politics

for the rare saturday post, i wanted to share some ideas i’ve been toying with to improve my blog and, hopefully, make it more appealing.

at least one involves reintroducing my video blog via my youtube channel. i’m hesitant to share too much because i kind of want it to be a surprise. what i will say is that i’m looking to change the nature of my posts for “music mondays”. while i think they’ve been ok, i realize they may be more interesting and entertaining if i personalized, rather than just posted music videos. hopefully you’ll enjoy what i’ve come up with.

the other is a little more amorphous at this stage. a friend, in response to a previous post, posed to me a question that is an interesting idea. Explore “why politicians ought to consider pushing for a more medium platform rather than pushing far to one extreme or another.”

while the question has some merit, i think the mindset behind it is maybe misguided. still, more substantive political posts, including some response to his question, is a good idea. i’m thinking about a way where a conversation between myself and various activists, politicians, etc.

live posts would be difficult, unless they were done during the weekend. i could meet with these folks, record and then transcribe the conversation on a particular topic. or, do the same thing, but in video form.

this is something i thought about doing previously, but never put much effort into it.

i’ll keep you posted on how these projects progress, but keep an eye out for my new “music monday” format and let me know what you think. in the meantime, enjoy your weekend and please keep visiting my blog.

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as i come to the late afternoon, i’m still struggling to materialize a worthwhile post for today; i’m feeling overwhelmed.

it happens occasionally. my brain goes into overdrive on so many things at once, that it becomes hard for me to focus much on anything at all. life pressures, reminders of things i want to do, or put another way, things i haven’t done or things that are absent in my life.

over the years, i’ve learned this is a symptom, at least for me, of the mild but chronic depression (dysthymia) that i struggle with. so no real post today, instead just a list of topics, thoughts, ideas, feelings running through my head:

money and debt… online dating and relationships… photography… writing… graduate school… work… career… health… weight… smoking… presidential election… productivity and organization… home ownership….

throwback thursday should offer me a relatively easier post, though i’ll have to find a good picture. in the meantime, the best thing for me is to keep my head down and ride out this temporary disfunction until my brain quiets down a bit.


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if you’re like me, and something like 100 million other americans, you sat down and watched at least part of the debate yesterday. though, admittedly, i couldn’t get through the whole thing….

in this age of short attention spans, sound bites, and emotion-based voting, the debate was little more than a show; it was a presentation of the reality-tv type of conflict to which the american people have become addicted. from the few people i’ve actually talked to about the debate, there were two general responses: pain or amusement.

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this week’s throwback thursday was an easy one, thanks to facebook.


this is me, looking like some kind of fancy dwarf, with the very attractive ashley kruse on my arm. she was kind enough to be my date to the equality hawaii gala at aloha tower in september of 2013.

the gala was a formal fundraising event for the organization as we made the final push for marriage equality in hawaii. i reluctantly agreed to don a suit, newly acquired, just for the occasion…. it a fun night all around, though the highlight for me was having ashley accompany me.

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several progressive and bernie supporters gathered last night at the ward center consolidated theater to see the movie snowden, directed by oliver stone.

the movie, in case you’re not familiar, follows edward snowden through his career in intelligence until june 2013 when, working with reporters, leaked information about various spying programs by the NSA.

i’d definitely recommend it. the movie is well done and, rightly, portrays snowden as a hero who risked his career and freedom to make public the illegal spying being conducted by the NSA.

at the conclusion of the movie, i thought i should go back and read the original articles from the guardian and washington post. check them out as well.

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