We often forget that candidates are people too with their own stories. I love bio ads. They tell something about someone that we can all draw from and relate to. They often romanticize political campaigns to better reflect the human aspect of the people running.  Amidst the brutal day-to-day politics and mudslinging, it is nice to sit back and learn something new about the candidates.

Both parties use a standard set of talking points – some may call extreme rhetorics- to bolster their policy stances and attack each other. But peel back the political facade, we get a nice snapshot of who they are as people, even if these are simply political media pieces ran by both campaigns. Being president is tough. People have been criticizing Obama left and right. This is an election year that could change the tone of debate for years to come in America. A few questions I have been thinking lately: what exactly are our criteria for choosing the president of the most powerful country in the world? What do we look for in a national leader? What kind of values do we want them to bear and carry forth on our behalves? Those are questions that can be answered but difficult to apply. To some, politics is hopeless, so a candidate’s character and personal values matter more. While others apply stringent measures against candidates as if they are highly dehumanized robots who have to perform in a certain way. Some would say those moments when we truly feel connected to a candidate is when we know who we are voting for. I don’t have an answer to how and why we vote the way we do – though political science has a few theories for that. But I do challenge you to ponder on this topic before you go to the poll in November. Though for now, I would like to put a human spin on this campaign and appreciate both candidates for who they are as people. 

(Source: http://www.youtube.com/)

iheartmyart:

Veronique Meignaud, Globe, 2012

With the new Titanic 3D out in the theater, how great it is for this guy is trying to reconstruct Titanic! This time with a Chinese shipbuilding firm. O how the time has changed…When my parents first watched the Titanic back in the 90s in the living room, I failed to appreciate the movie – i don’t think I even finished watching it. The scene with Rose sensually laying across a luxurious-looking couch was simply too R-rated for my innocent 7/8-year-old eyes. Ewww! (And now I know why…) The mystique of Titanic and its tragic story caputured my mind in Ms. Burrows’s 6th Grade Language Arts class. We spend six weeks studying Titanic. We all kept a journal. I still remember getting extra credit for printing off “beautiful pictures” (courtesy of Google images) of an – get ready – and iceberg (!) and glued them to one of the pages. School was challenging back then. I also remember reading the book SOS Titanic by Eve Bunting, a readable, riveting novella detailing the maiden voyage of this luxury liner. To me, Titanic has been a timeless classic not because Hollywood has created a love story out of this tragedy, but because Titanic itself, the “unsinkable,” serves as a reminder that human ego needs to be constrained. When we are granted luxury, we take normal things for granted. When we think we have built a Titanic, we believe life boats are extraneous. More than 1500 people drowned in the freezing water that unfortunate April night back in 1912. The lesson from Titanic is humility. If only had Titanic prepared enough life boats for all passengers, if only had the Titanic crew been more well trained on emergency evacuation procedures, wouldn’t more lives been saved in the end? Takeaway: we need to strive to practice humility in our lives too so we don’t find ourselves stranded in the middle of nowhere in the vast Atlantic with nothing to fall back on but to subject ourselves to the force of nature.

shortformblog:

thedailywhat:

Titanic 2 of the Day: Because the maiden voyage of the R.M.S. Titanic didn’t exactly go as planned, an Australian billionaire has commissioned a replica of the ship for a series of journeys that will hopefully have a happier ending.

Clive Palmer, a Queensland-based mining billionaire, is partnering with China’s CSC Jinling Shipyard to build the ship, which will be ready for passengers by 2016.

“It will be every bit as luxurious as the original Titanic but of course it will have state-of-the-art 21st century technology and the latest navigation and safety systems,” he said in a statement.

The ship’s first trip will be from London to New York — rather than from Southampton to New York like the “unsinkable” original — and Palmer admits that some potential passengers will stay away because of superstitions.

“It is going to be designed so it won’t sink. But, of course, if you are superstitious like you are, you never know what could happen,” he said, encouragingly.

No word on what kind of deck chairs the new ship will have, or how they’ll be arranged.

[cnn.]

In which a titan of industry tries to become a Titanic of industry.

An incredibly disheartening phenomenon affecting and estimated 18 million children across the United States. Statistics have shown that about 20% of students frequently experience bullying and one third of students have experienced bullying at one point in their life. 

(Source: http://www.youtube.com/)

A New Beginning

New Blogger on the Block

Ok I’m a late boomer, or old fashioned, at least for people my age. I don’t tweet. Still stumble my way around Facebook. I don’t really understand “blogging,” but I guess that’s what I’m here to find out. In the era of Facebook and Twitter, very few of my friends actually “blog.” I don’t really consider reposting pictures as a form of “blogging,” but what do I know. I attempt to find out and explore “blogging” myself through this endeavor. I hope to be disciplined enough to provide frequent posts and updates. I have a lot of thoughts, opinions, ideas, and questions toward things around me. This is exciting for sure to say the least.

A little bit about myself, I guess: I go to the University of Texas at Austin. I study Government and Finance (perhaps Management). I love the University. I am blessed with a group of supportive friends, faculty, and administrators. My goal is to graduate, get a job with a management consulting firm to learn about the energy industry and business administration in general, and then go back to school afterwards to obtain a MBA or JD. I like to think of myself as an optimistic realist, someone who is on one hand optimistic about life and what God has in store for me, while on the other hand is also skeptical and guarded about his surroundings.

Like I said, I will try hard to keep up with the blog, at least once a week – college is intense. In this blog, I will provide thoughts on politics, economics, business, history, current events, food, movies, etc., so literally anything goes. I will also try to post things I find interesting from other websites. Please feel free to bookmark and check back frequently. I welcome all your comments.

Danny