hobbies

the previous day had been a rough one and though we had to be up early again for breakfast, wednesday morning began with a slow start.

from my perspective, the most important parts of the convention had already taken place and, admittedly, my enthusiasm was beginning to wane. there wasn’t much, as best as we could tell, a whole lot going on at the arena of note prior to the primetime speakers, so a lot of us spent much of the day doing progressive, non-convention-related stuff: attending trainings, forums, protests, etc.

for my part, myself and a friend decided to attend some forums in the city being put on by progressive democrats of america. if memory serves, which is always questionable, the forum was on progressive budget alternatives. it’s a topic both my friend and i have been interested in for some time and had, in previous years, attempted to publicize here in hawaii (to little effect). however, for reasons also escaping my recollection, we never made it to the forum despite having paid for it. i think we were distracted and preoccupied talking to fellow progressives and just lost track of time.

still, the day still had promise as there was scheduled a democratic socialists of america (DSA) event at the same location. i was pretty excited about it…. in the meantime, we grabbed a bite to eat at a nearby deli and had lots of good conversations with various progressive activists and democratic socialists. a great way to spend a morning!

shortly after signing in for the DSA event and finding a couple of seats, we received a text message from the bernie campaign about a candidate and campaign training that had just been added to the day’s schedule and was going to start within the hour. after a bit of deliberation, my friend and i agreed it made sense to try and hoof it across town to be at the training with our fellow bernie supporters and progressive activists. and so, with some disappointment, we left before the DSA event got started and made our way back to the vicinity of the convention center.

…only we got a bit turned around. or, as my friend would certainly point out, i got us turned around. and i didn’t realize my mistake right away, rather more like after 20 minutes in the opposite direction. so we did our best to hurry back in the right direction, trying to find our way to a bus or subway stop that would get us to our destination. we did eventually make it, but we were quite late (and very hot and dehydrated). and then the training itself turned out, at least for me, to be not very useful. so it goes.

after the training was over, we walked over to reading market for some coffee and food as we mapped out our plan for the rest of the afternoon. while there, we bumped into some other hawaii bernie delegates and ended up just hanging around the market until it was time for us to make our way to the wells fargo center for primetime.

we had been warned that because the president was going to be in attendance, security was going to be much tighter and after a certain time we might not be admitted at all. and as had become typical of the DNC, none of those rumors turned out to be true….

despite president obama’s arguable failures in any number of areas of domestic policy and his utter warmongering foreign policy, it’s hard not to listen to him speak and… like him. he’s a hell of an orator.

i found myself, at more than one point during his speech, thinking how much i liked him and was so disappointed “this guy” hadn’t turned up to run the country.

while obama’s speech was the most memorable, i have to say vice president biden and clinton’s VP nominee, tim kane, did pretty well too.

the president finished his speech to a standing ovation and cheers. and while there was still one more day of the convention remaining, i didn’t know at the time that wouldn’t be back the following day.

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this is getting posted much later than i had intended. and i had wanted to post something everyday while i was here, but clearly that boat has sailed….

i arrived in philadelphia on thursday evening. after collecting my bag, i found my ride to the valley forge doubletree, checked in, and then made my way across the street to pick up some dinner.

i woke up friday morning, had breakfast in the hotel restaurant, then prepared to head out for a day of sight seeing. my efforts were initially stymied when i couldn’t figure out the philadelphia public transit (SEPTA) app on my phone. first, i attempted to board the wrong bus, only to be very politely corrected by the bus driver. then, frustrated, i decided to walk to the closest train station, which is a little over a mile away. though google maps said the route was walkable, i quickly learned that while technically true, doing so would have meant braving highway-like traffic.

finally, i boarded the correct bus, having wasted more than an hour walking back and forth in the hot and humid weather. 45 minutes and some terrible traffic later, i was in “center city,” downtown philadelphia.

my first stop was at the city hall; a huge building with some, in my opinion, very nice architectural design. i took some pictures, refilled my water bottle and moved on to a nearby train station at which i could purchase a couple of all-day transit passes. then i moved on to my top priority for the day: independence hall.

i’ve never thought of myself as a history buff, but i was so thrilled to have the opportunity to see the place, step inside it, and experience the sort of closeness to history. to be in the very same room, the very same building where shining historic american figures (i still tend toward zinn’s version of the founding fathers) was remarkable. though the tour guide we had from the parks service wasn’t great, he still shared a lot of very interesting information.

next it was on to the liberty bell. admittedly, i was less interested in the bell, but given it’s iconic status in american history, i felt it was important to see in person. i got one or two decent pictures of the bell, but i found far more interesting the rest of the exhibit about the bell and its history.

after that, i moved on to benjamin franklin’s grave and then the philadelphia history museum. i enjoyed both, but independence hall was the highlight of the day.

then, as i was walking to find a pint, i bumped into another bernie delegate from hawaii and the bernie delegates he was walking around with. so, instead of beer, i made my way with them to the “love” sculpture. i was vaguely aware of the image, but hadn’t know it was in philly. so i hung out with them on the way to the sculpture too some shots of all of them.

by then, it was getting on in the afternoon. so i parted ways with the small bernie contingent and made my way back to the hotel.

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so, in an attempt to breathe some life back into this site, as well as lay some foundation for sharing older and future pictures i’ve taken and get some more use out of my flickr account, i installed the photonic plugin. below is my first attempt at fiddling with the settings….

i’m not sure yet what i think. i’m not sure i want galleries embedded in my posts as opposed to having a link to the galleries, but i’m still debating.

let me know what you think, keeping in mind much of the customizable settings have been touched yet. oh, and enjoy a handful b&w photos i’ve taken over the years.

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it’s hard to say how many times i’ve “restarted” this blog; certainly more than once, which is arguably too many.

over the years, it’s gotten harder to sit down and create content on a regular basis and there are many reasons.

one, i’ve gotten busier and more involved in various things as i’ve gotten older. in my down time, i’m less inclined to pull up to the laptop and draft… anything. two, though there’s often any of number of things i could sit down and write about, it inevitably happens that when i try, my brain goes blank, or to topics arguably beaten to death. and then there are other topics which i’m not entirely comfortable sharing for public consumption. oh sure, over the years i’ve let slip a glimpse of my crazy, but as i’ve gotten better at coping i’ve also gotten better at hiding the crazy that still remains.

then, of course, i often wonder who the hell cares to actually read what i write….

so, with the recent relative upheaval of my semi-professional life, i’m left with a bit of a hole in my life. a greater-than-normal amount of free time and a frustration and disillusionment has me doing a bit of soul-searching; what better place to do soul-searching than on my blog!

as i attempt to restart the blog, i’m trying out some new blogging software, desk pm, which, in theory, will make posting a bit easier and quicker. i’m also working on some other projects; including restarting the video blogging and merging my long-dormant peoplesdialectic.com blog with this one.

more later.

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happy new year! it had been my intention to have all this finished and have a set of goals, and a plan for them, before the bell tolled midnight on december 31st. the holiday, not to mention a growing to do list for the coming week, kept me sufficiently distracted. so, here i am on january 3rd still struggling to prepare for the year ahead.

here we go with the last question….

~ thinking about the person i aspire to be, how do i imagine myself in 5 year? what does that person do, know? how does that person spend their time?

in my reading, these questions all seem closely related to one another, thus my lumping them together with one answer….

this is incredibly difficult for me to answer. the realist/pessimist in me is hesitant to predict my future; predictions so seldom rise to meet reality. still, for the sake of the exercise; i see myself as a lobbyist, activist, organizer. i’ll be working for a progressively-focused organization, non-profit, pushing forward on issues that affect working and middle-class people and their families.

i see myself with a masters degree of some kind: either in political science, public policy, or political management. getting accepted and figuring out how to pay for it all is part of a plan still in the development stage.

i see myself with more friends, maybe a “special someone,” and a more well-balanced life. for the last several years, my existence has revolved, almost entirely, around my career and gaining the experience and making the connections necessary to continue climbing to my goal. while i generally don’t have any problem with the choices i’ve made in this regard, it has become clear to me that i’ve neglected other parts of my life, leaving me somewhat socially isolated. i need a life away from the politics and volunteering. i have no doubt that this bit in particular will be instrumental to mental and emotional health.

after all this, i’m nearly set on my “yearly theme” and my “top goals.” in typical fashion, i’m a bit concerned that i’m being to ambitious; i don’t want to make the mistake of setting numerous lofty goals, only to fail at too many of them. so, even though the year is already a few days old, i’m going to ruminate for a few more days before settling on anything.

in the meantime, let me say “happy new year” to everyone. i hope you reach all your goals for the year.

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