric album, Fantasies, in its entirety.  They released it themselves, how great is that?
• Um, I’m going to go ahead and put down Pete Yorn’s new album Back and Fourth down even though I’ve only heard one song off of it and the album doesn’t get released until next week.
• Forest City Lovers – Watching the Streetlights Grow
• Throw in 2 or 3 tracks from The Cool Kids
• Of course, Matt and Kim – Daylight
• …

Okay, confession.  I don’t really want to write a whole post about summer songs I like.  I’m just stalling because I’m going to write a mega post about marijuana and I feel really “out of shape” when it comes to writing and I need to get back in practice before I write it.  Marijuana’s a hard topic.  It’s pretty polarizing.  Kind of like Kobe Bryant.  And when it comes to polarizing topics, I really struggle writing because I want to distance myself from Michael Moore and crazy Hollywood celebrities as much as I want to distance myself from the Texas Young Republican Federation and Focus on the Family.  It’s also particularly difficult because most people have their minds made up already so I have to somehow make people stick around.  And of course there’s the whole auto-import to Facebook mechanism I have set up so that everything I write here automatically imports as a note there.  And my Facebook friends list is a confusing mix of people.

Okay really, it’s not all bad.  It’s boring to only write about things that everyone agrees about.

I just feel so rusty and out of practice.  So I’ll give myself a few more posts before I tackle it.

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For those of you who aren’t on Google Reader, check out this NYT article I shared about a cool charter school called, The Equity Project.  It’s basically this charter school that is paying $125,000/year salaries to their teachers with additional bonus incentives.  And it’s not just a money dump.  They got a ton of applicants (as you might expect) and they interviewed 100 to get the cream of the crop: 8 teachers.  It’s not like they just scooped up all the Harvard grads.  They looked for great teachers with “engagement factor”, good “classroom management” and a true love of teaching.  In my mind it’s like having a school full of all of your favorite teachers from grade school.  Incredible.  I also love that this charter school highlights teachers that have been doing amazing things in kids’ lives for regular teacher salaries.  And I think about all the teachers that applied, didn’t get hired, and will happily keep teaching at their current jobs because they love it.  It gives me chills thinking about it.

Here’s how they describe themselves:

“The Equity Project (TEP) Charter School, a 480-student middle school in the Washington Heights neighborhood of New York City that will open in September 2009, aims to put into practice the central conclusion of a large body of research related to student achievement: teacher quality is the most important school-based factor in the academic success of students, particularly those from low-income families.[i] In singling out teacher quality as the essential lever in educational reform, TEP is uniquely focused on attracting and retaining master teachers. To do so, TEP uses a three-pronged strategy that it terms the 3 R’s: Rigorous Qualifications, Redefined Expectations, & Revolutionary Compensation.

TEP will spend over 15 months recruiting master teachers who meet eight rigorous qualifications. These teachers will then meet TEP’s redefined expectations. These expectations center on (a) a professional work-day that includes daily peer observations and co-teaching (b) a work-year that includes an annual 6-week Summer Development Institute, and (c) a career arc that fosters professional growth through a mandatory sabbatical once every five or six years. These redefined expectations are unified by one principle: student achievement is maximized when teachers have the time and support to constantly improve their craft.

TEP teachers are valued and sustained through revolutionary compensation: a $125,000 annual salary and the opportunity to earn a significant annual bonus based on school-wide performance. TEP has created a sustainable and conservative financial model that allows the school to compensate its teachers appropriately without relying on outside private funding.[ii] It accomplishes this primarily through cost savings that result directly from the tremendous quality and productivity of its teachers. In short, hiring and paying master teachers what they are worth is a cost-effective mechanism for boosting student achievement.”

I wanted to clap when I read this footnote:

“TEP does NOT fundraise to support its investment in teacher compensation. This is because a central feature of TEP’s mission is to demonstrate that schools can make a radical investment in teacher equity by reallocating existing public funding.”

Public education is close to my heart because I’m kind of crazy about public schools and wish that everyone cared about it as much as I did.  I really think it’s the solution to a lot of our nation’s problems.  I’m personally conflicted about private schools because I know they provide stellar educations but I think they’re also sucking the life out of the public schools.  This topic is also close to my heart because my sister, Anny,  and my bestbud, Judy, are both public school teachers.  I see firsthand the effort, time, and intelligence it takes to be a good teacher.  And for all the lucky kids that get to be in their classrooms, I know that there are a lot more kids who are in classrooms where they aren’t learning how to read, write and count.

But of course, I could be wrong about all of this.  TEP could be wrong.  That’s why this charter school is so fascinating to me.  Maybe higher salaries isn’t the solution.  Then we move on to the next big idea, I suppose.  But if it is?  If higher teacher salaries mean more passionate teachers who help students perform better and eventually have higher graduation rates from high school — oooh wee!  That would be huge.  I really hope this charter school succeeds.

Ack, still rusty.

Lately I’ve been avoiding political conversations.  Partly because I feel really uninformed and partly because I feel like the loudest people around me are also pretty uninformed.  I was doing this subconsciously until yesterday when I got a NYTimes News Alert in my inbox saying the following:

“U.S. Plans to Curb Executive Pay for Bailout Recipients

The Obama administration is expected to impose a cap of $500,000 on the compensation of executives at companies that receive large new infusions of federal bailout money.”

Good news, right?

Strangely, instead of being happy that some sort of accountability was starting to take place in the financial sector, I caught myself cringing at the thought of what was going to be slung all over Twitter and Facebook and all the snide and sarcastic comments that I would have to hear about the crappy economy and the crappy bailouts that day, regardless of any progress.  Sometimes I feel like no matter what the news of the day is, someone always has something negative to say about it.

I think I have a general understanding as to the reasons why people feel compelled to do this:

• boredom
• humor
• small talk
• overconfidence in their own assessment
• passion

I think it would bother me less if people were truly passionate about the topics.  I don’t know, I’ll admit I’m often more passionate than I should be on some topics that are way over my head.  It gets the best of all of us sometimes.  But lately I think I find myself simply wanting to help people see that they could be wrong.  I don’t want people to admit they’re wrong, I just want people to admit that there’s a possibility.  Even the people I agree with!

Especially on issues like the Israeli-Palestinian conflict in the Gaza strip.  I think it’s REALLY difficult to read a news story or blog post and make an assessment.  I think it’s helpful when we have dialogue and meaningful conversations about different tidbits we’ve learned here and there — in an effort to learn together and hopefully come to a more informed opinion.  But even after I formed that opinion I would still want to or try to leave room for doubt.

With our floundering economy, it really bothers me to hear pure capitalists talk.  I don’t think politicians are all stupid.  I don’t think their economists and advisers are all incompetent.  I think there are a lot of political factors that interfere with them always making the best decision.  It’s unfortunate.  But on top of that I also think there is some mercy (and perhaps a bit of pride) involved in actions like the financial bailouts — not just flawed economics or politics.  The diehard capitalists who want to see the whole system flushed out need to stop rooting for that.  Yes, if you were playing TheSims and you wanted to fix the economy, you might want to reset the economy by starting over.  But when there are human mouths to feed and human bodies to clothe, going through another Great Depression is just not something people should ever root for.  Especially not people who have the slightest empathy for those who would be hit the hardest.  Now on the flip side, those who think the government should just keep pumping out money to save people who bought $800,000 homes on $70,000/year salaries — you have some serious thinking to do, too!  Just because the bank was willing to loan people the money, doesn’t mean they had to take it!  I know there was a lot of shady dealings with aggressive realtors and whatnot, but we have to admit as a country that we haven’t really excelled at common sense in the last few decades.  I don’t think you can completely slam the bailout and I don’t think you can root for more bailouts either — I don’t understand how people can be so comfortable doing both!

It is just really frustrating to me when people make blanket statements or post inflammatory links or quotes.  Even people who are crusading for worthwhile causes — like ending wars and violent conflicts.  It gets so frivolous when people chant sayings like, “give peace a chance,” because honestly I don’t think you can advocate for peace without addressing somber things like fear, poverty, pain, history, power and oppression that cause people to disrupt the peace in the first place.  It’s a gross oversimplification.

Sheesh, I haven’t ranted like that in awhile.

I guess this is what I get for being a Christian and a social worker.  Surrounded by polar opposites and crazy loudmouths.  (I say loudmouth as a term of endearment.  IMHO, what’s worse than a loudmouth is someone who has no opinions on anything and doesn’t care to have an opinion.)  I’m not as upset as I probably sound, this has just been building up over the past few months.  I’ll try to blog more frequently so that things like this don’t happen as often.  Please take no offense to the post, it’s just something to think about.

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On a side note, am I the last person to find out about this?

Amazon Warehouse Deals

Warehouse Deals Inc. is an Amazon.com Inc. subsidiary. We offer open-box, refurbished, and slightly damaged merchandise at reduced prices with the benefits of Amazon.com fulfillment and customer service. You can find the same great deals on Amazon.com, but we have collected them for you on this web site. If a refurbished item goes out of stock, we will show you the current offer for the new version of the item on Amazon.com, so you still have an opportunity to make a purchase.

Warehouse Deals has been in operation since 2004 with a five star customer rating. If you are unsatisfied with the product for any reason, you can return it in its original condition within 30 days of delivery for a full refund. We’ll also pay the return shipping cost if the return is a result of our error.

We also feature a Bargain Books section where you can find in one convenient spot most of the popular books on Amazon.com that have a deep discount (up to 60%) off the list price.

So working out at the gym more means watching more bad TV.  Especially when we go late and there are no games to watch and you’ve seen all of the SportsCenter highlights at least three times each.

I saw this show for the first time last night.  I had never even heard of it before.  For those of you who also have never heard of bromance, here’s MTV’s own description:

“For those of you living under a rock, a bromance is an intense brotherly bond that makes two buddies become virtually inseparable. And Brody is Lauren Conrad’s on-again, off-again love interest and the seminal party boy on The Hills, and he’s looking for that one special guy to join his elite entourage. In case you’re having trouble putting two and two together … Brody + Bromance = A whole new level of reality TV.

Nine guys are yanked out of their boring lives and go from regular Joes to bros vying for the chance of a lifetime — to become best buds with Brody Jenner and live a life right out of the pages of Maxim magazine. Since it’s virtually impossible to find a genuine friend in Hollywood, the contestants must compete in various challenges to prove they’re the right man for Brody. They are put through the wringer to prove they are trustworthy, reliable and fun … in other words, a true bro.”

I mean, I’m glad they’re trying to portray guys as more sensitive and vulnerable and are trying to get rid of the idea that the lone wolf is the most attractive — but I’m really reaching here.  It’s a lame show.  Period.

My biggest beef is that the Asian guy on the show is a such a weirdo.  Why are all the Asians on reality shows so weird??  Why?!

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I cut my finger yesterday while chopping onions and it’s really not that serious but I’ve never done it before so I kind of freaked out.  I’ve always been queasy around blood and I’m that girl that shields her eyes during E.R. and Grey’s Anatomy and the one that got really sick during Saving Private Ryan.  But yesterday was the first time I felt sick at the sight of my own blood.  The blood just kept gushing out and I held my finger under the sink to wash it out and the husband was on a conference call and was trying to put them on hold so he could help me bandage.  It was all kind of hectic.  And for some reason I just started breathing kind of fast like I was about to hyperventilate and I got really light headed — it was so strange.  After the husband helped me bandage it up, I had to lay down for a bit.  And I remembered to keep the finger above my heart so it would stop bleeding.  I won’t lie, it really hurt!  It must hurt a lot to get stabbed in the gut.  So yeah, this was strong confirmation that I made the right choice by steering clear of any medical profession.  And also why I would not really want to be a medical social worker.  The husband later said he would have no qualms sewing stitches in my finger if it had come to that.  Ugh, I just got a little nauseous typing that last sentence out right now.  The thing is, it got me wondering what makes someone queasy about blood?  Nature, nurture?  Thoughts?

I’m a little late on my new year’s post.

This is going to be a year of big changes. I’m finishing grad school, for one. I must say it will be nice to be DINKs (Double Income, No Kids) again.  It will also be nice to have all of our weekends and nights back with no papers, reading or projects hanging over my head.  Starting a new career is an exciting but daunting endeavor. These next few months I’ll really need to do some soul searching (and some serious job hunting!)

We’re also going to do some decision making about where we want to live for the next few years. Not that anything is necessarily permanent but I’ve just been in Texas for so long — thinking about moving is a bit unreal at this point.

I was at the husband’s office last week and picked up his copy of Bill Clinton’s autobiography, My Life.  And it’s been a pretty good read so far — despite the fact that it sounds a lot like a campaign speech at times.

Here’s the first paragraph of the prologue:

“When I was a young man just out of law school and eager to get on with my life, on a whim I briefly put aside my reading preference for fiction and history and bought one of those how-to books: How to Get Control of Your Time and Your Life, by Alan Lakein. The book’s main point was the necessity of listing short-, medium-, and long-term life goals, then categorizing them in order of their importance, with the A group being the most important, the B group next, and the C the last, then listing under each goal specific activities designed to achieve them.  I still have that paperback book, now almost thirty years old.  And I’m sure I have that old list somewhere buried in my papers, although I can’t find it.  However, I do remember the A list.  I wanted to be a good man, have a good marriage and children, have good friends, make a successful political life, and write a great book.”

I’ve been thinking about my own A, B, and C lists a lot these past few days.  What things I’d like to add and what things I’d like to categorize differently.  Thinking about these things has been a really great way to start my year of new changes.

Last year we were so jet lagged from our trip to Belgium, Amsterdam and France that we pretty much slept through the countdown.  This year we went to the New Year’s Eve party at the House of Blues.  What better way to start the new year than with some good friends?

When I wrote a blogpost about Ron Paul, cyberspace political bullies crawled out of the woodwork to tell me how ignorant and foolish I was.  I’m not sure I can prevent that here but I will say that I am not trying to definitively prove why one candidate is better than the other– I’m simply stating why I, as an Asian-American Christian, with all of my intellectual and theoretical limitations, am voting for Barack Obama.  Perhaps there are economists, military strategists, and theologians out there that will disagree with me, but I feel compelled to vote based on my personal values, principles and observations.

First of all, I’m not a Democrat.  I do not agree with everything in Barack Obama’s platform.  I don’t even know if Barack Obama agrees with everything in Barack Obama’s platform.  I think you would be hard-pressed to find a pure Republican or a pure Democrat these days but people strangely feel the need to align to one party or another.  I have actually tried to align myself but have been unable to.  I think a lot of the issues are too complex and too nuanced to choose “for” or “against”.  Unfortunately, this is how people operate and this is how our political systems cater to the voters.

Second of all, most political debates are pointless.  When people think about the government from completely different paradigms and different values — it is usually futile to try to discuss policy.  Policy is ultimately driven and defended by values (well, they are supposed to be, even though in reality it’s more about money and lobbying special interest groups) and if you don’t share the same values with the person you are talking to, it is extremely difficult to even start discussing logistics or the financial implications– you need to first agree on why the policy should or should not exist!

So I write this post for people who share the same values as I do.  If you are a Libertarian who believes that the government should do as little as possible — this post will do nothing for you.  If you don’t believe in redistribution of wealth or the importance of strengthening of the middle class — what I say will make no sense to you.  If you do not believe that we have a moral right to make sure that no child goes hungry or uneducated in the United States, that such as thing exists as the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (cool video of UDHR, thanks Carlos!) — then you can pretty much stop reading.

Okay, for those of you who are left.  I’m just going down the list of issues on Obama and McCain‘s webpages to organize my thoughts.  Something neat about this presidential campaign is that both candidates agree on quite a bit!  But there definitely are some differences:

• Civil Rights — I appreciate that this is listed as an issue on Obama’s page as it doesn’t make it onto McCain’s.  I am an advocate for things like pay equity between males and females, reducing crime recidivism by providing ex-offender support, eliminating sentencing disparities between powder cocaine and crack cocaine, and the increased use of drug courts.  These are basic problems that have been in our country for a long time and I believe more superficial “tough on crime” policies are just going to make private prison owners richer and waste more tax money.
• Defense/National Security — Both candidates seem to agree here on modernizing our defense.  I would have chalked this one up for McCain — especially because Obama coasted through the primaries on the idea of pulling the troops out ASAP and since then, things have changed in Iraq to the point where that would not seem prudent.  I think it was wise of Obama to choose Joe Biden, chairman of the Senate’s Foreign Relations committee — his VP pick evens the playing field a bit.  And I do think that the democratic party has a slight edge in foreign relations because unfortunately, I think people around the world associate Bush’s policies as synonymous with Republican policies.
• Disabilities — Again, this is an issue that is addressed on Obama’s website and not on McCain’s.  We would be kidding ourselves if we thought that disabled people currently had the same rights as able-bodied people in the United States.
• Economy/Family — This is an issue that I have changed my opinion drastically about in the past year or two.  I used to think that the less the government was involved in our economy the better (i.e. deregulation of the financial markets).  Unfortunately, this hasn’t worked out for us as evidenced by the mess we are in right now.  And I won’t pretend to completely understand the mess we are in right now but I do think that more regulation is needed.  McCain (and the Republican party in general) has always been supported by large corporations and because of this, I think it will be difficult for McCain to create any policies that reign in their greedy practices.  I disagree with trade tariffs on imported goods but I agree with eliminating tax cuts for countries that outsource their jobs from overseas.  I also agree with Obama’s plans for tax credits (for those making less than $75,000 as an individual or $150,000 as a couple) to help the middle class and I support his focus on making work more desirable than welfare or government assistance.  I also really like that Obama preaches fiscal responsibility instead of just promising to increase government assistance.  During his recent speech in Toledo, Ohio, “Obama – who regularly preaches tough love to audiences– said that people need to take responsibility for their own financial situation; that the crisis on Wall Street and Main Street has contributed to their woes – but now is the time for fiscal responsibility in their own lives.“
• Education — This is one of the areas that I am most passionate about.  Since entering the graduate social work program, I have spent a considerable amount of time learning about society’s ills and hearing from various experts about society’s ills.  By society’s ills, I’m referring to the overrepresentation of minorities in the criminal justice system, the lack of social mobility between classes, crime, ethnic discrimination, and even the loss of competitive technology produced in the United States.  No Child Left Behind was horribly underfunded and schools that were not deemed worthy by parents armed with school vouchers had no resources to improve or change to compete with other schools.  I believe in higher teacher pay and more parity in funding and resources for all public schools.  A school teacher should not have to pay for paper and supplies out of her own pocket because she is in a less wealthy school district.  The American Dream is rooted in education.  Without a strong and healthy education system, the American Dream will never be a reality for most people.  The barriers to higher education also need to be reduced.  It is a shame that some students from a low socio-economic background work so hard from K-12 and are accepted into highly-ranked four-year universities but are unable to attend because they cannot afford the tuition.
• Energy/Environment — Both candidates talk about energy independence from the Middle East but I believe the future lies in renewable energy and not in Alaska’s pipelines.  I am really excited that both candidates are talking about a cleaner environment and that they have both committed to protecting nature.
• Ethics — Government reform is one of the biggest reasons why a lot of people are drawn towards Obama.  A quote from his speech in Des Moines, IA: “I am in this race to tell the corporate lobbyists that their days of setting the agenda in Washington are over. I have done more than any other candidate in this race to take on lobbyists — and won. They have not funded my campaign, they will not run my White House, and they will not drown out the voices of the American people when I am president.”
• Faith — Obama’s Call to Renewal Keynote Address.  If you are a Christian who is voting for McCain simply because you think that is the Christian thing to do, please read/watch that speech.  I have always struggled with the abortion issue but after working with Child Protective Services I can firmly say that I do not believe in “a woman’s right to choose.”  I know I’ll probably get slammed for this by the progressive community because reproductive rights are a huge point of advocacy (especially in oppresive male-dominated countries where women are sold as brides and raped by their husbands) but after working with all the different children in foster care and listening to their awful, broken childhoods and histories (some born out of rape/incest), no matter how awful their lives, I could never look at any of them and tell them that they would have been better off not having been born.  When I helped them fill out a worksheet on their future goals and dreams, I realized that I could never value their mother’s choice (whether it be based on convenience, financial hardship, or trauma) over the life of this hopeful child sitting next to me.  I strongly feel that the Pro-Life vs. Pro-Choice debate is not helpful and that both sides should concentrate and join their efforts on working towards lowering teenage pregnancies.  For those of you who are voting for McCain simply because he picked Sarah Palin who is a super Pro-Life supporter, please consider all the other issues that are raised in this election.  Also keep in mind that President Bush, a staunch Pro-Life advocate, was in office for 8 years and did not end the practice of abortion.  The issue of abortion should not be your single reason for voting.  I don’t even know if abortion could ever be made illegal without resulting in a lot of dangerous black market abortions — I think this issue is better remedied through improved sexual responsibility and sex education.  Now for the other Christian hot topic, I am against banning gay marriage.  I don’t know why Christians, who have never tried banning marriages that are not representative of marriage described in the Bible (which is utlimately a picture of God’s relationship with believers), suddenly want to ban gay marriage.  It has always bothered me that Christians arbitrarily oppose homosexuality more than other things deemed as sins in the bible such as adultery, promiscuity, etc.  A church can decide who they accept and don’t accept in their congregation (although this is still biblically questionable to me) and a pastor/preist can decide which couples he wants to marry and which he doesn’t, but I believe the government shouldn’t be able to decide who a person lists as their spouse/family on his/her legal documents.  Especially when it affects legal rights such as insurance policies, and hospital visitations.
• Fiscal — The Democrats are usually the big spenders so it’s refreshing to read that Obama supports government fiscal responsibility.  I am also in favor of limited the abuse of no-bid contracts.  And this is coming from a former Halliburton employee!
• Healthcare — I am currently poorly informed about this topic.  I just know that there needs to be serious reforms when it comes to healthcare.  I think people are quick to point to Canada’s problems with their healthcare system but I think it is foolish to become paralyzed by the problems of existing single-payer healthcare systems instead of trying to envision a healthcare system that is efficient and universal.  Also, with so many healthcare and insurance corporations supporting McCain, I think it will be difficult for his party to make any significant reforms.
• Immigration — I’m at a loss here.
• Poverty — This issue, like education, is something that I am passionate about.  I am really confused as to why ending poverty, instead of banning abortion or gay marriage, is not the top Christian political issue.
• Judicial Philosophy — I agree with McCain on this one.  I do not think Supreme Court judges should legislate from the bench.

I realize that most politicians are not able to implement everything on their platforms.  But I feel compelled to vote for the candidate that I agree with the most.  This is the first time I am voting.  Since I live in Texas, my vote is for democracy as much as it is a vote for Obama.  It is also potentially a vote for electoral college reform!

I welcome your thoughts as I am not firmly set in my political views and still have a lot to learn.

It is becoming harder and harder to avoid writing a political post so I’ll try to get one out soon.  Just to be upfront, I have gripes with both the Democratic and Republican sides.  I have problems with the whole political process.  I might have to add a “Political” post category by the time we get to election day.

The economy is frighteningly unstable.  I think with all the Hurricane Ike news and with a ton of people still without power, people haven’t really taken in the stark realities of this week’s events.  I think it’s interesting to see the heavy handed government interventions in the financial markets this past week from a Republican administration.  This just goes to show that there are no promises after someone gets into office.  There’s really no telling whether McCain will provide little government or whether Obama will provide all the programs he’s been talking about.

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I’m disappointed that Apple issued a recall on their ultracompact USB power adapters for the iPhone.  There’s reportedly only a small percentage of adapters that are faulty but it’s always better to be safe than sorry.  You can either exchange it in store in October or fill out the web-based form now.  Thanks to MacRumors for letting me know about this.

October is also when the MBP is supposed to come out.  I’ve been waiting for this redesign for — is it two years now?  Crazy.  But what’s even crazier is I’m considering not getting one.  Well, I’m really hoping that they make it lighter in this new redesign.  But if they don’t, I might consider getting a Mac Pro or a iMac for my photo processing and a lightweight, compact laptop for travel and mobility.  One or maybe both of those will probably have to be refurbished since my tech budget is pretty limited.  Has anyone ever bought refurbished from Apple?

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My internship this year is at Texas Children’s Hospital in Adolescent Medicine through BCM’s Leadership Education in Adolescent Health Fellowship program.  It’s been an interesting experience so far in that I feel like I’m getting a sneak peak at what medical or nursing school is like.  It’s a really robust environment where you’re surrounded by sharp people and you can learn as much as you possibly want to.  It’s also nice to be able to disassociate hospitals with terrible events.  I’m also helping to facilitate experiential groups at a local high school and will be also be working with Juvenile Justice Alternative Education Program (JJAEP) students both in Houston and in Baytown.

It’s because of these two things and my full load of classes that sockparade might suffer a bit this year.  But I definitely consider it a worthwhile trade-off — hopefully it won’t get too bad.

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I never used to like cars.  I mean, I never appreciated their beauty until after I met the husband.  My brother-in-law was over last night and they were talking cars and while I’m still drooling over the Audi A5, the brand new Audi A4 is pretty fantastic too.  The headlight redesign is amazing.

Speaking of cars, I love car commercials that use great songs.  There’s a Saab commercial that has cool female vocals but I don’t know who she is.  Let me know if you’ve got a clue.

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This is the first weekend we’ve had where we have no plans and no place we’ve committed to visiting.  It’s the first real weekend I’ve had in a long time.  I can’t wait!  See you on the other side.