I was working on a project late night, and she wanted to observe. It became a normal occurance.

The United States of America recently celebrated its 232nd birthday, and three weekends ago I was questioning just how proud I am to be an American – it was a rather mixed moment.

I found myself saying the Pledge of Allegiance on the last weekend of June. I did it so much in elementary school, it’s kind of like picking up a bicycle after years of not riding it – you still remember how to do it just fine. It’s a good thing I could recite it so well too, because I actually went into autopilot about halfway through. As I was saying the words my mind started asking, “How do you feel being an American now?”

With the country’s worldwide popularity at one of its lowest points, combined with my feelings on the current administration of the country, I wasn’t exactly sure if I could say “I’m proud to be an American.” It’s just unfortunate that when the world thinks of America, they think of our President and/or his decisions. Or assuming that we all just sit here, thinking no one else is important, not bothering to think outside the country or learn another language. But it’s not our leadership that defines who I am as an American, it’s my decisions. And, of course, I am incredibly proud – and eternally grateful – of the freedoms I enjoy as an American. But beyond that, I can do my part to help the country, or I can build a business so I can help those in need in and out of America, and I can represent my views on what I think the country should do or wish the country would do.

I AM PROUD to have the men and women in our armed forces represent our country, and saddened at the same time that their loyalty and honor is attached to the poor decisions of our leadership.  Those women and men, along with my fellow citizens that work to make a difference in this country and world, those leading a healthy and happy life, are who I am proud to stand up next to.

Growing up I had an exceptional person that I could learn from and aspire to, my Father. Throughout my life I have watched him be one of the most collected minds I know, care deeply for family and friends and work hard at furthering his career for the sole purpose of taking care of his family. I have said many times that, some day, I hope to be half the man he is.

It’s never easy to see, as a kid, one of your parents go through a hard time, like unemployment – it’s kind of like watching a defeated Superman hanging up his cape after a long day. He has always been strong though, always finding a way to be happy and focused on his ultimate goals.

This never-ending drive to provide for his family and excel his career has paid off, and he is now leading a local search aggregate provider near Cincinnati. As a blogger and social media maven myself, it’s very cool to see him doing some great stuff online, as well as a recently featured post at WebProNews highlighting the company and its offerings.

If you run a newspaper, or any media company that relies on local community involvement, Planet Discover is definitely worth checking out.

I’ve been participating in the social world of the Internet for a while now, but the act of blogging is still relatively new to me. I’m slowly working on getting Wide Angle Lenz on a customized design and making it my own, and have some pretty cool ideas for it moving forward, but I could be posting more regularly, figure out who I want on my blogroll, network it better, etc., etc.

Something I have been thinking about for the last couple of days was sparked by a Twitter post by @kevinrose

hmm, Pownce (notes/files/links), Digg (stories), Twitter (short updates), FriendFeed (aggregated comments), do I still need a blog?

It’s definitely a valid point. Why are some of us focused on the upkeep of our personal blog, when we could go on Twittering, Digging and Flickring all we do, all feeding into one place - our FriendFeed account. I would imagine this is what FriendFeed wants, all of us to start using it as our blog. Considering the 40+ places that the site aggregates, I certainly like how easy it is to set it up once to spit out the various places I leave a mark on the Internet. So instead of saying “You can find me at Twitter, del.icio.us, Flickr, and Facebook,” why not just say “Check out all I do online at FriendFeed.” There is also a new site out called Posterous that allows people to simply email content to one place, and a profile is created for you. I really like the design of the site, but it will not replace blogs.

Replacing personal blogs (not for a group, institution or business) won’t be happening until FriendFeed offers personalized profiles, because it’s that personal touch/design that adds so much to the reading experience sometimes. When it comes down to it, yeah, the content of the site is king, but if every single personal blog looks the same, it’s just going to get boring. There’s no doubt that FriendFeed will offer personalization - just like Twitter and Pownce do (the design options for Pownce, by the way, is awesome) - but until they do, I’m still going to be trying to roll out a completely unique site that express who I am, what I think and what I do.

What do you think? Would you use FriendFeed as your “blog” if it was personalized?

I know the world has been inundated with Flood 2008 coverage, but I wanted to hop on the bandwagon for a minute and express some of my thoughts on the whole thing as my city frantically tries to pull itself together, knowing it’s not going to get the help it needs fast enough…

We all see natural disasters on TV or online, but this is the first one I have been able to walk up to. I spent a lot of my K-12 years in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, and nothing too major happens from a weather point of view. Blizzard here, tornado there, but nothing on the same scale as this flood. The day it was really bad, that Thursday, was a day of awe and shock. I know, cheesy right? But I get what it means now.

At the end of Thursday I was on the SW side of town and needed to get to my apartment, which was on the NE side of town. This is a good 15-minute drive normally, but it took an hour this time. My friends and I took Interstate 380, which goes right next to downtown Cedar Rapids. Heading towards the city was a very eerie feeling. The entire downtown area and surrounding communities were without power, the sky was full of low, dark thunderstorm clouds, there wasn’t any rain but lightning was going off all over the dark area of the city, and the water was up to the Dairy Queen logo on the sign for the interstate drivers.

It’s a weird feeling to look at what is happening to communities, historic centers, theatres, and downtown buildings you drive by almost daily, and feel the desire to just stare in awe and complete fascination as the water engulfs it all. Then you remember this is a horrible, horrible thing and the guilt kicks in, and the hopelessness for the city rumbles at the bottom of your stomach.

Buildings are collapsing and the city is talking about leveling the entire 100-year flood plan, which would be hundreds (if not thousands) of structures. My heart goes out to those that are directly effected by the waters of the flood and hope that our city – and all the other effected regions – get the attention that is necessary to get this city back on its feet and people back in homes.

My microphone didn’t work when I went downtown to film and interview, but I will be getting that prepped with some music and put it up as soon as possible. Check out my Flickr photostream for photos taken from my phone.

Thank you to everyone that has done something to assist with the recovery. Every little bit helps.

There were a lot of mixed feelings walking out of the theatre when I saw the latest Pixar adventure. It was cute, funny and the visuals were yet another step up for them (and the sound by Ben Burtt was great – but no surprise there, the man’s a genius). But I wasn’t experiencing the normal giddiness that is usually bouncing around my inner child after seeing Mr. Incredible or Nemo.

It’s really hard to avoid commentary on films now. Try as I might to avoid it, I usually go into a movie knowing a handful of opinions. Most people are pretty good at disclaiming if they are going to talk about spoilerish topics, so I avoid that before I go in. That said, I heard all about how the first part of the film is fantastic, but once Wall•E leaves Earth and boards the ship the story falls a little bit – and other opinions of the like.

I’d have to say I agree.

After seeing the full-length trailer a few months ago I was convinced that this film was going to be my favorite Pixar film to date. It looked amazing. Although it did actually LOOK amazing, the story started very strong and backed off a little bit once our pixilated planeteer left Earth. I absolutely loved every bit of the film until Wall•E started roaming the BnL star cruiser. The story wasn’t necessarily bad after that, it just wasn’t as good as Pixar usually is throughout a story.

The social commentary was brilliant – and very scary. It’s sad to watch this film and say, “that’s actually pretty believable.” Well, I’d say it’s pretty believable looking at America, I can’t speak for the rest of the world.

I don’t think I’m going to rush out to see Wall•E again in theatres, but I look forward to catching it on Blu Ray.

3 out of 4

What do you guys think? Should people go see it while it’s in theatres, or should they wait?

Here’s a secret: The only real history I have with the Hulk is the 2003 film (which sucked) and the character’s role in the Ultimate Avengers series(which I like). I haven’t seen the original television show, nor have I read any of the comics. As it’s somewhat impossible to be a Marvel geek and not know anything about the major characters, I do know of Bruce Banner, Betty Ross and the roles they play in the story.

So I went in to The Incredible Hulk with hardly any expectations. The trailers looked good, and I want the awesome geekfest that is the summer of 2008 movie season to keep going, but I really wasn’t expecting anything spectacular two hours later. I don’t think it was spectacular, but it was pretty good (and leagues better than Ang Lee’s version).

Let’s start with the character of Bruce Banner. I have heard of the squabble that went down between Edward Norton and Marvel Studios. Basically Norton had a script that explored what Bruce Banner has to endure living with the Hulk inside of him, but Marvel wanted a shorter version of the film that was more action-packed and showed the Hulk in full green glory sooner than Norton’s script had him appearing.The thing that is interesting about the Hulk isn’t the fact that he’s huge and can beat the crap out of nearly anything or anyone, it’s Bruce Banner’s struggle to understand it and control it. It’s what the Hulk does to Bruce, to Betty, to the city/world, and ultimately the Avengers. However, Marvel decided that a mere 15 minutes more of the film would make it too long and depressing for the audience to handle. LAME. All that said, though, I liked what Edward Norton did with Banner. He was a bit tougher than I expected, but I think it worked.

The entire beginning of the film was well done and I liked seeing him forced to be away from nearly everything that could frustrate him. I thought the anger management session with the martial artist was a really nice touch I wouldn’t have expected - probably because I’m not well versed in Hulk lore.

Although I haven’t watched the show before, I’m familiar with the theme song with him walking along the street - another one of those things you pick up being a geek I guess - and really liked the shot of Norton walking along the streets, hearing the theme. It was a nice touch. The little references like that worked really well in this film, which is very unusual in the Marvel films. Stan Lee had a role that actually contributed to the plot, and Lou Ferrigno’s role worked just as well - by the way, holy crap that guy is still REALLY buff. I also enjoyed the purple pants quite a bit.

The Abomination creature/character worked, and I think the build of creating that villain was much better than most hero flicks (most recent job not well done building a villain was in Iron Man). However, I really didn’t like Tim Roth’s portrayal of the superhuman soldier. He swallowed a lot of his lines and didn’t carry enough umph behind the guy. It’s interesting that they alluded to a new supervillian via the scientist that helps Banner and Ross, because I don’t think Marvel has plans for a Hulk2.

The thing that makes or breaks any Hulk film is how we actually see the Hulk on screen. There will always be a connection with live action that can’t be achieved (right now, at least) with visual effects, duh, but the expectation of a two-story Hulk makes that unachievable with any human. So the visual effects have to make the viewer truly believe they are looking at the Hulk, and not images created in post. That said, I think the Incredible Hulk looked good. The first sequence with him in the factory was awesome, and the close-ups were believable.

I liked The Incredible Hulk much better than I thought I would. I’d go see it if you’re a Marvel/super hero film fan. One more thing… Hulk SMASH!

4 out of 5

In my current state of unemployment I am working for the non-profit group Waypoint Services as a before- and after-school daycare substitute. This program consists of a head “teacher” and assistant watching over kids, kindergarten through fifth grade, for a couple hours on each side of the school day. When one is unavailable they call a sub with the hours available. That’s where I come in, and until the end of the school year I’ll be at the same elementary school every morning and afternoon.

Last week was my first time at this particular school, and the first week of my fortnight there. On my second day I overheard the “teacher” reprimanding a seven-year-old girl for reading too much in front of half the class. That’s right, got in trouble for showing interest and reading longer than expected. I didn’t jump in, guns a blazin’, trying to rashly figure out why this was happening. Instead, after the seven-year-old was finished being embarrassed by the adult, I attempted to ask if there was a reading program that Waypoint was encouraging that I was unaware of, or whatever reason might make up for what just happened – and I asked as we are both surrounded by the entire class. What did happen, though, made it worse. The sorry excuse for a teacher told me little Elizabeth was a part of a reading program hosted by the Cedar Rapids Kernals, which is dependant on minutes read, and that there was no way she (the enthusiastic seven-year-old Elizabeth) could have read 90 minutes because she “is a really bad reader.” Saying this for the entire class to hear. (I soon found out that this “teacher” has had a nasty habit of making fun of this little girl already)

I looked over and Elizabeth is sitting at her table, Harry Potter and the Sourcerer’s Stone in hand bookmarked at page 90, with her head down in embarrassment.

How unacceptable can you get? We need to be encouraging reading. Be it poetry, novels, comics, manga, or pop-up books, parents and teachers have a responsibility to encourage reading. If your child, or a child you are taking care of, likes to read, and is found reading, SUPPORT THEM. Don’t you dare sarcastically tell them they’re bad at it, fueling other kids to make fun of her too. Help them embrace it and let them make the decision of whether they’re going to be a lifelong reader.  Find ways to support literature and language development, like the popular vocabulary quizzing Free Rice.

When I went over to her and praised her for reading what she had, she shyly looked up at me and smiled, and I saw her swell with pride just a little bit.