...Breathing... ..... .....

How often do we actually notice that we are taking a breath? More often than not, you have noticed it when you needed more than what you had, when you were out of breath, gasping for breath, holding your breath, and so on. The point I’m getting at is not about breath, but it’s sort of tied to it.

What if we stopped to notice our breath? Wouldn’t we also notice something else while we’re stopped? Maybe you’ll notice the pretty flowerbed that you usually walk or jog past in the mornings. Maybe you’ll notice the person standing just ahead of you is an old acquaintance that you would have just passed by hadn’t you stopped to take notice of something else.

That’s why I love photography. I get to stop and take a look at something, see that it’s good and capture it for others to stop and stare at. It’s a wondrous thing to be able to do. I love seeing contrast, nature, interaction, and objects in normal life amplified by photography. I get to stop and think about all the aspects of a shot. “Oh, I want that pine tree in this shot; the angle on that pop can is great right here” and that makes me think of aspects of the object that I’m taking a picture of.

Photography isn’t the only thing that can let one stop and look around however. Fishing, hikes, bike rides, camping trips, canoe days, all these things let you stop and take a long look at what is around you. Day to day, you can also just stop and notice that you’re taking a breath, and then look at what is before you. Life can be amazing if you pay attention to it enough and in the right respect.

Advent Conspiracy

As I was shopping around for Christmas gifts this year I had only three people in mind to get something for. Then it jumped to four, then five, seven, ten, and it finally rested at 15.

Land sakes, I spent a lot of money on other people this year!! I totalled everything up to around $150, which, for a college student, is a big chunk of change.

I reflected back on a video that I saw in a church I sang at with a group from school.

The website and video are called The Advent Conspiracy. Check it out and see for yourself.

This is meant to be short and simple, so I'll let you draw your own conclusions. I love what those people are doing!

Oh Climate Change, oh Climate Change...

...how much a joke you've come to be!

Global Warming has been re-named to Climate Change. Oooo that was clever. Give the same concept a different name, maybe people will like it better. That’ll work great, just like flatulence instead fart, currently not alive instead of dead, and God of Global Warming instead of Al Gore. Those all make everything so much easier to deal with.

The only thing being accomplished by changing the name to Climate Change is now instead of just two words, there are now four words that most Americans hate. Here are my solutions to stop this “Global Warming”, this “Climate Change.”

First, shut Al Gore up. The amount of hot air that guy spews out of his mouth has got to be bad for the environment. But not only that, if he would stop giving his presentations, he wouldn’t have to fly his private jet all over the place with only himself and his crew onboard. According to a press release from the Nashville-based think tank The Tennessee Center for Policy Research, in the past year Mr. Gore’s home, located in Nashville’s upscale Belle Meade area, consumed 213,210 kilowatt-hours (kWh) of electricity in 2007, enough to power 232 average American households for a month. (you can read the full report here.) Oh, by the way, that's 19.33 homes each year.

I found an article on algore.com that explained the kWh claim was off by 30,000. Ok, we'll give them that. With the new figures included, that still comes out to 199.3 homes for a month or 16.6 homes each year. The other stuff on there doesn't matter, the Gore spokeswoman gave a statistic, therefore giving us a good figure of what the kWh of the Gore's Tennessee home is (183210 kWh). The reason that the Gores give for the exsesive energy use is for securty, since he was a former vice president. Well that may be, but I'm sure that they need more security from those opposed to Global Warming (i.e. more than half the country).

So what do others say about Global Warming? Here’s Paul Becker from the Muskogee Phoenix:

"I’m telling you global warming is a myth. However, please check the Internet (Al Gore’s invention) and ask about greenhouse gases. You will find that there are five. The most plentiful is water vapor making up 35 to 70 percent of all greenhouse gases. Mankind’s total contribution to all greenhouse gases — this includes cars, trucks, manufacturing plants, boats, planes and any pollution producer you can name — the total is less than 1 percent. Mother Nature provides the other 99 percent. It’s on the Net. " To get the full article, click here.

Only 1 percent you say? Well if nature is handling the other 99, then we don’t have much to worry about do we? I mean it’s good to be active in cleaning up the industry that we have now, but why dwell, worry, fret, and moan over something that really isn’t as big of a deal as it is made out to be. Ever heard of the term exaggeration? Global Warming is such a thing.

I think that it should rightly be renamed “A small increase in miniscule green house gas emissions.” And with a name that long, people will start to talk less and less about it, just because of the inconvenience the name poses.

I guess the good thing that comes out of this whole deal is the fact that we are taking initiative to clean up our planet. Cleaner cars, more efficient homes and businesses, and a healthier attitude brings a possitive light on the otherwise lying and scheming aspects of Global Warming

Homeward Bound

Tomorrow I head on home for the Holidays. Excuse me, for CHRISTMAS (since I can say it).

I can’t wait; I’ve been waiting since I left from Thanksgiving to go back. I love my hometown, the people, the places, the little quirks. There really is nothing like home.

I love back home because I’m familiar with it. I’m familiar with the streets and places of the valley city I’m in, but not the way of living, the lifestyle by which everyone operates. It frustrates me to no end sometimes when the people I live with or are around me view things differently and have absurd opinions on things. Those of us from small MOUNTAIN towns (which are very much different from small SAN JOAQUIN towns) really can’t relate to most other people. We have a certain code of conduct that doesn’t make sense to most, and other lifestyles and such just don’t make much sense to US. I’m glad, then, to be going back to a place where everyone lives in the same manner – simple, relational, considerate, and laid back.

I love the smells of home: the pine trees, dew on fresh cut hay, crisp mountain air, sagebrush. The way I describe it: clean. I love being able to look out every window of my house and see either the lake, the close-by mountains, the light blue sky with puffs of clouds as accents, or the mighty oaks.

I want to stress the sky for the moment. My least favorite color now that I have moved to the city is smog. Driving to school and seeing a brownish-grey and it not being clouds or wood smoke is not very appealing to me. It doesn’t make my day any better at least.

Seeing the blue sky as I pull into my home each time I return, stepping out and taking a deep breath, I know without a doubt that I truly am home.

Tomorrow

Don't you realize that? Everything's always about tomorrow. “What are you doing tomorrow. I can do that tomorrow. Tomorrow's another day.”

There’s a saying I heard from a friend in Oklahoma (yes, Michelle, it’s you) that goes, “Did you know that tomorrow never comes?” Live in today!! Before you know it, there is going to be a new tomorrow.

If we live in tomorrow nothing is going to get done, you won’t feel as if you have accomplished much. If we live in tomorrow, everything will seem distant, out of reach. If we live in tomorrow, we won’t get to see today.

How about if we all just live in the moment right now. Stop what you are doing (including reading this) for a few seconds and look around you. I’ll wait for you.

Ok, so what did you notice? Did you see something that you haven’t noticed in a while? Did you realize that you DO like the color of your walls after all? Were you able to reflect a bit on your life? This may all seem a little cheesy for a person to do, but that’s called living the moment, whatever the moment may be. Try it more often; it made me a happier person.

Thoughts on Obama

Well it's official. Obama will be our President. The votes are in and this is who America has chosen. For matters of understanding, please know that I am a registered republican. Use that to help you form a better opinion of where I'm coming from.

I did not vote for Obama, however, here are a few things to keep in check:

Obama is now our President. Sit tight, we are not going to explode.

Don't bash the man, he deserves our respect.

Don't say things like "now we have a president from the middle east," or "well, here comes socialism." Just because your candidate didn't win doesn't mean the nation is going to crap for brains. Yes, there are going to be changes. KEEP IN MIND: America is all about change. If a nation, a superpower like ourselves, didn't change every so often, we WOULD explode. Ancient Rome didn't change much, and guess what...they collapsed. Ancient Egypt, Myceanea, Minoa, Greece, ect were all the same way as well. I applaud America for changing so often and being able to go different directions very fast-like. It shows that, as a nation, we are strong, and will endure.

Probably the worst thing to say in accordance to Obama would be "McCain would have done it different/better." HOW DO YOU KNOW??? McCain isn't going to be president for the next four years, so get that in your brains right now. We don't know what McCain WOULD HAVE done because he WASN'T elected.

And finally, if you didn't vote, please don't argue, because you obviously didn't want to voice your opinion in the first place. If you didn't vote in this election, YOU GET TO SAY NOTHING for the next four years about Obama. Those who were decisive enough to get up for ten minutes, go to the polls and vote are the only ones who get to say anything. Excersising your right to vote is also excersising your right to have an opinion. If you didn't vote, you obviously didn't have an opinion.

I'm personally going to pray for Obama, just because he is now going to be our president. He doesn't need a bunch of whiners to deal with, and I will most certainly (try) NOT be among those who are. It's called respecting authority. You always didn't agree with your parents, but you still respected them. I'm not saying Obama is your Daddy, don't take that out of context. I'm just saying give the man in charge the respect that he deserves, and especially the prayers that he will need.

Maby people don't realize how much pressure the President is every single day. You cannot claim to know this unless you are one of four people: Jimmy Carter, George Bush, William Clinton, and George W. Bush. If you are not those people, you do NOT know what it's like to be president, thank you very much, so don't claim that you would be able to do better.

People of the United States of America: I decree you to support our next President. Those of you who did not get their choice, remember this: you didn't always get a cookie when you were younger, but you still had enough respect for your parents to not tell them how lousy of a person they were. Give the same respect to our leader. It was a hard road to get where Obama is now, and now that he has won, let's give him what he strived for: the utmost respect of the nation he will serve.

That's all, I'm done

Less on the stupid...

So yesterday could have been a really stupid day. I woke up for classes as usual because the academic calendar said that we had classes. Come to find out, once I drive the 15 minutes to school that the gates are locked and we had the day off. No big deal about waking up early, but the used gas was kinda makin' me a upset. I go home and find that my computer crashed and had to go through the whole "safe mode" thing so I could fix it and delete the problem. That took all day. I then find out that I won't be able to rent a car because I'm not 21, so I'm out of a vehicle for most of next week while my truck's in the shop. All those things put together make anyones day a pile of...poop.

BUT like I said before I COULD have had a really stupid day. Instead of focusing on all the stupid parts that I mentioned above:

Going to school I saw the fall colors of the trees. I got to talk to a couple people while waiting for coffee that I haven't got to talk to in a while. I got to spend the whole day at home with family. I got to talk to my mom because I called her with my problem. I was able to have a few moments to relax instead of worrying about school.

So I guess my point here is if we always focus on the crappy parts of the day, we can always have a bad day. There's going to be crap in every day in some form. If we focus on life's joys throughout the day and always think of those, life will be happier.

Eventually this will solve world peace and hunger...ahahaha. Had to throw that in there.

So look for the good in today and leave out the bad. Today will be a good day.