Of Flickr and Eating Kobayashi

I have become rather hyper-involved as of late. I have taken photos at all kinds of events around town in conjunction with CincyUpdate. I have attended a political debate for Kentucky's 4th Congressional District which was consequently a live televised event on Channel 9. I attended the Fire Ball held at the Cincinnati Fire Museum. I had VIP access to both events. It's pretty swank bein' all spiffed up and such.

I met former mayor Charlie Luken last week. He seems like an interesting and honest enough guy. Or is that just me being overly optimistic again? :P We spoke for about an hour at a friend's birthday party and discussed a myriad of issues in which we both seemed to have a genuine interest. I was pretty jazzed about it.

I didn't ask for his blessing on my 2012 run for mayor, but we'll see what comes to pass when I run. I'll post photos from the party later, I didn't get any of Mr. Luken though. I was kind of stuck in the moment and it slipped my mind. :\ Sorry.

I've been lending my iMac to my friend Casey up in Dayton for work on a video project we hope to use to raise cash for her trip to Kenya. The funds will be used to help sponsor children at an orphanage to get an education. Education there is comparatively cheap, just $350 for an entire year's of education. After we sponsor five kids' schooling we'll apportion 50% of the rest of the funds towards helping ensure medical supplies reach local clinics as well. The kids are genuinely eager to learn and grow intellectually as well. Unlike here in the States where kids continue to seem to be growing in a vat of self-righteousness which only fuels their idiotic sense of entitlement.

I'm getting a bit more responsibility at Trivantis, and I am hopeful for continued exposure to traits and learning experiences that will be helpful to my eventual career changes including roles for managing others and dealing with project management. Both of which will be completely necessary when running for mayor.

I wanted to get out to the Renaissance Fair this weekend, but it didn't really work out so much. :\ Sadness. It would have been fun to take some photos and eat one of those gigantic turkey legs like a barbarian or something. :P

I was feeling ill most of Saturday. Not so much as to remain bedridden, but enough to keep me from attending a pancake breakfast for MoveOn.org and from joining in on a Shot4Shot event with a bunch of other Cincinnatians on Flickr.

Missed the Bengals game on TV today, but read we won. I'm really happy for us. WHO DEY baby!

I'm returning to a mostly water and tea diet. With this, I hope to lose some weight pretty quickly. I still need to get in to see my dietician for the first time and get their advice so that I can work on a proper repertoire for the things I should consume. This should remove my big for eating Kobayashi. Perhaps I'll be able to save some cash for a membership at a gym somewhere and perhaps work with a personal trainer. I think losing some weight will help me quite a bit with my confidence and help me become more vigilant in being forthright. I understand that lots of things work into how to become more confident and they're all relatively simple on paper. Things such as holding your head high, smiling a lot, standing straight, and squaring your shoulders are just outward ways on your person, but they help. Things such as making my bed every morning, and keeping my room and work areas clean are big helps as well. I think removing some of my games, and perhaps spending even more time asserting myself on certain topics will help a lot as well.

I'd really like to learn a lot more about Ohio law and certain world affairs. I'm also really interested in why Joshua Reed Giddings' voting record is not available to constituents. I mean I know that sensitive records such as security panel votes and the like aren't things they would give me, but I do not understand how or why the government could be permitted to withhold voting records from the constituency (particularly given their age).

I'm working on getting my schedule posted up on here. MacDock allows for iCal WebDav publishing. And since they're the host for all of my websites it should be pretty easy to have everything online. Also, I believe I have remedied the issues with being able to post comments here. Please email me if comments and RSS aren't working. I have once again run through my Flickr bandwidth allotment. This means that I have to wait until November 1st to start uploading photos again. That really sucks because I have a TON more photos to upload. I've noted that a lot of Flickr users are only uploading shots they really like. But I want to ensure that I have a full record of my artistic progression with photography. Particularly my growth with photographing people.

I've been reading through Bob Woodward's latest book "State of Denial" covering the George Bush presidency and his administration's bumbling of Iraq. So far it feels like a giant lambast against Donald Rumsfeld. I'm not so much against this as it's actually shedding light on a lot of things. I very much recommend this book. If for nothing else than for a very interesting perspective.