Dennis became a US Citizen today!!

Make an on-line slide show at www.OneTrueMedia.com

We are officially done with immigration now!! Woohoo!!

best site of the day. ever.

Be inspired.


(Obama-Me)

Now Dennis is all American...

Instead of just "south american" or "north american".
Dennis is a flag ceremony away from being a citizen of TWO countries. He passed the US citizenship test at 100% and had a harder time finding the immigration building than actually taking the test itself.

My husband officially knows more about the United States than I do. We did have some fun bedtime discussions about who Patrick Henry was or why it took about a decade for the US constitution to be officially adopted by the 13 states... My old history professors might be proud of what I still remember. Or they might cringe.
In other news,

Cindy, I am really addicted to Pet Society. Thanks!!!!! (There are times when I'm trying to catch a frisbee that Dennis just cannot talk to me!)

10 Predictions for the Next Four Years...

Haven't done this in awhile. Trying to get back into blogging and back into LIFE. (November started off as a really odd month... I've got a Vitamin D deficiency!!)

1. Obama will be heavily criticized for not being perfect.
2. We will get pregnant. (4 years is a long time.)
3. We will leave Pepperdine and California.
4. Dennis will indeed finally get a good job.
5. I will actually get a real job and thus have a real resume and real work clothes.
6. My brother will find a real, meaningful relationship with a girl who will probably get pregnant too.
7. Issues on gay marriage, war, immigration, the economy, health care, education-- none will really get solved.
8. Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt will break up.

9. Katie Holmes will have another Scientology baby.

10. Michelle Bachelet will not be re-elected as President of Chile.

The fallout.

The end of an era.

I had a really good night. We watched the elections, which ended a lot faster than I expected, and had hot dogs with good friends. It is the first time, since I've been old enough to vote, that I've enjoyed presidential election night. Now youth who voted for McCain know exactly how I felt for the past 2 elections. (Facebook status updates show a forecast of high depression and anxiety for our young Republicans.) I hope that what Obama said is true, and that we really do find change. One can only hope that it really is the end of an era and not just a bunch of hot air.

At the end of the day, it is the same circus with a different clown. Obama is not my messiah and I know that the only hope I have for certain is my hope and faith in Christ.

Happy Halloween!!

Question of the day: Is there a bear? What?




PLUS: One alternative to the halloween costumes you know you will see this year (the joker and Sarah Palin):



kudos to BWE and Passive Aggressive Notes for today's spooky/cute/aggressive material!

Stay with me a little longer please...

Alright. I feel like I should apologize in advance. Posting so much political activity on my blog makes me feel like I'm either a "liberal" blogger that thinks Karl Rove is the devil and has a laundry list of examples and quotes and knowledge... I don't. I know what the Democratic party stands for in theory- "socialistic" government, anti-war, pro-choice, pro-gay rights, pro- a lot of stuff that means taxes, especially on the rich, so that poor people can get more welfare. And I know that I run the risk, albeit quite slight as I'm not exactly a celebrity blogger, of someone who is voting Republican commenting on my post(s) with their FOX news rhetoric/information to prove I'm wrong/naive/ignorant myself and that I'm certainly not "fair and balanced". Stay with me here, I promise that this will all be over soon and it will soon be filed into my archives to collect internet dust and I can look back and for my own personal reasons, remember what I thought about this election.

The tongue cartoons just don't stop. Ok. They totally will after November 4th, I swear. And look, I have an Obama cartoon too. I know it isn't entirely fair but it's a little more fair.


My Aunt, who is young enough to be open to voting for a democrat and old enough to still be freaked out by democrats, has been anti-McCain all summer. But she sent me an email today saying that she's having second thoughts because of all the campaign funding Obama has received. Fair enough. Obama has a lot of campaign funding.

Maybe I should make things clear. Just because I think pictures of McCain's tongue are HIlarious doesn't mean I completely think that Obama is a Messiah. I voted for Hillary. Obama isn't a perfect guy. He's a politician. They change the clown but the circus stays the same. I just... I can't even put into words how ready I am for this political season to be over. I'm tired of thinking that my Republican family members and friends are terrorist voters or worse that they are ignorant or racist. And I'm tired of the whole argument for or against. A lot of what Obama says IS rhetoric. And he is really green as in inexperienced. And he does have a lot of campaign funding and he is totally loved by the media. This happens to me every election year. I wish I could remember what it is like to not care about who will be elected.


But McCain did pick Sarah Palin... I really think he would do anything to be president, even if it meant picking a good-looking governor with a short resume (so she's more maverick) that he didn't even know earlier when he could have picked other token women to better help him out. And even though a lot of Obama is rhetoric, his rhetoric and the way he interacts with the camera is moving and compelling. I don't know that I can relate to Obama 100% but I know I can't relate to McCain.









At the end of the day, it doesn't matter who I vote for- I'm in California and it's probably going to swing to Obama. And my aunt- she lives in Texas. I'm guessing that her vote will get canceled out by the gazillion of McCain voters.


BTW: if you are down here still, google "tired of politics". I'm not the only one, apparently who is basically blogging the same thing. (I liked what this guy had to say).

Out of the mouths of babes....

Hurrah! to one very politically-minded 7 year old for her open letter to Barack Obama. I am biased because I think her parents are awesome but even if she was voting for McCain, I really appreciate that she is even thinking of who should be president at the age of 7. Kudos, parents, for talking to your kids about what is going on in the news.

I'm not sure about my grandpa either. (Actually, I'm pretty sure he's not voting for Obama because he votes based on who he would rather have a beer with.) But I do appreciate that I have always been able to openly talk about many political issues with my family and I have really good memories with my mother where we talked about political issues.

Halloween Spirit.

Oh they keep adding new photoshop photos!! Nice :)

Most unproductive day ever.

Ever. I did not do a single thing today.
So, all I have to offer is this:
Photoshop Contest
That weird photo of McCain that was on the Chilean news site? The internets have blessed us with improved versions.





Our favorites (well, we have many. including the Godzilla-McCain's). Dennis especially likes the one of McCain from "The Christmas Story".

News from the World.

Actually, just from Chile.
This was the photo on the front page of a Chilean news/entertainment/google site that I frequent. They seem to favor Obama and called McCain desperate. This is not Chile's official position and they are not officially endorsing any candidate. Feel free to insert your own captions to their choice of photo.


In other news, I was sick all day. Diabetes took one more for their team.

give my husband a job!

It's Chile for me....

(But not just because you might become VP).

my brain is fried.

As in "KFC sad bowl of chicken/mashed potatoes/mac 'n cheese/gravy" Fried.

I would like to not post something about tonight's political debate. It seems that there are loads of possible drinking games that one could create in this particular race. But I don't have any alcohol and I don't like getting drunk and sick. So instead, I offer this:


it's a bonus because this guy was referenced by my boss a few days ago and it made me think of authority figures who have talked to me with this exact voice (I'm thinking of someone in particular and this is that line, where you don't know how specific you can be because you know that your blog is public enough to hurt people's feelings. But there is a certain "authority figure" that definitely reminds me of this guy from "Office Space" that I deal with on a fairly regular basis... (Not you, Dave).

facebook politics.

I tried VERY HARD to disguise any comments. My goal is merely to show that BOTH sides were facebooking away tonight.

So it looks like I've bitten the apple. I am blogging politics. My apologies- I tried to stay neutral or at least to not put any thing too political on my blog.

I'm a hypocrite, and I apologize.

Watching the VP debate, I realize that I have a gut instinct to react and I'm trying really hard to not do it on facebook. But I realize that putting it on my blog might not be any different. (This is kind of a "live-blog" of the VP debate.)

1. Sarah Palin and John McCain are Mavericks! So she can speak!!



2. She does this jokey thing "All you kids get extra credit for watching this debate!" and the whole "wow, I guess I'm just not used to how you guys work in Washington because I'm from Alaska..." I get what she is trying to do but the cutesy-ness is just.... well, it does recall a disney movie (Matt Damon reference). ("Say it 'aint so Joe!!")

3. We are in a WAR and we need to win!!! I can't go into this. I just can't. I can't write just how wrong it sits with me in my inner core that we still think that we are fighting evil terrorists and that we are in danger and that we have to spend resources "winning" against Bin Laden and Iraq.


But of course, she knows what a VP does!!! :) (and she's from Alaska! And there is energy in Alaska!!)

Facebook passive aggression...

Facebook is pretty awesome. But honestly, can we all vote for people to NOT use facebook for voicing political opinions in status updates?? Especially when said opinions enforce stereotypes about political parties.

Honestly, this is exactly why republicans get picked on for being elitist, out of touch, and for misusing their Christian faith by mixing it with politics.

And it's annoying. I really don't like reading that someone is so angry about a lesbian tv personality that she has to post it on facebook, in the same way that I don't want to read about people breaking up or fighting on facebook. Politics, please understand, are not the only annoying status updates discussed on facebook. Just, look, I'd much rather read about how you are tired or happy or things about your life and not that you are proud to be a homophobic hater of liberals and damn hippies living in Santa Monica. That's not why I am your friend.

Also, Republicans and Democrats: Please don't use Facebook Status updates to argue about whether or not Jesus was a community organizer and Pontius Pilate was a small-town leader. You are both being annoying about this whole thing.

Jabbachelet and the Gobernator.

Today, the President of Chile visited with our Governor to talk about Education and some other things. It was interesting only because rarely are two political leaders in the same room who share names that I cannot say with a straight face. (Jabbachelet because some people compare Michelle Bachelet to Jabba the Hut and the Gobernator for obvious reasons.)

It was also interesting because my mother in law, who is in Chile, has no idea how big California is. She called yesterday to ask us to "please make sure to get photos". (Sacramento is only HOURS away!!) My mother in law doesn't even like Michele Bachelet that much, but the discussions about sending Chilean students to California for University studies have us all hopeful.

PS: I secretly like Bachelet but my husband despises her. Here is a video of her saying "Hasta La Vista" to Arnold, via the Chilean news. If you overlook the fact that students are being hosed and surrounded by tanks while protesting in the capital, under Bachelet's first term as President... then I actually find her to be charming and I admire that she is the first (not counting Peron's wife) female President of a Latin American country (and my favorite Latin American country too!!)

I love my gay friends.

I don't know where I cross the line and throw my faith out of the window, and I don't want to ruffle feathers, but I love my gay friends. I thought I might make this statement today, as today California made it legal (for now) for gay couples to get married.

I'm not entirely sure where I am on that decision, because I know gay/lesbian couples who are in forever-long term monogamous relationships and actually do good things for their community. I think gay people can be loved by God, can love God, and can do good things. I know that I am against people who hate gay people or who think that they are not deserving of prayers or love or respect because of the choices that they make.

At any rate, I wanted to officially say that no matter what I think or decide about gay marriage and whether or not it should in some form be legal, I do love my gay and lesbian friends dearly. And I really appreciate that they are in committed and loving relationships, and that they are happy.

On the scale of things we should be freaking out about, I rate homosexuality as low in comparison to things like "bombing for peace" or "killing civilians as collateral damage". I'm not sure I am ready for the US to turn into Amsterdam, but actually we are quite a ways a way, morally, and quite different culturally.