Drewski   Coming soon in three dimensions

I’m certainly no Sprint fan, but this is really neat. (Be sure to check out the full version for an infogasm.)

I actually know the feeling here!

I’m a Christian and I’m voting for Barack Obama on Tuesday (in large part) because of his stance on life issues.

I had intended to write a longer post about how I think a pro-life stance must be holistic, incorporating not only the issue of abortion, but I have not. So I will be borrowing words.

Tim pointed me to an article by Jim Wallis from Sojourners Magazine talking to James Dobson. Dobson takes a very conservative (and narrow, in my opinion) Christian viewpoint on the election. Wallis responds on the issue of abortion and what it means to be “pro-life”:

You [Dobson] make a mistake when you assume that younger Christians don’t care as much as you about the sanctity of life. They do care—very much—but they have a more consistent ethic of life. Both broader and deeper, it is inclusive of abortion, but also of the many other assaults on human life and dignity. For the new generation, poverty, hunger, and disease are also life issues; creation care is a life issue; genocide, torture, the death penalty, and human rights are life issues; war is a life issue. What happens to poor children after they are born is also a life issue.

And there was an interesting point from the article to which Wallis links:

While many Christians disagree on the legal questions surrounding abortion, together we can and must pursue practical steps that actually reduce abortion rates. Three-fourths of women who have an abortion say a primary reason is that they cannot afford to raise a child, so reducing poverty and supporting low-income women is a good place for our candidates to start.

I became Catholic this year and while we discussed pro-life issues in RCIA, I was never told (nor in Mass today) which way to vote in this election.

I advise everyone, of any moral background, to vote with your conscience on Tuesday. Each of us must make an estimation of which candidate will do the best for our country and everyone therein—and such decisions are difficult and are hardly cut and dry. In my opinion, on every matter other than abortion, it is clear that Obama has (and I would argue Democrats in general have) more respect for life, and that plays a very big part in my upcoming vote on Tuesday.

I started looking up high-fructose corn syrup after those dubious propogandacommercials about how “everything’s OK guys.” (I agree with the poster of the video that it does seem akin to a tobacco commercial.) Turns out it’s worse than I thought.

I knew that import tariffs made sugar expensive and have driven producers to use corn (cheap and abundant here in the US) for sugar. I recently learned that fructose (and thus high-fructose corn syrup) more or less suppress the body’s hormonal signals to stop one’s appetite. (And, for my own part, I knew that it caused problems with my own energy and headaches.)

What I didn’t know was the sugar industry’s and our government’s effect on ethanol and alternative fuels:

Deal Sweeteners: The New Yorker

Our current policy is absurd even by Washington standards: Congress is paying billions in subsidies to get us to use more ethanol, while keeping in place tariffs and quotas that guarantee that we’ll use less. And while most of the time tariffs just mean higher prices and reduced competition, in the case of ethanol the negative effects are considerably greater, leaving us saddled with an inferior and less energy-efficient technology and as dependent as ever on oil-producing countries.

(I understand that ethanol may not be the proverbial basket in which we put all of our proverbial eggs; apparently too much reliance on corn could drive up food prices.)

And regardless of the timing though, this is no partisan affair:

A recent study by Amani Elobeid and Simla Tokgoz, scientists at Iowa State University, projected that if the tariffs were removed prices would fall by fourteen per cent and Americans would use almost three hundred million gallons more of ethanol.

But that isn’t likely to happen anytime soon: the Bush Administration proposed eliminating the ethanol tariff this past spring, but Congress quickly quashed the idea—Barack Obama was among several Midwestern senators who campaigned in support of the tariff—and the sugar quotas appear to be as sacrosanct as ever. Tariffs and quotas are extremely hard to get rid of, once established, because they create a vicious circle of back-scratching—government largesse means that sugar producers get wealthy, giving them lots of cash to toss at members of Congress, who then have an incentive to insure that the largesse continues to flow.

We’re protecting domestic corn farmers, but in a very odd way and with odd consequences.

In general, I throw out all circulars and any mail addressed to “Resident”. By far the largest circular I get in the mail is RedPlum, something like 40 pages. I dug around and figured out how to remove myself from their mailing list. Yay.

Well Steve, you were right. And I think I’ll join you—at least in jumping Wachovia’s sinking ship.

I’ve been disappointed with them for a while. Their fees are incredibly steep: $2 to use a non-Wachovia ATM, $32 if I overdraw my account (which hasn’t happened for quite a while, thankyouverymuch), $10 to transfer money between accounts in any kind of automated way, and delays and failures with their Bill Pay service (like coming-out-of-the-wrong-account failures).

They do have very good customer service though—most of the time.

(Seriously though, I wonder where all the money goes. With the high fees and the terribly low salary there—I made $17,000/year as a teller there in 2005—what are they doing with my money?)

And now they’re being bought by Citigroup. Whom I hate with an incredible passion. (I have a small student loan with them.) They have a terrible website, terrible customer service, are terribly slow about sending mail, simply don’t reply to email, don’t send me statements anymore (even though I’ve called them to correct that), and are just plain terrible.

I’m interested in the idea of a credit union, since it does things differently, but Wachovia has one thing going for them: they’re the biggest bank in Philadelphia and they’re probably more ubiquitous still in Atlanta (where I’m probably moving next year). Is the convenience worth it? I’m dubious.

So, other banks: Bank of America is certainly a choice, but that feels like exchanging apples for apples. ING seems like a solid bank, but I don’t know how their checking accounts or fees are. My ideal case, off the top of my head: a credit union with low fees that makes up for the fact that it doesn’t have branches everywhere by letting me use ATMs for free and offering a robust website for my daily needs.

I’m going to do some research in the next few weeks, but in the meantime, what bank would you recommend?

They say hindsight is 20/20, and often it’s vindicating.

I haven’t looked back since I switched from Tumblr to WordPress. Hosting my own blog is much more satisfying and I have much more control and flexibility over my content and its appearance. It’s reassuring to see that others have found the same.

So I realized last week that Tumblr doesn’t honor pingbacks/trackbacks; two friends linked to my blog and I got nothing. WordPress does them automatically, and I’d think Tumblr should (to fit the no-nonsense blogging platform that it is.) I guess it fits the somewhat solipsistic nature of Tumblogs, but it certainly doesn’t help build an online reputation.

Anne and Dylan next to the tree.

My cousin and her family recently had a close call: an 80-year old oak tree fell right in front of their house. They (and a lot of Ohio) got the tail end of Hurricane Ike, and you can see the severity in the video their neighbor posted:

What I didn’t realize until my grandma told me was that my aunt and my grandma were also there. I’m glad everyone’s alright!

(Photo courtesy Jeffry Konczal)

Fun little meme I first saw Blizzard post. However, Ken beat me to it.

• Take a picture of yourself right now.
• Don’t change your clothes, don’t fix your hair…just take a picture.
• Post that picture with NO editing.
• Post these instructions with your picture.

Here’s mine:

Me on Friday, looking tired. I'd encourage you not to zoom in.

Let’s see yours!

(via Ken)

In an effort to stretch out my birthday as long as possible, my family kinda re-celebrated with me on Sunday. My sister Kaitlyn made me an adorable card:

"The things I love"

So apparently I love Star Wars more than Deanna?