Midnight Goddess

Current Mood: Laughing

LOL!

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Current Mood: Esctatic & Esctatic & Esctatic & Esctatic

For about 22 months, Barack Obama worked tirelessly to gain the support and votes of the American people. He had only become a US Senator 4 years before. When he had decided to run for president, not very many people knew of him. There was little money when he began his steep, uphill campaign. But as he trudged along, people started to take notice.

Yesterday, a record breaking number of people came out to participate in this historic event. Many people who may have never voted before because they felt that their votes wouldn’t count. Young people. People who had long ago given up on the government. White, native American, Asian, Middle Eastern, and especially African American. Many cast their votes early via mail. Others waited in impressively long lines early in the morning even through the cold and soaking rain just so they could vote.

In the beginning of this race to the presidency, there was very little hope that the American people would vote in favor of the nation’s very first African American president. But last night the people spoke. And loudly at that. It wasn’t a neck and neck race. It wasn’t a close race. Halfway through the day, it was quite evident who the majority of the people were voting for.

I was at the edge of my seat as I watched the results pouring in on Fox News. Normally, I don’t watch the news. I don’t read about it. I don’t watch it. I have no interest in it because usually the news is depressing or makes me angry. But yesterday it was different. I wanted to know who American was voting for. Every time Obama gained another state’s electoral votes, I loudly and proudly cheered for him, especially when a particular state had many electoral votes. I do admit I booed McCain when he gained a state. But it really didn’t matter. Early on it was quite obvious that Obama was winning the majority of the states’ electoral votes. When he won California’s staggering 55 electoral votes near the end, I screamed, jumped, cheered, and made all kinds of noise. I was extremely ecstatic. And this had happened after me, Marty, and the kids walked next door to the local church to cast our votes for Obama. We had also voted No on 8 but it looks like the majority of CA is voting yes. Very disappointing.

Around 8ish in the evening, Fox News called it. Barack Obama was the next president elect. The 44th president of the United States of American. The first African American. I was in tears as my heart swelled in pride. Obama had rightfully earned the hearts and support of the American people. He managed to convince all kinds of people to come out and vote.

The news said that McCain had conceded and privately called Obama to sincerely congratulate him on his victorious win. Then he came out to make his final speech to his very disappointed crowd of Republican supporters. I personally don’t like his ideals or what he had planned for America. But last night when he gave his final speech, I was impressed and he earned my respect as a genuinely sincere person. He made a great speech and even teared up several times. Whenever he spoke of Obama positively, the crowd booed. But he responded by raising his hands at them to stop. He definitely earned my respect.

Here is the video of McCain:

And now I present to you (if you hadn’t already seen it), Barack Obama’s acceptance speech:

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I spend way too much time playing WoW. For me, it’s fun, exciting and a way for me to relax and get away from a dull existence. But I think I take it far too seriously to be considered just a casual WoW gamer. I’m not a freak like some people. There’s a guy out there wiht 35+ separate accounts on WoW! No, not 35+ separate characters. 35+ accounts! That could mean upwards of 350+ characters! Now that’s insane. I won’t get that far. There will probably be 2 separate accounts… one for me and one for Memphis. I’m sure he’ll love playing when he can better understand the game. It’ll be fun going on quests with him ;).

Anyway, I had come to the harsh realization that I can’t depend on a steady income from selling graphics to the Myspace site owners community. Especially when a good portion of my “competitors” are high school kids that don’t have any real financial responsibilities. They have Mom and Dad that support them. They sell their graphics for pennies. I will not stoop to that level and sell myself short. It’s absolutely degrading and I won’t have that. I have a family to take care of.

So I told Marty a few days ago that I was going to contact David at a webmaster forum that I used to frequent that I want him to close down my shop. I only made one sale there. There is a requirement that I have to produce 2 new packs per month to keep my shop open. And I just can’t do that when I can’t make enough money to warrrant creating new packs.

But even though I made the conscious decision to let go of the Myspace community as a way to make money, I still felt butt hurt and downright bitchy that night when I finally logged into the forum and got an email from Anne stating when I last posted a pack, when I last made any sort of post in the forum, and reminding me of the rules. She also said that I was given until Oct. 26 to notify the admins of my decision or the store will be closed. Lo and behold, when I checked the members shop, my shop was no where to be found. I felt like I was stabbed. I was absolutely angry. I didn’t respond to Anne’s email. Instead, I removed links to both forums where I used to sell my graphics. I don’t need them.

My plan to begin a legit business from home has been a dream I’ve had for almost a decade. It has been a concrete plan ever since I had Memphis, and even more so now that Jasmine is here. I am going to be a stay at home mom but I need to make a steady income from home to help Marty and our family. I’ve thought long and hard about what I want to do and over the decade, I’ve had some ideas. One of them I spent almost 8 years trying to make money. I made a little bit but not enough to depend on. I did the eBay thing and made some money but again, not enough. I’ve bought and read all kinds of ebooks on how to make money from home. I’m one of those suckers that keeps falling for the how to make a shitload of money from home trap. I guess I thoroughly enjoy reading about the people who make money online, whether it’s true or not. I also like seeing the “proof” of income generated, even if it’s Photoshopped.

I spent a lot of time over a long period finetuning my plan of action. I even went so far as typing it up and putting it in paper protectors inside a binder that I can look at. Yes, that’s my organizational skills at work. My organizing habit keeps me sane, calm, relaxed, and in control of at least some aspects of my life.

I took a small step towards financial independence by signing up for a premium shop at Cafepress. I’m sure most people can’t see that as a step towards financial independence. But to me, it is. I don’t have personal concrete proof that I’ll make money from having a Cafepress shop. But I know there are a lot of regular people who are successful with their stores. It’s not a huge risk to take. After the 2 week trial, it’ll be about $7 a month to maintain the shop. Cafepress will deduct the $7 first from whatever I make. And if that does’t cover the cost, they will then deduct it from my credit card. Cheesy easy.

I took a look at some of the products being sold in the Cafepress marketplace. Even though there are some really nice, intricate designs, for the most part it seems that the average, simple designs are also being sold. That calms my nerves a bit. There’s a shop that sells really cute, but very simple stick figure drawings on products. Cafepress seems to allow shopkeepers the abililty to sell products that are even racy, dirty, and sarcastic. I should be able to fit right in. Now all I need to do is get over my “creative block” and start drawing! I found a site by a guy named Marty who wrote a script that allows you to implement your Cafepress shop into your site and make it look like it’s 100% part of your site. And it cost about $20, right up my alley.

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Here is a very inspirational true story of a devoted father.

I try to be a good father. Give my kids mulligans. Work nights to pay for their text messaging. Take them to swimsuit shoots.

But compared with Dick Hoyt, I suck.

Eighty-five times he’s pushed his disabled son, Rick, 26.2 miles in marathons. Eight times he’s not only pushed him 26.2 miles in a wheelchair but also towed him 2.4 miles in a dinghy while swimming and pedaled him 112 miles in a seat on the handlebars - all in the same day.

Dick’s also pulled him cross-country skiing, taken him on his back mountain climbing and once hauled him across the U.S. on a bike. Makes taking your son bowling look a little lame, right?

And what has Rick done for his father? Not much - except save his life.

This love story began in Winchester, Mass., 43 years ago, when Rick was strangled by the umbilical cord during birth, leaving him brain-damaged and unable to control his limbs.

“He’ll be a vegetable the rest of his life,” Dick says doctors told him and his wife, Judy, when Rick was nine months old. “Put him in an institution.”

But the Hoyts weren’t buying it. They noticed the way Rick’s eyes followed them around the room. When Rick was 11 they took him to the engineering department at Tufts University and asked if there was anything to help the boy communicate. “No way,” Dick says he was told. “There’s nothing going on in his brain.”

“Tell him a joke,” Dick countered. They did. Rick laughed. Turns out a lot was going on in his brain.

Rigged up with a computer that allowed him to control the cursor by touching a switch with the side of his head, Rick was finally able to communicate. First words? “Go Bruins!” And after a high school classmate was paralyzed in an accident and the school organized a charity run for him, Rick pecked out, “Dad, I want to do that.”

Yeah, right. How was Dick, a self-described “porker” who never ran more than a mile at a time, going to push his son five miles? Still, he tried. “Then it was me who was handicapped,” Dick says. “I was sore for two weeks.”

That day changed Rick’s life. “Dad,” he typed, “when we were running, it felt like I wasn’t disabled anymore!”

And that sentence changed Dick’s life. He became obsessed with giving Rick that feeling as often as he could. He got into such hard-belly shape that he and Rick were ready to try the 1979 Boston Marathon.

“No way,” Dick was told by a race official. The Hoyts weren’t quite a single runner, and they weren’t quite a wheelchair competitor. For a few years Dick and Rick just joined the massive field and ran anyway, then they found a way to get into the race officially: In 1983 they ran another marathon so fast they made the qualifying time for Boston the following year.

Then somebody said, “Hey, Dick, why not a triathlon?”

How’s a guy who never learned to swim and hadn’t ridden a bike since he was six going to haul his 110-pound kid through a triathlon? Still, Dick tried.

Now they’ve done 212 triathlons, including four grueling 15-hour Ironmans in Hawaii. It must be a buzzkill to be a 25-year-old stud getting passed by an old guy towing a grown man in a dinghy, don’t you think?

Hey, Dick, why not see how you’d do on your own? “No way,” he says. Dick does it purely for “the awesome feeling” he gets seeing Rick with a cantaloupe smile as they run, swim and ride together.

This year, at ages 65 and 43, Dick and Rick finished their 24th Boston marathon, in 5,083rd place out of more than 20,000 starters. Their best time? Two hours, 40 minutes in 1992 - only 35 minutes off the world record, which, in case you don’t keep track of these things, happens to be held by a guy who was not pushing another man in a wheelchair at the time.

“No question about it,” Rick types. “My dad is the Father of the Century.”

And Dick got something else out of all this too. Two years ago he had a mild heart attack during a race. Doctors found that one of his arteries was 95% clogged. “If you hadn’t been in such great shape,” one doctor told him, “you probably would’ve died 15 years ago.”

So, in a way, Dick and Rick saved each other’s life.

Rick, who has his own apartment (he gets home care) and works in Boston, and Dick, retired from the military and living in Holland, Mass., always find ways to be together. They give speeches around the country and compete in some backbreaking race every weekend, including this Father’s Day.

That night, Rick will buy his dad dinner, but the thing he really wants to give him is a gift he can never buy.

“The thing I’d most like, Rick types, “is that my dad sit in the chair and I push him once.”

By Rick Reilly

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Here’s a poem I received in my email. Unfortunately the author is unknown…

When things go wrong, as they sometimes will,
When the road you’re trudging seems all uphill,
When funds are low and the debts are high,
And you want to smile but you have to sigh,
When care is pressing you down a bit,
Rest if you must, but don’t you quit.

Life is queer with its twists and turns,
As every one of us sometimes learns,
And many a failure turns about,
When he might have won if he’d stuck it out.
Don’t give up, though the pace seems slow -
You may succeed with another blow.

Often the goal is nearer than
It seems to a faint and faltering man;
Often the struggler has given up
When he might have captured the victor’s cup,
And he learned too late, when the night slipped down,
How close he was to the golden crown.

Success is failure turned inside out -
The silver tint of the clouds of doubt,
And you never can tell how close you are -
It may be near when it seems afar;
So stick to the fight when you’re hardest hit -
It’s when things seem worst that you mustn’t quit.

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