8 Mile...Starring Barack Obama

In a battle of words, it's usually not ideal to argue your point first. That way you get to hear the other person's argument, and you can counter that with your own.

Have y'all seen the movie 8 Mile? I know everyone in Detroit has. Remember that last battle scene, where Eminem - I forget his character's name - had the mic? He got up there and spat his rhymes, then he anticipated his opponent's comeback and tore it to shreds before he laid down the mic. Of course, the other guy now had nothing with which to come back, being that Eminem had already destroyed all his material.

He changed the rules. He threw a sucker punch that prevented the counter punch. He took words that he hadn't even heard yet and picked them apart.

Yep, that's what Barack Obama just did to John McCain. He 8Mile'd him.

If you didn't see Obama's acceptance speech (and I don't blame you if you didn't because I don't usually watch political conventions myself), you missed a brilliant display of gamesmanship. Not only did he make the case for the end of Republican rule by pointing out the obvious blunders of the current administration, but he anticipated every bit of nonsense that the McCain camp and the hit squad at the Republican National Committee might throw at him and made them seem, well, more than a little ridiculous.

For those who haven't seen it, I am not going to try to summarize it here. That would take too long, and I have to get up in the morning. And I can't embed the video because it hasn't shown up on the web just yet, so you'll have to find it for yourself to see what I'm talking about.

Oh, and that shuffling sound you hear is the McCain camp trying to figure out what just happened to all their talking points.

-e

Practicing

So I'm trying hard not to rely so much on my camera's full auto mode. It's not as easy for me as it sounds. But, I'm getting there. Yesterday, I decided to practice my own "sport" while my daughter was at football practice. (I try not to pay too much attention to what's happening on the field because I get a little too into it, but 2 hours is an excruciatingly long time to be nonchalant.) What you see below are a couple of shots I took. Some were particularly challenging because of the evening shadows being cast across part of the field. Also, I cropped them a little, but that's as far as my Photoshopping went. One of these days, I'll learn how to post-process my digital pics better. Until then, this is what I get. :)

Taking a break

Gotta have some water!

Running off the field

One of the coaches addressing the players after practice

I love this photo...too bad my child isn't in it :)

-e

And The Award Goes To...

I was honored when Staci nominated me for this award a few weeks ago. I consider this quite an accolade coming from her, since Staci's blog is so creative and entertaining.


The rules of this award are as follows:

• The winner can put the logo on his/her blog.
• Link to the person frow whom you received your award.
• Nominate at least 7 other blogs, and put links to those blogs on yours.
• Leave a message on the blogs of the people you nominated.

I'm only going to nominate 5, though. Cut me some slack. I'm relatively new to the blogosphere (on a regular basis anyway). So without further ado, I nominate...

Keisha
Roberta
The Don
Trina
Veronica

-e

The Race Card (Quick Post)

I swear, if I hear the phrase "the race card" uttered on a political news show one more time I AM GOING TO THROW A FOOTBALL THROUGH THE SCREEN!

-e